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.

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.

Despite my best intentions, I failed at updating regularly while in Oxford... sigh... In my defence, it was a manically busy term. Here's what I was up to:

I brewed mead in my room. I found a recipe on the net and kind of had to do it... so when I get back, I'll have 3 litres of mead ready to drink. I've sampled some and it's not bad. Also, it's really easy to do, so I encourage you to experiment with brewing.

I went to see the following people speak: Romano Prodi (ex-PM of Italy), Vuk Jeremic (Serbian Foreign Minister) and Ko Aung (former political prisoner in Burma). Prodi was too quiet to hear properly, Jeremic seemed like a reasonable guy, Ko Aung is amazing.

Amnestywise, Letter Writing Week went awesomely well. Also, we had another week of action shortly after, focusing on political prisoners in Burma ( which is why Ko Aung came to speak at the Union). I'm on the committee again next term as Liaisons Officer, should be good.

Last weekend I went to a kind of Amnesty activism/training event in London, basically teaching us how to run a better group and all that. Ko Aung was there and I got to speak to him. He told me how, when he was in solitary confinement in prison, the actions people committed and the letters they sent from far flung countries really had an effect on his situation - not only did they give him hope (which is important in itself), but after receiving several hundred letters, the junta ordered the prison guards to stop torturing him. That was incredibly inspiring, seeing in the flesh somebody whose life had been changed by the simple writing of letters.

I am now learning Spanish and, Rune might be interested to know, Norwegian! Unlike former broken promises to learn Quenya/German, I will actually do these because I have audio courses. That means my lessons are structured for me, w00t! Spanish is going well, Norwegian I will only develop to a basic standard and seems alright at the moment.

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

Lifted from Wikipedia:

"The Bachelor's degree is awarded soon after the end of the degree course (three or four years after matriculation)... The degree of Master of Arts is awarded to B.A.s and B.F.A.s twenty-one terms (seven years) after matriculation, without further examination, upon the payment of a nominal fee."

"Whilst recently there has been increasing criticism of being awarded a Master's degree whilst not doing any additional academic work, supporters assert that the academic workload of a three-year Oxbridge undergraduate degree exceeds that of a four-year Masters course at many other British universities."

Hell yeah! So three years after graduating, my degree magically evolves into a Master's! Awesome!

It really is true what they say about the workload, with the notable exception of my own subject, which is piss easy. I feel only slightly bad about this.

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

It seems my newfound lesbian friend is, in fact, bisexual. That's the third one! I am beginning to despair.

In other news, my new parents are lovely. I have, probably somewhat foolishly, promised them a curry at some point in the next year. At least I have motivation to learn now.

Searching for my books is exhausting. There's so many of them, and trying to find the cheapest is a chore. Honestly, Mith, I can't thank you enough for alleviating the problem. Why did they choose such obscure books? (No, they didn't write them themselves).

I think thus far, Lommy, Nogrod, Brinn, Cailin and Eomer, Annie and Joe are more or less certain to visit at some point, with Mith as a maybe. I am very excited and I know I a writing this months early, but still:

Visiting times

11th Jan - 7th March 2008
18th April - 30th May 2008

That will do for now. I'll most likely be free and available between these dates too, but I'll be a boring town. :P I haven't got exaxt days for later in the year, but October-November should be doable too in 2008, and then similar dates in 2009 minus the October-November stretch.

Thanks for everybody who offered their congratulations. I'm really, really happy, quite obviously. Aman and Ang are also into their respective colleges, so yesterday was a grand day for the Downs.

In more detail, my grades were:
Psychology 551/600 = A
French 539/600 = A
Further Maths 507/600 = A

And, for the record, last year:
Maths 517/600 = A

To answer Encai, my immediate feeling was actually relief. After succeeding at interviews and tests, it would have been so painful to have it all taken away at the last moment. So I was simply relieved!

All my friends also did well, getting into their second choices if not the university of their choice. Annie, who introduced me to LJ, got into her top choice, Kingston. Everyone is rather happy really.

As per usual, most people celebrated by going clubbing and drinking in excess. As I don't drink much, can't legally drink anyway, and am unable to dance, I wasn't there. My celebrations consisted of spending the day with Annie picking blackberries (we've been waiting for a year), watching Trainspotting and playing Medal of Honour. *nerdiest person ever?* I took advantage of my parents' joy by making them promise to pay for my books. :D

It felt very odd, collecting my results, knowing that it would be the last time I'd ever see 90% of the people there. It's sad leaving the people I grew up with, from tiny imbeciles to adults, but then there are exciting things ahead. I have lots to do... Oxford-related news will come later.

*happy*

Exam season has just started for me. I had the first of four GCSE Latin exams yesterday; I think that went very well, hopefully full marks. The results don't really matter because I'm only doing Latin for "fun".

Today I had my French Oral exam which was really quite disastrous. There's meant to be five minutes of talking about a chosen issue (gay marriage should be legalised) followed by 10 more minutes on further issues. I felt I was very strong for the gay marriage part, but I came apart a bit afterwards. The teacher asked some pretty random questions which I hadn't expected or prepared for, so there were long silences. I'm not feeling at all confident; I got a C last year, so I'm anticipating a D this time round.

Then I was told that my French coursework wasn't as good as my teachers expected; I only got 102/145. For a while I got very worried, thinking this would be a C. I need an A overall to get into Oxford, so not making the grades in French would absolutely crush me. Then my teacher checked for me and found that it was a very high B, only one point from an A.

So, presuming a low D for the oral exam, a high B for the coursework, and my results from last year, I need about 97/120, that's a low A, in my Reading/Listening/Writing exam to get an A overall. The dream is not completely out of reach! I am so relieved. So much hinges on my grade in French which, obscenely, is the hardest subject to score highly in.

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?