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!