David Across the Atlantic...

My First Ever Triathlon! (aka the crazy things I do on my birthdays)

2010-07-30T22:35:00.031+01:00

I have a history of doing 'interesting' things on my birthdays. I think digging latrines in Ghana on my 18th is probably the most random, but I think this year classes as the most painful!

My birthday started at 4am EST with me hopping in a car to drive 40 minutes away to Mercer County Park. Why would I do such a thing? To put myself through over 3 hours of endurance sport of course! Yes, I was going to compete in my first ever triathlon, and to make things a little harder for myself I had chosen to do the 'olympic distance' rather than the usual beginners' route of 'sprint'.

A sprint triathlon consists of a 750m swim followed by a 20km bike and finally a 5km run (approximately 1/2 mile swim, 13 mile bike and 3 mile run). Instead, I would be doing double that - 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run.

Now I was never the sportiest child (as many of you know!), and although I rowed (a lot!) at Wadham and joined the cycling team at Rutgers, my body isn't exactly made for running and I've never been a strong swimmer. In fact, as of January this year I couldn't swim with my head underwater - in fact I couldn't really put my head under water without panicking a little and gulping in a lungful of water...

So why on Earth would I choose to put myself through this? Well for two very special reasons. First, to help raise money for KEEN New York, the most amazing charity I volunteer with. KEEN runs a sports program for disabled and special needs children in New York - for absolutely free. It's a charity I feel very passionate about so being able to help them raise money means an awful lot to me.

My other reason is my Granda, Robin Wilson. A year and a half ago my Granda passed away after a relentless year-long fight with Motor Neurone Disease. MND is a horrific disease that attacks the connections in your brain leaving the sufferer with little to no control over their bodies. Even though there have been some high profile cases (for example Stephen Hawking) it remains a relatively unknown disease. The MND Association works to help sufferers and their families as well as conducting research into finding a cure for this horrible disease.

When my Granda lost his fight against MND, my Gran set up a 'Tribute Fund' so that any money the family and friends raise or donate to the MND Association would be recognized under my Granda's name.

So on a cold December night I decided that on my 23rd Birthday I would complete the NJ State triathlon to raise money in the US for KEEN New York and back home for my Granda's Tribute Fund and the MND Association.

7 months of (relatively) intense training followed: for the swim I took group swimming lessons to upgrade from 'head-out-of-the-water-breaststroke' to 'head-in-the-water-freestyle'; for the bike I completed my first ever college road season with the Rutgers Cycling Team and in the process got two podium finishes in Men's Intro and upgraded to racing in Cat D; and for the run I pretty much tried to ignore and avoid running as much as I could!

So let's get onto the actual race! I arrived at the Park at around 5:30am, just as transition was opening. For those of you that don't know, transition is where you leave your bike and running gear for you to change into mid-race. I unpacked and built my bike and headed over to set up my towel by my rack. I placed my running shoes, cycling shoes, running cap, race number, a couple of carbohydrate gels on the towel and put my helmet and sunglasses on my bike ready to put on in a very speedy fashion.

As recommended I headed out for a quick spin on the bike to make sure it was all working ok (although after checking it about 20 times the night before I would have been shocked if it didn't!) and came back to find transition filling up. We were all grouped together by our 'waves' - that is the group of people we would be starting the swim with. Waves went off in 5minute intervals, starting at 7:30 with the elites, Under 19's, Men 20-24 and Men 60+. The next wave would be me, with other 20-24 year old men and 50-54 year old men and the waves would continue until the final wave at 8:20. I started chatting to the guy next to me who was also 23, and it was his first ever olympic triathlon too which made me feel a bit better about being a 'newbie'. What didn't make me feel better was seeing the guy opposite me (with his age, 20, on his calf like the rest of us) put on a Team USA speedsuit with his name plastered all over! Intimidated doesn't begin to cover it...

I tried to put this out of my mind and set off for a quick run just to keep my legs moving - it was already warming up and promised to be a scorcher which didn't bode well. With the quick run out of the way I headed over to the swim area and the nerves started to build. Originally I was going to be using my amazing Xterra wetsuit during the swim but the USA Triathlon council rule that if the water temperature is above 78F (25.5C) then using wetsuits makes you ineligible for prizes and if it is above 84F (29C) then no-one can use wetsuits. The water temperature got taken at 6:30am and was found to be 88.5F (31.5C) - way too hot to even think about using a wetsuit! I hopped in the water with my sexy bright orange swim cap and goggles for a warm up swim, and my first experience of open water.

Now, everyone had warned me about open water swimming and how different it was to being in a pool, and it certainly is! I was slightly surprised to find the lake warmer than the pool - I mean it was just like walking into a bath - but started off with my freestyle. I did a quick 100m to get the feel of it - and was feeling pretty good! Feeling confident I got out of the water and waited in the holding area for my wave to be called.

After a rendition of the National Anthem (American not British!) it was soon my time to start and I entered the water along with the 100+ other people in my wave. I immediately noticed how close we were going to be during the race, and I positioned myself towards the side and back so I would stay away from the main free-for-all. Even so, as soon as the start gun was fired I immediately found myself in a sea of flailing limbs. I tried to keep calm and just concentrated on keeping a steady rhythm in my freestyle. This was great until around 100m in when I suddenly got kicked square in the face (a fairly common experience in open-water swimming it seems) and proceeded to swallow what seemed to be half the lake. In reality I just took in a mouthful of water, but needless to say I started to panic.

This was one of the points where my training and preparation really helped - I did just what the Rutgers Triathlon Training Course (Keith Cook) and my swim teacher (Jess Pogo) told me to do, I flipped onto my back and started back stroke while trying to calm myself down. A lovely lifeguard came over to check if I was ok, and after reassuring them I was fine and had just had a scare I flipped back over and tried to get back into the swim. I realized that if I stayed with freestyle I would probably have the same thing happen again, so I started breaststroke and continued with this for the rest of the course.

I knew that swimming breaststroke for the 1500m would be slower than freestyle, and that it would take more out of my legs - but on the other hand I could sight really well and was a lot more comfortable like this. I set off and caught up with the stragglers of my wave and cemented myself in the back 10-20 swimmers. After a little bit the wave behind us caught up and I got passed by a few of the faster swimmers (swimming close enough to earn me a couple more kicks to the face) but as an added benefit I could keep them in the corner of my eye and use them to sight rather than concentrate on the buoys. I worked my way up a little in my wave to the front of the trailing group of 20 or so and settled in for the swim - even passing a couple of the slow swimmers from the first wave. The turnaround came and all was going well - until we turned around.

It was nearing 8am and the sun was rising above the tree tops - a picturesque scene, unless the sun happens to be straight in your line of vision and consequently near blinds you! I had on my tinted goggles but this made no difference, there was so much glare and my goggles soon started to fog up. This made sighting hard, if not impossible, and I don't think I actually could see a single buoy on the way back. However, luckily for me (?) the bulk of the wave behind me had caught up (as well as some faster swimmers from the wave after that) so I simply kept an eye on the various legs passing me and tried to follow them to help me sight. There were a couple of times I was sure I had gone off course (and I dread to think what my line must have looked like from the shore) but soon I hit (almost literally) the final yellow buoy and made my turn to the shore.

Once again I could see, and sped up my stroke to get out the water and into transition as soon as I could. I toyed with the idea of doing the last stretch freestyle, but decided not to push my luck. As my goggles had fogged up, I still didn't have perfect vision and so found it slightly difficult to see when people were standing up to get out of the water. I had read in one of my books that you should leave standing up until last minute so that you didn't have to do lots of energy-sapping running through the water. That seemed a particularly smart idea and so I kept swimming. It turns out that what the book didn't warn you about is underwater shelves of concrete. You see, we were exiting at the ramp for the marina, and said concrete shelf occurred a few feet out from shore, ending in a rather sharp edge. So I proceeded to hit both knees rather hard, drawing blood on my right that didn't really hurt but did make me look hardcore for the rest of the race!

