Tear Gas & Incents

(Well, the tear gas was more of our imagination lol)

Week Eight: Roma, Italia

October 15^th – 20^th, 2011

So I guess the two coins tossed with the right hand over the left shoulder really worked! I’m back in Rome! We conducted a quick round of Politics and the Arts classes on the train ride from Florence, and then we did a short walking tour to the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon. We attempted to go to the Coliseum, but October 15^th was “Occupy” day around the world, so protestors marched from the Piazza della Repubblica near our hotel down to the Coliseum, where the demonstration turned violent. Carabinieri (polizia) had lined the streets and were prepared for crowd control. Our tour dead-ended as a Carabinieri blockade were preparing to send in what looked like a swat team to squelch the uprisings of hooligans lighting cars on fire. A few of us attempted to go through the blockade, and some succeeded, but there was no real reason haha we were just having fun testing the limits of the Carabinieri. We walked back towards della Repubblica to see some of the parade of political parties rallying against Berlusconi, even though apparently none of them had a solidified leader or plan in alternative to the current Italian government.

That evening I went to a little restaurant recommended by the people selling tickets for an opera recital, and it was this great Italian kitchen with many small rooms of tables, and everyone in each room talking to each other regardless of the table. The room I was in was watching the news (in Italian of course) and discussing the result of the rallies & riots still smoking just a few kilometers away. Then I attended an opera recital at La Chiesa di San Paolo Entro le Mura (St. Paul within the Walls Church), which was the same one the Texas Youth Orchestra had performed in just five years prior. The acoustics were incredible, and it was a real treat to be in the audience this time. The opera singers were even performing a few of the same songs and composers that we had done as well!

On the morning of October 16^th, Dr. Brint led us on another walking tour of the city down towards the Jewish and Medieval neighborhoods. Along the way we say the remains of cars, post offices, and banks destroyed in the riots the night before. There was plenty of fresh graffiti, too! One bank, the National Bank on Via Nazionale, went untouched. The Caribinieri actually guarded that more than the Prime Minister’s palace a kilometer away. I put a round of post-cards in one of the destroyed post offices just for laughs, so if you get a postcard from Italy, the riots did not completely dismantle the Roman infrastructure. On our way back from the Medieval neighborhood, we walked behind a crowd of people in the Latin Quarter marching with a whole bunch of incents filling the air. Maybe celebrating a saint or something like that? Rome is the Catholic capital of the world I suppose. Maryalice and Jordan later joined me for lunch in the Jewish quarter, which was actually a Roman-Jewish ghetto in World War II. History Un-Fun Fact of the Day: on this day in 1943, 68 years ago, the Nazis began deporting Jews from this Ghetto to Auschwitz.

On a lighter note, we experienced our first five-hour Italian dinner today! We missed our reservation, so we ended up waiting two hours for a table to fit all twelve of us. They gave us free drinks while we waited, no service charge, and a free round of appetizers. We didn’t deserve all of that, but I think they knew we would be a huge tab that they did not want going to another restaurant. I ordered the Antipasto Barberini, which was like a hodgepodge of crazy Italian appetizers – definitely some different foods and seasonings than I’m used to, but still delicious.

The next day was a homework/class day, so it wasn’t too eventful. I wandered around the Jewish quarter (about 3 km away from the hotel) and found some pumpkin seeds, but much of the other shops were closed already by the time I got there. I was able to schedule an appointment to play some violas for the next day, though! On my way out of the neighborhood, I was approached by an Orthodox Jew and his son, who asked if I spoke Hebrew. Unfortunately I do not, but I tried to help them in English. They were trying to get directions for some place, but I could not understand where. When I pulled out my iPad to look it up, they said ‘no thanks’ and went on their way. I guess it must still be part of the season of High Holy days. Maryalice, Kirsten, Caroline and I had girls’ night that evening, which meant dinner and then walking to the Trevi Fountain since most of the tourists would be gone by then.

My final project for the Cityscapes class is to create a cityscape of the Jewish Diaspora using the cities we have visited this semester thus far, so I went back, one more time, to the Jewish quarter with Beth and Mira. We walked around some of the ruins and surrounding neighborhoods, and then ate some traditional Middle Eastern food like falafel, shawarma, schnitzel, and Bamba. I can’t believe they actually had Bamba! It’s like peanut butter-flavored cheeto puffs. I had a chance to use some of the very little Hebrew that I remember (basically only Shalom and toda raba haha). It’s always exciting to see their eyes light up to hear someone else speak Hebrew and not Italian or English. Then later that afternoon, after Beth and Mira had left, I met a lady at a bakery who spoke Italian, French, Spanish, and Hebrew, so spoke to her in Spanish…naturally…in the Jewish quarter of Rome haha. It was quite an interesting conversation because my Spanish has been completely skewed and diluted after being immersed 5+ different linguistic cultures between last spring and now. Later I made my way back to the violin shop, Claude Lebet Liutaino, for a little fun. The first viola was approximately 5.000€ and a bit twangy. Good sound, but it doesn’t have the heart of a strong viola. The second was a 1952 Vittorio Bellarosa for about 9.000€, and it sounded fantastic. It resonated the way a viola should and practically played itself (I was using one of Mr. Lebet’s own bows). The third and final viola was a 1770 Petras Johannes Mantegatia restored in 1962 for 12.000€. It was surely the oldest viola I have ever played (older than the United States!), but the sound was not as full. If I decided to upgrade my viola over the next few years/when I get a job, I would have to compare the Bellarosa to Lapo Vettori’s custom viola. The price difference certainly helps, though. While I was practicing, Mr. Lebet brought his entire staff out of the shop downstairs to see my iPad on the music stand with all my music digitally available. How cool it is to be part of presenting the new generation of gig technology to Europe! One of the apprentices talked to me for a while explaining what to look for when buying antique instruments, and then Mr. Lebet told me about his home in France and how he was nervous about giving a lecture in the next couple of days. They were all so nice and just opened up their lives to me. That evening our group went out to dinner with Lacie, a friend from CLU, and her roommate who are studying abroad in Rome. I had the squid and shrimp :) see photo below haha. We then got gelato at the Trevi Fountain and went to the Scholars Pub. It was the weirdest thing – American music in an Irish pub in Italy. The only European thing about it was the soccer matches plastered on TVs all over the room and everyone’s eyes glued to one of them. It was a fun night, nonetheless lol.

