8th week summary

Last week was the last week of classes. The infamous "eigth week". It was epic - things happening every day. Here is the summary of how it went.

Monday

• Secured a position volunteering for the Natural History Museum of London. I'll be volunteering over the winter break for 20 hours a week in the herbarium, digitizing and georeferencing records to be posted online.
  
• Simon Yates talk (the mountaineer from "Touching the Void" who cut the rope between himself and climbing partner Joe Simpson). The talk was entertaining; Yates was witty and humble, but has climbed all over the world and has incredible photos of the places he's been - Pakistan, Chile, Scotland. My favorite part was as he was telling about his day job he got in the 1990s as a climber for high-rise construction projects in London. His co-workers dubbed him "Slasher" and he wore a sticker on his helmet saying "Mac the Knife". I wonder if Simpson can joke around like this...

Tuesday

• Monaco Ball. Black tie dinner, drinks, dancing. In Oxford Town Hall. The food was lacking (wasn't enough of it) but the drinks were good and there was a gambling game room set up. Got my fill of Blackjack. And the ball gowns were fun to look at. I went with people from the Geography program, so it was fun to see everyone dressed up. Its the sort of thing you have to do when in Oxford.

Wednesday

• Dinner with Norman Myers. Professor Myers - conservation biologist, pioneered the strategy of identifying biological "hotspots" - hosted ten of us at his house for dinner and discussion. After introductions, we practiced what to say if you're put on the spot, and you have 30 seconds to convince an influential politician of the importance of preserving biodiversity. We also did an exercise where everyone was in a hypothetical airplane, and there aren't enough parachutes to go around. You have to choose what animal you'd be, and explain to the group why we should give you one of the parachutes. What i noticed about this was that most of the animals that people chose require another organism to be valuable or important. So - we are all interconnected... I also learned about Norman and Jennie's (his partner) new book, Gaia Atlas of the Planet they've just completed. Its very interesting, outlining modern sustainability and environmental issues.
  

Thursday

• Crawlage! The first annual (weekly?) Oxford University Centre for the Environment pub crawl! We figured, there are about 150 graduate students in the OUCE we never get to see or interact with; why not take a pub tour together? Here was the itinerary: starting at the Head of the River pub. Proceeding to the Old Tom, then to the City Tavern, and on to the Lamb and Flag. Ending at everyone's favorite, late-closing Kings Arms. We had a good turnout, with about 20-30 people in our roving posse.

That's how it went. I then slept most of the weekend. Photos of Monaco Ball and hopefully the pub crawl to follow soon.