hyewon and naomi at matriculation in the sheldonian theater.
29 Oct 2005
28 Oct 2005
More fun with words
hokay. so. you've got the earth, its round. the polar ice capes melting...(for ariella)
more British:
fit - hot, sexy. overheard on the bus: "hey did you see that one? she was FIT!". so you wouldn't say, "well you can really tell Joe has been working out; he looks fit this year!"
quid - bucks, cash money. "it costs 50 bucks!" = "it costs 50 quid!". You could just say "50 pounds" but if you need to say bucks, use quid.
could do - sort of shortened, "yes, you could do that" or "we should do that". so,
Q: can we bring our towels into the pool area?
A: well, (you) could do.
pissed - drunk. NOT angry. this happened to someone i know:
brit: "i was so pissed when i got home last night."
yank: "what do you mean? i saw you an hour before you went home. what happened that made you mad?"
sympathetic translating friend: "no, no, no. 'pissed' means drunk."
yank: "oh, (blushing) yeah, you WERE pissed."
more British:
fit - hot, sexy. overheard on the bus: "hey did you see that one? she was FIT!". so you wouldn't say, "well you can really tell Joe has been working out; he looks fit this year!"
quid - bucks, cash money. "it costs 50 bucks!" = "it costs 50 quid!". You could just say "50 pounds" but if you need to say bucks, use quid.
could do - sort of shortened, "yes, you could do that" or "we should do that". so,
Q: can we bring our towels into the pool area?
A: well, (you) could do.
pissed - drunk. NOT angry. this happened to someone i know:
brit: "i was so pissed when i got home last night."
yank: "what do you mean? i saw you an hour before you went home. what happened that made you mad?"
sympathetic translating friend: "no, no, no. 'pissed' means drunk."
yank: "oh, (blushing) yeah, you WERE pissed."
24 Oct 2005
Shit isn't what it seems
What i mean is:
shit - here means "sucks".
- usage: "those girls are such shit for not showing up to the rowing date" also "its really shit with this bad ankle, i can't play rugby".
Also (these are terms that i hear often, that students use with each other - not just some unusual utterance)
keen - used instead of "really interested in"
- usage: "read this article only if you're really keen on international negotiations"
loads - lots
mates - friends
- usage: "i've got loads of mates comin in for the weekend. can't make it, sorry" (thanks to Tall James for this example)
puddings - dessert
- usage: "there's a puddings board over there"
Other strange things not seen in the USA
shit - here means "sucks".
- usage: "those girls are such shit for not showing up to the rowing date" also "its really shit with this bad ankle, i can't play rugby".
Also (these are terms that i hear often, that students use with each other - not just some unusual utterance)
keen - used instead of "really interested in"
- usage: "read this article only if you're really keen on international negotiations"
loads - lots
mates - friends
- usage: "i've got loads of mates comin in for the weekend. can't make it, sorry" (thanks to Tall James for this example)
puddings - dessert
- usage: "there's a puddings board over there"
Other strange things not seen in the USA
- these things that rise out of the pavement to block cars. they are posts, but they move.
- clouds seem to come out of nowhere. not from the east, south - they just appear.
- rain can come at any time. don't assume that because its sunny now, it'll be sunny later (or even that its not raining).
- these funny half-size bikes: they look like a BMX but with long seat posts and handlebars and adults ride them.
- everyone rides a bike. young people, old people, business men, students, working ladies.
- lots of sun dials.
- mini-coopers (well, not really - but they're made here! and they're so cute!)
- three wheeled cars - how is that safe?
- smart cars.
23 Oct 2005
More photos
Check out my flickr site for more photos. I'll try to update the blog when i post something there, but check both places.
Rowing along
I went out at 6 am - in the pouring rain - and i STILL loved the rowing session this week. Go dark blue (that's codename for Oxford team sports. i'm nowhere near good enough to be on the team yet. for now, go Hildas). So i'm out there, and i've never been in a boat and i've never heard the commands and i'm not sure about anything. I'm sitting in this boat, i can't see the caller (cox) and she's saying things with a british accent and i'm totally confused. One of the key items is to memorize your position number. And then know what your position is, in terms of "bow 2, bow 4, stroke 2, stroke 4, all row" in the boat. whew. For now i like it, but we'll see how the workouts are...difficult, i expect.
