All Like An Opera

2010-05-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

9. Transformer Owl

There aren't even words. Pics don't do it justice. Watch the video if you can, whole thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es52WQKLumI&feature=player_embedded

2010-05-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

7. Gerenuk

Your basic African antelope, except with limbs so long that it's reminiscent of a spider. Not sure how evolution managed to come up with a species that makes the giraffe look well-proportioned in comparison, but somehow, it did.

8. Maned Wolf

Like that lanky kid in middle school who only ever got taller instead of broader, this guy goes through life looking like the Red Fox's beanpole cousin.

2010-05-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

6. Takin

A goat-antelope from the Himalayas. I think that about says it all. It's like something straight out of Star Wars, all lumps and bumps and shaggy hair.

2010-05-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

4. Tibetan Fox

Not sure what is up with up with this animal's face, but it's vaguely baboon-like and very startling.

5. Sun Bear

Somehow, the Sun Bear manages to take everything intimidating out of being a bear. They have wrinkly, sort of dopey-looking faces, and large flat necks. They also have elongated, thin tongues, and inward-pointing feet that make them walk pigeon-toed.

2010-05-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

3. Przewalski's Horse

Think of Black Beauty, graceful and dark and gorgeous. Flowing mane, arched neck, noble bearing.

Then take a look at this. This is what the ancient version of the horse is, and it ain't pretty. The necks on these beasts are absurd! Even the babies are rather unfortunate looking.

Awkward Animals

2010-05-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

Jordan likes to make fun of my affinity for weird, odd, and dumb-looking animals. In keeping with this tendency, I've decided to make a few posts dedicated to the strangest and most ungainly creatures of the world. I tried to stay away from the ones that everybody already knows about (the platypus, the hyena, the naked mole rat).

1. Fennec Fox

This little guy is adorable, but he also has ears that are definitely large enough to be considered awkward. They help dissipate heat (as with elephants), and are actually sensitive enough that the fox can hear prey moving underground.

2. Aye Aye

You WANT this little thing to be cuter. The potential is there: small, clingy, sort of like a tropical squirrel. But alas, nature gave the Aye Aye an almost hairless body, big creepy bug eyes, and long fingers for tapping trees to find grubs. Ick.

2010-04-30T07:40:00.000-07:00

25 out of 20 on the part of the exam that I got back today in Comparative Colonialism. The teacher could barely contain himself, he was grinning when he handed me back my paper and said "LOOK AT YOUR GRADE!" the second it was in my hand. I'm not sure how I got extra credit, there were no bonus questions, it was just straight up essays. But I'll take it!

2010-04-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

I don't know why my pics look squished in my last post. If you click on them, they open up.

Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick follow-up racehorse post about Zenyatta. I don't know too much about her, because I don't follow racing heavily, but the mare is a beast. I've heard called things like "the monster filly" and "the Amazon mare."

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_XPH6Eix4 (love how enthusiastic the announcer is at the end: "THIS. IS. UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE!")

And some pics. The last one is of her little dance that she does before running. It's really cute, she clearly knows she's hot shit.

Tribute to Big Red

2010-04-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

I'm not the biggest fan of racing. BUT, this horse is still enough to give practically any equestrian chills, so I thought I'd make a post about him.

Secretariat won the Triple Crown, and his Derby and Belmont times are still the record ones. He started out dead last in the Preakness and made a jaw-dropping sweep to end the race alone and uncontested. In second place was Sham, a pretty good horse in his own right. Only four people dared enter their horses against him in the Belmont. Sham once again tried to catch him and they raced head-to-head for part of the race, way ahead of the rest of the pack, but Sham got so tired he eventually had to drop back and finished last. Secretariat ended up racing by himself and won by 31 lengths. He'd run 1 and 1/2 miles in 2 minutes and 24 seconds.

Here's a video of his Belmont performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMzYJjgwOg4&feature=player_embedded

And here are some pics:

Four for you Evo, you GO Evo!

2010-04-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

So today has been a day of stressing about the end of semester, worrying about how I'm going to do on my Comparative Colonialism final, and hearing depressing presentations in class about the MS 13 gang and yet more military juntas supported by the U.S. But then I started to work on my research paper for Latin American history, and you know what? The prez of Bolivia is actually pretty awesome - I somehow managed to find a topic that is uplifting to research!

Let's start with this guy's dress sense. Right away you know he's pretty chill, because he wears a dorky sweater everywhere instead of fancy political dress. Observe:

He chooses to wear his classic indigenous sweater even when surrounded by Serious Frowny-Face Military Types.

Meeting with the leader of China? Time to dress up the sweater with a nice black jacket! Way to keep it classy, Evo.

Makin' time to hang out with his indigenous peeps, he retains the all-important sweater and adds some flowers for more hippie power.

Even Thabo Mbeki, former president of South Africa, approves of the Evo sweater.

Here he is, forgoing the sweater for an even less uptight approach, the short-sleeved shirt.,

His other pluses include: raging about mistreatment of "Mother Earth," supporting unions, being a soccer enthusiast, and having a personal background in herding llamas. He also VOLUNTARILY slashed his own salary by 57% to make a point. Then, he took even more out of his salary, suggested that congress do the same, and donated the money to Haiti and Chile. He makes 1,875 a month now. He's a proud socialist that is in favor of "democratic revolution" (his words) instead of armed revolt. He also hasn't been afraid to call the U.S. out on exploitative economic policies toward Latin America.

2010-04-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how, at the end of the semester, you make one list of stuff to do, complete everything on it, and realize...OH WAIT, you have to make another huge list!

As it stands right now, having taken my last Latin American exam, done my Crab Monster scene for Playwriting, turned in the first two Comparative Colonialism questions, and had my last essay critiqued for English 307, I still have to:

1. Write a play.

2. Take the Playwriting final.

3. Finish the other 4 questions of the Comparative Colonialism take-home exam.

4. Edit, put together and turn in a creative writing portfolio.

5. Do the Vietnam final.

6. Write a 15-page paper.

7. Make and present a 15-minute lecture.

And it's still not as bad as Oxford. I swear, that place has me cured for life of ever thinking "This is too much schoolwork."

Heinous amounts of work -

2010-04-26T15:44:00.001-07:00

- that's what I've got.

I've employed a cheesy system to organize what I need to get done:

CODE RED !!!

2 Comparative Colonialism exam questions

English 307 essay for critique

CODE ORANGE

Latin American exam studying

English 307 peer analysis paper

Playwriting Crab Monster piece (don't ask...)

CODE YELLOW

Latin American research presentation

Other Comparative Colonialism exam questions

Code red stuff was due today. Code Orange things are due tomorrow. Code Yellow assignments are due Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

So I'm watching this film for class right now

2010-04-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

It's called "Trials of Henry Kissinger." The basic question is whether or not Kissinger is a war criminal.

Let's examine the dude. This is a man who wanted to be called a HERO because he was involved in military coups in Latin America. Meaning, he was directly a part of the U.S. quest to economically monopolize various nations and keep the Latin American populace from being able to vote. Because it was apparent they wanted socialism, he felt instead that it would be preferable to install military leaders who tortured, raped, killed, and kidnapped. State-run terrorists.

A direct quote from the man himself: "the issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." Condescending much, Henry? Those poor brown people, how they ever survived without your excellent guidance is beyond me....

I mean seriously, what were the convos like in the White House? "Quick, someone stop them, they want universal healthcare! How dare they try to enact something other than U.S. approved, apple pie, lassez-faire capitalism! Somebody install a fascist dictator!" And it's not like this convo went down once, then somebody realized it was stupid and shot it down...nope, it went on for several presidents (I'm glaring at you, Reagan) and multiple countries. El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina; the list is just shameful.

What's really rich is that the documentary opens with this build-up of Kissinger getting nervous because Pinochet got arrested in England. It's a real tragedy that nothing will ever come of it, but at least he's anxious. Good.

McCarthyism has got to be the biggest joke in history. I don't even know how we stood the embarrassment. The worst part might be that people like Kissinger's peers are still around and still screaming the same nonsense rhetoric, using "socialist" and "communist" as a fill-in for "the worst thing anybody could ever be, ever!" (As if the list of bad titles you can fall under goes something like 1. Unrepentant pedophile 2. Mass murderer 3. Serial rapist 4. Spousal abuser 5. Socialist. Priorities - get new ones!) Can't even tell you the amount of "Obama is a member of the Taliban, and he's a commie!" spam I see. First, um, pick your poison: Either he's an angry Arab tribesman or he's a communist, because they are not the same thing. Not even close. You can't have it both ways, either focus on the Hussein-Osama-crap or the focus on the commie crap. Neither crap is viable or useful, but at least be consistent.

Second, there's a gulf about ten bajillion miles wide between an actual, flesh-and-blood Marxist and Barrack. A bit of healthcare reform does not make you a communist; instituting collectivism does. Being pretty nice to gays and not outlawing abortion doesn't make you a commie either. So until you hear the man say "Let's do away with the bourgeoisie and start a revolution of proletariats," stop whining that he's a Red.

And just so that it's clear, believe me, I would bitchslap Fidel in a heartbeat for his repression, in particular his violent past homophobia. And I also think it's stupid that "Nazi" gets thrown around by people as much as "commie" does. I hate Bush. Have for awhile. But the man was not a fascist! In fact, maybe I should make a chart:

George W. Bush --- Does not! --- equal Adolf Hitler

Barrack --- Does not! --- equal Lenin, Stalin, Marx, Saddam, or Osama

Feminist --- Does not! --- equal someone who takes over Poland (ERGH I HATE THE WORD FEMINAZI SO, SO MUCH I COULD SPIT)

/End Rant.

Room Draw tonight!

2010-04-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

Eeee!

Gallagher 211, a single in Froelicher!

Downside: It's sort of the "jock" dorm.

Upsides!: It's right near the gym, it has a pretty little courtyard, and it's a building I've never lived in before, so it's fresh and exciting. And honestly, with the housing shortage, just the fact that I got a single is a major stroke of luck. I think the only reason I got it is my arriving early and showing up right at the door; they were only on number 215 or so, I was 260, but because people hadn't turned up yet/hadn't formed a line, they let me in.

People like to complain that Froelicher is ancient, but frankly, I like that! The T is the shiny-new-modern dorm house, and it feels oddly clinical in there. I must be weird, I like the old school dorms.

Oh, and there are also supposedly mice in Froelicher. Then again, there are also supposedly mice in Stimson, and having lived there for 3 of my 6 semesters, I've yet to experience mouse-takeover in my personal dorm. I haven't even SEEN a mouse, or any sign of a single one living in contact with my stuff. So I'm not too worried.

If I do see a rogue rodent, I've got a name all picked out for him, though (Basil, if you're wondering....)

Running revelations

2010-04-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

Running this week has brought on some realizations that, while simple, are pretty profound for me as far as exercise goes:

1) I never used to take full breaths when I ran. Why? Because I couldn't. I still can't, to a large degree. The damn allergies prevent that. But the way I used to breathe only exacerbated the problem, and I didn't know any better.

Up until this week, I ran taking shallow, sharp breaths. I always got side stitches, and within minutes I was panting. I didn't know that the way I was breathing might be part of the cause of that, but this week, I've practiced taking "belly breaths" instead of "chest breaths," and I never wind up staggering and gasping afterward like I used to.

Consequently, I also last much longer - and better. Over the summer, when I was trying to get fit with Jordan, I could barely run an 11 minute mile without dying. Now I just warm up for a few minutes, pop the machine on a speed between 6 and 6.5 mph, and away I go. I still need to take short breaks between my miles, because my endurance just hasn't been built up much, but I still feel great when I get done. I could definitely run more if I had to, and I never had that feeling before.

2) One of the other results of my old breathing patterns was "mini-panics," or moments where I mentally broke down and my body screamed You're not getting enough air, unless you slow down! So I would, and thus I ran in fits and bursts. Not in the controlled, speed interval way...in the run-for-2-minutes-then-stumble-for-6-then-run-for-one way. The torturous, unplanned way.

Alongside my "belly breaths," I also now tell myself Just take a deeper breath, and get more oxygen. Kind of embarrassing, maybe, but it works. Every time I feel a sting, I know it's because the last few breaths I took weren't sufficient, but instead of letting that "mini-panic" take over, I just silently remember to take a better breath next time, and then when I do, I find that I actually have the endurance to keep going.

