This Week's Ramblings

I feel like everything that's been going on in the past two weeks is jumbled in my head...and so my jumbled ramblings are here for you to peruse...

Football ticket pickup was fun. Oh, wait, I'm being sarcastic. I understand the University's attempt to prevent people from skipping classes and fainting on the sidewalk outside Stegman Coliseum by having us line up between 5:00 - 9:00 p.m. instead of at noon, but the 100* heat doesn't really drop significantly until after the sun goes down. And opening the ticket booths on the side of the coliseum that was getting direct sunlight might not have been the best plan.

I suppose I shouldn't complain that much...at least I got tickets.

















On a lighter note, I saw the movie Superbad this past weekend. For those out there who haven't seen it, it's hysterical all the way through. One of the great things about this movie is the fact that they chose actors who actually look like they could be in high school instead of the actors in their mid-20s playing teenagers. I commend the casting director for that. Also, let me say that the main three actors were fantastic. I already liked Michael Cera (left) from his performance in Arrested Development as the awkward George Michael, but the actors who played Seth (center) and Fogell/McLovin (right) were great as well. They had great chemistry. I wouldn't recommend it to those who can't stand vulgar dialogue because it's chock full of it, but if you don't mind it or you enjoy it thoroughly, go see it right now!

Stateside Again

The past few weeks since returning from Oxford have been nothing short of jam-packed. Two days after landing in Atlanta, I returned to Athens to move into my new apartment and get ready for the semester. From there, I went to staff meetings, a Red & Black breakfast, college bookstores, Wal-Mart and the like, my first few classes, North Carolina for my great grandmother's funeral, and back here to Athens. It seems that I jumped right back into my ridiculously busy routine from last semester. Hopefully I'll be able to make it through the semester without too much trouble...

But there are some things I'm definitely looking forward to:

• My photojournalism class. This one should be pretty interesting. I can't say that I wasn't slightly intimidated by the course demands and the complicated lecture today on f-stops, shutter speeds, and ISOs, BUT I think I'll be able to manage if I can keep all that information straight in my head.
  
• Football games. I've said it once and I'll say it again: Football game days in Athens are an experience. Personally, I'm more of a basketball person, having played it myself for years and being part of a family obsessed with the sport. But that doesn't mean I don't look forward to spending a few Saturdays in the 92,000-seat Sanford Stadium cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs.
  
• Breaks and holidays. If you compare the Fall and Spring Semesters, you'll find a considerable number of short holidays in the fall to break up the semester -- Fall Break, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, etc. Spring semester always feels much longer and much more tiring, part of which I attribute to the long periods without a break.

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane...

"Time it was /
And what a time it was /
It was a time of innocence /
A time of confidences /

Long ago it must be /
I have a photograph /
Preserve your memories /
They're all that's left of you..."
-Simon and Garfunkel, Bookends Theme

So it's here...our last full day in Oxford. I've packed most of my stuff and I've gone to almost all of my favorite places for the last time. I've taken pictures with friends and bought my Trinity College hoodie. We had our final Kavoori class today (and we sang the song above before we left) and we're going to hang out together as a class one more time in University Parks today. But leaving Oxford is going to be difficult.

I guess I should explain the picture as well. This is my friend Kristen's picture (she's on the far left) of some of the girls in our class doing the quintessential Kavoori pose before one of our High Table dinners. I'm going to miss them and the rest of my friends here.

But the bright side? "I'm leaving on a jet plane" and coming back to my friends and family in the States! And I think I'll have a greater appreciation for certain things in America. For example:

• Drinking glasses and ice. The glasses they give you in the dining hall and in restaurants are REALLY small -- they look more like large shot glasses. And when you get water in a restaurant, you get about 2 ice cubes per gallon of water. LAME. I want to go somewhere in the States where I can get a massive cup of something when I get back!
• The value of the dollar. Basically, the dollar is worth NOTHING here in England. The exchange rate is 1 British pound = 2 American dollars. My money will actually mean something again when I go home! Hooray!
• Contact with family and friends. Since my cell phone refuses to cooperate and I'm literally an ocean away, my contact with friends and family has been rather limited. This blog has helped, along with my e-mail and Facebook (for those who use it). But it'll be nice to be able to call people when I want and to see their faces regularly.
  

I can't wait to see my family and friends at the airport!

Living in a Bubble

Since the first week I came here, I've said that living at Trinity College is like living in a UGA bubble within Oxford. I dine, travel, take classes, and hang out with UGA students and don't have as many British acquaintances as you might think. I share my time and my experiences with my fellow students here -- it feels as though we just transported a section of the university into the walls of Trinity College.

And that's precisely why it's going to be difficult to go back to UGA. I'm within walking distance of some of the greatest people I've ever met, and when we return to the university, we won't be able to walk 10 feet to each other's rooms. We won't be in the same classes or eat every meal together anymore. We'll be spread out across a campus with 36,000 other students. So when we get back, I'm going to make every effort to keep in touch with these people because they've touched me, and I'm not ready to let them go just yet.

