KK’s Blog

So in the past two days, I have experienced a lot of new things. Here’s my list of “firsts” and it has mostly happened today, though some yesterday.

1. First time a random man on the street said to me, “Hello, my darling.”

2. First time I went on a crew date.

3. First time I had a tutorial, or anything academic-related at Oxford for that matter, happen at 9:00 a.m. (never had anything earlier either).

4. First time I did a time trial type race for rowing.

5. First time we ran the boat into the bank.

6. First time I lost something on the river while rowing - my brand new G-town headband/ear warmer thing that Dr. Crouch brought me.

7. First time our rowing team has been called awesome, even though we ran into a bank (we’ve been called amazing twice before though).

8. First time it’s rained really hard and I’ve had to go out in it since I’ve been here this time.

9. First time I’ve worn my big white winter coat since I’ve been here this time.

10. Okay I can’t think of a ten, but 9 firsts in a little over a day is pretty impressive, I think. I was thinking there was one other thing, but now I can’t remember it. Maybe I will later.

So I’m sure I’ll expand on these things in other entries, but right now I’m exhausted from rowing, so I think I’m going to relax and maybe take a nap before formal hall.

I think my tut went pretty well. I presented my essay, and he seemed satisfied with it. I was going to send him an e-mail yesterday to ask him what I could try to work on over Christmas break to prepare for collections, but I didn’t get to that one, have to do it later. But yeah, he let me go through my whole paper pretty much and then he asked me and the other guys questions about the points I brought up. When the guys present their essays, it seems like he interrupts them a lot, but whenever I do mine, he waits until I’ve finished to ask any questions. I don’t think it’s because my essays are any better. Maybe since I’m normally quiet, he’s afraid he’ll scare me or something. I don’t know. I guess I’ll just think it means I’m doing well. So my essay had three points and we mainly focused on the first one and then briefly went over the last two, and of course, we ran over on the time because we always do. So then I rushed back to college to go out for rowing and finish my very busy day on Tuesday. But yeah, just thought I would do an update on my tuts. I realized I don’t really write much about them. I guess lectures and rowing take up so much more of my time that they occupy my attention. But Dr. Hadaway wanted to hear more about my tutorials too, so if you’re reading this, Brad, hope this gives you some insight. I know it’s not that detailed, but it’s hard to explain without going into detail on the actual topic. And I’m guessing, maybe I’m completely wrong, but I’m guessing that most people who read this don’t really know much about the Attlee governments in Britain. I didn’t even know who Attlee was until I came over here and had to read about him. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that. Oh well, learning new things is why I came over here, right?

Somehow I have a lot of energy and I’m not sure where it’s coming from. I have a feeling I’m going to crash after dinner. I’ve gotten up at 5 a.m. the past two mornings to get me stuff done. And I guess probably total, I got around 7-8 hours of sleep but it wasn’t constant. I can’t wait until tonight when I get to sleep a whole night through. I thought I would come back after my three lectures today and fall asleep, but I actually had some energy. I got into my room and flipped on the light and it didn’t work. And since it gets dark at 4, I couldn’t have that. So I went searching for Bob, our maintenance guy and found him. I thought it was the bulb but it turned out to be a fuse. He changed the bulb anyway though because I apparently had an energy saver, which means the light is really dim, so it’s nice to have bright light now. I thought it was dim before but I just figured that’s how they all were. So then Katy came by my room and I let her take a nap because I had to go to my bank. My student account is finally open, though they haven’t transferred any of the money into it, which doesn’t really make sense since they said they couldn’t open it until I gave them 5000 pounds to deposit in it. I guess since my other account has 5000 pounds, that works somehow. I don’t know. But I had to set up another appointment with the student guy there so that I can make it so I can use my cash card as a debit card and so I can actually write checks from the checkbook that they gave me. I don’t understand how it all works, but I figure I’ll just ask him questions when we meet. I also got my online banking set up, so that’s good.

And then I sent out a bunch of e-mails, some thank you e-mails for my graduation presents. I know that’s terrible that I just got them out. And then some about my thesis that I’m going to do. And then some to G-town people for some stuff that I’m going to do when I get back. And then a few to girls here to see Wicked next term. So even though I haven’t done much school work, I feel very productive.

