Oxford Problems, Pt. 1

1. When you have to fidget with your charger/adapter for 10 minutes before your laptop actually starts charging.

2. When there are separate faucets for the hot and cold water in bathroom sinks, and you inevitably burn yourself because the hot one is virtually boiling.

3. When you used all your money up at Babylove so don't have enough to buy a falafel from Ahmed's, the food truck, on the walk home.

4. When you see the sun so automatically think it's going to be warm outside.

5. When it seems like the only room in the whole house that still has wifi problems is yours. Hey, at least it's an extra incentive to go to the library? :S

Formal

Formal dinners are different for different colleges, but the universal is that they're a tradition. Corpus's formal happens once a week, on Friday nights, and the sign-up is by lottery. If you're lucky enough to have your name, along with the group you signed up with, chosen off the list, you get to attend a fancy three course dinner! It's really great fun; everyone gets suited/dressed up and the food is delicious. Last night was the first time I've gotten the chance to go to Corpus's. The only other formal I've attended was Brasenose's, which is much less formal but also occurs three (?!) times a week. Hopefully I'll have the chance to go to a couple more before this term is up. Here are a couple of pictures!

Ambiance.

Corpus's crest adorning the napkins

The best dessert of my whole life: strawberry "cheesecake."

Edinburgh

Last weekend all of Stanford House took a mandatory trip to Edinburgh! It was overall a really nice chance to get away and see a new part of the UK, although there was an essay looming over my head with a Monday deadline for the duration of the trip which made the time away a little bit stressful. But the trip did remind me about how much I love to travel; I love the smell of hotel hallways and the key-cards and the breakfasts next to bustling lobbies. And Edinburgh is such a great city. I could even see myself living there. There's both a sense of oldness but also a vibrancy to it. Unlike Oxford, which is dominated by a student population, you have the impression that Edinburgh is more of a "real" place where people carry on with their lives. At the one pub we visited, we must have been the youngest group there. 

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

On a walking tour of the city

I'm actually on this trip with people! (although it may not seem so by what I tend to photograph)

Pensive. At the abbey, built in the 12th century, connected to the Royal Palace in Scotland. Creds to TPelz

My roommate, smiling as always.

There's a statue of Hume in the middle of High Street in Edinburgh!

A quick photo opp. at Stirling Castle.

Ducks at Loch Lomond

The Lock Lomond monster!

A treehouse in a backyard facing the Loch

Unreal. 

"A message of joy"

280 pages of reading and a 3000 word take-home paper due on Wednesday, along with a Hume paper for tomorrow and a Kant reading list and paper to somehow finish by Friday? This poem feels pretty relevant right now:

How could I write a poem in the rain?

The water drains the sheet of every word,

Of every feeling; waters down the pain,

And strikes the joyful dancing by a third.

The pelican is crying. That’s the clue,

The answer to this senseless sopping mess.

She weeps for every essay that we do.

She weeps for all our broken loneliness.

She weeps for every time a tutor says:

"I've given you some extra work this week;"

Each tear in bleary running flow displays

The sorrow that her bill can never speak.

If she could lift her wing to wipe away

The downpour of her weeping from above,

The pelican could leave her sundial stay,

Fly to our hearts, and warm each one with love.

But this can never be. She's metal-bound.

She'll never leave her prison – never could.

The rain continues falling all around,

And nothing ever comes to any good.

    

     -Corpus poet laureate, Thomas White

Packages

Are really exciting. Especially when there's peanut butter inside of them.

Cambridge

Today we spent the day in Cambridge, the Stanford to Oxford's Cal (or the other way around; whichever you prefer). The day started out beautifully with some pleasant sunshine and ended in drizzle. The bus ride back was completely silent, because almost everyone soundly napped like babies to a beautiful sunset.

Here are some choice pictures. Did a sloppy job of tweaking the levels/editing/sorting because I wanted to make sure I got them up on the blog before neglecting them, but a little too worn out to take much care. So here's the day in Cambridge, raw and unedited!

Like something out of a fairytale! Beautiful brick buildings everywhere.

Outside King's College Chapel.

The light playing off the stained glass in King's College Chapel.

Inside King's College Chapel.

This tree demands to be taken seriously.

There are lots of bridges that criss-cross over the Cam, which cuts through the city.

Unlike Oxford, Cambridge is full of wide open spaces.

The "fake" Corpus Christi College (Cambridge's version)

Pub lunch. Fish and chips and mushy peas -- can't get much more classic than that. It was by far the best fish and chips I've ever tasted. 

Choice graffiti. Highly mysterious. 

Quiet (and Field Trip Pictures)

Today's one of those eerily quiet, muted days that make you think the major earthquake is going to strike tomorrow (before you realize that you don't live on top of the San Andreas fault anymore...). I should be revising my essay, but I can already tell that motivation to do much other than eat potato chips and listen to One Direction on repeat (I dare you to judge me) is going to be severely lacking.

As promised, here are some pictures from my London field trip on Friday! We went to the Cabinet War Rooms and the HMS Belfast.

In front of a French bakery, clearly by a French person. <3

Hitler, as graffiti-ed onto one of the Cabinet War Room maps. 

Where all the important people sat to argue war strategy. Churchill got that rounded chair in the middle.

So many pinholes! 

Oil was important back then too, of course. All of these beautiful charts and tables were done without Excel. Blows my mind.

TPelz and I decided to be immature and use the "MOST SECRET" stamp on ourselves. One of the coolest parts of the museum was that you could try out a real live typewriter! I kind of want one now. 

The ship! Part of convoys over the Atlantic for war-effort supplies.

The HMS Belfast was also full of these wax figures. Many times they were in unexpected places and scared me. Here's the dentistry.

Captaining the ship.

Sunny

After emerging from the Radcliffe, I realized that I could happen upon the golden hour from the top of St. Mary's church tower if lucky. So I scrambled back home to grab my camera and made my way over. Barely made it in time for the sunset. Here are a few choice shots.

St. Mary's, High Street view

Half way up the unbelievably steep, winding staircase

From the top. 

Another angle: Magdalen College.

Why hello there!

A Humean Saturday

Word has it that my throngs of fans are getting upset with my lack of blog-presence. Patience, patience. In time. Yesterday my WWII class went to an exciting field trip in London. We visited the Cabinet War Rooms and the HMS Belfast. Both were great; I'll try to put up some choice pictures tonight! But as a result of my field trip, today and tomorrow must feature long stretches of Radcliffe Camera time with my buddy Hume. Feeling a little panicked now that I've lost my Friday afternoon's worth of essay brainstorming and outlining. 

Got here at opening this morning and left for a 30 minute Olives break (smoked salmon, cream cheese, tapenade, tomato, salad, onion on brown baguette as usual). Coming back to the library, frustratingly pondering my essay, hoards of tourists were gathering at the gates to snap pictures with the library. At least at Stanford the tourists don't take pictures of Green. For some reason these people annoyed me. Then I realized that I'm a sort of tourist here too; the Radcliffe Camera is hardly something I can feel possessive of already. ALREADY? I guess it happened quicker than I expected it to. 

Anyways, hopefully if I make acceptable progress those pictures will be up soon! :)