‘Solitude is my greatest dread’ – Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

We have ten days of holidays for All Saints’. Since we broke up on Friday, the dread of solitude has compelled all of us assistants to seek one another’s company in order to compulsively DO THINGS, leaving very little time for updating LJ despite my theoretically increased free time. So, I’m going to make up for this it now.

We started on Friday night by going to Hannah’s house to eat crepes. Yes, you read that right – Hannah is an assistant, Hannah possesses a house. It has two bedrooms, two toilets, a kitchen, a living room, and only one resident. We are all exceedingly jealous, of course – her school sorted it out for her, whereas all of our schools have been utterly useless.  Anyway, she had bought a crepe machine and lots of crepes were made and eaten. There was almost English-German parity (I know all four German girls in Tours, and they are all lovely), making the English feel incredibly inferior about their language skills. I can now almost pronounce Eichhörnchen though.

Saturday was a day of lounging in Tim’s room (Tim is half-Korean, laid back, from Wales, lives in a room of 14m² in the Foyer de Jeune Travailleurs, basically a dorm) with Judith (German, wonderful). He cooked risotto and then we watched The Hangover and Role Models in succession, both silly but amusing American films aimed at teenage boys. We went to bed somewhat too late considering the next day was to involve cycling to a chateau 18 kilometres away.

On Sunday, we started by going to Velpeau market (awesome market full of deliciousness) before embarking on the epic trip. It took about an hour and a half to get there, including a short break for trying to catch lizards by their tails. Once at Villandry Chateau, we looked around the gardens, which are truly incredible and well worth the visit, as well as the interior of the chateau which was predictably dull. Then we had some ice cream... oh god. French ice cream is indescribably heavenly and puts everything in Britain to shame. We cycled back, got to Judith’s at about 5pm, cooked, ate, watched 8 Femmes in French without subtitles (resulting in confusion) and the first episode of Skins, which I’d never seen before but thought was really good. Then it was hometime.

On Monday, I was tired and lazy and did nothing all morning. In the evening, Tim and Judith came over for curry and wine, along with one of Judith’s university friends from Cologne who is currently in Rennes, not far from Tours. Then we went to the Café des langues as is usual for Monday evenings, where we met the rest of the group.

Tuesday was another day of meeting up in a large group (3 of the Germans + 1 from Rennes, 3 English) to go to the Botanical Gardens. They had wallabies and flamingos. I touched a wallaby in the face! It seemed reasonably pleased about this. Later we went to eat in a lovely little creperie about one minute from my apartment and then went to a bar.

I seem to have nothing planned for the next few days, although the only French guy I vaguely know has asked me to go to a film with him. However, come Monday, I’ll be very busy – I’m spending Monday in Poitiers with a friend from Oxford, and Tuesday in Nantes, further down the Loire, in Brittany. I haven’t seen much of France really, so it will be nice to see a few more cities.

So, I know that was entirely too much information to be interesting, but generally I am keeping busy and happy with lovely people. Here is a concise list of friends to avoid confusion in future:

Rachel – one of the first people I met. She is 22, Sheffield University (although she applied to Cambridge), from Nottingham, and one of those unfailingly friendly English protestants. She lives in North Tours with a young couple and often has to look after their son.

Judith – the German assistant at Rachel’s school. She’s from Cologne and lives quite far to the South in an apartment with 3 Frenchies. Also unerringly friendly and a good cook.

Tim – Half-Korean, from Wales, goes to King’s College (although he also applied to Cambridge). Likes saying “that’s what she said” and downloading films, eats too many kebabs, generally very amusing. Lives in the Foyer.

Diana – American from Chicago, lives in the Foyer with Tim, likes speaking Portuguese and French bread.

Hannah – German with a house! I believe she is from Stuttgart. She wants to be a French and Theology teacher in Germany afterwards. Likes English food, inexplicably!

Johanna – German from Swabia, near Mercedes. Does not like football, does like linguistics! I don’t actually know where she lives.

Maria Christina (usually just Marie) – The German assistant at my school, I haven’t seen her much of lately because her family has been over visiting. She is from Rostock on the Baltic coast in East Germany, has a strong Baltic identity and a Swedish-speaking boyfriend. Lives far in the North with a hippy family.

Well, life has been quite busy, which is why I haven't posted in about an age. From Monday 6th to Tuesday 14th, I was busy with my cousin's wedding. I was utterly exhausted by the end of it - it was way too long and far too much effort - but at least it's over now.

