Rugby

Sorry I've been so quiet of late! I've been insanely busy and then the internet has been sick and dying here at the Stanford House, so I've been totally unable to procrastinate and update the blog. Life is rough. I have a good number of posts that I want to do before I leave, so hopefully the internet will hold up so I can cram them all in!

First up, some photography... namely, of boys trying to kill each other in an organized forum!

(Corpus Challenge day, where Oxford Corpus (which, ironically, only has one player from Corpus... and he's actually from Stanford) unfortunately lost to Corpus Cambridge)

(The aftermath of the scrum)

(badass)

I've got a friend on the Corpus/Summerville rugby team, and so I've enjoyed going out and watching a few of his games over the past few weeks. For the past two, I decided to bring my camera with me and try my hand at a little sports photography!

(By far favorite part of rugby... so poetic)

(ooooof)

(A rare moment where I got the ball meaningfully in the frame!)

Rugby is a CRAZY sport, complete with much blood and very uncomfortable-looking tackling procedures. I really like watching it though, because the rules keep the play moving a lot more than American football and the scoring is (slightly) easier for a layman like me to follow.

(Ahh, such beauty)

(Apparently this is legal...)

(...as is this)

And, it's very very hard to take pictures of! 30 men jumping all over one another, trying to grab an egg-shaped ball (that's usually tucked under someone's arm for safekeeping) and taking down anyone that stands in their way makes for SUPER chaotic shooting!

(Brief moment of sunshine on some pig-pile action)

(Leviathan-esque tangle of arms)

I had a good time, but certainly won't be dropping out of school to become a pro rugby photographer any time soon! It gave me a lot more appreciation for eventing, where you know where the subject is going and only have to think about one horse and rider at a time. Hopefully I'll be able to put my practice to work at Badminton in a few weeks!!

(More blood, more intensity)

(Love it)

Tree Killer

When I last updated, I had four major assignments standing between me and spring break. The mid-length paper and the oral presentation are now mercifully complete, and I have until Monday and Wednesday, respectively, to to finish the rest. Phew! My mind currently feels like a wrung-out sponge, and so I decided to take a break tonight from the craziness of finishing off the term for a little mental downtime. I managed to set aside enough time to actually clean my room and sort my papers for the first time since probably January (I'm not sure how my roommate put up with me, except for perhaps the miracle that I managed to keep my huge mess on my side of room!). Here is a photo of result of my sorting: all my notes, outlines, and rough drafts for my seven tutorial papers gathered together (and remember that every page is double sided!):

(Yikes! So much paper!)

I can honestly say that I've never gone through so much paper in a single term in my life. Sorry, trees! I've learned that I do my best work in a combo of typed and hand-written notes, and many, many outlines, so I'm guessing that this trend probably won't improve in the near future.

I've also calculated that, between all papers I've produced this term, I've written 27,993 words over 122 double-spaced pages! This is a far and away single term record for me (even over that one term at Stanny where I had to write 17 papers!), with a 1000-word and 5000-word paper still left to submit. I must say that I'm quite proud of that, whatever misgivings I had about my writing in the middle of the term. I have more to say on the tutorial process, but that will have to wait until I'm feeling a little less wiped.

Last Tutorial Paper Submitted!

Can you believe it? It seems like only yesterday that I was writing about my embarrassment over submitting my first paper a week early! A lot has happened between then and now, and after much trial and tribulation (and a few crises of confidence), I can really feel the degree to which my writing has improved over these past ten weeks. I've learned how digest a huge amount of material in a relatively short period of time, how to really make an outline (or three!), how draft, how to revise, and how to polish. I've been truly proud of some of the work I've produced this term, and I'd like to think with good reason!

I ended up having to write two extra papers compared to everyone else in the program because of my mid-stream switch, but it was worth it to get to study such a fascinating subject in the end. I really never thought I'd enjoy really modern art, but I definitely got into it! In fact, I discovered a whole new set of artists and works that I'd never even begun to appreciate before, because I've never taken an art history course that has ventured much further than the 30s. Plus, now I can say that I written papers on 1980s American sculpture, which I think is almost as rarified as Sumerian! Well, maybe not quite...

