Hooliganism and Losing the Melk

I just got back from watching "Love Actually" at our Mexican Night Sunday potluck.  It's a different movie to watch with mostly non-Americans. Despite being a harmless rom-com, it slips in the American president as a womanizing bully and American women as loose Wisconsin sorority girls who go gaga for British accents.  Everyone had lots of fun with this. And it's a tad bit hard to defend one's country when retrospectively it's easy to see that's how we might be portrayed. I mean, let's be serious, we do swoon for British accents.

[Sidenote: did you know Hugh Grant went to Oxford? Apparently he comes back sometimes and goes to the bar and buys "obscene amounts of alcohol" for every student there, according to one of our orientation speakers.]

We've set up a Sunday potluck-style meal every week since the term started, hosted by one of the Hilda's Hooligans, our rogue not-so-secret posse of fresher grad students at St. Hilda's from all over the world. We created the group mainly so we could all contact each other, but it's blossomed into a full-fledged cult-like entity full of shenanigans, great conversations, and amazing interesting friends.  I look forward to Sundays every week. Next goal: steal a deer from rival-across-river Magdalen College (they have a deer park).

I've found myself not attempting the English accent so much (I can't quite pull off the Kate Winslet level yet, which is of course what I'm aspiring to), but rather I'm much more conscious of my Michigan accent. Particularly I've been losing the Michigan vowels:

• Michigan A - sharp sound, like aee-pple or aaaax-ccent, contrast with British ah-pple
• Michigan O - saying "fer" instead of "for." This is the most common one for me to change.
• Michigan I - Milk = Melk. Why, Michigan, why?

These sound ridiculous when compared to the deep vowel sounds of British English. I know I should be proud of my Michigander talk but really, I'm not so sad to see the accent go. At least then when I speak, everyone knows I'm not British, but not everyone knows the exact location of the States I'm from. Even other U.S.ers mock me when I say melk.

After last weekend's matriculation madness, finally I've had a school-filled weekend. A true 'Welcome to Oxford.' Okay, an almost-school-filled weekend, except for all that Ultimate Frisbee I played. In shorts and a t-shirt! In October! Twas brilliant.

In more important news, I've confirmed that "spooning" is indeed a universal term. Who knew!

Oxford is celebrating Halloween with a University-wide... cross-dressing party? Should be interesting. I also hope to go to London next weekend, stay tuned! Also I will update about the Hilda's Crest which has seahorse-unicorns on it. Toodaloo, Lisa

Less Potatoes, More Globalism

Good morning, TGIF! My day is packed with a lot of reading and errand running and some French class, but here is a quick snippet of my week...

Tuesday 6:30 a.m.  Do you know how disconcerting it is to bike to the boat house without being able to see the ground?  It feels eerily as if you're defying the laws of gravity or friction; you're floating across the world like a specter.

Rowers are a particularly admirable breed. Not only do they practice on (cold) water, in darkness and (freezing) wind, but they voluntarily get out of their nice warm bed to do so.  And you get some really cold hands. It is surprising that I find rowing more mentally than physically exhausting.  There are so many things to think about with the motion....not the least of which is making sure you don't tip the boat over by shifting your balance (a real difficulty!).

Wednesday I could have attended a really-interesting extra seminar or presentation every day this week. The best and worst thing about Oxford is the amazing amount of events going on.  How do you decide? What if you miss one that could have potentially shaped your research, or radically changed your views?

Wednesday Formal Dinner Dear St. Hilda's, I am very very sick of potatoes. I have yet to see a meal served without them.  I am forwarding you the New England Journal of Medicine study that said that potatoes were the number one food making us obese.

Thursday Netball is... interesting. The game comes to a standstill every time someone tries to shoot the ball, since only two players are allowed on each team in the shooting area.  I was the only American playing and lots of the Brits have played since grade school.  Why do only females play it? Do we even have a sport that only females play in the U.S.? Is it like the softball-baseball divide? What did the guys play while the women played netball in school?

