German Jumble

Yes I know that's not a very elegant title, but hey. I wanted some alliteration, and I'm going to get some alliteration, actual first letters of words be damned.

Anyway, my trip to Germany last weekend really only could be described as a jumble. I mean, how else can you summarize a trip that crammed horses, small towns, überbread (more on that later), hundreds of drunk liederhosen-clad gun nuts, a mile of tanks, and full-time rain evasion all into less than four full days? Needless to say, my dad and I had a great time, but we didn't necessarily catch up on much sleep.

So, to the beginning. I left Oxford bright and early on Thursday morning, feeling pretty bittersweet about the whole thing. Apparently some of my friends tried to come to say goodbye to me the night before, but I had fallen asleep with the lights on and so I didn't hear them when they came to the door. I do sort of remember hearing my name a possible reference to ducks, but because of the second part (which definitely was NOT real) I had decided it was a dream and didn't get up. D'oh.

I arrived at Heathrow and quickly met up with Pa, who had just arrived from an overnight flight from Boston. After some quick hugs, we hopped on our flight to Hamburg and let the real adventure officially begin. We got in without trouble, got our somewhat adorably ugly rental car ("The Opel"), and before we knew it were on the roads. Eeee! I've been to Germany twice before already, but have never actually been on a German Autobahn before, so I was pretty excited. The Autobahn does, in fact, have no speed limits, and so we were endlessly amused (slash terrified) of the various station wagons, hatchbacks, and vans that roared past us at 200+ km/h as soon as we got on the road.

(ze Opel looking zexy)

We drove about an hour out into the countryside and went straight to the place where we'd be spending most of the weekend, the show grounds for the Luhmuhlen CCI****. There was some dressage going on that day which we watched with somewhat lackluster enthusiasm because we were both feeling pretty jetlagged/exhausted. We also peeked onto a bit of the cross country course, but quickly realized we were too tired to take anything in properly. We drove 45 minutes further south to our hotel in beautiful Soltau (note: it's actually kind of ugly, and is a bit of a heartless industrial town). We stayed awake just long enough to have a really surprisingly good dinner at a sketchy-looking Italian restaurant, and then it was bed time.

(We also found this thing on the lawn of our hotel. We never found out what it was)

The next morning we got up bright and early so that we could get to the show grounds before the competition began. I talk about the actual competition more over on my other blog, but needless to say it was awesome, and Friday especially was a great day to be an American spectator. All the American competitors did a great job and we were feeling very patriotic as we walked the course that afternoon. We whiled pretty much the whole day at the show, but did have enough time to stop at THE BEST TACK SHOP IN THE WORLD on the way home that evening.

(This sign was on our breakfast table. Unspeakably creepy older man FTW).

Now, as a horse crazy child, I've been to more than my fair share of tack shops. I've experienced the big southern warehouses, the western feed centers, the oak-paneled classiness of the Dover flagship store, and the unbelievable sprawl of the Badminton trade fair. There's not much out there when it comes to retailing horsey crap that I haven't seen before.

(Oooohhh ahhhhh)

Until I got to this store. The building was not big, but was crammed literally floor to 10' ceiling with stuff from every possible nook and cranny. Sub-aisles had been built into the walls to increase the surface area of shelves, hooks, and hanger space. One entire side of the store had probably well over a thousand pairs of britches stacked so high that you needed a stepladder to get to some of them in probably 8 crowded aisles. They also had three aisles dedicated solely to mens' breeches which was a huge coup for my dad, who usually has between 0 and 1 pairs of riding pants to choose from.

(Rug mountain)

There were also precarious-looking stacks of rugs, innumerable rows of boots and wraps, a mind-numbing selection of bridles and strapwear, an entire aisle of western saddles (really?? In Germany??), and some of the funniest hunt caps I'd ever seen, including one that had a mystifying fleecy lining. Pa and I spent about an hour wandering around in awe and came home with some serious goodies. I'd come back to Luhmuhlen just for the tack shop alone!

(You know, for the chilly days)

The rest of the weekend followed in a pretty similar fashion, enjoying the horse show and toodling through the German countryside. On Friday night we went to a Greek restaurant that served me one of the top ten strangest foods I've ever considered: breaded, deep-fried... bread. So simple, yet so strange! Überbread! It basically tasted like bread, but with the satisfaction that it was much less healthy than a normal piece of white bread would have been (and that's not saying much). It totally upstaged the rest of the meal in terms of my obsession with it, and my biggest regreat was that I dissected and inhaled it before I had a chance to capture its glory on film. Oh well.