I took that as a sign to stand up, proceeded to do so and stumbled out of the water and up to transition. I had a mental image in my head of me jumping out of the water and sprinting to transition and out on my bike in super quick time - instead I stumbled and half-jogged up the hill to the transition area to find everyone on my rack had already headed out on the ride. I was a little disheartened but knew that the bike was my strongest area so I had a chance to catch some of them. I quickly wiped my feet on my towel, put on my sunglasses and helmet, grabbed a couple of gu's (carb gels) and put on my shoes to head out of transition. For safety, you are not allowed to exit transition on your bike so I had to run a good couple of hundred yards to the mounting area. Now if anyone has tried to run while holding a bike they will know it is kinda awkward. If anyone has tried running (or even walking) in cycling shoes with cleats then they'll know that it is kinda awkward too. Combining the two resulted in a weird half-jog half-skip to the mounting line.

Soon enough though I was mounted and off on the ride. Finally I felt comfortable - I knew what I had to do, knew I could do it and knew I wasn't going to die (unlike he swim!). The day before I had been discussing with Molly (a seasoned triathlete on the Rutgers Cycling Team) about what I should aim for in terms of speed for the 25.5 mile course. I originally thought I would try for an average of 19-20mph and she agreed with me: "Just make sure you don't drop below 17mph (except on corners) and don't go over 21-22mph unless you're really feeling great". Well I wasn't feeling all that amazing after the swim so started by aiming for the 19mph mark.

It was slightly strange that the hardest part of the whole bike was probably the first mile or two - my legs had gone from 38 minutes of lateral movement in the swim to strictly vertical movement in a short space of time and it took them a little time to get adjusted. It also took a little time for my tri shorts and top to dry, during which there was a fair amount of shuffling on the saddle to try and get comfortable (I should have known better than to expect to get comfortable on a racing saddle!).

After the first couple of miles I got into my groove (and my bum got into it's groove in the saddle) and settled down for the rest of the ride. I hit a comfortable 19mph and soon started to gain and pass people. That being said, every few minutes a guy with a crazily nice triathlon bike (with aero bars, disc tires and aero helmet) would waltz past me like he wasn't even putting any effort into going 25mph in a time trial. That being said, I kept an eye out on everyone's calves to check what age group they were in and was pleased to see me pass a couple of 20-24 year olds during the first lap of the two lap course.

In triathlon you aren't allowed to 'draft' at all - that is, ride close behind another bike to avoid air resistance slowing you down. I never realized until I started racing on the cycling team how much drafting assists you - that is why team time trial times (where you race in a line to assist drafting) are so much faster than individual times. In fact, triathlon rules dictate that you have to stay 3 bike lengths behind the person in front, unless you are passing them. The only problem with this course was that, on the second lap round there ended up being a mix of fast and slow riders that resulted in a bit of a mess to be frank. That being said, there was no need for a few of the more professional riders to hurl abuse at the other riders - I thought it was a bit disrespectful to be honest, everyone was there to compete in the same race after all!

Coming towards the end of the second lap I was feeling pretty nice, and finished my second carb gel as I was turning into the home straight. I ended with an average of around 19.5mph, pretty much exactly where I wanted to be. Hopping off the bike I started to jog towards transition in that same awkward gait and was pretty relieved to get my bike shoes off and running shoes on. I also put on my cap and running belt (a elasticated belt with my race number attached) and headed out onto the trail.

The running course consisted of two 5K loops, and we were assured that there would be "plenty of shade". This would be pretty important as the temperature had kept rising all morning and the sun was beating down pretty strong. Luckily we would also pass water stations seven times - stocking not just ice-cold water but also Heed, an electrolyte drink to help replenish all the minerals we'd be sweating out during the course.

I started off on the run with that familiar lead feeling in my legs I'd experienced in Brick workouts (cycling followed immediately by running) during my training and by the time I hit the first water station my hamstrings had loosened a little and I started to feel pretty good. Then however we exited the shaded forest and the sun started to beat down.

And how the sun did beat! The heat started to really get to me and by the second water station (only about a mile and a half in) I was really feeling it, stopping to not just have one cup of water, but two and another one tipped over my head to cool me down. I later found out from the EMT (first-aid person) that the temperature had hit over 100F (38C) during the run, although all I knew during the race was that it was far too hot for me! As the run carried on I got hotter and hotter and found the run harder and harder.

Pretty soon after the second station I had to stop running and walk for a short portion, just to get my pulse under control and also as a vain attempt to cool down. I proceeded to run for sections and take short walks to stop me from dying and at the next couple of water stations I took at least a couple of waters, poured a couple over my head and made sure I drank some Heed.

Crossing the halfway mark felt great and as I passed transition I could really feel the burn in my legs. We had been warned that the second half of the run was less shaded and they weren't lying - luckily just after the halfway mark we hit one of two 'special' water stations. What was so special was that these water stations had buckets filled with ice cold water and a load of flannels. Competitors could take these flannels and put them on their neck and run with them for a bit to help cool down. I can't even describe how amazing it felt in that kind of heat to have something so cold - needless to say every single runner was stopping and picking one up!

As the heat was rising and my fatigue growing I started distracting myself in various ways - first off by singing to myself (and sometimes out loud). Unfortunately the song I had stuck in my head was "Run Away With Me" by Kerrigan & Lowdermilk (an amazing song that I urge you to check out) that starts with the following lyrics:

"Let me catch my breath,

This is really hard.

If I start to look like I'm sweating,

That's because I am."

Needless to say, every time I started singing I couldn't get past these lyrics because I would start laughing at how apt they were (I think the picture shows pretty well how sweaty I was by this point!). About 4 miles in though, I found a strategy that worked well for me - I would count every time my left foot hit the floor and started by running to a count of 100, then walking to a count of 50 and repeating. I then started to lengthen my runs getting to 150 running, 50 walking.

Just so you don't think I was 'wimping out' by doing this running/walking thing, I didn't see many competitors around me that didn't walk for at least a small portion of the run. I mean, it was seriously hot out there. So hot, in fact, that just before the turnaround in the second 5K I passed the guy who was next to me in transition lying passed out next to the road with an EMT. It turned out he had heat stroke and I paused to make sure he was okay. The EMT assured me he would be fine and I carried on to the turnaround (and the second set of cold flannels). I was pretty shocked to see him like that and made sure I drank 3 or 4 waters at the station to ensure I didn't collapse like him. As I headed back I noticed he had regained consciousness and his father (also competing in our wave) was with him while the EMT poured cold water over him and made him drink water and Heed. As I passed I made sure he was okay and carried on, relieved he was okay but slightly shocked too. I carried on with my counting steps and resoaked my flannel (which was now looking very sexy under my cap [thank goodness no-one took any pictures!]) at each water station. I got into a strange kind of groove and before I knew it I was hitting the 6 mile marker (after passing someone else in my age group along the way).

As I turned the corner towards the finish line I couldn't quite believe it was actually there and I started to run for the line. Carrying on counting I hit 326 steps as I crossed the finish line - with the race commentator announcing my name. To say I was knackered was an understatement, but to say I was ecstatic was even more so!

I had finished in 3 hours, 16 minutes and 25 seconds - pretty much smack bang in the middle of my target 3-3.5 hours so I was pretty chuffed! That being said, I definitely think next time (and there will be a next time!) I can get sub-3hrs... I placed 592nd out of a field of around 1000 which I was pretty pleased with, and I was even more pleased to find out I hadn't come last in my age group! In fact I was 25th out of 32, not great but not too bad either. Unsurprisingly my rank in the bike was much better than in the swim or the run (in the 400s for the bike, 600s for the swim/run) and I placed in around the top two thirds for all the men.

All in all I was really pleased with how I did - I started by just really wanting to complete the whole thing (and not come last!) and in the end I feel I logged a respectable time considering how hot it was and the fact it was my first ever triathlon. I certainly have caught a little bit of the triathlon bug and am looking to do a sprint in September with Molly. I don't know if I'll ever get to the obsession level of Ironman's (or even half-Ironman's) but I'm certainly looking forward to racing again.

At the end of the day though, I wasn't doing this just so I could do a triathlon (although that is now ticked off my Bucket list), I was doing it for the two spectacular charities I mentined earlier. At the current moment my fundraising totals stand at $320 for KEEN New York and £400 for MND Association, far outstripping my aims of $250 and £250! I want to take a moment to thank each and every single person who donated, no matter how large or small the sum of money was - I can't express my gratitude enough, and the money you have given will enable both of these charities to carry on their excellent work.

