On being taken by surprise

Living with an autistic sibling can have its frustrations, but it can have some really cool moments too. Once in a while, my brother PJ takes us by surprise when he says something totally unexpected, showing you that he may actually be paying attention to the world after all.

This evening, while watching TV, a commercial for the new film Gran Torino came on. PJ took one look at Clint Eastwood and said, "Look, it's Dirty Harry." I was shocked. I'm not even sure if a non-autistic kid of his age could recognize Clint Eastwood. Since the kid talks about nothing but spiders (including Spiderman) all day long, it's cool to know that he likes other things too.

On a related note, PJ also loves Lifetime movies. He calls them "Good Guy Bad Guy movies." I don't know if he gets the plot, but he realizes that there's one guy who loves the girl and another guy who's out to get them all, and there's danger lurking around the corner at any time. Again, I don't know of many guys of any age, autistic or otherwise, who enjoy watching Lifetime movies!

So you don't have a ranty post for Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

On crap airlines

I'm too tired to formulate a full-out rant, so I will just say this: Delta sucks. I'm a bit concerned that they've merged with Northwest, because I kinda liked Northwest and am now worried that they will suck too.

RBOC: Bored Edition

• It's sooooo boring here now that everyone's left. I'm one of the last few people to leave. The Europeans tend to go home much later than the Americans and Aussies, as they are usually a short 1-hour plane hop home.
  
• I go home on Wednesday and return around the 13th or 14th of January, so I'll be spending roughly 4 weeks at home.
• I can't motivate myself to do work at the moment because I won't see my supervisor until April - he's on sabbatical this term. Maybe I'll do some on the plane, and definitely I'll do some at home, but I just can't get anything done now.
• I have, however, been doing some of the little administrative tasks that I've been meaning to do. I've printed out 150 pages of essential readings and am putting them in a binder. I made a new Junior Dean flyer since we have a new Junior Dean, so we need her name and photo on it.
• While putting together the flyer, I decided to pick a new photo for myself. You'd think it would be easy, considering all the photos I have of myself on Facebook and Flickr. But it actually took a while. I decided on the one that is my current Facebook profile pic in the end.
• All of the Junior Deans sent me photos of different sizes and resolutions. I got them all to be roughly the same size, but the newest JD's photo is going to be pretty close up. I hope she doesn't mind.
• Yesterday I was out and about when at about 3:30 pm I realized I was starving. I hadn't eaten anything so far except for a handful of cereal. I ended up at MacDonald's, primarily because it was the closest option. Sometimes when you're starving it seems like judgment takes a back seat.
• Another food-related bullet: I was in a cafe having a sandwich today when a guy asked if he could sit in the other seat at my tiny little table. I wonder if that's a European thing, because I don't think people in the US would ever sit at some random person's table. If I look in a cafe and see all the tables filled with at least one person, I think, "all the tables are filled," not "oh, let me sit with one of them."
• I have to do the stupid cleaning up tasks before I go too. I have to clean out my fridge, do laundry, and get generally sorted out.
• I also do weird stuff like rearrange my wallet. I take out any of the smallest change before I go, as the Bureaux de Change places do not take coins and I hate getting them all mixed up anyway.
  
• Dear God, I hope the airport's not crowded on Wednesday. I always try to fly in the middle of the week to avoid crowds.
• Only twice have the airports been really crowded when I've been there. Once it was because Virgin Atlantic's computers were down, followed by a really slow security line, and I ended up running to my gate. The second time was just before Easter, and they managed to move the massive security line pretty quickly.
• I think airports make sacrifices if it helps them move people through quicker. I wasn't charged for my overweight baggage the time Virgin's computers were down, for example. Also, if the lines are long for security at Heathrow, you don't usually have to take your shoes off.
• Actually, the security at Heathrow is better than the US in a lot of ways. Taking the shoes off isn't always required, and you don't have to take your laptop out of your bag. Perhaps this is because Heathrow has the largest international passenger traffic each year, and they need ways to move people through quickly.
• My return trip this time is through JFK (I haven't been there in 10 years), and my next one is through Philadelphia.
• I was delighted to hear that Northwest will be reintroducing its Bradley-Amsterdam flight, which was mega-convenient the last time I did it. If they bring it back, I'll buy in bulk.
  

WANT

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before:  I would like a job in academia, but not as a professor or researcher.  I'd even do high school if I didn't have to be a teacher.  If I couldn't go back to educational technology, I'd love to be a director or dean or chair of something - these days they have all sorts of programs and centers and groups that are designed to make sure students are happy and studying and not feeling homesick/stressed out/brokenhearted.  I totally think I could do that.

Anyway, while perusing the web this evening, I found a job I think would be perfect for me.  It's the Coordinator of a University Honors Program.  I have all kinds of experience that would make me qualified for the position.

The thing is, it starts this March.  I don't think I'd be ready to pack everything up and start so soon - I was kind of looking for next year.  Part of me wants to apply just for the hell of it, to see if I could be shortlisted.  

The other thing is, part of me wants to buckle down and finish this degree.  I feel like if I got a job, I'd have no motivation to finish because, well, I'd have a job.  

Arrrrggghhhh, the frustration.

On the gender issue you've probably never thought of before

I'm a big fan of a cappella groups.  My old uni had several groups (including an all-Jewish group and a Barbershop group), and some of them performed in competitions, which is why I've heard of a lot of different groups.  Actually, I first heard of Oxford's most famous a cappella group, Out of the Blue, while at my old uni - one of our groups was performing with them.  The various Oxford groups also perform in competitions, so I've been able to expand my fandom across the pond.

So anyway, I noticed something very weird recently.  If you watch all-male and all-female groups, you'll notice that they have very different approaches.  All-male groups often lean towards the funny side - they sing weird songs, have silly choreography, crack jokes between songs and give each other weird looks as they sing.  All-female groups, on the other hand, tend to aim for sex appeal.  The all-female group at my old uni used to sing "You're Makin' Me High" by Toni Braxton, which included some parts where they moaned seductively.  Whenever they had a performance, their flyers would make some mention of that song ("You know you love hearing us moan...") or would mention how hot they were.

I'm not saying that one is right or wrong, but I just found it interesting.  I wonder what it would be like if each group tried the other's tactics - could all-female groups be funny, or all-male groups be "seductive"?

This is something I've thought of before, but it came to mind again last night after I came back from the Welsh National Opera's performance of The Barber of Seville.  I tried looking up some of the songs on YouTube, when I found the famous overture performed by the King's Singers:

When you're done, click on their performance of "Short People" in the "Related Videos" menu.  These guys are fantastic!

Yet another celebrity sighting

Today's celebrity was Julie Walters, better known as Mrs. Weasley from the Harry Potter movies. (I believe she was also in Mamma Mia!) She also wrote a book this year, and was at Borders for a signing which coincided with the release of J.K. Rowling's Tales of Beetle the Bard.

This is my fifth celebrity sighting this term: first was Geri Haliwell, then Roger Moore, then Kevin Spacey, then Jorge Cham (creator of PhD Comics). Unfortunately, the lady who took the picture did a crap job, but at least I have the documentation.

Ummm, no.

My Spanish word of the day for yesterday was gaviota, which means seagull. Here was the sample sentence that they used:

A veces hay gaviotas en la playa, pero normalmente se esconden de los turistas.
Sometimes there are seagulls on the beach, but normally they hide from the tourists.

Yeah, right. Have you ever seen seagulls hide from tourists? No. They swarm all over you and steal your potato chips. Who makes up this stuff?

Giving Thanks

Well, I totally failed at NaBloPoMo, but I did post significantly more often this month than I have in recent months. So that is a success.