We also had one extremely weird 'situation' on Saturday evening when we went out for a run and, on the way back, were passed by over a hundred drunk men and women in liederhosen riding in haywagons and carousing. We got to our hotel, only to discover that they had stopped there too, and had to endure like 25 drunk Germans trying to talk to us while we slunk back to our room to de-sweatify and change. I even got to see an aged, liederhosen-clad old man peeing against a tree. Ahhh, the German life. Apparently the town we were staying in was holding a massive shooting festival that weekend, which we were strongly invited to join (we could even shoot! We were assured)... but we declined. Maybe next time.

On Sunday, when the competition was over, we decided to head over to nearby Munster to see the National Panzer Museum. It seemed only fitting given our shared penchant for all things WWII. The museum was HUGE, and had hundreds of tanks stored in a series of interconnected warehouses that we could wander through. The history ranged from WWI all the way through the present day, with a totally overwhelming number of prototypes and production examples of pretty much every kind of tank you could ever imagine ever.

(Hey! I've studied these!)

(Germany also has tank speed limits, apparently. Why am I surprised?)

(Sick fu man chu, dude)

I love a good tank, but I must say that after an hour of pretty much just straight walking from one room to another with minimal stopping and contemplating and STILL HAVING MORE TANKS TO LOOK AT I was getting a little burnt out. We pretty much ignored the last three rooms, only stopping to check out a UN Tank with these crazy flails designed to clear minefields. Still, the weather had been terrible all day Sunday, so it was an amusing way to pass the last part of a crappy afternoon. And I got to pick up a shell! A good day.

(It's like a baby! A big, 40 pound, explosive baby.)

(Tank attack!)

(Pa, with his man strength, found the shell a little easier to wield)

The weekend had flown by, and before we knew it we were driving back to Hamburg on Monday morning, saying goodbye to the Opel, and setting off for Helsinki and the next leg of the adventure. I have to say that I found Germans to be way more friendly and fun to interact with than I'd imagined or even experienced previously (though actually I had had a pretty great time in Munich too, so perhaps it was just Berlin). German is seriously fun to try to pronounce, and includes far too many improbably long and hilarious-looking words to not enjoy. Even though it probably would have been more logical to go to Germany AFTER my summer-long intensive course, I still think it was great. I may have only learned a few words (all of them food-related… I know where my priorities are) but I've already used them in my class! I was also reassured that German is, at the end of the day, a fairly easy to understand language when it counts. As we were soon to learn, that is not always the case! Finnish, for example. . .

Tutorial Relapse

I was sorting through my papers from last term, trying to get organized for my next academic adventure (which, naturally, started yesterday - no rest for the wicked, I suppose), and realized that I hadn't yet done a summary of my tutorial topics from Trinity term. I had so much fun with both my tutorials this spring, and even though they were both a huge amount of work I really felt like I learned a lot and became a better scholar in the process of grappling with them. So, like I did for Hilary term, here is a summary of the topics I covered over my seven weeks of term, with the question/title and then a slightly summarized version of my response:

POST-IMPRESSIONIST ART

1. How Useful is the Term 'Post-Impressionism'?

(As useful as you want to make it, bitches)

2. How Does Seurat Paint Modern Life?

(Like a scientist, an anarchist, and a democrat. Those all go together, right?)

3. To What Extent is Gauguin's Art 'Primitive'?

(Not much - it's hard to a) time travel and b) fully immerse oneself in a 'primitive' culture when one is in fact the epitome of the forces that are destroying that society. Sorry Paul.)

4. What are the Main Preoccupations of Symbolism and how does this Emerge in their Painting?

(Religious Revolución!)

5. 'Art is the Property of Everyone:'

Democracy in the Vienna Secession

(It's hard to be truly egalitarian when you not only come from a privileged class, associate only with other members of the privileged class, and sell your paintings to folks of an ever higher class. Nice try though.)

6. How does the Post-Impressionist Treatment of the Nude Address the 'Crisis of Painting'?

(Up the scandal, keep painting alive. Unless you're a woman, in which case your paintings are obviously lesbian fantasies, no questions asked. Obviously.)