Friday I. Need. To. Get. To. London.  It's only a hour and a half away, this is embarrassing.  I get to play an Ultimate Frisbee hat tournament tomorrow!  And I am nervous about my French class today.  I got into the fast-paced beginner class, and now I'm bemoaning the lack of language learning I've done in the past three years. Plus I pronounce all French words like Spanish words, which is not ideal.  But I will not perpetuate the trend of everyone learning our language while we make no effort to learn others. Global citizenship! 

Au revoir, LP

And Then There Was a Scepter?

Happy Monday! We're winding down from a rather eventful weekend over here, where I matriculated and went on some real nerdy excursions.  My two cents on the ridiculousness:

1.  The Outfit
     Some grey-haired long-bearded wrinkly men and matronly women (how I picture the Oxford Trustees) are probably cackling at the robes they make the students wear for Matriculation.  Let's give them streamers (alternate name: tentacles) instead of sleeves!  And make the men wear white bow ties and the women silly ribbons.  Garroff garroff (old person laughing sound). We'll just call it "tradition."  Don't they look silly.

2.  Matriculated And It Feels So Good
      They make the whole fresher population dress up for a 10 minute ceremony? Highlights: a large scepter was brought in by a spitting image of Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter.  A guy pompously bowed before the vice chancellor. Some Latin was spoken.  The wand was waved.  Haha, just kidding, or am I? (see you don't know what to think, do you, it's Oxford).

3.  Harry Potter Mania
       John Locke is buried in Christ Church.  JOHN LOCKE. THE FOUNDER OF LIBERALISM. And y'all tourists are rushing next door to see the dining hall where Harry Potter was filmed? Really? The Christ Church dining hall actually doesn't look much like it did in the films, but it is equally as spooky. There are these huge portraits of famous Christ Church alumni (William Penn, John Wesley, Einstein, etc.) on the walls, looming down over the dinner tables, whispering Be Someone, you fools! to the poor undergraduates. On the bright side I did get a nice photo in my robes in the Harry Potter Dining Hall. Hehe.

4.  Middle Earth NerdFest 2011
       I'm not sure I've ever done anything more nerdy than the two-hour Tolkien Tour around Oxford.  We saw the outside of this one house where he lived for two years. And then there was this spot where he said something once about. We did see the door of the house where he died in.  And the tree that inspired the Ents! And the window of the room where C.S. Lewis studied. Important stuff.  But we did learn a lot of bonkers Oxford traditions...

5. Duck Lore
       Every 100 years, the renowned fellows of All Souls College chase a duck around Oxford? Apparently, this is because when they were building All Souls, there was a duck that flew out of the foundation, and they said "Hey, let's make a tradition." Don't believe me? Unfortunately this happened 10 years ago, so unless I contend for the oldest women alive I will never get to see it.
       We also saw the Merton College Courtyard where they walk backwards once a year to counteract the space-time continuum, and learned about "Beating the Bounds," where small children are beaten with sticks at markers that designate the boundaries of the four parishes in Oxford (okay, nowadays they're not beaten, the kids instead beat the walls with sticks, because that makes more sense. We get to watch. There's beer).
      We've decided as a St. Hilda's group that we should find a bogus reason to start a tradition, because it's seemingly pretty easy over here.  The Merton Time Ceremony was invented by an American tourist in the 70's, it's possible.  Ideas?

That's all from across the pond! LP

Bicycling Elitism

A Tale of Cycling in Oxford

Act 1: Observation
Once upon a time, I brought my bike on the airplane.  I arrived at this quaint town called Oxford.  Gee, there are a lot of bikers here, I thought.  Look at them weave in-between those very, very large buses in those tiny biking lanes on those very busy streets.  Then, we went on the International Student walking tour, and our guide told us that he knew more than one biking friend who had either gotten conked on the head by a bus and hit by a car.  Nervousness descended.

Act 2: Exploration
One day, I realized that my classes were 2.1 miles away.  Biking was inevitable.  I ventured out like an adopted puppy slowly exploring its new habitat. I tiptoed around corners.  I cautiously walked my bike across streets. I more than once forgot to ride on the wrong side of the road.  I almost got ran over by a truck who forced me to jump the curb when trying to make a right turn.  I got passed by many, many other bikers on their way to class. I hate getting passed. I despaired.

