Saturday of Eights

Saturday was the exciting end of Eights. I watched the boys bump from Donnington bridge then headed down to the boathouse to visit with the girls before their race. It took me at least half an hour to walk the tow path around to the other side because they weren't allowing us to ride bikes. When I got to the boathouse, the girls asked me to Marshall for them...so I started almost immediately walking to the other side. After another half hour I arrived and was told that we had y missed the deadline to send a marshall. I felt bad that I didn't get there in time but there wasn't much we could do then... I guess the good thing about this was that I made it to the other side in time to see the girls race. (otherwise I probably would have waited to long and been too late)

The were amazing!! They bumped very soon after the start as they have done every other day...and we were soon on to celebrating their victory!

The Saturday of summer eights was one of the most "typical" Oxford type things I have been too. The river was jam packed with people coming from a wide range of social groups. Along with all the University students and boat clubs...there were families around with kids picnicking in the park side...and there were several older people dressed stylishly in the Old boat crew suit coat complete with straw hat. Smells of grill out food were every where, something I cannot wait to get back to when I go home this summer. People covered all of the boat houses...pouring along the stair cases and the railings of the balcony...the atmostphere was bustling, exciting...the rowing was pretty intense. It makes a nice memory.

What's Next

Everyday I grow more jealous of people at home who are enjoying summer without an essay looming over their head. I just felt the need to mention that. Every day I wake up planning on getting right to work...and find myself able to waste more time than than should be humanly possible. I stayed awake until 3 am last night...I had cleaned my room until about 2 but then went downstairs and ended up talking to Alanna for much longer than I planned. I really needed a good chat though. I just made it sound like I was a complete disaster in terms of cleanliness- my room wasn't that bad- but I've managed to misplace a 50lb. note that I just "know" I left in my drawer. I've noticed it missing for a couple of weeks now, but have decided not to look for it because usually that doesn't really help. Recent events, however, have demanded that I find it.

The day before yesterday I checked my mailbox to find my Debit Card there waiting for me. This was strange because I didn't even realize I had lost it! Upon checking my account I 've found 60 bucks spent on it at the Tesco (a grocery store here). I'm glad to have my card back...but nothing about this situation makes any sense. Why would some one spend my money then return my card to college? Why wouldn't they just keep it? My worst fear is that who ever did spend the money kept my number for later use.....This means that I really need to shut my card down. But I have 2 1/2 weeks left here....I can't just not have access to my money. I was hoping to find my 50 pound note- at least then I would feel like I could shut the card down and have a reasonable amount to get me by until the end. The note HAS to be in my room unless it was stolen. So I'm hoping that it just turns up, as things tend to do with me. But if I'm going to shut my card down...I don't want to take out money and then find the 50 pounds and not need to spend them!!!!

Thinking about all of this just makes me angry. I'm angry at myself if I irresponsibly misplaced both my cash and my card. Secondly, I 'm angry that someone would steal from me. Either way of course, it falls back on me to have not been more careful with my money. Most of all, I'm frustrated because I don't know what to do about it next. I am the most tight person with my money out of every one I know. To spend money beyond necessity for me generally takes a lot of convincing and reasoning with my self. To think that someone else would spend my money so generously is almost ironic- or maybe it isn't exactly irony- but it is bothersome. It makes me feel like I really cannot justify doing a lot of the things I wanted to do before I left. If I had planned to spend, say 200 more bucks before leaving....well 160 is already accounted for- even if my 50 pounds has not been spent...it seems to be as good as gone as I cannot find it anywhere.

I've maintained a fairly reasonable attitude about. Really there is nothing much I can do. If I lost my 50 and don't find it, then I just have to accept that. Even if it had been strangely stolen- I really cannot know or expect it to be returned. So I just need to accept that its gone.

As far as my credit card is concerned- the money should be refunded to me by the bank. And the important thing is that I have it back. Even if I didn't realize it was lost originally. So that's that.

The bad thing is, I have a hard time just not thinking about the fact that I have lost 100 bucks somewhere. May be in the grand scheme of my life this won't feel like that much money....but when I don't even have enough to pay for next falls' tuition...100 bucks sure seems like a heck of a lot for this moment. That's 5 trips to London, at least 4 meals that I could have dined out in Oxford, 3 nights of weekday waitressing, an opportunity to do something that I may not feel like spending the money on now that it's already gone somewhere. Thinking about it is just distracting me from work at the moment. I only have so much junk in my room...it couldn't have just dissappeared.

Aside from being cut in line...losing money or being robbed is probably my second greatest source of frustration to an irrational extent.

