Today, since it seems like a reasonably average day, I'm going to "Tweet" throughout the day!
7:15
Phone alarm goes off. Don't want to get out of bed, so I hit snooze for 10 more minutes.
8:10
Breakfast in kitchen consisting of a maple pecan croissant thing, some Tropicana Orange + Raspberry juice, and a yogurt.
8:20
Leave my dorm. It's the first proper dank, drizzly morning since I've been in England.
8:24
Arrive at my desk, in the building across the street. I'm the first one in. After checking e-mail, I turn to MATLAB, a mathematical programming software, where I continue my attempts to model a pedestrian's shifting center of mass:
y= u+(yo-u+A*sin(wb*(to-tau)))*cosh(OMp*(t-to)) + (vo/OMp + (wb/OMp)*A*cos(wb*(to-tau)))*sinh(OMp*(t-to)) - A*sin(wb*(t-tau))
where A=P/(1+(OMp/wb)^2) (MacDonald, 2008)
...it's going to be a long day.
8:50
The second person arrives, and we discuss the overcast skies.
10:00
Bathroom break! This is mainly to blow the massive amounts of snot out of my nose. Today is the first day that I can definitively say I'm not sick any more, thank goodness. Eight days was quite enough. Now I'm just in that awkward period where I experience diminishing (but annoying) residual drainage and the occasional cough.
10:30
Tea time!
11:30
Discuss research topics (and life in New Zealand) with a couple other students
12:00
Lunch time at Taylor's Deli & Sandwich Co with the Houston girl who just finished her DPhil in structural dynamics.
13:00
Presentation by the Laing O'Rourke construction firm about the Leadenhall building (i.e. the Cheesegrater) soon to be built in London.
14:10
Return to lab, only to realize that my wireless network VPN software has corrupted. Time to reinstall...
14:35
Success! Now back to MATLAB!
15:45
....still working on MATLAB.... convincing myself to stay focused... anyone know how to find vo??
16:15
Taking a lap around the inside of the lab to clear my head. Talking to other students about the infamous cello problem.
16:35
Only 25 minutes until freedom, but I'm getting back to work for the moment. Kind of skeptical that inspiration will strike in time.
17:00
Sure enough, it never came to me. In fact, I realized that my time steps are wrong too. Looks like vo and to will have to wait for tomorrow.
17:05
Back in my dorm.
17:30
Laundry in; debating dinner
18:05
Laundry moved; dinner (salad w/ hard boiled egg, feta, etc) underway
18:30
Leaving dorm, in the drizzling rain, for Latin dance practice.
18:55
Arrive at dance practice (yes, it's a really long way away, esp. by foot.)
19:00
Dance practice! 2 hours of cha cha, an hour of jive, and some exercises!
22:15
Dance lets out, I walk back towards the MCR.
22:40
Arrive at the MCR for a mojito. Most of the grads had been there for over an hour and were on the way out to a pub or somewhere. I chose to head back to the dorm with a small group.
23:00
Tea and biscuits in the dorm kitchen after taking my laundry out of the dryer!
00:00
Back to my room to fold laundry and catch the latest news online.
1:00
In bed, going to sleep. (Usually I go to bed between 23:30 and 00:30, but laundry didn't help)
Well, that was fun! Time to rest up so I can do it all again tomorrow.
WORD OF THE DAY: mate n. Someone's close friend of either gender. e.g. The other day I went out to grab a sandwich with my best mate, Joe. It was really great seeing him again after we went to (upper) school together.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
On the 9th day of Michaelmas, my true love gave to me...
Wednesday, 2nd Week of Michaelmas Term
Current conditions: 2 degrees C, lightly overcast, moderate wind
I've recently come to find out that there is a strange condition that hovers around Oxford every year known as 'Freshers Flu.' As you can guess, freshers flu is the strange sickness (not necessarily an actual flu) that is a result of gathering people from around the world while the climate heads south for the winter. Thankfully, I have avoided said terrible beast as it scuttled from one person to the next... until today. Sure enough, I woke up this morning with the tell-tale stuffy nose. I'm hoping it's not going to be very bad, but nonetheless, I need to take an early bed time. I happen to also be long overdue for a blog post, so here I am responding to duty. I think I'll "try" to keep it short, but we'll see what happens.
