The two weeks between Amsterdam and my parents' arrival I mostly just did work and hung out with the few people who were still in Oxford as lots of my friends were traveling. I would love to say that I accomplished my goal to have my paper pretty much completely done by the time they arrived, but it was closer to 75% written than finished. I suppose that's still better than nothing.
Mom and Dad arrived on the morning of April 5th. I met them at Heathrow in London and we headed off to the hotel to get checked in. After dropping our bags we headed off to explore. We walked down to check out Westminster/Westminster Cathedral and the Whitehall Gardens, Big Ben, etc. We ate a late lunch and then headed to the London Eye which is one of my favorite things in London (so touristy but the views are excellent.) After that, we headed back to the hotel for a short break, then went out for dinner and then to bed- Mom and Dad were jet lagged and I was tired from herding my ducklings around (it's how I think of having Mom and Dad visit... like ducklings to keep track of- in the best way possible!)
Dad and me in the park behind Westminster
The next morning we got up and headed next door to see St. Paul's Cathedral and then walked to Tour Bridge. After that, we walked back to and to Buckingham Palace and then to Hyde Park/Kensington Garden, and then saw Royal Albert Hall. After that, it was off to the boat race to cheer on my friend/classmate, Tom, who was rowing in the BNY Mellon Boatrace against Cambridge. It's kind of the equivalent of the UGA/FL game.... huge crowds, lots of drinking along the river, tons of school pride, etc. Both Oxford and Cambridge have blue and white as our school colors, but Oxford's is navy and Cambridge's is more minty/teal. When people ask "Which Blue are you?" The only correct response is "There's only one Blue!" (since Cambridge obviously is more green/mint than blue!) Mom and Dad were great sports to put up with the crazy crowds and also got to meet Cato, Andreas, Rob, Brittany, Todd, Anna, and Daniel. The atmosphere was so fun and exciting- though Oxford killed Cambridge.
Dad and me at Tower Bridge
Dad and Mom at Tower Bridge
Cato and me were SO excited for the race!
NSEP Cheering on Tom!
After the race we were determined to see Tom so we walked down to the finish line/boat house. After finally finding the entrance, security wouldn't let us in. Rob managed to sneak in while pretending he was on a very busy/serious phone call, but he couldnt gain access to where Tom was and eventually came back out. We had banners painted and everything and decided to just wait until their bus left. It did a LONG time later and we chased it, waving our banners and acting like tween groupies at a Backstreet Boys concert.
NSEP with our banners for Tom!
After that, Mom, Dad, and I headed back to London and to our hotel to pick up our bags and head to Oxford. We tried to splurge and take the train since it's faster and we were all tired, but it turns out they were working on the tracks outside of Oxford so we ended up having to get off and take a bus part way anyway. It was confusing and we were all grumpy and exhausted. Finally, I got Mom and Dad to their bed and breakfast and then I headed home from there and crashed.
The next morning I met Mom and Dad at their bed and breakfast. It was rainy and gross out so we decided to do some more "inside" things to start the day. We saw the department where I have class and have spent LOTS of my time, we then saw it had stopped raining and took a walk through University Park. It's a gorgeous park, exactly a 1.5 mile loop and where I normally run. Mom and Dad really enjoyed it I think. We went from there to one of my favorite little deli/cafes and had lunch. After lunch we went to a little place I love called the liquid deli. It's exactly what it says... it's like a deli but rather than meats and cheeses it's all liquids.... oils, vinegars, whiskeys, wines.... all produced regionally/locally. I picked out a gift for a family friend and dad got some gooseberry vinegar before we headed on.
Me and Mom in University Parks
View of Keble from University Parks
Then we headed to the natural history museum which is also joined with the Pitt Rivers Anthropological museum. Both are super cool- the natural history museum is very accessible for all ages and sometimes I think it lacks some of the information I would like to know about things, but it's still an amazing collection. Pitt Rivers in all anthropological finds and looks more like someone's cluttered attic. It's organized in a very controversial way (for a museum) being grouped by item (surgical instruments, jewelry, totem poles, musical instruments, etc). It's not very popular for museums to do this, but I enjoy it- it is really cool to look at items from around the world and across time/space and be able to compare them.
