Hooray! It hasn't been a ridiculous amount of time since I last blogged!

Numerous exciting things have happened in life. I went to Cambridge for the weekend to go to Strawberry Fair - basically, a huge one-day hippy-fest, which was quite wonderful. There was lots to see, eat and do, most of it bizarre. The two things which stand out were Capoeira and Singing Bowls.

Capoeira (make sure you watch until 1:00 at least):
I was utterly enchanted by this. I looked it up on wikipedia afterwards, and it's described as an art form rather than a martial art - the music, for instance, is crucial. We literally watched this for ages, perhaps half an hour, and couldn't tear our eyes away. So beautiful.

Singing bowl. They are beautiful. Here's some of the stuff they can do:
I have bought one and am slightly in love with it now. Two of my friends also bought some, and a third is getting one off Ebay, so we may well form a troupe. :D

In other news, yesterday I ate crayfish for the first time. Seeing as it's not the most common term, here is a picture of a crayfish for all you non-native English speakers:
My friend caught them from the river and kept them in a bucket in his kitchen. Then we boiled them and ate them, which was incredibly fiddly, what with ripping off the bottom, then tearing off the shell, carefully removing the genital-urinary tract and trying not to spill guts everywhere. However, they were tasty and it was definitely worth it. Whenever I'm presented with a whole animal carcass to eat, i.e. the meat isn't made to look like it isn't an animal, my immediate reaction is to squeam, but I get into it after that. It felt nice to be a little like a hunter-gatherer rather than a super-sanitised urban wimp.

Today I went to see a play for the first time ever (yes, I admit it, this is one aspect of life in which I'm ridiculously uncultured). To make matters worse, it was in French - La Cantatrice Chauve by Ionesco. However, I understood it fine (I would say I understood at least 90%) and found it hilarious, which was great. I should definitely go the theatre more often now. Also, I am definitely studying Ionesco in fourth year!

I also bought two books today, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Star-Begotten by H. G. Wells. I look forward to reading them both.

I'd usually be thinking about the end of term by now (it finishes on the 20th), but I'm staying in Oxford until the beginning of July to help with interviews. I am really looking forward to long summer days in Oxford with nothing to do! Feel free to visit, one and all.

Well, as ever I have been rubbish at LJing while in Oxford, but I've finally found some time to blog a little. Or a lot, as there's quite a bit to cover; unfortunately I wont be able to go into as much depth as I'd have wanted.

Contents:
Picnic
Chinese ambassador
April 30th
Linguistics Pub Crawl
Cinema Paradiso
Age of Empires
Punting
Staying awake
AI - asylum seekers
Sushi
Headington
Eurovision
General

Picnic - This will sound more exciting when photos happen, but after our tests upon getting back, we went picnicking in a park about 5 minutes from where I live which I knew nothing about. It was good, and there were strange trees.

Chinese Ambassador - I went to see the Chinese ambassador in first week; she's more or less the only good person to come to the Union this term. She talked on whether China is a power, and it was interesting to listen to her. Obviously what she said had to be taken with a pinch of salt - she claimed that China wouldn't be a hegemon, but couldn't quite explain why - and there was one point where I knew she was lying (she claimed the Dalai Lama wanted independence for Tibet - he wants autonomy). All in all, though, I am becoming increasingly sinophilic in all ways of life. Although human rights are a serious issue, I think the level of state control has been helpful in improving the lives of the average Chinese citizen when compared with India. I particularly approve of the one child policy, which has been a significant factor in improving the lives of the Chinese; India, on the other hand, continues to have massive problems with poverty (not to mention associated issues of illiteracy, disease etc). At the end of the talk, I was given some free propaganda - a "China Encyclopedia, supervised by the State Council Information Office, P.R.C." in CDROM form. I haven't explored it in much debt yet, but it seems both informative and amusing so far.

April 30th - In Oxford, there's a tradition of staying up all night so as to go to Magdalen Tower at 6am on May 1st, whence some kind of prayer is sung and festivities ensue. I went last year and found it fairly dull, so instead we went to Port Meadow, a common meadow to the North of Oxford, where there was a bonfire and happiness. It was pretty cool - there was a guy who had a stick and firedanced with it and general amazingness. Then we went off and stayed awake til 5am for no real reason, going to bed just before the festivities that are the whole point of the day. We also drank a bottle of the mead I brewed on this day; it was delicious. There are two left now.

Linguistics Pub Crawl - As a Linguistics Society committee member, I had to organise all this. It was pretty fun, considering linguists rock.

Cinema Paradiso - As part of an Arts Festival, this was screened outdoors. If you have seen it, you will know why this is amazing; if not, go watch it. I was freezing throughout, but well worth it.

Age of Empires - My friend Kristian from Norway figured out how to make it work on my laptop. This has slightly ruined my life, and I am obsessively playing campaigns as opposed to, you know, socialising or working. Apparently the college chaplain plays, so we're considering inviting her to a multiplayer game - it would be interesting to say the least.