More on this series, difference between British life/culture and American:
- don't try to figure out which side of the sidewalk to walk down. its a free-for-all.
- people seem to have limited sense of spatial awareness. four people will fan out along the sidewalk, blocking it as they walk along. they don't move or regroup when there are oncoming pedestrians. actually, i've seen two people walk just far enough apart from each other to block the WHOLE sidewalk. why? because they can. fascinating.
More terms and phrases:
"nip off/over" - go there. usage "do you want to nip over to the Lamb and Flag for a pint?"
"bop" - an oxbridge college party. usage "did you go to the Linacre bop? i heard it was wild!"
"oxbridge" - anything that pertains to both Oxford and Cambridge. so no one else in the world calls a party a bop. its just oxbridge (nobody else has this funky system of colleges as social units).
"boat club" - crew team. refer to each boat by the number of people in it: "the eights will be decided on later this week. twos and fours will train at 7 am".
I've decided Zoe's advice on how to negotiate difficult situations here is golden: if you don't get what you need, ask someone else. This was true with the bank account, the cell -oops, mobile- phone, everything. amendment to that advice: ask often.
That's all for now. More thrilling news (and PHOTOS!) to come.
More on this series, difference between British life/culture and American:
- don't try to figure out which side of the sidewalk to walk down. its a free-for-all.
- people seem to have limited sense of spatial awareness. four people will fan out along the sidewalk, blocking it as they walk along. they don't move or regroup when there are oncoming pedestrians. actually, i've seen two people walk just far enough apart from each other to block the WHOLE sidewalk. why? because they can. fascinating.
More terms and phrases:
"nip off/over" - go there. usage "do you want to nip over to the Lamb and Flag for a pint?"
"bop" - an oxbridge college party. usage "did you go to the Linacre bop? i heard it was wild!"
"oxbridge" - anything that pertains to both Oxford and Cambridge. so no one else in the world calls a party a bop. its just oxbridge (nobody else has this funky system of colleges as social units).
"boat club" - crew team. refer to each boat by the number of people in it: "the eights will be decided on later this week. twos and fours will train at 7 am".
I've decided Zoe's advice on how to negotiate difficult situations here is golden: if you don't get what you need, ask someone else. This was true with the bank account, the cell -oops, mobile- phone, everything. amendment to that advice: ask often.
That's all for now. More thrilling news (and PHOTOS!) to come.
14 Oct 2005
Re-wilding the UK
We went to a bird reserve near Oxford last week on a school field trip. Despite sounding elementary, the place was quite interesting, because of the wildlife there and because of the interesting discussion it precipitated about the meaning of "wild". This was contrasted to my freshly uprooted North American idea of "wild" or wilderness, and i was struck at how different the two sides of the ocean seem to be.
The Otmoor reserve used to be an agricultural wetland, and it occupies an valley in the headwaters of the River Thames. In the 1960s, the broad valley was drained to make way for agriculture. This had been attempted previously, but had not been totally successful. In the 1990s, the area was aquired by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), one of the UK's largest non-governmental organizations. The refuge managers have actively worked to restore this area to pre-1960s wetland, by digging new ditches, diverting flows, and planting reeds. The main goals of the reserve are to provide habitat for threatened bird populations like the bittern.
All well and good. The problem comes when we examine the natural history of the area: 3,000 years ago, soil samples indicate this area would have been forested, not wetlands. So, why are we aiming to restore an ecosystem type from 50 years ago, when that was not the original anyway? What IS pristine? What is a healthy ecosystem, and how far back should we look for restoration goals? How much should we intervene, in order to reach goals, and which goals are worth intervening for?
These questions are especially tricky in western Europe, and in other places where humans have had an impact for hundreds of years. These lands have been significantly altered by humans for such a long period of time, such that we don't even have a record of what the ecosystem might have been like, really, if we were to restore to "pre-human".