3) I lean. Like crazy.

Over the past few months, I've become much more aware of this in general, and it is driving me CRAZY. I am crooked in everything I do! When I drive, I collapse my right side. When I sit in a chair, I always tilt it to the right. When I ride, I lean in the direction of the circle, which means my poor mare leans too (this one is getting verbally beaten out of me by my riding instructor, though). And yep, even when I exercise, I always clench or collapse one side more than the other. When I run, by 10 minutes or so one of my arms is hurting a little bit, and it always turns out that I've either balled my fist too hard, or I've turned into Gumby and am running with my ribs deflated on that side.

Success!

2010-04-13T17:19:00.000-07:00

Schedule

Traditional 2010/Fall/Undergraduate Term

Registered Courses

ENG 202/Lecture/001 - Short Story Writing

Duration: 8/31/2010 - 12/16/2010

Credits: 3.00 Type: Undergraduate Credit

CEUs: 0.00

Schedule:

TU 3:00 PM - 5:30 PM; C Goucher, Julia Rogers Library, Room 203

Instructors: Ms. Kathy Flann

ENG 350/Seminar/001 - Seminar in Shakespeare: King Lear

Duration: 8/31/2010 - 12/16/2010

Credits: 3.00 Type: Undergraduate Credit

CEUs: 0.00

Schedule:

TH 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM; C Goucher, Van Meter, Room 103

Instructors: Dr. Jeffrey Rayner Myers

HIS 220/Lecture/001 - Russia: Peter the Great to the Revolutio

Duration: 8/31/2010 - 12/16/2010

Credits: 3.00 Type: Undergraduate Credit

CEUs: 0.00

Schedule:

MWF 8:30 AM - 9:20 AM; C Goucher, Van Meter, Room 213

Instructors: Dr. Erica L. Fraser

HIS 260/Lecture/001 - Civil War & Reconstruction 1850-1876

Duration: 8/31/2010 - 12/16/2010

Credits: 3.00 Type: Undergraduate Credit

CEUs: 0.00

Schedule:

MWF 9:30 AM - 10:20 AM; C Goucher, Van Meter, Room 202

Instructors: Mr. Matthew Rainbow Hale

HIS 333/Lecture/001 - Top: Seminar in East European History

Duration: 8/31/2010 - 12/16/2010

Credits: 4.00 Type: Undergraduate Credit

CEUs: 0.00

Schedule:

TH 12:00 PM - 3:30 PM; C Goucher, The T, Room 128

Instructors: Dr. Erica L. Fraser

Running is fun!

2010-04-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

Today I upped my game a little bit and did 2.5 miles. I alternated like so:

1 mile running 6 mph (so a 10 minute mile)

5 mins brisk walking

1 mile running 6 mph

5 mins walking

1/2 mile running 6 mph

I was fading just a little by the last 1/2 mile, but it went pretty well. I wasn't dying, I even had to remind myself to drink more water. Doing this tells me that I must've been REALLY out of shape in high school, because I remember not even being able to jog the mile they made us do every year. Seriously, I had to do a lap or so, then take a breather, start back up again.... Sad part is, there were tons of girls like me - we all walked and complained together when it came time to do the mile.

Courses

2010-04-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

My registration time is 8:00 tomorrow, and I'm still in the middle of advising. But the good news is, I DON'T HAVE TO DO A THESIS/SENIOR ESSAY FOR MY ENGLISH MAJOR!

And here are the classes I'm probably going to take:

English 350: Advanced Shakespeare Seminar on King Lear

English 202: Short-Story Writing

History 333: Eastern Europe

History 260: Civil War and Reconstruction

History 220: Russia from Peter the Great to the Revolution

2010-04-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

Mom has been pestering me about how little I update this blog, so I decided to give in to her demands.

Let's see, news...well, I'm going through a lot of stress trying to work out my schedule for next semester. I really wish my History advisor wasn't away right now. I'm happy for him, getting the opportunity to work in different places, but come on, Robert! Come back to me, I need you here! My make-shift History advisor is someone I've never even met. Haven't had a class with him, and it's doubtful I ever will (he teaches American lit history).

To burn off some of the anxiety, I ran 1.5 miles almost the second I got back to school. It felt really, really good. The last time I went to the gym was very frustrating, because my allergies were making it impossible to breathe. I've been bulking up on my Zyrtec since then, and it seems to be helping.

I'm contemplating the idea of training for a fairly-easy-but-still-goal-worthy running activity, like a 5K. Having something concrete to work toward might be a good motivator. I tend to be pretty erratic in my exercise schedule (go several miles a day for a week, then no gym for a week, then back again). There's a 5K race sponsored by the Med Center in June. We'll see.

2010-01-25T15:36:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated in a while, and it feels like the time to do so.

I've been back at Goucher for exactly one day. I'm trying to tweak my schedule, and it's being a pain in the butt this year. I have several history courses lined up (Latin American, Vietnam War, Comparative Colonialism) and one English class (Advanced Nonfiction Writing), but they only amount to 13 credits.

The other classes I'd really love to take are either full or not being offered this semester. So, I went to my English advisor. She consulted the teacher of English 215 (a required course for my English major that I've been trying to get into for multiple semesters) about how I could get in. He said that I should just show up on the first day of class and if someone drops it, I can be quietly added.

My advisor pointed out that I should register for a back-up class. This means that tomorrow I'm going to be the rude person who doesn't show up on the first day to a class, because I'll be at English 215 testing the waters.

My original backup was Theater 232, Playwriting. I still enjoy the idea of it. I've never written a play, but anything to do with creative writing sparks my interest - and it is a specifically valuable course for my major, which is helpful. Still, it's a Theater course, not an English one...which means I might have to act out my own work. Eeep.

So now I have to have a back-up to my back-up. I'm thinking of making Intro to Art History fulfill this role. I know it's weird, but I really liked Art History in high school. Plus, I was damn good at remembering all the little details involved...names, dates, stuff like that. Since I've done well in multiple Art History courses before, I would probably be familiar with some of the material. I hate to say it, but it would be a good "GPA-fluffer."

One downside to sticking with Playwriting if English 215 doesn't pan out? I would be in class on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., with only a small dinner break. I have no idea why nearly all my classes fell on Tuesday/Thursday this term, but I'm a little terrified. I'm going to have to develop some serious academic stamina. Oxford, while hard, only entailed spending 2 hours a week in class, so tomorrow might be painful.

We'll see how it goes. I'm registered for Playwriting since there was only 1 spot left, but I may chicken out and replace it with Art History by the end of the night.

Tra-la-la-la-la

2010-01-03T13:46:00.000-08:00

I'm engaged! :D

DONE with classes

2009-12-03T04:44:00.000-08:00

I got my last two seminar papers back last night. A on both of them. Got my last paper for the other seminar on Tuesday: A-. My last two tutorial papers were handed to me mere moments ago. A on the one...and A on the other.

Dare I say it, I think I may have done better here than I've done in the past at Goucher! I think I may have gotten all A's from Oxford.

Although, it was much more bittersweet than I thought, ending my last tutorial today. I thought I'd be jumping for joy right now, and in a way I am, but I'm also finally starting to become aware that this is the end. Who knows if I'll ever get to work under this unique educational system again?

And I do love my dons, even if the classes themselves stressed me out repeatedly. I got a picture with my Shakespeare don and my fellow classmates, but it's my Modern Irish Lit don that I've gotten closest to. She gave me a great big hug and told me to keep in touch, in a genuine way instead of the perfunctory "I should probably say this now so it sounds polite" tradition. Invited me to visit her if I'm in England again, and reiterated that we should email. I have a really good contact in her for any grad school applications, but it's hard thinking that I won't be taught by her anymore! There's just something that being taught one-on-one gives you that can't be replicated even in a tiny 1o or 5-person seminar.

Also: I saw the queen yesterday, while I was talking to my Shakespeare tutorial with Tara. Well, sort of...I saw her car, and what I think was the puffy grey of her hair underneath her hat as she peeked out the window. There was a huge swarm and I'm not tall enough to see over people. She came to give the grand opening to the Ashmoleon Museum. And the topic for the Shakespeare tutorial was monarchy!

Pics for Grandpa

2009-12-01T06:51:00.000-08:00

I hope these are what you wanted. It was basically deserted so I felt a little too awkward to go in, but I can try to go in at a livelier time of day and get inside shots before I leave. Very pretty little building!

Updates? What are those?

2009-11-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

I've been neglecting this blog for awhile now.

And I only have a week left. It's so surreal. I feel as though I've gotten to know this city, its charms and its faults both. I can give you directions to the park, the train station, the shopping centers (or centres, as it were). Oxford and I got even more acquainted when Jordan came, because then I had the excuse to do the "touristy stuff," which until his visit no one at 104 Banbury seems to have bothered with.

As for the rest of Jordan's visit - we went on a bus tour, we tried (and failed) to see Oxford Castle, we ate at a couple pubs, we consumed way too much Thanksgiving food at the house dinner, and we met some of his geektacular online friends - who were incredibly nice! We went inside Balliol, Christ Church, and Keble. We went to the Ashmolean Museum, which was incredible and much more extensive than I thought it would be.

We also managed to come up with Christmas gift ideas for people, hallelujah....Oh, and Jordan got the experience of a formal hall dinner, robes and everything. Well, he didn't get to wear robes, but you know what I mean.

I also had to do a ton of work while he was here. And the stress of it was so painful. I've been trying to figure out why I'm in a constant low-grade "funk" recently, and the principal reason is so simple and obvious, yet I don't want it to be the answer: Work. I'm burnt out, more than I ever have been, and I've definitely been burnt out before. I don't really relish the idea of leaving behind the friends I've made here, and I do enjoy the opportunity to be in another country on the dollar of my exceedingly generous parents, but I'm ready to come home. Right now. No more papers, no more reading whole books in one night; I might cry with relief when I got off the plane.

The funny thing is, I've been so successful. And for that, my ego may never deflate. I got an excellent mark on my last Shakespeare paper, my highest yet, and my Modern Irish Lit. don was ecstatic with joy at my paper on Seamus Heaney. She nearly made me float through the ceiling with her flattery. Even so, the backbreaking labor it's taken to sustain this positive feedback is too much. There's a reason the terms are so short here, any more of this and the students would either violently revolt or just break down crying and fainting in the streets.

BUT, I do get to see my Aunt Louise tomorrow. I'm a little nervous because I don't exactly have a concrete plan about what I'm going to entertain her with, but I feel a mixture of pub/shopping/site-seeing will suffice.

To top this post off, here are 10 things I'm going to do A.S.A.P. when back in the states:
1. Eat at Baskin Robbins
2. Take my horsey gal for a spin over some jumps
3. Experiment with cookie recipes and whip up some fan-tastic free-range-based delights
4. Pet my puppy
5. Mourn my bunny
6. Clean my room, thoroughly and ruthlessly
7. GET DECORATIONS - I envision an embarassing number of lights, a decked-out tree, mistletoe, lawn ornaments, multiple advent calendars, holly, candles....
8. Shop for gifts, no last-minute searching this year
9. Get in touch with people I haven't seen in way too long
10. Hug Mom and Jordan as many times as they'll let me

Madrid, Numero Cinco

2009-11-17T13:55:00.000-08:00

The first part of the rally was for general peace, but the tail end seemed to be devoted to representations of specific nationalities. Very cool, everyone was dressed up in traditional finery from wherever they were from.

One of the last glimpses of Spain. Adios, Madrid!

Madrid, Numero Quatro

2009-11-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

Outside the Museo del Prado!

After we were done at the museum (which was amazing), we happened onto a huge peace rally. It was so cool, it had so many factions representing different causes in it. Sort of seemed like a big deal really, had police cars and went on forever and was very loud. From what I could tell, the general themes were tolerance, equal rights and global unity, along with non-violence of course.

Right near the peace rally was a smattering of stands selling souvenirs, but unfortunately I didn't find anything during the entire trip that I thought anyone I know would want. Pretty much every plate, postcard, print and T-shirt had an image of a bleeding bull on it, and, just....no. Sorry, Spain, but no.