I suppose the question everyone most wants to hear about is research. After all, that is supposedly what I came to Oxford to do. Having met with my supervisors a couple times, I am now heading down the road en route to defining my research topic. Broadly speaking, my research will concern the study of pedestrian footbridges and understanding the cause and effects of significant, synchronized crowd movement. Essentially, that means I will be seeking to (1) understand why crowds of people seem to lock step with each other, (2) determine if such behavior affects bridge displacement, and (3) learn about how bridges can be constructed to minimize such effects. As my preliminary study progresses, I will certainly be limiting the scope of this project, but it seems to be a very interesting and exciting structural dynamics problem. The topic came about largely as a result of the London Millennium Bridge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAXVa__XWZ8), though such behavior has been observed on other footbridges as well.
Ok moving along here... The past week has been full of many enjoyable social events as well. Our MCR evidently has a reputation as being great for social interaction, and I definitely understand why. On most nights, some event has been available for everyone to come socialize and hear about each others research. From movie nights to wine & cheese with the Warden to gathering around a chocolate fountain, the events have been varied and fun. On Saturday, we all dressed up in our fancy 'sub fusc' (gown, black suit, white bow tie) for matriculation. This university-wide ceremony was our official induction into Oxford. The Vice Chancellor read a script in Latin which essentially boiled down to, "The academic dean has asked that you [the students] be accepted into Oxford by your meeting the entry level qualifications of the university. I now hereby admit you as a student of Oxford University." We then paraded out of the Sheldonian Theatre (more on the theatre in a later post) and headed back to Keble for lots of pictures and lunch. It was a bright, beautiful day, and we were quite happy to be officially inducted.
Another particularly notable event has transpired since my last post. At the freshers fair (where all the university clubs and societies vie for innocent students' time), I found the Keble rowing club. Excited, I inquired... dejected, I learned that practice was essentially every evening and every weekend day. Not wishing to lose my entire social life, I moved on from rowing to dancesport. What's that? Basically, it's Oxford's ballroom/latin dance team. Since the freshers fair, I attended a couple free sessions and decided that it would be fantastic to try out for the beginners team... which was the best overall team in the UK last year. Typically, they accept about 100 new beginners each year since many drop out. Optimistic of my chances, I showed up at the trials and got on the team! Ok... so they actually admitted every male who tried out (40) in a feeble attempt to offset the many ladies who showed up (70 admitted, many others rejected). So what does that mean? For 150 pounds for the year, I get 10 hours of dance training per week(!), the chance to compete in six competitions, I meet lots of people, I learn a great skill, and I get my weekly exercise in! First team practice is tomorrow and I'm psyched!
So the last major topic for today is food related! Having been formally educated on English biscuits (what we would call sandwich cookies) and tea (I'm a huge fan), I decided to treat 15 of my many new MCR friends to American cooking tonight.... a southern fried chicken dinner! I found recipes online for fried chicken and homemade (American) biscuits and executed them to perfection. Everyone was quite thrilled. The most interesting I found, however, is that buttermilk and shortening are foreign concepts here! As I ran from store to store today, desperately trying to find ingredients, I found exactly one brand of lard, which I had to substitute for the Crisco, and no buttermilk at all. Thankfully, it all worked out well using the lard and regular milk, and everyone was quite happy. Thus, I think I might start cooking on a weekly or fortnightly basis... woo hoo!
CULTURAL CORNER:
Since I need to get to bed, the cultural corner is going to be limited to the word of the day. Next time, it will be better...
WORD OF THE DAY: dodgy. adj. Something that is of questionable quality or origin. Also, an area or place that may not be safe or clean. Syn: Sketchy (US), Scuzzy. Example: "The common kitchen is due to be cleaned out. After weeks of use, it has become a bit dodgy looking."
