We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience. - Martin Buber
More interesting things that happened over this past summer...

Linacre Ball: Oxford colleges have a tradition of throwing elaborate parties, with the most elaborate of these being their annual (biannual for the uber-rich colleges) College Balls. Our theme for the Linacre Ball this year was Pirates and Princesses, which I thought sounded quite goofy. It turned out to be rather goofy, but also a lot of fun.


As it was a themed party, we could go with either black tie or full costume if we wished. We went with a combination of the two, black-tie with costumey accessories. I had Drew bring my tiara along, so I looked like a 1950s-style Princess in my black-and-white dress – perhaps Princess Grace? Chris rented a tux, but realized he didn’t have a bow-tie to go along with it. So he went to the costume store and bought a cheap doo-rag with a skull and crossbones on it, stuffed it down his shirt, and voila! A pirate tie! We even received compliments on our outfits, with several people liking my dress and quite a few commenting on Chris’s “tie.” One of our friends, Dave, asked, “What the heck is that?” and then thought for a minute and said, “Oh, it’s a cravat!” Then, satisfied with his own answer, walked away, with Chris looking after him confused. It was quite amusing.

The party itself consisted of a number of different themed rooms to match the pirate/ princess theme. The Common Room, as the Castle, had a couple of different “laid-back” bands (a pleasant strings set, a terrible folk duo) and a chocolate fountain. Chocolate and fruit and cake….mmmm. The conference room was transformed into the Pirate’s Deck, with an open bar decorated like a pirate ship (mixed drinks!), a small vodka luge, a blackjack table, and a henna tattoo table. Chris spent a crazy amount of time at the blackjack table, partly because he convinced me, Max, and a couple other people to give him the majority of our chips. After playing blackjack for a short time, I waited in line to get a henna tattoo. It was a slightly swirly design around my wrist, similar to the design on our wedding rings. For the next several days, I enjoyed having temporary body art, especially because I’ll never have it permanent. Later on, that room transformed into the karaoke room, resulting in much drunken bad singing. The TV room transformed into the Princess’s boudoir, lined with pillows and hooka pipes. I actually tried one of the hooka pipes. It was strange – flavored smoke, nothing like cigarette smoke, although it did make me choke a bit. Although it made me quite glad Chris has never tried smoking cigarettes, because apparently he enjoyed himself a bit too much in that room. The dining room downstairs turned into the Castle Ballroom, and had live bands throughout the night. Our friend Stewart’s band, Red Ink, played and they were excellent! They rocked out on a number of covers, from Blur to Zepplin, and a couple of their own songs as well. We saw their first performance at the Linacre open mic, but they were even tighter and more fiery at the Ball. A local funk/disco cover band played as well, and there was a whole lot of rocking-and-rolling and dancing going on between the two bands and the DJ.

Outside the college, there was the Feast, which was a roast pig and a number of different side-dishes. The paella was particularly impressive, prepared in a massive metal bowl. Unfortunately, it wasn’t ready by the time I had moved up to the food, and I wasn’t standing in line for twenty minutes again. Later on, they had Millies Cookies and ice cream. Then, in the morning for the survivors who had lasted until 3 AM (including us!) they had extra cookies and donuts. I think I ate enough food for several days during that one long night.

Overall, we had a terrific time. Chris and I spent a surprising amount of time apart, hanging out with our other friends, dancing and chilling. I remember having some strange conversations about our friends’ (mainly Adam’s) adolescences while a bunch of us sat out in the backyard munching on cookies. As I had just finished exams a few days earlier and had spent very little time with our friends leading up to testing, it was great to just be able to hang out without worrying about “wasting time.” But when Chris and I wanted to find each other, we generally did. It was a good balance of independence and together-fun. Unlike other formal dances we’ve been to, it wasn’t all dancing, which helped a lot. Chris gets physically tired after a while, and I just get annoyed by dancing after a certain period of time for a number of different, weird reasons. So the fact that we could go find something else to do and then come back and dance whenever we wanted was quite refreshing. And the theme really did make it more fun. It added a sense of whimsy to events that are often associated with high school “drama” or can be too-formal-to-have-fun-or-even-dance-without-feeling-self-conscious. There were some people dressed up in full pirate costumes, so no matter how ridiculous you felt, you knew someone else looked even sillier on purpose. It was a lovely night for me to forget any problems with the outside world I had and focus on having fun.


Photos from the ball: http://oxford.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2116728&l=125aa&id=405889

Cowley Road Carnival: Most of the time, Oxford seems like Tourist-‘O-Mania. Hordes of tourists, particularly school groups, crowd the city center, shooting photographs and just generally blocking up everything for the residents. But as much of Oxford’s economy runs off of tourism (and the rest off of undergrads – grad students don’t have any money!), I couldn’t complain too much about it. Especially because I was relatively privileged to live there at all.