Madrid, Numero Tres

2009-11-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

Couldn't help but take a lot of pointless architecture shots, I was enchanted.

So we're walking through a big, bustling square on our way to get food, and we see...Mickey Mouse.

And then we see a wedding! We totally creeped on it, we continually inched closer to get better pictures. We theorized that the woman in the gold dress is the mother of the bride, and she was absolutely stunning. Her hair was done very traditionally and she was radiant.

The bride on her way in.

...And after all that, on our way back we saw this creepy fellow, a beggar dressed up as a sparkly goat.

Madrid, Numero Dos

2009-11-17T13:34:00.001-08:00

The cathedral was so gorgeous it was almost painful. I got so many good pictures from this trip, but the cathedral shots might just be my favorites.

Outside the royal palace.

One of the few pics of me from the trip where I'm not squinting - we're all too used to English weather now, the sun was blinding!

Madrid

2009-11-17T13:27:00.001-08:00

Shoes randomly strung up on a clothesline. This was right near our hostel, and I thought it was oddly charming.

Beautiful building that we found just wandering around the city the first night.

More gorgeous Madrid architecture. So, so different from England. Was a nice change of pace.

My compatriots.

A jaw-dropping cathedral we visited...I have many more pics of this, I'm sure the next post will be filled with them.

Last batch!

2009-11-08T06:23:00.000-08:00

St. Andrews Cathedral.

Random nature shot.

It was storming when we made our last few stops at an assortment of tiny fishing villages. The older adults stayed in the van while us crazy youngsters ran out and stood in the freezing rain, but only Serena, Janie and I were insane enough to go up the stairs to stand on the wall overlooking the sea.

The pics we got, while not flattering, were priceless. Serena:

Me:

Janie:

That's it for the Scotland pics!

Tired of Scotland pics yet?

2009-11-08T06:17:00.000-08:00

Look how tiny the people are...

The Forth Railway bridge, said to be shaped like Nessie.

A little town we stopped at on our journey through the Highlands.

The Cathedral of St. Andrews. Not very much left of it, but still imposing.

Loch Ness and the Highlands

2009-11-08T06:07:00.000-08:00

The water of Loch Ness is super dark because of the peat build-up.

Janie spotted Nessie!

This is where legend tells it the monster tried to crawl onto land, found it too steep and slid back into the loch.

General view of Loch Ness.

Getting further into the Highlands; this was my favorite part of the tour. I wanted to go on a hike through this area so badly.

Getting the rest of my Scotland pics up, slowly but surely...

2009-11-08T05:58:00.000-08:00

Serena, Janie and I "played mad" in a dungeon at Edinburgh Castle. No idea why, I think we were a bit delirious with travel fatigue.

The Great Hall. Every castle needs one, right?

Epic foam sword battle in the gift shop. I'm wearing a hat based on the head of Scottish Highland Cows, who in their native land are called the "Hairy Coo."

In the National Museum of Scotland, we once again found ourselves donning corsets. Why does every British museum have a try-on-a-corset section?! They also had a samurai helmet and a Victorian dress, so Serena was the English damsel and I was the samurai soldier stealing her away (don't ask why a samurai would be wearing a corset...)

There's really no redeeming this picture, I just thought it was amusing that Janie shouted "Do a martial arts pose!" and this is what I came up with.

Scotland Pics, Third Batch

2009-11-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

They put a cemetary in the castle for soldiers' dogs!

View of Arthur's Seat, a famous hilltop in Edinburgh.

Inside of St. Margaret's Chapel. The guide of the brief castle tour we took told us that you can get married in it still, and it doesn't matter what nationality or religion you are. The only catch is, the chapel only holds 25 people on a good day, so your wedding better be small.

Another awesome view.

The Scottish sky was generally angry but beautiful.

Scotland Pics, Second Batch

2009-11-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

The entrance to the castle.

Edinburgh Castle is seriously old (12th century), and it's served as a fortress many times. As such, it looks nothing like later palace-style castles. I really loved all the moss growing on its walls.

View of the town down below.

Gateway into another section of the castle.

To the right in this pic is St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building in Edinburgh. Early 12th century and still standing! I thought that was pretty damn impressive for being situated in a castle that's been attacked and laid siege to so many times.

Scotland pics, finally

2009-11-04T12:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry it took so long to get these up. I uploaded all my pics to facebook a while back, but then got caught up in other things and neglected blog-duty.

Generic street-view on our trek to the hostel.

Edinburgh Castle, first sighting!

The Scots like to do weird things to their statues.

Getting closer to the castle...

Janie and I hangin' out with a monument just outside the castle gates.

Straight up now tell me, do you really wanna love me forever? Oh oh oh!

2009-10-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

This Halloween has been EPIC. I've had some good Halloweens before - the one with Felicity as Kerry and me as Dubya being a noteworthy mention - but I'm having a blast here!

Last night, I decided to go to the house party, but I didn't have a costume. I felt left out when I got there, so I ran upstairs, threw on some pink exercise shorts, my neon yellow H&M tank top, nerdy white sneakers, and wrist sweat bands. Then I teased my hair up and voila, I was ready to Jazzercise! I think I'm tagged in Facebook as "Richard Simmons," hilarious. Nobody would believe that my hair got that big with just a quick brush and a flip upside down of my head, but sadly, it's true.

After the house party we went out dancing at a club. So. much. fun! It started out with just a few of us UGA at Oxford students, but by the end of the night it was packed. I'm usually pretty awkward at dancing, especially if there aren't many people out on the dance floor. In other words I'm rarely the "starter." But last night, for some reason, I just went for it, and lo and behold, when you're out there having a blast, pretty soon everyone joins you! What was even more amazing was that even if a bunch of native Brits HADN'T joined us, we still would've had a great time.

The club was playing things like Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Blink 182. It was like being back at high school, but with people taking themselves less seriously. At one point a Kelly Clarkson metal remix got put on, and people lost their minds! I screamed for the Britney songs, I'm not even ashamed.

I think part of why I felt so liberated was the fact that I wasn't there to hook up. I know it's pretty common for people to feel constrained by having a significant other back home when they're abroad, but for me it's actually freeing. The one man I would want to impress wasn't here, and anyway he wouldn't care if he DID see me dancing like an idiot - so why hold back? I think I burned 800 calories.

Surprisingly, I also drank. Didn't have a drop at the house party, but a free shot came with the entrance to the club. I was going to pass it up, but the other girls said it was a very weak shot. I had it and they were right, I didn't even begin to feel anything the whole night. I think it was just lightly spiked lemonade. Fine with me!

Tonight, I guess we're going to the Keble party. I don't think it'll be as fun as last night. Keble boys are morons, they're jocks who think drinking their weight in vodka should be a nightly occurence, and worse, they think it turns girls on. But it's ok, because I look awesome! I went to Primark and got a load of stuff for just 20 pounds total. I helped Janie get her gypsy stuff, too. Also, there's a chance that we'll go to a karaoke bar at some point. I really hope that happens.

Here are some pics of the get-up.

List of characters we've had at the house:

-Miley Cyrus

-Hannah Montana

-a gypsy

-Wednesday Addams

-Usher

-a penguin
-Virginia Woolf

-a pilot

-a pothead

-an octopus

-several vampires

-a cereal killer (it was cute, she had cereal boxes hanging off her)

-Barbie

-90s girl

-Britney Spears, the early version

-a witch

-a pirate

-Pippi Longstockings

Like I said, epic.

Stir-Crazy

2009-10-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I'm at the point where I'm getting a little bit anxious. I don't know why, I think I'm just eager for my next trip (to Madrid) and Jordan's visit. The girls in the house keep watching romantic movies, and I keep stupidly watching with them, and it makes us pitiful and whiny. The discussions go something like this:

"I really wish mine was here, I miss cuddling."
"Me too, I just want to be cute with someone!"
"Every time I walk to town and see people making out, I get angry."
"I know! When does yours get here again? 2 weeks? Oh, that's so far awaaaaaaaaaay!"

A little while ago was "break-up time," a period in which it seemed everyone was letting go of their boyfriends. Now the pendulum has swung and we're a bunch of lonely sob stories. One of my friends is going crazy waiting for her boyfriend to visit. Another whimpers "Say something sweet to me!" whenever she Skypes with hers, and she sounds like she's dying of heartache whenever she says it. The couples who used to gripe when they talked are now in a pattern of sickly-sweet pining. It's madness, I tell you.

Totally unrelated: I got my assigned registration time. November 17th, at 10 p.m. For those keeping track, this is the third year in a row when I've gotten a crappy registration time. Also, that's what, 3 a.m. my time? No way will I be able to stay up. I guess I've got to suck it up and email them begging to give me an earlier time slot. I also have to actually contact my advisors and, oh yeah, figure out my classes! It hasn't even occured to me until now that I need to do this, it totally slipped my mind being here.

Pros and Cons

2009-10-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

Upsides to doing mini-trips while you're studying abroad:

1. They're awesome.
2. They're really awesome.
3. Why wouldn't you do them? Those other countries are RIGHT THERE, for Pete's sake, and it takes less than a hundred bucks to get to each of them.

Downsides:
1. Immediately when you get back, your primary emotions are agony that you haven't slept properly in 48 hours, terror at the realization of how much money you spent (sure, the bus was cheap, but what about the hostel, the dinners, the souvenirs, the castle entrance fees?), and above all, panic at the amount of work that you have piled up.

In fact, I wasn't the only one of the Scotland-ites to not shower this morning, because when push comes to shove, sleep and homework take precedence over hygiene.

Overview of Scotland

2009-10-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the bus ride to Scotland Wednesday night into Thursday morning was NOT pleasant. 10 hours jammed next to a stranger in an uncomfortable seat is not really my idea of fun, but we grinned and bore it because it was, after all, much cheaper than the train. We were asleep on our feet by Thursday afternoon, but we still managed to see Edinburgh Castle and a little bit of the National Museum of Scotland that day.

We checked into our hostel right away, which was quite close to the castle but a good distance away from the bus station. Then, as I said, we went out and saw some of the sights. We crashed hard at night and didn't go out, but that was good because we had to get up at 6:30 the next morning for the first of our tours. I quickly realized that I had forgotten pajama bottoms, so I had to sleep in jeans.

Friday we went on the Loch Ness Tour. Serena got left behind because when they say 8 o'clock to be on the bus, they mean 8 sharp! We felt bad, but apparently they let her take a different tour that day (to the chapel from The Da Vinci Code). Anyway, we headed off and stopped at a few places here and there to eat and recuperate on our way up to Loch Ness. It was a very winding, hilly drive, and all of us felt ill after awhile.

We did get to stop and see Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the UK, so that was cool. The weather was PERFECT, warm and beautiful.

We got to the Loch, and decided to hop on the boat tour. What do I proceed to do just before the boat tour ends? Drop the camera on the deck. The camera itself is fine, still turns on and takes pictures, but the inner digital alignment is whacked; there's a long jagged line on the viewing screen, to the left of which you can't see anything. To the right of the line is blinding whiteness. And yet, I continued to take pictures with it, and they turned out really well! I feel guilty about ruining another camera (seriously, what is it with me and technology?), but now that I know it still takes pictures I'll just continue to use it.

Friday night, people convinced me to go out on a pub crawl. I was a little bored (since I wasn't drinking, and it got real old real fast watching the older men try to sleaze it up with my friends), but eventually, Janie and I escaped from the loud, drunken crowd, and we ended up having a good time on our own.

Saturday/yesterday, we had our St. Andrews tour. The town greeted us with a veritable hurricane. Sheets of rain, driving wind, rumbling seas - we got completely soaked, head to toe. The wind inverted my umbrella the second I unfolded it. It would've been fun, if it hadn't been such a cold rain. Janie and I grabbed chocolate cake from a Starbucks and huddled away, trying to dry off. I did get to see the cathedral, which is 90% wrecked but still imposing.

On our way back, the driver took us to a fishing village that's a standard part of the tour, and of course the storm was still raging. He jokingly asked if anyone wanted to get out and take pictures on the sea wall, clearly assuming that no one would be crazy enough to do it, but all of the UGA at Oxford students piled out of the van to do it! The adults in the tour were smart enough to stay behind. In the end, only Serena, Janie and I actually climbed the narrow stone steps to the top of the wall. We got a great view of the seas frothing below us...and then we felt the wind push at us and got the hell out of there.

