9th week

Wow so basically here is how it went...

Hello December. Goodbye tutorial. Wait, what? The Quarter is ending? GAHHHHH

Everything has happened so quickly that I can't even believe it. Every other sentence seems to be, "well this is the last time we'll (insert fun activity)"

examples include: go to st. hughs, eat ahmeds, pretend to be dinosaurs...

I'm really going to miss it here in Oxford. There is a good environment, good people, good...pubs? Most def.

And now everyone is off on their various adventures ... Italy, Iceland, Home, Oxford. That should be fun! I embark with Cindy, James and Sam in the morning. Then there is barely time to breathe before my mom comes!

I will update you on adventures soon... but for now, pictures! Hooray!
These include: British Museum, Christmas Festival in Oxford, Sam's visit/Christ Church and a really cool parka made out of seal intestines by the Inuits. Baller. A prison changed into a hotel. And festive decorations at the covered market :D winnnnn... more sufficient update to come!

Hope you're having a fantastic week! Good luck on finals for those who are taking them!

The Stanford House smells like Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Amazing! So the Stanford House is putting on it's own American Thanksgiving and then on Saturday I get to head up to London to have another American Thanksgiving with the Vezie's. Basically, I'm really excited!

Anyways...what have we been up to across the pond?

Well two weekends ago we took a truly girls night out (GNO as Shrutes would say) and headed up to London to see the Phantom of The Opera at her Majesty's Theatre, the original! It was fantastic, the singing, the chandelier, the tragic story. My favorite was definitely the Phantom, everything he sang and acted was basically perfection. Melissa and I are HUGE Phantom fans and the week leading up to it all we did was play it/sing it in our room. It was great going out with the girls too because we sand all the way back on the bus...YES.



































The next night Melissa turned 20! We made her red velvet cupcakes and surprised her in the JCR with those and rum & cokes. We then went to a club afterward, kind of sketchy not going to lie...but it was still a fun way to celebrate her birthday!

The next day we went to Bath, which was hands down my favorite city that we've been to so far (I mean out of York and Stratford upon Avon). We saw the ancient Roman Baths and walked around in the rain. The architecture is Palladian Classical, which trust me, is gorgeous. The entire city! We also got to go into a small house in the Red Crescent and we were told the history of these country houses by these cute old British women. One of which described how men would come and play cards and look for a mistress or a second wife...much like in the Jane Austen novels apparently?!? And she taught us how to greet each other in proper British, and said she much would have liked to have lived in that time!!! It was like she was reminiscent of a time in which she never lived. SO CUTE. So Bath was great, I'm going to take my mom there when she visits!

Then that Saturday we worked in the morning and some Stanford in Paris people came to visit! On par with our other cooking adventures we decided to treat our St. Hugh's friends to the Stanford Tradition of breakfast for dinner! It was so much fun, although cooking for like 20 people (there were stanny kids there as well) is a bit overwhelming. We had chocolate chip/banana pancakes, which turned out great after a couple of tries haha, and plate sized omelets ala Stern Dining, which Sam and I mastered pretty quickly. There were also Mimosas all around! We then went to a bop later that night and got to wear our onesies for the first time! HOORAY! Climbing the gates in the onesies was also a little bit of a joke, but fun nontheless.















This past weekend we were preparing for Big Game and got to paint signs, take pictures with them and hang them up for all of Oxford to see. It's amazing how much I miss being on campus and big game week. Even though we kind of got owned by Cal (they did play a lot better than us and controlled the ball for basically the entire game), it was fun hanging out with Stanford peeps gathering around a laptop in the study room at 12.30am to watch the game streamed on pirated TV. haha, good times.































Then came EVEN more work. I can officially say that I know how to write two 10 page papers in less than 48 hours. What a useful skill right? *sigh* But I'm done with my tutorial! It was amazing! The entire experience! And at the end of our meeting yesterday, my tutor gave me advice that was at the very heart of what I was trying to understand coming into this tutorial. All of the big questions that I have about intervention in developing countries, altruism, western ideals...she had fantastic insight into all of it. Basically I'm excited about life :)

I can't believe the academics here are beginning to wind down. It's been a lot of hard work, but the more free time in the coming week or so should prove to be very very conducive to ADVENTURES. woot. I'm excited. You will know of them in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving! Cheers!

PS.

We see the coolest things just walking up high street in Oxford. This is what I want to learn how to do:




Random obese thing in Paris:


Anyone have a good name for it?

Why today is awesome...

---- +------ +----- +------

N: I can't figure out why I'm in such a good mood... :)
S: Let me explain:

1) your tute is done
2) i just sent you a feel good song
3) we're going to be forever young
4) you are making cupcakes today!
5) you're watching phantom tomorrow
6) WE'RE IN BRITAIN!
7)Also, we need to have another dance party.

Well said.

Summed up very nicely... Thanks Shruti!