On Wednesday, to destress, I met up with Josh and we went on a giant walk from Luton town centre all the way to the countryside. It was about 3 miles each way, but it was nice because we ended up on a road by some farms, looking down at Luton in the distance. Then we went into a little forest. It's weird how close the countryside is, really (I remember Eva telling me how she loves the British countryside because more or less all of the Netherlands is one big conurbation), and lovely to just escape to it and get away from traffic and people.

Today I met up with Annie and we wandered around some charity shops in Harpenden and St Albans. Pickings were good: I picked up The Children of Húrin, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (which has continued to grow on me since I read it) and a George Orwell Compendium including Down and Out in Paris and London, Homage to Catalonia, The Road to Wigan Pier and several essays (including a review of Mein Kampf). I haven't read any of this stuff before but Orwell is a man after my own heart, so I'm going to enjoy going through it.

In other news, Vauxhall called up and are actually offering me a job. This is both unbelievable and fantastic in equal measure, because I'd kind of given up on finding a job. It's only for 6 weeks, starting this Thursday, but that works out kind of well because it means there's time for a holiday in September. Unfortunately, it means I can't go to Finland to spend time with Ukri, Hanni, Maria and Volo, but there are still many years ahead...

Eva/Cailín came to visit yesterday and we spent seven wonderful hours together. Photos will go onto facebook soon. Eva was charming and great to be with, what with indulging my random whims (hey, I've never been down this path before! Wanna explore?). We did a lot of wandering around Oxford looking at beautiful buildings, went to Oxfam (where I bought the Discworld Mapp! Score!), had smoothies and went punting. A shame about her shoulders getting burnt in the 30 degree heat. Anyway, she claims to have liked Oxford so much that she'll convince Neil/Eomer to come one day. :D

Today was the first of two open days, which are my alleged purpose for staying behind. I got really into showing people around; it's generally been good fun, which is the ideal type of work. I'll probably be shattered by the end of tomorrow though!

Well, it's been a week seen I last posted. We're in ninth week now, which is technically after the end of term, but lots of people have exams or papers to write so most people stayed on. I haven't really done much except watch lots of Peep Show and say goodbye to lots of people. I actually did some work on Tuesday, which was a slightly amazing occurance that hasn't been repeated since. We had a barbeque on Wednesday which was brilliant. Then the mathematicians all finished their exams on Thursday, so we drank lots of alcohols in Hertford's quad. After that, I went to meet the Amnesty members for a picnic and goodbye, then it was back with the mathematicians to have dinner in the Brasserie Blanc, a fairly posh French restaurant. I decided to try snails, which were delicious but so covered in garlic and herbs that I have no idea what they actually taste like. Then people came to my room for some good old Age of Empires.

Friday was the last day for most people. We went punting in South Oxford in the morning, which I'd never done before. I got the idea when I walked back home with Sabrina from East Oxford on Friday and realised that the river was a lot more beautiful in the South by virtue of going through some beautiful meadows. It's amazing that I'd been in Oxford for two years without ever walking along that path before. Anyway, punting in the meadows was beautiful and a lot easier than punting in the north. I saw a heron (I don't think I've ever seen one before, and definitely not so close up) and then we moored the punt by this tree I'm obsessed with and climbed it.

After punting, we went up North to Leckford for some sushi, by which I mean a hell of a lot of sushi. Followed by lots of goodbyes and then some age of empires again.

Saturday involved ice cream with Mike and Kristian, then more age of empires with Kristian in the evening.

So, overall, I've been having a lot of fun interspersed with a lot of saying goodbye to people. I think I'm the only person left on my floor (and possibly my building) now, so it's quite lonely. I have a few friends in a building not too far away, though, so I may visit them soon. In any case, I'm quite looking forward to Eva's visit.

I'm feeling slightly less bad about the impact of France on friendships. A lot of people have said they'll definitely be visiting me, and I think I will come back for a while when everybody has their finals. Also, facebook and Skype (which I am yet to get) mean it will be easy to stay in contact. And after all, I manage to stay in touch with Josh, Annie and all the Downers largely through the internet, so I'm sure I'll manage to do the same with others.

What am I slightly concerned about with regard to France is:
1) The location of the school. The outskirts of Tours in an industrial zone. Not the best, but I don't necessarily have to live there I guess...
2) The school itself. It's in the bottom half of all schools in France, though not in the bottom quarter. I suppose I should be grateful it's not a banlieue but I would have liked something a little more academic.
3) How iz friendship formmed?? I have no idea how to make friends in a non-academic context. All the friends I'm made so far have a consequence of going to the same school or university and being reasonably geeky. I still remember Freshers' Week, during which almost everybody went clubbing except for most of the people who were to become my friends - we stayed in and played Risk. But what happens without an establishment full of people my age? I suppose there will be teachers, and I do tend to get on very well with people older than me, but I do wonder what kind of social contact I will have outside of teaching circles. Actually, Alex, if you're reading this, any words of wisdom about your year abroad would be extremely appreciated.