Tonight the Regent's students are presenting the play Twelfth night. It looks beautiful outside for the moment so I guess we will be able to have it outside!! I should have worked more today. I guess there will always be work to do.

Summer Eights Week and Vivaldi's Gloria

Wednesday, May 30th 2007

Last week was an exciting time for the Regents Park rowing team- the week of Summer Eights. Even though I wasn't actually rowing in the boat for competition time, my daily schedule centered around the women's racing.

I missed the races on Wednesday, but on Thursday was able to watch the second round. Because the river isn't wide enough to have 13 or so boats race side by side, the boats line up and attempt to catch the boat in front of them (called a Bump because they used to actually hit the boat with their own) before they are caught by the boat behind them. This is not so easy...if the boat in front of ours bumps successfully...then both that boat and the boat they caught are out of the race...and our girls then have to catch the boat that was in front of both of them...So, you can see how a lot of the competition is based on skilled rowing...and a lot is based on pure luck...

My house is just around the corner from the river...so several of us from Stanely road went to Donnigton Bridge to watch the girls race on Thursday. The gun fired...and several teams went by us while our girls were nowhere in site. Finally, we saw a group dressed in red heading into the trees...this was clearly the Regents team, but we could not figure out why they weren't rowing straight. My heart sank for the team convinced that something had gone horribly wrong...but apparently, they had bumped with in the first 15 strokes of the start and just needed to move out of the way!!

It was a beautiful day, so I found my books in the SSL and went to the University Parks to read for a while before dinner. I couldn't imagine spending a day as beautiful as this one inside a library...even if it is more effective for studying. Like I've mentioned before, the sun is not promised to show up everday here..so I have to enjoy it when I can...I watched a bunch of students play ultimate frisbee. I was jealous, trying to recall the last time I had been able to play. I think it must be last fourth of July at my house. I thought about how frisbee must be a universal college pastime...if school in America were in session right now...there would sure enough be a ton of students playing in a field at any given university.

Friday was gross and rainy outside...but my housemates and I braved the weather to watch the races once again...and of course, our girls did an amazing job bumping fairly quickly into the race again.

Gloria
I couldn't hang around for long, because this was the evening of our Choir performance of Vivaldi's "Gloria". We have only been working on the piece for a few hours overs the course of 5 weeks, which is not really any time at all to learn such a piece. I have loved being part of a choir again, even if I really don't read music that well. Singing is just one of those things I need in life -for stress relief...artistic expression...or just to be part of the music...I don't know what it is. The neat thing about Gloria was that we performed it right in our own quad at Regents. The rain cleared off to make for the most beautiful setting. The concert was preceeded by free Pimms for the audience- who were all dressed up as formal hall was to follow. It was just one of those moments that is exclusive to my Oxford life. Vivaldi, tuxes, and a endless flow of Pimms shared by students and faculty in the garden before dinner.

Formal hall had an extra bit of excitement to it..complete with table cloths..and a much greater crowd than usual because of the concert. Though no event followed I spent quite a lot of time visiting in the JCR before heading home.

Fourteen down, Two to go

Tuesday, May 29,2007

Where did May go? As of today I have exactly 3 weeks left to enjoy Oxford. I cannot believe how fast time has gone by.

Today I had my 6th tutorial of the term. Its funny that I feel how I did based on the trip following my tutor from the front door of his building to his office. Generally we discuss how much its been raining...or how nice it is that it finally stopped raining...today there wasn't any small talk on our way up the stairs. His first question to me is "How did you find the reading this week?" This allows me time to elaborate on what I didn't understand...and offer up some excuse for why my essay was not that great. This week my topic was the role of culture in conflict...I just felt so scattered in the reading and this immediately was reflected in my essay. Well, at least my intro was pretty good. The hour did go by fairly fast though, and I didn't feel as much tension as the last time my essay didn't turn out so well. I'm glad he doesn't talk about being dissapointed, which is was my last tutors response when I did less than what he thought I was capable of. I guess there was some element of motivation though....I'm horrible at just feeling guilt ridden if I think I've let someone down.

We actually did talk about allergies at one point- which I am having a TERRIBLE time with at the moment. Saturday evening, the night before I begin writing the essay, I come up with a massive headache around my eyes. No matter how much I slept I felt like I just could not keep my eyes open. I had wanted to go to the rowing dinner to celebrate the team winning blades that afternoon...but instead I fell asleep around 9 pm. (yeah these are the moments when I just feel lame) I woke up when Kristie came in- and my clock said it was 11. My plan was to get back up and read for a while so I could get started on the essay in the morning....but when I finally managed to get out of bed I realized it was 2 am!! So, it appears my clock is broken. I read an article, went back to sleep at 4 , then got back up at 1pm on sunday. 12 hours of sleep total, and when I woke back up I still felt just horrible.