------ +------ + --------+ ------- +

SO this past weekend was AWESOME. It consisted of London to go see the Royal Ballet, Sleeping Beauty! Stav was adorably excited because she loves ballet. And there are no other words to describe the ballet except gorgeous. Wait...also the music was amazing!!! I can't wait to go see the symphony. Before that we walked around Hyde Park and ate a tart that we bought from a Notting Hill farmers market (yea Hugh Grand & Julia Roberts). Note in the pictures... these graceful swans sticking their butts HIGH in the air... hmm. :) I was noticeably more amused than either Stav or Michelle, haha. Oh well.

Also, the day before we went to Blenheim palace for the British Architecture class. You'd think I'd be sick of palaces by now... but that's just not true. This one is my favorite yet!!!

Hooray!

Note from before. Dim Sum was awesome :) There is good food here! Chinese food that is. hokay. must. go. bake. cupcakes. what a struggle.

Till next week! I hope you are having a fantastic November!!!

ALSO...best picture ever :) These ladies make me so happy!

Happy Guy Fawkes Day! Hooray fireworks!

What I should be doing is reading about Christopher Wren. Awesome, awesome bloke. Designed shindigs such as St. Pauls cathedral... giving us a fantastic view of London right outside of the financial district.





I'm really enjoying my architecture class. It seem trite, but literally ALL the buildings in London and Oxford and other places as well make so much more sense. Also, our professor Dr. Tyack is amazing. We had tea with him last week and made homemade cookies. Everyone had at least 6...then couldn't eat dinner. But around 10 there was a MASS trip to Ahmeds, the closest kebab van down the street (drunk food)... best hummus, pita and veggie burgers period. But also lots and lots of chips, bad habits.

These past two weeks have been filled with adventure! Sam and I went caving, which is indeed a legit sport here with a club and everything. We descended down this small triangle chute in full on caving gear and thus spent three hours underground climbing on rocks, sliding down waterfalls, crawling through holes...falling down ravines in Sam's case (she's ok), still one of the scariest moments of my life. But it was awesome and I'm def. considering going on a trip in the upcoming weeks, or I might join Sam on the surf trip. Surfing? In England?!? Yea I know right, but really...if you think about it...it's all coast. All you really need is a good wet suit and you're off to the races...




To give you a little bit of an indication of what caving consists of...although you really don't know until you're down there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIqmVDDwM_s

We've been talking a lot about autism in my medical ethics class. Read a book by Temple Grandin (youtube her) and Mark Haddon's Curious incident with the dog in the night time. Super interesting reads both of them... in class however, the discussion sort of always ends up in questioning what it is to be human...and the meaning of life. You know, all that jazz. Right.

So also, we tie dyed for Halloween! Sam, Stav and I decided to be Hippies so we tie dyed t-shirts, socks and a gorgeous sash with our friends from St. Hugh's college...







Halloween here was also legit. The Stanford House had a progressive because Halloween isn't too big here, or the concept of dressing up as anything that is NOT scary isn't too big here. But it was really fun, there was a BOP at Magedalen College that everyone went to. Some costumes of note... Holmes & Watson... superman... :) It was awesome.





We also went to the Opera this week to see La Traviata...then everyone promptly came back to work on their essays ALL NIGHT. Not even joking, the collective bed time of this house was approx. 4am. Also, 4th papers were do this week and definitely feeling a mid quarter slump in how well the papers are going. Instead of the usual "excellent" or "very good" from my tutor, this week I got a "Right...so... did you find this exercise useful?" Not sure what that means...can't be good. Next week I'm writing about HIV/AIDS though so I'm feeling a little more inspired with that one :)

Speaking of being halfway through. It seems COMPLETELY unreal. I feel like we just got here and we're enjoying everything so much!!! I can definitely see why some people are inclined to stay here for two quarters...even the entire year. But alas... home calls.

We got this awesome gift from the states that will be unveiled this weekend at a party...and I'm going to the ballet in London with Siqi, Stav and Michelle on Saturday! But first things first, tomorrow we get Dim Sum!!! MMM yay.

hokay. That's all for now. More adventures to come soon :)

PS. I LOVE THE UK

PPS HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM :)

Words won't adequately describe...

I had a wonderful moment today.

After spending the entire day in the library, I walked outside into a crisp night air that smelled faintly of a woody winter.

Taking in a deep breath, I turned around to take in the surrounding buildings, the old towers, stone pathways, carved Latin letters. I was among the ancient, yet here I was living now.

The sky was a gorgeous black streaked with gray clouds and as I looked up and filled my lungs again, the starts twinkled to me. Instantly I felt how small I was. A speck in the midst of stones, country, earth, planets, universe...but I also felt grand; I was so alive. A sparkle of consciousness in such a large and wonderful mixture of existence.

I am stunned at how powerful that moment was. I'm so thankful to be here. I'm so thankful to be alive and be fully conscious of it from time to time.

Hugging my books I walked back to the house to have dinner with friends.

Week 2

It has been so long...although really only like two weeks! Everything has gone so fast and feels like such a magnificent blur. I'll highlight what I can remember at the moment, but I'm not promising any sort of comprehensiveness. Also I think pictures are more fun anyways :D

0 week - was the week that all the freshers (freshmen) came, it was awesome, we got to eat in the dining halls, which are really gorgeous. And go to the activities fair, which puts Stanfords' to down right shame. SHAME.