On our last full day of Rome, October 19^th, we visited Vatican City’s museum and Sistine Chapel. Not much to say other than we walked a little more than 9 kilometers round trip…yikes. Who needs a car or bike? The final day began with massive thunderstorms, but luckily they subsided by the time we boarded to coaches to go to Citavecchia to leave for a Mediterranean cruise on the Celebrity Equinox.

Rome was not as magnificent as I had remembered, probably because on my last visit to Rome, it was the first overseas city I had ever been to, and we were busy with rehearsals and performances. Rome is just like every other major city, except thousands of years of ruins coexist with present-day architecture. In our Politics and the Arts class, Dr. Brint introduced us to the Freudian comparison between Rome’s architectural anachronisms and the dual consciousness of the human mind. How right they were. 

Ciao Bella!

Week Seven: Firenze (Florence), Italia

October 11^th – 15^th, 2011

Before I begin describing the beauty of Italy, I must close the door on Paris – we left off with two days remaining. Among other things, these two days were important because the Lutheran Society (aka the CLU Oxford Program students + Dr. Brint) had a progressive dinner on the 9^th, and I experienced my first real train ride the 10^th-11^th . For the progressive dinner, we had appetizers at the other girls’ apartments on one island, the main meal of Risotto at the boys’ apartment on the other island, and dessert at our apartment on the main land. We finished with tea and coffee overlooking the city on our penthouse terrace. Too surreal. All the food was delicious, and the company was fantastic. This was one of my most memorable evenings of the trip. The next day I was prepared to lug my luggage around the Paris metro, up and down all the stairs and trying to get on the crowded coaches without getting stuck in the doors again. When we finally get on the train, I felt like I was on a combination of the Polar Express and the Hogwarts Express. Each tiny cabin of the coach had three beds, one stacked on top of the other, and a mini sink. It’s amazing how we all fit. Props to the engineers for that one. We rode for twelve hours overnight through the rest of France, then Switzerland and Italy. Just the shadows of the Swiss Alps in the dead of night were enormous.

Group picture after the progressive dinner on our rooftop terrace

“Finche c’e vita, c’e speransa” (Where there is life, there is hope)

That is my favorite Italian saying. I don’t remember where I found it though. Firenze is a beautiful Tuscan town stuck between a city and a suburb and nestled in a valley. Our hotel, the Grand Minerva, was on the eastern edge of the city near the train station, and we could see for miles from our rooftop terrace including beautiful views of Il Duomo and the city center. We arrived before the mist could be dissipated by the sun, so early that our rooms were not ready yet, which means the hotel upgraded us to apartment suites that were two stories each! The staff was great. Very accommodating. After getting settled, Dr. Brint took us on a brief walking tour of the city. Memories from the Texas Youth Orchestra’s 2006 Italy and Austria tour came flooding back, especially after passing the Uffizi, the piazza where we had performed with 500+ audience members, and the Pont Vecchio. The river is much lower than I remembered from five years ago. It was so disappointing that I wished I could have shown everyone the pictures I had taken to compare the two.

Well, my time in Florence was probably not as exciting as other experiences according to people other than myself haha, but it was surely a time of reflection. I spent most of my time wandering around the city by just picking a direction and walking, checking a map every now and then so I was never really lost. I’ve developed the pattern of finding the Jewish neighborhood, violin shops, and original artwork in each city I’ve traveled to, so walking around doing just that and soaking up the atmosphere consumed most of my time. Unfortunately, when I went to the Jewish neighborhood, it was on one of the High Holy Days (still haha), so the synagogue, museum, and kosher cafés were all closed to visitors. Since it took me about 45 minutes to walk there, I ended up just wandering around the piazza saying hi to all the families I had passed because they were just leaving the synagogue. Their thick Hebrew-Italian accent reminded me of being in a little colony of Tel Aviv, even though I know that this neighborhood was here much longer. Or not.