So this method of restoring a wetland that was drained recently seems to make sense. It still supports species of local, national, and global concern. It creates another possible "core" area of habitat, which could plug into a regional or national network of connected reserves. But, is it "wild"? Will Europe, or the British Isles specifically, ever be "wild" again? There are parts of the UK that are still pretty untracked, at least in recent history (these areas may have been settled at some time in the past), but the islands still lack most of their native species. In class this week we learned that of all species in Great Britian, only 4% are native. So what good would "restoration" even do, or what target are we working towards? Nicer wetland habitats? Prettier places? Or do we restore systems and manage reserves in the UK for ecological principles?
For some answers, i like this article about the difference of terminologies in central Europe and North America. Diemer et al are saying that the concept of rewilding (returning the landscape to a wilderness state) is well received in Europe. Its just that the scale of implementation is quite different, and the assumptions that we might want to make about a "wild" place, i.e. native species, top predators and ecological processes intact, might not be appropriate here. If it were, then this controversial idea published in Nature, to reintroduce large megafauna to North America as surrogates for wooly mammoth and saber-tooth tiger would be considerably more legitimate.
Most of central Europe is probably past some threshold where it could be considered "untouched wilderness". Given that, it seems that conservation in the UK does well to focus on the local, and to ensure that there are places where rewilding is always occurring. So, even though we're not setting aside "wilderness" or regaining all the species that once were there, we are maintaining areas of untractable, wildlife-priority land. In the case of Otmoor, we're not going to regain the forest that once existed before humans arrived. But we do gain another area where some amount of rewilding can take place.
We went to a bird reserve near Oxford last week on a school field trip. Despite sounding elementary, the place was quite interesting, because of the wildlife there and because of the interesting discussion it precipitated about the meaning of "wild". This was contrasted to my freshly uprooted North American idea of "wild" or wilderness, and i was struck at how different the two sides of the ocean seem to be.
The Otmoor reserve used to be an agricultural wetland, and it occupies an valley in the headwaters of the River Thames. In the 1960s, the broad valley was drained to make way for agriculture. This had been attempted previously, but had not been totally successful. In the 1990s, the area was aquired by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), one of the UK's largest non-governmental organizations. The refuge managers have actively worked to restore this area to pre-1960s wetland, by digging new ditches, diverting flows, and planting reeds. The main goals of the reserve are to provide habitat for threatened bird populations like the bittern.
All well and good. The problem comes when we examine the natural history of the area: 3,000 years ago, soil samples indicate this area would have been forested, not wetlands. So, why are we aiming to restore an ecosystem type from 50 years ago, when that was not the original anyway? What IS pristine? What is a healthy ecosystem, and how far back should we look for restoration goals? How much should we intervene, in order to reach goals, and which goals are worth intervening for?
These questions are especially tricky in western Europe, and in other places where humans have had an impact for hundreds of years. These lands have been significantly altered by humans for such a long period of time, such that we don't even have a record of what the ecosystem might have been like, really, if we were to restore to "pre-human".
So this method of restoring a wetland that was drained recently seems to make sense. It still supports species of local, national, and global concern. It creates another possible "core" area of habitat, which could plug into a regional or national network of connected reserves. But, is it "wild"? Will Europe, or the British Isles specifically, ever be "wild" again? There are parts of the UK that are still pretty untracked, at least in recent history (these areas may have been settled at some time in the past), but the islands still lack most of their native species. In class this week we learned that of all species in Great Britian, only 4% are native. So what good would "restoration" even do, or what target are we working towards? Nicer wetland habitats? Prettier places? Or do we restore systems and manage reserves in the UK for ecological principles?
For some answers, i like this article about the difference of terminologies in central Europe and North America. Diemer et al are saying that the concept of rewilding (returning the landscape to a wilderness state) is well received in Europe. Its just that the scale of implementation is quite different, and the assumptions that we might want to make about a "wild" place, i.e. native species, top predators and ecological processes intact, might not be appropriate here. If it were, then this controversial idea published in Nature, to reintroduce large megafauna to North America as surrogates for wooly mammoth and saber-tooth tiger would be considerably more legitimate.