But thankfully, there are sections of Oxford very different from the medieval downtown. Downtown is certainly beautiful, but occasionally just requires some escaping from. And one of those sections is Cowley Road. (The other is Jericho, which has become kind of gentrified.) Cowley Road is off-the-beaten-path tourist-wise, but is where much of the culture of actual Oxford residents resides.



Cowley Road features a number of good ethnic restaurants, ranging from Chinese to Polish to Arabic. The Chinese and Polish restaurants were very good – I never got to a real, good Arabic restaurant, unfortunately. (Kabab vans don’t really count.) Besides the restaurants, there’s also a music/dance club, so it is a bit of an alternative/arty hub as well. Cowley had a reputation for being dangerous, but as I know someone who had been beaten up on Linacre’s seemingly safe, middle-of-town road, I don’t think it was worse than anywhere else.

Most of the time, Cowley Road seemed fun, but our lack of money prevented us from enjoying it much. It just cost too much money to go out to dinner or clubbing. Thankfully, Oxford’s sense of community spirit motivated it to celebrate Cowley’s anti-pretentious, multicultural spirit at least once a year – the Cowley Road Carnival. Chris and I went in the middle of the day, after the festivities had been going on for a couple hours, and things were in full swing. Every restaurant had a stand on the sidewalk, filling the air with smells from a hundred different cultures. It was like walking around a culinary globe. There was a display for children to buy used toys to benefit one of the charity shops, and kids looked enthralled at being able to choose one of the many teddy bears. Seeing kids was refreshing, because in such a student-dominated town, younger children often never seem to exist. There was also a very odd clown show, which was some combination of weird magic tricks and participatory humor. I don’t think the kids understood it any more than I did, but they seemed somewhat entertained by these strange folks. As we walked further up the street, strains of music came and went. A number of different local bands performed, ranging from traditional African to Celtic to rock-and-roll to rap. Some were better than others, but all were worth listening to for a moment or two. There was even a huge brass marching band that stood in a circle in the middle of the road!

We walked all the way up to the end of the “business” section of Cowley Road. The section ends with a pretty medieval church, which was hosting their own outdoor exhibits. They had several craft stands, where children were busy working away at a mess of glue and felt. There was also a very cool school art project that displayed work done by students on the theme of 200 Years of Abolition (in England). On the other side of the road was a series of tents set up by local charities and organizations, where I enjoyed finding about the work they did.

It felt good just wandering around, soaking in all of the sensory input that was so different from ordinary Oxford life. Here were people who lived here, who played here, worked here and volunteered here! Even though I knew few of the people around me, I felt like part of the Oxford community for the first time. Because this wasn’t a tourist event. It was a community event, full of the vibrance and diversity that actually made up Oxford. I felt fortunate to be able to be a part of it. Even though I was there for a short amount of time, I always wanted to find ways to connect locally, not just be an isolated student. For some reason, I found this was much harder in Oxford than in Ithaca, even though Oxford is geographically integrated into the town. From my perspective, it seems like a lot of it is a class thing that continues to support the traditional town/gown split. But even within the University, it seemed to me that many colleges were very exclusive and insular, so maybe it’s not just townies vs. students. Also, my experience may have been very different for me if I was in an “undergraduate” college. On the other hand, I didn’t try as hard as I could have to be involved either. Even before arriving in Oxford, I planned at volunteering at the Gatehouse, the support center for people “living rough.” Unfortunately, I became involved in too many other activities that I couldn’t find time for it. But I hope that my activist activities and small efforts did make an impact on the campus and community. Because there’s only so much one can do in a year.




The Shea family visiting: During the summer, a couple weeks after exams, the Sheas visited jolly olde England. There were some significant worries, as Papa Shea Did Not Want to come. Part of the reason was because terrorists had attacked the Glasgow Airport only a few days earlier. Thankfully, the terrorists were incredibly incompetent (“Let’s drive our car into an airport, and then pour gasoline on ourselves while we’re on fire! Great idea!”) and were quickly tackled by hardy Glaswegians. The other reason I think Papa Shea was uncomfortable had to do with cultural differences – the difference in driving and the general fish-out-of-water things that the Sheas sometimes struggle with. Papa Shea in particular is incredibly picky about food. (However, I thought Chris adjusted to England remarkably quickly, considering he had never visited. He picked up on slang and phrasing much faster than I did.)



So they arrived, and the trip started off rather badly. Although they had ordered an automatic from the car rental, they only had stick shifts. Papa Shea is used to a manual, but not when he has to shift with his opposite hand while driving on the other side of the road. The driving didn’t get any better (only worse), but other than that, the vacation did improve from there.