Natural History Museum
After that we took a short break and Mom and Dad went back to relax for a bit while I also went to work and rest. For dinner that night we took a cab out to Old Marston which is about 2 miles outside of Oxford and where my house for next year is. Louis came with us and from my future house, we walked to the Victoria Arms Pub that is on the River. We were meeting Brittany and Todd there but they were running a bit late and so we ordered some wine and chatted. Once Brittany and Todd arrived we ordered dinner and enjoyed food and company.
It was really nice to see how well my parents got along with my friends and I also really enjoyed meeting Todd since he's Brittany's long time boyfriend and will be one of my roommates next year. It was a really fun evening and I was really grateful to have my worlds collide with my parents and two of my best friends here at Oxford, as well as meeting another who will hopefully be another close friend. After dinner I hung out at Louis' for a bit watching Modern Family and ended up staying up entirely too late.
The next day (Tuesday) was quite sunny and I met Mom and Dad at my place after breakfast. We headed into town and I decided based on the timing that we should go ahead and do the Bodleian Library tour. I have never done it (even as a student you have to pay and so I've just never gotten around to it.... I've been IN the library, but never on the tour). Anyway, it ended up being really interesting. Oxford has so much amazing history that sometimes it's hard not to just walk around awe-struck that I'm really here.
Bridge of Sighs- Right near the entrance to the Bodleian Library
Radcliffe Camera- part of the Bodleian Library system and one of the places I like to study.
After the tour we got lunch and then I wasn't feeling well so I went home for a nap and I sent Mom and Dad off to explore Christ Church. It's one of the oldest (and prettiest) colleges in Oxford and their dining hall is where the Harry Potter Great Hall is filmed for the movies. Christ Church also has an amazing cathedral, complete with a tapestry of Alice in Wonderland since Lewis Carroll was in Christ Church. Coincidentally, it's the same picture/pattern as my Christmas stocking... interesting that that was made for me as a child and I end up where the original is. Mom and Dad really liked Christ Church and I'm glad they got to see it since I love going. After they did that, I met back up with them for high tea at the Old Parsonage Hotel. I'd never been to a real "tea time" before... I've been holding out for visitors, but it's probably my new favorite British tradition. The "scones" at this place are about the closest British equivalent to southern biscuits I can imagine and they are served with clotted cream (almost a mix between butter and whipped cream) and strawberry jam, and of course, tea. We enjoyed the snack and then Mom and Dad walked back to their B&B and I went back home to do some work.
Christ Church Cathedral
Christ Church Hall (aka the Hogwarts Great Hall!)
Then, we went to dinner at a tapas place that was so good. After dinner I took Mom and Dad to one of the really famous pubs in Oxford, the Turf Tavern. This is where Bill Clinton "did not inhale" (uh-huh.) But it also has a lengthy history... the foundation dates to the 1200s and the building itself was build in the 1600s. After sharing a drink, Mom and Dad walked me back to my place and then got a cab back to their bed and breakfast.
Wednesday we took a day trip rather than hanging around Oxford. We took a train to the town closest to Stonehenge, a place called Salisbury, where we ate lunch and then got on a tour bus. The bus took us by the Salisbury Cathedral (England's tallest spire, Europe's oldest working clock, and houses the best preserved copy of the Magna Carta... though we didn't stop or go in to see that). The countryside between Salisbury and Stonehenge was also gorgeous, but the real highlight was arriving at Stonehenge and finally getting to the actual attraction. I think the layout and design has been quite well done as you can get quite close, never feel as if it's too crowded, etc etc. And wow. A lot of people had warned me that Stonehenge was nothing more than a tourist trap and a pile of rocks, and I was skeptical of going. I'm so glad we went anyway.
Stonehenge was erected some 5,000 years ago... which means it was further from say... the time of Christ/the ancient Romans and Greeks than we are from those same events. No one really knows why it was built or what it was used for, but it's an impressive structure and clearly required motivation, planning, and complex systems to be in place in terms of societal organization, so that's really cool to think about it. I get pretty awestruck at things like this, so I enjoyed the wonderment of it.