We then had one last dinner at The Elephant House, a coffee shop/restaurant where JK Rowling worked on the first Harry Potter books. It overlooks Edinburgh Castle. Another 10 hour bus ride, and here we are!

One minor problem that did crop up was time management. People said they'd be ready to leave by 9:30 Wednesday night; the bus was at 10, and it takes 20 minutes to walk to the center of town. I was ready at 9:30, but no one else was. Now, I know that I am not the greatest at being ready on time. In fact, I am often late. And yet, I get extremely anxious if people aren't ready for big things like overnight buses. I tried not to be pushy about it, but when 9:45 came around and one of the girls was STILL not ready, well...it was difficult to keep calm. Jordan is way too acquainted with this side of me, I nagged him all up and down Italy and France to get into gear faster. I'm constantly paranoid that I'm going to miss the tour/flight/what have you. We ended up having to pay for a bus to get to the bus, just to make it on time. The kicker is that on the way back, the same girl held us up again! I managed to keep my crankiness in check, but others didn't.

Pictures coming.

Scotland, and Russia

2009-10-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I'm going to Scotland tomorrow. It's mind-boggling. Everything is booked: the hostel, the bus ride, the tours...we're packing a LOT into three days! I'm so excited, my camera is charging right now because I need to take pictures of every single little thing while I'm there. I'm also trying to get a head start on my work so that I don't die of stress when I come back (I have two papers due on Monday).

In other news, I finally went into the Oxford Borders. It's got a reputation as being kind of a low-level, cheapo bookstore compared to Blackwells. There's no doubt after going into it that Blackwells is superior, but then, poor Borders didn't really have a chance; Blackwells is this ancient, wonderful, extensive, creaky bookstore with all the old-fashioned charm of a British scholar peering down at you from behind his monacle, and Borders is a chain store. Still had a good vibe, though. Played very pretty music, and was bright and organized.

Anyway, as I was checking everything out I "happened" onto the History section and found about 10 books I want. Most of them...ok, all of them....were about WWII Paris.

Then I glanced over at the Russian history section and the feeling I got - well, it was almost like running into an ex-boyfriend, the one you're still desperately in love with. It might sound strange, but I've been pining for Russia. Is that weird? I've never been there, but its history is so endlessly fascinating to me.

Without consciously realizing it, I'd wandered over to the language learning section. I didn't buy anything, but I'm very, very tempted to go back and pick up this awesome learn-Russian package that comes with a workbook and 4 CDs. I don't know why it came over me today so swiftly and so certainly, but thinking about it, I realize that I really do need to learn Russian at some point. Russia, so far as I've heard, is not very easy for English-only speakers to navigate. And I really, really want to visit someday.

If there's anything I've taken away from my experience in learning French, it's that I should do a program that emphasizes speaking right from the get-go. My French classes have been focused on writing and reading, and it shows. I'm horribly shy about speaking the language even though I can write 10-page papers in French and by all accounts should be basically fluent by now.

Wow, rereading this post...I'm such a nerd. I'm going to be that specialist historian, the one who tries way too eagerly to tell people about the effect of republican revolution on Western European monarchies, or about the different varieties of radical leftist political structure in the Slavic nations circa 1918. I can tell.

Today's tutorial

2009-10-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

There's nothing quite like hearing the words "absolutely brilliant" said about your paper, especially when the person who said them is an Oxford professor. My first tutorial paper was apparently a winner.

It's been a good day.

Scotland!

2009-10-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

People were tentatively thinking of going to Scotland this week, and my tutorials end on Tuesday. So totally on a whim, I said "Can I come?" and before I knew it, I had planned and booked the trip with everyone!

I've been spending a LOT of money, and need to cut back, so I found a few ways to shave costs off this adventure. Three of the girls are taking a train to get in Wednesday, so they have the hostel booked for themselves Wednesday through Saturday, to leave Sunday morning. To cut costs, Gloria and I are taking the bus (taking off 50 pounds right there) overnight Wednesday, so we'll get there Thursday morning and not have to pay for the hostel on Wednesday night. We're also leaving Saturday night, to cut off another hostel expense. This also gives us Sunday and Wednesday as extra days to work on papers that the others don't get. Altogether we're probably scrimping 70 pounds.

We've booked one tour for Saturday, a tour of St. Andrews and surrounding fishing villages. Gloria, Tara and I also want to do something more "nature-y," so we're thinking of doing an additional tour on Thursday of Loch Ness and the Highland area. We'll see how that works out.

I'm so excited, Scotland and Wales were the two destinations I really wanted to get to on this trip (already seen a lot of the continent). Serena and Janie and I are going to discuss the Wales trip tomorrow. They're up for trekking on horseback, YES!

Almost forgot!

2009-10-15T07:46:00.001-07:00

I went with a bunch of people to the open air market this morning. Marcus even came along - finally out of the swine flu quarantine, yay! There wasn't much of interest at the market, honestly; there were a bunch of food samples, and tons of jewelry. Not really my thing. UNTIL, right before I left, I spotted....

For only £9! I had to scrounge through my wallet to find that in cash, but it was worth it. It's the illustrated version, I'm so excited! Some of the illustrations are in color, and some are in black and white. Here are samples:

Publishing page.

I totally geeked out when I saw it. Some old guy was perusing through the books, and as soon as I saw this I gasped and snatched it right out from underneath him. I think I scared him. I can't wait to bring it home and put it next to the other cool old edition I have.

The first crew practice

2009-10-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

Somehow, I've been trucking through my funds despite buying nothing but books and food. I was already a book hoarder, but this trip is making my tendencies infinitely worse. Now, how I'm going to haul all these books back, that's the question...

Anyhoo, I had my first rowing practice yesterday! Megan and Tara went with me and it was a good time overall. The practice tank was waaaay far away, in a part of Oxford I'd never even seen. Greta was supposed to come too, but she was quarantined for possibly having swine flu, poor girl.

Surprisingly, once we got going I was pretty good. The main trouble came from the fact that everything in the practice boat was way too big for me. The coach came over and tried to adjust the straps and such, but when everything was still too large he giggled "You're just too small, aren't you? I mean, your feet are REALLY tiny!" Um, thanks, I guess...?

Next week we practice on the river! Oh, and here's basically what the tank looked like (nicked this off the web):

"If You're Going Through Hell, Keep on Going" - Rodney Atkins

2009-10-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

That's what I'm doing, trying to run through hell.

My workload is bearing down on me like a pack of wolves, but all I need to do to escape is get through the next 12 hours - that's it, 12 hours! - and I'll be out free.

I'm sure every college student in the world can empathize with the feeling I have now, where you want to just give up but you keep yourself running on faith and caffeine. You believe that you can still get that A, even though your brain is so fried that not one word you're typing makes any sense to you. It's just that the feeling has been so intensified since coming to Oxford - because the stakes are higher, and the workload is larger.

I can now easily write a well-researched, focused, eloquent paper in 1 day flat. The trouble is that after doing that for so many weeks in a row, my mind is screaming for a break. My mental state is probably comparable right now to Amy Winehouse's - I'm just a hop-skip away from delirium. To convey how tired I am: I watched some clips from The Blair Witch Project to keep me awake, and I'm still falling asleep. In the dark. Alone.

Tomorrow, I'm scheduled to go have tea with people at an upscale restaurant. They serve cake and scones with clotted cream at teatime. Then I'll read some Joyce, and hopefully get to have a real conversation with Jordan (poor boy, I tried to talk to him tonight in my loopy state and wound up impersonating Rose from Titanic in an effort to provoke a game of charades).

Except, oh wait, I have a paper due Monday. Fortunately, my tutorial don reluctantly mentioned that the deadline could be pushed back in light of my schedule. I made it seem as if it didn't matter either way to me, but I should've said something to the effect of "Lady, you're crazy if you think I can turn in a paper on Monday." Either way, she's not getting a single damn paragraph out of me until Tuesday!

Upping the Ante in my Dietary Rules

2009-10-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

Want to know what I love about England? Everything is labeled with vegetarianism already taken into account. Everything. I don't have to pick up a package of yogurt and search the list of ingredients to see if it has gelatin in it, it will tell me right on the front! Candy bars, pudding, soup - it's all labeled this way. And at restaurants, if something on the menu SEEMS to be vegetarian but is actually, say, cooked in animal fat, there's a little marker that warns "Not suitable for vegetarians!" Couple this with all the free-range eggs that are the norm here, and I'm one happy camper.

Until, that is, I got asked by a Brit why I eat cheese. As I struggled to explain that I'm a vegetarian, not a vegan, I got informed that cheese is often curdled using calve stomach material!

Of course, I hoped that it was some kind of horrible mistake. I'm a cheese-a-holic; I've eaten enough cheese to sink an ocean liner in the past year alone. But I've been researching, and sure enough, it's true. The silver lining is that not ALL cheese is made with animal rennet (the official name for the cow stomach material). Some of it is made with various types of fungi-produced, genetically engineered, or vegetable rennet.

If I had heard this information several years ago, I might've quietly ignored it and kept on eating any cheese I could get my grubby hands on. When I first became a vegetarian, I made a pact with myself that I would under no circumstances become a vegan. Vegans were too radical for me; I always envisioned them waving "Fur is Murder!" signs and pissing everyone off with their self-righteous attitudes. I managed to convince myself that I had done enough by giving up meat, that there was no need to also confront the truth behind other animal products.

Well, that was enough for me then, but it's not enough for me now. I'm old enough and mature enough that I need to demand more consistency from myself. If I don't know the source, then I don't get to eat things - period. That's the bottom line, and what I should've been doing from the start, but I wasn't strong enough when I was 13 to be that "different." I was too flustered by what everyone else thought of me and my "crazy" animal views to go all the way. I'm ready to take that step now, though.

This means that from now on, I don't get to eat or make foods unless I can be assured that the ingrediants are free-range. If that means no more Nestle Tollhouse cookies, so be it. If that means having to make all my own pancakes instead of going to eat them at a restaurant, then so be it.

It means giving up the Pizza Hut handtossed and Red Robin mozzerella sticks until I know for certain that the cheese used is animal rennet-free.

It means only drinking almond milk if I can't find certified free-range real milk.

It means potentially annoying the hell (even more than I already do) out of people that invite me over for dinner.

I'm a little bit scared, but at the same time, I know I can do it. Slowly but surely, this trip is transforming my diet into something that I'm truly happy with...because actually, making my dietary requirements stricter has caused me to become more experimental in what I eat. I've tried - and enjoyed - a bigger variety of foods on this trip than I ever have before. Today I tried raw pineapple chunks as a snack, and enjoyed them. Yesterday I ate a whole grain egg sandwich plus a spinach salad for lunch. The day before I threw together a stir-fry. I think it's because I'm panicked at the idea of not being able to rely on cheese as the principal force behind my diet anymore!

Academic Workload Intensity: Code Red

2009-10-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

I met with my Shakespeare don yesterday. She was lovely, very personable. She sorted our schedule out for us and printed copies. For the first 4 weeks I meet with her on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. This is going to be agonizing for me - we meet at Worcester college, which is about 30 minutes away, and that means I have to get up by 9, preferably closer to 8 so that I can eat breakfast and take a real shower. The last 4 weeks, we meet Wednesdays at 11 a.m. There are two other people in my group that will meet with her each week, which is quite a lot for tutorials; normally it's only 1 or 2 students per don.

Then I met with my Modern Irish Literature don today. I'm the only one in that tutorial. Our weekly meeting time is Mondays at 5 p.m. She was just as nice as my Shakespeare don, but she assigned my first paper for the first class - this Monday, meaning two days from now, and there's a ton of reading I have to do for it. I also have a two papers due tomorrow. Such is life here.

In other news, the Keble Bop is tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll get to go.

Things my Tudor-Stuart History prof has said in response to student answers

2009-10-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

"Listen, it doesn't matter what you say, it'll be wrong."

"OH MY GOD, YOU IDIOTS!"

"Maybe one day you'll get it right, and then I can face my maker. Until then I shall battle against this dark world."