While on the subject of thank you's, I have a few more to give. First off, to Keith and Michelle Cook from Solis Performance Training, who ran the Rutgers Triathlon Training Team. I had a lot of fun learning about training for the triathlon (with all the other awesome people on the course!) and without some of that knowledge I would have found the race a much harder ordeal. Also a big thank you to Jess Pogo who ran the group swim lessons and without whom I wouldn't have even managed 100m in the swim, never mind 1500m.

On a similar vein I want to thank Molly Hurford who I know from the cycling team and is a hardcore triathlete (she's training for an Ironman this year - that's a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, followed by a full marathon - mental, right?) but was so nice in responding to the many stupid questions I had about tri's. I can't wait to race with her in September at the Skylands sprint, and if you get a chance have a look at her blog at Death Before DNF - it's a really good read!

I've also got to thank all the people outside the training side. First off, Nichole and all the KEEN bunch (especially the ridiculously awesome Coaches Committee) - you guys are amazing! Next to the Rutgers Cycling Team who taught me how to ride competitively (even if I do still get scared in a peloton). Next to all my friends from home, Oxford and across here in the States who never failed to tell me how crazy I was for doing this.

Finally I want to thank my family and all their support - Gran, James, Sam and most of all my mum and dad. Thank you for listening to me endlessly waffle on about what training I had been doing and thank you mum and dad for buying me the wetsuit for my birthday even if I didn't get a chance to use it (I'll use it at Skylands, I promise!). A special thanks to dad for nagging me to do more training and stop complaining - he might not know much about triathlons but he certainly got me to train more (even if it was through guilt-tripping!).

Most of all I want to thank my Granda, who inspired me to do the triathlon and kept me going throughout. He was an amazing man, and if I grow up to be even half the man he was I will be very lucky. I'm honored to have been able to call him my Grandfather and was thinking about him a lot during the race. I'm not going to lie, when my Dad told me on the phone that "Granda would have been proud of you" after I had finished, I was in tears, but this turned to laughter as my dad reminded me that his actual response would probably have been "That's good, but why didn't you break 3 hours?!?".

Well, that is it for my race report - if you have made it through all 5000 words I am highly impressed - it probably was just as much an effort as doing the triathlon itself! Even if you just skimmed to the end - thanks for checking in anyway! And if anyone still hasn't donated and wants to, my sites are:

UK site - MND Association

US site - KEEN New York

and these will be staying open for 3 months so there is plenty time left to donate! (Also, if you want to enter the prize draws, I'll be conducting the draw on August 15th so make sure you donate, and tell me which draw you want to enter, before then)

That's all for now - I've got my written qualifying exams at the end of August so I have a month of heavy revision coming up so there will be more radio silence (sorry!) but hopefully I'll be able to put a few more posts up in the Fall!

Later Days

David

Review: American Idiot on Broadway

2010-05-14T06:07:00.004+01:00

Tonight, I saw American Idiot on Broadway for the first time and all I can is: Wow. This is musical theatre for the MTV generation. This is the future.

Let's back up a little and give some background. American Idiot is a musical based on the Green Day album of the same name, along with a smattering of songs from their consequent album, 21st Century Breakdown. If you've heard the album, then you probably realised that it is not your run-of-the-mill collection of rock songs, these songs tell a story. In short the songs cover the idea of rebellion and compliance, and everything that both of these entail.

So Michael Mayer (award-winning director) and Billie Joe Armstrong (lead singer of Green Day) sat down and wrote a book for a musical based on the album, following three friends down very different, yet somehow similar, paths of life. The show started with performances at Berkeley Rep in California before transferring to Broadway in March 2010.

That's enough for background, now to review the show. First, the tickets. I went with two friends and tried to get some rush lottery tickets. There were 25 tickets available and the lottery was open from 6-6.30 after which the drawing took place. It seems like everyone wanted to see American Idiot that night, as there must have been well over 100 people trying for the lottery. The girl running it said how unusual it was to get such a large group on a Thursday night, but I guess most universities had finished that week and people were treating themselves by a trip to the theatre. Unfortunately, we didn't win the tickets (the lottery is for the front two rows with tickets at $27) but were offered partial view box seats for $37 and we decided to go for them.

The seats weren't bad, but were definitely not the best view in the theatre! I was in the left box and struggled to see anything of Will's story, a shame, but I feel his story was probably the weakest of the three (although this may have been influenced by my limited exposure to it) so it wasn't the end of the world. My two friends, on the other hand were sat in the right box and missed some of Tunny's story, a bigger loss in my eyes. Either way, I still think getting the tickets for under $40 was reasonable, although I would pay more in the future to have a better view.

The show is slightly unusual in the fact that it runs for 90 minutes without an intermission, and for good reason. As soon as the red curtain raises the show is off with a seemingly boundless energy which doesn't abate until after the final curtain call and encore. I think this is the thing that really struck me about the show - the energy the actors project is immense and almost tangible (and the spit they project is definitely tangible - a downside to the lottery rush tickets it seems!). I honestly do not know how these guys do it night after night, they must be knackered after every show! I have not seen a show with this much energy before and can only compare it to the atmosphere I saw in the recording of the final performance of RENT on DVD - the entire audience had that connection with the stage, exactly how theatre should be.

So what was the show like? Amazing, to sum it up. Yes, the storyline is rather thin at times, and the dialogue virtually non-existent, except for Jimmy's periodic letters to friends and family, but this doesn't matter. The storyline is enough to hold the thing together, but doesn't get in the way of the music and performance. I was surprised to find that it didn't feel like they had moulded the story to the songs (as often happens with 'jukebox musicals') and it all just 'worked'. The choreography is raw yet tight, and the physicality of it is a perfect fit for the music.

The arrangements of the music I could talk about for many paragraphs, but I'll refrain myself to just one. I know Tom Kitt's work from the fantastic Next To Normal, and he has worked his magic yet again with American Idiot. Although ultimately Green Day wrote all the music, Kitt transforms the pieces with complex harmonies and backing orchestrations while keeping the raw edginess of the original work. I am very disappointed Kitt won't have a chance to be recognised for his orchestrations at the Tony Awards, but am very happy he got nominated for the Drama Desk Award. A special mention must also go to Carmel Dean, surely the coolest conductor on Broadway - rocking it out on stage in knee-high converse boots and a mini skirt all while playing piano, accordion and somehow managing to keep all the musicians and singers in check!

The staging was brilliant and really conveyed a sense of oppression and was a reminder of the information overload we get in modern society - particularly during Tunny's 'revelation'. Again, the set conveyed the rawness of the subject matter - reminiscint of a warehouse, full of scaffolding and suchlike. There were some clever double uses for the scenery (the 'Holiday' scene comes to mind) and I think it worked very well - any more and it would distract from the stars, the actors.

Where do I begin? The ensemble were dynamic and integral to the show, most of the cast had at least a couple of lines of solo and the fact that the actors of the smaller parts were given the solos during the curtain call was a nice touch. Onto the main characters, and I'll try to sum each one up in a sentence.

The Extraordinary Girl (Christina Sajous) was an pleasantly unexpected surprise for me and was impressive in both her vocal and acrobatic skills during 'Before the Lobotomy/Extraordinary Girl'.
St Jimmy (Tony Vincent) was a frenetic ball of craziness and Tony Vincent played this madness with so much conviction, and back it up with some striking vocals.
Heather (I saw understudy Libby Winters) unfortunately was often out of my view due to my seating but her anger in 'Too Much Too Soon' (special mention to the talented Alysha Umphress in that song and her vocals in 'Rock and Roll Girlfriend' showed real talent.
Whatsername (Rebecca Naomi Jones) deserves at least one of this season's awards for supporting actress. Her vocal abilities are phenomenal (see '21 Guns' below) and her acting sublime - also she's damn brave for spending most of the play in just a pair of skimpy knickers!
Will (Michael Esper) was again, unfortunately out of my view, but his vocals and what acting I saw was superb. All three of the male leads meshed perfectly together, both in character and vocals.
Tunny (Stark Sands) was a real stand out performance - I really believed he had gone through hell during the storyline and his voice was clear yet heartbreaking - you could hear his pain in every line.
Johnny (John Gallagher Jr.) is the glue that holds the show together and projects it into something mind-blowing. I have been a fan of Gallagher Jr. his Tony Award winning performance in Spring Awakening and back in January got a chance to see him perform solo at the intimate Rockwood Music Hall in New York. Even so, I did not expect such a performance form him - the fact he got overlooked for Best Actor by the Tony's is simply unbelievable. He managed to cover virtually every emotion, his guitar playing was frequent and excellent and his vocals were both raw and pitch-perfect. His energy is relentless and mesmerising, and you need to see him in this NOW!

