Hey there my faithful syndicate of American readers!
IT'S BLOGGIN' TIME.
So the weekend was pretty fun. After the vodka bottle shenanigans, we sort of decided not to go too crazy at the house party one of the British people here threw for us on Friday. And then we found out that it's 10 pounds for 18 bottles of Stella. After we collectively purchesed 54 bottles, we made our way to her house where we promptly played Kings (not sure if you guys know it, though I know we have it in the states) In any case, it's a drinking game involving cards and other sorts of monkeyshines. Interestingly enough, they don't have red cups here in the fair British Isles, and as a result, no beer pong or tippy cup. Luckily for us, one of the girls on our trip made the incredibly prescient decision to pick up 100 red cups from the states and bring them back (she's from London originally) back when she was like 17. PROBLEM SOLVED, AMIRITE?!
We couldn't find ping pong balls in time, so we just played lots of flip cup. As I recall, things got pretty sexual very quickly. I have vague memories of bending over in front of one of our British friends and yelling "Colonize me, Ollie!" during the Brits vs. Americans game.
On our way home, we found another party that was being hosted by a bunch of Danish students who were also at Oxford this term. So naturally, we wandered in and treated ourselves to some of their beer. After half an hour of giant group hugs and loud and incredibly off-key renditions of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" it was about time to go home. I like to think I did my part in bridging the gap between America, Denmark and the United Kingdom. People from all walks of life coming together over beer and 80's power ballads. Awesome.
All in all, I'd say a successful second weekend in England. Saturday I spent a fair amount of time reading and after two nights in a row of drinking most of us made the decision to stay in and watch a movie. I suggested Paprika and three of my friends were on-board so we watched it and had quite a lengthy discussion about film and animation afterward.
It's been a wonderful weekend and now I'm sitting down with some tea and a stack of books to finish my prep for my tutorial tomorrow.
Cheers from across the pond,
Ian
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Oh My Days...
I think this text I got from Meredith this morning adequately sums up last night:
"Oh my days. Did we smash a vodka bottle all over your floor last night and then make a secret pact to never speak of it again?"
...
"Oh my days. Did we smash a vodka bottle all over your floor last night and then make a secret pact to never speak of it again?"
...
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Stonehenge, Sheep, and Stones
Okay folks, I know it's been awhile, so I'll make up for some lost time.
Let me start by introducing a new and shiny segment on my blogstravaganza: TEXT RECAP
Text Recap involves me catching you up on like a week of stuff ALL IN 180 CHARACTERS OR LESS.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand GO!
Mettutorwrotefirstpapershelikedithooray!gladshedoesn'tthinki'mstup
idatemorepretgotdrunkontequilapassedoutonthelawn.
115. Not bad. YEAH I CHECKED IT ON WORD. WHUT. YOU DON'T KNOW ME. But yeah, in all seriousness, it's been pretty laid back the last few days. My tutor set me an essay earlier than all the others since she's going to be at a conference in the States one week during term, so we had to tack an extra week on in the beginning in order to compensate. It's been wonderful to just bond with the people here. They really are an impeccable bunch. I couldn't have asked for a more ideal set of people to experience this with. :)
We all decided we'd go see Dorian Gray last night. I don't think it's reached the states yet, but it was kinda fun. Suspenseful and tittilating but pretty poorly acted and a little over the top. Whatever, there were lots of naked people and that's ALWAYS okay in my book. Unless they're ugs.
Today, we took a really cool tour of some of Britain's really ancient historical monuments. Okay so MOST of it was interesting. The first "castle" we went to was like 5000 years old or something ridiculous like that (I really have no concept of time when it comes to world history) and at this point it was basically just like little piles of rubble where walls used to be. So basically like looking at a medieval floor plan. It wasn't that cool. However, we then went to Salisbury which is the town the "castle" looks down on. (Though in my opinion that castle didn't deserve to look down on anything. Severely unimpressed. :P) We saw a cathedral and the oldest still-working clock and then a couple of us found a pub for lunch. Apparently pub lunch is a big thing here and I got this thing called "Hands of Bread" which was basically a huge hunk of bread covered in melted cheese and your choice of two toppings. It. Was. AWESOME. We also ordered some cheesy fries (called chips here) for the table to share and slathered them with malt vinegar. More than anything else I'll miss malt vinegar when I come home. I can't even explain to you what this glorious nectar does to fries. It's just ambrosial. I'm gonna get so fat.