Just for fun, here are the titles of all the papers I wrote for my tutorials this term (I love Oxford titles because they're very to the point - none of the twenty minutes wishy-washying around trying to find something poetic like I always have to do at Stanford!), along with a *somewhat* shortened summary of my thesis:

1. Who Were the Sumerians?

(Only God knows)

2. How, When, and Why was Writing Invented in Ancient Mesopotamia?

(Because they liked teh moneyz and wanted to keep track of them way back before the "0" and other such nonsense)

... (subject change!) ...

3. Cubism: A New Visual Language

(Picasso: Apolitical firebrand working in surprisingly traditional molds. Sure.)

4. Does Propagadism Preclude Realism?

(Yup.)

5. How did US Cold War Policy Guide the Definition of "American" Art in the Forties and Fifties?

(Double Length)

(All American art has its place in the fight against the commies!)

6. Is there a Dialogue in Pop Art?

(Double Length)

(You betcha!)

7. Is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial a Minimalist Sculpture?

(Shore is, sorry Richard Serra haters)

Needless to say, it's been a ton of work, but I've also had a great deal of fun. Bring on next quarter, where I'll be tackling two tutorials at once!

A Trip Back in Time

It's so hard to believe that my first quarter at Oxford is almost over! In just 11 days, I'll be packing up and heading home for spring break. There are currently three papers standing between me and freedom, so I've been understandably just a bit busy. I do have a few good things to talk about but am not feeling terribly organized at the moment so they'll have to wait until a bit later on. Instead, in digging around for some photographs to submit to a literary magazine here in Oxford, I stumbled across a few of the pictures I took last time I was here, for a day trip at the end of Pa and my horse-hunting trip to Ireland in 2006. It's so weird to look back at these photos and realize how many of these sights are now part of my every day life. Another reminder of just how special this experience truly is!

(The archetypical Oxford photo - 'No Walking on the Grass' signs at St John's!)

(St. John's chapel, which I revisited for class this term)

(St. John's grounds with Lynda, the woman I had dinner with at the ballet)

(The Corpus Christi crest!! My college!!)

(The Samuel Beckett Theater)

(Magpie Lane, which I now walk down every day!)

I've recovered from my homesickness of a few weeks ago and am feeling so unbelievably lucky and happy to be here. I've finally come to terms with some of the things about the town I had issue with at first and have figured out how to still be myself while succeeding in the Oxford academic system. I'm going to be sad to say goodbye to the friends I've made this quarter, but am equally excited to meet some new folks next term!

Ode to a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

It's that time of the quarter again. Spring break is less than three weeks away (insane!! In 16 days I'll be frantically packing up and heading home!!) and so is currently occupying a fairly large amount of my concentration. Of course, in order to get to that spring break, I need to push through some fairly significant academic hurdles which require more than a partially-diverted mind. So, I've been at a bit of an impasse these past few days. Add that in with the sinus infection/death cold that has been plaguing me since Friday, giving me such bad headache that I had double vision and actually couldn't read, and I've been getting a little stressed about my lack of productivity.

In the light of this stress, I was looking for a little home remedy. And what was the first thing I turned towards?

A little dose of comfort food. More specifically, grilled cheese sandwiches - my favorite 'home-for-a-rainy-day' food of all time (and and high in the running of all time favorite growing up food, right up there with mac n cheese, homemade pesto, and chicken/chik'n nuggets with stuffing and peas). As far as I can tell, the British don't really get the joys of the GC - they would probably call it a "cheese toasty" or some such hogwash - and so it's been months since I've even laid eyes on one of these beauties, let alone enjoyed one myself.

(nom nom nom nom)

So, a few nights ago I went out to Sainsbury's, bought my first loaf of bread in the UK (I don't really eat bread otherwise unless it's a baguette smothered in brie), and got cooking. I was a little nervous because Pa is the go-to grilled cheese chef of the house, and every one of my previous attempts has resulted in a smoking and charred mess - since I've already set off the fire alarm once, I was really hoping not to do it again!

