Tuesday, November 21, 2017 – I just wanna be outside during the day and in my warm bed at night
This week is different in that I don’t feel stressed, even though I know I will be when it comes down to the last hour of scrambling to put the essay together.
Ate a lot today and burned off the calories by sitting in the library all day, trying to immerse myself in my bright laptop screen.
Turned in my essay on the UN at 5. Now need to start the second one due tomorrow at noon but am confused about the topic: “One of the chronic problems affecting many poor, fragile and conflict-affected states is the poor performance of public organisations for the delivery of public services. Understanding factors that prevent organisations to function and motivate individuals to do their jobs is of pertinent importance within the context of poverty reduction in Africa. Discuss.”
Translate: Do political institutions cause economic development and what are the factors that determine the quality of institutions? I’ll probably have to differentiate between institutions, policies, and public organizations first.
Don’t overthink this. All that matters is that we write the essay. Come up with something.
My brain feels dead after hours of staring at a screen. Institutions, public organizations, economic development, poverty reduction, everything starts to mush together and I don’t even know what I’m writing about anymore. The words have lost their meaning.
I just want to be outside and enjoy the day. And sleep at night.
Wednesday, November 22, 2017 – When tennis takes over the dining hall
Another two marathon days of writing essays gone by; I turned in my second essay 3 hours late. This was definitely not one of my most motivated weeks. The topics are really interesting, I just wish I had more time to read and let the content sink in.
But after hitting the send button, I relaxed.
In the evening I went to a Christmas formal dinner with the entire tennis team (all 5 mens teams and 4 womens teams) at Magdalen (pronounced MAU-da-lin) College. Dress code was black tie and gown, so all the guys wore white blouses and black blazers with black bowties, and the gals wore sleek dresses with stylish jackets and heels. I borrowed a dress and an Oxford gown because I didn’t bring any nice outfits. Enjoyed a delicious three-course meal. Some brought bottles of white and red wine.
Warm lemon cake with butter cream
Magdalen formal is a bit more formal than St Catz. Like at Catz, we stand up until the high table tutors/high-status people walk in, say the blessing, and sit down. Unlike at Catz, we had to stand up again at the end when they gave a final blessing and then left the room. After they left, we all gave a cheer (because we didn’t have to be polite and formal anymore) and someone gave a short thank you speech and toast to tennis. Then she initiated what seemed to be a tradition, and everyone started eating their lemon cake dessert without their cutlery. I was too “boring” apparently and wanted to enjoy my dessert without stuffing my face, so continued using the cutlery. Later a fresher who was last to finish his dessert (good thing I wasn’t at that table) had to go up to the high table in front of everyone, shout something, and lie down on the table. Weird traditions.
After the nice meal we hung out in the bar for a short while. The Blues team took a team photo, which was really adorable, especially since everyone was dressed all nice. Then we hung out for a while in Nanami’s room. Magdalen had more traditional architecture than Catz—I took a picture of the hallway because it looked so old-fashioned with all the wood. Plus it smelled sweet and of spices.
Then we all went to Vinnie’s, the sports house with bar, which was a fun and rowdy time—people were SO loud.
Walked back to Catz in the light drizzle, feeling quite happy and relieved of work.
Thursday, November 23, 2017 – Happy Thanksgiving! (Even though they don’t celebrate it here)
It was just another normal day at Oxford. It was a beautiful morning; it had rained last night but was all sunshine this morning, which was a warm welcome to the day given the usual cloudy weather. Said Happy Thanksgiving to my tutor, who had unsurprisingly forgotten it was a holiday today.
My International Relations tutorial today was one of my favorites because the UN is quite a relevant topic; we had a great discussion on the UN which I learned a lot from, especially as I didn’t know much about the UN before reading about it.
Went to the library, which was full of students typing away at their laptops.
After lunch went to my second tutorial, where we discussed how to reform institutions, as we can’t really do much to enforce policies if institutions are weak.
Walked ~30 min to Primark to get flip flops and possibly a fall coat, but walked by the History of Science museum and thought why not. It was only 3 rooms, so I went in and looked at the myriad of astrolabes and sundials and clocks and abacuses and bones and old fashioned brass microscopes. Also saw an exhibit on Bio art—linking science and art, portraying science with art—which was a new but interesting concept to me.
I didn’t know that Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) was a lecturer in maths at Christ Church (one of the oldest Oxford colleges) but also a well known photographer!
Walked out to Primark but saw it got moved to Westgate, the new shopping mall, which was quite grand and brightly decorated with Christmas lights.
I didn’t realize that literally no store was selling flip-flops. We don’t sell them during the winter, they all told me, as if this was obvious. I looked through Uniqlo, H&M, Primark, even Boots, the pharmacy store. Nothing. A small shoe store by Sainsbury’s (grocery store) finally had a pair of flip-flops, but they were too big and cost £20. After all that walking and looking around, I went home with nothing but a bag of clementines and apples.
During the long walk back to Catz I thought about how frustrated I was, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving, tried to drown it out with positive thoughts and how thankful I should be. I got to see the History of Science museum, I got some fruit for my dorm, and I got to walk around in the lively and brightly lit streets of Oxford!