7. Divergence:

An examination of the extent to which the writing of Roger Fry and Clive Bell shaped the course of British Modernist painting

(Keep dreaming boys, your movement will come eventually)

--*--

WORLD WAR II

1. The Allied Invasion of Normandy

(Way to get lucky when it counts, Allies)

2. Was the Allied Bombing Campaign in France an Operational Success?

(Sure, if the 'operation' was to kill innocent civilians for relatively little strategic gain)

3. Failure Holland:

Operation Market-Garden

(Putting the cart ahead of the horse a bit, aren't we Monty??)

4. Unhappy Legacies:

Norway 1940

(Note: when performing an invasion of an arctic country in winter, skies, jackets, and maps are usually a plus to bring along. Maybe thoughts for next time.)

5. Window of Opportunity:

The Possibility of a Japanese Victory at Midway

(Again, way to pull it out where it counts, Allies)

6. A Reevaluation of the Japanese Capture of Singapore

(Brits, Get. Your shit. Together.)

7. On War and World War II:

A Series of Vignettes

(Some things never change)

It was certainly a quarter to remember. Now I'm currently sitting on the commuter rail, heading into the city for my next adventure: a summer of intensive German.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig

Well, it's happened. My European adventures are, for the moment, complete.

I'm sitting here in a hotel room in Norway 350 km north of the Arctic Circle, feasting on a candy breakfast before packing up for my endless flight home (seriously, it's going to take 20 hours) and looking back on the past six months. I can still remember very clearly those days in early December when I was just starting to get packed up and getting so itchy to start my blog that every day I had to ask myself it was too soon to begin.

Since then, there have been many highs, few lows, and very few regrets. I've found the abroad experience more complicated than I expected--it wasn't just "ZOMG this is amazing!!" all the time, like I perhaps naively thought it might be--but incredibly gratifying. I leave Europe feeling like a better scholar and a better individual. I've had to be independent (more so than I already was - and I thought I had been doing pretty well!), stretch myself socially, and most of all WORK HARD. I've seen some amazing things and gotten some pretty outrageous opportunities. I've missed a lot of things about home, the horses especially, but I still think it was one of the best decisions I've made in college so far.

I'm so thankful for my parents first and foremost for giving me this opportunity. They've never once paused in supporting my dreams, and this was just another mind-boggling display of their generosity. I'm also extremely thankful to the Stanford overseas program, my professors and programme-mates, Emily at Eventing Magazine, and John at Eventingnation.com. I don't know when I'll ever have an opportunity like this again, so I owe these individuals a lot for making it so special the first time around.

I have a good few posts left to do as recap, but I thought I should mark the end a bit more formally. Everything from here on out will be recollections and nostalgia. I've never been opposed to such activities, so bring it on =)

Goodbye Oxford

Well here we are: my bags are packed, I'm (sort of) ready to go, and I'm getting really excited for the next adventure. I'm feeling a lot better than I was earlier in the week, though I may be suffering from minor impaction colic as a result of eating THIS last night:

Yes, I went back for the Mac 'n' Cheese Burger at Atomic Burger again. And it was soooo worth it.

Next time I'll write will be from beautiful Luhmuhlen!! Bring it on =)

DONE!!

I just finished my last Oxford essay!!! It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that I was handing in my first paper a week early (whoops...). It's really hard to describe how much I feel like I've gotten out of the process: it's been the most rigorous, thought-provoking, academically stimulating six months I've ever experienced. I'm utterly exhausted from the process, but couldn't be more thankful. I've had highs, lows, and a few tears, but have come out of it a better writer and a better thinker as a result. I'm going to miss it, but am also excited to apply what I've learned to my writing at Stanford when I get back.

Because I'm a huge nerd and, despite being totally not math-oriented for 99% of my life (I was called out this fall for taking legit 5 minutes to figure out how to divide 1000 by 200... it's 5, right?), for some reason love statistical reviews of things, I decided to make one for my time at Oxford. It's not as intense as the one I did on my year off, where I actually kept a page at the back of my diary that I dutifully updated every day with the number of stalls I'd mucked (that stat got depressing rullll fast), horses I'd ridden, books I'd read, movies I'd watched, states I'd visited, miles I'd driven, etc., but it still sums up my six months abroad pretty succinctly, I think:

Words written: 73,264
Pages written (double spaced, A4 paper): 302
Libraries used: 10
Books read/consulted: 163

Nationally published articles written: 2 (well, will be after Luhmuhlen)
EN articles: 4
Blog updates between here GBE: 101 (with more to come!)
Pictures taken: over 10,000

National Hunt Races visited: 3
CCI****s: 2
CCI***s: 2
Countries: 6-8, depending on how our itinerary works out in Finland

Played polo on a grass pitch
Went to a Formal Hall
Went to a Ball
Danced the night away on May Morning
Made new friends
Ran 14 miles in one go, and over 250 miles total
Played Squash

...Man, it's a good life.

