KFC

As of today, I am actually 100% done with my work for the term. I celebrated by joining the UK Blockbuster (1st video was free! Prince Caspian) and doing loads and loads of laundry. 2 loads.

I also went to KFC for dinner last night, which deserves further comment:

Since I went to Kentucky that one time to see the aquarium, Kentucky seems much more personally relevant to me. Now when I walk into a UK KFC, I feel a certain sense of ownership. These Brits don't know Kentucky; I know Kentucky. It has fish. And an airport that I have to use to get to Cincinnati. And an eclectic art store located in a repurposed church, which my mom likes.

Needless to say, British KFC doesn't have any of these things. It does have some redeeming qualities though. First of all, it's open until ridiculous hours of the night. That's good for those of us who forget to eat dinner until we get really hungry at midnight and need fried chicken. They serve Pepsi instead of Coke, and while I prefer Coke, it's nice to have some variety in the Coke-centred UK environment. (On a side note, they don't give ice with soft drinks. One time I asked for ice, and they brought me an entire cup of ice with its own lid. I know some people who would like a cup of ice, but I just wanted cold soda. I'm not sure what they think would happen if the soda and the ice were combined in the restaurant.)

Finally, the hilarious moment that prompted this post. I walked into KFC wearing my Brown hoodie yesterday, and while I was waiting for my food the cashier looked at me and said, "So...you ehm, really like Brown?" I thought this was a weird question, but basically assented. He gave me a funny look, and said something in a language I didn't understand to the other employees. (No, not because of an accent. Like many parts of America, Oxford somehow finds foreigners to work in every fast food restaurant even though there is basically no diversity on the street otherwise).

I can't remember exactly how the conversation progressed, but he thought I was wearing a sweatshirt with BROWN emblazoned on it in red letters because I support Gordon Brown. It was kind of awkward. I realized in hindsight that it would be kind of weird if someone walked up to me wearing a shirt that said BUSH or OBAMA in huge letters. Also, it confirmed my sneaking suspicion that nobody here has heard of Brown. Oh well.

I think that's everything about fried chicken. I'd like to conclude by making it clear that I will allow no extrapolation from this post to the amount of times I've eaten at KFC in England. The dining hall at college closed for break, a turn of events I did not anticipate.

To stop your attempts to reconstruct my eating habits, I will distract you with this picture of the British National Gallery:

Ha! Now I seem cultured again. Phew...

1 term down, 2 to go!

As the end of my term came around, I found that I had little time to update the blog. However, now that the term is over (okay...I have one paper due Thurs., but my grades are already in) I guess I should fill in some of the details from the past few weeks:

I spent Thanksgiving weekend in London, visiting with friends, frantically running between museums, and seeing the Sound of Music. I'm not sure which of these three things was the most exciting part (probably the friends) but together they made for a pretty amazing break from work right around when I needed it. My camera is being fussy, but I do have a bunch of pictures of Trafalgar square to post eventually. Also, doesn't Trafalgar sound like a cool city from a Tolkien book or video game? I'm still having trouble believing it's the name of a real place in Spain. Maybe I'll go there.

I got to meet with my tutors/instructors for next term, and I think it's going to be an even better learning experience. My two classes are on Plato's Dialogues and Shakespeare, both things I've long intended to study and look forward to knowing well enough to quote sagaciously at cocktail parties.

I haven't been following the U.S. news as much as I'd like to, but I'll try to post some more political thoughts after my paper is done. I was going to go on a long, heartfelt rant about how sad it was when that Wal-Mart worker was killed on Black Friday, but I didn't get to it in a timely manner and now I think it's pretty much been covered to death.

As far as news from the U.K., the biggest story recently has been the scandal surrounding the death of Baby P, a baby that died in London due to neglect despite dozens of missed opportunities to save him. Child protective services here are taking a press beating, though I thought the most striking failure was the doctor who examined him a few days before his death and didn't notice that his "crankiness" was probably due to his back already being broken. A general overview is here. I don't usually spend too much time following stories like this, but since I was studying social services and the NHS the whole time it was going on, I couldn't put the paper down. It seems sort of ironic to me that society has reached a point where scholars spend their lives picking apart the finer points of social policy in the U.K. (Are benefits in kind demoralizing? If families are rational, self-interested actors, is a welfare system really more effective than market reliance?), but someone with needs so basic and obvious can still fall through the cracks.

Overheard in Oxford

To make up for my last post which was admittedly a bit opaque, here are some sights and sounds from the last few days which everyone can appreciate:

1. I saw an undergraduate-age person walking down the High Street in Oxford smoking a wooden pipe. I didn't even know we (society) still made pipes. It could only have been better if bubbles were coming out instead of smoke.

