Tuesday all I had was science and politics. We had some time to work on our mapping controversies project and I actually think our group has a pretty great one. Me, Cato, Katherine, Brittany, Lisa F., and Tom are working on mapping out the controversy involving the safety of atrazine and how Syngynta has tried to discredit Tyrone Hayes. If anyone is interested in the situation, you can read about it here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/10/140210fa_fact_aviv?currentPage=all
After class I headed to eat with Lizzie, Andreas, Louis, Anna, and Fran. Part way to the Buttery it started raining/pouring and there was really nothing we could do. It was freezing, but in a way, a little exhilarating. So often here it just drizzles and mists, but to be caught in a downpour, even a cold one, reminded me of the way storms pop up and then vanish at home. I had a great lunch and then headed home to work for the rest of the afternoon. I was supposed to have a meeting that afternoon, but my cough returned with a vengeance (maybe being out in cold rain wasn't such a good idea...) and I decided not to contaminate everyone else. I just did work for the rest of the evening and enjoyed a quiet evening.
Wednesday I woke up early to do more work before meeting Katherine and Andreas for a run. It was the first time I've run since I've had this hacking cough and it was not pretty. It was a painful run and I made it less than a mile before having a coughing fit and needing to walk. I finished the run but my chest was really hurting and I could not stop coughing. I'm hoping to run more this week and I'm hoping it goes better than that.
After our run, Katherine and I went for lunch at Will's Deli (delicious!) and then back to my place so she could try on a few dresses and maybe borrow one for a dinner she had in London later in the week. From there, I went straight to class (a reading discussion group for corporate environmental management on industry self regulation in the New Zealand dairy industry). Then it was more work until I headed to dance at 8:30. I was a bit late leaving my flat and so I ran down the stairs and into the little lobby area- I went to open the door to the outside.... locked. It's never supposed to be locked (residents don't have a key to that door- it's like an electronic release....) and so I turned around to go back in the building.... only to realize the my bod card, which is supposed to open that door wasn't working. I was locked IN my building. Thank god I had my phone... I called the porter and he came and let me out... I fussed a bit (what a fire hazard!!!) but was mostly glad to get out of there. I'm such an awkward person.... I think I'm the only person I know who gets locking in rather than out of their building. At dance, we were doing a Brazilian samba and it was hilarious.... lots of body rolling against your partner and shimmying- I just don't think my body moves that way. Still, it was a really fun time and everyone was a good sport about it. We stayed for the free dancing for a bit and then me, Louis, Andreas, Ted, and Brittany all headed to the St. Antony's late bar to hang around and chat.
We finally split a little after midnight and I headed to bed to rest up for Thursday. I woke up for my elective and we had a really interesting lecture on using scenarios and the process of planning for an unknown future in terms of food system development and planning. I really, really liked the lecturer for the day, Dr. Joost Vervoort. I don't really have a reason to work with him further, but I'd enjoy finding a way/reason to because I think the work is interesting and I really enjoyed his energy and approach. Despite really enjoying the lecture, I was still just feeling under the weather (more like still exhausted and run down) and also really stressed about these coming 2 weeks of term. I worked all afternoon and then napped, which I never do (normally when I lay down for a nap I don't want to get back up and am left feeling groggy and disoriented) but on Thursday, I really, really needed it.
Thursday night I had a formal dinner. It was an exchange at St. Antony's with Keble kids so Lisa was there along with some of the Keble kids in her mcr (mixed common room). It was good to see them again after meeting them a few weeks ago at the Keble formal dinner. The food was okay, not amazing but not terrible (better than the normal fare, anyway), the company was good, and we even had a college blessing which we've never had before that was read in latin. In typical Oxford humor, once translated it actually roughly said that St. Antony's is richer than Magdalen, more glorious than Christ Church, and better than all the colleges- not so much a blessing as bragging translated into latin... if nothing else we are a fun college.
"stuffed" after dinner!
There were drinks after dinner and Lisa and I hung out with a few people from my college and her college and then Lisa decided to call it a night. I'd spent all day working and being an introvert and I wanted to be around friends, so after Lisa left Louis came over to keep me company and drink lots of tea since he hasn't been feeling well. We watched a few episodes of Summer Heights High, a hilarious Australia show that is done like a documentary following caricatures in a public high school- the over the top drama teacher, the girl who transferred from private school who is a huge brat, and the trouble maker that you can't help but have a soft spot for no matter how ridiculous and disrespectful he is. I'd never seen it and I definitely got hooked.
Friday morning I slept in and then spent the day working. I think I ran some errands or something, I don't really remember much to be honest. That afternoon Brittany and I were talking about getting dinner and then realized it was our friend Kanako's birthday. We asked if she had dinner plans and when she didn't, we organized a few people to go eat at Bamboo which is a Korean place with delicious bi bim bap. A lot of people already had plans, but me, Alex, Lisa, Brittany, Ted and Louis all came out and we had dinner, including the standard free dessert and singing :)
Me and the birthday girl!