After Salisbury, we all hopped in the bus and headed to Stonehenge. Pretty frackin' amazing. It was a gorgeous day and so we all took a lie-down on the grass and took some cute/funny group pictures. All in all an amazing little hour spent at a British national monument.
After that we headed to Avebury, which is very similar to Stonehenge. Apparently there are a whole slew of standing-rock monuments like Stonehenge all around that area. The cool thing about Avebury is that you can go up and touch the rocks/walk through them etc. Oh, haha, how could I forget. The entire field of rocks is populated by tons and tons of SHEEP. SHEEP EVERYWHERE. GLORIOUS FLUFFY SHEEP. We tried to pet one, but they're sly little devils. After spending about 20 minutes or so wandering around and watching the sheep poop and pee and giggling like TRUE Oxford scholars we all popped onto the bus and headed back home. And so now here I sit, and since I don't really have anything else to say, I guess I'll wrap it up!
PEACE.
Ian
Let me start by introducing a new and shiny segment on my blogstravaganza: TEXT RECAP
Text Recap involves me catching you up on like a week of stuff ALL IN 180 CHARACTERS OR LESS.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand GO!
Mettutorwrotefirstpapershelikedithooray!gladshedoesn'tthinki'mstup
idatemorepretgotdrunkontequilapassedoutonthelawn.
115. Not bad. YEAH I CHECKED IT ON WORD. WHUT. YOU DON'T KNOW ME. But yeah, in all seriousness, it's been pretty laid back the last few days. My tutor set me an essay earlier than all the others since she's going to be at a conference in the States one week during term, so we had to tack an extra week on in the beginning in order to compensate. It's been wonderful to just bond with the people here. They really are an impeccable bunch. I couldn't have asked for a more ideal set of people to experience this with. :)
We all decided we'd go see Dorian Gray last night. I don't think it's reached the states yet, but it was kinda fun. Suspenseful and tittilating but pretty poorly acted and a little over the top. Whatever, there were lots of naked people and that's ALWAYS okay in my book. Unless they're ugs.
Today, we took a really cool tour of some of Britain's really ancient historical monuments. Okay so MOST of it was interesting. The first "castle" we went to was like 5000 years old or something ridiculous like that (I really have no concept of time when it comes to world history) and at this point it was basically just like little piles of rubble where walls used to be. So basically like looking at a medieval floor plan. It wasn't that cool. However, we then went to Salisbury which is the town the "castle" looks down on. (Though in my opinion that castle didn't deserve to look down on anything. Severely unimpressed. :P) We saw a cathedral and the oldest still-working clock and then a couple of us found a pub for lunch. Apparently pub lunch is a big thing here and I got this thing called "Hands of Bread" which was basically a huge hunk of bread covered in melted cheese and your choice of two toppings. It. Was. AWESOME. We also ordered some cheesy fries (called chips here) for the table to share and slathered them with malt vinegar. More than anything else I'll miss malt vinegar when I come home. I can't even explain to you what this glorious nectar does to fries. It's just ambrosial. I'm gonna get so fat.
After Salisbury, we all hopped in the bus and headed to Stonehenge. Pretty frackin' amazing. It was a gorgeous day and so we all took a lie-down on the grass and took some cute/funny group pictures. All in all an amazing little hour spent at a British national monument.