So... one night we were thoroughly disappointed with the college food, so we went to go buy ourselves cookies to make ourselves feel more satisfied. WORST COOKIE EVER. And I never thought I would say those words ever... who puts chocolate chips OUTSIDE a chocolate chip cookie? Who? But seriously... we are making cookies next week. for tea. Will let you know how that venture goes :)

Shruti and I went to London the first weekend. We went to a gorgeous market recommended to us by Mr. Olives (The french owner of Olives Cafe across the street), and we took ridiculous pictures on the london bridge... in front of buckingham palace and hung out in St. James park. Literally, I think that is my favorite park in London, though I haven't been to many others. Then I met up with Sam H. and got a tour of her college! We also went out for Indian food and had a complete meal for 10 pds. Totally worth it. Then met up with Shruti's friends at a gay bar. fantastic :) Especially the dancing. We didn't get back into Oxford until around 3am. O dear :D

That week I also went to Ultimate practice...mostly probably because I miss being at home. Good thing because the team was mostly Americans haha. That was followed by a plea to my mother to send me my "boots" (cleats) from the states...not a cheap feat I might add :( But with my care package I also got M&Ms! Absolutely fantastic...they'll go well to supplement mine and shruti's challenge, which is to eat a different english candy bar every day. We will then compile a list and publish it for any future UK travelers. Useful :D

This past weekend we went to Greenwich with our architecture class, which was ridiculously awesome. Although we're studying renaissance classicism we got to see a couple of Baroque pieces and the elaborateness literally made me gasp in awe. Intended effect...achieved. Also, our professor is just awesome. We saw the millenium dome (is that what it's called) from across the Thames...it's this giant (ugly) post modernist building with huge spires coming out of it. And Apparently...a college in cambridge just bought the rights to it. huh. go figure. Also...in the course of that day we found out that I attract the health care reform conversation. LITERALLY, every person I talked to that day it came up...

Care to share your views? Just kidding. Unless you want to. But maybe when I get back.

Also we went to Stratford upon Avon on Saturday which was a lot of fun! After visiting Shakespeare's birth home and being ushered through a far too campy museum (unfortunate because we probably would have really enjoyed it for its historical attributes if it wasn't so easy to be entertained by it's corniness)...we got tea, and indian food AGAIN.




Have to have a picture of shruti eating

Then we went to go see 12th night at the theatre. Some amazing things happen at theatre let me tell you. Not only did we get to see an amazing production...but Alan Rickman and Ian McKellan were in the audience. SNAPE AND GANDALF were sitting in the SAME ROW. As if the day wasn't awesome enough already. I love england. Also, we were just talking about how awesome alan rickman was earlier that day. Creepsies.

The rest of the weekend and week were spent in the library finishing/starting really my second tutorial paper which was one...the importance of the introducing the biomedical model into developing countries health care systems. Basically the crux of what I wanted to do. Instead of writing that paper last night though stav, sam and me went to St. Hughs formal hall instead! Totally worth not sleeping last night and being a little groggy for my tutorial this morning...

In anycase. the dinner is a formal dinner blacktie and cocktail dresses. And eating with forks and knives. Oh boy... I never realized how uncivilized I was until I tried eating salad with a fork and a knife. It would have been intolerable any other way. But our host was awesome and we went down to the college bar after and had a laugh before trekked back. So really...every college here as a bar, which is a great meeting point for people to just hang out, drink a beer and relax. The social life ends up being so laid back. It's fantastic. Additionally, because everyone has their tutorials on different days there are things happening on random tuesdays and wednesdays! Mmm yes...definitely a hard working mentality though given HOW many hours I've spent in the library over the past four days. haha :D But you do what you have to do...

Right...also weird thing about dinner. Without any warning at the beginning of the meal everyone stood up, and slightly in shock and watched the important people walk into the meal. A prayer was said in Latin (Latin?!?) and we all sat back down. It was all normal...but I mean WHAT?!? I love the little things here that surprise me so much :D The people here are simply amazing.

Anyways... i should go. Samantha and I are going caving this weekend! It should be awesome...pictures to follow. Additionally, on friday we're getting a historic tour of the London plague. cheery.

right. also new favorite phrase : "fancy a toastie"
new favorite game: "Pennies"

More later...

Cheers <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCo0-B30MzSAUJ8dJulb6ygh_W92GVBw0nhtbtasKVnAhYIlde3k27m5KQbdQvrBcU9qPnhIWuOftyzR3iFYSGEtFs9xpuCEGIdO3XKoLQyJjYE5ABoA9krBRhF_-J7mSZyieacr6UsQQa/s1600-h/IMG_0288.JPG"> left: awesome clowns, right: parcel!!! YAY

Beauteous architecture:


left: not pretty right: awesome

left: Dr. Tyack right: queens house

tag: gorgeous