So I’ve been reading stuff on the first major Labour government in Britain after WWII since about 7:00 this morning, and I just found out that rowing tomorrow is going to be in the afternoon instead of the morning, so I have a little more time on my hands to get my essay done. Which that takes away some of the time to get my econ questions done, but hopefully I’ll still be able to get the essay mostly finished tonight and can start econ tomorrow morning. So I thought it would be nice to stare at a computer screen for a bit rather than a book, so I’m writing a quick entry to take a break. But after this essay I have a break from politics essays for a week, only one more to go in 8th week.

So Sunday I probably should have gotten more work done, but I’ve just decided that there are some things I need to do to keep myself sane. I talked to my mom for about an hour, and then I talked to Kyle some. And then after reading some I went with Celia over to Ashley and Katy’s to do my laundry and have dinner. Katy had other plans, but Ashley made Celia and me dinner, I brought bread and hot chocolate for later, and Celia brought dessert. We found a tape of “Friends” and watched some episodes of that and just talked. It was really nice. I like having nights in with friends. I’m boring I know, but I think it’s nice to just hang out. So I had been really excited about that all day and then came back refreshed. So I tried to do some more reading last night, but didn’t get too far before I decided to go to bed.

So now I have two more books that I want to skim and then I’ll start writing on my essay. I’m going to present mine this week since I won’t be doing one in 7th week and that would normally be my turn. I called James and asked him if it was okay if we switched, which he said was fine because he’ll be doing essays for both weeks since he already skipped one. We only have to do 6 out of the 8. And we have two in 8th week, so the three of us will be deciding who does what that week because I think we’ll each be taking our last skipped essay then so none of us will have to do 2. This week is my last set of questions for economics. The next two weeks will be essays. We have 4 essays in there. But actually I sort of like the essays better because it’s just one question and I have to time myself, so I just have to do it and that’s that. On the questions, I’m searching the books the whole time and it takes me a really long time, although this week I’ve gotten a little ahead with the reading so hopefully it won’t be too bad. I’m coming to the end of things, and I have to say I’m happy about it. I’m ready for a break and I want to come home and see everyone I miss. It’s going to be strange to come back in January instead of going to G-town though.

Well I guess I better get back to things. I just realized I haven’t written about my dinner with Dr. Crouch that we had Saturday evening. I’ll have to do that in another entry. It actually wasn’t too bad, but you’ll just have to hold onto the edge of your seats and wait to hear about it until I have more time to write.

At rowing today, we learned to feather, which basically means when we bring our oar, or blade as they call it, out of the water, we flip it with our wrist up to make sure it doesn’t catch anymore water and slow us down, and then right before we put it back into the water, we flip it so that it’s straight going into the water so it pushes us forward more. Fun stuff. And it is what gives you blisters. We did a lot of rowing in our tank session today, which is where we are inside and can see ourselves in the mirror rather than on an actual boat, in a tank of water, I guess. So we were all really tired from rowing so much with the water not really going anywhere and no current to help either, and our hands all hurt from the blisters on our fingers and hands. Hannah, our captain, said this was the week that both the girls and guys realized how painful rowing actually is. So I have three blisters and three places that might become blisters. Can’t wait for practice Monday. I might actually go to the erg machine tomorrow to see what my rate is so I know how quickly or slowly to move up the slide because I really have no idea and since I’m supposed to set the pace, I think I maybe should find out. I think my form is fairly good, although Matt, the guys’ captain who was at the tank session too, gave us a few pointers that will help. So I still like it. I’m just not going to enjoy the pain in my hand. Really only one hand does the twisting of the blade so on the stroke side we all have blisters on our right hands and on the bow side they all have blisters on their left hands. So now my left hand has no nails and still one painful one and my right hand has a bunch of blisters. My hands just are not looking too pretty these days and I’m guessing when the blisters heal, if they ever do, the skin won’t be too soft anymore. Or at least, I actually should be hoping it won’t be too soft because calluses will help so I don’t get blisters next term. Taking a break from reading and now I must get back to it. I’m just not that fast of a reader and it takes me a while to get through all these books, if I ever actually do get through enough to formulate an essay.