And I’m having a lovely Thanksgiving dinner tonight, provided by the college specifically for American and Canadian students. A wonderful meal it was, with wonderful company! St Catz made us feel at home with the quintessential Thanksgiving dinner, a three-course meal:
- Appetizer: tomato soup with cranberry and apple corn bread
- Main Course: roast turkey with chestnut and leek stuffing, bacon rolls, chipolatas (sausage), mashed potato, and sweet potato, with mushroom and tarragon gravy and cranberry sauce
- Dessert: pumpkin pie with lemon and nutmeg cream, with tea and mint chocolates to finish the evening
I walked out of there as stuffed as the roast turkey.
Finished the night in my room, called my family on Skype, listened to classical music, and started reading for my next essay, wishing we actually had a holiday.
Friday, November 24, 2017 – Catz Night and last Entz of the term~
Spent all day in the library to get started early on my readings for next week’s essays, though was not very efficient. I’m still trying to figure out why I’m so slow at researching and starting on my paper early in the week, and then rushing to finish my essays on Monday and Tuesday before they’re due. I keep getting distracted, reading a chapter and then wanting to check my email (again), then my St Catz email, then Facebook, and this cycle repeats after a few minutes. No wonder.
Read books all morning on ethnic and nationalist conflicts, then lunch (fish pie, cabbage and other vegetables), then back in the library to read up on experimental methods in development economics. I’m looking forward to reading books just for fun, though I’m glad my tutorials are making me read these books.
At 6:30pm I went back to my room, changed into a dress, put on tights and a necklace, slipped into my flats, and hurried out the door to go to pre-dinner drinks before Catz Night, a special formal dinner in Hall where we sit with our subjects (I sat with the PPE group—politics, philosophy, and economics—including Catz tutors, though unfortunately my tutors were not there). Dress code was black tie, so all the guys were dressed in black suit and bow tie with white collared shirts, and the gals were decked out in makeup and high heels and sparkly dresses. A band was playing jazz music as all the students and tutors filled the hall and sat in their assigned seats. This was the first time I saw the hall completely full. As custom, before we ate, someone sitting at the high table banged a gavel and recited a Latin grace beginning with benedicto. They did the same after the meal.
Like yesterday, the dinner was a fancy three-course meal served with red or white wine, and like yesterday, I took pictures of what we were served:
Sea Bass Fillet with Fennel and Tomato Confit Salad
Apparently quinoa is not a thing here: no one around me knew what it was, or that it was a grain (they pronounced it kee-NO-wah), and they didn’t like it either. It was mushier than I was used to, but I still liked it. I described it to them as “healthy rice.” That didn’t change their opinion.
Unlike yesterday’s meal, this one was £16, but it was a once-a-term fancy Catz occasion. Afterwards we took some photos by the high table and stood there talking before slowly making our way to the JCR for the last Entz of the term. As usual it was a fun time, and everyone was there. We took lots of cute pics in the photo booth. I had a few sips of Catztail, a special Catz drink which tasted like tangy grape juice. I was there from 10pm-2am. After 2 hours of sitting and talking I was getting sleepy, but since it was my last Entz, I promised Odelia I would stay until the end. At last it was 20 minutes to 2, and we went into a dark room full of sweaty bodies and disco lights to dance. The night ended with the traditional last song, Angels, which everyone sings to, linking arms. It was a romantic moment, though not for me because I didn’t have a special someone. But still an emotional, wonderful moment nevertheless.
Saturday, November 25, 2017 – Sushi and a View of Oxford!
Despite going to bed at 3am, still woke up at 8:30. Went to the library to do some reading before walking to Sushimania for lunch with Kavi. Haven’t seen her all term and we needed to catch up before I went back to Wellesley. Half price off good sushi + delightful conversation made for a pretty nice lunch.
Kavi showed me her dorm afterwards and we saw the outside of the Oxford Castle, a medieval castle which used to be a prison and which is supposedly the birthplace of the legend of King Arthur.
Then I met up with Laura, also from Wellesley. We had planned on getting high tea (afternoon tea, also called high tea because the nobility used to sit at high tables to have tea), but I also wanted to go to the top of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin and see the view of Oxford, thinking it wouldn’t take that long. We ended up waiting in line for 45 minutes. I met Francesco from Pembroke College and we had some delightful conversation on the solar eclipse and traveling. There was also a choir and orchestra singing in the chapel, creating beautiful music that resounded through the chapel.
The sun had set (at 4pm?!) by the time we finally got to the top, and it wasn’t the most brilliant sunset—the sky was rosy pink above the clouds and it was very chilly—but the view of Oxford was beautiful and we took lots and lots of pics. We saw festive Christmas trees and lights in shop windows. At the bottom of the clock tower there was a pendulum fueled by an engine which counts the time, which was pretty cool.
Rad Cam
Three-course (but unserved) meal at Catz for dinner: french onion soup, beef stew with steamed potatoes and broccoli, and blueberry cheesecake for dessert.
Went to the St Catz library to finish readings, though was soon falling asleep: it was so nice and warm, the seat cushion too soft, the lighting not very bright…very comfortable…too comfortable…I went back to my room to keep from dozing off.
Leave a Reply