I wish all of the people reading this could meet them and experience what it's like to live in Oxford. Choosing to participate in this program is perhaps one of the best decisions I've made in my life. Going home will be exciting, but I'm going to miss Oxford.

Hairspray -- A Lighthearted Look at the '60s

About a week or so ago, my friends and I went to see the new "Hairspray" movie, which was probably one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in a long time. And one of the things that stood out the most to me was it's lighthearted approach to segregation and weight issues in the 1960s.

If you listen to the lyrics of the fast paced, get-up-and-dance songs in the movie, you can see how the movie (and the Broadway play) give tough issues a more playful spin.

I can't see / why people look at me / and only see the color of my face / And then there's those / who try to help, God knows / but always have to put me in my place / But I won't ask you to be colorblind / 'cause if you pick our fruit, you're sure to find /

The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice / I can say it ain't so, but darling what's the use / The darker the chocolate, the richer the taste / And that's where it's at so baby run and tell that...
-Seaweed Stubbs, "Run and Tell That" from "Hairspray"

The lyrics and video above are from the song "Run and Tell That," which is sung by the one of the main black characters in the movie. The song is very upbeat and fun to listen to, but it's also discussing the fact that people "look at [him] and only see the color of [his] face." Instead of dancing every day on Baltimore's "Corny Collins Show," Seaweed only gets to dance once a month on "Negro Day."

Or take some of the lyrics to Tracy Turnblatt's "I Can Hear the Bells":

Everybody warns that he won't like what he'll see / but I know that he'll look inside of me...

She doesn't seem to think that her weight will be an issue when it comes to true love. Her possible love interest, Link Larkin, will see the good inside her and it won't matter what she looks like on the outside.

Lucky for the characters and the audience, these problems are easily solved by the time the movie ends. *Spoiler alert* -- Tracy gets the guy and the Corny Collins Show is integrated.

And now these songs keep getting stuck in my head...

Adventures at Warwick Castle

"Did you see her hem? Six inches deep in mud. She looked positively medieval." -Caroline Bingley, Pride and Prejudice

Yesterday was Journalism Excursion #1: Warwick Castle. We traveled about 45 minutes away to see what was essentially the Renaissance Festival in a 1,000-year-old castle and learn how one would go about marketing a place like this to the general public. I filmed some of the jousting and fighting we got to see before speaking to the one of the PR reps for the castle, which explains the video above. I apologize for the shoddy filming...it's not often I film with my small digital camera.

When I got there, I expected to see tons and tons of tourists with cameras around their necks and small children pulling their parents around. There were plenty to go around, but I didn't expect many of them to be British. That probably sounds completely ridiculous -- I mean, we're in England. But I thought of this castle and others like it as primarily international tourist meccas because I assumed British citizens were used to seeing castles all the time. I thought castles wouldn't be that impressive because they're everywhere in the U.K. -- in the same way, I oftentimes forget that people who live near me go to see Stone Mountain all the time. I can see it from my mom's house and I can hear the fireworks from the Laser Show from my dad's house. It's always been there and I've visited several times in my life, and plenty of my neighbors and friends go often to picnic in, hike through, or just walk around the park.

One of the women in charge of PR for the castle also reiterated this for me. She discussed three different segments of the general population -- older people, nuclear families, and young couples -- and how they try to appeal to those segments. Obviously, most of those people live in England and probably go to Warwick Castle the same way someone who lives in Atlanta would drive about thirty minutes to see Stone Mountain.

Soccer...I mean Football...

One thing you have to remember about traveling to England is the fact that they have different names for certain things. Cookies are "biscuits." The trunk of a car is called the "boot." Instead of a phone card to call the States, I have a "Dog 'n' Bone" card.

Here's a really big one -- soccer is known as football here and across the world. If you call it "soccer," you get all kinds of dirty looks from passersby. But either way, the sport is "kind of a big deal," to quote Ron Burgundy.

Take, for example, the annual soccer match between the UGA @ Oxford and the Georgia Tech @ Oxford students. Here's a quote from an e-mail from one of the graduate students in my program:

"The players who come back from the game victorious will stand proud whenever THE OXFORD BOWL is invoked. Just think of it: when you’re tailgating in the ATH, or maybe even when you’re old and retired and living in Florida, and someone mentions THE OXFORD BOWL, you can reminisce and bask in the glory of conquest over the Techies."

Unfortunately, we did not pull out a victory over those crazy Georgia Tech kids. But in our defense, we're pretty sure they bribed the ref. And one of our best players, Sam Franco, rolled his ankle the day before the game. And the goals were about 3 feet wide by 2 feet high...which is about the right side for a 7-year-old kid. Wait -- see what I'm doing? Soccer/Football can really take over.