This year was my fourth Thanksgiving in England. In the previous three years, I had gone to the College's Thanksgiving dinner. They were fun, but I was ready for a change. So this year, when I realized that (a) I wasn't close with many Americans in my College any more, (b) the ones I'm friends with had other plans that night, and (c) we weren't allowed to bring guests (which made some of the previous years so much fun), I decided to take matters into my own hands and make alternate arrangements.

I managed to convince Elizabeth that we should have our own Thanksgiving this year. She was gracious enough to host it at her house (a plus because she has an oven and space to actually have people over), and we encouraged enough of our non-American friends to help us ring in one of our more important holidays.

We were all very nervous about how it would turn out. Elizabeth and Andy made the turkey, something none of us had ever done before. We didn't own many of the cooking utensils required for such a large scale meal: I bought mixers and measuring spoons, Elizabeth bought a meat thermometer and a baster, we both bought all matter of roasting pans. It also took a bit of effort to find everything we needed. Elizabeth had to special-order a turkey from the butcher because they don't normally do them this early. Her mom sent her corn bread mix and canned pumpkin, which we put to good use. I also had to hunt through several stores to find sweet potatoes and had to search the Internet for a pumpkin cheesecake, as ready-made pie crusts are impossible to find and I don't have the resources/space to make my own.

But in the end, the result was impressive. The turkey was delicious, and all the sides came out great: Andy and Andrew made two kinds of mashed potatoes (one had cheddar cheese on top), Corwin brought peas, Elizabeth made stuffing and cranberry sauce, I made sweet potatoes and corn bread. Mark kept us well stocked with wine and Elizabeth made Christmas Glug, a Finnish mulled wine-type of drink (she used to live in Helsinki). Eleanor joined us later on just as we were finished stuffing ourselves, and then we all had pumpkin cheesecake (made by me) for dessert.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It's hard to mess it up. The most recent ones have been a little strange because I haven't been with family, but I like the idea of sharing American traditions with my non-American friends and spending time with them.

Check out the photos on the Flickr.

Betty's dress code

I was watching Ugly Betty yesterday when I had this realization. If you watch the show, have you ever noticed how Betty has a thing for scarves and bowties and tying weird things around her neck in general? Observe:
The bottom one is from the most recent episode, and it made me think of a few things:

• I know some of the clothing combinations she wears are hideous, but part of me thinks that if she'd lose the thing around her neck, the outfit wouldn't look quite so ridiculous.
• What 24-year-old ties scarves around her neck in that way? I do wear/own scarves, but I don't tie them around my neck like I'm a secretary from 1983. I know some people march to the beat of their own drummer, but Betty feels so eager to fit in that it surprises me that she doesn't try to dress more like people around her.
• This is the big thing: don't big deal companies have a dress code? I know the standard is more business casual these days, but even business casual companies have guidelines of what is acceptable. I would think this would especially be the case in a fashion magazine, not unlike the way they were in The Devil Wears Prada when Miranda was around. Not that I have any fashion magazine experience, but I feel like Christina and anyone else in wardrobe would be dropping dresses and Jimmy Choo heels at Betty's desk and telling her to wear them the next day.

I know this is supposed to be all played up for laughs, but the more I looked at Betty's ridiculous outfits last night the more I thought, "This would never happen in real life." Don't get me wrong - I l o v e the show, and if Betty started dressing normally, there wouldn't be a show. I just never realized how much of it is played up for laughs/dramatic effect.

Little black dress

I'm in the market for a dress. I don't really need one, but I like shopping for dresses. In particular, I'm looking for a dress for my friend's wedding in June (and since I'm going to weddings in July and August, I'll probably wear it then as well). So I've been surfing the websites of some of my favorite shops for ideas.

I've noticed that if you click on "dresses" on these websites, it brings you to a lot of subcategories, including "black dresses."

Have a look at this page of "black dresses." Does it seem like there's one that doesn't really belong?I know it's got black on the bottom, but would you really call that a "black dress"? Just wondering.

Whoops.

I guess I missed posting yesterday, and I didn't even remember until it was far too late to backdate something. Oh well. It was a weird day, with meetings, not feeling so hot, and unbloggable stuff (nothing bad, just the nature of what we do). I don't know how I feel about this writing every day thing - I guess it's good practice, but when I don't have anything to say, it sure feels like a chore.

Tonight is another Entz night. So I'm gonna be busy. Fingers crossed that it's a quiet night.....

Random Bullets of Waiting for the Laundry to Be Done

• Lately I've been having a lot of activities - meetings, etc. - that take place in the middle of the day. I feel like it's hard to get work done around them - I'd be a lot more focused if I could get something done and have a big chunk of time to do other stuff.
• Of course, it would also help if I were a morning person. When I absolutely have to get up, I can do it. My last three trips home involved ridiculously early flights, including one where I had to wake up at 2 am. And I did it every time.
• Today I had my first lecture on Rhetoric and Golden Age Literature. It's not absolutely necessary, but it's a good review. I love the lecturer, because he actually lectures in Spanish. That's very rare here. But I love it because it forces me to focus and it keeps my Spanish up.
• The mysterious illness has been a semi-stomach bug (everything I eat bothers my stomach, not much appetite) and a cough. Thank God I am well-stocked with Robitussin.
• The college just got ten new washers and ten new dryers this summer (August). Three months later, five of the dryers are broken. I know it's ridiculously unproductive, but they should shut off five of the washers as well so the washing doesn't get backed up while people try to cram their stuff into half the number of dryers.
• I also think the dryers are much smaller than the ones in the past. And we're getting charged the same amount. Ripoff!
• I discovered today that the notebook where I keep all my Cervantes-related notes is almost full. (Last year, after realizing I had notes in three different notebooks, I transcribed everything into one.) I actually like the feeling of finishing a notebook and starting a new one. Unfortunately, I'm addicted to buying stationery, so I have lots of unused notebooks waiting to be filled up!
• The theme of the College's undergraduate party this weekend is "American High School." I'm very curious to see what they'll do for it - I'm guessing lots of jocks, cheerleaders, girls in school uniforms. I almost thought about having my parents ship my high school letter jacket so I could wear it. (Yes, I have a letter jacket. I lettered in softball and volleyball, but only because they gave letters to the managers!)
  
• It was very cute to see what they did for their 1990s party, as many of them were born in 1989-1990 and probably don't remember the decade all that well. A lot of them showed up in neon, sporting the Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan kind of look. Umm, no, sorry. The 1990s was the grunge era - we wore flannel.
  
• I can't believe how fast these months are flying by. Christmas is any day now.
• And I'm thinking Christmas is a good time to ask for one of these.
  

Getting all researchy up in here

If I make it through NaBloPoMo, it'll be the most posts I've ever had in a month on any of my blogs. Hell, it will be equal to 36% of all the posts last year. And if I want to be sure you're still reading by the end of it, I've got to keep the topics a changin'.

My research keeps me busy, as does Junior Deaning. But as the nature of Junior Deaning is not really bloggable (we deal with a lot of confidential issues), I'll talk about the research.

This year I'm trying to plow through three chapters, in preparation for the confirmation of status exam I'll do at the end of this year. The confirmation of status exam is an exam we take by the end of our third year (most people do it just after their second), in which we submit a 15,000-word paper and have a viva voce exam. Since the DPhil is all thesis*, all the time, they want to be sure that we're not on vacation the first two years and freaking out by the third. Anyway, the point of getting through three is so I can choose the best one and fix it up to submit it.