Tempio Maggiore Israelitico

Anyways, a few blocks away from the synagogue was one of the luthiers I had researched! The Vittori Family violin shop has been around for over 75 years. When I approached the shop, I could see silhouettes of violins through a pale curtain, and there was a little post-it note in English that said “Musicians ring doorbell à to play instruments.” Perfecto! So I rang the bell, and Signore Paolo Vittori himself answered the door. His wife was in the background packing up a suitcase for an exhibition in Singapore, and Signore Paolo called for his son, Lapo, to come tell me about his violas. Meanwhile, Paolo pulled one of his own violas out of a glass cabinet that he had created in 2001 for me to practice on. Incredible sound. I was afraid the instruments I found in Italy would be light and dainty like traditional baroque music, but this was very full and rich, and well, it was a viola haha. Then Lapo gave me a tour of their little workshop and showed me some of the violas he is working on. One is for a client in Tokyo, and another for Chicago. Every viola is custom-made, and Lapo stays in touch with his clients via e-mail do determine the style of the viola and staining of the wood. For €14.000 (Lapo’s) or €16.000 (Paolo’s), they would customize a viola for me to try out if I come back next October. They said if I don’t like it, I don’t have to buy it. I would of course bring my own viola from home to compare the two. Hmmm who knows! Maybe if I sell my car and get a full ride to graduate school haha…

The hotel had also directed me to a music shop that had violins, so I went ahead and checked them out as well. It was very commercialized. The violins had cheap wood and they were really shiny…like what we played in junior high. The most expensive one they gave me was about €400. I played a few notes and handed it back. The guy was very nice, but he didn’t speak much English, so we had to use a translator (aka another customer). He basically said that for five years they had a 1986 viola in the shop, but that they gave it back to the original owner in May 2010 because it never sold.  He called up the owner (who couldn’t play anymore because of problems with his fingers) and had it delivered via vespa the next morning! I begged the guy translating that I didn’t want to cause any trouble, especially because I am not planning to buy for several more years. So I went back the next day, and all the workers at the shop gave me the nod of recognition. The guy who had helped me so much helped everyone at the counter, and then he revealed the viola he had been saving. It didn’t feel 25 years old, but the strings were really old. The bow had the most damage though – only half the hair was still intact, and the rest of the hair was turning brown. He gave me a brand new bow to practice with, but he stressed that if I bought the instrument (for about €2.800), he would re-hair the bow and include it in the original price. I hardly even used the new bow – the old bow matched the viola so well that to perform with anything else would be cheating. The viola had a lot of sound, but I had a hard time keeping a consistent tone. I’m sure with new strings and hair the instrument would have sounded much better.

When I went on my original art hunt, I was afraid the only thing I would find is mass-produced watercolor prints. So, when I stumbled upon someone painting with watercolors but providing a more abstract perspective at a good price, I bought it haha.

Then lining the Museo Uffizi were more artists. I realized that all my paintings were oil on canvas. When I didn’t see any, I bought from a guy painting oil on glass instead.

Of course my lack of patience got the best of me, because along the river were more street artists. One of them did oil paintings on canvas, but with a very unique style. He took a photograph and meshed it with newspaper bits to create a very original piece of art. I fell in love with it! We got to talking a little more, and then exchanged business cards. He said he actually went to school with a Cardone (pronounced with a thick Italian accent haha) in Florence.

There’s nothing like relaxing the neck after a day of looking up to climb the city and look down. The first of these missions was to the top of Il Duomo, which Paddington Bear was a great sport for doing with me.

The second was up a hill to Michelangelo’s gardens (which were fairly non-existent) for a picnic overlooking the city.

And the third was when we had our Cityscapes class on the rooftop of our hotel at eye-level with the other roofs.

So here in Firenze I am in heaven because I can eat Italian food for every meal. There is no use in counting calories because it will just ruin the experience, but I do need to pay more attention to how I spend my money on food haha. Our “meal plan” covers breakfast + €20 per day for dinner, and lunch is supposed to be out of pocket. Some days I split the money between lunch and dinner, but one night in particular I went all-out. One skewer of the world’s best scallops: €28. Plus the cover charge and water to share, the total was approximately €33.  We then found some great gelato that was cheap and off the beaten path for only €1,50. I ordered the chocolate and lemon combo, and the lemon gelato had real lemon zest! Too good for comfort.

I did attempt to do laundry at a Lavarapido laundry mat here because my attempt in the sink was cut short when I had to put all my wet clothes into a plastic back for the trek from Paris to Florence. It was very efficient, but extremely expensive at €7 per load. When you add in dinner at the restaurant across the street so you could maximize efficiency of doing homework, watching the laundry, and eat dinner, the total cost of the experience was €20. I’ll take a day at Cal Lu’s dorm machines at five loads for $10 any day (versus $26 for two)!

There wasn’t much of a Tuscan night-life scene for me in Firenze. My dog, Molly, had a stroke that lasted several days in addition to being diagnosed with cancer a few months ago, so I skyped with her and my family nearly every evening. *Knock on wood* she is improving magnificently as I type this.

Arrivaderci Firenze! Off to Rome we go!

Je voudrais un Paris, s'il vous plait?