Ok, so I guess I didn't quite manage just one sentence for the last few... oops!

Finally, I just want to mention a few highlights and things to look out for. First up was 'Give Me Novocaine' sung by Esper and Sands. This was personally one of my favourite songs on the original album and I was pleased to see it stay close to the original. I was slightly taken aback by the accompanying scene between Gallagher Jr. and Naomi Jones - let's just say they made the scene very believable!

My second highlight also involved Gallagher Jr. and Naomi Jones and that was the little gem of 'When It's Time' - a previously unreleased track that Gallagher Jr. sings. In this one song, we suddenly see a hidden depth to Jimmy's character and his heartfelt outburst ends up being all the more bittersweet as the story progresses.

Finally, my last highlight is the final scenes from 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' through 'Homecoming' and then 'Whatsername'. The music was fantastic and took on a new meaning and I was surprised to find myself welling up during 'Homecoming'. If you have seen it you might recall which section I mean, and the range of emotions the characters went through projected themselves making me suddenly very emotional (not something that usually happens to me during theatre).

All in all, American Idiot is a new genre of theatre that is raw and edgy, more musically complex than you might expect, funny (e.g. 'Favorite Son') but also serious and contains more energy than you can shake a drumstick at. I urge you to go see this at any opportunity, I plan to see it again when I return from the UK and take it all in again. This isn't chicken soup for your soul, but Jack Daniels for your inner rock star.

'21 Guns' by Green Day and the cast of American Idiot (solos by Rebecca Naomi Jones, Christina Sajous, Mary Faber and Billie Joe Armstrong)

Philadelphia Phlyer

2010-03-24T04:46:00.001Z

This was my second weekend of racing and it was the Philly Phlyer - a team time trial (TTT), circuit race and criterium spread over two days. I had performed reasonably well in my first weekend coming 16th, 21st and 22nd out of a field of around 50 intro men's riders, but I was looking to improve on those results in these races.

First off was the TTT (Team Time Trial) in the gorgeous Fairmount Park along the river, and it was a lot of fun - although one of our guys was late to the start line so we ended up doing the whole 6.7 mile course with only two people instead of the recommended 4 person team! This meant it was rather painful, especially as my teammate didn't have time to warm up (he locked his keys in his car before the race) so started cramping meaning I had to 'pull' (ride at the front and put in the most effort) for quite a bit during the first half of the race. Still we scored a respectable time, and ended up second... out of two intro teams! In our defence, the other team had the full 4 people meaning 2 of them could 'mule it' (where you pull for long stints towards the start of the race and pull out when you are tired) and still have the required 2 men cross the finish line. Still, it did earn Rutgers 11pts in the East Coast College Cycling Championship and it was a lot of fun.

Next up was the circuit race with a field of 25 intro men, a similar course to the TTT but with an added hill (fun!) and so a little bit longer. Originally the race was 2 laps for the intro's, but after a long delay due to a nasty crash in the category before us we ended up doing just the one lap (although that was more than enough!). The course consisted of a downhill followed by a ~2 mile straight followed by an up and down hill followed by coming back along the straight before climbing the first hill then a sprint finish. Coming up the hill halfway through the race there was a pair that had broken off the front followed by a group of 3, then I was right at the front of the main pack behind them. Knowing it was now or never I really pushed it and caught the group of 3 that had broken off. We left the main pack well behind as we headed down the straight and started cycling through the 4 of us (each taking turns pulling) as we gained on the pair. I took the lead just before the end of the straight and with a big push attached us to the back of the front pair. Unfortunately, we still had the hill to come, so we all were out of our saddles, pumping the legs and trying to stay with the group. Amazingly, an RIT rider started his final push halfway up the hill, and although I was tempted to try to catch his wheel, I knew I needed to keep something for the sprint, so stayed in 4th position to the top. Then it was a full loop of a roundabout before the sprint finish, and as we looped I started to stand up on the pedals and really work the strokes. I passed the guy in 4th as we left the circle and started gaining on the Yale man in second. Unfortunately the final straight wasn't quite long enough to catch him, and I crossed the finish line in 3rd! I was pretty ecstatic, this was a hell of a lot better than I expected to do, and the 6 of us in the front group cooled down together all thanking each other for a good race and talking with excitement for the next day and the Crit. Here's the photo finish of the Circuit race:

Road race

The Criterium was being held at the Philadelphia Naval Yard and the industrial area definitely gave the race a different feel to the luscious green parkland we had been riding through the day before. The Crit was a 6 corner crit in an 'L' shape, requiring a bit more handling skill than the Rutgers crit, especially as two of the corners were *very* tight and with the same 25 man intro field as the day before I knew it was going to be a good race. I was pretty nervous going into the race, I was worried that yesterday's result had been some kind of fluke, and I felt a little pressure to make sure I did well in the Crit too. After our coached lap (all the intro races get a 'coached' lap where we cycle slowly around so we know the course before racing) we were off for our 5 laps of the 1 mile course. I immediately dropped much further down the pack than I wanted too (around 15th or so) which wasn't in my original plan (I had hoped to stay around 5th or 6th). I therefore started to slowly work my way up the pack, gaining 2 or 3 places per lap until the final lap when I was sitting around 7th or so. As we turned onto the final straight I knew I needed a good sprint, especially as there was a slight uphill and the front 9 or so riders were in pretty close proximity. Up once more out of the saddle I started to will my legs to push that little bit harder and before I knew it I had passed one guy, then another, then another to rock home in 3rd - my second podium finish of the weekend! I couldn't stop smiling as I returned to the Rutgers tent and everyone was congratulating me. Here's the photo finish of the Crit:

Criterium

Overall I had earned myself 8 points (5 for 3rd in circuit and 3 for 3rd in Crit) as well as the 11pts in TTT (which don't count towards my individual total) placing me 4th in the ECCC Division 1 Intro Men overall championship! Unfortunately, I'm not going to have a chance to gain more intro points as, after discussion with my teammates, we all agreed that I should upgrade category and start racing in the D Men field. This means longer races (over double what I had been racing), more racers (the average D field is between 40 and 80) and much faster opponents - but I am definitely up for the challenge!