2. Upon passing the Centre for Development Studies today, I heard a loud group of grad students discussing economics. The best exclamation: "That's why serfdom works so well!" (Obviously funnier because of the British accent, as most things are.)

3. Scottish guy with giant muttonchops. I wish I had a picture.

That's all for now. I need to finish my paper on British education. It took me most of the week to figure out that "public school" is the term for privately-owned prep schools like Eton, "grammar schools" are selective high schools akin to magnet schools, and "comprehensive schools" are more or less what we would call public high schools.

Burning Question of the Week

"Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea."

I'll get straight to the point. Jacky Paper was a cool kid, and brought Puff fancy stuff, as you may recall. One of the fancy items was wax. Up until recently, I had assumed it was ceiling wax. You know...people wax floors, and Puff must be pretty tall, so he probably wants his ceiling to look spiffy too.

Then I realized two things: First, Puff lives in a cave, and caves do not usually contain waxable surfaces. Second, upon a recent trip to a University of Oxford store, I encountered sealing wax for the first time (Yes, Oxford wax. I'll suggest it to my colleagues at the Brown store when I get home). Now, we all know that Puff had lots of "giants' rings", so he could presumably have used wax to seal his letters to the "noble kings and princes", right?

A quick internet search shows that ceiling is the preferred word on lyrics sites, but there are some that claim sealing was originally intended. Once again, I am confounded by homophones and the internet is no help.

P.S. The green dragon was soooo scary. I'm glad I saved Princess Gwaelin from him.

London

Friday night's trip to see Oedipus went really well. I hadn't been in to London yet, so I didn't realize that the bus that goes from Oxford to London makes stops on St. Clement's, the road immediately adjacent to my dorm. The trip took a little over two hours because of traffic, but I'm sure I'll be going in more now that I know how the buses work.

The show itself didn't blow me away, but was definitely worth seeing. Oedipus was played by Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), who was solid but not great. Jacosta was played by Clare Higgins, and I've been spending the day since the show trying to figure out where I've seen her before. She's done some films, but I'm pretty sure I haven't seen them. I think I must've seen her on Broadway at some point. Brownie points to anyone who can figure out when/where that was. (Work on it: British brownie points are worth 1.5x's more than puny American brownie points. Also, my brownie points are chocolate peanut butter swirl.)

The picture above was shot from Westminster Bridge, and shows the South Bank where the National Theatre (that's how it's spelt!) is located. The London Eye is the biggest ferris wheel in Europe, and third in the world after a couple of Asian ferris wheels. I didn't get a chance to ride it, but it definitely merits a trip back to that area.

On the opposite side of the river (see below) are all the London postcard landmarks. Because it was Friday night, I didn't get to visit Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc., but it was still oddly exciting to see them all lit up at night (see Facebook for the rest of the photos). 

Now I'm back to work slaving away over F.A. Hayek and histories of British education policy. I only have one paper due this coming week though, thankfully. One of my professors from Brown is coming to give a lecture, which should be fun, and I'm trying to get in touch with him to see if I can convince him to meet with me about my senior thesis. I mean, if you were a well-respected academic traveling abroad to a conference at Oxford, wouldn't you want to take some time out of your schedule to meet with me? Exactly. 

In which I go to see my favourite dinosaur...

...Oedipus Rex! (I'm going to the show tonight in London. I've been saving that for weeks, since I got the tickets. Haha..)

Seriously though, I finally got through this week, another paper, and I am super-excited to finally be heading to London for the first time. I'm taking my camera, so there might even be pictures!

When I get back, I have to start reading Hayek. Apparently, we're all on the road to serfdom and social justice is a mirage. Sounds uplifting.

Thanks for all the comments! That was exciting. Now I need to find a funny hat, a swimming costume, and write a post about the election (I wasn't going to, since I thought the blogosphere pretty much had it covered, but I guess I might as well.)

Time to go now. I'll make sure to post a post-London update.

Halfway through Michaelmas

Upon handing in my paper for today, I realized that (measuring in the number of papers I have to write) I am exactly halfway through my first term here in Oxford. That seemed to deserve a blog post. Plus, (hint:) if someone were to actually comment on my blog, I would know that it was being read and feel less like I'm talking to myself. (hint2: I know you're reading it Mom and Dad, so you don't need to comment).

It's been a tumultuous week, and I still have a paper due Friday. I'm very excited about Obama, annoyed and saddened about Prop 8, and generally missing home with all the news focusing on US politics. On a lighter note, I'm trying to plan my adventures for my winter break (Rome?) so cool Europe suggestions would be welcome. It's cold here, so I may prioritize going somewhere just a little bit less cold.

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my plans for next year and beyond, how they're related to what I'm studying, and generally whether or not reading so many political philosophy treatises and healthcare studies is worth my time (and parents' money). Though I'm churning out papers faster than a room full of monkeys with typewriters, I have been feeling a bit like I'm just spinning my wheels, not really accomplishing much of anything.