Week Five/Six: Paris, France

September 30^th – October 10^th, 2011

‎"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." ~Desmond Tutu

Several conversations/events have led to my recent discovery of this quote: Monsieur Tutu’s 80^th birthday was on the 7^th, discussions of international social injustice in Africa due to exploitation and colonialization for our Cityscapes class, narrowing of my Political Science Departmental Honors research thesis, and continuing the conversation from our Rectifying International Injustice tutorials. I won’t bore you with the details, but now you have a sense of what is prevailing in my mind as I explore Paris for the first time.

The Notre Dame at sunset

The train pulled into Paris like a rocket to the moon, the station’s like a circus, every face is a cartoon. ~Faith Hill

Our arrival was quite a whirlwind, lugging heavy suitcases through the different platforms and trying to fit them in the tiny barracks of the train coaches. The walk from our exit in Paris to the apartment was not among the most pleasant, so my first executive decision was to sleep haha. I woke up to everyone having left to explore already, so I took my own walk around the city to gain my bearings. The four apartments that the Lutheran Society is occupying spans two islands and the northern side of the river, so my walk around the block took quite a while discovering where everyone was staying for the next ten days. Communication was at its minimum with faulty cell phones and only two apartment keys in such a big city, so I ended up having dinner on my own at a Lebanese restaurant that I had stumbled upon just to the north of the Centre Pompidou. Traiteur Beyrouth was absolutely delicious, and my mouth watered at the smell of the familiar spices from the Ottoman territories of Israel, Palestine, and Turkey. I could not decide what to order because it was all looked so delicious, so I made friends with the restaurant waiters. One of them recognized my earrings because she had just visited Turkey as well, and the guys were hilarious because I speak no French, and they speak very little English haha. Eventually I ordered a kefta “sandwich” with orange juice and baklava, and they put all of the wonderful dressings that I love but have no recollection of what they are. When I finished, they brought me some complimentary mint tea to round off the meal.

The living room of our apartment

The next day we experienced the French supermarkets to buy some essentials: water, bread, gnocchi, and marinara haha. Trying to figure out which water to buy was certainly a challenge with some bottles 1/3 the price of others. And of course, the gnocchi was just a default lunch when I got sick of spending money on 1000kcal nutella and banana crepes, or really just got sick of eating nutella. That afternoon Dr. Brint and I took a walk around the Marais and into the Jewish Quarter while discussing my research interests. Our conversation focused on three different concepts of my overall topic derived from life experiences and observations. I am afraid to publish those ideas on a public blog prematurely, but I would love to speak with anyone individually and in person who are interested. Later that evening, everyone to my surprise wanted me to take them to the Lebanese restaurant! Absolutely, I would eat this for every meal if I could. They sat all 12 of us upstairs, and we ordered a huge variety of 14 different entrées, several other individual meals of falafel, kefta, and shawarma, and 6 different desserts. Everyone loved it! Huge success – I am so excited to be with people who share my passion for Middle Eastern tastes. We all went back to our apartment’s penthouse terrace overlooking the city of Paris for some wine, tea, and coffee.

October 1^st was Noit Blanche, or White Night/Sleepless Night, which I thought might have been similar to Tel Aviv’s White Night back in July. However, it was much different: rather than bringing all the artists to the streets, Paris imported exceptional artists from around the world to stage exhibits in buildings and museums around the city. Rather than being able to just walk around and experience everything in one stroll, Paris had strewn the exhibits in several different zones that dispersed spectators and ended fairly early in the morning. Tel Aviv was literally an all-night expo that brought the city together. This presents interesting dynamic differences between the two cities: high-end fashion and aristocratic art vs. magnifying the people’s art. Paris may have been more intellectually stimulating, but Tel Aviv’s was more engaging and widespread. Anyways, the main exhibit of Noit Blanche that we experienced (after waiting in line and then mobbing through the door) was Purple Rain. I haven’t taken the time yet to analyze the art, but that’s ok. The experience was exciting enough.

The next day we took a Fat Tire Bike Tour that began at the Eiffel Tower and lasted about 2.5 hours. What a great prospective job for post-grad if I wanted to spend my time in graduate school abroad! They have satellites in London, Berlin, and Barcelona as well. Our tour guide was great: this is her third year in Paris after graduating from university on the East Coast. We rode California Beach Cruisers (which I swore I would never do just a few months ago), which are eons different than road bikes or mountain bikes. I don’t know when the last time I rode a bike with a kick-stand was haha and it drove me crazy to not have my feet clipped in. I felt like a klutz. We did catch some great views of the city, though, and we even stumbled across a ramp named after Ben Gurion, founder and former-Prime Minister of Israel.

One of the beauties of Study Abroad is hosting class in unconventional locations – the Louvre, the gardens of Versailles, the Musée D’Orsay, and Centre Pompidou for our Politics and the Arts tutorials. At the Louvre, we split into groups to analyze paintings in each the Rococo, Neo-Classicism, and Romantic styles from France in the 17^th-19^th centuries. Then at the Musée D’Orsay we did the same for Naturalism/Realism and Impressionism paintings. That was my favorite museum with work from Van Gogh and Monet. Unfortunately the section with that originally contains my favorite pieces was under construction :( I guess I’ll just have to come back next year! At the Centre Pompidou we studied Modernism, Cubism, and Post-Modernism art. I’m curious to see how the global society will shape the next genre of artwork. The paintbrush and canvas has been one of the most constant modes of creative expression, but its application has changed dramatically. Our picnic at Versailles was a bit different than the other classes – we studied the political and artistic contributions of King Louis XIV while tasting wine and cheese from five different regions in France. Oh I forgot to mention one little detail…I kinda got stuck in the train doors trying to get to Versailles :) luckily my friends were paying attention and helped pry the doors back open.