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At the end of the walk around the structure with our audio tour, we also had a really fun few minutes watching a crow who was trying to build a nest in a hole in one of the rocks. He had long stick that he just could NOT get through the entrance and he was MAD about it. After repeatedly trying to fly in, he finally gave up and found another stick.... that also would not fit through the entrance. He finally managed to maneuver this one in, but we all enjoyed watching him puzzle it out.
From Stonehenge, we headed back into Salisbury and took the train back to Oxford. When we returned we headed straight from the train station to Al-Shami, one of my favorite Lebanese restaurants in town. We were STARVING, and I think Dad and I both loved our food and inhaled it. Mom found a few things she liked, though I don't think she was a super big fan of the cuisine overall. After supper we went for ice cream at G&D's which is my favorite ice cream/sorbet place. We then walked back to mine and Mom and Dad got a cab back to theirs.
The next day (Thursday) I had planned a trip for us all to go to Bath, but Mom and Dad were feeling tired from all our adventures and we decided to have another day in Oxford instead. We started off by heading to Christ Church Meadow which is a gorgeous meadow/park like area where I spend a lot of my "outdoors" time at Oxford. I think it was one of Mom and Dad's favorite things we did in Oxford, which was not entirely unexpected since it's one of my favorite places in Oxford and has really beautiful views of the spires of the city and such. From there, Dad and I walked to Iffley Track, which is where Roger Bannister ran the first mile under 4 minutes. I'm lucky to have run on the track before... though at a much, much, slower pace.
Little paths and streams run through Christ Church Meadow
Me and Mom on our walk around Christ Church Meadow
View of Oxford from Christ Church Meadow
Iffley Road Track
From there, we went to the Nosebag, which is one of my other favorite restaurants/cafes in Oxford. They have homemade, hearty type meals and also light salads and such and I think everyone really enjoyed the food as well as the space- it's in a really old building, upstairs, and during lunch, there in tons of natural light streaming in. From The Nosebag, we headed to Oxford's Botanical Garden which I'd never been to. It was a bit early in the season for everything to be in bloom, but tulips were and we also got to explore some of the greenhouses and see lots of ancient trees, and some other interesting (and dangerous!) plants, like nightshade. This was actually one of my favorite parts of the visit and I definitely plan to go back as the weather gets better.
Yummy!
Entrance to the Botanic Gardens
Tulips!
In the Botanic Gardens
HUGE, old trees.
Friday morning Mom wasn't feeling well so I met Dad at my apartment, and my friend Andreas came along we headed off to go punting. After a mix up about using the college punt and having to walk BACK to my college we finally got in the punt and were off. Punting is where you stand on the back of the boat and pole it along and it's an Oxbridge (Oxbridge = Oxford/Cambridge) tradition. Andreas started us off and then Dad tried. It was mostly relaxing for me, though I kept gasping and getting nervous when Dad or Andreas would slip or totter as if they might fall in. I didn't try the actual punting part, but I think it was much harder than it looks and I think I wore Dad out a bit.
Dad, manning the punt while Andreas gives a hand with the paddle
View from the punt (I think that's Lady Margaret Hall)
Enjoying the sunshine! What a perfect morning for punting!
Andreas looks like he's on a quest! Dad is along for the ride!
After we finished punting, Andreas headed off to write/do work, and Dad and I walked into town to eat at my favorite deli/cafe again. Mom was feeling better so she came to join us and Dad got to eat rarebit, a cheese toast thing that Grandma Mary used to make. The texture was a bit different from when he was a kid, but I think the taste was nearly the same so that was good :). Post lunch it was off to the Ashmolean, the huge art/history museum in Oxford. We spent the rest of the afternoon there checking out everything from the history of money to Japanese art. One of the floors was more interactive... I think geared towards kids, but we had an awesome time playing all the games.
Roman boxer
Tally Ho!
Dad, with one of the games we liked.
When the museum part closed, we headed up to the rooftop restaurant on the building to overlook Oxford and have a happy hour drink. The view was really pretty and we soaked it in before heading back to the tapas restaurant (with a reservation this time) to enjoy round two of tapas. I got another sorbet after dinner and then we called it a night, we had another busy day ahead.