After that we headed to Avebury, which is very similar to Stonehenge. Apparently there are a whole slew of standing-rock monuments like Stonehenge all around that area. The cool thing about Avebury is that you can go up and touch the rocks/walk through them etc. Oh, haha, how could I forget. The entire field of rocks is populated by tons and tons of SHEEP. SHEEP EVERYWHERE. GLORIOUS FLUFFY SHEEP. We tried to pet one, but they're sly little devils. After spending about 20 minutes or so wandering around and watching the sheep poop and pee and giggling like TRUE Oxford scholars we all popped onto the bus and headed back home. And so now here I sit, and since I don't really have anything else to say, I guess I'll wrap it up!
PEACE.
Ian
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
09/16/09
So instead of boring you all with countless narratives of the buildings I saw and the things I learned, I'd prefer to enlighten you about the things that are really important.
Things like Pret.
Ahhhhhh, Pret.
Those of you who are on this trip with me doubtless already know about my love affair with Pret. Those of you who don't...prepare to be clued the fuck in. Pret is basically heaven in a shop. It's a delightful little sandwich/salad/wrap store and it's...wait, I don't want to oversell this...THE BEST FOOD ESTABLISHMENT IN THE HISTORY OF ALL TIME EVER.
I've been there every single day for lunch so far. It's super cheap, too. Like 3 pounds or less for pretty much anything. I had a delicious avocado wrap with fresh cut herbs and pine nuts the first two days and today had a delicious sharp cheddar baguette sandwich with watercress and pickle relish which sounds disgusting, I know, but believe me when I say it was a religious experience. The doors of heaven cracked open to let this delightful little store slip into the mortal realm.
Pret.
I've been dreaming about you my entire life and I didn't even know it.
Okay, enough about that.
I also just met my tutor! We chatted for a bit over some wine at the drinks party they threw for us as a meet-and-greet sort of deal. We hadn't been talking for more than 15 minutes when she assigned me a "short" paper of no less than 2000 words for Monday. She then proceeded to suggest four films and eight books I might find helpful. She really is delightful, but I can tell she's going to push me. I guess this means I'll be holed up in the library for most of this weekend, but the nice thing is we have Monday off from our sightseeing stuff and our other classes, so I'll have all of Saturday afternoon, all of Sunday and all of Monday to get it done. I'm sure it's not going to be that bad, but I have to say, if the goal of my tutor was to intimidate me...mission accomplished.
Wish me luck!
Ian
Things like Pret.
Ahhhhhh, Pret.
Those of you who are on this trip with me doubtless already know about my love affair with Pret. Those of you who don't...prepare to be clued the fuck in. Pret is basically heaven in a shop. It's a delightful little sandwich/salad/wrap store and it's...wait, I don't want to oversell this...THE BEST FOOD ESTABLISHMENT IN THE HISTORY OF ALL TIME EVER.
I've been there every single day for lunch so far. It's super cheap, too. Like 3 pounds or less for pretty much anything. I had a delicious avocado wrap with fresh cut herbs and pine nuts the first two days and today had a delicious sharp cheddar baguette sandwich with watercress and pickle relish which sounds disgusting, I know, but believe me when I say it was a religious experience. The doors of heaven cracked open to let this delightful little store slip into the mortal realm.
Pret.
I've been dreaming about you my entire life and I didn't even know it.
Okay, enough about that.
I also just met my tutor! We chatted for a bit over some wine at the drinks party they threw for us as a meet-and-greet sort of deal. We hadn't been talking for more than 15 minutes when she assigned me a "short" paper of no less than 2000 words for Monday. She then proceeded to suggest four films and eight books I might find helpful. She really is delightful, but I can tell she's going to push me. I guess this means I'll be holed up in the library for most of this weekend, but the nice thing is we have Monday off from our sightseeing stuff and our other classes, so I'll have all of Saturday afternoon, all of Sunday and all of Monday to get it done. I'm sure it's not going to be that bad, but I have to say, if the goal of my tutor was to intimidate me...mission accomplished.
Wish me luck!
Ian
Monday, September 14, 2009
09/13/09 - 09/14/09
Okay.