Paparazzi for the Mona Lisa at the Louvre

Me, Mira, Beth, and Nikki in front of the infamous triangular prism at the Louvre

Picnic in the gardens of Versailles

On my mission to buy artwork around the world, I found a lovely painting of the Eiffel Tower at night. Unfortunately, I doubt whether or not the guy I bought the painting from was the original artist. We have a theory that students sell their artwork to street vendors, who in turn sell them to the tourists. Oh well. It is still original, and quite beautiful. I also purchased some water color cityscapes from a student we saw painting them from our café. The pictures are below:

Unfortunately blogspot is not allowing me to rotate my pictures :(

One of the students in the Lutheran Society is celiac, so I experimented a bit with gluten-free baking in our Paris apartment. I tried my best to find all the ingredients I normally use, but could not find any baking soda. A Naturalia market around the corner sold all kinds of gluten-free and organic products, so I did most of my shopping there. While everyone came in and out of our apartment for their tutorials on our apartment, I attempted to make some cookies without a recipe. I figured as long as the dough tastes good, the cookies will taste good. Plus, if I coat the dough in cocoa powder, anything will taste good. Once the dough was kneaded to my liking, I discovered our apartment does NOT have an oven!!! Well, I guess the “convection” setting of our microwave will do! In fact it did, and these cookies turned out better than the ones I tried to bake in a real oven at the boys’ apartment later that evening.

A few of the girls and I decided to explore a pre-constructed Street Art Walk that we downloaded from another blogspot account. It began in the far northeastern area of Paris and spanned the length of four metro stops. We only lasted about two of them haha. Of course, street art is the kind term for graffiti, which is illegal. The area of town we were in was extremely…cultured. In one direction was a group of young kids from a Jewish elementary school, and in the other direction were some adults dressed in the traditional Muslim-African garb with the brilliant colors and cloaks. Check out the “Artwork Around the World” album on my Facebook to experience the graffiti for yourselves once I get a chance to upload the photos. I did not take pictures of the people because it was bad enough we were wandering around taking pictures of their neighborhood. Note to self: print off the PDF with the directions and street art notes, because it is not smart to try to read off of an $800 iPad2 and attempt to walk at the same time in an unknown neighborhood. It was certainly an experience of a lifetime, and I do not regret it one bit. This is an area of France I would have never found had we not been on this mission. We could really see the clash of the classes and the effects of colonialism on native cultures in the colonizing country. One particular piece of fresh graffiti is shown below: “Alger, Tunis, Londres…Paris?”

Later on the same day as the Street Art Walk, I ventured back into the Marais Jewish Quarter that Dr. Brint had led me through earlier in the week. I stood in line for 45 minutes at a Yiddish Boulangerie to get some fresh Challah and pastrami. I was disappointed to claim the last two loaves of Challah, but to my pleasant surprise the bread was still warm. This week being bookended by Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Jewish Quarter was very energetic and lively. I miss Israel! I wandered around for about another hour looking at the fantastic artwork and smelling the falafel as I picked at my Challah.

King Falafel Palace :)

One of the staples of the Parisian tourist experience is a hike up the Eiffel Tower, which ended up lasting over 2.5 hours between the 1300 stairs up and down and staying past sunset to watch the tower dazzle in LED lights at the top of the hour. We definitely earned our gelato and crepes that night haha.

I know that this blog is being posted before our stay in Paris is complete, but I do not want to have to worry about remembering everything when we move on to Italy on Monday. France has pleasantly surprised me. The people reflect a version of southern hospitality that is very kind and friendly, as long as you do not behave like an American tourist. They love sharing their culture with us, but we must be exceptionally and outwardly attempting to embrace it at the same time for them to acknowledge us. Look at everyone in the eye (very different from the Middle East) and always be overly polite. This is a lesson that is often lacking in large cities that tend to hunker down and alienate outsiders. The sense of community and pride is very high, and is very much a product of the French Revolution. I would enjoy the opportunity to spend more time here analyzing the political culture and study more about the relationship between the people and the government. Many people critique travel seminars like this that spend only a short amount of time in a variety of locations, but this type of traveling is perfect for students. It opens the doors to new cultures by giving us an abundance of opportunities for extended study. Being here in person provides for a better perspective while studying back home, and the introduction to the cultures makes coming back for extended periods of time less frightening. 

Gadabout

Week Four/Five: Balliol College, The University of Oxford

September 19^th – 29^th, 2011

Gadabout: One who roams about in search of amusement or social activity

Our last week at Oxford :( We had a bit more free time than usual, but most of that was spent sleeping or catching up on the readings, which was more like sleeping while trying to read. I went through three highlighters alone this week because I bought one of my professor’s books!