Right now I'm working on the Second Part of Don Quijote, published in 1615. The issues of literary authority get a bit complicated in this one, as the characters find out that a First Part is published about them and that people have read it. This affects the people's interactions with don Quijote and Sancho in good ways and in bad. They also find out that some other author has published a phony and poorly-written Second Part about them, which leads to a lot of discussion about who is "the real deal." So it makes for some interesting reading and writing.

When my supervisor and I set out the thesis outline last year, we had planned for five sections in this chapter. Looking at the chapters a bit more carefully now, I think it would be better off with eight. Is an eight-section chapter too much? The problem is that I only have about 20,000 words max for this chapter, which is not a lot. Also, the sections do not address equal amounts of content. Two very important sections address three chapters of the Quijote each, while another section addresses about 34 chapters.

It's going kind of messily right now, but I usually get a sudden surge where everything comes together. Any Quijote readers out there? If so, I'll start talking shop; otherwise I don't want to bore you. ;)

I'm getting better slowly but surely. Tomorrow I have an important lecture - I hope I'm not coughing my way through it!

* The UK does the whole "thesis/dissertation" thing backwards: the Master's one is the dissertation (and undergrad ones too), and the doctoral one is the thesis.

Blaaaaaaaaaaaargh

I'm siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick.

Well, perhaps it's not dramatic enough to have drawn it out that much, but it's one of those days where I just couldn't get anything done. I've got whatever's going around - the congested plus stomach bug extravaganza. I went out for a bit to go to the store, but I didn't want to go to Hall much because I felt like I was contaminating everyone (we sit so close) and I didn't want to go to the library because I felt like my sneezing and nose-blowing would just annoy everyone.

I've slept on-and-off very badly since last night. I'll try to hit the sack now, but this doesn't mean I won't be up wandering around again very soon.

Ugh.

Explaining my photos, episode 2

I've been really bad about labeling my photos in the past few years, so this whole "Explaining my photos" series is an effort to remember why I took the weird photos that I've taken.

In our last episode, we looked at Spain. Today's episode is about San Francisco.

As a recap, I went to San Fran over the Easter vacation to visit my friend Chrissie. I've never been to the West Coast, so it was very exciting. I had a great time, and Chrissie is a great host because she took me everywhere and didn't get bored with it, even though she's probably been to all those places hundreds of times.

This was a shop somewhere in Fisherman's Wharf. It had some of the tackiest statues I've ever seen, including this one of two dolphins and a soccer ball. If you know someone who would buy this, you win a prize in my book.

I saw these trees everywhere. I am guessing they are West Coast trees, because I have never seen them before. I do not know what they are - can someone identify them? This was taken at Berkeley from the Mario Savio Steps.

While in Berkeley, we visited the Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore. I cracked up at this shelf, which had the following topics from top to bottom: Linguistics, then Sign Language, then Dope. As you can see from the book titles, I am not joking.

Also at Shakespeare & Co., we found The Pop-up Book of Phobias. It is exactly what it sounds like, which is hilarious.

I don't know what I'd expect to find in a place called Grandma's Cocktail Saloon. This was near Balboa Park, methinks.

I am, as you know, an ad geek. So whenever I see ads in places I do not expect, I get very excited. This one was presented in such a way that you could see it as you approached the stairs of the BART.

This, my friends, is no ordinary curved staircase - it is a curved escalator. Yes, it goes up in a curve. My friend Mark, a Brit who works for Google, has been to San Fran on business before, so I asked him for suggestions of what to see. He forwarded me a list he had made for his brother, which happened to include a lot of shopping places - mostly because the dollar was taking a beating against the pound, so prices were fantastic for them. Anyway, among the shopping places on his list was this mall with the curved escalators. I think Chrissie was a bit surprised when I asked to see it, but she took me there without complaints. (I certainly didn't complain, as it also contained a Hello Kitty store.)

That's about it for now. More NaBloPoMo goodness tomorrow!

Memetacular

I should be working, but what am I doing? That's right, a blog meme.

Seen over at Lori-Lyn's.

What is your occupation right now? I have a few. I'm a perpetual grad student, first and foremost. I'm also a Junior Dean. On the side I teach the occasional web seminar for my old uni, which pays amazingly well considering how little I have to do to prep for it.

What color are your socks right now?Tan. I never wear tan socks, but my pants are long enough for me to get away with it. ;)

What are you listening to right now? My fan. I keep it on for the white noise, and because I don't like being excessively warm.

What was the last thing that you ate? Some Nice biscuits. Yes, that's what they are called.

Can you drive a stick shift? Nope. Trust me, you don't want me to try.

Last person you spoke to on the phone? Haris, when I called him to let me in to a building when I had trouble with the code.

How old are you today? As of right now: 28 years, 7 months, 1 week, 5 days, 18 hours and 10 minutes old.

What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Gymnastics, ice skating and college basketball.

What is your favorite drink? Fruit punch, which I can't get here, unfortunately.

Have you ever dyed your hair? Nope. One of my favorite things about me is my hair color.

Favorite food? I'd have to go with pasta.

What is the last movie you watched? Quantum of Solace (last night).

Favorite day of the year? Thanksgiving and my birthday.

How do you vent anger? I will copy Lori-Lyn's answer, because it's true for me too: I cuss and make a lot of dire proclamations then I usually cry. It's really nice and a joy to witness I'm sure.

What was your favorite toy as a child? I can't think of a specific toy, but I always thought it was cool when my sister and I "collected all four" of a particular Happy Meal toy series. Back in the day, they'd only do four - now they do dozens, in both boy and girl styles.

What is your favorite season? The Spring-Summer transition.

Cherries or blueberries? Blueberries, but in things rather than straight up.

Living arrangements? I live in college accommodation. A single room with my own bathroom, in a building with about 15 or so undergrads.

When was the last time you cried? At the end of Ugly Betty last night. *blush*

What is on the floor of your closet? Suitcases, as I have no other place to put 'em.

What did you do last night? Went to the movies and then to the pub, then Teresa came over and we watched Ugly Betty.

What are you most afraid of? The easiest answer is getting lost. I'm terrified of getting lost.

Plain, cheese, or spicy cheese hamburger? Cheese, definitely.

Favorite dog breed? You really can't go wrong with dogs, although I prefer the little ones.

Favorite day of the week? I like the later half of Friday, when you've got all these free days ahead of you. I'm also fond of Wednesdays for some reason.

How many states have you lived in? Just one, but I've lived in two countries.

Diamonds or ruby? Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

What is your favorite flower? I like Gerbera daisies, orchids, calla lilies and peonies. But not all together.

A confession

I have a confession to make. Despite having thrown a legendary James Bond party in my second year, and despite having met one of the more legendary James Bonds, I have never actually seen a James Bond film.

Yep, that's right. I know *of* them, I can name some of the films and the Bonds, but I have never seen one of them. This will change tonight: I am going with some of the Spanish girls to see Quantum of Solace. I'm looking forward to it.

It's a busy weekend up ahead: after the movie, it's drinks with the lawyers. Then tomorrow it's my friend's 30th birthday party, and then Sunday it may be ChCh brunch. I haven't had a good social weekend in a long time, and I'm really excited about it. :)

I'm still awake, so this counts.

OK, OK, OK. I may or may not have back-dated this just a bit so I could get in my post for the day. I haven't gone to sleep yet, so it still feels like it's yesterday anyway.

A number of the law students from two years ago have come back for their graduation this weekend. Two of my favorites, Haris and Fabrizio, arrived this evening. I had dinner with Haris, and they joined me and Teresa in the MCR until very late.

The wonderful thing about seeing them again was remembering all the fun we had. They both said that as soon as they arrived, it felt like they had never left.

Ahh, the good ol' days. I missed these guys.

