Brought to you by the letter haitch

Well now, what a physically/mentally/emotionally challenging week and a half it has been!

Here's a road map for this blog post: challenging times, dance competition, snow, Super Bowl Sunday, research update, preparations for Kayla, culture corner, words of the day

First, as most of you already know, my grandfather passed away last Thursday, 2 Feb. I learned the news right after finishing a seminar about a modeling software and only shortly before heading to dance rehearsal. I was glad to talk to my parents via Skype about the situation, but I must have been visibly shaken since my (amazing) dance partner took one look at me as I walked into rehearsal and immediately knew something wasn't right. Anyway, without going into details, she was very good about listening to me talk it out and we ended up having a great practice... well... except when our coach singled us out for being a bit too intense on the floor, haha! Who knew you could over-dance? Anyway, still working on turning it back a bit...

On Saturday, Jenna and I dedicated our dancing at the Sheffield competition to grandpa's memory. I wrote "CEC 1928-2012" on the reverse side of our competition number, which, ironically, I just realized was 28. Unfortunately, that was one of the few real positives of the day. We had fun and we danced fairly well, but we never really got into a groove in ballroom. Furthermore, the Oxford team was missing some of its best competitors and the judges seemed to be fairly obviously biased towards the other schools. The team's best finish was 4th; Jenna and my best finish was 6th in Jive, unless you count the "Open Rock 'n' Roll" competition, at which we just goofed around (yay shag dance/swing mix?) and earned 5th out of 7.

When the competition ended, there was most of an inch of snow on the ground in Sheffield. We left at 8:30 pm but it was too late. What should have been a three hour ride turned into a near-six hour ride. Groggily, we rolled into Oxford at 2 am, tired, disappointed, and ready for sleep.

Super bowl Sunday rolled around early! I had agreed to host a super bowl party in the style of the MCR food nights I've been hosting, which meant that my alarm went off at 10 am so I could start pulling together recipes. My faithful dance partner - while not a Keble member - had expressed interest in helping to cook, so she joined me just after noon to go shopping. As usual, she was amazing, since I did not end up having any other help all afternoon. Jenna and I cooked from 2:45 to 8:30 straight, but finished right on schedule. The menu for 30? Guacamole, Tyler & Rachael's "Dip-dip," bruschettas, baked macaroni 'n' cheese, hand fried garlic buffalo wings, puppy chow (i.e. muddy buddy chex mix), sugar cookies (w/ blue frosting), and Jenna's own gloriously rich peanut butter-chocolate ganache cupcakes. Yeah, it was a lot of cooking, but everyone loved it! It was a massive success, aside from the fact that I stayed up until 3:30 am watching the Patriots screw up :-P Oh well.

Now a research update! On Friday of last week, I took a field trip to the Nuffield Orthopedic Center (NOC), where they have a gait lab. I observed an undergraduate lab, which exhibited the fancy equipment used to model a person's stride. Force plates, infrared motion cameras, cool reflective balls like in the movies... they had it all. Not only did I really find it interesting, but the professor was keen on helping me with my research. Since then, I have been reading medical journals to learn more about ground reaction forces, lateral displacement and forces, and footstep synchronization. Some time near the end of term, I will hopefully meet with my two advisers and the two NOC professors and hash out a more distinct research plan. Yay multidisciplinary studies!

So moving forward, I have yet another busy week ahead! For the second term in a row, I have the excitement of playing host for a friend from NC State. My friend Kayla, from the NCSU Caldwell Fellows, has been teaching English in Lyon, France this year. Currently, she's on holiday, so she will be spending a week in Oxford, starting tomorrow, before spending a week in Bath. I'm particularly excited for Monday, when we'll be heading into London for some sightseeing and Les Miserables!!

Of course, she's coming in tomorrow night, but it's currently snowing here in Oxford. Hopefully enough time will pass that planes/trains/buses aren't delayed!

CULTURE CORNER
The letter H. Pronounced "haitch," it is the 8th letter of the alphabet. It is used in words like hour (pronounced "how-er"), honest (han-est), and - my favorite - herbal (her-bal). Basically, there is no silent 'h' in British English. Why not? Who knows.

I think I'll also add here that they don't use the letter 'Z' (Pronounced "zee") but instead, they use the letter "Z" (Pronounced "zed"). Thus, the spelling of "hazy" would be said, haitch-a-zed-why.

Why? I don't know. He's on third and we're not talking about him.

On another cultural note, the British don't know about graham crackers! (unrelated: the name would be pronounced, gray-ham). While digestive biscuits are delicious, I understand that they provide the critical foundation for British s'mores. What a travesty!! I must bring gray-ham crackers back to England from the US in June...

Words of the Day
Flapjack. n. A chewy bar-like food consisting of rolled oats and a sweet, sticky glue-like liquid such as honey. It does not usually contain raisins, sultanas, chocolate, or other adulterations. syn. granola bar (which they don't have here).

Braces. n. An elastic cloth band that stretches from the front of one's trousers, over the shoulders, and attaches to the back of the same trousers. syn. suspenders (US)

Suspenders. n. A button that holds up a woman's stockings. syn. garter (US)

Railroad tracks. n. 1. A pair of parallel steel bars upon which a railroad train travels. 2. A system of mounts and wires used by an orthodontist to straighten a patient's teeth. syn. braces (US)