Current conditions: 2 degrees C, lightly overcast, moderate wind
I've recently come to find out that there is a strange condition that hovers around Oxford every year known as 'Freshers Flu.' As you can guess, freshers flu is the strange sickness (not necessarily an actual flu) that is a result of gathering people from around the world while the climate heads south for the winter. Thankfully, I have avoided said terrible beast as it scuttled from one person to the next... until today. Sure enough, I woke up this morning with the tell-tale stuffy nose. I'm hoping it's not going to be very bad, but nonetheless, I need to take an early bed time. I happen to also be long overdue for a blog post, so here I am responding to duty. I think I'll "try" to keep it short, but we'll see what happens.
I suppose the question everyone most wants to hear about is research. After all, that is supposedly what I came to Oxford to do. Having met with my supervisors a couple times, I am now heading down the road en route to defining my research topic. Broadly speaking, my research will concern the study of pedestrian footbridges and understanding the cause and effects of significant, synchronized crowd movement. Essentially, that means I will be seeking to (1) understand why crowds of people seem to lock step with each other, (2) determine if such behavior affects bridge displacement, and (3) learn about how bridges can be constructed to minimize such effects. As my preliminary study progresses, I will certainly be limiting the scope of this project, but it seems to be a very interesting and exciting structural dynamics problem. The topic came about largely as a result of the London Millennium Bridge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAXVa__XWZ8), though such behavior has been observed on other footbridges as well.
Ok moving along here... The past week has been full of many enjoyable social events as well. Our MCR evidently has a reputation as being great for social interaction, and I definitely understand why. On most nights, some event has been available for everyone to come socialize and hear about each others research. From movie nights to wine & cheese with the Warden to gathering around a chocolate fountain, the events have been varied and fun. On Saturday, we all dressed up in our fancy 'sub fusc' (gown, black suit, white bow tie) for matriculation. This university-wide ceremony was our official induction into Oxford. The Vice Chancellor read a script in Latin which essentially boiled down to, "The academic dean has asked that you [the students] be accepted into Oxford by your meeting the entry level qualifications of the university. I now hereby admit you as a student of Oxford University." We then paraded out of the Sheldonian Theatre (more on the theatre in a later post) and headed back to Keble for lots of pictures and lunch. It was a bright, beautiful day, and we were quite happy to be officially inducted.
Another particularly notable event has transpired since my last post. At the freshers fair (where all the university clubs and societies vie for innocent students' time), I found the Keble rowing club. Excited, I inquired... dejected, I learned that practice was essentially every evening and every weekend day. Not wishing to lose my entire social life, I moved on from rowing to dancesport. What's that? Basically, it's Oxford's ballroom/latin dance team. Since the freshers fair, I attended a couple free sessions and decided that it would be fantastic to try out for the beginners team... which was the best overall team in the UK last year. Typically, they accept about 100 new beginners each year since many drop out. Optimistic of my chances, I showed up at the trials and got on the team! Ok... so they actually admitted every male who tried out (40) in a feeble attempt to offset the many ladies who showed up (70 admitted, many others rejected). So what does that mean? For 150 pounds for the year, I get 10 hours of dance training per week(!), the chance to compete in six competitions, I meet lots of people, I learn a great skill, and I get my weekly exercise in! First team practice is tomorrow and I'm psyched!
So the last major topic for today is food related! Having been formally educated on English biscuits (what we would call sandwich cookies) and tea (I'm a huge fan), I decided to treat 15 of my many new MCR friends to American cooking tonight.... a southern fried chicken dinner! I found recipes online for fried chicken and homemade (American) biscuits and executed them to perfection. Everyone was quite thrilled. The most interesting I found, however, is that buttermilk and shortening are foreign concepts here! As I ran from store to store today, desperately trying to find ingredients, I found exactly one brand of lard, which I had to substitute for the Crisco, and no buttermilk at all. Thankfully, it all worked out well using the lard and regular milk, and everyone was quite happy. Thus, I think I might start cooking on a weekly or fortnightly basis... woo hoo!
CULTURAL CORNER:
Since I need to get to bed, the cultural corner is going to be limited to the word of the day. Next time, it will be better...