Punting - i.e. pushing oneself along a shallow river by means of a pole, the most counterintuitive form of river transport imaginable. But an Oxford tradition, and good fun - there were goslings, some good graffiti (I hope it comes out on my rubbish camera phone) and a pleasant pub at the end of it all. Definitely worth the effort.

Staying awake - Since May night, I couldn't really sleep at night because I'd gone to bed so late and my circadian rhythm got fucked up. Until the 10th of May I went to bed between 4 and 5:30am each night. To get my body back in order, I stayed awake through the night on the 10th. I felt fine as well, so perhaps I should do this more often...

Amnesty International: Asylum Seekers - Amnesty stuff goes on as ever. We had a really interesting workshop on Asylum seekers which got me so angry that it deserves its own post as some point, possibly on facebook. Sometimes I really can't believe this country... bring on Norway.

Sushi - My friend can make it. I can eat it. This happens frequently enough for me to be happy.

Headington - I had a fairly exciting day yesterday. I got 4 and a half hours sleep, woke up at 8:20 and went cycling to the outskirts of Oxford, where there are numerous charity shops and a SHARK, which I took photos of. We also posted a note through the letterbox thanking the creator for his shark's existence, and taping a small plastic narwhal to it in tribute. We went through loads of charity shops, whence I bought an Atlas from 1934. It's interesting looking at the pre-war, imperial years; also, I lolled at the Anglo-centricness of it. Then we went to a Chinese shop, whence I bought plum wine (mmm) and chopsticks. My friend and I simultaneously and independently had the idea of using chopsticks more often in non-Chinese settings (although I will of course use them for Chinese food). I find a knife and fork can be annoying and ineffectual; stab and slash are not very useful when consuming, for example, salad. Grabbing, however, is possible with most things. My friend also argues that they are more elegant, which is also true. After this I climbed my first tree in several weeks, which involved scooting along a branch upside down. :D Curse that tree.

Eurovision - I have never followed Eurovision before, but we had a party this time in the TV room, which was delicious and awesome. I do not understand why the UK received any points at all, nor why Ukraine received so few.

General - I am happy. This is meant to be the best term of my University life (no exams, summer, not too much work) and I think I am making the most of it. Spanish has foundered a little as I suddenly find myself lacking time to do half an hour of study a day, but I bought a Teach Yourself Norwegian book, which seems pretty good. Tonight we're celebrating the National Day of Norway with traditional Norwegian cuisine (and less traditional plum wine...) which should be fun.

Yesterday I went charity shopping with Annie, with pleasing results. I bought the RotK DVD (yes, shamefully I didn't own it before...), 2 Discworld books (1 of which I already owned, alas), an atlas of ancient history and the Book of Lost Tales by Tolkien. I'm particularly pleased with the last two. The atlas covers all those ancient Eurasian empires, like the Hittites and Assyrians, that nobody really cares about. I feel I should know more about them - the world didn't start with the Ancient Greeks, and it will be interesting to see what came before them. The Book of Lost Tales I remember being my favourite volume of the History of Middle Earth series - so much amazing myth.

I also bought a 5000 year old game. It was discovered in Ur and dates from 2600 BC (although my replica dates from the 1980s). It's pretty darn fantastic. Look at the board!



Look at the pieces!


It would be worth it for the amazing design alone, but I've played it and it's a pretty good game, somewhat like backgammon but more strategic.

Finally, anybody who is LJ friends with lalwendeboggart will remember her Walkers taste test. If not, and if so, to recap: Walkers introduced 6 new flavours of crisps, only one of which can survive. Like Lal, I have now tried all six, and can rank them:

1 - Builder's Breakfast
2 - Fish and Chips
3 - Cajun Squirrel
4.5 - Hoisin Duck / Onion Bhaji
6 - Chilli and Chocolate

Builder's Breakfast is something like crisp heaven, while Chilli and Chocolate approaches hell. I was quite impressed with Fish and Chips as well. The other three flavours were good at tasting like what they were meant to, but not good flavours for crisps.

Woah, I haven't updated in ages! Uni always seems to do this, and I always feel guilty for neglecting internet friends and home friends who rely on the internet to communicate with me afterwards. So here is an update!

Life at Oxford is always busy, but this term has been more so than usual. I feel like I'm doing a crazy amount of things, but I also feel I'm making better use of my time than last month. I tried sushi for the first time at a local restaurant (verdict: tasty but expensive). I also had sake and plum wine for the first time. I suppose sake is okay, but plum wine is absolutely gorgeous - like mead - so I'm hoping to find some soon. I have also decided to brew my own mead because the internet tells me this is easy - I'll go ingredient hunting tomorrow!

I also went to college live night for the first time, which is amazing. It's just people from the college playing instruments and singing, but it's amazing how talented people are; it really makes me regret not having learnt an instrument. I have received some very good music from various friends, including the Pocahontas soundtrack, some Hebrew rock and some cool post-modern shiz.

