I wrote last Monday I think, which was a day packed full of classes. I was supposed to go as an ally to an LGBT event that night, but instead I crawled in my bed, watched a bit of tv, and went to sleep super early, which was probably the best decision I've made in a long time since I was starting to feel like maybe I was coming down with the cold that's going around.
Tuesday I got up early to do some work and then went to class, from there I had lunch with my group for an Economy and Development project and then hung out with Tom for a bit before heading to a lecture on global financial security that turned out to be a lot more about the IMF and a lot less about financial regulations... still a good lecture but not really what I expected. It seems like maybe I did something else that day but my mind is blank at the moment and perhaps I just went home and tried to get ahead on reading and work.
Wednesday I had lunch with my college advisor and then had class. I was feeling really crummy and felt like the cold was catching up with me, but there is no time to be sick at Oxford and I really wanted to finish my day so I pushed through classes and then headed to my final UPenn alumni interview with a really nice kid. After the interview I cooked some dinner and then headed to dance class where we learned the tango. Normally the ratio of guys to girls is almost even, but this week there were SO MANY girls and so it wasnt as much fun. That said, the tango is a really fun dance. I never realized that it doesn't really have a set count (like how the waltz is 3 and the fox trot is 4, etc). Instead, the tango is really about feeling and tension and following the music. It makes it more fun in my opinion b/c you are able to interpret a bit more and get creative.
Unlike other weeks, I went straight home after dance since I was still feeling under the weather and I had my first elective class (Food Security and Global Environmental Change) the next morning at 9AM. Class was amazing- I really enjoyed the professor and he has a unique take on food security compared to many experts in the field (it shouldn't be unique, but is). He really believes in studying food security by considering the entire food system... not just "are we producing/can we continue to produce enough food per capita to feed the global population?", which is the normal focus, but to consider the entire change, producing, processing, packaging, transporting, consuming, and reducing food waste. The lecture was great and I'm looking forward to the class even if it does seem like it's going to be significantly more work than my elective last term was.
After class I went with the 2 other NSEP kids in my elective (Sophie and Tom) to get lunch in the covered market. We had fresh pasta (yum) and Tom left to take a nap while Sophie and I sat around and got caught up. I haven't seen much of her since before break and it was really nice to have a chance to catch up on each other's lives. From there I came home to prepare for a meeting with Kersty (one of my professors who also in the head of NSEP) and then headed to my meeting.
I met with Kersty because I've been having some second thoughts about my future and I wanted to sit down and have a chat about the direction I've been going. For quite some time I've thought that I wanted to do academia. I love the idea of getting to research things I love, write papers, have somewhat flexible hours, great benefits, live in a college town (which generally have great restaurants, arts/culture), and just constantly be surrounded by interesting people. To some extent, how happy I am at Oxford has reinforced that academia might be a great fit for me. That said, I'm actually much less sure these days. I had a long talk with several PhD students who expressed frustration and depression at the guilt they feel every second they are not working on their dissertation, the dismal job market in academia (which while I knew was a real issue, people like the receptionist in our department has a PhD from Oxford.... not promising), and just the idea that no one will really care about your research... you just continue to crank it out so the university thinks you are worth giving tenure to.
The whole thing just sounds really depressing. Lately I've been absolutely loving my corporate environmental management class, so I'd consider working on environmental regulations, and the girl I mentioned in last week's blog post who works at DEFRA has what I would consider a dream job- she does policy research on animal movement and containment to help with things like animal importation and exportation, whether or not England should cull badgers to potentially limit the spread of tuberculosis, pet passports, etc. She graduated from NSEP and did her dissertation on animals and basically I want to be her. I've also been really excited by the idea of working on an environmental start up (even being one of the people to START the start up) and I'm attending a business/entrepreneurship conference next weekend that I'm pretty excited about.