Well really neither of those needs to be plural. I had one meeting today and one lecture and one tutorial. No multiples of things today. So this morning I woke up fairly early because I had fallen asleep quite early last night. I ate too much for dinner and then I couldn’t move so I just laid in bed. Pretty bad, huh? I didn’t think I had eaten that much but my stomach was about to explode. Maybe the rice from the chicken curry just expanded after I ate it. So anyway, I got up and tried to figure out this economics problem that I had spent a whole lot of time on yesterday. I just kept staring at the equations, hoping the next time it would all become clear to me. I finally gave up and read some politics before calling my mom and heading to my lecture on China during the Cold War. It was sort of boring, but maybe it will be helpful when I do have that tutorial.

Which brings us to my meeting. I met with my advisor to discuss what I will be doing for the rest of my time here. Next term I’ll be doing the macroeconomics core course and international relations for my second politics core course. Then I’ll be doing international economics and economic decisions within the firm in my last term this year. Then next year, I’ll have international relations during the Cold War along with my thesis, though my thesis I’ll really be starting work on over this Christmas break. Suke, my advisor, said she doesn’t always recommend for undergrads to do theses because they usually take a lot more time than a paper, so sometimes it’s better to just do 8 papers rather than 7 papers and a thesis, though she did say people usually score higher on their theses. But she said she could tell I was serious about it and since I already have one degree under my belt and I might go on to grad school in the US, it would probably be good for me. I’m going to do mine in economics. I just sent e-mails to my two G-town econ profs to ask their advice, but I think I want to do something with the effect that the trade deficit of the US and its relationship with China has on firms in the US. Now I just have to actually have a question that I want to answer. Any advice anyone has on this subject would be greatly appreciated. She also said that I would need to work on it all summer, like make it a 9-5 job and I probably wouldn’t have time for a job. Of course, I’m going to have to have a job, but maybe I can find one like my Hallmark job where half the time I just sat behind the counter and did econ homework while I was in my independent study with Dr. Cooper. Or I want to try to see if there’s some research job at some college with economics and then maybe I could just get paid for researching and figure out some stuff for my thesis at the same time. It sort of scares me, but I really would like to have a thesis under my belt, especially if I decide to go to grad school. We’ll see.

I also found out what collections are - practice exams at the beginning of next term over stuff I learned this term where I sit for 3 hours and answer 3 questions, hand-written - and I get to do 2 in one day. I’ll get in Thursday morning and take my first one Friday morning and the next one Friday afternoon. Can’t wait. They don’t count toward my final grade, but if I get below 50 I’ll be asked to take them again and have the college really mad at me and if I get above 70 I get a prize. So my exciting Christmas break will consist of reading and timing myself and writing answers to previous exam questions. I also found out what revisions are - the second to last term, I’ll have classes where I will rewrite essays and maybe do more practice type exams and have them marked so that I feel really confident in at least 4-5 topics for each paper that I’ll take, so I’ll have a good chance of knowing how to answer 3 questions during my exams. And I found out that exams start in 5th week of my last term here, and there’s a chance I’ll have 2 in one day. Suke gave me some advice on how to write in the exams too. I think she likes me, although I’ve heard she’s not always fond of Americans and she’s apparently pretty hard to impress. I’m not really sure what I did last fall while I was here to make a good impression, but it must have been something. Amanda says just everyone likes me because I’m a good student. I guess that’s it. But I’m glad to have Suke’s help.

So anyway, last paragraph to this entry. I know it’s probably already too long. But I had my econ tutorial. I got almost there and realized I didn’t have my questions that I had turned in with me. So I ran back to college, well ran most of the way, more of a jog actually, but a workout for me who never runs, just always walks quickly. So then I got back, not too late and one of the other guys was still later. But then I’m sure my face was red because that’s just what happens when I exercise. So the first thing Joe, one of the other guys in the tutorial with me, says is that he didn’t really get the first discussion question, the one I had spent a ton of time not understanding, so that made me feel better. Apparently it’s an easy question for a doctoral degree exam, so that made me feel better too. So we went through a bunch of stuff on game theory, and I actually knew more than I realized I did. I’m still never sure how well I’m doing on things. I haven’t gotten any number marks, just comments. I need to ask and see how I’m really doing, especially for politics. But I felt like the tutorial went really well, except for one part where I had completely not realized that I had numbers that I could have plugged into equations and I just wrote down the equations and no solutions, but I think it was okay. I really like our tutor, but next term I think we’re going to have the guy I had last time I was here. Simon, the other guy I have my econ with, really doesn’t want him. Suke asked me about my experience and asked me to try to convince the other guys that he wasn’t that bad. I had a fine experience with him, but I didn’t have to do an exam and I think the other guys are just really worried about having him teach them for an exam because they didn’t feel prepared at all for their prelims exams. So I don’t really know what to tell them. Joe and I talked about it on the way back to college. I don’t know if there’s any hope of convincing Simon though. He is really against it. We’ll see. But yeah the tutorial was good. I really like how the economics is done in this setting. I’m still always scared at my politics tutorial but econ is good. Okay that’s enough writing, if anyone has actually gotten to the end of this entry.