"I wish that there was a piranha tank underneath your seats, that way I could pull a lever and send you down whenever you answer so stupidly."

"I'm going to start throwing people off the balcony."

"You're a pullulating mass of ignorance."

"There is a model of Renaissance education called 'teaching by praise.' Of course, I don't believe in it."

He's hysterical. Favorite teacher of all time, possibly. When you answer a question incorrectly he practically faints, he's so ashamed of you. He's the most theatrical little man I've ever come across. He's toughened all of us up, now we're as leather-skinned as regular Oxford students. He could tell us he's going to steal our firstborns and kill them under cover of night for answering a question incorrectly, and it wouldn't faze us. Actually, the entire class chuckles now when he starts yelling, and after he's done he usually smiles too. It's all in good fun.

Underneath it all he's surprisingly sweet, too. He gave us a lecture on not letting British boys take advantage of us, and he set up a little get-together with a few of his Keble students so that we can meet people.

Final Bath Picture Post

2009-10-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

One view of the Circus.

...Aaand the other side!

The restaurant we went to for dinner gave us our soda in the old-school bottles.

Ok, so we got stuffed Christmas ornament dolls at the Bath gift shop, and then creepily took pictures of them on the train ride home. On the left is Flavius, who belongs to Janie. On the right is Charles.

Erm, yeah...this is what happens when you're tired and delirious...you force your dolls to make out. Actually, Janie and I decided that they're a legit couple. We're aware that their love is in defiance of the laws of time.

Bath Fashion Museum, Part 3: Fun with Corsets

2009-10-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

They had a section where you could try on corsets from different time periods, and faux hoop skirts. Was majorly amusing.

"Am I supposed to be able to breathe?"
"No."
"Oh, well, then it's perfect." - The Prince and Me

Bestowing my blessings upon the meagre peasants.

Looking down at my imaginary Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Doing a curtsy.

Striking a royal pose.

Bath Fashion Museum Part 2: Some More Gloves, Women's Bathing Suits and One CRAZY Dress

2009-10-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

Detailing on the 400-year-old gloves.

I can't remember when this bathing suit was from. Anyway, I think it's adorable and I would love to have a bathing suit like this!

Insane Georgian dress. Check out this beast, people actually wore that! How could anyone get through a door wearing a dress that wide?

Bath Fashion Museum, a.k.a Things I Wish We Still Wore Today

2009-10-05T07:03:00.001-07:00

Absolutely gorgeous dress from 1949.

Women's underwear from 1890s.

First you put on your chemise and drawers, then you put on the corset. Why do I think this is so beautiful?

400-year-old gloves. Made of white doeskin. How crazy is it that I was checking out gloves that were around when William Shakespeare was alive?

Another pair, SUPER intricate.

Bath Part VII

2009-10-05T05:47:00.000-07:00

One of the healing wells.

The moment of truth...drinking the bath water! It was warm, thick, and slightly leaden (probably because the original lead linings of the bath are still in place and working, meaning we just drank lead water and are probably going to get cancer now).

Hmmm...appetizing!

The Pump Room is the fancy-schmancy restaurant above the baths, which we didn't get to go to because A) we didn't want to spend the money, and B) we didn't have time.

That's it for now. I'll upload the pictures from the Bath Fashion Museum later.

Bath Part VI

2009-10-05T05:37:00.000-07:00

A couple from New Jersey was kind enough to take a picture of us.

Another of the bathing pools. The Great Bath is the biggest, obviously, but it was far from being the only one - there were baths specifically for the sick, and after Hadrian passed a law forbidding naked co-ed bathing, there were separate baths for men and women. (Yes, until Hadrian came along women and men bathed together naked, and even after the law was passed few obeyed it.)

A view of the Great Bath with Bath Abbey in the background. I bought a watercolor painting of this view while I was there.

An alcove where you got a massage, a manicure, a haircut...you name it, they did it. The Romans were a relatively clean people. They were known to bathe daily, and each bath was a ritualistic process that involved oils, cold water submerges and hot steam treatments, and scraping. Women even got their armpit hair plucked, ouch!

Janie told me to pose like I was going to fall in. So, of course, as I'm going for the pose...I start to fall in. This is the real deal, I had to leap awkwardly back to keep from landing face-first into a tub of grody algae water.

Bath Part V

2009-10-05T05:26:00.001-07:00

The head of the Minerva statue that was originally inside the temple. She had to be re-gilded 6 times, because the oil lamps in the temple made her sooty, and as the priests rubbed off the soot they also rubbed off the gold. The head was found on Stall Street (a couple of streets away from the complex) in 1727 by a worker putting in a new sewer system. By the way the neck is cut, historians believe she had her head actually chopped off, possibly by Christians or by raiding foreigners.

The little holes at the top edge of her head are believed to be where her helmet was originally fastened.

The Sacred Spring. You can't see it very well in this picture, but it has a hot mist wafting over it and it's constantly bubbling.

Janie and I tried to get a picture of us using the automatic timer function. It turned out all right, I think.

"We're going to drink THIS?!" (Yep, we drank it...pictures coming in a later post...)

Bath Part IV

2009-10-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

The Gorgon head that forms the centerpiece of a large pediment. On the bottom right of the piece of stone with the Gorgon, there's a little owl. The owl is the symbol of Minerva (Athena in Greek), the goddess to whom the bath complex was built for. The full name of the complex's dedication is technically Sulis Minerva - Sulis being the name of the ancient Celtic goddess that people had worshipped at the natural spring there before the Romans arrived. A great deal of why the Romans were so successful in spreading their empire laid in how they merged their own gods and traditions with those of local people, a tactic that later Christians would pick up.

What the full pediment probably looked like. The shaded bits are what we have left.

This is part of a tombstone, showing how the person in question died. I'm not going to lie, I laughed, and so did Janie - seriously, who would want their tombstone to show them getting trampled by a horse and kicked in the face by the rider?

A mosaic found in Bath that's pretty typical of a lot of Roman mosaics. The white stone was local, the red was soft brick, and the purple had to be imported. This one dates from the 4th century A.D.

A rabbit getting chased by a hound and hunter.

Bath Part III

2009-10-05T05:07:00.000-07:00

Listening intently to the audio guide.

The oldest bit of the baths we have. It's dated to 76 A.D.

A model of what the bath complex would've looked like in its original form. There was originally a roof over the Great Bath, keeping the water clean and pure (unlike the nasty green stuff that there's today), and that thing you see over to the left with the red roof is the temple to Minerva. There was a big statue of her in there, always bathed in godly light by a fire that was tended to by priests. There was an altar too, but that was kept outside in the courtyard.

This is part of how we know that the Greeks and Romans understood that the Earth is round - when they portrayed the planet, as here, they showed it as a sphere.

More of Bath

2009-10-05T04:55:00.000-07:00

The square right outside the baths.

The door to Bath Abbey.

The awesome hand-drier in the bathroom! Ok, yes, I know it's lame that I took a picture of this.

My new boyfriend. Doesn't say much, but he makes that skirt look good.

Looking down at the Great Bath!

Bath

2009-10-05T04:48:00.001-07:00

Ok, so a bunch of people were planning on coming to Bath, but in the end people wimped out/didn't wake up in time. Janie and I, however, were determined, so we just walked to the train station ourselves and bought our tickets, because we were going no matter what! There was a layover in London Paddington station, but it was only about 30 minutes - completely fine. Now for the pictures!

Hellaciously excited to be getting out of Oxford.

"We're badass, Celeste."
"I know, Janie, we really are."

One of the first things we saw when we pulled into the town.

My accomplice, looking cute and happy.

Bath Abbey. We didn't get to go inside, unfortunately...we only had a few hours there, and we wanted to see the main attraction (the Roman baths)!

Tattoo Update

2009-10-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

Here's what it looked like yesterday.

And here's what it looks like today.

Know how peanut butter in the States never goes bad?

2009-10-03T02:57:00.000-07:00

The peanut butter here is all natural peanut butter. Meaning it's no Skippy, it's just crushed peanuts. The oil congregates en masse at the top of the jar and you have to stir it to make it look appetizing. It also apparently spoils in 5 or 6 days if you don't refridgerate it.

Ask me how I know this.

Yeah, I made a big, thick peanut butter sandwich last night, went back to working on my paper after I was done eating it, and within 20 minutes said "Well that feels odd..." Ten minutes after that I had projectile vomitted every single damn bit of peanut butter I'd eaten. Luckily I got to the bathroom in time, and even more luckily, no one was in the room to hear me crying and throwing up.

It's been an interesting few days. Two nights ago, Allie (one of my roomies) was finishing up a paper that she'd been working on for almost a week. She'd pulled an all-nighter the night before, so she was running very low on fuel. I came into the room, said "Hey," she turned and said "Hey" back - and then right in front of our eyes, her computer DIED. The screen changed to a fuzzy kaleidoscope of colors, then shut off...and it hasn't been able to be turned on since. Everything she had was on there. Her paper, the outline for the paper, the research for the paper....She bawled for a good long time, tried to call her mom and her boyfriend, and went out into the hallway to see if anyone knew anything about computers. No one could revive it. So she asked if she should try to re-do it (it was due the next day), and everyone said No, go to sleep Allie! So she went to bed and explained the situation to the professor the next day. He was a little skeptical but said it'd be fine if she turns it in Monday before 9 a.m.

In other news, my tattoo is doing wonderfully. It's slightly raised up, but it feels absolutely fine. It never bled, really. I'm taking religiously good care of it: Making sure to keep anything from rubbing it, cleaning it with fragrance-free soap, and putting ointment on it a few times a day to keep it from getting dry. The other girls are a little more cavalier about theirs, but we'll see who has the better-looking tattoo in 20 years!

Also, today will be a day of work (another paper due...), but there's definite talk of going to Bath tomorrow. It's only a 10 pound bus out there, 2 hours each way, which isn't bad at all. Should be a nice break and a good day trip. I'm pumped! If for some reason we can't get to Bath, we'll go to the Cotswolds instead. Lovely string of picturesque villages. I'm so glad we're finally getting out of Oxford. Don't get me wrong, I love this town, but it's really painful to have been so cooped up for so long.

Oh, and I got another paper back yesterday. A-. Everyone else got Bs, but sadly I'm such a grade snob that I was a tad disappointed. It's only because the first one I got back was an A, I swear!

Just another day at Oxford: Eating, Reading, and...well...

2009-10-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Here's one side.

Here's the other.

Most of it. I designed it myself, did the swirls after searching forever for a wave motif I liked on the net. The phrase means "Count the Waves" in French.

Yeah, it's all swollen and irritated. Doesn't hurt, though!

Ta-da!

I went with four other girls, two of whom got tattoos, but they were experienced at it. I was the wimpy first-timer who held onto people's hands and bit my lip. When I got back to the house, everyone was so shocked and happy for me. The place where we got it done was really nice, extremely clean and professional, and they get rave reviews all around these parts (they were recommended by several locals), so it was worth it to get a taxi all the way out there.

I love it!

Nervous, but not scared

2009-10-01T07:25:00.001-07:00

I won't say yet. But I'm going for it.

First Paper Back....

2009-09-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

Everyone was on the edge of their seats, ready to vomit from nervousness, when he started handing out the graded papers. And as he gave them back, he made comments out loud! As in, "Terrible intro but all right after that, [insert name here]" and "you could've done better" and "just all right." Then he got to me, and I was practically ready to faint, and he made a little smirk and said "Quite a good one here."

I got an A.

All he'd written on it were a bunch of check marks, "good" and "well put" in a couple of places, and at the very end, near the grade mark, "This is a lively and sophisticated paper - well argued and well expressed."

SUCCESS.

Pit bull rant

2009-09-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

I'm sure this is boring stuff to read for those of you who don't care about dogs, but hey, it's my blog!

Seeing all these British pit bulls that look like what pit bulls are supposed to look like has raised my hackles on the entire issue. A minority of morons with more testeosterone than sense have mutilated the breed, especially in America. Since everyone seems to have forgotten, this is what a pit bull should look like:

This is what a select few dumbies have made it into. But make no mistake, this type of pit bull is not the ONLY type of pit bull.