Rutgers Classic

2010-03-10T03:00:00.000Z

        Back when I first heard I was heading to Rutgers, I contacted the Crew team (rowing) to see about joining the crew team when I came over to the US. I was told that unfortunately the Crew team only accepted undergraduates, as graduate students were ineligible for many college events. I was understandably disappointed, but I decided that I would try out a new sport instead.
        Now it seems a fairly common switch to change from rowing to cycling (for example, Rebecca Romero won a silver medal in the women’s quad in 2004 before winning a gold medal in Beijing in the individual pursuit in track cycling) so I decided to look into cycling with the Rutgers team.
        Immediately after contacting them I was struck by how welcoming the cycling team was - there were a few grads on the team and everyone was very generous in their advice and support. Hence, when I arrived in New Brunswick, I hunted out Kim’s Bike Shop - a local store owned by the parents of a past Rutgers cyclist. I met with Dave (who graduated a year earlier) and I eventually decided to go for a GT Carbon Sport.
        Fall term was then spent getting used to the bike. If anyone has never ridden a road bike before (like me) then you might be surprised just how different it is compared to a mountain or commuter bike. For a start, it is pretty wobbly - if you aren’t that confident and take a corner a little sharply you will end up on the floor. Secondly, you have to get used to using cycling shoes and cleats - where you ‘clip’ your shoes into the pedals enabling you to apply power throughout the whole pedal stroke, not just the downward section. Now when I first tried to use cleats I promptly fell off the bike... Luckily I was indoors at the time without anyone watching, and after a lot of practicing while holding onto the wall I finally was brave enough to try actually cycling.
        The difference between road cycling and ‘normal’ cycling is quite pronounced, but road cycling is hugely more efficient - everything is designed for maximum speed: lightweight frame, drop bars for aero body position, cleats to enable power throughout the stroke, thin tires for minimal friction, the list goes on and on. It may be a little uncomfortable to start with, but you soon get used to the new body positions and movements. I started going on group rides with the cycling team as soon as I felt confident, usually riding in the groups for the ‘over-insulated and speed challenged’, so the pace wasn’t crazy and we stayed together as a group. I also started increasing the distance I would ride, towards 25-30 miles solo, and peaking at a fantastic 58 mile Princeton group ride in January.
        In the meantime I had signed up for a triathlon (I’ll be doing a proper blog post about that later) and through a combination of exercise and good nutrition had lost 37lbs in 4 months, hitting my target weight of 180lbs (12st 12lbs) just a matter of days before my first ever cycling race - perfect timing! My first race would be the Rutgers Classic weekend (the first weekend of the East Coast College Conference), and would actually consist of 3 different styles of racing - Individual Time Trial (ITT), Criterium (Crit) and Circuit Race. It was great that my first race would be on home soil - being familiar with the course made me feel a lot more comfortable. I would be racing in the Intro Men, a category for beginners, or near beginners that meant we would be ‘looked after’ - whatever that would mean!
        After multiple emails, team meetings, sign-making sessions and beginners racing clinics, race weekend loomed, bringing with it a whole bag of nerves. On the Friday night we did the slightly mundane tasks essential to a well run race: sweeping key corners of heavy gravel, marking out potholes, flyering cars to let them know where they weren’t allowed to go. Then it was time for an early night and good night’s sleep before a 5am wake up call. Getting up that early I grabbed a quick bowl of oatmeal and headed down to Johnson Park, where the ITT was going to be held.

Individual Time Trial
        Unlike a lot of riders there, I was kind of looking forward to the ITT, and not unexpectedly it turned out to be my best event. The ITT consisted of a 2.7 mile course with two 180° turn-arounds that you had to complete as fast as possible. You were completely on your own, being sent off in 15s intervals and drafting (riding close behind another rider to avoid the wind) was illegal.
        I suppose it is probably the rower in me (with all those 2km tests!) but I really liked the idea of just being me against the clock - if I was fast I would do well and no external circumstances would affect the result.
        After a 5am wake-up call I was down at Johnson Park helping set-up and then I was hopping on the trainer to get warmed up for the race. A trainer is a little stand that you attach to your back wheel. Your wheel is then placed on a small cylinder that offers resistance through either fluid, magnets or wind (although the latter makes it sound like you’re powering a jet engine not just riding a bike...). This means you can ride your bike while stationary, allowing you to get your legs warmed up without having to weave your way through cars attempting to park. Before I knew it the Introductory Collegiate Men (Intro Men) were being called to the start line and I was off!
        The race was certainly hard, and my legs were pumped full of lactic acid by the end but it was also kinda fun. I had a fairly quick start averaging 23-24mph on the first stretch, trying to ensure I took Pat’s advice and took the most direct line from apex of corners to the next apex and it was great to hear some of the Rutgers guys encourage me when coming out of the first U-turn, just when I was starting to really feel it in my legs. Coming back up the course I managed to pass the rider in front of me and, after avoiding a stray line of geese, was at the second U-turn, where Cristian was yelling at me to catch the guy in front. I didn’t want to let him down and sure enough I soon passed the guy who started two in front of me, however by this point my legs were in quite a bit of pain! I was passed by a really quick DeSales guy right at the finish line (he placed 5th in the Intro Men) but otherwise was pretty pleased with my run.
        I later found out that I finished the course in a time of 7:38 and that put me 16th in a field of around 50-60 Intro Men - a result I was very happy with! It would also have placed me 78th out of the 120 D-Men (the next category above Intro) so that was pretty pleasing too. It was much better than I expected (I originally just hoped to not finish last) and after the race I was pumped for the Criterium that afternoon!

Criterium
        After finishing the ITT we cleared up the course materials and headed over to Busch Campus for the Crit around the training bubble. Now a Criterium is a style of race where riders race over a very short lap (usually around 1km) that is usually in a square with sharp 90°+ corners so technique is key. As an Intro I would only be racing for 20 minutes, unlike the hour the A Men would be racing. For the 30 minutes before the race we had our ‘Intro Clinic’ reminding us of cornering technique, a very important skill if we wanted to still be on our bikes at the end of the race! Very soon though we were lined up at the start line and setting off for 2-3 ‘coached laps’. Coached laps are something they do for intros to help us get comfortable with the course - we head round with some A riders from the different universities who give us tips and pointers for the actual race. Although these were non-competitive laps, there was certainly a bit of jostling for position to ensure a good start position.
        I managed to line up at an end of the second row on the start grid and before I knew it we were off for our 5 lap race. I soon found that I could happily keep up with the main pack (around 30 riders), and slowly worked my way towards the front. I then did something pretty stupid: I made a big push the second lap in. I was taking the first corner of the lap and realized that the rest of the front pack weren’t really putting full effort in so I whipped around the edge and took the lead. I tried to pull away and create a bit of space between me and the pack, however I soon realized just how much more difficult it is to ride on your own versus in the pack. I only managed around half a lap before the main pack caught up with me, and my legs were screaming at me by this point. To give them a little break I headed towards the rear of the main pack and enjoyed the ease offered by drafting. Unfortunately after spending my legs too early I struggled to work my way back up the pack and by the final lap I was firmly in the middle/rear of the pelaton. It didn’t help that on laps 3 and 5 I had guys crash out just in front of me on the final corner, resulting in me having to take wide lines to avoid getting caught in the carnage. As I turned onto the home straight of lap 5 I stood up and started my sprint powering through to earn the 21st spot on the board from the same field as in the morning.
        I certainly learnt a few things with my first Crit experience, that I will be taking with me into the next few weekends. Firstly, I need to be much more tactical about when I push. If I had left the push until maybe the 5th lap there is a chance it could work - if I know I will be able to put that extra burst of power when others can’t it may work out a pretty good strategy for me. I also learnt that crashes are pretty scary, but if one happens around you they are surprisingly easy to avoid (generally it just means taking a slightly non-standard line). Finally, make sure when you go for the home sprint that you have enough control over your bike - I saw one guy from a university that will remain nameless who in the sprint of my race stood up for a big push, and promptly lost control of his bike and crashed, taking off all the skin on the end of his thumb and good lot from his thigh in the process... Not fun...