First post.
Before I start, however, I'd like to write a little preface. I want to send my most sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone from Minnesota who helped to make my time there one of the best singular months I've ever had. You were (and are) all remarkably warm and kind-hearted people and I have to say that you make up some of the most interesting and remarkable people I've ever had the great pleasure of meeting. Thank you so much. The day I had to leave you guys was one of the most difficult 24 hours in recent memory. I wish you were all here with me.
That said, let the blog begin.
09/13/09
So unfortunately travel day was awful. Everything that could have gone wrong did. To start off with, my little movie player thing stopped working after the first movie. Had I known I was only getting one, I wouldn't have wasted it on I Love You, Man. AMIRITE LADIES?! Anyway, after getting off the plane, I was supposed to meet Steph at baggage claim. Little did I know, our baggage claim places were in different terminals. :| Two train rides later, I stumble into Terminal 3, which was significantly more populated than Terminal 4. It should be noted that the entirety of this journey includes me dragging circa 80 pounds of incredibly unwieldy luggage around. I also discovered that I may as well have my phone surgically implanted in my head because I'm apparently totally helpless without it. So, I wandered around the airport searching for Steph's equally confused face among the throngs of people. After about an hour of fruitless searching, I gave up and decided to continue my journey. Another train and a bus ride later, and I'm plopped among the streets of Oxford with incredibly vague directions to University College. All we were told was that it was 50 meters from the bus stop. Not which direction, no landmarks nearby, nothing. In order to help you understand my plight, I've made a series of cute little diagrams:
Key:
X = Ian
O = People I asked for directions
U = University College (which doesn't have a sign and whose doors were closed. Not locked, but closed)
First try:
--- XO --------- U ---------------
O says: Oh, it's down along this street.
Second Try:
--------------- U ---------- XO --
O says: Oh, it's back the way you came, I think across the street.
Third Try:
--------------- U ---------------
-- XO ---------------------------
And so on.
Yeah, not great. But I finally arrived and found out Steph was basically running parallel to me and got there like 5 minutes after I had. She also had wandered the airport looking for me, took a different bus line (though at the same time) and was wandering the streets of Oxford at the same time.
It was lovely getting to know my fellow Pomona students as I didn't know many of them very well prior to the trip. We all headed down to a pub called The Kings Arms which was basically everything you'd think of when you picture a British Pub. You could even order two braised faggots. :D
Anyhoo, after a few beers and 22 hours of travel, this little boy was ready for me.
Suffice it to say, I slept for like 10 hours that night. And I mean like deep, uninterrupted REM sleep. It was awesome.
09/14/09
Today was MUCH better than yesterday. We shopped, found phones and plans, ate a delicious and super cheap lunch and got internet access. Basically every wrong the universe tossed at me yesterday was righted. And it was good.
After exploring a bit, we had an orientation meeting with the delightfully old and admittedly forgetful Dr. Brian Loughman. He's adorable, but it takes him awhile to actually say anything. And when he finally does finish talking, most of us are too busy trying to figure out why he's talking about bus passes when we asked about the interary to actually absorb anything.
This evening we had a gorgeous three course meal comprised of figs with brie cheese, endive, and pistachios for the salad course, braised lam with a sweet brandy sauce for an entree and blackberry tarte tartin for dessert. We were told to dress "smart casual" for the dinner, which was probably the least helpful way to describe the attire and after asking for clarification six or seven times, most of us were still totally lost. Nobody said anything or gave us dirty looks, though, so we must have done okay.
Afterward, we headed to the Grande Cafe for some half-priced cocktails and amicable socializing and then meandered back to Univ for sleep.
Speaking of which, I should probably get on that since we have to be up early tomorrow for Library tours. Hooray! (If you know me at all you know I'm 100% serious about that exclamation)
Everything is beautiful and I'm safe, fulfilled and happy.
I miss you all terribly and promise to write a better blog soon-ish when I'm not totally debilitated from jet lag.
-Ian
First post.