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.

Life has been as wonderful as Oxford always is of late.

1) Colin Pillinger
2) Ambassador from Albanian
3) Sunday
4) Today

1) Colin Pillinger. He's a British physicist who more or less organised the (failed) Beagle 2 project to Mars. I went to an interesting talk by him. He seems convinced that there is life on Mars, and I guess he's kind of convinced me on a question I was reasonably ambivalent about before. I so hope the question gets settled relatively soon - and it won't be hard to settle, as long as we can get the appropriate equipment to Mars.

2) Albanian Ambassador. He convinced me that Albania is full of shiny happy people having fun. My friend, who has been to Albani, confirmed this. There are Orthodox and Catholic christians in Albania as well as a majority of Muslims, but they all seem to get along really, really well. This is encouraging and adorable.

3) Sunday was beautiful. I went with a friend to get ice cream (FREE!) from the Oxford Union. This deliciousness was followed by a phone call in which it was decided that we would have an impromptu barbeque. So we went to Sainsbury's, bought meat and a disposable barbeque, and went to the parks by the riverbank to have a small barbeque of four. It was beautiful. I chased a moorhen. Many friends from college came up and two of them fell into the river; one, meanwhile, voluntarily took a dip therein, although this is largely because he is mad. After this I hosted a mead-tasting event in which people tried some of the mead I brewed. Responses were overwhelming positive, which was great; I feel vindicated in my mead-brewing, and will definitely do so again in future. After this, pub quizzing occurred and my time came second.

4) Today, more mead was tasted by a different set of friends (the Amnesty lot). At 5pm, we held a commemoration march for the Tiananmen Square massacre which was exactly 20 years ago today. I always feel in two minds about these kinds of events. I love letter-writing because I feel like I've achieved something, whereas commemoration doesn't seem to actually do much. However, I came out of the event profoundly moved. While we were there with our large "Remember Tiananmen!" and "Human Rights for China!" banners, two huge groups of (I think) Taiwanese tourists separately came upon us. They were incredibly, incredibly supportive of us - they took photos, came and stood with us to have their photos taken, told us to continue the good work and even corrected some of the faulty Chinese on our banners. The response we got from them - and from a small number of people from the PRC - was really heartwarming; it was so nice to know that these Chinese people knew and, more importantly, cared about Tiananmen.

Today, one of the colleges also decided to give out free pizza and alcohol to gays, lesbians and bisexuals. I took advantage of the offer, but also invited my straight friend, which was nicely subversive - I don't approve of segregation of gays, just as I disapprove of segregation of women (who get their own chocolate and strawberry parties in my college, infuriatingly) or ethnic minorities.

Finally, today was also the day of European elections. Europe tends to evoke strange feelings in the British, who tend not to appreciate what it has done, and does, for us. I voted Lib Dem on the basis that Tories are intrinsically evil (not to mention their fucking nasty Euro-allies), Labour are authoritarian gits, the Greens are ridiculous, and everybody else is mad, Eurosceptic or racist. I was sorely tempted to vote for the Roman Party though - Ave!

In other news, I fixed a bike puncture ALL BY MYSELF* a couple of days ago.

Work is going well - high 2:1s have occurred, and my tutor accidentally told me I was good at linguistics. Diderot is turning out to be far more interesting than he at first seemed.

As for my year abroad, I am definitely going to the Centre region, hopefully to Orléans or Tours, although I wont find out where I am - city or village - for a while yet.

Plans to work at Vauxhall appear to have gone down the shitter. Alas.

*Well, one person helped slightly.

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.

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 got up at 7:45 to go to a 9am lecture, only to be told it was intended for graduates and not relevant for me. So rather than spending the surprise two free hours working on my essay, I have decided to blog a little.

I'm nicely settled in again, have met all my friends, sat some tests, played Risk and played Mah Jong. Although I've only experienced one day of proper term so far, the workload definitely feels intense - last term I had to write 9 essays of which one had to be in French, this term I have to write 14 with 2 in French (on top of weekly grammar and fortnightly translations as well).

My tutorials are on Thursdays this term, which is good because I will have Thursday nights free. Thursday night is when everything happens - Union debates, International Cinema club AND board game club! W00t.

Here are some unnecessary photos of my room:
( Unnecessary photos )

End

is fairly good at the moment. I haven't posted about what I'm up to in a while, so thought I'd update.

