It seems, at last, that our intrepid hero is back in action after crossing desert of February blog posts. Perhaps this post should have come a couple weeks ago, but alas it has taken me until today, Monday of 10th week in Hilary Term ('full term' ended 2 Fridays ago) to get my feet under me again.
Case study #1: I am seeing the rich matte black surface of my bedroom desk for the first time since November.
Case study #2: Not only did I make a raspberry-apple crumble, but I concocted my first homemade Thai Curry last night. I may have previously set a record for most consecutive days eating a sandwich while my calendar placed a strangling choke-hold on my desire to cook things.
Case study #3: On Saturday, I awoke at 10 am. I haven't slept that late on a Saturday since at least December.
Watch out world. The intrepid hero is back.
This is the point when I struggle whether or not to talk about my conference trip to California. Technically speaking, this is an international travel blog where I describe cultural observations and conclusions. Technically speaking, California was 'home.' But technically speaking, I've lived in the UK for 18 months now, and that's not even going into the fact that the California lifestyle is otherworldly compared to the East Coast. So ok. Some words about this boulevard of broken dreams...
The conference trip was broken into three sections. In the first section, I had the distinct pleasure of being invited into the home of my beginners dance partner, Jenna. She and her family practically laid out the red carpet for me, taking me around Hollywood, showing me UCLA, going to the Getty Museum and the Space Shuttle Endeavor, and taking me to a great family dinner. I had a great time catching up with her and her family! I also had the pleasure of meeting Jenna's best friend, Aisha, her now-fiancee, Joseph, and of course the one and only white-paper-consuming oft imitated but never duplicated 80ish pound fluff ball golden retriever, Brinkley. Like a real-life over-sized teddy bear, "Brinks" chose to keep me company each night in case I got scared of the dark or the monsters. I approved.
Of course the best part of trip-part-one was the inevitable day we spent in Disneyland. With weather on the cool side of gorgeous (aka, just "gorgeous"), we frolicked around the park like kids. Did you know that Disneyland - while having a miniscule castle - has both a Ghiradelli ice cream shop and a Boudin Sourdough Bakery? Disney for the win! Needless to say, the day flew by and all too soon Jenna was dropping me off at my hotel for the conference.
Instead of talking about the conference itself (don't worry, it was faaaantastic), I choose this space to highlight a bit of culture shock I received. The roads are SO wide. It should never take you more than 10 seconds to cross a street. In Anaheim, the streets are so wide one could order dodgy take out before crossing the six-plus lanes of traffic. Madness. Also, everything is lavish. I'm not talking about old-world lavishness. I'm talking about bam!-in-your-21st-century-face lavishness. The sidewalks are perfect. The buildings are perfect. The sky is perfect. People are always cheerful. Everything from the massive amounts of food to the giant cars practically glows, drawing you in like a hypnotized moth to a flame. When you walk the mile from the conference to Disneyland (yes, I did), you pass maybe 10-20 buildings. In Oxford, you walk 20 paces and pass 10 buildings.
By the way, before you ever skip the last afternoon of a conference in favor of heading to Disneyland by yourself, make sure it's not Valentines Day. The 'Single Rider Line' takes an entirely new meaning.
In part three of my homeward-bound adventure, I crammed the maximum amount of fun into two days as I think is even possible. After a red eye flight from CA, Rachael picked me up in Raleigh and took me straight to meet with Dr. Bassett, Director of NC State's Franklin Scholars Program. We had a lovely chat over homemade tea and scones. From there, I walked to campus to meet V-C Dr. Luckadoo over a great lunch at Mitch's Tavern on Hillsborough. Sweet tea never tasted so good, and the conversation was even better. After admiring the ongoing campus construction, I wandered to Civil Engineering and Music, where I bumped into a couple professors, who I was happy to exchange stories with. Finally, Tyler picked me up and took me to their house via Food Lion (a fine institution, to be sure). When Rachael and my parents arrived within the half hour, we were quickly out the door again to dinner... at Bida Manda! And what's Bida Manda? A Laotian restaurant opened by a friend last August. The restaurant has had rave reviews, and we stand in line to agree! Vansana, the owner/friend, even brought out a couple desserts on the house. If you find yourself in Raleigh, GO!