Act 3: Maturation
And then, I realized something.  Bikers rule the roads in Oxford. They outnumber the buses. Just point where you're going, and the cars will defer. The police support you (as long as you have bike lights). Whizzing around a roundabout at top speed? Just stick your arm out and traffic will slow down. Want to weave in-between lanes of a traffic jam while using idling cars to steady yourself? There's already five people ahead of you doing the same thing. Fear blossomed into confidence and then into cockiness.  I bloomed into just another one of those brash Oxford bikers, who seize the roads like they're nobody's business.

I feel, however, that this three-act play may have forever ruined me for biking in the U.S., where bikers do not in fact enjoy the same level of bicycling elitism and there are not bike lanes on every street. I in fact think that if I did what I did this morning, which was ride down the center lane of traffic in the middle of town an attempt to get to the bank, I may get berated rather than begrudgingly obliged.

Until then, I will cruise the streets of Oxford with the rest of the bicycling elitists who believe that combining low-impact exercise with reducing natural resource consumption and feeling that early-morning fresh air is definitely the best way to travel.  Move over, cars.  Cheers, fellow bikers.

Row, row, row your boat

Arms, back, legs; legs, back, arms. Arms, back, legs; legs, back, arms...

First day of rowing today!  Yes it is called the "rowing club" and not crew.  We biked down to the boathouse, which is this gorgeous building on a really calm river (the Thames?) with these beautiful boats housed inside.  And then we all sat down on the rowing machines and learned the technique (see above).  It's like nothing I've ever done before, but I can tell I'm going to like the workout.  Hamstrings, quads, back, and arms all in one.  My short legs put me at a particular disadvantage, I think, since my stroke is shorter, but I will just compensate by having awesome back muscles.  Next outing is in a boat! On Friday... at 7 a.m. Welp, I knew what I was getting into when I signed up.  Should be fun for a term.

(Sidenote: my father's opinion: "Don't women who row get those huge arm muscles? How are you supposed to pick up a Duke that way?" I think he's kidding... maybe).

Anyways, and equally important I suppose, it was my first day of classes today!  I had been warned that UK universities had non-interactive lectures: the professor preaches, students listen. My classes do not fit this mold. At all. Lots of discussion. However, I do now understand the terminology of "reading for a degree" that is used at Oxford.  We have a lot less class time and a seemingly insurmountable amount of critical reading. I have to say, though, that my Political Science years prepared me perfectly for learning at Oxford, since I had to think critically about texts all the time, and it feels very natural to move back into it.

Plus, I had forgotten how much I do love having no other expectations on me than learning. Although I've been thinking about how education is very egocentric, in a way. It's focusing on one's own development exclusively for an entire year; it feels a bit selfish, sometimes, to not be applying one's talents for a greater purpose than merely developing oneself.  I suppose there is usually an end goal in mind, but still, in the short term, I'm not contributing much to society. Studying for the sake of studying is something I've witnessed a lot of lately, perhaps, and it's not what want to do. It's important, I think, to reflect on the end goal: how will your studying enable you to contribute to society? What purpose will it facilitate? An idealistic principle, I suppose, to grapple with as I start this year.

Dragging myself out of philosophical ramblings, what else is going on here...I start playing football tomorrow.  I found out the tree that inspired Tolkein's Ents is right down the street from me, how awesome is that.  I will go take a picture soon. I also taught the drinking game "Flip Cup" to some Brits on Friday and they loved it (a bit too much, perhaps).  I've just started a revolution in UK drinking games I'm fairly sure.

 Also, this weekend is Matriculation, get ready...



The official Sub fusc Lego.  Don't worry mine looks more ridiculous than that, because instead of sleeves it has these weird panels.  There. will. be. pictures.

Happy Wednesday! Lisa

House tour!

And what have I learned today? Every year, members of Merton College walk backwards around their quad wearing their robes and drinking port, in order to counteract the space-time continuum.  Uh huh.

This was just one of several ridiculous facts we learned at the MCR Initiation today. MCR = middle common room; basically the collection of graduate students at St. Hilda's.  Our MCR is very active and holds so many events that it's almost impossible to not go to some of them, so it's been a great way to meet everyone.  Anywho, a bit of a photo tour...