I have never had time in my life to be sick. My work week is not scheduled around the possibility of being knocked out for a day until I start to "feel better". I have always had the worst attitude when I comes to being sick. First, I refuse to take medicine until the pain makes it unbearable obvious that I am ill enough for it. I never had a good reason for this. Its just how I am. Secondly, I never concede to my sickness and stop my routine for it. I have always felt that if I can tell myself not to be ill, it will be so. Needless to say, getting through my essay writing last Sunday was a tedious and painful task when my eyes wanted so badly to rest. Luckily my sister happened to go home this weekend so I was able to call her on skype..and probably spent too much time talking to her and my parents. Around 2 I did started to feel better. I slept from 5am to 7am...then went about the business as usual of finishing up the essay right in time to sprint on my bike to Regent's, print my paper, and walk the hard copy down to Nuffield college.

This walk is one of the most rewarding times of the week. Every sunday night I wonder how the week went by so fast, and when will this endless writing process ever end... and every monday afternoon I think "that wasn't so bad". James, another guy from Regent's, also has my tutor for a different topic. We usually walk together, talk about how it went...how sleep deprived we are, and how our tutorial dates go,- how his threats of no tutorial have actually been successful in helping us get the essays turned in. I laughed when James said that he's never turned in essays on time until now-and how last week he turned up to a tute with out any essay at all...I'm sure if I actually went to school here I would be in the same situation a lot. I've met a lot of students at oxford who have punctuality issues.....like I really belong..haha.

It is so nice to have someone with the same tutor as me this term, someone who can understand what it's like to sit there in an hour session being expectedto know far more than I do (and justifiably, because my knowledge of history is pathetic ow)....we laugh about the moments when he asks us the details of our discipline and all we can do is sit there in silence staring at the ground...hoping he will eventually consent to helping us about with the answer. I've finally gotten to the point where I will just admit that I don't know...rather than bearing the awkwardness of complete silence for what seems like ages.

I can't imagine what Lee's response would be if I told him the essay would just have to hold off because my face hurt.

Fortunately, I pushed through an got the thing finished, and my 14th Oxford tutorial is over. Now I can just sit in the bodleian...admire the Radcliffe Camera from this gigantic window across from me..wonder why this guy next to me isn't wearing any shoes like this is his room or something....and do some much needed catching up on my blog.

Return to Bath

Things are happening faster than I can write about them!!

Wednesday Kristie and I took a day trip to Bath. It was nice to get away for a little bit from the routine (or my non-routine it seems) of Oxford. When I went to Bath with mom and dad I thought it was the most beautiful little town. So I was definitely excited to go back, especially since Kristie hasn't been yet. We took the train from Oxford, and changed rails at Didcot Parkway.

I love the train stations here. Especially the ones in smaller towns like Bath. They are exactly what I imagined them to be like if I were reading a novel involving trains or something. Less intimidating and busy than a subway...and even styled a bit in the little details of the architecture...I suppose its a good thing I enjoy sitting outside by the tracks because Kristie and I managed to miss our train to Bath from Didcot. No, we didn't arrive late. In fact, we were about 5 minutes early. We sat on a bench, Kristie bought some skittles (which were really cold strangely and almost broke our teeth)...and we just hung out. A train came that was headed to Bristol, we watched the people get on and off...watched the little men blow their whistles and shut the doors...and realized about 5 or 10 minutes after it left that this was the train we were to be on. If I knew my English geography better I would have realized that Bristol is just beyond Bath..so Bath would be a stop on the way their...but instead we had to wait another hour for the next train to Bath.

No problem really, as Kristie and I just talked the time away, occasionally interrupted by a non-stopping train whizzing and creating the most painful screeching noise. But eventually our train did come...and less than an hour later we were in the beautiful little town of Bath.

Our first stop was a Sweet Shop that Kristie fell in love with. It was so tiny, but old fashioned just like it would have looked a hundred years ago I think. The candy was displayed in Jars all around the room that the lady would have to shake out on to a scale. It was priced by weight...there were all sorts of sweets hanging from the ceiling as well. While we were there, a couple of school boys came in wearing their uniforms and ready to spend whatever pence they had on candy braceletys and gummy things...I, as a tourist, look at this daily visit as such a novelty. It was just really cool.

We basically just walked to where ever we could...making our way to the Royal Crescent...watching people lay around on the grass in the parks...We saw the greatest tree and stopped for pictures before heading to a bird aviary and then the botanical gardens where Kristie was followed around by a little old man walking his dog. The gardens just smelled of spring, and the roses there smelled exactly like what you would bottle up as "Rose" perfume rather than some cold refrigerator in Kroger. I just love the smell of roses.