I spoke with Kersty bout all this and I haven't ruled out academia, but I'm also no longer sold on it. I am setting up a meeting with my CEM professor to see if I could possibly change supervisors so that my thesis (same topic) is more economic/regulatory and less theoretical. He's a really, really busy guy though so I am not sure he's taking on masters students. Regardless, Kersty reassured me that my concerns and developments are normal and I feel a little more okay exploring other avenues... after all, isn't that what a place like Oxford is for?
After my meeting with Kersty I headed to Greens Cafe for a tea and a slice of apple cake and girl time with Lisa. It was good to chat and she needed to get out of the house since she'd been taking care of our friend Rob/cleaning/doing work and just needed out of her apartment. (Our friend Rob drank flood water on what was essentially a dare- technically called a NEKnomination, and got very, very, very ill from it... he is now on medication and doing better... part of me feels bad for him and the other part of my wants to quote Dad/Donny Wyatt/John Wayne/whoever originally said "If you're gonna be stupid, you gotta be tough.") Anyway, Lisa and I had a nice catch up and then I headed home to get some work done before a date. The date itself went well- I don't think I'm really in a place to get involved with anyone very seriously, but he was very nice and cute and I'm pushing myself to get back out there even if it's hard.
Friday I got up and went to a class (to which I was late after my bike chain came off its track and I wrecked into a parked car... thankfully I am fine but not the way to start the morning :( ) and then from there cycled over to a conference that some NSEPers had planned with the Public Policy kids. I led a short discussion group on financial reporting as a way to improve environmental standards and while I didn't feel it went very smoothly, other people said they enjoyed it. I also sat in on a discussion group about digital governance which was quite interesting. From there, I grabbed a late lunch with Lisa, Gabrielle, and Anna and we headed back to the geography department for a presentation on risk management during our fieldwork.
The department had some outside guy come in to give the talk and the presentation was a disaster... the geography department prides itself on being very open and respecting a variety of sources of knowledge... so imagine the irritation of the faculty when the guy giving the talk first asked for a female volunteer to write on the board (because guys have bad handwriting)... they said something like "we don't allow gender stereotyping in the department." That wasn't such a big deal.... but then he told a story involving a girl in Africa who had a miscommunication and thought she was agreeing to go to a hospital and actually agreed to be treated by the local shaman... only, he told the story in a way that basically called the shaman a mud covered savage... not really appropriate, but nearly explosive in the geography department.
When we were finally done there, I took my bike by Andreas' to oil the chain (thanks, Andreas!) and then went home to get a bit of work done before Brittany came over to make dinner. We decided to make soup from a mix that Dad got me awhile back and some apple sauce b/c we both had a few mealy apples. The applesauce was good, but the soup was amazing. It was split pea curry and even though it came from a mix, I think we can easily replicate it and we both agreed we wanted to make it again. After dinner, people started arriving to hang out for a bit and meet up so we could all head to a concert/party/music fest opening later.
Before long, me, Brittany, Andreas, Alex, Anna, Dennis, Astrid, Lisa F, Lisa L., Sophie, Selcuk and Louis were all at my place getting ready for a night out. With the boys terribly out numbered, the pre-party devolved into putting on makeup and getting ready. We finally headed to Freuds (where the event was) around 11ish and the event was sold out... yet when we got there, the place was completely empty. Thankfully, it seems like most people had the same thought process we did and it didn't take long for the place to fill up. We hit the dance floor and had a great time dancing and being silly. People from NSEP started trickling out about 2ish, but a few of us (me, Selcuk, Louis, Alex, and Brittany) stayed until just about the end (around 3). On our way home, we stopped at our favorite food truck, and Louis even found his hat that had been lost earlier in the evening (though it unfortunately looked a lot like road kill).
This is adorable even with Brittany's eyes closed
Dancing- before things filled up
Dancing! And Louis with demon eyes
Why does everyone I take a photo with have their eyes closed? But so glad Lisa F. came out with us!
Selcuk
Louis with his found hat!
The coming 2 weeks (weeks 4 and 5 of Hilary term) are going to be crazy busy but I'll try hard to stick with my weekly updates!
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