WORD OF THE DAY: dodgy. adj. Something that is of questionable quality or origin. Also, an area or place that may not be safe or clean. Syn: Sketchy (US), Scuzzy. Example: "The common kitchen is due to be cleaned out. After weeks of use, it has become a bit dodgy looking."
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
London 2, Oxford 1
How do you like your orange juice? Smooth, with "juicy bits" or with "extra juicy bits?"
Pulp aside, getting acclimated to England has been extremely exciting. Over my remaining time in London (through this past Saturday), we had the chance to see so much. Museums... the Churchill War Rooms... Greenwich... Buckingham... Picadilly Circus... They were all amazing testaments to the age and style of British culture. I have to say, my favorite stops were the British Library and the Queen's Theatre for Les Miserables. We had a wonderful time in the beautiful, record-setting heat as we saw the sights and soaked up the city.
But alas, all good vacations must come to an end. On Sunday, I parted ways with my parents, heading up to Oxford to set up and settle in. After some brief organization in my room, I meandered from my remote housing building over to the main college. The college is surrounded by the brick walls of the exterior buildings, so one cannot comprehend the amazement of the college's interior without entering through the main gate. The gate itself is a large, dense wooden door, resembling the front of a castle. Upon stepping inside, I was in a dark, arched entryway, again similar to a medieval gate. On the left is the Porter's Lodge, where everyone's "pidgeon holes" are located and from where the porter manages the comings and goings of visitors, faculty, and students. Proceeding ahead, the dark entryway opens up into a quad with a sunken, square, perfectly manicured lawn, bordered on all four sides by a tall, continuous neo-gothic brick building. The building's brick facades are mainly red with many ornate white and black brick patterns. Looking around, my eyes land on the quad's focal point: a brick chapel (cathedral) twice as high as the surrounding building, also elaborately decorated in brick patterns. Upon seeing such a sight on a bright and sunny day, I was completely blown away... and I remain so.
Within the college, I belong to the MCR, or "Middle Common Room," which refers to both a physical room and the entire body of graduate students. Thus, in future posts I may refer to "spending time in the MCR," referring to the room itself, or "attending events hosted by the MCR," referring to the group of people. The physical MCR room is a lounge on an adjoining quad within the college. The central part of the lounge consists of a wooden paneled, wood floored room with mahogany vinyl sofas and a bay window. The room also adjoins with two side rooms which act as game rooms/kitchen. My first event was a Tea and Cakes social which takes place every Sunday at 16:00. Many other freshers were there, so I had the chance to meet many of my Keble compatriots.
I quickly feel that I am going to fit in quite well in this college. The other freshers are very kind and sociable, coming from all over the UK (~60-70%) and the world. Among international students, the most are from Canada and the United States (5-8 freshers each... even one from NC State!), with others coming from Austrailia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Armenia, Slovakia, and elsewhere. Many are in MPLS - Maths, Physics, & Life Sciences - but there are also a lot of people in economics, languages, literature, and other humanities. I should also note here that the MCR consists of a balance of both masters and doctoral students. It's a really a unique and engaging atmosphere to live around.
After Tea & Cakes and a short break, the MCR reconvened for Prosecco before dinner. At any rate, we all enjoyed a glass of Prosecco and headed upstairs to dinner in the Hall. The Hall is a fantastically wonderful dining room. Entering the long room at one end, one is immediately struck by the formality of the room itself. Three long wooden tables with wooden benches stretch the length of the hall. On either side, large oil portraits of grey-haired academics look down from their massive golden frames. Then, one notices that the walls of the Hall are quite tall, stretching perhaps 30 feet high, evolving into an arched ceiling. Even here, the tile ceiling is elaborately decorated, this time with two (or three?) toned floral pattern. Returning one's gaze to eye level, the portraits extend all the way to the end of the Hall, where on the opposite wall, the distinguished portraits have individual lamps illuminating their foreheads. These distinguished figures look down over the head table, apparently reserved for the academic dons who will join us for formal dinner each night beginning next week.