In International Political Economy we discussed the two books The Politics of Global Regulation and The New Global Rulers. Tutorial #3 was a lot of me sitting in a daze with so much information going over my head because I had focused my essay on the international regulation of human rights, and much of the discussion was of the business and financial aspects of regulation. I particularly wanted to discuss the role of the Arab Spring in IPE and global integration, but oh well. The tutorials have been running 2-2 ½ hours as it was. Tutorial #4 behaved much better for me haha, because Maryalice and I co-presented Professor Mattli’s third book. Because of my embarrassment the week prior, I focused this time on the privatization of financial regulation and forced myself to familiarize with the new perspective rather than applying it to the Middle East. I did not feel like I was able to contribute that particular tutorial to my greater research aspirations, but it certainly helped me understand the financial meltdown of 2008 and some of the politics behind it. Professor Mattli was nice enough to meet with me independently to explain some of the financial crisis in more detail as well.

We discussed International Libertarianism and Restitution in Tutorial #4 of Rectifying International Injustice and Collective Responsibility in the Middle East for Tutorial #5. Much to my tutor’s dismay, I continued my obsession with analyzing the situation in Israel and Middle Eastern politics haha. After weeks of avoiding in-depth discussion, we finally pursued it in the last tutorial. The basic consensus was that Israel is too unconventional for theoretical hypothetical situations to apply smoothly, and it must be considered on a unique basis. Ultimately, prospects of resolution lie in the arrangement of diplomacy and the timeliness of negotiations, not so much in a politically scientific manner.

Our group-wide Politics and the Arts tutorial was held at the infamous Eagle and Child, affectionately known as the Bird and Baby by the locals, to imitate a discussion by the Inklings. My group presented on C.S. Lewis’s “The Abolition of Man” (mind=blown), while the other groups presented on J.R.R. Tolkien and Gilbert Chesterton. The Inklings were a literary/philosophical club that met every week at the Bird and Baby, which made me wonder who those crazy old men at Caffe Nero’s are haha and if they are really these incredible authors and professors. I always seem to be sitting in their vicinity when they have ridiculous conversations name-dropping all these profound philosophers and life questions. (Today is Thursday…I’m going to have to go back to Nero’s and meet these guys!)

Wednesday, September 21^st, was the United Nations’ International Day of Peace, so to commemorate it, a group of us began volunteering at the Fair Trade store behind St. Michael’s on Cornmarket Street. Maryalice and I were always volunteer buddies, and so between the three different days that we worked we merchandised jewelry from the Philippines and Kenya, assembled welcome packets for students, and advertised in the middle of Cornmarket Street. The manager and regular volunteers are incredible people, and their stories about each item imported was even better. Fair Trade is one of my new favorite stores :) They even offered to host next year’s CLU-Oxford students whenever they would like to volunteer!

I have officially gone about a month without playing viola, so the stress of final tutorials and walking past the Holywell Music Room every day was not helping my withdrawal syndrome. On the evening of the 22^nd I attended the Adderbury Ensemble’s performance at the Sheldonian Theatre of the Bach Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, the Brandenburg 5, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It was so difficult to not tap my toes or nod my head at entrances! I had performed the latter two selections at least 5 times each over the past four years. The next morning I waltzed over to the Oxford Violin Shop about a mile from the dorms for a viola fix. They just handed me a £12,000 viola and bow to match, which totaled approximately $20,000, to have fun with! No credit card or contract needed! Those of you who know me in the musical realm know I have the worst memory known to musicians, and of course, I did not have any music with me here haha. Poor shop owner, I was playing random scales and “fiddling around” with various themes for about an hour. Luckily various little themes found themselves in my fingers, so I could throw that into the mix. The shop owner and luthier, Bruno Guastalla, had even called the luthier who made the viola – Michael Kearns – while I was playing it! How embarrassing lol. I had my parents e-mail me some music from home the next day so I do not have to experience that again. I now have a new activity for each city I travel to – find a luthier and pretend to be a prospective buyer! Maybe in 5-10 years lol that one viola was twice the cost of my car. In fact, I could sell my car, current viola, and both bikes for the price of that one Michael Kearns viola.

The Lutheran Society met at The Rose in search of the best tea and scones in Oxford for Friday afternoon tea. The scones were incredibly delicious, a fluffy biscuit with cream and jam, accompanied by hot vanilla black tea. I know this seems a bit out of place, but it is totally worth mentioning. Unfortunately The Rose is closing this week for good :(

Now the title of this blog post – GADABOUT – pertains to what happened after all my tutorials were finished, from the afternoon of September 27^th onward. Here are some blurbs about a few of the incredible and random people I had met while wandering around Oxford! The trick is to walk slow and look up…it’s more inviting, so people will naturally strike up conversations.