Circuit Race
        On the Sunday it was the turn of the Circuit Race. This would involve much longer laps (around 4 miles) that would include more corners, a couple of small hills and a lot more riding in the pack than the Crit. The race would last for 30 minutes in total, including a ‘coached lap’ like at the Crit. The races would also get longer as the category increased, ending with a 90 minute race for the A men racers.
        The race was around Livingston Campus (One of Rutgers’ four campus at New Brunswick) and would include 8 corners and at the end a slight hill leading into a long downhill straight making for an exciting finish.
        As with the Crit, we had a beginners clinic beforehand, this time concentrating on drafting and bumping - two slightly scary, but ultimately essential techniques. Drafting is the art of riding close behind another rider to stay in their slipstream, making life much easier for yourself. To draft effectively there should be a matter of an inch or two between your wheels, so obviously it can be slightly dangerous, hence the workshop to teach us how to draft safely. Luckily I had already had quite a bit of drafting experience through team rides so this wasn’t anything new, however even with this experience, when someone slammed on their brakes in front of me I only just managed to avoid being sent flying, and in the process managed to knock the rider behind me and send him to the floor. Luckily no one was hurt and it certainly got the message across that drafting could be dangerous if someone acts without warning.
        After a few laps of the car park drafting each other we headed to the second half of the clinic - bumping. As the circuit race was longer than the Crit, most of the riding would be done in the pelaton and so there would inevitably be a little bumping of elbows etc. As was clearly pointed out learning how to bump was about making sure you didn’t fall over and not (!) a technique to take out other riders. To practice we rode over a patch of soft-ish grass and in groups of three practiced hitting elbows and shoulders, and responding by putting enough pressure back to stop the collider, but not so much as to send the other rider flying. After a few groups hitting the decks (including a spectacular fall between three members of the Yale team) everyone pretty much had the hang of it and there was time for a quick loo stop before the race started. In the toilets there were people getting changed and so I asked someone “Is this the queue for the loo?” to which I got the response “Oh, so you’re from McGill, are you?”. Never mind the fact I had my Rutgers cap on (the rest of my kit was hidden under my hoody and tracksuit bottoms) but I am pretty sure I don’t sound much like a Canadian!
        Soon enough we were on the start line and setting off for our coached lap. As with the Crit, even though this lap was non-competitive, there was certainly a lot of jostling for position - I for one did not particularly want to start at the back end of 50-odd riders if I didn’t have to! The course was much less technical than the Crit but it also surprised me just how close we were riding next to each other, this was definitely going to be interesting!
        After lining up again the race started and I managed to cement myself towards the front of the pack. After avoiding a crash in front of me (people seem to like to crash just in front of my bike...) I dropped a little towards the back of the main pack, but found that on 5th corner (which I thought was fairly easy) people were loathe to apply much power, so I simply took the outside line and was back up toward the middle of the pack. I again attacked on the uphill at the end of the circuit, putting myself again towards the front.
        The second (and final) lap I planned to attack on the 5th corner again and at the finish, but found as I turned the 4th that I was stuck in the center of the pack, without much options to get to the sides to make the push. This was pretty frustrating and it was only on the 7th corner I was able to start working my way up. Coming up the hill towards the final straight I found myself in a bit of no man’s land, I had broken off from the group but was a little too far to catch the 20 or so riders out front. Hence the final stretch was hard work and I ended up sprinting against one other guy also in the no man’s land.
        I managed to win the sprint and ended up finishing a very respectable 22nd in the same field as the day before. I was really pleased with this result - coming in the top half of all three races was much better than I expected - but I feel that if I could have attacked a little earlier and been a bit more aggressive in moving up the pack during the last lap I could have done a little better. At least I now have some idea of tactics for the next few races, and what works and doesn’t in terms of race plans for me. I definitely think in the Crit I need to just stay with the pack and push on the final lap, whereas with the circuit I need to attack a little earlier to ensure I’m not stuck in the center of the group towards the end.

        All in all I had a fantastic weekend racing - the races were completely different to anything I’ve done before but were a lot of fun.

Fulbright Enrichment Seminar

2010-03-09T17:47:00.000Z

        Every year, enrichment seminars are put on throughout America for first year Fulbright Scholars, allowing them to discuss topics pertinent to the ideals of the Fulbright Scholarship - mutual understanding and using it for worldwide benefits. This year was no exception, and Fulbright hosted around 10 different conferences all across the country from the start of February through March, encouraging scholars to discuss the important idea of social entrepreneurship - that is using business models with a social conscience to benefit people and communities.

        Scholars were not given a choice of host city, but could specify which dates would be best suited - in my case the last weekend of February. Hence I found myself on a snowy Thursday morning at the end of February sat on a plane ready for a 6 hour cross-country flight to San Francisco, CA. I seem to have a habit of flying during pretty severe snowstorms - and sure enough by 9am around two thirds of the flights scheduled were cancelled. Luckily our flight wasn’t too delayed and before I knew it I was up in the air.

        To say I lucked out was a bit of an understatement - from random assignments for my Gateway Orientation and Enrichment Seminar I had got Miami and San Francisco! Landing in 65F sunshine immediately brightened my mood and after a quick frozen yogurt at the airport I got onto the supershuttle to the hotel at Fisherman’s Wharf. Having a hour or two before the seminar started I decided to get a quick run in - heading along the bay. The 4.5mile route took me past Alcatraz and halfway along to the Golden Gate Bridge - amazing!

        That evening was full of introductions, and culminated in our welcome dinner with our keynote address by a social entrepreneur and academy award winner who had flown from Washington DC specially to give the address, and was flying straight back afterwards - talk about dedication! The speech covered a whole range of topics from what exactly is ‘social entrepreneurship’ to how we can get involved.

        The next couple of days were focused on discussing Social Entrepreneurship and how we can get involved. This included panel sessions with current entrepreneurs, case studies and working on ideas of our own. All the scholars were split up into around 8 groups, each being assigned a topic to try and solve through social entrepreneurship.
        To give you an idea of the kind of projects we discussed, our group was assigned environment, and we developed a business model to help clean up and educate Buenos Aries in Argentina. This involved hiring unemployed to clean up rubbish from streets and parks in Buenos Aries, and in exchange offer them free education and advice to try and get them back on the job ladder. This would not run as a charity, but rather as a business, competing for contracts from the government and private businesses, and looking to make a small profit that could be reinvested in the project. All this planning culminated in the group presentations and our group earned the runner-up slot! It was a great experience to really think through a project like this, but I realized that its probably better for me to just stick with the maths...

        Part of the enrichment seminars is always a volunteering opportunity, and the San Francisco conference was no different. Three projects were being supported: teaching in a local school, clearing up local parks and, the one I was assigned to, helping at the San Francisco Food Bank. If you have never heard of a Food Bank before, this is a big warehouse where food that is donated is collected, repackaged and distributed to projects such as soup kitchens and homeless shelters. Most of the food is either ‘staples’ such as rice, pasta and beans or food that is nearing its ‘best-before’ date. This food may be perfectly edible for a long time after the expiration date, and so the food bank can repackage and distribute this food instead of it going to waste.
        Our project was going to consist of some repackaging, this time of bulk supplies of frozen carrots, frozen sweetcorn and pinto beans. These were provided to the food bank in large tonne weight bags, and we would be repackaging into 1lb bags so that they could be easily given out to the needy. After our safety brief we got to work, and I got given the job of moving the food to the tables where others would sort into smaller bags - basically, all the heavy lifting! All I can say is that frozen carrots weigh a surprising amount, and I certainly made up for not getting to the gym while in San Francisco! It was great to help out with such a worthwhile project and be part of a chain that will end up feeding thousands of people in the Bay area.

        On the Friday evening we split off into pairs and threes and met a local family for dinner. These hosts generally had some link to Fulbright or IIE and myself and Teresa (from Argentina) were matched with Nancy Schneider and her lovely family. Nancy had been a Fulbrighter in Germany, studying public transport solutions whilst her husband Rick worked in air travel. They had two very friendly daughters Rebecca and Katie and we all headed to their favorite local restaurant for dinner.
        The whole evening was a lovely sociable occasion, and I learnt a lot about San Franciscan life - from what the girls were doing at school (including a heated argument about the relevance of Shakespeare!) to the local sports teams and attractions. I was overwhelmed by just how welcoming the family was and after dinner (which Rick insisted on paying for, even after I offered to pay my share) we headed for a quick tour of San Francisco in the car including the town hall, china town and other local landmarks, all accompanied by a fantastic commentary from the family. It was certainly a memorable night and a highlight of the whole conference.

        On the Saturday afternoon, after presenting our ideas, we had a couple of hours of free time, so myself and Jaykar (a UK scholar studying Public Health at Harvard) went to meet up with Mary O’Hara (another UK scholar, a journalist based in SF). It was great to catch up with both of them and see just how different our Fulbright experiences have been. Both Mary and Jaykar are here for around a year, so they have had much busier years, trying to pack in all their experiences whereas I can take it a little slower on the traveling front. We met in the one British-themed hotel in SF (complete with Beefeaters at the front door!) and spent a good hour or two chatting away before heading out to see the Chinese New Year parade.
        San Francisco has the largest china town outside of Asia and so the celebrations were like nothing I’d ever seen. The amount of people out was staggering, and there was parade float after parade float ranging from the stunning to the captivating to the ridiculous (I mean, a McDonalds themed float? Honestly?). Pretty soon we had to head to the docks for our evening cruise around the Bay, and we found out just how hard it is to move through thousands upon thousands of spectators when you need to get somewhere in a hurry!