Since that first afternoon, my daily schedule has been somewhat routine. Wake up around 9:00, spend the morning wandering around city center failing to purchase a mobile phone, procure some odds and ends at Boswell's department store, return to Acland (my residence - a remote building for almost all the grad students), pretend to work on organizing my room, and then proceed with dinner time activities. On Monday was MCR port & cheese hour followed by "The Legendary Keble MCR Quiz," in which we divided into teams of six and attempted to answer 61 questions. My claim to fame was correctly counting that only two letters in Scrabble have point values of two - D and G. One question was "In which conflict was the German Luftwaffe first involved following WWII?" A True/False round included the statement, "13 men have landed on the moon," which I believed to be false, but was actually true. It was a fun night of trivia as we continued to meet and interact with each other.
CULTURE CORNER
In this section of the blog, I will provide some extra juicy bits (or should I say extra pulp?) of information that I have discovered about British culture and provide a British vocabulary word-of-the-day.
-Mobile phones. In the UK, phone plans are rather confusing. There are 3 main types: Pay as you go, SIM only, and contract. Pay as you go plans mean you buy a phone and a set package of minutes/text messages/data. If you run out of those before 30 days, you "top up" for usually 10 Pounds (henceforth GBP). In a SIM only plan, you buy a phone and receive a SIM card with a nominal monthly allotment of minutes/texts/data. In a contract plan, you pay a monthly fee and receive a free phone (depending on the phone you want) and a monthly allotment of minutes/texts/data, but you are required to keep the contract for 18 months or 2 years (whereas a SIM only plan is month by month).
In the long run, a contract is cheapest, but evidently you cannot sign a phone contract unless you have British credit history... therefore, I have to make greater than 5 transactions on my spiffy new UK bank account before my first quarterly statement to get a contract plan. Until then, I am debating whether I should obtain a SIM only plan or just hold out with my room's landline phone.
Word of the Day: tariff. n. a contract or payment plan, esp. for a mobile phone. Ex. "My tariff includes 100 minutes, 3,000 text messages, and 250 MB data each month for only 15.50 GBP."
-Weather. While my parents were here, it was sunny and in the 70s-80s F almost every day. The day they left, a breeze came in. Since then, each day has been mostly cloudy and breezy with temps in the 50s. I hear that the overnight lows at the end of the week will be in the mid-high 30s. Hello real British weather.
Pulp aside, getting acclimated to England has been extremely exciting. Over my remaining time in London (through this past Saturday), we had the chance to see so much. Museums... the Churchill War Rooms... Greenwich... Buckingham... Picadilly Circus... They were all amazing testaments to the age and style of British culture. I have to say, my favorite stops were the British Library and the Queen's Theatre for Les Miserables. We had a wonderful time in the beautiful, record-setting heat as we saw the sights and soaked up the city.
But alas, all good vacations must come to an end. On Sunday, I parted ways with my parents, heading up to Oxford to set up and settle in. After some brief organization in my room, I meandered from my remote housing building over to the main college. The college is surrounded by the brick walls of the exterior buildings, so one cannot comprehend the amazement of the college's interior without entering through the main gate. The gate itself is a large, dense wooden door, resembling the front of a castle. Upon stepping inside, I was in a dark, arched entryway, again similar to a medieval gate. On the left is the Porter's Lodge, where everyone's "pidgeon holes" are located and from where the porter manages the comings and goings of visitors, faculty, and students. Proceeding ahead, the dark entryway opens up into a quad with a sunken, square, perfectly manicured lawn, bordered on all four sides by a tall, continuous neo-gothic brick building. The building's brick facades are mainly red with many ornate white and black brick patterns. Looking around, my eyes land on the quad's focal point: a brick chapel (cathedral) twice as high as the surrounding building, also elaborately decorated in brick patterns. Upon seeing such a sight on a bright and sunny day, I was completely blown away... and I remain so.
Within the college, I belong to the MCR, or "Middle Common Room," which refers to both a physical room and the entire body of graduate students. Thus, in future posts I may refer to "spending time in the MCR," referring to the room itself, or "attending events hosted by the MCR," referring to the group of people. The physical MCR room is a lounge on an adjoining quad within the college. The central part of the lounge consists of a wooden paneled, wood floored room with mahogany vinyl sofas and a bay window. The room also adjoins with two side rooms which act as game rooms/kitchen. My first event was a Tea and Cakes social which takes place every Sunday at 16:00. Many other freshers were there, so I had the chance to meet many of my Keble compatriots.