1.       Shabibi: shop owner in Oxford’s Covered Market from Kashmir, India; he knows 7 different languages and has shops all over the world selling (at a ridiculous price, mind you) crafts and colored fabrics from Kashmir; I stumbled upon his store because I recognized much of the fabrics from Turkey and was feeling nostalgic. Before I could escape after seeing all the prices, Shabibi stopped me and struck up a conversation that lasted over an hour. He talked non-stop about the beauty of traveling and meeting people, and how much he loves his job. His store is filled with the most rich and vibrant colors that the eye can experience, and he loves how it always makes the customers leave with a smile on their face, whether they buy something or not. After our conversation, I went to purchase a little camera bag. He said: “Are you sure? Do you really, really, want this? Just because we talked for so long does not mean you have to buy something. I just enjoyed talking with you. Let’s stay in touch, would you like to get coffee?” Unfortunately I was leaving in a couple days, so I kindly declined. But I did end up purchasing the camera bag (which he gave to me at a discount without me asking), because I sincerely wanted to. Very rarely can I walk into a bazaar and not feel obligated to purchase anything with the vendor being so pushy. I sincerely thanked him for his time and for being a friend, not a salesman.

2.       Café 360: I had met some Oxford students in front of the Fair Trade store because it shares a building with their Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union. They invited me to an International Student Welcome coffee that evening to meet everyone, so I brought a few friends along. We met people from Scotland, southern England, India, China, Indonesia, and Turkey, and that was only the small handful at my table. We all played Jenga and drank “squash” while exchanging Oxford stories. I actually ran into one of the girls, Alicia, the day after on Cornmarket Street! Small town.

3.       Gilli: Store manager of Fair Trade at St. Michael’s; we did not talk much about personal things, but she is incredibly sweet and really opened up her shop to us. She explained all the stories behind the Fair Trade items and the villages they came from, and even gave us some FT chocolate for our volunteering efforts. As a manager of a non-profit store run by volunteers, she has an extremely difficult job. If no one volunteers, they have to close the shop for the day :(

4.       French guy while I was buying lunch – don’t remember his name, but we’re both going to be in Paris this weekend haha

5.       Two Persians from Iran: I met these guys while I was eating the crepes I had bought from the French guy and trying to video-type a violinist/trapeze artist. They are studying Middle Eastern Studies in Oxford working on their doctorates. We discussed everything from Middle Eastern politics to the stereotypes of Americans (they thought I was a “redneck” when they found out I was from Texas). We then exchanged e-mails for future help with research. Unfortunately I had run out of business cards, so I embarrassingly had to write my e-mail on a napkin. I immediately went to the print shop to get a few more cut.

6.       Two economists from Milan: they made fun of me because I couldn’t remember whether I went to Milan with TYO over five years ago. Remember that terrible memory of mine? lol

I have a new goal to meet someone new every day and get rid of these business cards haha. You meet the most interesting people abroad because nobody has their cars to be antisocial and efficiency is overrated, so everyone is just there to enjoy life and absorb new cultures. Everyone has a story.

Last night, September 28^th, was the final banquet for the Oxford portion of our program. It was hardly even bittersweet, it is Turkish Coffee Bitter. I am going to miss it here so much, and I am dreading packing for France. I know the next half of our tour is going to be incredible, but I am finally in the groove of Oxford tutorials and I feel like I have barely seen the tip of the iceberg in these topics. I have so much more to learn! I hope my professors don’t mind, but I’m going to be e-mailing them quite a bit to continue our conversations.

And last and perhaps least, my last day at Oxford :( I spent some time taking Paddington Bear around some of Oxford for some glamour shots,  eating the last bit of my favorite foods here (the English breakfast with poached eggs, hash browns, boiled tomato, mushrooms, and fresh fruit; tomato soup and ciabatta from Caffe Nero’s; a dessert from The Alternative Tuck Shop; and a Balliol College/Hogwarts-style dinner). I LOVE OXFORD!

I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all like an opera.

~William Butler Yeats

Sweet Serendipity

Week Three: Balliol College, University of Oxford

September 12^th – 18^th, 2011

This whole week is in a blur, especially because it is book-ended with tutorials, so my weekend consists of Thursday-Friday rather than Saturday-Sunday. Hence the delay in posting about last week until now.

Reflection of the sky in the river from our walk to the Trout

As far as the tutorials are concerned, homework was in full force. We discussed the concepts of compensation, counterfactual obligations, and non-identity in Rectifying International Injustice. My essay focused on non-identity, which is a counterfactual of who could have existed, but does not exist, because of certain historical injustices. Dr. Dan loves throwing us into hypothetical situations that have no correct answer. You have to have quite an imagination to be a philosopher – it is so much fun yet so mind-boggling. Maryalice and I discussed Professor Mattli’s book The Logic of Regional Integration in our second International Political Economy class. I had to present a summary of the theoretical argument and then critique/analyze its weaknesses and limitations, and reflect on its relevance in today’s society. He stopped me halfway through my summary for discussion, which lasted another hour and a half. This class went so much smoother than last week’s because we never ran out of things to say. It was still beyond intimidating though! The tutorial had started off on a really high note, too, because we ran into Professor Mattli in the Canterbury Quad of St. John’s College on our way to class. He gave us an exclusive tour of the college including the “rockery” and some “secret” gardens. It was absolutely breath-taking. We even walked on the grass! Shhhh!