The next morning I cycled to Mom and Dad's B&B. We were picked up around 10AM by a friend of a family friends of ours. The man, Andrew, has been so helpful and generous in helping me arrange housing for next year and by repeatedly offering to be a contact if I ever need anything at all in the UK. This was the first time I've ever met him in person (or that Mom or Dad had) and it was so nice to spend some time getting to know him while he (also generously) took us on a driving tour of the Cotswolds. The Cotwolds is an area of rolling hills in southern England (not far from Oxford) and when you think of the British countryside with quaint houses made of light stone, that's the Cotswolds. It's gorgeous.
We started the tour by traveling to a village called Bladen and seeing the church and cemetery where Winston Churchill and his family are buried. It was an unassuming type place, but really beautiful none the less. From there, we traveled to Blenheim Palace (Winston Churchill's estate) and we didn't have time to go in and see it (that's on my list to do while in England!) but the outside is just huge and spectacular. From there we traveled to Winston Churchill's old church and his grave site and then to Chipping Norton and Morton in the Marsh, both quaint little villages, and then to The Upper and Lower Slaughters. The name sounds grim but it's one of the prettiest little towns I've ever seen and I would love to go back and wander through it properly. From there we saw Stow on the Wold and Bourton on the Water, as well as Bibury which has the largest Yew tree in the world.... it's.... just unreal. I didn't get a picture of it but that wouldnt have captured it all anyway... words can't describe.
Winston Churchill's grave
Mom and me in the Upper/Lower Slaughters
From there, we went to Ampney Crucis to have lunch with Andy and his wife Sylvia at their home. Their home is really beautiful inside. I'm terrible with design and such and they have all these wonderful bright colors that make their house feel very happy for lack of a better phrasing. Sylvia had really outdone herself preparing lunch. There was ham, 2 types of quiche, deviled eggs, multiple salads, salmon/cream cheese rolls, breads, cheeses, veggie platter, roasted potatoes.... and more it seems like. The spread looked like she was expecting at least 15 people.
After lunch we headed off on part two of our tour, seeing Cirencester, which has some really adorable shops, Birdlip, an overlook over Cheltenham and Gloucester (gorgeous, gorgeous views), Paradise- which had some Scottish Highland cattle that looked like yaks, Painswick, which is a church with 99 yew trees (yes, they are numbered and according to legend they wanted to plant 100 but the 100th always died), Stroud Valley, and then Andrew took us to this lovely little B&B place (Barnsley House) for tea that was amazing. He also taught us how to properly eat our scones at tea time (we'd been doing it all wrong). The jam goes on first, and then the clotted cream goes on that at a ratio of at least 2:1 compared to the jam.
View from Birdlip
View from Birdlip
View from Birdlip
The Vaughns in Paradise
Me and Dad in Paradise
Not a good view but a Scottish Highland Cow!
Mom and me under 1 of the 99 yew trees!
From there, it was back to Ampney Crucis where we picked up Sylvia and then headed off to a pub for dinner. We had a wonderful meal and by this time, it felt like eating with friends rather than strangers. It's really wonderful to feel like I have people to turn to here in England... not just friends or professors, but also people who could help me with other things like (heaven forbid) a hospital stay or a landlord dispute, etc. After dinner Andrew and Sylvia took up back to Oxford and dropped us off.
Gorgeous view on the way to dinner
The next morning I met Mom and Dad and got them on the bus to Heathrow. It was sad to see them go- there are really only a few bad things about living in Oxford: 1. far from family, 2. far from my horses 3. the weather. Still, they needed to get home and I needed to get back to work. For the next two weeks, I worked and hung out with friends. I got really excited about my essay and spent a good deal of time reading additional material for it, even though I never used a lot of it.