The pit bull is a smallish breed with strong facial features and a lean but sturdy profile. It should NOT A) be wider than it is tall, or B) have a head the size of a canoe. If you want those features, then go get yourself an American Bully, the bastardized version of the pit bull that's currently being marketed as its own breed (finally!):

It makes me so mad. For every mean dimwit who fights his dog, there are 5 good owners with perfectly polite pit bulls, and they lose out every time the general public gets into a frenzied witch hunt against the breed and screams "BAN THEM!"

The problem is not with the breed. It's with people. Proof of this: 25 or 30 years ago, Dobermans were the "scary dog." They were the ones you couldn't trust, the ones who would supposedly rip your child's face off in the dead of night. Then it was German Shepherds. Then it was Rottweilers. We've since gotten our act together and realized that German Shepherds are excellent police dogs, Dobermans are fine as family dogs, and Rottweilers are big goofballs unless trained otherwise.

We've moved onto the pit bull, but we're neglecting one important fact: There were bad Dobes, and bad German Shepherds, and bad Rottweilers - the unfortunate few who got owned and "trained" by neglectful, ignorant people who did things like leave their animals out on a chain 24/7 or intentionally antagonize them into being mean so that they'd be "better guard dogs." Now we've got a whole new generation of idiots raising "tough dogs" just because they want to look cool, or because they want a dog to fight. They essentially have the same ideals as the old idiots: Don't bother to train the dog, push it around, make it mean. THEY'RE THE PROBLEM. Come down on them like a ton of bricks, and the problem of "dangerous dogs" will be fixed!

Pit bulls are not inherently dangerous. In fact, they are often great family dogs. They tolerate pain well, so they're good with children. They are affectionate and sweet. They are terriers and most terriers have some degree of animal aggression, however. You need to do more work with a pit to get it dog-friendly than you might with, say, a Papillon. But that doesn't mean that it's a killer at heart, it just means that it has instincts that you need to be aware of. Plenty of pits have learned to co-exist with cats and other dogs - they simply need thoughtful training.

That's why it's so annoying that Britain has a breed ban against pit bulls. Hey, guess what Parliament? I saw 10 pitties walking around Oxford yesterday! One was so viscious he leapt up at me and whined for treats while wagging his whole butt! I nearly got licked to death, better call Scotland Yard....

European Dogs vs. American Dogs, Round 3: The Doberman

2009-09-27T15:44:00.000-07:00

The American-style Doberman, cropped and docked.

A gorgeous red. They come in a few other colors, but they tend to get skin and coat problems unless they're the standard black or red.

Such a sleek, athletic animal. Just beautiful dogs.

...But then you have this! I can't get over how weird they look with long tails and floppy ears. Am I crazy in thinking that it doesn't even look like the same breed?

I mean, it's probably shallow, but when they're natural they look so...I suppose the word I'm looking for is "average." They look like every other mutt out there. The natural dog above doesn't have near the presence that the cropped and docked dogs do, for me at least.

Besides, when they're cropped you get the adorable "bat ear" syndrome!

European Dogs vs. American Dogs, Round 2

2009-09-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

An American-style Boxer, cropped and docked.

An uncropped Boxer.

European Boxer, uncropped and undocked.

Uncropped Great Dane.

Cropped Great Dane. Check out how different this crop is from the pit crop in the last post! Dane crops are, as I said, "show crops" - they're done out of tradition, and to give the dog an authoritative, regal presence. Pit crops are severe to make the dogs look frightening and "tough."

Oktoberfest, and Dog Cropping

2009-09-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, so next weekend is the last weekend of Oktoberfest, and some people are trying to organize a trip to Munich to experience it. The trouble is, we originally thought it was 50£ for the flight, but we were looking at the wrong dates and it's actually between 100 - 150£ just to get over there. Bit steep for one weekend. We'll see how it goes.

The other thing I wanted to write on: European dogs! Cropping and docking are both illegal in Europe. Docking is the amputation of the animal's tail, whether surgically or by constriction (essentially leaving a tight rubber band on until the tail falls off). Cropping is the surgical alteration of the animal's ears, where a small bit of skin is removed and the ears are physically "trained" to stand upright. Both procedures are widely practiced in America and numerous other countries. In the U.S., Dobermans are pretty much always cropped and docked, Boxers docked and occasionally cropped, and Great Danes sometimes cropped but never docked. Pit bulls, when they are done, are often given extremely short crops, while Great Danes are generally given long "show crops."

Every time I visit Europe, I always get a jolt from seeing all the Rotties and Boxers with long tails. Still, they look just fine au naturale, most dogs. There isn't a whole lot of compelling logic behind continuing the procedures; it mostly comes down to tradition. Dogs were originally cropped and docked so that when guarding the home or fighting, their ears and tails weren't vulnerable to getting ripped by the intrudor/other animal.

But there's a hitch for me in totally writing off cropping and docking as cruel and unnecessary: I think Dobermans look so much better with it done! Every other breed looks ok or even better to me with its ears and tail intact, but when the Doberman is left natural to me it just doesn't look...well...like a Doberman. It looks like a hound, which is just all wrong! It's a quandry, because I hope to own a Dobe one day, and then I'll be faced with the choice of whether or not to get my own pup done.

Ok, here are some pics. I'm sure I'll need to do another post, to showcase all the breeds I wanted to.

Cropped pit bull. Hate pittie crops, they're so severe.

Natural pit. I notice that there are a LOT of pit bulls in Oxford. It warms my heart, because they're all actually the correct size and their owners seem to generally be sweet older couples or families with kids, not "thugs." Thanks to the moronic gangster image of pits in the States, people there breed pitbulls that are WAY too wide and too heavy for the breed standard. They look like hippos compared to lovely dogs here.

American docked Rottweiler.

European undocked Rottweiler.

"STAY OFF THE TULIPS!"

2009-09-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a culturally illuminating experience from this morning's class:

My professor was discussing with us the concept of justice in Spenser's Faerie Queene, and because of the nature of the text (an allegory for English involvement in Ireland, as it were), we came onto the topic of rebellion. The professor toward the end of class burst into chuckles and told us this story: "When I was being interviewed as an undergraduate, ages ago, the bloke who was interviewing me told me about Oxford rebellion in the 1960s. Of course France at that time was having massive riots, people throwing pavement slabs off of buildings, incredible violence. Oxford students want to rebel in their own right, so they tear down the gate to the Sheldonian Theater, but someone shouted 'STAY OFF THE TULIPS!' and they all said 'Sorry!' and leapt back. That's Oxford rebellion for you."

Drinking

2009-09-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

It's always seemed natural to me to argue that Europe is "doing it right" by having a lower drinking age than America. My logic went somewhat like this: 1) If a person can die for their country, drive a car, have a credit card, and even get married at 18, then why the hell can't they have beer with their pizza? and 2) If we remove the taboo and mystery of drinking to teens, perhaps they will do less "Look at me, I'm cool, doing something subversive"-drinking and more "What type of wine should I have with my dinner?"-drinking.

And yet, every day when I go into Oxford proper I have to walk around at least five puke puddles that've accumulated overnight on the sidewalks. I've witnessed people stumbling around shitfaced at 11 am, and I've been verbally harangued by men so drunk they wavered where they stood. I've always thought that the frat-party culture of American college life is stupid, but you know what? It's like that here, too! And the Oxford students haven't even arrived yet!

Apparently, it's not this bad in other parts of Europe. This holds true to my own experience: From what I've seen of the French, for instance, they'd generally rather slit their own throats than suffer the impropriety of wandering around glassy-eyed at 12 noon vomiting on the sidewalk. They're what BBC calls part of the ever-sophisticated "Wine Belt." To the east is the "Vodka Belt," a land where Russians drink for 3 days straight and engage in related shenanigans for a week at a time. (Of course, Germany does its own thing as part of the "Beer Belt.")

Interestingly, though, instead of the Wine Belt influencing the Vodka Belt and Britain - both known for intense binge drinking - to stop, it's going the other way around...France and Italy are slowly succumbing to more and more hazardous drinking, the careful wine-wipping so ubiquitous to France being usurped by teens who go out into the Parisian streets and get wasted to match their British and American counterparts.

Why? I have no idea, but it seems that simply having a lower drinking age does NOT solve the problem. Britain has entirely berid itself of the "taboo" of teens drinking, but instead of learning to have a healthy, moderate attitude toward it, British teens just throw on their party hats and head down to the local pub.

Britain, by the way, also has an appallingly high teenage pregnancy rate, the highest in Western Europe. Coincidence? Probably not. It's not like it's any mystery that people forget to put on condoms when they're so flaming drunk they can barely see two inches in front of their face!

It truly makes me wonder: What's the secret to fixing this? Even countries like Sweden and Denmark, which seem to always have their shit together and display a high level of relative happiness, are seeing swarms of binge drinking-related incidents. Are we that deeply unhappy with our lives, that we need to ease the pain with alcohol? Are we simply bored? Or is it something else altogether? Personally, I'm happier to take a nice walk than drink, but so many people my age would rather play beer pong that actually have a conversation with someone or go on a hike through the woods. What's driving us as an international generation to be so heavily invested in alcohol?

Grief stricken...don't know what to do...

2009-09-20T04:24:00.001-07:00

My rabbit died while I was away.

I knew something was wrong with her the day I left. When I picked her up she was too calm, almost listless, and her stomach was hard and kind of cold. That's why I told Mom to take her to the vet as soon as she got back from the airport, but by the time she got there Cadbury was gone.

I don't know how to deal with what I'm feeling. I've been crying all day. I don't feel as though people here at Oxford know me well enough yet to understand how attached I was to the little brat. She was always so grumpy, we called her "surly rabbit" because she would grunt angrily at Mom whenever she tried to pick her up. Was always a sweetheart for me, though. I even had her trained to go through the door to the washroom whenever I opened it and held it out for her. I didn't really have to teach her that, she picked it up on her own.

I guess I thought that, since rabbits can live for 10 years or more, I would get to take her with me when I fully moved out of my parents' place. I thought I'd get to buy her a bigger cage, get her a litterbox, and teach her how to use it. I thought that I'd have a few more years of my mom trying to win her little bunny approval and failing. I pictured Jordan and I with her in an apartment, him griping about her messiness but softening every time she let him pet her head. Now I won't get any of that with her.

I looked up her symptoms, and they seem to be the signs of bloat. Bloat can be caused by nearly anything in rabbits: Stress from weather changes, temperature fluctuations, not eating enough hay, mouldy food....All of which makes me insane with guilt. What if we'd kept her inside the house, where the temperature was more stable? What if we let her hay sit too long and it had mould? What if I'd simply let her out to run around more, would that have helped? Did my music stress her out even though there was a wall between her and the rest of the house?

I don't know if I want another rabbit, ever. My first rabbit was a sweetie, but we gave him away, and my second died very shortly after being bought. Cadbury's death has just shattered me, though - I don't remember being this heartbroken even after giving Cuddles away, when I was a young kid. Their stomachs are so fragile, one day of not eating can give them impaction and kill them...I don't know if I can go through any more of this, even though I love rabbits and always kind of thought of them as one of my "heart animals" (as stupid a phrase as that is), along with dogs and horses. I wish they were sturdier.

Rest in peace, little bunny. I hope you know Jordan was kidding when he called you a bitch, and I hope you know I love you, and I hope it didn't hurt too much and was all over quickly.

Friday Night Out

2009-09-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

Last night, the entire group got together and ate a Mexican-themed feast at the house. Afterwards everyone was feeling peppy, so we decided to go out and conquer some more pubs. We went upstairs and starting getting ready - it was a big affair, everyone running up and down the stairs and asking what outfit worked best and borrowing each other's shoes. I wore a long neon yellow tank top, with a plaid blue button-down over it and a waistbelt, and just black tights underneath and brown boots. I have to say, it felt weird having just the tights - no jeans - under the tank top, but it was very European-looking and I completely fit in. Nobody here seems to believe in trousers for girls; it's just all tights, all the time. Some of them don't even wear shirts long enough to cover their butts when doing the tights thing, which I find odd. Frankly, most people's behinds aren't very good-looking when covered in nothing but tights!

Anyway, as we were getting ready we started to get hyped up at the thought of our impending night on the town. Silliness ensued. This led to Allie doing her "Mom Face." She's pretty damn
good at it, wouldn't you say so?