On victories large and small

As I mentioned before, I voted for one of the other guys (and no, not McCain). This doesn't mean, though, that I am anti-Obama. I couldn't help but tear up over this:

He's got a big job ahead of him and, I think at the very least, the prospect of change in the White House (not just in ideas, but in demographics) will give people a positive outlook. Also, I hope that having a president who is widely supported in other parts of the world will improve our international image, which in turn should help towards solving some of our problems. I will follow the news with interest in the coming months, as he shapes up his plans for the White House.

In smaller news, I met with my supervisor yesterday. I was dreading it, as I usually do. But even though he said my most recent chapter draft will need major restructuring, he approached it with enthusiasm and gave me the impression that it was promising. He even read out parts that he liked and said were well-written. Those little things give me the push I need to keep going, which is always a plus.

And on that note, I went to see Jorge Cham give a talk today. His talk was about "The Power of Procrastination" and was basically a motivational speech for grad students. His comic strips encourage people that they're not alone when they're doing a doctorate, which is something I think we all need to be reminded about from time to time. I didn't get a picture with him, but I bought one of the comic books and had him sign it. I also had him sign my copy of Don Quijote, which may sound weird, but hear me out: if his strips motivate people to get through their doctorates, I thought having a drawing of his in the book I research would provide a little spark of motivation from time to time.

I told Jorge that the topic of my research goes really well with the topic of his talk: I'm trying to show how Cervantes makes a case for the value of fiction, showing that reading books for the sake of entertainment only can be beneficial to the reader. Having a rest and a change in mental activity can be stimulating if you're studying all the time or dealing with difficult stuff. Fiction can provide us with this mental escape and, as Cham argues, so can procrastination.

Maybe that's a little far-fetched, I know. But it sparked in my mind while he gave his talk, so I figure, why not?

Public Service Announcement

I voted about 5 weeks ago. I know lots of people who voted early, either by absentee ballot or the early voting allowed by some states. And I know some others who, at 7:39 this morning East Coast time, have already been to vote and had to queue for several hours. That's a good thing.

Yes, I'll be like everyone else and tell you to vote. No, I won't tell you who to vote for. I don't like it when people say, "Go vote, but if you're voting for [x] stay home," or "A vote for [y] is a wasted vote." Our country has a hard enough time getting people to vote, so if something some candidate says gets a person to vote, so be it.

There are actually a lot of parties going on tonight to watch the election coverage. We'll see what happens.

So go vote, please. You can't complain unless you've had your say.

Plastic Jesus

I don't care if it rains or freezes
'Long as I got my plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Through my trials and tribulations
And my travels through the nations
With my plastic Jesus I'll go far

Because England doesn't have Thanksgiving, the decorations in the stores leap right from Halloween to Christmas. It always takes me by surprise - it feels like it's just too early for Christmas. (Well, it feels like that in the States too, but even more so here.)

Anyway, this evening I had dinner with Andy, Elizabeth and Andrew at Andy's house. I had never been there before, so I set out a bit early to get there. By the time I hit the center of town, I felt like I was going to be way too early, so I stopped at the local Borders to have a look around for a few minutes. (I ended up overshooting it and being about 10 minutes late!)

This Borders had a Paperchase section in it, which I always like, and they were setting up their Christmas displays there. They had some cute decorations that I liked, but there was one thing I saw that left me in a state of shock:

silver glittery plastic Jesus statues.

And that's not all: they had pink glitter Virgin Marys and also Jesus bath gel.

I wonder what type of person would buy these things. And oh, how I wish I had taken a picture (I didn't want to because the shop worker was lurking around), because I am so not doing it justice.

Would you buy a silver glitter plastic Jesus? And if so, where would you put it?

Edit, 9:21 a.m., 11/4/08: I found a picture of it! Only you have to imagine it to be glittery, not the stony look it has here.

Differences

One of the main differences between the Oxford system and the United States system is the types of people with whom you get to interact. In the States, for the most part, undergraduates interact with undergraduates and graduates with graduates. The only real exception to this would be if you were a graduate TA teaching an undergraduate lab course, or perhaps if you were in an intro grad course that is open to senior undergraduates as an elective. But in those cases, you don't really become friends with those people - there's still a hierarchy.

And within the graduate subsystem, I don't think graduates tend to interact with those from other degrees unless they're very similar subjects (i.e. different sciences interacting, or a Communication graduate doing a marketing course in the MBA department). You wouldn't normally see linguists hanging out with lawyers and med students and philosophers.

Here, things are very different. Undergrads live with grad students, and people of all different degree programs are mixed together. On top of that, we get people from all over the world here. Not only does it help to gain different perspectives on what you're studying, it helps to gain perspective on the world in general. I've learned about food preferences and job interview styles and the correct way to pronounce hundreds of different names. (Whenever I am teaching or working in the States, the last one surprises people. I get a lot of "That's the right way to say it, but no one ever says it like that!")

I know I say things like this all the time, but even in my fourth year here it still amazes me. I may have become oblivious to other out-of-the-ordinary things (I've been known to say things like "I'm so tired of guinea fowl..."), but I still find it cool when I sit down with 8 people in hall and every one of them is from a different country.

Back to work now. Bis morgen!

NaBloPoMo

With 38 minutes to go on 1 November, I've signed up for NaBloPoMo. Those of you with more time left today (i.e. in the United States) should give it a shot as well.

I know I could be using this time to write more important things, but I've always wanted to try one of these projects. I don't think I'd have the momentum for NaNoWriMo, and I'd probably forget after a while about the 365 project, so I thought would be a reasonable goal.

What will I write about? I don't know. Maybe once in a while I'll talk about my research. I'll dig up old photos. I'll tell you about things I've promised to tell you about but never got around to it. Hell, give me topics.

This week coming up is going to be a busy one, I can tell. Today was a light day, as we had an Entz last night and they kept me busy. I think Halloween is a rowdy night in general, and when you have it on a Friday.....

I learned something interesting, though. Here, Halloween costumes are more about Halloween itself - witches and mummies and monsters and dead people and all that. The Brits tell me that when they see someone in a random non-scary costume at Halloween (like a princess or a spaceman or something), they know it's an American.

One down, 29 to go.....

Gadgets I do not need, part 2

I'm still seriously wanting one of these. But this morning, I remembered something else I was seriously wanting not too long ago: a Tablet PC. Now I can't decide.

The mini laptop would be useful for me now, as I could take it to the library and stuff. My current laptop isn't extremely heavy (my first one in Ox weighed 13 pounds!), but it is a bit bulky. A mini one could fit nicely in a bag and wouldn't take up much space. I hear they also have good battery life.

Some downsides: it would mean that I would have to carry two laptops every time I make my long-haul US to UK flights, and it does not have a DVD drive or much memory. I wouldn't use it for heavy-duty storage, just mainly whatever I'm currently working on, so I could probably get a small memory card or whatever. But I would have liked to use it for watching movies on the plane.

I can't really think of a reason I would *need* a Tablet PC right now. It's actually something that would probably be best if I were working: I could annotate presentations or use it to correct electronically-submitted student papers. I would not use it in addition to my current laptop - if I needed to replace this one, it would probably be my replacement. Perhaps what they say is true: these days, companies create needs for us. We see these things that look cool, we decide we must buy them, and then we decide why we need them.

Because you should have it stuck in your head too.