We picked up dinner (sandwiches) at the grocery store and went for a walk along the river to eat them. Then we went to the Pump Room, which is right next to the Roman Baths for afternoon tea and scones. Eating in the Pump Room tops my list of favorite experiences of England. It was very proper...accompanied by classical piano ! It was just a beautiful room with the most delicious cream and scones- It was nice to spend some time with Kristie as well, and talk a bit about our Oxford experience and some of our expectations of returning home. It will be interesting to see certain changes in our lives that stick and some that we will lose rather quickly. I won't go in to those now...maybe another time.

If Only Everyday were like Today

Tuesday, May 22nd

This has been one of my favorite days in Oxford.

I had my 5th Trinity term tutorial this morning. It went pretty well becuase I worked harder on this one - It amazing how much I feel I learn in just one tutorial session. I guess having someone holding me directly accountable to explain what I've learned makes a huge difference.

After this I headed back to Regent's, where I met my housemate Jonny and we went to get lunch from a sandwhich place. I generally don't eat outside of college but today we planned to go Punting instead of lunch since it was Tyler's last day with us. So next we headed to the river for punting!!

Punting is something very unique and popular in Oxford... the boat is sort of like a Gondola, it sits low in the water and someone stands in up on the back of it to steer with a giant pole. I have to mention here that today was absolutely gorgeous in every way. Just warm enough to feel like summer...just breezy enough to be comfortable....and the most beautiful clouds! It made for a perfect time on the river. After working so much the past days, I just loved laying there in the boat and soaking it it. Tiny white gosling feathers covered the water and floated all around in the air. I don't know where they came from really...it almost seemed like it was snowing....it was really beautiful though.

After punting, I headed off for a walk around Oxford. I stopped in Merton College just to have a peek since I haven't been there yet. In the back there was the most massive tree covering the yard. I tood several photographs because it was so breathtaking. I found myself wanting to climb it. It has been so long since I've climbed a tree. I visited the college chapel then headed on for a walk through Christ Church gardens. This was my first time walking through the long path of gigantic trees. I just imagined how many people have enjoyed this same walk. It follows right along a pasture and offers the perfect view of the University from a distance. I found myself stopping by the river. Usually when I come to the head of the river it is for rowing practice. This time I was able to stop and lay in the sun for a while. I fell asleep in the grass listening to the rowing cox's leading their crews on the river.

When I woke up it was just about 5- and time to hear the McCandles lecture presented by Dr. Ward. Dr. Ward is one of my philosophy professors at Georgetown College. His lecture concerned different ideas of conversion as contested by two well known theologians. It is always nice to have visitors from Georgetown come. After dinner Tyler, Kristie, and I went with Dr. Ward to the Turf Tavern pub for some good catching up.

I took the passage through Queens lane on the way home, which is sort of dark and scary in the romanticized Oxford way. It was one of the few times on bike that I've been able to view all the stars behind the "dreaming spires" of the colleges. It is a beautiful spring night in Oxford.

Something Different

I wish this layout attached the date to my blog entries...and I like the background too much to change it so i guess I'll just have to write it myself.

May 19th!....well, in america...here it is 1:17 on May 20th...

either way, I'm exactly one month out from returning to the states. A scary thought really. so i'm going to put off thinking about it.

Today Alanna woke me to go play Rounders witht the Regent's students. It was a form of softball except the ball was very tiny, the bat was tiny, the field was tiny, and you only hit with one hand. The rules of this game were nothing like I've ever experienced. Apparently you run even if you don't hit the ball.....a very good thing for me. So after the ball has been thrown 20 times however many "rounders" you've gotten (which is someone gets all the way around) is your score. They don't have bases either...instead there are skinny poles shooting up from the ground that I wanted very much to hang on to as I ran past.

The sky was perfect. The temperature was just great...and it was just a great something different to try out. We played the girls from Christ Church college just for fun, i think they beat us but I don't guess I paid very close attention...mainly I just ran when people told me too. It was fun.

This evening I had dinner with Ula. She is my Polish friend who lives in Italy. She made Ragout (pasta and bolognese sauce) for us and shared some of her amazing Jasmine tea with me. She uses real tea leaves, so I was impressed...

After dinner we went to the Natural Science / Pitt Rivers Museum for a night event called "In a Different Light"....The highlight was watching Tibetan Monks do a dance and a prayer chant. I've never seen anything like it and their clothes were just amazingly ornate and their hats were huge! As I obviously am having a hard time describing this well, I've just included pictures....and here's an article from the Oxford website