Jane and Holly, just the slightest bit tipsy.

Marcus and Mallory. Mallory is one of the sweetest girls I've ever met.

Gloria, Serena, Megan and I. Yeah, I've got a bit of the Drunkard's Glow....All I had was one rum and coke, but the bartender must've been very generous with the rum, because I was giggly the whole rest of the night! Luckily I've learned my limits and made sure to NOT drink anything else but water.

The big group getting ready to head off to another pub. You can see that the gender ratio is ridiculously skewed on this trip....

It was a fun night. I have to say, though, that at the end of the day, I'm still kind of an old lady by nature: When a few people went off at 1 in the morning to go dancing, I and a few others said "No thanks, it's bed time!" and toodled off home. I fell asleep the second I hit my mattress. Ultimately, I just can't help but find cuddling up with Jordan to a book or a movie more satisfying than going out drinking.

Random Post

2009-09-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, first of all, this is where I spent all afternoon today with Jane. My head nearly exploded the first time I walked into Primark and saw the shoe department.

I realized today that I've never posted a picture of the actual UGA at Oxford house. So, here it is, my residence until December.

An awesome trapeze guy I saw while walking through the centre of town. (Sorry, "center" doesn't look correct to me anymore.)

The bookshop. Truly not just any book shop, it's THE bookshop.

One of the numerous streets I walked on to get to Primark, a.k.a. Shoe Heaven. I took this picture to illustrate how stately and gorgeous the shopping part of Oxford is.

More to come! I had a fun night out last night, and took pictures galore.

A Strange Realization

2009-09-17T04:24:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning, took a shower, got dressed, and thought "What's going on? Something is weird." I couldn't figure it out for a few minutes.

Then it hit me. I haven't blown my nose at all this morning. Same with yesterday morning. Same with the morning before that. And the past two mornings, I've forgotten to take any allergy medication. I still haven't had any symptoms: No runny nose, no congestion, no itchy eyes. It's gone, all of it.

I guess it's England. England doesn't have the plants that make me go crazy. I literally rolled around in a field here, petting a puppy, and still didn't ONCE have any sniffles. Unbelievable! I mean, I was face-against-the-grass, surrounded by trees, and I could breathe. That was definitely not the case in France and Italy - I don't think I stopped sneezing in Rome.

Halle-fricking-lujah!

Seminar #2

2009-09-16T14:20:00.001-07:00

I had my second seminar today, from 5 to 7 p.m. Don't really know how I felt about it. The teacher was, physically, just like Bilbo Baggins, so I think from now on I'll refer to him here as Mr. Baggins. He seems incredibly well-spoken and lively, so the class is certainly not dull. On the other hand, there were some tense moments.

For instance, at one point he asked us to give a Marxist definition of class, and when our answers weren't to his satisfaction, he was downright incredulous. All he could do was sputter "They don't teach you much, do they? This is basic stuff!" He has that cutting, brutal way of speaking that only an aged British professor can fully possess, too. What are we supposed to do about the fact that American high schools spend so much time on the SATs that they neglect to make us read the most fundamental texts sometimes?

At another point, he asked why the English population was changing the way it was in 1650, and someone answered "plague." He rolled his eyes and said "It's always the damn plague with Americans. So sensationalized. Don't they tell you about anything other than plague?" It was maddening, and I for one felt quite helpless; I WANTED to give him the right answer, but couldn't. I'm one of those people who's desperate to answer questions in class correctly, I'm afraid. I always empathize so much with Hermione when I read Harry Potter!

Later in the class, he took out the packet he'd assigned us to read for today, and began to quote a passage. He mentioned the author and the page number he was referring to, but when he noticed that several of us hadn't yet found the correct page, he barked "Come on now, you've got to be quicker! Go to the section by Wilson. You should all know where Wilson is. Where is Wilson?" His voice got so intense and frightening that those of us who were still searching started ripping through the packet frantically. I was beet red by the time I found the Wilson passage.

He was also a little scolding when people asked him certain questions. I grant you, it was justified. People were asking questions that would've been answered for them in the syllabus. But still, it made people tentative. It's hard not to be intimidated when your teacher slams you down for asking a question on the first day of class, even if the question was a bit silly.

I think that as much as we're frustrated with him, he's frustrated with us. I can understand a professor who's accustomed to Oxford-caliber pupils being confounded at the idea of students not knowing basic facts about Marxism. We're more relaxed, but in his world education is deadly serious. Something tells me this is the first taste of what Oxford professors are REALLY like, and the young man who taught my other seminar was just being inordinately gentle with us!

Grumpy Mr. Baggins is the sort of teacher I'll probably be glad to have had in the long run, though. No doubt he'll give blunt criticism on any papers I produce for him, and I really appreciate the fact that he demands eloquence from his students. He was whip-quick to snap at someone for using vague, common words instead of more precise, lesser-known language.

First Meal at Keble, Part Deux (A.K.A. I officially eat at Hogwarts)

2009-09-16T05:14:00.000-07:00

And ta-da, the Hall! I don't think it needs much explanation, you can see for yourself how gorgeous it is. All it needs is an enchanted ceiling to match the one from Harry Potter.

The lights at all the tables. The way it works is, you book meals online, then come to Hall and grab little tabs that say "Vegan" or "No Nuts" or whatever your dietary preference is, then you have a seat and put the tab down. Someone comes, takes the tab, and brings you your food. When you're done they whisk away your plate and bring you the next course. The vegetarian option that night was pretty good, if simple: Tofu grill with potatoes and cooked carrots. Dessert was stupendous, a choice of chocolate pudding cake or lemon cake.

All of us enjoying our meal.

After dinner was finished, one of the staff came by and said "Have you been to the Keble Bar? And if not, why not?" So off we went to find the bar. It turned out to be in the coolest building, wish I had a picture of the outside.

Inside of the bar.

Bartender telling us what's best to order. Neither Desiree nor Jordan cared for the beer, but I thought it was all right (just had a sip of Jordan's).

We ended up going to a pub that night, but in the end I needed to get back fairly early so that I could read. Academics come first, you know!

First Meal at Keble!

2009-09-16T04:52:00.001-07:00

Getting to the Keble Dining Hall was kind of an adventure. Here's how it went down: First, we went down Banbury Road toward the center of town, turned left on Parks as we were supposed to, curved around to the right, and eventually came upon Keble Road. Have to be close to Keble Dining Hall if you're on Keble Road, right?

Wrong. We had no idea where to go next, so we just stood there going "Holy crap, that's the outside of our school!" and frantically taking pictures. An exasperated Brit eventually took pity on us and lead us inside the quad.

Once we were inside, we took even MORE pictures, and were in total awe that that's our school chapel right there. It's so pretty that it might drive even me to start going to church....

I figured out the self-timer button on my camera and showed Gloria how to work hers, so we got a couple shots of us in the Keble quad.

When we finally decided to go in and eat, we got directed to this door, which leads right to the sign-in sheet for dinner....

Birthday Dinner Pics (plus my first seminar)

2009-09-16T04:33:00.001-07:00

So, on Monday night people absolutely insisted on taking me out for my birthday. We went to Primark (cheap British department store) and found a tiara for 3 pounds, went to Ben's for cookies, and settled on a place called Bella Italia for dinner. I got a sauceless pizza...mmm, even though I can now tolerate tomato sauce, I still think pizza is so much better without it! I got some crazy dessert called "The Godfather." When it came out it had a sparkler in it and everyone burst into Happy Birthday. It was all-around awesome.

Then yesterday, I had my first seminar. The teacher was young and sweet, very relaxed. It wasn't nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. He divided the class into two groups, and had each group go off and discuss a question that he gave about the reading. He told us that every class will be formatted the same way. For the first class we'd read Utopia, which I like quite a lot (short, easy to get through), but for Friday we have to read both Shakespeare's Richard II and Spenser's Edward II - yikes! Good thing I got going on those two plays before I even left the U.S.

Oh, and I went grocery shopping with Megan. On the walk over to the store we had an involved conversation about chocolate, which resulted in me not being able to resist buying a Kinder Egg when we reached our destination. Thanks, Megan...thanks a lot! Now the addiction to Kinder Egg chocolate that I've battled against ALL MY LIFE is back with a rage, and it's totally your fault!

There are also lots of Kit Kat bars here. This could get ugly.

Birthday Tomorrow!

2009-09-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

My birthday is tomorrow, and people have been asking what I'd like. Well, the answer is, a cookie cake from Ben's! That place is amazing. If ever anyone who's reading this wants to go to Oxford some day, then I have to tell you that every single person on the trip with me recommends Ben's, a cookie shop in the Westgate Shopping Centre, because it serves the thickest, most delicious cookies in the world. We're all irredeemably addicted at this point.

What else would I like? To travel, of course. A few of us were musing at the kitchen table tonight, and I threw out Wales as a possible destination point. Elizabeth suggested Ireland and Manchester. Megan, one of my roomies, suggested Stonehenge. We decided that we need to go to a football (sorry, can't call it soccer) match. We're all really itching to go places, but at the same time we need to get on with our studies and make that our priority...sigh.

I will ride horses at some point, though! I don't care if it's polo or just a hack around the country, or even a damn foxhunt, I need to get on a horse. Seeing all these horses in the countryside makes me miss my mare. Elizabeth goes on foxhunts all the time, so if I do end up going on a hunt - it would have to a bloodless drag one, since the real kind is banned here, and since I don't really want to watch a fox get ripped to pieces - I'll tag along with her and she can show me the ropes. She says it's great fun, you pretty much just pray the horse knows what he's doing and don't get in his way over the scary immovable jumps (i.e. stone wall fencelines and ditches!). Am I a good enough rider to come along on a truly fast-paced hunt? Probably not, but I could maybe hang around the back of the group on an old plodder who'd take care of me or something. Or just tell them I'm the next Beezie Madden and pretend that I know what I'm doing....

Eyam Excursion Picture Post #5

2009-09-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

Greta told us to take a picture of her looking heroically off into the distance. So after we did, Mallory and I thought, Hey...

...We want to do that too!

Some parts of the hike were treacherous. Like this part, where we had to go through nettles and I got pricked by one of the bastards.

More pastoral-view goodness.

Horsie! He's shifted his sheet all around, probably rolling in that delicious expanse of grass.

Eyam Excursion Picture Post #4

2009-09-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

More idyllic countryside.

This is Flora, the wiggly Bedlington Terrier puppy. Her owners were having lunch out on the hills, and they shouted "Do you mind if she comes and says hullo?" over at us, so of course we said NO, we do not mind! We all have little fluffballs at home waiting for us to come back, mind you, so we're heartsick over our dogs and were eager to pet one. Flora was unbelievably soft.

Mallory and Flora. What a perfect name for that dog! It sounded even cuter when said by her British mum and dad. "Come 'ere, Flor-a!"

Yeah, I took a picture of people taking pictures. There was a lot of it going on, I wanted to capture the spirit of the day!

The cute British couple that owned Flora.

Eyam Excursion Picture Post #3

2009-09-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

Christian and Marcus trying to bravely lead the way down to the trail. Christian, who's on the left in this picture and from Denmark, was the only one who could understand the directions for the hiking part of our day.

Example of the very pretty little fields that were everywhere. They seem to house all sorts of livestock, from horses to sheep, in these hilly pastures with only those incredibly low stone walls as barriers. I guess the animals just can't be bothered to try and jump out? I'm surprised the horses haven't figured it out by now!

Group shot. Phil and Marcus kneeling (Phil in the black, Marcus in the blue), Mallory toward the left with the yellow sweater, then Greta in the red shirt, me next to her, and Christian over to the top right.

Cows!

Lovely countryside, no?

Eyam Excursion Picture Post #2

2009-09-13T11:41:00.001-07:00

The beautiful little main church of Eyam, where the cross from the last post is located, along with a graveyard that has many of the plague victims.

Different view of the church.

Yet another view...I really liked this place!

Catherine Mompesson's tomb. Her husband, the rector, was one of the men who made the decision to quarantine the village. She died of the plague on August 25, 1666.

An example of one of the residential homes in Eyam. All stone, exceptionally old and quaint-looking, very pastoral.

