Merry Christmas, Part II

"No man is a failure who has friends." -It's a Wonderful Life

Another year is behind us. I would have to say that 2011 ended as quick as it started, whatever that is supposed to mean. It has been a truly incredible year, however, so some reflection on the events that have transpired will allow me to look back from the future with fondness upon this time of transition.

January - It's hard to believe a year has passed, but I ushered in 2011 in Epcot at Disney World with my dear friend Kalli. The trip was utterly amazing. We had road tripped from North Carolina to see the Wolfpack beat West VA in the Champs Sports Bowl. Shortly after our return, I was notified of my interview for Oxford, at which my future supervisor recommended that I change my application from Masters to DPhil for funding purposes. The month was not entirely rosy, however, as mom experienced complications following her surgery and prepared to begin chemotherapy.

February - Looking back, February was practically non-existant, but at the time it seemed to crawl. Mom started chemo and started having side effects. In Raleigh, I spent hours upon hours working with the amazing Liz S. to prepare a team to travel to Belize for spring break. I also started spending a good deal of time at the Constructed Facilities Laboratory (CFL) working on Steven's steel bents, Chad's concrete columns, and my own (sort of..) pipe buckling models. I also learned that I was officially accepted to Oxford! Woo!

March - At last, spring break arrived! Liz, Dr. Jones, and I traveled with 14 other NC State students to Belize. With the exception of one hitch, the trip was essentially perfect. We had a fantastic time meeting the contractor, our hosts from TCGA, and of course the wonderful Bol family (in whose hotel we resided). The climate and weather were beautiful, we bonded as a team, and we completed an important project for the families of Silver Creek. We even got in some snorkeling, spelunking, swimming, and hiking. For most people, returning to the US was rather unexciting, but when I turned on my smartphone on the Newark Int'l Airport tarmac, I found out that I had been offered full funding to Oxford through the Clarendon Scholarship. My group flipped out and I was giddy going through customs. Believe it or not, the next week I took a beach trip to Corolla, NC with the Franklin Scholars, as my final spring retreat. It was a great trip, but hard to imagine it would barely make the excitement list for March!

April - By now, things were beginning to wrap up for the year. I had my last concert with the Raleigh Civic Symphony. My parents came down from Herndon even though mom was struggling mightily with chemo. Director Dr. Foy did recognize me for my five years of service to the orchestra, saying that I would be missed greatly. Honestly, I miss the orchestra quite a lot as well. As the year drew to a close, final banquets also took place - I gave my long awaited words of wisdom to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, playing the NCSU and Meredith Alma Maters on my cello for the first time. The next day - the day of the British Royal Wedding - I hosted my last event as President of the Franklins, the Spring Feast & Banter cookout. Oh yeah, and I ran a 10k. That was fun.

May - At the beginning of the month, I was still working hard at CFL while wrapping up things on campus. The Franklin Scholars hosted the annual senior awards reception, at which I received my Franklin key and the elusive Porter award. I was extremely happy to have my friends Tyler and Rachael there as guests, since they were such an important part of my life at NC State. In addition to the Franklin reception, I also went to the Caldwell senior send-off, where I was recognized along with the class of 2011 for graduating! That brings me to... GRADUATION! My parents and aunt came into Raleigh for the weekend of festivities, including two graduation ceremonies and an excellent brunch by the aforementioned Tyler and Rachael. I left everything in Raleigh and headed on a ten day Hawaii vacation with my parents, visiting the Big Island, Kauai, and Oahu. Aside from the scenery, beaches, canyons, volcanoes, food, and Pearl Harbor, the wildlife was the most amazing thing I saw. When I returned home, I stripped my room, repainted, and ordered new carpeting!

June - Mom's final chemo treatment was on my birthday, a truly great gift! After a week at home visiting with friends, I headed back to Raleigh to take up full time work at CFL. Outdoor work was hot, but computer modeling was monotonous. Thankfully, I was able to break it up by taking a long weekend to New York City with the aforementioned Tyler and Rachael, along with another good Franklin friend, Zack. We saw Billy Elliot the musical, ate in Chinatown and Little Italy, visited Ground Zero and Battery Park, walked Times Square numerous times, went up Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler building, ate lunch in Central Park, checked out the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of History, and went to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I even ate some food cart gyros... and paid for it the next day.

July - For July fourth, I was fortunate to have the whole gang up from Raleigh to visit Herndon. Naturally, they included the aforementioned Tyler and Rachael, the aforementioned Zack, and also the aforementioned Kalli! We went to Harpers Ferry on a ridiculously hot day and attempted to go see the Capitol Fourth concert in DC the next day, but that ended up being (massively) rained out. On the fourth itself, however, we joined in the annual block party festivities, as mom and dad contributed some eight dishes including gluten free options for Kalli. It was massive. As July continued, I wrapped up a project for our partners in Belize which involved transferring twelve pages of hand sketches to AutoCAD, a computer drafting software. Work at CFL continued as usual while my roommate, Chris, and I packed up the apartment. At the end of the month, we said our goodbyes and parted ways.

August - Finally moved home, I procrastinated on packing for England to spend time reading and visiting with friends. I worked around the house a bit, but mostly just enjoyed my time. I also moved most of my stuff back into my bedroom, nearly finishing the process that began in May. I also took two weeks to travel to New England with mom. It was wonderful seeing my grandparents, the aforementioned Aunt Carolyn, and my Uncle David. Hiking Mount Katahdin and Pemetic Mountain was were among the best highlights of the summer. I also enjoyed seeing the Red Sox's last good baseball game of the year (against the Yankees) and spending 2 days in the dark as Hurricane Irene blew through. Sadly, I missed the great DC earthquake, but dad (and the entire Herndon/Raleigh facebook community) kept me informed.