I went to a chapel service for the first time ever because my friend (and college wife) was getting baptised. It was very weird - I hadn't been to a church service since primary school. It was Anglo-Catholic, so from a sensory perspective it was nice enough - beautiful singing and candles. But during the service itself I often found myself unable to participate because I found the whole thing so ridiculous and authoritarian (as I suppose any monotheistic religion must by necessity be). I've continued watching Around the World in 80 Faiths; I think I will add Jainism to the set of religions I actually respect.

I am now on the Amnesty International Committee at Oxford and was theoretically meant to help organise Letter Writing Week, which is next week. I was so bogged down with work (one essay for Wednesday, one for today) that in reality the other Letter Writing Week Coordinator did almost all the work, but I'll contribute some more once it gets under way. It feels so good being on the committee and actually doing something good.

Spanish classes are hard. I should not have joined as a Lower Intermediate when I had never learnt Spanish before. However, my comprehension is surprisingly good due to similarities with French; my speaking is slowly getting up to scratch, I think.

I had two fancy dinners this week, which is surprising as I rarely do fancy dinners (they are quite expensive). Monday night was Scholars' Dinner, paid for by the college. All the scholars, people who got a first in their first year exams, were invited as were their tutors. It was pretty good. Then, on Tuesday, we had "Halfway Hall" - so named because it marks the halfway point of our university careers. It feels so strange that one and a half years have gone by. It was very enjoyable anyway (except I couldn't go down the bar afterwards due to my essays); here are two photos. One is of me with my Norwegian friend; we had to wear black tie, which is somewhat foolish but makes photos look nice, and we had candles, which I absolutely love.


Here is what our hall looks like:


It gets a lot of light in the daytime as it's up a flight of stairs with windows on both sides. At night, when it's a formal affair, I love the candlelight. Also, notice the hart's head (somewhat blurry) between the doors!

On the subject of halls, I'm still not entirely comfortable with being waited on. I suppose it's no different from what happens in a restaurant, really, but the socialist inside always feels uncomfortable about it.

I think that is all for now, really. I'll end with something that really amused me. I have to go to Jesus college for tutorials this term. This is one of their toilets:


Yes. That is a fireplace. That is an armchair. That is a table, what looks like a footrest, and two more chairs. Madness! Only in Oxford...

I've been thinking a lot about food this term. The combination of a kitchen, the ability to cook (vaguely), a little more disposable income and a bike meaning I can easily get to a wider range of shops has resulted in greater gastronomic awareness, to some extent.

On the one hand, I'm using a lot of Sainsbury's basics (that's a budget range for non-Brits). For a lot of stuff, I think only packaging and snobbery make a difference for customers. A basics potato can't be that different from another potato. Tinned tomatoes contain exactly the same ingredients whether basics or not. Basics chocolate is delicious, better than dairy milk I think. As long as it's not meat - because they put all kind of crazy stuff into that - and as long as nothing strange has been added, I'm happy to use basics.

Tangentially, I buy basics eggs too. Frankly, I don't give a toss how happy a chicken is when there's so much human suffering in the world. The fashionable free-range crew are only all to likely to go shopping in Primark too, which makes me shudder.

On the other hand, there are some items where I think taste is important. Apples - the local market might be more expensive, but so much better. Cheese, wine and bread are interesting because I'm after quality but know little about them. Cheese and wine I will probably just get from Sainsbury's, but I need to be educated - meaning talking to people about them, and sampling a lot! Lucky me. My friend, meanwhile, is on a quest to find the best bread in Oxford. I'm thinking of spurning ready-sliced loaves altogether and only buying fresh bread from now on - more expensive, but so worth it. Yum. The only issue is my lack of a bread knife...

Mmm, food.

I've just deleted my myspace. I was considering it anyway - it was very unused, having been replaced by Facebook. It doesn't achieve anything anyway. Then I found out that Rupert Murdoch owned it... I won't touch the Times or the Sun unless I want to disgust myself in the same way as when reading the Mail. So it had to go.

They asked me to fill in a little comment box before deleting it to explain why. I said:

1) MySpace doesn't really achieve anything and is a waste of time.
2) I can now waste my time equally well on Facebook.
3) Facebook is not (yet) owned by Rupert Murdoch.

There is now one less way to stalk me on the internet. :D

In other news, I applied to volunteer at Oxfam today, so my superego is delighted. I also met Maryam, my friend from primary school who I love to talk to on msn, but who I haven't seen for years, as she applied with me. My ego is therefore also quite happy.

The only downside is that I can't make custard. Pears and chocolate milk may be tasty, but it just isn't the same. I've made a start on learning chapattis too - I figure that, wherever I go to uni, I will likely be the only Indian in my friend group, and thus it will be my duty to know how to make curries and supplementary dishes. :D My chapattis are hideously malformed. But tasty.