After dinner we decided to head to Dennis'. He had friends visiting from the Netherlands and they were all hanging out before going to parties/clubs for the night. We all hung out along with some of his house mates as well and then we decided to head to the Carnival/latin BOP at GTC. When we arrived around 11 the BOP was already PACKED. It was so crowded that it was hard to stay together and not really that much fun because it was too crowded to move, much less dance. Thankfully, after not too long NSEP had claimed some space on the dance floor and more and more of us showed up.... me, Kanako, Louis, Rob, Mhairi, Dennis and his visiting friends, Daniel, Sophie, Lisa, Gabrielle, Andreas.... maybe others (?). We stayed until the BOP ended and since we weren't done dancing (when are we ever?) a group of us (Dennis and his friends, Louis, me and Andreas) headed to the Purple Turtle, which was packed with undergrads and might be my new least favorite club in Oxford.
We stayed until the club closed at 3 and then headed home, stopping at our favorite kebab van on the way home and chatting with the owners, Ali and Ameen, which is a pretty standard weekend night. I slept in Saturday and then had a lazy morning. Then I headed over around lunch to meet Andreas and go watch our friend/classmate, Ben, play in the varsity match against Cambridge. I've never watched lacrosse before but it was quite exciting and a close game. Thankfully, Oxford pulled it out in the end. It was a beautiful afternoon, really sunny and quite warm for England this time of year. When clouds moved in they were dark and still highlighted by the sun... not just dreary gray like we often get.
Such a pretty day!
On the way home from the boy's lacrosse game Andreas and I walked past the girls' game.... just in time to see a streaker! We thought about stealing his clothes which were draped over the bench we were walking past, but we couldnt bring ourselves to do it. That afternoon I did a bit more work and then cycled out to the sports complex on Iffly Road to the basketball court to see Cato play. Brittany met me there (and later Katherine and Daniel) and we cheered the girls' team on. Unfortunately, Cambridge won the game, but it was still really fun to watch and cheer on Cato and Oxford.
Go #15!
As a side note about Oxford sports, Oxford plays other universities throughout the season of the sport, and then for each sport there is a "varsity" match (often against Cambridge but I'm not sure always... I think the riding varsity match involves multiple teams competing). If Oxford wins, everyone on the team wins a "blue" or a "half-blue" depending on the sport (competitive sports get full blues, less popular ones get half blues). There is a saying that everyone should leave Oxford with a distinction, a blue, or a spouse. A distinction is the highest grade/mark you can earn here, a blue is an athletic accomplishment, and the spouse one is obvious- some of my classmates now have blues! We have more people competing in varsity matches in the coming weeks so I'll keep y'all posted.
After Cato's game we were having fun and part of me wanted to stay and watch the boys' game since I know 3 of the players on that team as well, but hunger won out so Brittany, Katherine and I headed to Andreas' to make curry and hang out. We ate and sat around and talked until around midnight- later than I had planned to be out. Sunday I had planned to get up and be really productive with paper writing, laundry, cleaning, etc. Instead, I slept in and then wrote part of my paper that was due today. Then I needed a break so I decided to go grocery shopping for the week. When I went out and hopped on my bike to go to the store I just had this moment where I felt so British... it was terribly gray and a light mist just hard enough to get in my eyes while cycling. I was wearing a big, thick "jumper" with a "rain slicker" over it and "wellies" as I cycled through the gray mist... I am not sure it gets more British.
Yesterday evening (Sunday) I spent making a noodle stir fry, reading for my elective, and finishing my elective essay (entitled: "Is the future cost of meat more than we can afford?"... and basically... yes, yes it is.) I finished my essay around midnight and Louis was hanging out with Joe, a friend of his also in St Antony's down in the St. Antony's Late bar. I decided to unwind before bed so I headed down to meet them and watched the boys play a few games of foosball. Joe got tired and headed out so Louis and I went for a cup of tea before he headed home and I headed to bed.
Today I started my day with my elective... the lecture was by Anthony Kleanthous on the role of business in the food system. It was a good lecture, but I think with everything else on my plate right now I just had a hard time focusing. From there, I had a CEM lecture on change management with a case study on the voluntary environmental accord in the New Zealand dairy industry (basically the lecture over the readings we discussed last week).
I grabbed lunch at Greens with Brittany to talk about housing options for next year and then I had another class on research methods, mostly just time to work on our presentations for next monday (my group is doing the non-human charisma of wine) and the extra time was much appreciated. Then we had a class meeting about our upcoming field trip to Amsterdam and now I'm home for a bit before meeting Tom to work on our mapping controversies project. Tonight I think I'm going to go see Ben and James play at a pub called the White Rabbit.
This week is going to be crazy busy but also lots of fun.
Hope everything is going well wherever in the world you are reading this from!
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