25a, Alma Place.  It's a three-bedroom house with a common room and a kitchen and no dryer....

View from my window. Let's talk about the logistics of drying one's clothes at Oxford.  Look at this nice, sunny view of my backyard with my laundry.  15 minutes later, it downpoured for 10 minutes, and then went back to being sunny. In fact, it's possible that Oxford is actually the worst place I can think of for drying clothes.  However, that's really  a small deal, since...

Check out my fireplace! Win! 

Anyways, I got a much better feel for my master's course this week (MSc Education - Learning and Tech) It's highly theoretically-based and highly research-based; the first term will mostly focus on theories of learning, and whether the same theories can be applied to ICT learning. I'll additionally be in an Foundations of Educational Research class, and they've emphasized that we should start thinking about out dissertation topic now.  At this point I'm playing with the idea of doing a comparative study on educational policy towards technology within Europe, but clearly that will have to be paired down quite a bit. 

The most fascinating (politically charged?) talk this week actually revolved around the question "Is Education a Discipline?" Since the study of education encapsulates study of such wide range of topics (teacher training, primary, secondary, higher education, lifelong learning, formal/informal learning, workplace training, project-based, blended learning, educational psychology, pre-K, the list goes on) without having a common founding theory, set pedagogy, and a consistent research design, it's considered a field instead of a discipline at Oxford. Why does it matter? The underlying message of the talk was that the education field is therefore viewed in a different (read: worse) way then research from the other social science disciplines who follow a set rigor and pedagogy.  The talk was essentially a warning: beware, by studying education, you're putting yourself in the midst of the fray.  

I have to say, though, I think one of the most exciting things about studying education is the breadth of topics and the intersection of all of the other social science disciplines within the field of education.  Not having a set pedagogy allows sociologists, psychologists, economists, and even political scientists (!) to take different approaches to studying the process of learning. One could also argue that there is no more important area to study for the long-term economic, social, political standing of a country than the education system. 

Emma Watson did unfortunately not come out for the Ultimate Frisbee team, but Emma, if you're out there, we'd love to have you and you'd be great.  I'm pretty sure throwing a frisbee is much like wielding a wand.

Hasta luego, Lisa

Hermione and Oxford's Real Motto

So, my flatmate bumped into Emma Watson today.  She's the subject of an unfortunate number of dinner conversations around Oxford. Overheard: she lives on campus has a bodyguard outside her room in Worchester College. She carries around pictures of her and autographs them on the spot so that she can avoid having to take so many pictures with starstruck students. Her pigeon-hole (read: mailbox) is next to a friend of a friends. She's studying English? Or is it History? All we know for sure is that she was definitely at the same Fresher's fair we were at this morning.

It has to be a bit ironic (unfortunate?), anyway, that she's going to the university that Harry Potter was modeled after.  I mean, we really do wear robes. Quite often through the year.  It made sense in the 1200's. (Oxford's unofficial official motto).

It's Orientation week! It's very strange to see things like "bar crawl" on the list of events for freshmen undergraduates.  How will they get the quintessential experience of drinking oneself silly on crappy beer in a dingy basement with 100 other underage people and then running when the cops come? It's a rite of passage in the U.S.

In an instance of "It made sense in the 1200's," graduate orientation week involves a lot of rushing between one's course events and one's college events which are seemingly completely uncoordinated.  Each student, graduate or undergraduate, is affiliated with a college, where you get housing, pay tuition, use the libraries, join the sports teams, etc (I'm at St. Hilda's College).  For undergraduates, all of their courses are taught at their college. But for graduates, all of our courses are taught at our department or faculty, and all of our social and housing activities are at our college.  And these two entities don't coordinate.  Or seemingly talk to each other. At all.  Mine (St. Hilda's and the Department of Education) are two miles away from each other, and so I've been jumping between events at both all week, most of which overlap. Why do they still do it this way? Well, it made sense in the 1200's....It drives everyone nuts.

Another "It made sense in the 1200's:" Everything is done on paper.  Account balances.  Health forms.  Which means they misplace and lose these things (they've lost both of these for me thus far). No automated system. That would mean procedures would change. Another: we take final exams in the Examination School in front of a proctor. In our robes. It's tradition.  We matriculate in a closed ceremony (wearing guess what).