Most of central Europe is probably past some threshold where it could be considered "untouched wilderness". Given that, it seems that conservation in the UK does well to focus on the local, and to ensure that there are places where rewilding is always occurring. So, even though we're not setting aside "wilderness" or regaining all the species that once were there, we are maintaining areas of untractable, wildlife-priority land. In the case of Otmoor, we're not going to regain the forest that once existed before humans arrived. But we do gain another area where some amount of rewilding can take place.
8 Oct 2005
Thomas
Tom was right. He called it well before i got here. He said, "everyone will be wearing button up sweaters, and drinking tea and living in hovels".
I agreed with him about the sweaters and tea, noting that i like both of those things. What i didn't count on was the hovels. I said, "no, its OXFORD. they'll have nice accomodations, for their scholars." He was right. Its just that Oxford is, well, old. And so sometimes things aren't quite modern. But, i also belong to St Hildas. Patron saint of poetry. And not accomodations. So. I got lucky. Thanks for calling that one, Tomas. You were right!
Tom was right. He called it well before i got here. He said, "everyone will be wearing button up sweaters, and drinking tea and living in hovels".
I agreed with him about the sweaters and tea, noting that i like both of those things. What i didn't count on was the hovels. I said, "no, its OXFORD. they'll have nice accomodations, for their scholars." He was right. Its just that Oxford is, well, old. And so sometimes things aren't quite modern. But, i also belong to St Hildas. Patron saint of poetry. And not accomodations. So. I got lucky. Thanks for calling that one, Tomas. You were right!
7 Oct 2005
Summing up the UK entry process
I've been here a week. It feels like a month. But, at least it hasn't BEEN a month; i would be really behind on school work. Here are the gritty details of the week:
Tuesday - arrive at heathrow. Clear customs, immigration and make my way with Vera and bags in tow to Oxford by dusk. We arrive at St Hildas College, and are shipped off to my new, supposedly happy room in Stockmore House. The room was NOT happy when we arrived. The shared kitchen and bathroom were - er - displeasing. Start at bathroom: no shower, no shower curtain. Signs posted with stern warnings against using a shower-attachment. Obvious disregard for this rule - there is a shower-attachment on the taps of the tub that is secured to the towel rack rather permanently, and the linoleum floor is curling upward in response to being flooded all the time from the sprayer. Further evidence: floor has current pools of water. That's the biggest problem. Others include the toilet flush being squirrely and the mold/rust/slime on the walls at the floor.
Next, the kitchen: a stench eminates from there, and upon inspection we discover bags of groceries, the fridge full of outdated food, dirty dishes laying around, and general messiness. Vera - bless you Vera - set to work cleaning the kitchen trying to at least rid us of the stink while i collapse in bed wondering how i'll manage to deal with a roommate who doesn't realize her food is rotting. The room itself is nice and has a nice window.
Wednesday - Make a trip to the college to complain about the state of affairs in my flat in Stockmore house and inquire about a transfer. Discover that no, you're NOT allowed to have any permanent shower-attachments (ha) nor are you allowed a shower curtain. You ARE allowed to have yourself a nice bath, and you can use a sprayer then to wash your hair. I guess maybe i need to start praying to Saint Hilda?
Thursday - Attending the second day of the international student orientation, i learn that each College actually receives a different amount of money from the University. Hmmm. This could have something to do with my - ah - accomodations. Vera leaves to gallavant around the Lake District. I discover that my tidy plan of opening a bank account and purchasing a mobile phone and bike in the first few days is fatally flawed. I do manage to get my computer outfitted so i can connect to the internet in my room instead of paying a pound/20 mins at the cafe.