        After battling through the crowds and doing a little running we made it to the dock and met up with the other Fulbrighters, and were soon aboard our boat for the evening. The boat was going to circle the Bay while we were served dinner and drinks and possibly use the dancefloor. The first thing I noticed was how rocky the boat was - considering the Bay seemed pretty calm that evening, we were being thrown around a little, drinks were nearly spilling and eating dinner was certainly more interesting than usual! Not only that but there was a mildly terrifying DJ on the decks - she looked like she was out of the 60’s complete with headband and was pretty much forcing people to dance against their will... Luckily I managed to escape her clutches by taking regular trips up to the viewing deck where I saw some amazing sights, from the Golden Gate Bridge to Alcatraz, and all by moonlight - spectacular!

        Unfortunately, Sunday came around far too quickly and before I knew it I was saying goodbye to old and new friends, and promising to keep in touch when we got back to our hectic everyday lives. As I had managed to book a slightly later flight than a lot of people I ended up with a couple of free hours in the morning so decided to head out for another run. I headed out at around 8.30am and started heading up the bay towards the Golden Gate bridge. This time I didn’t stop halfway like last time and kept going, passing a triathlon club swimming in the Ocean, a cycling club heading out on a group ride and a running club that passed me at a speed about triple what I was going! The morning was perfect, sunny but not so warm that I overheated, and with just enough breeze to cool me down without blowing me off my feet. It truly is an amazing run and was rightly voted by Runner’s World one of the Top 10 Runs in America. Before I knew it I was underneath the Golden Gate bridge at a plaque where you can “offer your hands” to the bridge - a completely meaningless gesture, but also a nice way to feel like you had achieved something (there was even a little plaque on the floor for dogs to offer their paws!). I turned around and headed back to the hotel and the second half went even quicker than the way out. Before I knew it I was passing the shorefront shops and arriving at the hotel 7.5miles later - one of my longest runs ever, and without doubt my most memorable. As much as Fulbright organised an amazing conference, I think that run will stick with me most out of the 4 days - I really achieved the ‘runner’s calm’ and felt completely at peace during the run. I forgot all my work stress, all my responsibilities and just lived in the moment, drinking in the peace and calm. This all might sound a little arty-farty but if you run, or cycle or do any long-distance sport you’ve probably experienced something similar at one point during your training - sheer bliss!

        And with the run, that was the end of the conference. I got back on the plane for a 6 hour flight back to New Jersey, leaving the sun and warmth to be greeted by cold and rain. The four days soon seemed to fade into distant memory but they were certainly a highlight of the term so far, so thank you Fulbright!

Superbowl Sunday!

2010-02-08T05:03:00.005Z

This is just a quick post to let you know how my first ever Superbowl Sunday went...

For those of you who don't know, the Superbowl is the biggest trophy in American Football, and is decided through a playoff tournament between the top sides of the 8 regional divisions, plus some wild card entries, culminating in the great American tradition of Superbowl Sunday.

Superbowl Sunday is when the whole of America stops - more food is consumed than any other day bar thanksgiving (even beating Christmas), fewer marriage ceremonies take place that Sunday than any other in the year, and 151.6million people will watch at least part of the 4 hour extravaganza on TV. This results in many Superbowl Parties - like the one I went to - and that involves a lot of preparation. To put it in perspective, the number of total man hours spent making food for Superbowl parties across America is the same as the number of total man hours spent making the recent blockbuster Avatar - a whopping 10 million. The food consumed is very 'American': 28 million pounds of potato chips (crisps to us Brits), 325.5 million gallons of beer and an amazing 1 billion chicken wings.

The party I went to was a very low-key affair, in fact there was only 4 of us! Workload has been pretty intense this weekend so in fact we had a superbowl/homework party - and it was only a matter of minutes before I was thoroughly confused by both. To be honest though, it wasn't long before we abandoned the homework idea and got engrossed in the game.

American football is a typical American sport - and hence has lots of time-outs, many obscure rules no-one quite knows properly (think very much like cricket) and a huge following. The Superbowl this year was being contested between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints - with the Colts as the favorites and the Saints as the well-supported underdogs (bouncing back from the hurricane and making their first ever Superbowl final).

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOLER ALERT!

Needless to say, being a Brit I had to support the underdogs and so was very pleased when the Saints started taking control of the game in the 2nd quarter. They carried on with their momentum and finished the game with a great score of 31-17 (matching the record of greatest Superbowl final comeback after being 0-10 down in the first quarter).

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOLER ALERT!

Now one of the other Superbowl traditions is advertising - and it is rightfully called the biggest day in advertising in the world. Adverts are at a high premium costing a shocking $2.8million for a 30s segment, equalling nearly $100,000 per second! Because of their massive viewing audience, and the fact they can make or break a company/product, a lot of thought and effort goes into these, making them often like miniature movies. My highlight this year though has to be the simplistic and rather sweet Google ad I've embedded below - although why on earth Google needs to advertise is beyond me...

All in all, my Superbowl experience was great fun. I was confused for most of the game but still managed to enjoy it, got to appreciate some great plays on the field (including a great 80-yd interception run), got to say "What?!?" many times during some truly incomprehensible adverts, got to see The Who perform their halftime show, and most importantly got to enjoy all this with some friends - bring on Super Bowl XLV!

Oh and thanks to http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/super-bowl-by-the-numbers.php for all the facts and figures!

We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for the sake of auld lang syne... (Part 2)

2010-01-24T04:32:00.011Z

Sorry for such a delay in the second part - I've been completely snowed under by work for the past few weeks!

Now to resume...

When I left off I had just landed back home after an 'interesting' journey, and after meeting mum and dad at the airport, I promptly fell asleep for most of the 80 minute car journey home. Other than being a bit antisocial with mum and dad (although they are probably used to it by now..) it also meant I felt pretty groggy by the time I got back home to good ol' Glororum.

First thing to do was say hello to the dog, Rock, before attempting to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime - to try and fight the joys of jet lag. After getting only around 6hrs sleep in 48hrs straight off the back of finals this was easier said than done; but with the help of the nespresso machine and Sky+ed episodes of You've Been Framed, I managed to stay awake just about long enough. That being said, as soon as 9pm came around I headed straight to bed and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Now usually I'm not that keen on having a lie in - if I wake up I find it pretty hard to stay in bed, never mind fall off to sleep again, and usually struggle to sleep past 10am. So it was a bit of a shock to wake up at precisely 3.30pm - 18 and a half hours after falling asleep! I could quite easily blame it on jet lag (it would be 10:30am back in the US) but I think in reality I was just absolutely knackered!

I then got up and dressed and had some breakfast/brunch/lunch/afternoon snack before doing a little unpacking. It was during the unpacking that I got a phonecall from James which went something like this:

Me: Hello?

James: Hi David, is Mum & Dad there?

Me: Nope, they're out. How are you? I've got so much to talk...

James: Sorry, got to ring Mum & Dad, speak to you soon. *Hangs Up*

Now to say I felt a little snubbed was a bit of an understatement, after all I had just come back from 4 and a half months in another country, but it soon became clear when he rang back 10 minutes later:

Me: Hello?

James: Hi, it's me again.

Me: What's up? Is everything alright?

James: Yeah - Sam just wants to ask you something...

Sam: Hi David.

David: Hi Sam - is something the matter?

Sam: I just wanted to know if you would mind me becoming your sister-in-law?

Of course I didn't mind! And after many congratulations I found out what had happened - the night before, James & Sam had been heading back from Sam's dad's house in Wales when James had told her that she would have 30mins when they got back to pack her overnight bag for a surprise Christmas present. They then headed to the airport where they stayed the night. Early the next morning they took off and soon landed in Paris, the city of love, where they spent the day gallavanting round, taking in the sights and sounds.

Just before dusk they headed to the Louvre to take a few pictures. While getting Sam to take a picture of him in front of the glass pyramid, James gets down on one knee and pulls out a little box. Sam, meanwhile, oblivious to this carries on taking photos (assuming James was just doing a weird pose) - until a group of Japanese tourists start applauding. After the initial shock Sam said "Yes" and much romantic kissing and hugging ensues... Not only that but James then announces that he's got them a table for dinner at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

No I like a bit of romance as much as the next person, but this causes a little bit of a problem for me. When I come to propose to my future wife (not for some years yet I guess) how on Earth am I going to live up to this?!? James did everything so perfectly I can't exactly just ask her on the couch in front of the telly, can I?