I quickly feel that I am going to fit in quite well in this college. The other freshers are very kind and sociable, coming from all over the UK (~60-70%) and the world. Among international students, the most are from Canada and the United States (5-8 freshers each... even one from NC State!), with others coming from Austrailia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Armenia, Slovakia, and elsewhere. Many are in MPLS - Maths, Physics, & Life Sciences - but there are also a lot of people in economics, languages, literature, and other humanities. I should also note here that the MCR consists of a balance of both masters and doctoral students. It's a really a unique and engaging atmosphere to live around.
After Tea & Cakes and a short break, the MCR reconvened for Prosecco before dinner. At any rate, we all enjoyed a glass of Prosecco and headed upstairs to dinner in the Hall. The Hall is a fantastically wonderful dining room. Entering the long room at one end, one is immediately struck by the formality of the room itself. Three long wooden tables with wooden benches stretch the length of the hall. On either side, large oil portraits of grey-haired academics look down from their massive golden frames. Then, one notices that the walls of the Hall are quite tall, stretching perhaps 30 feet high, evolving into an arched ceiling. Even here, the tile ceiling is elaborately decorated, this time with two (or three?) toned floral pattern. Returning one's gaze to eye level, the portraits extend all the way to the end of the Hall, where on the opposite wall, the distinguished portraits have individual lamps illuminating their foreheads. These distinguished figures look down over the head table, apparently reserved for the academic dons who will join us for formal dinner each night beginning next week.
Since that first afternoon, my daily schedule has been somewhat routine. Wake up around 9:00, spend the morning wandering around city center failing to purchase a mobile phone, procure some odds and ends at Boswell's department store, return to Acland (my residence - a remote building for almost all the grad students), pretend to work on organizing my room, and then proceed with dinner time activities. On Monday was MCR port & cheese hour followed by "The Legendary Keble MCR Quiz," in which we divided into teams of six and attempted to answer 61 questions. My claim to fame was correctly counting that only two letters in Scrabble have point values of two - D and G. One question was "In which conflict was the German Luftwaffe first involved following WWII?" A True/False round included the statement, "13 men have landed on the moon," which I believed to be false, but was actually true. It was a fun night of trivia as we continued to meet and interact with each other.
CULTURE CORNER
In this section of the blog, I will provide some extra juicy bits (or should I say extra pulp?) of information that I have discovered about British culture and provide a British vocabulary word-of-the-day.
-Mobile phones. In the UK, phone plans are rather confusing. There are 3 main types: Pay as you go, SIM only, and contract. Pay as you go plans mean you buy a phone and a set package of minutes/text messages/data. If you run out of those before 30 days, you "top up" for usually 10 Pounds (henceforth GBP). In a SIM only plan, you buy a phone and receive a SIM card with a nominal monthly allotment of minutes/texts/data. In a contract plan, you pay a monthly fee and receive a free phone (depending on the phone you want) and a monthly allotment of minutes/texts/data, but you are required to keep the contract for 18 months or 2 years (whereas a SIM only plan is month by month).
In the long run, a contract is cheapest, but evidently you cannot sign a phone contract unless you have British credit history... therefore, I have to make greater than 5 transactions on my spiffy new UK bank account before my first quarterly statement to get a contract plan. Until then, I am debating whether I should obtain a SIM only plan or just hold out with my room's landline phone.
Word of the Day: tariff. n. a contract or payment plan, esp. for a mobile phone. Ex. "My tariff includes 100 minutes, 3,000 text messages, and 250 MB data each month for only 15.50 GBP."
-Weather. While my parents were here, it was sunny and in the 70s-80s F almost every day. The day they left, a breeze came in. Since then, each day has been mostly cloudy and breezy with temps in the 50s. I hear that the overnight lows at the end of the week will be in the mid-high 30s. Hello real British weather.
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