We had rowing practice this morning at 6:30, and I could tell it was going to be good when Hannah, our captain, went to put one of our lights on the boat, which we have to have when the sun isn’t completely up or we get fined, and the light wouldn’t work and the tape to hold it on wasn’t really sticky. Before this as we were bringing the boat out, they kept going toward my end of the dock and I’m on the very end, so I couldn’t keep in my place and hold onto the bar I’m supposed to grip or else I would fall into the river. So then when we have to flip the boat over I have nothing to grab onto. And I’m told I’m doing it wrong, but I can’t help it. So then I went to get into the boat and I didn’t really realize that no one around me was holding the boat, so when I put my feet in it started to drift away from the dock thing (they call it a raft, but it’s like a floating wooden dock). So to make sure I wouldn’t fall in as the boat tipped more than I expected at my end, I grabbed onto the raft and broke three nails down pretty far, but only one started bleeding. So I ask Hannah if there are any band-aids, and she goes to look and can’t find a first aid kit, which isn’t good she says. Maybe we’ll have one next time. So she’s really squeamish with blood apparently, so I stop showing her that my finger is gushing blood, and the only thing I can do is suck on it, which is gross. And before I broke it, it was numb from the cold but sucking on it warms it up so it starts actually hurting some. So my hands have blood on them and I’m trying to get my feet into the shoes that are in the boat (we don’t wear our own shoes and the ones in my place are huge so I have to wear three pairs of socks to make sure my feet don’t come out of them). Then Ray, our cox (the person who sits looking opposite us since we’re going backward and tells us where to go and who should row), puts the cox box in, which gives him a mic so we can all hear what he’s saying. And the cox box isn’t working because apparently the battery is dead. I could tell it was going to be an awesome outing.

Which actually it wasn’t that bad. We had some trouble with balance and making sure our slide is slower and when we had all eight of us rowing, we didn’t do too well, but when it was just six they said we were all right. Then we go to take the boat out and they’re pushing me toward the end of the raft again and telling me to walk when the only way I can go is into the river. Hopefully next time Ray will tell people to move toward the other end of the dock, so I’m not about to fall off and I can actually get a grip.

So the reason I’m in the position that I’m in is because I’m stroke, which means I’m at the front of the rowers (if you’re thinking of how we’re sitting) or at the back of the boat (if you’re thinking of which way the boat goes). So I lead the strokes and keep the pace. Which is sort of scary, although it apparently means I have good technique and I’m actually a decent rower, though I’m not feeling that way lately. This weekend we’ll have a tank session where we can actually watch ourselves in mirrors and see what we’re doing wrong, so I hope that will help. So rowing is getting more organized and I still really like it, but this morning’s outing was interesting to say the least. And hopefully my finger will heal fast. We have a sort of race thing next weekend, which will be exciting. Ashley’s going to come and take pictures hopefully. But now I have to go to a lecture, so that’s my entry on rowing to bring you up to date on that part of my life.

So for those of you who depend on my blog for your daily survival I’m very sorry, but I thought I would try to make it look a little prettier and was playing with some of the settings and I chose a template that apparently had a bug in it and it messed up my blog. So Brendan fixed it now and we’re back. I’m actually not going to do a long entry tonight because I want to get to bed because I have rowing tomorrow morning, but I’ll try to do some extra entries to catch up on things soon. I’ve actually missed writing in my blog. It makes me feel connected, so I’m glad to have it back.