Ohhhhhhh..........
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

How it's goin'

Those of you who have been following me since the beginning may remember how I used to post regular updates of wacky costume parties, black-tie events, and lectures that involved cocktail breaks. I know I don't post much about that kind of stuff anymore (mostly because it's not so novel), but it doesn't mean I haven't been doing stuff. Also, if you follow me on Flickr, you may think that the only thing I've done this term is meet celebrities. Although there is not always photographic evidence to prove it, here's some of what I've been doing this term:

• Chung's leaving do. Chung matriculated with me, and we lived in the same staircase during our second year here. I came back early specifically to say goodbye to him, as he finished his DPhil and got a spiffy new job in Hong Kong. Chung took pictures that night but hasn't posted them yet, but I know he's busy with the new job and I'll probably get a huge email of photos at some point, as he usually does.
• The standard fresher events. Matriculation lunch, Domus dinner (a dinner for new graduates), Master's drinks. I don't have pictures of those because they're not really "my" events - I go as a "delegate" of the college, more or less. It would look kind of weird if I took photos at them. It was kind of cool, though, at the Matriculation lunch: I got to be head of my own table. Usually at these events there are a bunch of fellows and stuff, and they are all kind of spread out all over the place to mingle with the students. There were no fellows at my table, so I was technically the senior person. It meant that the freshers asked me a lot of questions about college life, which was cool and made me feel important.
• Trinity guest dinner. Corwin invited me to guest dinner at Trinity last week. It was one of the nicer dinners I've had at Trinity, and it was great to see Elizabeth and the Trinity contingent. I've been there enough times that I feel like a regular - the porters buzz me in and I go where I need to go. Elizabeth took pictures that evening, and I hope she will post them somewhere soon.
• Meeting celebrities. If you haven't heard me talk about this, you've been living under a rock.
• Visiting Enrique in London. My lovely Enrique has submitted his thesis, found a cushy job and packed up and moved to London. Justin and I went to see him (and Maria, who was also visiting) yesterday, and we had a lovely lunch and a walk around Finsbury Park. I had my camera in my bag, but for some reason I couldn't find it while I was there. So no photos. :(
• Doing work. Yes, I do work too. On Tuesday I handed in a 15,000-word chapter draft, and am now working on another chapter. This year I have to do a Confirmation of Status exam at the end of the year, in which I hand in a 15,000-word paper and do another viva. 15,000 words is roughly a chapter's worth of content, so I am doing lots of 15,000-word papers this year and I'll fix up the best one for the exam. Obviously, not a picture-worthy event.
  

I think there's been a trend of bloggers moving on to Facebook, so perhaps that explains the lack of updates - many of you who read me here also keep up with me there. I've also been a lot more laid back in my social activities since becoming Junior Dean, so now I hang out with friends and watch movies and order takeout and go out to dinner. It's not like the black-tie dinners of days of yore, but it works for me. :)

Tonight is Girly Night, hosted by Eleanor and Elizabeth, where a bunch of the language girls will get together and watch girly flicks and drink pink champagne. We don't get together nearly as often as we should, so this is a good chance to kick back and relax and not be hermits. ;) Tomorrow, I have been invited to dine with Andy and Elizabeth at Andy's new house. And I'm not on duty until Friday, so it should be a good week.

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend - xxx

A word a day

I'm on this Spanish word-a-day mailing list to help keep my vocabulary up. Having done nothing but Golden Age literature since college I can talk forever about Cervantes and literary authority, but my practical and useful vocabulary is a bit rusty. So this word-a-day list is a good little way to brush up on vocabulary, as people will probably find me as crazy as don Quijote if I called them "Your Grace" and talked about knight-errantry in 17th century Spanish.

So anyway, for each word, they use it in a sentence. Some of the phrases are pretty useful, as you would find them in everyday life. Today's word was "retroceso" (recession), and the sentence was this:

Atribuyen el retroceso español al escaso aprovechamiento de las nuevas tecnologias.
They attribute the Spanish recession to the scarce exploitation of new technologies.

That could be something that you hear on the news or read in the paper, especially these days. But yesterday's word was "jugadores" (players), and the sentence was this:

Los jugadores se encuentran de vacaciones.
The players are on vacation.

Huh? Maybe this is something you would read in a sports section, but it just seems so random. Wouldn't it be a good opportunity to teach some other sports terminology, like "The players scored three goals in the second quarter"?

Maybe there's something about language pedagogy that I'm not getting here.

Dorkiness personified

*No, the typos do not come automatically with the Claudia font. :)

In which Kaitlin yammers on about random bits of her research.

I was writing a little bit about the episode in part I of the Quijote in which don Quijote and Sancho have dinner with some goatherds, and the don launches into a verbose and random commentary about the Golden Age just because he sees some acorns. (Even the author describes it as unnecessary smack dab in the middle of the text.) Anyway, after his speech, the goatherds offer to entertain don Quijote and Sancho with some singing. When don Quijote asks them to sing some more, Sancho disagrees, telling him that

Bien puede vuestra merced acomodarse desde luego adonde ha de posar esta noche, que el trabajo de estos buenos hombres tienen todo día no permite que pasen las noches cantando.

To which don Quijote replies,

Ya te entiendo, Sancho […], que bien se me trasluce que las visitas del zaque piden más recompense de sueño que de música.

(Chapter 21, p. 102)

For some reason, this passage made me lol, so I thought I'd share. :)

This post is brought to you by.....

Having a degree in advertising makes you exceptionally aware of advertisements. Someone mentioned to me once that I watch commercials with just as much interest as I do when I watch the show itself! Anyway, I was watching Ugly Betty last night, when I came to realize the type of advertisement I hate the most: the product placement.

I know they're trying to ram that idea into your head by making it appear subtle, but it's not subtle. It's painfully obvious. I really started to notice it when Survivor first came out - on one episode, the reward challenge prize was a gift basket full of bathing essentials that was "parachuted in" from Target. The winning team was clever enough to use the parachute (which had a giant Target logo on it) to make shelter, so every time the team was shown on the program, it was an ad for Target. In other reward challenges they would win random snacks of things like Doritos and Mountain Dew - probably the last things I would want after not eating for days, but if they're paying for air time, I guess you eat it.

On this week's episode of Ugly Betty, Betty tries to win back Gio's approval by acquiring some rare Italian cheese for him (he had tried to get some in Rome, but it was confiscated at customs). When it arrives at Mode, Amanda mentions how one slice of the cheese is probably much worse than her whole drawer of Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers lunches. You've probably seen similar commercials: people are whining about the crap they eat at lunch, when someone opens a desk drawer to reveal a whole pile of Healthy Choice lunches. Well, this was the same thing.Another one that annoys the hell out of me is when they do it on Jon & Kate Plus 8. I can't find a clip of it, but one day when they were waiting for something, Jon and Kate pulled out the kids' new VSmile and they waxed poetic about how wonderful it was while the screen showed the kids playing with it. You could tell it was planned because Kate sucks at reading stuff (listen to her monotone voice in the opening bit). I'm willing to bet that those kids don't ask to play with the thing ever again - it probably comes out when Mom and Dad want to make some money.

I'm also guessing that people talking about the awkwardness is a good thing too - sure, Amanda was weird about flashing all those Healthy Choice lunches, but people gawked about it the next day, which spread the name around. That's the weird thing about advertising - ads may be memorable because they're annoying, but at least they're memorable!

Completing the celebrity hat trick

Today's post is brought to you by the letter K, for KEVIN SPACEY.

As you may have read in the papers, Kevin Spacey is the new Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at my college. He succeeds Patrick Stewart and a number of other prestigious actors in this role.

He gave his first lecture today, and he was amazing. He didn't have the same kind of presence as Sir Patrick, but he was funny and interesting. And the best part of it was, he took the "Professor" part of it to heart.

