Celebration and Depression

As the time here winds down, I feel myself feeling mixed emotions. On one hand, classes and papers are over bringing happiness, but on the other hand, my time here is almost over bringing some sadness. Friends I have made will soon go back to their respective homelands and I to mine. It's a mixed bag. However, I have forced myself to let that go and just have a good time for the next few days anyway. Then, I'll go to London and have some more fun. Anyway, to catch up on days past:

Tuesday
I woke up around 9:30, and as I was about to walk out of my room, the scout (the maid) knocked on my door. Good timing I guess. The lecture was about The British Welfare State. Dr. Nock is a really funny guy, but I think he's more comfortable in "off the cuff" situations. He wasn't very organized and seemed uncomfortable giving the speech. Anyway, he's the resident socialist evidently, but he didn't really seem that way during his speech. He admired what they were trying to do, but he saw faults in some of the policies that were started. It was fairly interesting when he finally got into it. After that, we had lunch, and the English people (Ashley, Laura, John J, and Jess) had to go to class, so I went looking around for souvenirs and whatever else I could find. When their class was done, we went to the Garden of Earthly Delights (it is the University's Botanical Garden, which luckily was nothing like Bosch's). It was really pretty and a nice place to go. We walked around for awhile, and then we found a nice place to sit and talk. A fox came running past which was pretty cool, but we were so shocked that no one got a picture. Around 6, the garden closes, so we had to leave. After dinner, we went to see Mamma Mia! which is about a girl who invites the three possible men who could be her father to her wedding without telling her mother. It's kind of a chick-flick, but we had nothing else to do. The movie was actually pretty entertaining. Some of the acting is a bit weird at the beginning, and you have to get used to the random Greek people showing up during the singing and dancing portions. I have to say the best part may have been Pierce Brosnan singing. Absolutely incredible ... ly terrible. They gave him 3 songs (well, I guess the Broadway musical gave his character three songs), and I couldn't stop laughing. He is trying so hard, but it just doesn't work (kind of like when I sing). Then, it ends (I won't tell you how although it's fairly predictable), but they draw it out and out and out. Then, they have another musical performance for which is worth staying. Before the movie, we sat through almost a half hour of advertisements, and then, the lights came back on (during which we made the requisite "That was a great movie" comments before the lights went off and the movie started). The ads are quite different here as they have absolutely nothing to do with the item until a small connection is made at the end. Following the movie, we went back to John J's room at about 11, and we had the "Imperial Hour" during which John J (Humphrey), Matt (Turner), and I (Schwiebert) talk with fake British accents about things going on in the "colonies". None of it makes any sense, and the girls stopped paying attention to us after awhile (probably not a bad idea). We decided that, while the substance may not be the most intellectual, the word play is fairly brilliant. At least, we have fun with it. Before I went to bed, I tried to get on the internet, but I couldn't. I realized that the wireless internet accounts have now expired (remember that stupid 2-week rule?). Therefore, pictures may not go up until next week or until you see me next. I can't guarantee anything. John J and I remember seeing a wireless internet point at The Roebuck (a pub across the street from the King's College Apartments), so I hope to be able to get on there and update things. Otherwise, the blogs may slow down when I leave here.

Wednesday
The last day of classes for me. The Cold War class was fairly interesting as we talked about the end of the Cold War. What did Gorbachev do? Does he deserve respect or criticism? Who was the most influential in bringing down the USSR? Fittingly, our plenary lecturer talked about Russia After the Cold War, so we had a nice transition. However, he just read off his notes for the entire lecture, which makes for a long, long hour. The best part was the Q&A part when someone asked, "Will the Russians get involved between the Serbs and Kurds?". He waited for around 20 seconds before simply stating, "No." That was it. You may have had to be there, but it was pretty funny. He did go on to explain that A) Russia has more important things to deal with, B) they have no reason to get involved, C) the cost would be greater than they could handle, and D) they just said they would intervene as a publicity stunt. The lecturer was an ambassador to Russia for awhile, so I guess I can believe him. Then, lunch came, but we did something different today. I wanted to go to the Natural History Museum of Oxford, so we went to eat at the Turf Pub (where Clinton smoked but not inhaled!). I had some fish and chips which were probably the worst I have had here, but they were okay. Then, we were off to the museum. We saw a dodo bird's skeleton, dinosaur bones, and a bunch of displays which had models of mammals from around the world. Laura is evidently afraid of cockroaches, and of course, the museum has a pretty big tank of live ones. She freaked (not really, but her reaction was priceless) and refused to even look at the tank (sounds like someone I know with snakes). In the front yard of the museum, they have actual dinosaur tracks which they found in the limestone, so you can walk where the dinos walked. Then, we came back for class. The last CFB class was pretty interesting as always. Dr. Palmer talked about the Welfare State in Britain. What does the National Health Service do? What are the advantages/disadvantages to having such a system? Can Britain sustain this tpe of government? In a survey, over 80% of Britons said they would pay higher taxes to keep the system in place, but no politician wants to be the one to raise taxes even though it is necessary because they want to save their political careers (thank God for bureaucracy and politics). I am going to have conferences with each of my teachers about my papers on Friday (Dr. Almond at 5:30 and Dr. Palmer right after), so that should be fun (yay). For dinner, we had some strange tomato-pizzaish type thing (I didn't eat it), sausage and mash (good and definitely not the "wurst" -- sorry you had to see that coming), and a chocolate cake (delicious). The Shakespeare classes had a drink party in the JCR, but Matt and I snuck in anyway, and we helped our team win the quiz night (I didn't contribute much to it because I don't know random facts about Shakespeare and Chaucer, but I contributed a few answers including pulling Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from my rear -- it's the only Medieval poem I know of). Then, we watched the Much Ado About Nothing with just about every star in Hollywood (Denzel Washington, Kenneth Brannagh, Kate Beckinsale, Emma Thompson, and a bunch of other actors). It was really good. I really liked it. By the end, it was about 12, so we all went to bed.

Observations:
- This has started to annoy me. On British keyboards, the @ is not above the 2. It switches places with the ". The # is not above the 3 as it is now where the enter button usually is, so when I try to hit enter, a # comes up and I say ~%&*. A £ is above the 3, which makes writing blogs that include prices easier.
- I heard "bloody" twice today, and someone else said "bollocks". Yaaaay!
- The grammatical rule about placing a period inside of the quotation mark at the end of sentences is dumb and makes no sense. Seriously, the period is supposed to end the sentence, but the quotation mark is still hanging out there. If you're quoting a sentence, then putting it there makes sense, but something like "bollocks" doesn't need a period inside the quotation mark. I refuse to do it anymore on this blog in protest.