I have a few more updates (I realize I never really talked about the formal hall I went to, which I think deserves a post of its own) and will try to do a better wrap up post than this a bit later on when my head is a bit clearer, but in the meantime I just had to write something. My junior year of college is officially complete!! Just in time for another adventure to begin =)

Last Days

I've spent the past few days (in between being horribly, horribly sick - booo) stuffing as many digestive biscuits into my face as I can manage, taking sentimental pictures of things I've already photographed and dozen times before, and doing trial run packing experiments to see if I can fit all the extra junk I've accumulated over the past six months into my already limited baggage space. This can only mean one thing: I've come to my last days in Oxford.

In fact, after today I only have one full day left, and it will be pretty crazy with finishing up my last paper, having my last tutorial, attending a farewell Pimms party in the garden, and trying to get packed up. Where has the time gone? It doesn't help that I'm leaving ten days early, but I've known about this early departure all spring and I'm still being taken by surprise. I'm really sad that I'm not feeling better, because there is so much more than I want to do and see, and I'm just not feeling physically up to it at the moment. Oh well; I've definitely had a great quarter and a great six months. Oxford has become a second home, and I'm going to miss it very much. But I'm also getting really excited for the next adventure!

Here are some pictures from the last few days, trying to put a cap on the wonderful experience my time abroad has been:

(Trip to Atomic Burger for the INDESCRIBABLY INCREDIBLE Macaroni and Cheese burger, which yes, is exactly what you think it is - before...)

(...and literally five minutes later. I barely had enough time to take a picture of it I inhaled it so quickly)

(Out for a last run along the river - I made it further than I ever had before (about 30 minutes down, 30 minutes back))

(Sweet bridge I found further down the Isis)

(Last walk in Christ Church Meadow at sunset - the cows are out now and it's almost too idyllic for words)

Ode to an Oxford Library (or Ten)

Well, it's happened. I've visited the library for the last time. Yesterday I spent a good six hours split between the Sackler and the RadCam, and I was walking out realized with a pang that there was no reason for me to ever have to enter a library at this university again; the only three readings I have left between my last two papers are either online or in a book that I own. It was a bittersweet moment.

I've never been much of a library person. Oh, I certainly enjoy them, and love admiring a well-ordered bookshelf or a beautiful, Beauty and the Beast-style reading room. But I've never really used them before to the extent that I have at Oxford. My high school library was depressing except for one reading room where my friends and I would occasionally hang out to 'work on group projects' (which really meant sitting around updating the campus gossip blog that we ran... and I wish I was joking), but I can honestly say that I probably never even checked out more than a dozen books in my entire time there. There weren't many research papers (and the one big one I did write, our junior year US history paper extravaganza, was on a topic--the architectural history of Atlantic City--too obscure for my school's resources) and for regular papers rarely had to look outside the class's required book list.

At Stanford, I've obviously had to use the resources of the library more often, but since there's an unlimited book checkout policy, I've almost always chosen to take the books out and use them in my own room. Actual study in the library has been restricted to 'big events,' like studying for finals or completing my PWR 2 paper.

But now at Oxford, I've become a library regular. I've really had no choice, because we aren't allowed to check books out, but I've been surprised at how much I've come around to the lib life. Sure, it may still take some serious self-motivating to get up to the Japanese Library way up on Banbury Rd (a good 20+ minute walk, even at my brisk pace), but the quiet solitude and internet-free ability to concentrate have been wonderful.

As a tribute, I thought I'd run down the different libraries I've called home over the past 6 months:

The Sackler

(I used to find the rolling stack system really novel because there's only one library at Stanford that uses it - then I found out pretty much every library at Ox uses it AND it can be a huge pain when you have to unroll like fifteen stacks to get one tiny paperback that you're going to read three pages out of. But it's cool, there's still the added excitement of getting squished and the added fun of moving things)

(Friends and lovers)

(The Sackler on a happening Friday night)

(Ironically, the Sackler was my library of choice for both Ancient Sumerian Studies AND Modern Art - talk about a broad spread!)

