Man Better Than Woman?

Well, I'm done with my papers. John J is done with his papers. Matt is done with his papers. Jon F is done with his papers. Laura is not done with her papers. Ashley is not done with her papers. Arlene is not done with her papers. I guess this proves that man is better than woman ( :) ).

Monday
I woke up at 8 o'clock for some reason, and I couldn't go back to sleep for the next half an hour. I got up and took a shower and had about 30 minutes before my first class with which I had no idea what to do. During the Cold War class, we talked about Western Europe and how they were struggling through the new generations in the 1960's. Kids who had been educated as Hitler Youth were now rising to power in Germany and were bringing back some (but very few) Nazi policies, and the German population and the Allies had to find a way to overturn a new rise in fascism. The younger generation also began to question the older generation about what they did during WWII (so, what were you doing Grandpa during the Holocaust? Um, uh, I, uh, drove a train). This produced an uncomfortable atmosphere between the generations as the younger generation criticized and rebelled. In the plenary lecture, Dr. Palmer talked about Religion in Britain, and it was pretty interesting. Only 8% of Britain attends a service regularly (compared with 40% in the US). This brings up several questions. Does church = religious? Can one still believe without belonging? Why is there such a substantial difference between the US and Britain? Was it the Puritans? A lot of good and very provocative questions. It was actually a fairly hot topic at lunch (which was bad by the way -- cold fish and pasta salads with a warm pasta that wasn't any good either) as Americans tried to understand how this worked. One thing I found interesting was that religion never comes up in British politics. In the US, Obama had to defend his Christianity against those who saw his name and thought he was Muslim. Some say that having a black or woman President would prove we believe in equality, but I'd be more impressed if we allowed a Muslim President. Anyway, then I took my books back to the Social Sciences library and walked around looking for souvenirs. I found a poster of the Oxford Pub Crawl (you can color in the buildings when you go to the pub), so I bought it for my apartment. It was only £5. During the CFB class, we discussed crime in Britain. Men, no surprise, commit more crime than women, especially violent crime. However, women commit almost as many thefts as men. The ages committing the most crime are 18 for boys and women (she said it may have to do with girls being more mature, thereby going through teenage angst earlier than boys). What I found interesting was some of the ways they try to curb crime. One is the Anti-Social Behavioral Order where someone can complain about someone else, and that someone else will be restricted from doing something (ie. I play loud music, you complain, I can't play music after 10). Knowing kids, when someone does that, you automatically either want to do it louder just to tick the person off or you find somewhere else to do it. The part I was surprised, well not too surprised, about was that some people are proud of this. They are proud they got in trouble. As you can see, this didn't work too well. It actually created more tension between the generations as the kids thought the older generations were just trying to ruin their fun. It has also been found to have been abused by older people when they complain about kids (for instance, when they play sports in the streets during the day, older people will call and complain). After class, we had a disappointing dinner. The appetizer was asparagus, so I didn't eat that (eeeewwww). The main course was a salmon with a tomato/onion/breading covering, so I just took off the covering and ate the salmon part. When looking at the menu, it said we were going to have pumpkin pie, so I was really excited. In the end, we had a cake of some sort. Later, John J and I went out to celebrate having finished our papers (Matt was sick -- maybe because of the fish?), so we had a pint at the White Horse. Then, we just walked around the town towards a part where we hadn't gone before, and now we know why we didn't go there (there's nothing to see). We came back, and Matt was feeling better after taking a nap. We hung out in John J's room for a little bit eating Pringles and Ritz crackers with tea. On the top of our doors, they have names (I guess of whoever lives there during the year), so we have been calling each other by those names. John J is Humphrey, Matt is Turner, and I am Schwiebert (yes, Schwiebert). We sat around talking in bad English accents for awhile until Ashley came up (she finally finished her papers, but we still haven't seen signs of Laura), so we felt we should elevate our conversation in the presence of a lady. Around 1, I went to bed.

Observations:
- Earl Grey smells like flowers (good) but tastes like them as well (bad). English Breakfast is the clubhouse leader for best hot tea.
- "Pudding" in Britain means essentially any type of dessert in a square or rectangular shape. "Pie" is mostly a dinner course. When trying to explain what "pudding" is in the US, we couldn't come up with a better explanation than "a gel-like substance that has a chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry flavor". None of us knew what was really in pudding (don't say an instant Jell-o pudding mix because we already tried).