Friday - Go to look at a room that is available at another house, Jack Straws Lane. Miraculously, there is a woman there who wants to switch; it is too far out of town for her. Sounds lovely to me, and its been recently redone. When i arrive at Jack Straws Lane, i think i might be on another planet. The building is beautiful, an old but nice brick house, bright and cheery inside. Everything looks new, and sparkles. I can't believe these two properties (Stockmore and Jack Straws) are part of the same housing scheme. The room itself is bright, large, high cielings and a bathroom, with a (new) shower and a normal-flushing toilet right next door. It feels like paradise, like when we would come to town after the Colorado Trail and sit down for salad and veggie burgers and beer. Glorious. I accept the room switch back at college, and arrange to move the next day. Celebrate by watching Team America: World Police which is hilarious and really hits the spot.
Saturday - meet the would-be roommates at Stockmore House, and the person who is switching rooms with me. I guess she hasn't seen the room yet at Stockmore, but fortunately the disaster-kitchen woman has moved out so the place seems a little more - er - friendly. I pack my things and get myself over to the new digs.
Sunday - unpack. Figure out how to get myself from my house to school, and find my department. Go to the grocery store, Tesco, so i don't have to keep hemorrhaging money. Spend about two hours shopping for once grocery bag of stuff, since i can't figure out what anything is. Small tip: if you want cream as in half and half or table cream, buy SINGLE CREAM. You can also ask for this at the cafe and they might have it. If you ask for "cream" you'll be presented with whipped cream.
Monday - program orientation. Meet all the classmates, and pile off to a nearby nature preserve. More on this in a later post; good discussion topics and food for thought raised there.
Tuesday - more orientation. This time its the library, so not quite as riveting but instead another look at quirky British rules and Oxfordian library systems. Upon visiting the bank, i discover my application wasn't being processed and so i fix the omission (wrong address) and do not pass go, do not collect $200. Instead, since i am now in the queue with 5,000 other students it will take maybe two weeks to process instead of two days. Ah, well. I've since learned that if you can manage to actually OPEN an account within a month of arriving that you're doing pretty darn good. So, i'm still in the clear.
Wednesday - more orientation - regsiter for my department IT services. Discuss the Lake District and the growing inevitability that i join a walking club.
Thursday - off to London! Deliver Vera to heathrow, meet Zoe and walk around town. Trafalgar Square, pop in for a minute to witness amazing things and test my terrible memory of artists at the National Gallery. Have dinner with Zoe and Moon. Discuss the American/English culture differences ad nauseum. Zoe is reading Watching the English which turns out to be the best explanation of what's going on i can possibly imagine. This book should be handed to every new immigrant upon arrival in the UK. Mandatory reading. Brilliant. Borrow Zoe's extra cell phone! A connection to the world! Happy, happy, joy, joy!
Today - do some shopping, walking around London. Eat lunch at Wagamama's - minimalist fresh communal japanese food. What more can you ask for in life? Bus back to Oxford, meet with Lady English - the principal of St Hildas. Get home, write down everything that happened this week just in case i forget, or in case you need to read about it.
That's the story. Roughly. Let me know if you need clarification. There will be more to come, but i promise it won't all be about the craziness of moving into a foreign culture.
I've been here a week. It feels like a month. But, at least it hasn't BEEN a month; i would be really behind on school work. Here are the gritty details of the week:
Tuesday - arrive at heathrow. Clear customs, immigration and make my way with Vera and bags in tow to Oxford by dusk. We arrive at St Hildas College, and are shipped off to my new, supposedly happy room in Stockmore House. The room was NOT happy when we arrived. The shared kitchen and bathroom were - er - displeasing. Start at bathroom: no shower, no shower curtain. Signs posted with stern warnings against using a shower-attachment. Obvious disregard for this rule - there is a shower-attachment on the taps of the tub that is secured to the towel rack rather permanently, and the linoleum floor is curling upward in response to being flooded all the time from the sprayer. Further evidence: floor has current pools of water. That's the biggest problem. Others include the toilet flush being squirrely and the mold/rust/slime on the walls at the floor.
Next, the kitchen: a stench eminates from there, and upon inspection we discover bags of groceries, the fridge full of outdated food, dirty dishes laying around, and general messiness. Vera - bless you Vera - set to work cleaning the kitchen trying to at least rid us of the stink while i collapse in bed wondering how i'll manage to deal with a roommate who doesn't realize her food is rotting. The room itself is nice and has a nice window.