September - At last, packing ensued in full force. Final preparations completed, mom, dad, and I boarded a plane on 23 Sep for a week and a half in London. The sightseeing was incredible, as noted in an earlier blog post. Looking back, I think my favorite places were the British Library and the London Eye, and my favorite activity was seeing Les Miserables. It was yet another incredible week, leading up to....

October - Oxford! The last three months have really been a blur, but I will nonetheless endeavor to discriminate between them. October was challenging for me from an academic standpoint. The research was slow, and I had trouble finding value in my work. Thankfully, it was outside the lab that made October great. I picked up ballroom dancing, and totally had a great time with it. I met several new friends, in particular a girl from Poland, named Ania, and my eventual dance partner, Jenna. I was also introduced to the British language (to which I particularly owe thanks to my 'coaches' Ellie and Radhika), tea and biscuit culture (cheers to Dave, Sarah, and Rebecca), and bop culture (thanks Sam, Frank, Abe, and Shaun).

November - November was a really interesting month. I finally started to mesh with those in the lab, even though I know that I'm the only one working in my topic. In particular, I've become good friends with a New Zealander, Chris, and a French girl, Christelle. Chris and I are thinking of building a model railroad around the lab, but we'll have to invoke eminent domain to make it work. Outside the lab, Jenna and I danced in our first two competitions with great success! Competitions are a lot of fun, and I easily see myself becoming addicted to ballroom. Sigh... oh well. I also had the benefit of having the aforementioned Kalli come to visit all the way from Cincinnati. On her birthday, we went into London, had some gluten free fish & chips, rode the London Eye, and walked all over the place. We also went to Paris for three days and had a wonderful time. Indeed, the theme of her trip might have been photography because we now have over 1000 decent pictures to show. She enjoyed meeting the Keebleites, especially a fellow Wolfpacker, Glenn.

December - Even into this final month, the weather in Oxford has been wonderful. I anticipated unending rain, but in truth, the skies have been mostly clear during the day, only changing to drizzle at night. Undergrads left after the first week of the month and Oxford has since become quieter and quieter. Ice skating and squash with Kebleites contributed to a quiet lifestyle for me, bringing on a few pesky injuries. Such is life. Thankfully, there have not really been any activities to miss out on, so I have spent plenty of time in the lab chugging away on models. In six short hours, I leave Oxford, bound for the US. I'm really excited to be home, visiting the aforementioned parents and spending Christmas relaxing. On the 27th, I'll be heading to Raleigh to visit the aforementioned Tyler and Rachael, the aforementioned Kalli, and whoever else is available to catch up.

Now, surely, you can see that I've had a remarkably unique and unbelievable year. While the many journeys have been incredible, hopefully you can also see that none of this would be possible without my family and friends. To those of you reading, thank you for the profound influence you have had on my life! Keep in touch and see you in 2012!

Merry Christmas, Part I

And a Happy New Year. But that's all.

Christmas. I know I've discussed it a lot over the past month, but I've had a somewhat surprising realization and a confirmation of my thoughts. I was in the kitchen last week talking with a Jewish girl from California, who is taking a year long study abroad from Johns Hopkins. We were broadly discussing religion in England and I was commenting how being a Christian in England feels much different than being a Christian in the United States. It was then that I realized that a particular phrase has been completely absent from my day-to-day life this winter:

Happy Holidays.

To me, as an American, it's hardly Christmas without having to interpret "Happy Holidays" to suit my personal tastes. Where did it go? England isn't so different than the US. How could it then be that English pop culture seems to only celebrate Christmas? What about Hanukkah (which started last night, by the way), Kwanza, etc etc?

I asked the girl about what it was like to be Jewish in England and the response was really interesting. I'll skip the details here, erring to confidentiality, but after comparing experiences, we came to the conclusion that it is generally harder to be openly religious here than in the US. Sure, there's a spattering of churches and presumably a reasonably sized population of people practicing many different faiths, but when religion arises as a topic of conversation among friends, it is almost exclusively from an objective academic or historical context. One could say that discourse observes religion under a microscope, from the outside looking in, as a scientist or social researcher would do; never from a (subjective) personal standpoint, where much of the value of religion lies.

Consequently, what happens at this time of year for a culture seemingly lacking openly religious people? All that remains is a secular holiday called Christmas. To some extent, "Merry Christmas" is like "Happy Holidays" in England. If you happen to be a Christian, then it's convenient that the secular holiday is the same, but if you practice another faith, then you extract what little meaning you can from the phrase and move on.

I'm not sure where the best answer lies in this complicated question: is it better to have a culture in which everyone whines and complains if their beliefs are not represented adequately, or rather a culture in which one faith's greeting has been chewed up in a secular forum and regurgitated as a generic holiday greeting? It's merely complicated by the fact that Christmas itself was originally a pagan holiday to celebrate the lengthening of days and the coming of spring, only to be adopted later by Christians as their second most important day of the liturgical year.


 Who knows, but I do know my laundry is done and I need to pack so I can fly home for Christmas tomorrow. Look for a second, less philosophical blog later today as I recap a year of incredible experiences, new friendships, and unbelievable moments.