Although we went to many lovely sites, some of the most memorable moments of the trip came during a simple punt ride in Oxford. Mama Shea decided that she wanted to try a traditional Oxford pastime, punting. A punt is a lot like a gondola - a long flat boat propelled by a stick. However, instead of maneuvering the canals of Venice, people use them to hang out on the rivers of Oxford. We started off for Wolfson, where the Linacre punt is stored – walking and walking and walking. I had no idea how far Wolfson was from Linacre before then. Turns out it’s far over a half-hour walk – which occurred after a long day of walking. Oops. We signed out the punt, awkwardly climbed in the boat and were off. Sort of. Turns out that propelling the punt forward is much harder than it appears. Chris stood on the end of the punt and carefully, slowly maneuvered it out of the storage area, through a concrete canal.

Then things took a turn for the worse. Once we got out of the concrete canal, we no longer had anything to push against. We quickly realized that the canal had restricted us enough to move forward. Now that we were in the current, Chris shoved the end of the punt stick against the riverbed, but to no avail. No matter how hard or seemingly straight he pushed, we went sideways! Any time we began to move forward, we rapidly began turning to one side or another. Soon enough, we were either caught in a tree or the weeds of the bank. Ergh! Deciding that Chris was being incompetent, I aggressively offered to take over. Chris rolled his eyes and said, “Give it a try.” Sadly, I didn’t have much success either, although I did slightly better. Under my command, we actually went somewhere! (But not very far. At all.) Then Papa Shea took over with similar results. As it ended up, we spent 45 minutes spinning around in a 1/10 mile length of river. It was completely ridiculous. We had Melissa and Mama Shea cracking up. Thankfully, the next time Chris and I tried punting, with Adam and Stephanie, the whole thing went much better. We actually made it down the river and to a pub for Pimms and lemonade.

While that was perhaps the most absurdly amusing bit of the trip, we did see a lot of fabulous things. Some of them were sites I had seen previously, while many were new. The best were:
- Blenheim Castle – Although I had seen it with my parents, I enjoyed their new exhibit, which features a ghostly maid gossiping about the real-life palace inhabitants. It was cheesy, but neat to hear some of the family’s more dodgy stories.
- Hampton Court Palace – Henry VIII’s palace, and just as over-the-top as he was. Lots of medieval drapery and extravagance. We got to hear re-enactors in costume playing kitchen utensils and singing dirty songs! Beautiful gardens full of colors and textures, along with the world’s largest grape vine. Unfortunately, the hedge maze closed minutes before we reached it. Alas, alas.
- Stratford on Avon – Slightly touristy, but I enjoyed seeing the Shakespeare stuff, especially since I like visiting structures and imagining them as they were at the time. The Shakespeare Museum there was small, but full of fascinating trivia and documents.
- Salisbury Cathedral – Pretty cathedral, neat history.
- St. Paul’s – The church was quite beautiful, especially the dome from the floor below. Looking up made me dizzy, but I just wanted to keep looking anyway because it was so lovely and covered in elaborate frescos. But the real attraction of St. Paul’s was the view from on top of the dome, which was an exhausting climb but worth it. I felt bad for Papa Shea though, who is afraid of heights and almost fainted at the top of the narrow Golden Gallery.
- Globe Theater and Love’s Labour Lost – Shakespeare as Shakespeare is supposed to be. We first took the tour of the Globe and Rose, and had a very brief foray around the museum before it closed (unfortunately, missing most of it). Then, Chris and I picked up the 5-pound tickets for the family we bought for Mama Shea’s birthday. With typical hit-head-with-hand stupidity, I left the printouts at home in Oxford. Thankfully, they reprinted our tickets. Although they said we had seated tickets, the real holders of the seats did come along, pushing us onto the ground. Since Chris and I are used to club concerts, it wasn’t a big deal for us. I think Melissa and Mama Shea were disappointed though. Sadly, Papa Shea decided he so disliked Shakespeare that he would rather stay at the hotel, drinking wine and watching TV by himself. Hopeless. For the rest of us, it was fabulous. We got spaces that were close to the stage with better views than the seats. As my hearing is crummy, it also made it a lot easier for me to understand the actors, who perform without electronic amplification. Love’s Labour Lost was a funny, clever play, much more enjoyable than A Winter’s Tale, which I had seen with my parents. Unlike many Shakespearian comedies, the main characters were both likable and intelligent. I understood most of it, thanks to Sparknotes and the theater’s program. Like the best of historical travel experiences, it made me feel like I could have been living in Shakespeare’s time, just some peasant enjoying some simple entertainment.
- Pub crawl with Melissa! We spent the required time in the Turf Tavern, sipped half-price mojitos and cocktails at the Grand Café, and basked in the funky awesomeness of Raoul’s, definitely the “coolest” bar I have ever been to. Where else could you order something with honey liqueur?
- Of things I had seen previously, we also visited Stonehenge, Avebury, Warwick Castle, Windsor Castle, the British Museum, the National Gallery/National Portrait Gallery, the Jack the Ripper tour, Westminster Abbey (don’t understand the in-laws obsession on this one – neither did Chris or Melissa, though), and the Tower of London. </lj>