(The Sackler as I said goodbye to it yesterday afternoon, looking exactly as it did that first day in January - so long, friend!)

This has been the library that I've had to go to more than any other, probably at least once a week since Week 1 Hilary Term, way back in January. It's the Ancient Studies/Art library, located on the back of the Ashmolean, and while I can't say I find it the most beautiful (it's circular which means I always get lost and has ver few windows and sort of industrial feel), I certainly feel the most at home there now. Plus, while the walk is pretty far, it's a perfect excuse to go from there up to the Big Bang for awesome post-studying bangers and mash =)

Radcliffe Camera

(I'd put a strong bet that this is probably the most photographed building in Oxford - I've certainly taken probably 50 pictures of it since I've been here!)

(Busy and studious)

(The stacks give the different studied area a nicely cloistered feel)

(From that one Friday night where I was legit one of three people there)

This building is probably one of the more iconic in Oxford, and certainly has one of the more lavish reading rooms I've been to. It's nice and very studious feeling, and is definitely my favorite place to send books from the Bodleian bookstack when I have to order them, but it's almost always packed (except for that one cool kid night when I was there at 9pm on a Friday...) and so it can be stressful to find a seat. Still, very cool, and it feels very official to walk through the gates posted with the NO VISITORS signs (which are usually surrounded by tourists trying to peek in) and up the walk to the building.

Social Science Library

(Modern architecture ftw)

Everyone from the Stanford program hates this library, but I have to admit I'm kind of a fan. It's very 'modern,' but has a lot of light and big comfy chairs to sit in. Since I hate sitting at desks, this in itself is enough to put the SSL pretty high on the list.

Japanese Library

(Worth the hike)

(Hmmm... probably not the most helpful books for me per se)

(The nice, quiet cozy reading area, with lots of natural light and a view out on the garden)

I only discovered this library a few weeks ago, and I have to say it might be my favorite one. It's small, not crowded, and very quiet, and has a lovely view out onto a flower garden from the ground floor windows. It's the furthest away, but I love how peaceful and serene it is. Plus the things I've read about there have been pretty fascinating (the battle of Midway and the fall of Singapore), which alway helps the time go faster!

Rhodes House Library

I've only been here once and had a slightly annoying experience. It seems like a nice enough library, but there's little about that makes it much more special than any other reading room, and it's far away and has a really bothersome semi-open shelf system where it's really hard to know what you're going to find on the shelf and what you have to get ordered. Boo.

Continuing Education Library

Soul-sucking, windowless basement, outfitted with uncomfortable chairs and outmoded furniture? Check, check, check, and check. Seriously, it's pretty depressing. There's an upstairs reading room that's a bit better, but the people there always frown at my laptop (even though there are no signs to the contrary) so I never fell very comfortable.

History Library

I don't have any pictures of this one but I wish I did because it's pretty beautiful, with big windows looking out over little courtyard gardens, the King's Arms, and Broad St. I only got to go twice, but liked it immensely both times.

The Bodleian Reserve

My least favorite library: big, crowded, full of people who are ready to glare at you if you so much as scuff the floor with your chair as you're trying to sit down, and not anywhere near beautiful enough to merit such uppityness. I only ever go there when I've maxed out my reserves in the RadCam, which mercifully has only happened twice all winter and spring.

American Library

(Such big windows!!)

(Private study carols = awesome)

This one is a close second to the Japanese Library in terms of a favorite of mine. It's got cool architecture, nice private study carols, and enormous windows that look out on a beautiful English garden. It's a little bigger and busier than the Japanese library, and so feel just a smidge less cozy, but it's pretty awesome.

Corpus Christi College Library

(Classic Ox)

Technically my 'home' library, but it feels weird calling it that because I almost never go. CCC has very few books that are very useful to me, and so I didn't go very often. I did always enjoy it when I did, though, as it definitely had the most traditional "old library" feel of them all, right down to the 17th century vintage oak study carols. I especially enjoyed studying there when the organist was practicing, as the chapel is right next to the library and the sound would come through. It felt like I could be all the way back in the early 1600s again when the library was first founded.

So there you go! The incredible thing, of course, is that these libraries are but a small fraction of those offered at the University. I think it could honestly take a lifetime to get to know them all! All right, I've officially done nothing useful today, so perhaps I should try to get a little work done before the day has completely run away with me...

(The last book I ever called up from reserve, a cool treatise on British Modernism)