Eyam Excursion Picture Post #1

2009-09-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

Creepy detailing of a person on a Celtic cross from the 8th century.

Less creepy detailing of the angels on the top portion of the cross.

And then finally the bottom of the cross, with all sorts of stereotypically Celtic-looking circles and knots.

The whole thing!

An awesome wall sundial on the church from 1775.

Eyam, the Plague Village of Derbyshire

2009-09-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

Today was our excursion today. We took the coach bus three hours to Eyam, a quaint little village famous for its plague story. It goes like this: A tailor recieved a bolt of cloth from plague-infected London, and because it was damp he ordered it to be dried over the fire. The fleas on the cloth spread about the house, infecting and killing the tailor swiftly.

The plague spread and people began to panic and leave, until William Mompesson (the rector) asked the villagers to quarantine themselves. They agreed. The villagers were completely cut off, and it was only by the grace of neighboring villagers who put food down a well at the outskirts of Eyam that they didn't starve. The Eyam residents repaid their kindness with coins soaked in vinegar to disinfect them.

Hundreds of Eyam villagers died, one right after the other, leaving the village decimated, but as a result of their sacrifice the plague was limited in that area of England; their plan to keep the plague quarantined had succeeded.

In other news, I had my very first scone for lunch today. It had raisins in it, and I put jam and butter on it. It was tastier than I thought it'd be.

Picture post to follow :)

Picture Post #3

2009-09-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

One of the many, many extranceways in one of the Bodleian Library courtyards. The names of all the majors are still written about the doors in Latin.

Another...took this one for Jordan.

Debbie, with the Radcliffe Camera to the back-left of her. The Radcliffe Camera is a famous building that was built as a science library in the eighteenth century to the tune of only 28,000 pounds. Debbie informed us that the quote to do her garage recently was 35,000 pounds.

Exeter college, where J.R. Tolkien and Philip Pullman went, is to the right here, I believe. In the backround is a ridiculously old tree, hundreds of years old or something like that!

The main path and front quad of Trinity College. This is the Special Grass upon which you may not walk unless you're in the V.I.P club.

Picture Post #2

2009-09-11T15:46:00.004-07:00

Part of the ceiling of the Trinity College chapel.

The Minstrel's Gallery, part of the Trinity dininal hall (but present in all the college dining halls as well), where minstrels would perform and entertain the students and professors as they ate.

The garden of Trinity College.

A very important building...the hospital scenes of the Harry Potter movies were shot in the lower part, and the library scenes in the upper part.

A graduation hat that got stuck on one of the buildings!

Picture Post

2009-09-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

First glimpse of England through the plane window.

My room! We really lucked out. I saw a few friends' rooms today, and they were, erm...not as nice, I'll just say. My bed is the one off by itself.

My bed, and the fireplace I have next to it.

The beginning of the tour. The guy with the sunglasses is James, a graduate resident. The woman with the red necklace off to the right is Debbie, our tour guide. She was hilarious. Her intro was "Hello all, I'm Debbie, your tour guide...and I'M VERY LOUD." She wasn't kidding, she shouted the whole time. Nobody had any trouble hearing her!

The chapel at Trinity College.

So far as I can tell, I can only post 5 pictures per post, so I'll make another post to continue the picture train.

Trivia from the Tour

2009-09-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

10 facts I learned today:

1. Oxford is named such because back in Ye Olden Days, a market was held in the town that had oxen, and the oxen had to traverse a river to get there, by using the shallow crossing points called fords.

2. Those who are at Oxford to study are called "gownies," and those who are in Oxford by birth are called "townies." The "gownies" are called such because - surprise - they wear gowns. The length of your gown represents your status; the longer your gown, the higher up in the hierarchy you are. Those with gowns that fall to the knee are undergrads. Those with gowns a little longer are students who were academically brilliant enough to get full scholarships. Beyond them are the graduate students, and finally the professors (called dons). The Chancellor of Oxford gets to wear a gown that's so long it drags on the ground behind him, with gold lace trim.

3. Unless you have a longer gown, you are not allowed on the grass. The porters will yell at you and, beyond that, actually fine you. You have to earn the right to walk on the grass! This only applies to the front quad, though. Students are allowed on the garden grass.

4. Gowns are worn for dinner in the hall, ceremonies, and chapel activities. At other times students can generally wear whatever they want, as long as it's presentable. St. Hilda's, the last college to become co-ed (last year), was the only college that allowed its students to come down to dining hall breakfast in their pajamas!

5. Beyond the gown hierarchy, there is also a system of flowers: A white carnation in your outfit symbolizes that it's the first day of your examinations, a pink one that you're partway done, and a red one that it's your last day.

6. Dances are held on the gardens of the colleges. They're strict formal dress (think actual ball gowns), and they cost upward of 135 pounds to get into. There are candles lighting the path to the garden, and all the other fancy trimmings you could think of.

7. In the dining hall, there are long tables for students to eat at and then, at the head of the room, there's the High Table. Professors and other important people are the only ones allowed to sit at the High Table. Traditonally, third-year students sit closest to the High Table, second-year students toward the middle, and freshers at the very back of the room.

8. When students graduate, the actual graduation ceremony is done completely in Latin.

9. The Bodleian Library - a.k.a. the library I'm going to have membership to soon! - has literally millions of books, 5 buildings, and gets access to the first edition of any book printed in the U.K.

10. Each college has its own chapel, dining hall, and dormitories. The chapel is generally the oldest part of any given college. The chapel at Trinity College, the one we walked through in our tour, was constructed with the pulpit quite low and the pews set not facing the front, but rather toward the center of the room. This chapel construction was to give a feeling of "family," rather than sermonizing, by having the churchgoers facing each other rather than at a priest set higher up.

Picture post coming, I promise.

Night 1, Day 2

2009-09-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

I'll start by recounting our first night. Well, everyone helped themselves to some frozen pizzas for dinner, first off, and I realized something: I could either stick to my usual 10 foods or so, and probably starve to death, or just do it and make myself be a less picky eater.

So last night, I ate pizza with sauce. Those of you in the know about my extremely specific dietary preferences will be shocked to hear that, I'm sure. It wasn't great, but I got used to it after awhile. I had two slices. Then today, since there was very little communal food left in the kitchen, I had three more slices.

After eating last night, we went to a pub. Everyone was debating going to bed early or not, because of jet lag, but then we all got disgusted with the idea of spending our first night in ENGLAND not in a pub! So one of the graduate students took us to a fantastic little spot. Most people tried the cider, but seeing as the cider said "Extra strong! 7.5%," I decided against it and got a rum and coke. It was good, except that it clearly had coconut flavored rum, which I specifically asked the bartender NOT to put in. When I say Captain Morgan, not Malibu, I mean it, damn it! Everybody kept it to one drink, which was pleasant.

Then today, we went on our walking tour of the town, which was stupendous. I've got loads of facts to relay from that, which I'll put with the pictures when I do a separate post on it. Then we went grocery shopping - no more communal food, now we're on our own! We found a great little grocery story just about 10 minutes away walking, and it sells free range eggs (yippee!), fruit, bread, etc. The essentials. I got some much-needed hair products, NutriGrain bars, a bunch of grapes, and bread for toast. I had toast for breakfast this morning, actually...whole grain toast. Yeah, it was still communal bread at that point, and thus the only option, so I had to eat it! But it wasn't bad at all, so I decided the go the healthy route when I selected my own supplies today. I also didn't much like grapes before coming here, but here I am at the computer munching on a handful. Necessity drives change, I suppose.

Everyone in the group is really, really lovely. I'm getting along with everyone, and it's just a fantastic trip so far. I'm really looking forward to the next 12 weeks.

Picture post coming shortly!

Here!

2009-09-10T02:49:00.000-07:00

As I type this, I am sitting on my bed in my room at Banbury Road. I've claimed the area between the fireplace and the chest of drawers. To my right is a panel of tall windows with a four-person-length desk in front of it. To my left is the bathroom. This room is awesome! And huge. We were definitely taken aback by the spaciousness when we first walked in.

The flight was bumpy and generally unpleasant, except for the fact that I got to sit next to the most adorable 10-year-old British girl. She told me all about her favorite animals (guinea pigs, dogs, tigers, rabbits - well, basically every species that ever existed, she was a true animal lover!). She also proudly showed off her Build-A-Bear creation.
She kept getting frightened by the turbulence, and I have to say that I was a bit unnerved by it myself, and I'm usually not one to be scared on flights.

After the flight, we congregated together and got all our baggage. Some people packed at least twice what I did, so now I'm nervous that I've forgotten all sorts of vital things.

We then trumped onto the bus with a collective heave of exhaustion, stayed basically silent for the 2 hour drive from London to Oxford, and only perked up when we saw that we were on Banbury Road. Since we've arrived at the house, we've each recieved 50 pounds as initial grocery funds. Our house orientation is at 6, so we have some free time.

Our class schedule is up in the rooms. I'm a bit scared for my Modern Irish Literature tutorial, because I'm the only one in it. Granted, having only a few people or even a single student per class is normal for Oxford, but it's still intimidating. Just me, and a professor from one of the most lauded universities on the planet grilling me about the assignments.

Hope I'm ready for this.

Countdown to Departure: 5 Days...Getting Scared

2009-09-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

It's crunch-time, a.k.a. the time to start thinking about what to pack OR ELSE. Toiletries, comfortable shoes, a 3-month supply of Zyrtec, at least one "fancier" outfit, jeans, a boatload of sweaters...I can't think of many other things that I absolutely need to bring.

I got webcams yesterday, which brought home the fact that I won't see my boyfriend until at least November. I know that he's supportive of this trip, and I know that we'll "be fine" as a couple. It's just that we got to spend the summer together (he essentially moved in with me), and now I'm leaving...again. Like I do every school year. Going to different colleges has strengthened our relationship in a way - it takes solid communication and trust to make it through years of distance - but it hurts a little more every time I go.

I'm being a touch too dramatic, of course. We're both excited about my accomplishment in getting into this program. I'm just always the one who gets the most worked up over change. He takes everything in stride.

On an entirely different note, there are some last-minute kinks in the trip that are worrying me far and beyond my impending heartache over leaving Jordan. Most pressing is a financial mishap with UGA. Apparently when my mom paid the last bill, it didn't go through. And when she called to ask what's going to happen, the person she was on the phone with casually said "Well, they might not let her on the plane." Um, excuse me?! So now she's racing around trying to find another way to pay. Whatever happened (probably just some computer malfunction), it is making me incredibly tense to have to worry about these things when I'm so close to leaving.

Another thing that's plaguing me is the fast-declining health of my dog. He's had arthritis since who knows when (he was a poorly bred Amish pup, bless him - you should always buy from responsible, professional breeders who do health testing!), but he was spry and happy until recently. In the span of the last week he's gone from A-OK to screaming every time he wakes up. He bit us a couple of times from the agony. He's also developed a limp.

The doctor sees deteriorating bone in one of his shoulders, and a disc problem. Essentially the latter amounts to the discs of his vertebrae pressing down on his spinal column. Our pup is now on steroids and heavy-duty painkillers, but I'm worried that he'll deteriorate while I'm gone. I want to be there when it's time to say goodbye.

I don't know. How can anyone ever be prepared for this? I was so sure we'd have him for at least a couple more years; 9 is not that old for a small dog.

Countdown to Departure: 9 Days!

2009-08-31T10:28:00.000-07:00

So, I have just a bit over a week to get going on my reading list before I arrive in Oxford. I'm working on Richard II, and though I appreciate the thoroughness of the Arden edition's introduction, it's painful to be so far into the text without having actually reached the play itself. I'm learning some valuable context for the play, but that doesn't help my antsiness - I have at least a dozen volumes to get through, or to at least start, before I leave!

To give an idea of what the list includes (keeping in mind that this is for only the first seminar; the second has its own book list):

Thomas More's Utopia
Christopher Marlowe's Edward II
William Shakespeare's Richard II, Julius Caesar, and Coriolanus
Philip Massinger's The Roman Actor
Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book V
Various selected works from John Milton, Andrew Marvell and Thomas Middleton

Let's not even speak of the packing I've yet to accomplish...or even plan. No idea what I'm bringing, none whatsoever!

-CNL