My paper title was: "Are Commodity Checkoff Programs Making American Children Fat?" I wrote on commodity checkoff programs for my undergraduate thesis at Penn as well, but took a totally different angle then, all about the constitutionality of the programs. This was more about the health and environmental impacts of such programs and I really learned so much. Basically, the USDA oversees checkoff programs and their adverts (like "Got Milk?" and "Beef: It's What's for Dinner!") are considered "government speech" since the USDA approves and oversees the messages.... yet, pushing energy and fat dense foods is in direct opposition to the "MyPlate" recommendations (MyPlate is the new version of the "food pyramid"). Even worse, lots of commodity checkoff boards work with fast food chains developing menu ideas to push more and more of their products... think about the McRib sandwich (the pork check off) of the cheese stuffed crust pizzas (the dairy check off). I'm not against checkoff programs theoretically, and I'm sure everyone reading this who knows me know that I have nothing but respect for hardworking farmers... BUT check off programs have gotten pretty far away from just research and generic advertising and add the USDA into the mix and things get messy... and in my opinion, contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic in various ways.
I didn't only work though. I spent time catching up with friends as they arrived back and hunkered down to work, including a few evenings lounging in the park and a wonderful bbq (which here really just means cook out) at Cato's. I also signed up for my very first half marathon, the Disney World Half which will be next January. I'll be running it with Dad and I'm super excited. The race starts and ends in Epcot and loops through the Magic Kingdom. Dad and I already have hotel reservations and a plan, but now I just need to get myself in shape. I regularly jog 3 miles or so, but building up to running 13.1 miles is going to take time but I'm really looking forward to it. I've never been particularly athletic or strong, but at least back when I rode for hours everyday I was in decent shape. I've lost so much of that and even though I'll likely never be super strong, I want to be strong and capable, not for anyone or because I'm unhappy with how my body looks, but just so I can hike and run and stretch and have a certain body awareness that I think is valuable.
Once I handed in my essay, it seemed like everyone was hardcore studying for exams or writing like fiends (I turned in my paper 5 days early so lots of people were still writing and editing). I took a few days to unwind and then did some light studying and prep work over the weekend before Trinity term kicked off.
Monday, April 28 was the start of Trinity term which means (kind of) back to the grind. We don't have actual classes this term, but exams are looming in 4th week (Week of May 19th) and we have review sessions for all of our classes since our exams cover material all the way back to October when I started here. We also technically don't have an exam for each class, which is kind of confusing. Instead, we have exams over group courses with similar themes. I have 3 exams, each one is 3 hours long and each has a mix of questions from 2, 3 and 4 classes respectively. We can choose any 3 of 12 questions to answer... so technically we dont have to prepare each class in depth... strategic studying!
The groupings are as follows:
- Theory and Analysis Exam: Will include questions from Nature and Society, Economics and Development, and Science and Politics
- Research Skills Exam: Will include questions from Research Design, and Research Methods
- Policy and Governance Exam: Will include questions from Governance/Policy/Politics, Environmental Economics, Decision Making Theory, and Corporate Environmental Management.
My strategy is to study for certain classes, so for the first exam, I'm preparing for Nature and Society and Science and Politics. I do not plan to write on any question relating to Economics and Development. The second exam I'm preparing from both classes since there are only 2, and the final exam, I'll be prepared for Corporate Environmental Management, and then a mix of Governance/Policy/Politics and Decision Making Theory, but I won't touch any question on Environmental Economics (and I'm only preparing about 1/2 the topics we covered in Decision Making Theory). It's definitely about being strategic since we've read and covered so much material and need to be able to integrate it all along with references to authors, theories, years of important publications to cite, etc.
Anyway, last Monday we had a class meeting followed by a review session for Nature and Society. N&S was one of my two favorite courses and I really enjoy the lecture style of the professor as well as the content, so I actually really enjoyed the review session and I feel reasonably comfortable about exam questions that might come up for that class.
After class I took a run and then I went home, made dinner and then met up with Andreas, Lisa and Ben at Worcester. We sat out on the front porch of a building at the college, the side of it facing their beautiful pond, and snacked and had a drink while the sun went down. Papers were officially due Monday AND it was our first day of term, so after the sun went down we continued the celebration in the Worcester bar and more NSEPers showed up- Juliana, Rob, Louis and Dennis. It was a fun night but not TOO late, I was home and in bed by 2AM.
Tuesday I got down to business really revising, including studying a bit with Tom at his new place which has CHICKENS. So when I stay study I really mean I obsessed over chickens/being around animals. I really miss having animals in my life on a day to day basis... as happy as I am here, they are missing and I can't wait to be in a place in life where I can be back around them regularly. Wednesday we had another review session, this one for Decision Theory. It was helpful, though I don't think I'll be focusing on it as much for exams. After class I got lunch with Brittany, did more work and went for a run.