I'm back to Oxford on Wednesday, which I'm fairly excited about. I get there at noon and have my first tutorial at 4pm, hooray! Also, I, er, forgot to do my holiday work... And a lot of my reading... whoops.

Home has been good. This has been my first relaxed holiday since the end of Sixth Form, so I enjoyed being very lazy, reading a lot and spending time with family and friends.

Next term is going to be ridiculously busy. Firstly, my workload has increased; up until now I'd had 8 tutorials a term, but next term I'll have 12, i.e. a 50% increase in essay-writing. Although this is probably still not that much compared to other subjects, it will feel like a lot to me. On top of this, I'm almost certainly going to hold some kind of position in the Amnesty club, and probably one in the newly-formed Linguistics club too. In any spare time, I will be watching Avatar and Drawn Together with friends. Also, I want to watch more films, so will probably do this. And fit in Risk, MahJong, etc. Oh, and perhaps learning Spanish if I get in to the course (I have bought myself a Teach Yourself Spanish book regardless). And cooking a bit more because I'm spending too much on food, I think. Argh, so much to do. How will I cope after this period of extreme laziness?

I'm quite liking the BBC series "Around the World in 80 Faiths" which I'll be watching via iPlayer this term (oh yeah, Heroes will start again soonish, right?). It's on BBC2, Fridays at 9pm, giving a superficial overview of 80 world religions. Last week's episode, still on iPlayer, is about East Asian faiths - probably the only religions I respect to any extent. Buddhism is so good! Didn't quite understand Taoism, but I think one day, when very bored, I will read up on it.

I went to Josh's house today and he made me a CD of Mongolian throat-singing. This sounds exciting, so I will listen to it soon.

I now own an electric toothbrush. This is also mildly exciting.

Tomorrow I will pack.

I approve of the following webcomics in this order:
http://www.qwantz.com aka Dinosaur Comics - funniest webcomic I have ever seen.
http://www.xkcd.com - geekery
http://www.asofterworld.com

I am also amused by:
http://www.overheardinnewyork.com

and depressed (but fascinated) by:
http://postsecret.blogspot.com

That should be plenty of links if you're bored and have internet-time. But if you exhaust these sources of entertainment, here is a potentially limitless one: http://www.stumbleupon.com

I had a brilliant day today. It started off with my Protect the Human T-shirt finally coming through from Amnesty! I was beginning to worry it had been waylaid. Amazingly, it actually fits me quite well, so I look forward to wearing it next term for Amnesty things (I've applied to join the committee).

It was my friend Will's birthday, so five of us Oxonians descended on London. It was good seeing them again, even though it's only been a day since I got back. We went to Camden, where I had quince juice for the first time - it is amazing and honeylike.

We went to loads of vintage clothes shops. I bought some brown suede shoes with leather soles for £15, which was amazing because I've been looking for shoes for ages. It's hard to find my size anyway as it's halfway between child and adult (5.5). Additionally I hate branded trainers and wanted something to wear casually that looked reasonably good and hadn't been assembled in a sweatshop, so it was a dream buy overall.

My friends bought bizarre things, including stripey dungarees and a one-piece purple pop-art suit. Will, who doesn't believe in gender differentiation, kept trying on women's boots although he wasn't happy with any. I love my friends. :D

So, my quest for nice footwear can finally be laid to rest, my allegiance to Amnesty can now be worn, and the insanity of my friends remains unabated. All in all, life is great. Oh, and in addition I'm receiving a free book on the history of French from some retired bloke in Oxford, yay. :D

I'm back home from Oxford now until mid-January, alas. I'll probably be blogging a lot more over this period because I don't really have a whole lot planned for the holiday.

It's strange being home because, although I hate going back, there are certain things I miss about home without realising it while I'm away. Hot, multi-course meals. Watching TV on a sofa. Speaking of which, Current TV. Not being confined to one room. Having enough time to read - I intend to make full use of this. It's dismal compared to Oxford, but it's far from terrible, and I suppose I should be (and am) thankful for the things that make it so.

I've started off the reading spree by re-reading the Silmarillion - it's been a while since I re-read it. In fact, I'm having a bit of a Tolkien renaissance - I bought Lord of the Rings Risk this term, bought 4 of the History of Middle Earth books from Oxfam, listened to a bit of Blind Guardian and even encouraged other people to read the Silmarillion. I still think I've moved on from my youth when I was obsessed with Tolkien - I had little else to do - and now only think of him as one of my favourite writers. But although he might not be my absolute favourite author - I don't think I could name just one - I think his work is qualitatively completely different from anything else ever written, and as such I value it immensely.