The next round of tutorials was on Sunday the 18^th with Dr. Brint. Nikki and I attended Social Ethics in Tower 4 of the Jowett Walk Annex, right next door to our dormitories (Tower 2). This was our final tutorial :( unfortunately, since this was only a single-unit independent study. Dr. Brint allowed us to write about how Sir Isaiah Berlin affected our lives academically, which for me was more how he applies to my research on how religion influences the Israeli democracy. I could talk for hours about this, so I will save you the time. Message me if you’re interested. Dr. Brint and I walked to our next tutorial immediately afterwards for Cityscapes, and in the meantime we were able to discuss some logistics for my Political Science Departmental Honors research project. Dr. Shaw had helped me sort through some ideas beforehand, which included setting a new goal of having my thesis project “in review” for publication before spring 2013 rather than finishing it by the time I graduate. This means the paper is only 32 pages long, which is about half the length of my original proposal. Good that it is shorter, bad that I need to be more concise and articulate, good that this will make me do just that, and bad that it is a semester earlier haha. I’m excited though, because this makes perfection a plan, not just a dream. Dr. Brint and I will continue the conversation while we’re abroad by taking a walk in each city we visit to narrow down my ideas into a workable thesis by the time we reach Barcelona. Anyways! The Cityscapes tutorial was held at the Mitre on High Street for tea and scones. We discussed more about Mexican identity, particularly the concepts of solitude and love. Our next meeting will be in France!!!

In between these two whirlwind sets of tutorials was quite a bit of team-bonding with the Lutheran Society’s University of Thirteen (fourteen for the week, if you count Dr. Shaw). Monday night Dr. Brint so graciously hosted everyone at his apartment for some incredible home-cooked Indian food, which I had never had before. Dr. Shaw brought from CLU a pencil for everyone, which turned out to be the life of the party. Who knew an inanimate object could provide hours of entertainment? I guess that’s what happens when you put 14 G/T people in the same room.  Other social events included a couple more stops at the Turf Tavern to unwind, Girls’ Night Out, and Girls’ Night In. The latter was more of a mending mechanism to keep the drama count as low as possible haha. We had a blast though. I had also finally mustered up the courage to go for a run in one of the most formal cities I’ve ever been. University Park is gorgeous and about a half-mile away. It’s perfect for a 30-45 minute run followed by some core training back at the dorms. The first run wasn’t so bad, but I was “smart” enough to go again the day after with Austin, which wasn't such a good idea haha. Oh well. It is beautiful, though. At one point on the complete opposite side of the park from our entrance is a bridge about 20 feet above the river. It’s the perfect spot for a stretch break.  :)

Jordan and Sam were some of the people who started this maddness

The boys were jealous of our Girls' Night Out, so they
tried to join in on the fun... 

The girls at the White Horse pub!

Other adventures during the week led me to meet two incredible people, although neither from the UK. One is from Dubai, so of course I couldn’t resist asking all kinds of pressing questions about religion and politics in the Middle East from his perspective. That’s the beauty of Oxford – every small conversation of small talk can shift in an instant, and everyone has the mental capacity to handle a big question on a pub night. Haven’t tried the “night clubs” yet, but that’s not really my scene. At least in pubs you can hear what each other is saying! Nikki, Mira, Beth, and I met another wonderful person on an ice cream run on Friday. (The first ice cream shop we tried closed at 6:30, which makes no sense for after-dinner dessert, so meeting this lady was meant-to-be.) This lady had come by herself for a quick dinner, and asked if she could join us after she finished eating. We ended up talking for over an hour about out studies, student life in Oxford, politics, and her life in China. She works as a managing editor for the Society of China University Journals in Natural Science and as a senior editor professor at Zhejiang University, one of the top schools in China. Everything she said was fascinating. The one thing she told us to remember, though, was to teach our kids mathematic logic when they are babies rather than reading poetry haha. Music, of course, helps with that too.

Other festivities of the week included a walk to the Trout County Pub, which took about four hours round trip. So worth it though! We started at Dr. Brint’s apartment with Dr. Shaw and the rest of the Californian Lutherans, and hiked beyond Jericho to some pastures alongside the river for a couple miles. We stumbled across some blackberries, ponies, a swan-chasing Labrador (adorable!), livestock with their cow patties, and massive spiders, all accompanied by great friends and even better conversations. Then Saturday was filled with having tea with Dr. Shaw and friends to discuss the remaining time at CLU and life after college, hunting for a pair of flip-flops, and picnic-ing at Dr. Brint’s apartment for Mira’s birthday. So apparently, rubber flip-flops (only a couple dollars at Old Navy) cost £22!!! That’s nearly $35! We ended up finding some fancier sandals for only £3 at a department store, since Mira’s fancy flip-flops are now un-fixable. Our picnic right afterwards was absolutely delicious – best sandwiches I have ever had! It was all fresh food from the festival at the castle adjacent to Dr. Brint’s apartment. Later that evening we all met at the pub called “Far from the Meddling Crowd” (how fitting) to say adieu to Dr. Shaw before he leaves for the real world. Unfortunately, I had already tried to get some research done between dinner and the pub, so my mind was completely absorbed swimming in ideas and wasn’t able to be productively social that evening.

So you see the group picture above? Luckily we didn't see this
little "friend" until after the photo was taken

A fat cow trying to play peek-a-boo with Mira and I 

Well, I think that covers everything! I have officially written approximately 5,400 words and read nearly 350 pages in the past four days. This is why I do NOTHING productive when I go home.