(oooh ahhh - so buttery and delicious! A pretty damn fine GC if I do say so myself)

Fortunately I got it right this time and ooooh lordy it was good. Crispy and buttery on the outside, warm and cheesy on the inside, piping hot out of the pan and smothered in as much ketchup as I could get on every bite. It was a wonderful little taste of America, even when I'm currently feeling very far from home. Now back to studying!!

Pilgrimage to The Kilns

Every day and every hour the light became more brilliant and still they could bear it. No one ate or slept and no one wanted to, but they drew buckets of dazzling water from the sea, stronger than wine and somehow wetter, more liquid, than ordinary water, and pledged one another silently in deep draughts of it. And one or two of the sailors who had been oldish men when the voyage began now grew younger every day. Everyone on board was filled with joy and excitement, but not an excitement that made one talk. The further they sailed the less they spoke, and then almost in a whisper. The stillness of that last sea laid hold on them.

--CS Lewis

(Lewis' sitting room)

I was fiendishly obsessed with CS Lewis growing up. It started with that weird '70s animated movie of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (which, admit, you know you've seen too) that quickly became my favorite movie and got watched, I'm sure much to my parents' chagrin, ad nauseum whenever I could get my hands on it. I then quickly progressed to the audio tapes of the whole series and, at the same time, to the books themselves. I loved the richness of Lewis' world and the deceptively simple way he told a story: something that I needed then, as these were some of the first real novels that I ever read.

(The plaque in the study where he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia)

When I hit nine or ten, I briefly forgot about CS Lewis in favor of my new obsession, the Redwall series (if you hadn't gathered that I am, in fact, a huge nerd, the picture should now be coming clear). These, coupled with Lord of the Rings and other assorted fantasy adventures carried me happily through middle school without much thought to Narnia. It wasn't until my freshman year of high school, when I was shocked to discover that CS Lewis' works had religious undertones! that I went scrabbling back to reread them and discover this (I could only imagine) covert brainwashing myself.

(The view out Lewis' window)

Instead, what I discovered was that the stories were even more full and complex than I'd remembered them. Whereas before I could only understand the plot, now I could just begin to grasp the much deeper and more complicated thoughts at play the series. Instead of staunchly rejecting the books as Christian propaganda, as I'd expected to do, I realized that I suddenly loved and appreciated them even more.

(The original sign from The Eagle and Child, the pub where Lewis and Tolkien would hang out)

Over the next few years I slowly went through as much Lewis writing as I could find. While I'm not religious in the slightest, I was deeply impressed by the clarity and brilliance of his thought, and the unbelievably simple and yet still profound way he had of putting his arguments to paper. This man was someone to respect, for sure.

Since coming to Oxford, Lewis' name has kept popping up. He did spend the majority of his life here, after all, and was a don at Magdalen (the college right across the street from the Stanford House) for over 29 years. That, coupled with his famous friendship with JRR Tolkien (who was based at Merton College, literally the next college down the street from the Stanford House, pretty much makes Oxford a Nerd's Paradise. When my TA for one of my classes discovered on Wednesday that I was a fan, he suggested that I go visit CS Lewis' house, The Kilns. I was planning a verrryyy quiet weekend otherwise, and so decided to go for it. The house isn't open to the public except on appointment, but a few emails later and I was all set to go.

(The sign at the entrance to The Kilns)

After a brisk hour and fifteen minute walk (during which time I discovered a hill that will be great for running, as I was chugging just to get up it at the walk with my double-camera-laden bag) I got to Headington and the little suburban neighborhood where Lewis' house now sits (when he lived there it would have been open countryside for the most part). I met some nice older American ladies who were in for the same tour and we were all greeted by a very friendly Oxford student (and soon to be head of the Oxford Lewis Society) who would be leading us around.

We started in the sitting room, and then made our way around the various rooms of the house, including the kitchen, the study where Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, and his bedroom. Along the way we heard stories of Lewis' everyday life, which pretty much confirmed that this was a man after my own heart.

