We interrupt your regularly scheduled Swiss anecdotes for this important update:
Michaelmas Term 2012 has begun in earnest.
Yes, I wrote half of a blog about the amazing character of the Alps, but its conclusion was swiftly swept aside in favor of taking care of business. Shockingly, preparing and initiating the new school year has taken all of my time in the last... 2.. 3 weeks? I have even lost count.
Of course the important bit in all this is the fact that I had my long awaited Transfer of Status presentation and viva on Monday. I summarized my work to an audience of maybe 30 lab partners, professors, and miscellaneous individuals before being grilled by a pair of wary academics for an hour. Thankfully, it all went according to plan; the presentation was a snap (I even finished exactly at the 15 minute mark!) and my viva voce constituted of approximately 80% answerable questions and 20% questions that I needed help/prompting from my supervisor on. Believe it or not, I considered it quite a success. So the next step? Moving on to experimentation! Oh wait... first I have to submit my paper for the conference in February. So much to do!
On top of the Transfer, my Presidential duties have been unceasing! After seven straight nights of meet-a-greeters ("Hi, I'm Dan... where are you from?...what do you do?... Brilliant."), we opened the year with an exciting welcome dinner (oy, remarks to 170 in the massive yet oppressively lit Keble Hall. Intimidated much?) before a full week of activities. It has been a lot of fun to meet the new freshers while re-living some of the memories from my own freshers week last year. The "Legendary Keble MCR Pub Quiz" was, in a word, legendary, and the myriad social events have literally kept me on my feet all week long. Personally, I have been a bit taken aback in a good way by the logistical cost of putting on such a packed week, helping a fellow Caldwell Fellow move in to her new Oxford college, attending Keble's Governing Body meeting, working with the committee, helping freshers get settled, remaining organized (hellooooo email!), and....
"Oh, main team dance trials are 13 Oct? I have to be able to dance the big four (waltz, quickstep, cha, and jive) socially so that I can try out with different partners? Well then."
... and getting some practice and lessons in before next Saturday's trials. Yesterday morning I went to my first practice hall of term. It was fantastic to see (and dance with) most of the old crew again, though naturally it really felt like people were missing. I was impressed with how well everyone seemed to be dancing after a long break, and how - challenging though it was - I was able to pull back my Blackpool (Nationals) routines, the last set of moves Jenna and I more-or-less shared with the full beginners team.
So here we go with lap two. How will the perspective of a whole year change the second time around? How will my cultural, linguistic, social, and academic perceptions be altered through the lens of leadership and the self-induced intensity of the coming year's commitments? I have to admit, I loved making my second trip out to stunning Blenheim Palace yesterday; I seemed to see a lot more (and the weather was incredible... and the scone unparalleled), but it was also interesting to be there as a guide to others. Will my experiences this year thus all be in the context of leadership, or will I find the opportunity to separate myself from my responsibilities in order to examine my contextual relationship to this ever-unique Oxford environment? We'll see :-)
Time to gear up for a fun year, and (sorry guys) leave the summer behind. Here comes a roller coaster!
PS... I'll do my best to finish the blog about the Alps, in due time!
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