Wednesday night was April 30 which holds a lot of tradition in Oxford as the lead up to May Day on May 1. Bars are open all night (until 6AM) and there are huge parties everywhere. Then at 6AM the Magdalen Choir sings from the church tower and then people swim in the river and go for breakfast. I had really good intentions of participating, and met up with a group of NSEPers around 10:30 to head to a bonfire out in Port Meadow. It took us awhile to find the bonfire and along the way we saw stars, horses and cows and it felt almost like home. It made me a bit homesick in the best way possible... walking through a huge field with horses and cows to get out to a bonfire and just hang out with good friends.
That said, when we got to the bonfire it turned out that the girl we thought we'd know there was running late and we had no connection to the group there. It was a bit awkward and we ended up not staying long at all. From there, we all headed home to get some sleep. I was game to get up the next morning to go hear the singing, but no one else wanted to get up with me, so I headed to bed and slept in on Thursday morning instead. I figure I will be here another year and can always go then. Thursday I studied most of the day and then went to a key informants interview workshop in the afternoon to help prepare me for my fieldwork. That evening it was pouring rain and I was feeling lazy and not like running at all. Just when I was trying to decide if I would be "good" and run or "bad"and not work out, Katherine messaged me and invited me to a yoga class. I went and am so glad I did, though it wasn't really an enjoyable practice. It's been awhile since I've done yoga, and combined with the chilly rain, my back (from the old break) started really aching and spasming- I spent way too much of class in childs pose and corpse pose.... but I plan to go back this week. That night Andreas came over and we worked on our risk assessments for our field work.
Friday of week one was a crazy day. We had our dissertation topic presentations from 9am-5pm with everyone in the class presenting their dissertation topics and then answering questions from the class and professors. I was honestly dreading the day, but it turned out to be super interesting. My classmates here are friends and colleagues, but they are also smart and interesting and diverse and it was really fun to learn a small bit about what each of them will dedicate time to, from waste pickers in Venezuela to the science, ethics and politics of neanderthal de-extinction to Sami political presence in Sweden to re-thinking food security.... everyone is doing such cool things.
My own dissertation has changed and evolved over time, so I guess now is as a good a time as any to update y'all on that. My working title right now (which I'm sure will change) is "Contracts and trust in equine transport relationships: buyers, attendants and brokers." I'm curious as to how very relationships (buyer/seller, buyer/attendant, seller/broker, broker/buyer, attendant/horse, etc etc) are or aren't reinforced through the traditional institutions of contracts in order to create the necessary trust for international transport in sale situations. I'll be spending some time at the quarantine import facilities in Newburgh and Miami (hopefully) but my real goal is to travel on a few flights as an attendant. I've been looking into the certification process, and I think I'd qualify... but I dont know how hard it is to actually get jobs. Still, it would be an amazing form of participant observation and allow me unexpected access to some of the issues I want to get at.
After presentations on Friday, I headed home and grabbed a shower and then Louis came over to get ready for formal dinner at St. Edmund's Hall (informally known as Teddy Hall, which is Andreas' college). After spending entirely too long trying to decide which dress to wear, I made a decision and also made us late. We needed to cycle there and as soon as I went to get on my bike I realized I had 2 problems.... the most pressing was that I was in a pencil skirt and couldn't mount my bike or sit on it... We were running so late that I just hitched up my skirt (I was wearing dark tights) and dealt with it... then I realized there was another problem... my heels would NOT stay on my pedals and when they would slip off I'd swerve as the heel part would catch the pedal (or once the chain, which was scary!). Thankfully Louis was with me watching for traffic and just for moral support as I cycled through town laughing trying not to flash anyone or crash.