Throughout his talk he said a lot about how he wanted to meet the students and know what the students want, and I thought it he was just saying what he thought we wanted to hear. But he really meant it. During dinner, he got down from the high table (where the highest-level fellows and prestigious donors were invited to dine with him) to walk among the students, thank them for coming and to just chat with them. I was one of the lucky ones who got to chat with him, but sadly I did not document this momentous occasion on camera. (No one else was doing it, so I didn't want to start something if he just meant to walk around quickly!)

After dinner, Kevin and the fellows adjourned to the Senior Common Room for the usual post-high table gathering - probably port and whiskey and the like. But he didn't want that - he wanted to go to the JCR (student) bar. The fellows and the organizers (the Master's secretary, etc.) looked shocked, but they followed him along.

These things showed me that he takes this position seriously, and not as a pompous way to earn the college money from donors. It was great. I can't wait for his next lecture!

Very rarely do I get them this accurate!

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You are an Audrey!

You are an Audrey -- "I am at peace"

Audreys are receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They seek union with others and the world around them.

How to Get Along with Me

• If you want me to do something, how you ask is important. I especially don't like expectations or pressure
• I like to listen and to be of service, but don't take advantage of this
• Listen until I finish speaking, even though I meander a bit
• Give me time to finish things and make decisions. It's OK to nudge me gently and nonjudgmentally
• Ask me questions to help me get clear
• Tell me when you like how I look. I'm not averse to flattery
• Hug me, show physical affection. It opens me up to my feelings
• I like a good discussion but not a confrontation
• Let me know you like what I've done or said
• Laugh with me and share in my enjoyment of life

What I Like About Being an Audrey

• being nonjudgmental and accepting
• caring for and being concerned about others
• being able to relax and have a good time
• knowing that most people enjoy my company; I'm easy to be around
• my ability to see many different sides of an issue and to be a good mediator and facilitator
• my heightened awareness of sensations, aesthetics, and the here and now
• being able to go with the flow and feel one with the universe

What's Hard About Being an Audrey

• being judged and misunderstood for being placid and/or indecisive
• being critical of myself for lacking initiative and discipline
• being too sensitive to criticism; taking every raised eyebrow and twitch of the mouth personally
• being confused about what I really want
• caring too much about what others will think of me
• not being listened to or taken seriously

Audreys as Children Often

• feel ignored and that their wants, opinions, and feelings are unimportant
• tune out a lot, especially when others argue
• are "good" children: deny anger or keep it to themselves

Audreys as Parents

• are supportive, kind, and warm
• are sometimes overly permissive or nondirective

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

Celebrity Hat Trick

Six days ago: Geri Halliwell.

Today: Sir Roger Moore, aka James Bond.


Monday: Kevin Spacey.

I am meeting celebrities at an average rate of once every three days. It's kind of awesome.

I am so immature sometimes.

I know the candidates want people to get out and vote.

I know they want to take advantage of technology to give people as much specific information as possible, ensuring that people will be convinced to go out and vote and that the candidates care about each individual voter's personal concerns.

But did Obama's web team really have to call it "My BO"?

Giggling. I am so immature sometimes.

Romance language-speakers sure like long sentences

Dicen que en el propio original de esta historia se lee que llegando Cide Hamete a escribir este capítulo no le tradujo su intérprete como él le había escrito, que fue un modo de queja que tuvo el moro de sí mismo por haber tomado entre manos una historia tan seca y tan limitada como esta de don Quijote, por parecerle que siempre había de hablar de él y de Sancho, sin osar extenderse a otras digresiones y episodios más graves y más entretenidos; y decía que el ir siempre atenido el entendimiento, la mano y la pluma a escribir de un solo sujeto y hablar por las bocas de pocas personas era un trabajo incomportable, cuyo fruto no redundaba en el de su autor, y que por huir de este inconveniente había usado en la primera parte del artificio de algunas novelas, como fueron la del Curioso impertinente y la del Capitán cautivo, que están como separadas de la historia, puesto que las demás que allí se cuentan son casos sucedidos al mismo don Quijote, que no podían dejar de escribirse.

-El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, Part II, Chapter XLIV

I guess I shouldn't complain, though. I could be doing German, where instead of long sentences, I could be dealing with long words, like Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunter - beamtengesellschaft (Association for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services - I only hyphenated it to make it fit) or Rinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (A German law dealing with the supervision of the labeling of beef).

Languages are awesome.

Signs I am getting old

So today I got to meet Ginger Spice* from the Spice Girls. She has written a children's series called Ugenia Lavender, and the most recent book in the series just came out, so she was doing a book signing.

I found the whole thing kinda funny for a few reasons. First, there were many people there who were well beyond the target market for the books, and probably had no one in the target market in their lives, but were there to get a book signed anyway. (I was one of them.) Second, the girls who were in the target market for the books were probably far too young to (a) know who Geri Halliwell was and (b) appreciate what it means to have an autographed copy of a book. But Geri was lovely to everyone, so it was nice.

Anyway, my point. I was standing in front of a girl who was in her late teens, early twenties. (I dunno, I'm bad at guessing ages.) When we got closer to the front of the line, I asked her if she could take a photo for me while I was getting my book signed. She turned to her mom and said, "Can you take a photo for this lady?"

I was kind of surprised. Am I old enough to be called "lady"? It's kind of like when they call me "ma'am" at a store. I don't think of myself as "lady" or "ma'am" - perhaps it is because I am still a student - but at 28, maybe I am.

*Ginger Spice is not actually ginger any more, nor is she that sort of strawberry blonde that you see in all of her publicity photos. She's also tiny. But come to think of it, isn't she the one who always wore the massive platform boots in her performances?

I voted today.

And probably not for whom you think.

And no, that doesn't mean McCain.

:)



Edit, 10/2/08, 12:19 am: When I say "I voted today," I mean that I mailed in my absentee ballot, just in case you were wondering.

To answer your question

Choose from the list below:

• That's not until next week.
• You'll have to ask the Lodge.
• Yes.
• It's on the form.
• No.
• Come back later this week.
• They're on the shelf over there.
• You'll have to ask the IT office.
• You'll have to ask the MCR presidents.
• Through the doors, take a left.
• They're the same.
• Those are old instructions, they don't do that any more.
  

Various conversations I had yesterday

Scene: I spent the day in the college office yesterday, handing out University ID cards to new grad students. One of the grad students was a lawyer from Chile, so he and I conversed for a bit in Spanish.

Person nearby: Kaitlin, you're so clever, how did you learn to speak Spanish like that?
Me: Ummm, I'm doing my degree in it...

=============================================================
Scene: Andy and Corwin are helping me move.


Me to Corwin: That box has my plates in it. You don't actually have to be too careful with it, I'd like an excuse to get some new plates.

...a few seconds later...

Me to Andy: That box has my gin in it, please be careful.

Corwin: Well, I can see where your priorities lie...

It's not easy to be green

Dear College,

I know the various housing contracts for the college state that the cost of the room includes "reasonable use of electricity," and that as a college it is not always easy to keep the bills paid. But how do you expect to keep your costs down if your heat doesn't turn off and I have to open my windows and turn on a fan so I don't accidentally evaporate?

Keep on truckin',
Kaitlin

I've been at Catz for far too long

So at Catz we have two dinner seatings - one at 7:15 where you sit down and someone serves you 3 courses, and one at 6ish where you line up and choose from a variety of fried foods. The latter is called "Scaf" and basically has two types of customers:

(1) People who can't get to hall for 7:15 - they usually have to be somewhere and/or don't have time for a sit-down dinner, and
(2) Undergrad boys who eat the fried food BEFORE they sit down for the regular dinner.

"Scaf" is short for "Pete's Cafe," named after the former domestic manager. It is known ONLY as Scaf to most people, so lots of newbies ask, "So why is it called Scaf?"