There are more little cultural differences between Brits and Americans than people back home appreciate. Maybe my social ineptitude doesn't help matters, but I can't help feeling a bit more of an outsider than I usually do.

This isn't a very fun post and I don't want to go into more detail about these thoughts here, so I'll stop. Maybe I'll post a cartoon or something later.

The New Yorker is what I'm thinking, if I were clever.

Just a short post. This made me really happy:

Is that only awesome because of how much I miss Chinese food? It doesn't really matter.

Also, Woody Allen wrote a cute musing/story that poked fun at the FDA's "not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease" disclaimer on health product labels. I lose him about halfway through, but I'm flattered that he reads my column.

Lightning-Round Blog Post

Over the past week or so, I've been so busy that despite several ideas for blog posts, I failed to actually post anything. Now I have a backlog of post ideas way too long to actually use, so I'm going to get a bunch out of the way all at once. Here are some updates/musings/observations from the past week:

• I voted; you can stop asking. It feels pretty awesome. If Obama loses, I'm going to be very upset.
• I saw a great student production of The Last Five Years last night. It was the first theatre event I made it to, and bodes well for the rest of the year.
• Last week I joined the Oxford Union, Oxford's debating society / social club, which is supposedly renowned for bringing interesting speakers to debates each week. There is some controversy going on about the Union, because apparently several of the speakers that were advertised for the term aren't actually coming. I'm pondering whether or not I should ask for my money back. There's a nice Member's library and bar, though.
• Fast food is weird in England. For example, Big Macs come with a barbecue-ish sauce on them, and Pizza Hut serves a range of Italian food. On the plus side, there's a Subway next to my dorm that is mercifully familiar.

I think that's enough for now--look out for some more substantial posts in the next couple of days. Also, I have Skype well and truly working now, so if you'd like to say hello sometime send me your info!

UPDATE: Fudgie the Hamster

First, I'd like to admit that I was kidding when I promised to follow up on the hamster post. I mean, did anyone really think that BBC would publish another story about Fudgie? But...they did, so I decided to keep to my word and let those of you waiting with bated breath know what happened.

BBC reports that Fudgie finally got bored of living in a hole and crawled back into her cage earlier this week. Six year-old Zoe is much relieved, and her mom says "it was like Christmas morning" when they realized Fudgie was back. Hurray!

The Welfare State

So...this week I'm studying the British welfare state. My main conclusion (apart from the academic stuff) is that the UK really cares about its people. Seriously, everyone. You don't even really have to be a person:

Here, for example is the amazing story of the state's attempt to help a little girl save her missing hamster. How many firefighters were involved? If you guessed less than 8, you're wrong. (Or more than 8. It was 8.)

Unfortunately, even Britain's finest (armed with a chocolate-covered high-tech camera and a vacuum cleaner fitted with a sock) couldn't find Fudgie the Hamster. Some might draw conclusions from this about the efficacy of a system that creates dependence on the state, but frankly, the hamster's only been MIA for a few days, and I think we should give the system a fair shake before judging it.

I'll post an update if it becomes available.

I eat, sleep, and read (political philosophy)

So, a bunch of people (mostly family) want to know what I'm doing with my time.

Mostly, I'm studying. The main difference between studying at Oxford and at Brown is that I'm taking just two, intensive classes at a time, and writing a paper at least once a week. This much writing involves a lot of reading for hours on end, but the actual class meetings, in which I discuss my papers one-on-one with my instructors, have been amazing so far.

I made my obligatory rounds signing up for every student group in existence at the Activities Fair here, and I've been trying my best to get involved. This term (the first 8 weeks) I'm rowing with Mansfield's boat club. The autumn term is for amateurs, and most visiting students give it a try because rowing is a quintessentially "Oxford" experience.

The city itself (Oxford, about 60 miles outside London) is beautiful. There's even more going on here than I expected, including a great theatre and restaurant scene. The university is broken up into a ton of constituent colleges, so there are some iconic places I haven't seen because they are part of other colleges. Hopefully I'll find a reason to explore those as well soon.

As far as the essentials go, there are more Chinese and Thai restaurants here than anywhere I've ever been, barring Chinatown. I'm having more trouble finding acceptable ice cream. I'm keeping up hope, though.

Woohoo! Blog! ENGLAND! Blog...in England!

So, I'm relaunching this blog to chronicle my time in England. Mostly, I've decided that I have too many ridiculous comments about British culture and food products to keep to myself, but I'll also throw in some details about what I'm doing so nobody misses me too much. I'm sorry the blog is ugly; feel free to send pointers. This is a test post -- expect a real one soon!