Well, the next day was more of the same. Awoke early for a full day of Caldwell interviews, followed by enough home-smoked BBQ from Tyler to sink a couple of mean battleships. Then met up with a close civil engineering/Caldwell friend, Christine, to finish off the evening at the Caldwell Gala. Next day: snow on the ground... driving five hours... quick trip to Dianne's (from PBC... the lives in the neighborhood now!!) and caught up with Tony, Matt, Christina, and Mike over dinner at the Aiellos. Whew, quick, go catch another red eye plane and get back to work!
So that was the start of the marathon. I spent the next week practicing with reckless abandon with my new dance partner, Denny (side note, in the second week back, we practiced constantly with more grace than reckless abandon!). Denny is a lovely dance partner and friend, hailing from Bulgaria originally but having lived the last half of her life in Vancouver. Anyway, there we were with 10 days to learn and solidify five routines before the biggest competition of the year, Blackpool. And did we ever! Thanks to the rigorous 20-hour dance schedule (yeah... if you haven't figured out yet, DPhil is short for DancePhil), we were good to go. Results: 8th place out of 150 couples in Novice ballroom (Waltz+Quickstep), and a cool 50th out of 88 in the always challenging Intermediate latin (Cha+Rumba+Jive). I was quite pleased with the performance, and I daresay our hard work and great results turned a some heads on the team as well. Who knows what the future holds, but I've got my fingers crossed for a solid year dancing with Denny next year!
In the midst of all this reckless abandonment, I also carried on with MCR activities. We held an outstanding bop in the weekend between my return to Oxford and the competition in Blackpool, in addition to hosting a fantastic black tie dinner. Having emerged from dance-mania, I reverted into a culture of fine dining, having a dancesport formal on Tuesday, High Table dinner in Keble Hall on Wednesday, and a delicious "guest night" dinner (When Hall puts extra effort in and encourages everyone to bring a guest. Shameless advertising...) on Thursday. There's no shortage of nice food around Oxford!
May I also take a moment to mention that I have become acquainted with risotto for the first time this term. On several occasions, I've had the chance to dowse my taste buds in the creamy textures of several risotto varieties. I have yet to make it myself, but wow, risotto is SO good! The ham, pepper, and feta was my first, but it was easily matched by a savory mushroom risotto. I must learn how to prepare these foods!
But speaking of nice food - and coming full circle - yesterday marked the beginning of my curry career. I made this green Thai chicken curry (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/thaigreenchickencurr_92440) which I highly recommend. The key to this dish is the curry paste. Go 2 Tbsp for the full effect (early heat abating into creamy texture) or a bit lighter if you and spice don't get along. In fact, BBC Good Food tends to have great recipes, so you can hardly go wrong by looking around the above website. I made a great raspberry-apple crumble, accompanied by my first ever creme-anglaise. It was the first time I've bought a vanilla pod, but I enjoyed every moment of it :-)
Well, as I ease into the long Easter holiday (bit of bowling Saturday... bit of a snowy walk in Port Meadow yesterday), I should be able to get back into the regular routine of writing. But for now, that's all folks!
CULTURE CORNER
Words of the Day:
Innovative - pronounced: In - nov (as in novel) - at - if.... as opposed to the American pronunciation: In-no-vate-if. adj. Cutting-edge, to be on the forefront of discovery.
Controversy - pronounced: Cont - rov (like in robin) - er - see.... as opposed to the American pronunciation: Cont - row - vur - see. n. The argumentative discussion resulting from a situation, event, object, or person that is seen with varying levels of objection.
Epoch - pronounced: e - pok .... as opposed to the American pronunciation: ep-ik. n. A referenced period of history.