I haven't really posted in a while, although I've been meaning too for ages, largely because I am lazy. Life in Oxford is going great - I don't have much work (comparatively) this term, what work I do have is incredibly interesting, my grades are good and extra-curricular stuff is great. I got about a hundred letters signed for Amnesty International this week, which is amazing considering we have only 376 undergraduates. I feel really great about the enthusiasm within college for human rights.

My social life in Oxford is as fun as ever. Although some people now live annoyingly far away, I've largely retained my habit of just casually dropping in on people and staying in their rooms for entire evenings as fun happens. I'm going on a crazy cycling trip to North Oxford and then some random farmland this evening, which promises to be strange.

I've had to start deciding on what to do in my year abroad. I've chosen to teach older children in one of the regions of Pays de la Loire, Centre and Picardie in France. I hope I get put in one of the first two, preferably in a city like Tours (that would be perfect). We'll see what happens...

Otherwise I am well and good. Perhaps slightly unhealthy in my eating habits, but such is life at uni. :D

Addendum: Glorious bread and cheese this term, yum. Oh, and curries. And £200 for getting a first, plus a snazzy gown. New board games... Heroes... Have I Got News For You... Amazingly good new fruit... Yeah... life is awesome.

I haven't really blogged this term, despite the fact that I have internet in my room for the first time ever. Although I thought having the interwebs in my room would be distracting I haven't been livejournaling or msning as much as I 'd thought.

The work this term is a lot harder and required a lot more reading and thought. However, intellectually it's a lot more interesting and satisfying, so I don't much mind.

My room is off site this year, kind of just far enough from the town centre to make one feel too lazy to walk. This means I have a bike. I'm scared of cycling in Luton, but it's the norm in Oxford so I feel confident on the roads. Having a bike in Oxford is so incredibly liberating - you can suddenly get from any point to any other in at most 15 minutes and usually less. This is especially important this year because my friend group has ended up so spread out - I'm in South Oxford, but a lot of my friends have ended up in North Oxford which is a 15 minute cycle ride away.

My room itself is alright. It's furnished in a nice way and it gets a lot of light, and I'm happy with it. However it is smaller than last year's room, meaning I can't really play Risk in it, and the showers are crap. I kind of feel that the room doesn't do justice to how high my friends and I were on the housing ballot; although we were 12-16 in the year, many people lower down the list got nicer and larger rooms (still in South Oxford, which is where it's at). But I don't really mind - it's my own fault for not researching it more, and also I don't dislike my room, so it doesn't really matter.

Thankfully we still have the option to purchase dinner in South Oxford, without which it is possible I may have died. However, my cooking skills have slightly improved and curries are now theoretically doable. This is helped by my bike allowing me to quickly get to East Oxford, which is where all the ethnic shops sell cheap aubergines and such.

We have a TV downstairs, which means I get to watch Heroes and Have I Got News For You. This is awesome.

This year I'm getting more into Amnesty - I'm the representative for my college, but I still think I could do more - as well as potentially creating some kind of anti-corporate group with a new-found Amnesty friend. So things are looking exciting. I'm also planning on joining International Film Club and Board Game club.

I think that it all

I've just realised how few of my blogs are actually about my life. Mostly they seem to be about politics, or memes, or philosophy. This is because a blog dedicated to my life would be exceedingly boring and look something like this:

Day 6091 of existence. Serene. Ate chicken for lunch. Maths was boring today.

Anywho, somebody said to me a couple of days ago that she had never seen me angry. And thinking about it, I realised that I haven't actually been angry for as long as I can remember.

I am generally a very calm person. A few years ago, I decided to try to stop feeling the little anger I did experience now and again through meditation, and since then it's just become natural for me to be calm in the face of what would agitate or stress others. While my blog may seem very heated, because I do feel passionately about much of what I write about, real-me is very laid back.

The realisation that I haven't really been angry for as long as I can remember has led me to come up with the Ritalin Hypothesis. This states that if everybody were on Ritalin, the drug used to calm ADHD kids, many of the world's problems would be solved. People would be too calm and peaceful to actually start wars or fights.

A friend of mine pointed out that there may be wars over who controls the Ritalin supply, but I doubt it, because nobody would care who controlled it as long as they got the Ritalin.

My headteacher was worried that we might get the dose wrong, resulting in the entire human race becoming too apathetic to get off their chairs, ending in everybody dying of hunger. I pointed out that this would end global warming.


In other news, I got 49/72 in my mock Psychology exams, which is an A. I'm quite confident of getting the A there, really. I have become concerned about French though - I need an A in French to get into Oxford, and 2/3 of the grade is coursework and oral. I'm crap at orals (got a C last year) and I'm not sure my coursework is as good as it could be. I should find out soon.


I have started using tags. Aren't I cool?