Most of the time, without thinking, I answer, "Because the guy who invented it was called Pete." As if that made sense or something. I realized that when you are at a place for a long time, certain things that may make sense to you may need a bit more explanation to someone else.

Job skills

I was never a student government person in high school or college. I actually didn't like people who were in it - I always thought they were a bit snobby. But having served a year in "student government" (i.e. the Middle Common Room Executive Committee), I realized that these things actually do teach you useful skills.

One of the most useful skills I learned by being on the committee? How to get dressed in 5 minutes.

As you know, I was one of the social secretaries on the committee. Namely, I was the one who planned the parties. When you're the one who plans the parties (especially the ones that coincide with dinners), you have a lot to do. You decorate. You lay out the place cards and write out the menus. You make sure the DJ knows where to go and the bar staff has enough spirits to make cocktails until closing time. And a lot of this happens right up until the 11th hour.

There were quite a few times when we'd be getting ready until 6:50 for a dinner that started at 7. A black-tie dinner, that is. And many of those times, we had guests that I had to meet at the door "just before 7." So I had to get dressed fast.

This is a skill I've been able to take with me. Once, my family was going to a wedding in Cape Cod, and we were very lost. We had maybe half an hour to change before we could get to the church. I was the first one dressed. My parents and sister couldn't believe it - they still had all kinds of stuff to do. Another time, as Junior Dean, I was supervising an exam for people who needed extra time (learning disabilities, etc.). The regular time exam ended at 5, and this one kid took up until 6:15, using all but 15 minutes of his extra time. I had to pack up his materials, make sure the printers and computers were turned off, submit all the paraphernalia (exam books, clocks, etc.), and get ready for a dinner that started at 6:15. I was a teeny bit late (not a big deal since there were drinks first), and I forgot my jewelery, but I made it.

I think this is a very useful skill, but I'm curious how to market it. Time management? Efficiency? In any case, it's one of the few skills I'll take with me beyond academia.

WANT

I really want one of those teeny laptops. I think it's something I would use a lot, so it would be worth the expense.

I wouldn't use it for heavy duty work, but it looks convenient to take to a library to take some notes. I'd also use it at the airport, and to watch movies on a plane.

I've seen them around here for $300-$320. I could probably get one in the States for $250, based on a quick look at Google, but I don't know if that's used or if it'll take weeks to deliver.

Does anyone have one of these little guys? Is it worth it? I'd be interested in your feedback.

Cheers!

Back

This is becoming more of a travel blog than anything else, but I'd much rather use this blog as a release from my boring research, so there you go.

I'm back in Oxford. I had a very laid back summer, which was great. We went in the hot tub, I helped my mom apply for jobs, and I became addicted to two shows: Jon & Kate Plus Eight and Army Wives. I also spent some time in the library making a start on my next diss chapter, which is good.

My flight back today was pretty cool. The only international flight (Canada doesn't count) from my local airport is through Amsterdam, so for the first time I tried that flight. (Sadly, they are ending that flight service at the end of this month!) The plane was crappy - shared TVs and only one movie rather than "on demand," which is more the norm for international flights these days. It was also hard now that I've been on a business class flight, to know that they're having nice dinners with linens and silverware while I am eating what is essentially a TV dinner. But there were some things I liked about the experience that made me want to do it again.

I really liked Amsterdam Airport. All of the signs were in English, and the Dutch speak really good English, so it was very easy to navigate. I bought lots of souvenir crap when I was there - everything with wooden shoes and tulips and Delft designs. It actually made me want to take a proper trip to Amsterdam at some point - I think it would be easy to manage.

The best part was that when I got to London, the customs lines were very short. This is because I usually fly on some giant plane from some major US city, so 500 non-UK and EU people spill out and you have to wait for ages while the 12 UK and EU people zip through customs. (In the UK and the European Union, you can pretty much fly anywhere like you might do in the States, and customs is very easy. The non-Europeans have to queue with their passports to get stamped and all that.) Since this flight came through Amsterdam and had mostly Europeans on it, they had to queue while the small handful of non-EU people got to zip right through! Also, this flight had only a hundred or so people on it, so I didn't have to wait for ages while 500 people searched for their luggage. It was very convenient.

Got back to Catz a little before noon. I've been sleeping off the jetlag ever since, and I just had my usual back-to-the-UK dinner of Chinese delivery. Tomorrow is Chung's going-away party, and I'll probably get cracking on some work!

Stay classy, blogosphere,
Kaitlin

Shameless plug

I was looking over my blog stats tonight (a highly addictive activity), and noticed that a large number of my visitors come to me from Dean Dad's blog. This is actually a trend I've noticed for a while. It's probably just because I'm towards the top of his blogroll, but I'm very grateful for the traffic. So I thought I'd reciprocate with a shameless plug of his blog.

I read lots of blogs written by academics of all types, but I like his a lot because he is one of the few (if not the only) administrators out there in the blogosphere. My brother attends a community college, and I actually pass along a lot of Dean Dad's wisdom to him about course selections, enrollments and transfers at CCs.

So, if you're one of the few people who didn't come here via his blog, stop on over and say hi. Cheers!

Explaining my photos, episode 1

When I go on trips, I like to take pictures not only of monuments and pretty things but also of things I find odd or amusing. I have a lot of photos in my Flickr that I end up having to explain to people, often ending with a "you had to be there" of some sort.

So, in an attempt to produce blog content, I thought I would do a few posts explaining some of the more interesting photos in my Flickr. I'll start with a few weird pics from Spain.

El Corte Inglés is Spain's largest department store, with huge stores all over Spain. They have everything you could think of in their main stores, and lots of smaller boutiques specializing in things like travel, autos, books, electronics, etc. Whenever I talked about bringing stuff to Spain, my friends told me, "don't worry, if you need [pajamas/towels/ballgowns/food] you can pick it up at the Corte Inglés."

In Sol, a very touristy area of Madrid, there were some areas where you could find a Corte Inglés on every corner. Some of their shops sold souvenirs, and had signs in many languages directing you to the aforementioned souvenirs. As you can see, this store had souvenirs on the 7st floor. I found this funny because the "st" is more the exception than the rule, so they really shouldn't have made this mistake - especially for a gigantic national conglomerate!

The pharmacy across the street from my hotel had this ad, telling you to use authentic snail slime globules (I can't think of the proper word in English). For what, I do not know.

A liquor store not too far from my hotel sold this wine called "Mi vino" (My wine). It reminded me of the generic vodka that they used to have at the grocery store in Oxford.

What trip to Spain would be complete without a picture of the Ham Museum???

A store called "Jesus and Buddha," in (I think) the Chueca neighborhood of Madrid. It just sounded like the beginning of a weird joke to me. (I have no idea what they sold - I didn't go in.)

And on a related note, I saw this sign in a lot of Metro stops. I think this particular one was at Embajadores, where I got off for El Rastro. It's an ad for a store that sells tarot cards and all kinds of stuff for rituals and the like. I found it interesting because when I did my first Master's and wrote my thesis on Hispanic magazine ads, I found a lot of ads in big Hispanic magazines for this type of stuff - it was actually one of the more popular advertised products. Seeing these huge ads, right there with ads for stores and cell phones and consulting companies, made me think that this type of thing might be a big deal.

Well, that was fun. More photo excitement soon!

Google Chrome

I have a love/hate relationship with a lot of things: professors, jobs, snack foods, this year's presidential candidates. My newest love/hate relationship is with Google Chrome.

As a former educational technologist, I enjoy trying out the latest software. I downloaded Chrome when it came out last week, and for the first few days, I loved it. It was so fast! So easy to use! It didn't crash!