Wednesday - Make a trip to the college to complain about the state of affairs in my flat in Stockmore house and inquire about a transfer. Discover that no, you're NOT allowed to have any permanent shower-attachments (ha) nor are you allowed a shower curtain. You ARE allowed to have yourself a nice bath, and you can use a sprayer then to wash your hair. I guess maybe i need to start praying to Saint Hilda?
Thursday - Attending the second day of the international student orientation, i learn that each College actually receives a different amount of money from the University. Hmmm. This could have something to do with my - ah - accomodations. Vera leaves to gallavant around the Lake District. I discover that my tidy plan of opening a bank account and purchasing a mobile phone and bike in the first few days is fatally flawed. I do manage to get my computer outfitted so i can connect to the internet in my room instead of paying a pound/20 mins at the cafe.
Friday - Go to look at a room that is available at another house, Jack Straws Lane. Miraculously, there is a woman there who wants to switch; it is too far out of town for her. Sounds lovely to me, and its been recently redone. When i arrive at Jack Straws Lane, i think i might be on another planet. The building is beautiful, an old but nice brick house, bright and cheery inside. Everything looks new, and sparkles. I can't believe these two properties (Stockmore and Jack Straws) are part of the same housing scheme. The room itself is bright, large, high cielings and a bathroom, with a (new) shower and a normal-flushing toilet right next door. It feels like paradise, like when we would come to town after the Colorado Trail and sit down for salad and veggie burgers and beer. Glorious. I accept the room switch back at college, and arrange to move the next day. Celebrate by watching Team America: World Police which is hilarious and really hits the spot.
Saturday - meet the would-be roommates at Stockmore House, and the person who is switching rooms with me. I guess she hasn't seen the room yet at Stockmore, but fortunately the disaster-kitchen woman has moved out so the place seems a little more - er - friendly. I pack my things and get myself over to the new digs.
Sunday - unpack. Figure out how to get myself from my house to school, and find my department. Go to the grocery store, Tesco, so i don't have to keep hemorrhaging money. Spend about two hours shopping for once grocery bag of stuff, since i can't figure out what anything is. Small tip: if you want cream as in half and half or table cream, buy SINGLE CREAM. You can also ask for this at the cafe and they might have it. If you ask for "cream" you'll be presented with whipped cream.
Monday - program orientation. Meet all the classmates, and pile off to a nearby nature preserve. More on this in a later post; good discussion topics and food for thought raised there.
Tuesday - more orientation. This time its the library, so not quite as riveting but instead another look at quirky British rules and Oxfordian library systems. Upon visiting the bank, i discover my application wasn't being processed and so i fix the omission (wrong address) and do not pass go, do not collect $200. Instead, since i am now in the queue with 5,000 other students it will take maybe two weeks to process instead of two days. Ah, well. I've since learned that if you can manage to actually OPEN an account within a month of arriving that you're doing pretty darn good. So, i'm still in the clear.
Wednesday - more orientation - regsiter for my department IT services. Discuss the Lake District and the growing inevitability that i join a walking club.
Thursday - off to London! Deliver Vera to heathrow, meet Zoe and walk around town. Trafalgar Square, pop in for a minute to witness amazing things and test my terrible memory of artists at the National Gallery. Have dinner with Zoe and Moon. Discuss the American/English culture differences ad nauseum. Zoe is reading Watching the English which turns out to be the best explanation of what's going on i can possibly imagine. This book should be handed to every new immigrant upon arrival in the UK. Mandatory reading. Brilliant. Borrow Zoe's extra cell phone! A connection to the world! Happy, happy, joy, joy!
Today - do some shopping, walking around London. Eat lunch at Wagamama's - minimalist fresh communal japanese food. What more can you ask for in life? Bus back to Oxford, meet with Lady English - the principal of St Hildas. Get home, write down everything that happened this week just in case i forget, or in case you need to read about it.
That's the story. Roughly. Let me know if you need clarification. There will be more to come, but i promise it won't all be about the craziness of moving into a foreign culture.
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