Before I start, however, I'd like to write a little preface. I want to send my most sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone from Minnesota who helped to make my time there one of the best singular months I've ever had. You were (and are) all remarkably warm and kind-hearted people and I have to say that you make up some of the most interesting and remarkable people I've ever had the great pleasure of meeting. Thank you so much. The day I had to leave you guys was one of the most difficult 24 hours in recent memory. I wish you were all here with me.
That said, let the blog begin.
09/13/09
So unfortunately travel day was awful. Everything that could have gone wrong did. To start off with, my little movie player thing stopped working after the first movie. Had I known I was only getting one, I wouldn't have wasted it on I Love You, Man. AMIRITE LADIES?! Anyway, after getting off the plane, I was supposed to meet Steph at baggage claim. Little did I know, our baggage claim places were in different terminals. :| Two train rides later, I stumble into Terminal 3, which was significantly more populated than Terminal 4. It should be noted that the entirety of this journey includes me dragging circa 80 pounds of incredibly unwieldy luggage around. I also discovered that I may as well have my phone surgically implanted in my head because I'm apparently totally helpless without it. So, I wandered around the airport searching for Steph's equally confused face among the throngs of people. After about an hour of fruitless searching, I gave up and decided to continue my journey. Another train and a bus ride later, and I'm plopped among the streets of Oxford with incredibly vague directions to University College. All we were told was that it was 50 meters from the bus stop. Not which direction, no landmarks nearby, nothing. In order to help you understand my plight, I've made a series of cute little diagrams:
Key:
X = Ian
O = People I asked for directions
U = University College (which doesn't have a sign and whose doors were closed. Not locked, but closed)
First try:
--- XO --------- U ---------------
O says: Oh, it's down along this street.
Second Try:
--------------- U ---------- XO --
O says: Oh, it's back the way you came, I think across the street.
Third Try:
--------------- U ---------------
-- XO ---------------------------
And so on.
Yeah, not great. But I finally arrived and found out Steph was basically running parallel to me and got there like 5 minutes after I had. She also had wandered the airport looking for me, took a different bus line (though at the same time) and was wandering the streets of Oxford at the same time.
It was lovely getting to know my fellow Pomona students as I didn't know many of them very well prior to the trip. We all headed down to a pub called The Kings Arms which was basically everything you'd think of when you picture a British Pub. You could even order two braised faggots. :D
Anyhoo, after a few beers and 22 hours of travel, this little boy was ready for me.
Suffice it to say, I slept for like 10 hours that night. And I mean like deep, uninterrupted REM sleep. It was awesome.
09/14/09
Today was MUCH better than yesterday. We shopped, found phones and plans, ate a delicious and super cheap lunch and got internet access. Basically every wrong the universe tossed at me yesterday was righted. And it was good.
After exploring a bit, we had an orientation meeting with the delightfully old and admittedly forgetful Dr. Brian Loughman. He's adorable, but it takes him awhile to actually say anything. And when he finally does finish talking, most of us are too busy trying to figure out why he's talking about bus passes when we asked about the interary to actually absorb anything.
This evening we had a gorgeous three course meal comprised of figs with brie cheese, endive, and pistachios for the salad course, braised lam with a sweet brandy sauce for an entree and blackberry tarte tartin for dessert. We were told to dress "smart casual" for the dinner, which was probably the least helpful way to describe the attire and after asking for clarification six or seven times, most of us were still totally lost. Nobody said anything or gave us dirty looks, though, so we must have done okay.
Afterward, we headed to the Grande Cafe for some half-priced cocktails and amicable socializing and then meandered back to Univ for sleep.
Speaking of which, I should probably get on that since we have to be up early tomorrow for Library tours. Hooray! (If you know me at all you know I'm 100% serious about that exclamation)
Everything is beautiful and I'm safe, fulfilled and happy.
I miss you all terribly and promise to write a better blog soon-ish when I'm not totally debilitated from jet lag.
-Ian
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