I'll leave you with my favorite joke this week.  A student asked a professor, "How many Oxford professors  does it take to change a light bulb?"

The professor replied, "Change?"

Haha. ha.  Hope all is well! LP

Overusing the word "Interesting" and some Ultimate

In the last two days I've met people from: Canada, Switzerland, Belarus, Estonia, Germany, France, Ireland, Spain, England, New Zeeland, Norway, Greece, Iran, and I can't remember the rest.  The best part is they all are part of St. Hilda's (my college).  Which means I get to hear all about what they're studying and where they're from.  Too cool.

I've found that I'm introducing myself as from Michigan now, rather than from the U.S.  If I say I'm from the U.S., everyone will immediately ask the follow-up question of which state: seemingly everyone knows U.S. geography. It's ridiculous because I'm sure if they said which region they're from, there's a high probability of me not knowing it.  Sigh. Time to work on my embarrassing lack of world geography knowledge. Thank you, U.S. school system.

Anyways, next week is Naught Week (0 week). Shout out to K Collegers: they number the weeks here, too!  I'd prefer to name it Week of Death, as there are an impossible amount of orientation events I should attend.  Tomorrow I go from 9:30 to 9:00 at night.  I plan to play cricket next weekend, and there's a formal dinner on Tuesday, where I meet my advisor.  She's a psychologist who does research on whether intervention in math in elementary and middle school actually results in improved educational outcomes.  I feel like I use "interesting" every other word these days. I need some more diverse adjectives when I find out what ridiculously cool subject someone's studying or the fascinating country that they're from.

I did indeed find the Ultimate Frisbee team! I played pick-up today.  They run vert stack all the time, and rely on an influx of American Ultimate enthusiasts to fill out their squads, so I'll be playing co-ed, indoor, and womens, hopefully.  They play in gyms for indoor season rather than on astro turf. Thank you Ultimate for immediately giving me a community of cool people and a great way to get a workout wherever I go.

More after this week slows down; get ready for the upcoming "It Made Sense in the 1200's" post, and an account of harrowing biking through narrow 12th century streets while almost getting mowed down by double decker buses (this will happen tomorrow).

Cheers! (I am not sure anyone says that here; I have yet to hear it).

LP

Ah, the joys of being American...

Conundrum of the day: Every time I call soccer "soccer", I get corrected. It's football. But, if I correctly call it "football" when I'm referring to soccer, everyone isn't sure which football I'm talking about, since they see I'm American and assume I haven't switched to the European term. So they'll ask me anyway, "are you talking about American football or soccer?" Therefore I've gone back to calling it soccer, since it's more easily identifiable what I'm discussing.  Why do we call it soccer, anyway?

Anyways, yesterday we went on a walking tour and got a feel for where everything is in the city.  Oxford the city is fascinating, since the huge, imposing, walled Gothic-style university buildings are intermixed throughout the city with local shops, banks, etc.  I saw where Boyle's Law was invented; it's right down the street from me.  Christ's Church ("Hogwarts' Great Hall modeled after this church!" Really? That's what you're promoting?) is fairly close also.

I live on Cowley Road, which is on the outskirts of town and is full of ethnic food shops.  It's nice since it's a part of town that I probably wouldn't have explored had I lived in the city center.  Got a phone, got a bank account; I even braved the grocery store yesterday.

I'll leave you with the other "joys of being American" story: The other day, I was lamenting the lack of addicted morning coffee-drinkers; most of my European friends drink tea instead, and good coffee has been hard to come by.  One of my friends asked why Americans don't drink more tea; he had assumed it originated with the Tea Party (the 1773 Boston event. why has this name been reclaimed in such an awful fashion?): that Americans had held a continuing vendetta against symbolic British goods that shaped coffee drinking in the U.S.  At the time; I blew it off. But turns out he was right. The increase of coffee drinking dates back to  us avoiding British goods + a lack of availability of British tea through the start of the 1800's (thanks Wikipedia). It's always enjoyable when you find out more about your country's history from other nationalities :).  That's one of the main reasons I came to Oxford, anyway.  International perspectives are so much more interesting.

Cheers!

Lisa