But as time went on, I wasn't so impressed. Some things made it sort of sluggish, like Flash- or JavaScript-heavy pages. And sometimes I couldn't get pages to load at all, and couldn't find any option to make the page load - like when you try to open up a page in Firefox and it asks you if you want to download whatever ActiveX controls it needs to make the page work.

Perhaps I should have waited a few weeks for the browser to get more "settled" and for the surge of new users to calm down. I always wonder if the bugs that come up in a new application like that come from having more users than anticipated.

Anyone else try it yet? What do you think?

Feed me!

Hey kids -

Any chance I could convince you to switch from whatever RSS feed you may be using to this one?

Cheers!

The Spain (and Portugal!) Chronicles - Day 12

On Saturday, our last day, we did the activity I was looking forward to the most but we had the least time to do: we went to Portugal.

As I mentioned previously, we had planned on going to Portugal earlier in the week but were unable to rent a car. Not only were most cars rented for the vacation season, but Justin and I are both automatic drivers and Enrique can’t drive at all, which limited our car choices a bit. What made things even trickier was that Justin’s and my flight left Vigo at 5, not at 7 as we had originally thought. So our day would have to be a bit tightly packed.
Anyway. We were able to get transportation that day because Enrique’s mother drove us. (She offered to lend us her car earlier in the week, but again, Justin and I are automatic drivers.) We only had time for one stop in Portugal: Valença, a walled town just over the border of Spain.

Valença is famous for its fortress (mostly protecting it from the city of Tui in Spain), and the big things to see are inside the walls. We spent a few hours there walking around, looking at the shops that sold beautiful tiles, ceramics and linens, and practicing our nonexistent Portuguese. It was really cool to stand in one country and look over the river to another. (In fact, since we returned to Oxford that night, we were actually in three countries in one day!) We also bought some postcards and last-minute souvenirs, which was not easy because I was out of Euro cash and did not want to get more on the last day.

After Valença, we crossed the International Bridge (designed by Gustave Eiffel – yes, that Eiffel) into Tui. We tried to get into the cathedral, but it was closed, which surprised us. We wandered around a bit but didn’t have much time, so we went for an early lunch and called it a day. (I can’t remember the name of the place where we had lunch, except that it was impossible to pronounce!) We did tapas, and I was pleasantly surprised for two reasons: they had croquettes that I liked (usually I think they have no taste) and the octopus wasn’t too bad (I think it was grilled instead of boiled – I’m never a fan of boiled stuff).

After lunch we went back to collect our luggage and to head to the airport. I didn’t fly in to this airport, so I was surprised to see how tiny it really was. (Even though we were there a few days earlier to pick up the boys, I couldn’t tell how small it was after security.) It only had 6 gates, maybe 5 check-in desks, and very few international destinations. Also, there were no coffee shops/restaurants/etc. after security – you just get through the security line and boom, there’s the teeny gate. So, we said our goodbyes kinda quickly – you know how it is at the airport when you have a car parked outside – and got ready for our flight. It was kinda funny because Justin and I were the only non-EU people on the flight, so for once the line was very short and easy once we got through customs back at Gatwick!

After waiting forever for luggage and forever for the bus, we made it back into Oxford rather late. Justin and I met up with Darcy, Justin’s girlfriend, who had Chinese food for us at Hertford when we got there. I got back to Catz around 10:30 pm and called it a night.

So this ends the Great Spain/Portugal Adventure. As always, you can check out all of the glorious photos on my Flickr. Thanks for reading!

The Spain Chronicles - Day 11

I’ll be honest. Although it has been a long time since I’ve been on a beautiful beach, this wasn’t my favoritest day of the trip. I had been up for hours the night before, with the oily Spanish food finally catching up with me. Once in a while I have a day where my stomach is killing me on and off all day – one moment I’ll feel fine, the next I’m doubled over and can’t breathe. That day was like that for me.

We got up earlyish and headed down to the port, stopping for breakfast on the way. We had to take a ferry to get to the island, so we got on at about 9:45ish (I think) and got there at about 10:30ish.

The boys had made plans to hike up the mountain to look at the views from there. For some reason they assumed that the hike would be too hard for me, so I was not invited to attend. I should have been my usual stubborn self and gone with them, but I was (a) still feeling like crap and (b) carrying a massive beach bag. (I never actually found out why the hike was so hard. If it was merely lots of uphill walking, I could have done it no problem. If it involved things like upper body strength and ledges, I would have been in trouble.) So I went and chilled on the beach while they did their male bonding.

I usually love to take pictures of beaches, but I couldn’t really do it that day. No, it wasn’t because of the weather, nor a problem with my camera.....

.....it was a nude beach. *blush*

I didn’t have a problem with it, but it shocked me a bit because I didn’t expect it. We don’t exactly have nude beaches in New England, and I’m already shocked with the people who show up in skimpy bathing suits there. I guess the Mediterraneans have a lot more self-confidence, as there were people of all shapes and sizes going either topless or full-out nude. Anyway, I took a few carefully-arranged (i.e. with no people in them) photos, read trashy Spanish magazines and baked in the sun, stopping only for a trip back to the bar to get some bottled water. It was actually quite nice: the beach wasn’t *too* full and the weather was lovely. I think people were put off by the recent rain and didn’t want to make the trip out that day.

Here is one of my carefully arranged photos, which I love because I think the shade of blue in the sky is amazing:


The boys finished their hike after about 2 hours. When they got back they were hungry, so I hiked back up to the bar to meet them. They gave me lots of flack for not going with them, but I wasn’t really bothered – they were the ones who told me not to go anyway! ;) After we ate we went back to the nude beach, which Justin hadn’t seen yet.

We all napped for a bit on the beach, and then Justin and I took a short walk on the beach and went swimming. Enrique thought we were crazy for doing this, so he worked on a rigorous tanning routine. Even though I was wet and sandy for the rest of the day, it was lots of fun – I haven’t been swimming in an ocean in years!

Around 4:30ish, we started to head back to the bar area for drinks and to get ready to go. (Our return ferry was at 6 pm.) We had some drinks and then chilled for a bit on the main beach, which was not fully nude but had some toplessness going on. By then we were all a bit sunburned and ready to head back.

Here we are, ready to head back:


When we got back to Vigo, Enrique’s sister Maruxa had invited us for drinks at her place – she doesn’t live too far from the port. Maruxa and her boyfriend Carlos are very nice, so it was a lot of fun. Carlos is in a band (it’s called Portrait – go check ‘em out!), so we got the added bonus of hearing him rehearse when one of his bandmates came over. He gave me and Justin copies of the band’s first album, which is awesome.

At about 8ish Maruxa had to go, so we headed back to Enrique’s house, making a quick side trip to the Corte Inglés. Since we were all sunburned and sandy (poor Maruxa – I wonder how much sand she had in her house after we left), we had to shower before we could even think about dinner. Dinner that night was squid with rice, which was a bit tough to eat after not feeling so hot. Fortunately it was pretty good, and I didn’t have to eat the pieces that actually looked like squid – only the rings.

After dinner we decided to head out for ice cream. It was fun because we got to have a nice walk through Vigo, and it wasn’t hot or crowded since it was so late at night. On the way to the ice cream parlor we ran into a bunch of Enrique’s friends, including Jacobo, who lived and worked in Oxford for a while. We ended up getting back pretty late, and for the first time in a while, I slept really well. Why does it always happen that I sleep the very best on the last night of my travels?

Coming up next: A few hours in Portugal before heading home.

PS - Sorry if this post sounds whiny. At this point, I probably was a bit whiny - it was the longest vacationesque trip I had done in years.