Once I finally made it, dinner was a wonderful affair. The evening started with sherry in their common room and there was a group of NSEPers all there. Andreas had invited me, Louis, Cato, Katherine, Anna, and Rob. From the pre-drinks we migrated to the main hall for dinner and the food was excellent (I had the vegetarian meal so an asparagus and parmesan salad as a starter, a spinach and cheese souffle for my main, and a chocolate and ice cream thing for dessert.) After dinner there was port and chatting and from there, we decided to go hang out at Keble. We hung out for quite awhile at Keble with lots of Keble kids in their common room, mostly playing foosball but also a bit of pool. I saw a few other friends and then gradually people started heading home until it was just me, Katherine, Louis and Rob sitting around playing fives and chatting. We stayed out until nearly 4AM which was silly, but thankfully I was able to sleep in Saturday morning.
Saturday I did work all day and then around 6 I headed to Louis' for the garden party that he and his housemates were throwing. They'd rented huge speakers and bought grills and had a little trampoline and a bubble machine and hula hoops. The whole thing was surreal and a little absurd, but definitely fun. You can see a video of me hula hooping and being ridiculous here: http://relay.im/i/fZ3SbA I stayed for a couple of hours and then headed home to make/eat dinner and do some more studying before heading BACK around 10. Right at 11 the cops showed up to tell us it was 11 and we had to move the speakers inside, and since the dance party was no longer in the garden, I decided to head home and get some sleep. Before I went to bed I got an email about my great uncle's health and it was hard to read. I've felt quite close to him (and my great aunt) since my time in Philadelphia and it's hard to hear that he's not doing well, particularly because I know the capabilities that he is losing are the ones he always valued most- things like his personal relationships and mental capabilities to engage and understand. Thankfully, I have wonderful friends here who answer their phones at all hours to let me talk and vent and be upset. Still, for some reason it just hit me hard and I didn't sleep well that night.
Sunday I was sleepy and feeling stressed so I went for brunch with Andreas and then we sat in the cemetery at Teddy Hall and soaked up some sunshine. After that, it was just studying and running a few errands. Monday was more work... that's pretty much going to be the routine for the next few weeks. But Monday was also Cinco de Mayo, one of my favorite holidays that doesn't have any real meaning to me. Brittany likes it too, and we decided to host a small study break for people in the evening, complete with margaritas, chips, and homemade salsa and guacamole. I think everything we made was fantastic (even if I am biased) and we had a fun group- me, Brittany, Brittany's roommate Patrick, Andreas, Tom, Katherine and Cody. It was a good way to reward myself for working all during the day Monday.
Yesterday was more studying, but I also picked up my dress that was getting altered for the Keble Ball (which is this coming Saturday!) and then after an afternoon of hard work, I got to skype with Mom and then I went for a run before coming home to make an awesome dinner- ginger and cilantro rice, teriyaki baby corn and snow pea stir fry, and cilantro/lime salmon. It was delicious. We had a pretty bad ant infestation in our kitchen that took forever to get rid of and it is so nice to have them all gone and the kitchen back in useable form. Afterward I ate, Louis came over and we did a bit of work before both declaring ourselves brain dead and curling up to watch Modern Family instead. I think it was a good decision.
I woke up today refreshed and ready to hit the books again, which is exactly what I spent my morning doing. I met Andreas at 13:00 to pick out a tux for the ball, and then I had a meeting with Gordan (my dissertation supervisor) and then with Kersty. Then I headed to Katherine's where me, Katherine, Tom and Juliana had what I thought was a very productive study session covering Nature and Society lectures, specifically the construction of nature and Latour's idea of the modern constitution. After the study session I made another amazing dinner (roasted tomatoes and eggplant with a salad of arugula, feta, shaved zucchini and shaved fennel with a lemon/olive oil dressing). Since then, I've been trying to finish this blog post (it's an epic length) and then I need to hit the books again and finish organizing my governance/policy/politics notes.
Upcoming fun events: Keble Ball this weekend! Balls are a big part of Oxford... this one is black tie (I'm a little sad I'm not doing a white tie ball) but so many NSEPers are going and there will be an open bar, a ferris wheel, hors d'oeuvres, a dance floor and should be amazing. After that, a week of cramming, then a week of exams, and then hopefully a short vacay with Brittany to Greece... or Portugal... or Bulgaria.... or Tunisia.... or Croatia. We haven't decided yet but somewhere beachy and beautiful and WARM.
I'll try to get back in the habit of blogging now that term has started. I hope everyone is having as much fun as I'm having here!