(Lewis' pond)

Afterward, I walked up to the pond that used to be part of the The Kilns' property but is now the CS Lewis Nature Reserve. Apparently Lewis used to go swimming every single day in this pond, though from the looks of it today that seems a bit incredible to imagine. I had a very nice, albeit muddy, walk around the pond's perimeter, imagining myself following the path that Lewis and Tolkien would have taken on one of their many ambles here, and finished at the bench over the water where they were known to spend many afternoons sitting and chatting. It was awesome.

(The bench)

It was then another hour and fifteen walk back to Oxford, made ten times better by the appearance of the sun!! Seriously, I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen my shadow in over a week before that. Add that in with the crocuses and daffodils starting to pop up everywhere, and it looks like spring is finally coming to Oxford!! Seriously exciting =)

(Britain one minute...)

(...Britain the next - no wonder the Pilgrims felt at home in New England!)

(Oh herrrooo shadow! Good for you to show up again!)

(Crocuses are out with force)

(Spring is coming!!)

Squash!

And no, not the gourd. Yesterday I got to play the game again for the first time since high school!!

Squash, if you were wondering, is an indoor racket sport much like racquetball but with a smaller, less bouncy ball and different court boundaries. Basically you and your opponent face the same wall and try to hit the ball against that front wall and then back to one another (well, keeping in mind that you actually score points by hitting shots that your opponent won't be able to retrieve!). It's super fast-paced and a great workout, both mentally and physically.

(I don't have any photos of me playing, so here are some other folks)

It's not played very widely in America (I think New England is about it, and even then it's pretty uncommon outside of prep school), but it's pretty common in the UK and nearly every college at Oxford, it turns out, has its own courts. I played throughout my time in high school, and though I failed to ever develop as a very competitive player, I got an almost immoderate amount of enjoyment from every season. It's just not like any other athletic activity I've ever done: with both riding and running, at the end of the day you're only ever competing against yourself and your own standards of perfection. In squash, when push comes to shove you can be as scrappy and ragged as you want, but if you can hustle and keep the ball in play longer than your opponent you're going to win the match. It was a mentality that I never quite cottoned on to fully (hence why I was never super competitive) and am still struggling with now in polo (which is quite similar in the need for scrappiness), but even the small amount that I could put myself into that mindset was incredibly helpful for the rest of my daily life.

(Cool black court squash where the ball is white!)

Now, I'd heard that there was squash at Oxford and so had optimistically brought my racket (and my tatty old shoes, straight from junior year of high school!) along with me. It wasn't until yesterday, though, that I finally got to play.

And it was awesome!!! I was super worried that I would have forgotten everything and wouldn't even be able to make contact with the ball (my hand-eye coordination was never something that came naturally to me), but miraculously it all for the most part came back. Muscle memory is so cool!! I played with a friend from the Stanford House who was certainly better than I was but not so much so that the game was totally lopsided, which was nice. We hit the ball around, played a game which I lost gamely (9-7, not a bad way to go down the first time out in four years!), and then hit the ball around some more. I was so out of shape that I was literally dripping sweat by the time we finished, but also couldn't stop smiling because I'd had SO MUCH FUN.

I hope I can get back and play a few more times before the term is out, because the person I played with is going back to Stanford for the spring and I don't know if I'll have another partner after him! Plus, it was a seriously nice change of pace to get to take out a small fraction of my pent up academic stress on hitting a small rubber ball as hard as I possibly could, and one that I'll probably be needing again as the term races to a close =)

Today I'm taking a break from schoolwork and going out to visit author CS Lewis' house, The Kilns, which is about an hour's walk away in Headington. I was a HUGE CS Lewis fan growing up and have read pretty much everything he's ever written, from the entire Narnia series multiple times right down to his published letters and essays on religion. He taught at Magdalen College, the place where I played squash yesterday, for over 29 years and called Oxford his home for the majority of his life. The Kilns is supposed to be super beautiful, and even though the forecast is for rain and gloomy skies, I couldn't be more excited.

(The Kilns in sunshine - aka NOT how I'm going to see it today!)