Of course I am immensely happy for James and Sam. They've been going out for 5 or 6 years now, and I can't think of a happier couple - they are truly made for each other and I wish them all the best for the future. So needless to say, the rest of the holidays contained much celebrating (as if I needed an excuse..).

That night I had a chance to finally catch up with Becca - after 6 months of Skype calls. So much had happened since we last saw each other: grad school for me, med school for her; and we've been best friends for years now so it was really nice to go out for dinner and have a good natter.

Soon enough it was really Christmas (and a white one too!) and after wrapping all my gifts and putting them under the tree I slept soundly on Christmas Eve waiting for Saint Nick to come a knocking. Next thing I know I'm getting woken up by loud "Ho Ho Ho"s from next door in my parents room - whereas to be honest all I wanted to do was go back to sleep! Now I get just as excited about Christmas as the next person (probably more so), but with jet lag I was still adjusting my sleep pattern. I got up however, and spent the next few hours giving and opening presents, calling relatives and generally having a fantastic time. We also headed into the village to see everyone, including my cousin Kate's three kids - which definitely reminded me of the sheer magic I felt at that young an age at Christmas.

Christmas dinner was its usual indulgent self and soon enough I was dozing in front of the fire content that another fantastic Christmas had been and gone. I didn't have too long to sit around in post-Christmas idleness though as on the 27th we were through to the Falcons to watch the rugby, and more importantly meet James and Sam. I did find it funny that up until an hour before the game the Falcons were still asking fans to arrive at the grounds with shovels to help clear the pitch of the inches of snow piled on top - and get a free drink for doing so. I think this shows how much smaller scale rugby is compared to football (the Falcons are a premiership side) but also emphasizes the community spirit in rugby. It really is just a big family that go watch the games.

Talking of family, I finally got to see James and Sam and spent most of the game concentrating on catching up with them instead of the rugby (it was for the best - we lost). After hearing all about the engagement and everything they've been up to since I've been away we finally got home for Christmas #2. Lots of presents ensued including an awesome one I got from them which was a guide to road tripping across the US: providing routes, itineraries, suggested supplies etc. I'm definitely going to be trying that out sometime soon!

The next few days were spent preparing for the engagement party on the 30th and on the 29th Paul and Stéph came and stopped over on their way up to Paul's flat in Edinburgh. It was great to see them and we had a lovely meal with them, the whole family and Becca. It was then time for a movie and somehow it got decided (i.e. Stéph decided) that Stéph would pick the DVD. This immediately had me worried, especially as Sam had got He's Just Not All That Into You for Christmas and offered it to Stéph to watch. Me and Paul had pretty much resigned ourselves to this fate when Stéph suggested American Psycho. I've no idea if I was more relieved at not having to watch a chick flick, or more worried about Stéph's choice of movie!

The next day Paul and Stéph headed on up to Scotland while we got the house ready for the party. Before we knew it the house was packed with relatives, family friends and rugby teammates all having a great time and toasting to James and Sam. It was great to see so many people so happy for them both, and after most had left we ended up with all my family from Bamburgh left in the kitchen. Next thing I know, 'Daydream Believer' is blasting out of the iPod dock and my Auntie Sue is on the kitchen bench and my Mum is on the kitchen table... All I can say is that I think it's best that we don't have any neighbours!

The next morning there were more than a few sore heads in the little village of Bamburgh and I made my way up to Edinburgh for Hogmanay with all of my friends from Oxford. I had an amazing couple of days, catching up, smiling, laughing, partying, eating and drinking (Haggis pizza is delicious!) and generally having a fantastic time! It reminded me how lucky I am to have such great friends and how important it is to keep in touch with them - definitely a New Years Resolution! It all flew past far too quickly though and before I knew it I was back in snowy Glororum packing to head back to the States.

The journey back was just as eventful as the journey home, starting with The Snow. I capitalize The Snow as I can't remember the UK having anything quite as bad as it in a long time, and it pretty much shut everything down. So much so that the usual 1hr journey to the airport took us nearly three times as long and, as such, ended up with me travelling up the night before my flight to stay in the Airport hotel to make sure I caught my flight. At the airport at 8 the next morning I headed to the check-in desk to be told that, as my flight at 11am was going to be delayed, I would be put on an earlier flight, scheduled to leave at 9am. Of course, this was also delayed, and so much so that by the time we de-iced, found our space in the queue and flew down to London, I actually arrived at Heathrow an hour later than the original flight was due to land - don't you just love air travel?

Getting to Heathrow I had to transfer terminals before a 90 minute wait in the security check. Getting through I had only about 20 minutes to grab some sushi before I headed to our gate. Because of the new security concerns we had an extra security check at the gate, where everyone was patted down and had their bags manually searched. To be honest, I really didn't mind this delay - as anything that improves security on flights I can easily put up with. We finally were all aboard and took off for another rather bumpy journey back - this time with nearly 3 hours of added seatbelt time as we jostled our way across the Atlantic.

Arriving back in the US I decided that for the week before school restarted I would experience some 'culture.' Getting in touch with Dana we started to plan our week ahead. First, I headed up to Rockwood Music Hall on Friday night for a free gig by Johnny Gallagher Jr. He is a Tony Award winning actor (winning for his portrayal of Melchior in Spring Awakening) but did a really impressive chilled out set, reminding me of Damien Rice, John Mayer and Newton Faulkner. After his 1 hour set we were about to leave when the next act started to set up and, on a whim, we decided to stay. What followed was an hour of comedic jazz - not a very common genre but side-splittingly funny.

The next night we kept up our culture run with a trip to Broadway - with some student rush tickets. If you don't know what student rush is, it's cheap tickets (usually slightly restricted view) the show gives to students usually via a lottery or first-come-first-served basis. On the Saturday we managed to get tickets to Finians Rainbow for only $25 - pretty cheap! It's a pretty old fashioned musical )written around the 50's) and was funny and uplifting - just what the doc ordered!

Next up was a trip to Carnegie Hall om Sunday night. Fulbright have a cultural program that aims to enrich scholars while they are in America, and the New York branch provides tickets to events in and around the city. So from this we found ourselves at Carnegie Hall for the America-Israel Cultural Foundation's 70th Anniversary Gala; for free! It was an amazing concert, with many talented performers, and introduced me to some pieces I have never heard before. These included the sublime Schubert's String Quintet - which is possibly the most stunning strings composition I have ever heard. In particular, the Adagio is a heartbreakingly beautiful movement - composed only weeks before Schubert died. I've posted a video for this below; I urge you to watch, and hope you enjoy it:

Finally, my week of culture was rounded off with another trip to Broadway - this time to see Next To Normal. For my birthday, Jo had given me some dollars and I found tickets for less than half price, and so decided to use them for this. Next To Normal is a new musical based on the life of a Bipolar mother while the rest her family try to hold onto normality. This may not seem the most typical storyline for a musical, and with a cast of only 6 (mother, father, son, daughter, daughter's boyfriend and psychopharmacologist), and 8 musicians the odds of its success against the big spectacles on Broadway, like Wicked and Lion King, seemed stacked against it.

However the musical is honestly one of the best shows I have ever seen in my life. The music, the acting, the staging and storyline are all perfect. I think it really says something when I could easily imagine the play working without the music - it is so well crafted as a play that, rather than the music defining the show, it simply adds a whole new dimension. Seeing it on a Thursday night, I was also fairly skeptical about having two understudies in the performance, however both were excellent - Meghann Fahy as the daughter blew me away, and I can't honestly see how Jennifer Damiano could have played the part any better. It fully deserved it's mass of Tony nominations, and I am sure if had been up against anything other than the Billy Elliott powerhouse it would have swept the awards.

I really can't express how great this show is and if anyone gets the chance to see it then DO IT! On that note I leave you with a song from the show (one of my favourites), but also check out 'Superboy and the Invisible Girl' and 'I'm Alive' if you get the chance...

Until next time (I'll try not to leave it as long next time!) - take care and keep tuning in!

We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for the sake of auld lang syne... (Part 1)

2010-01-03T11:08:00.010Z

Wow - I can't believe it's been over a month since I last updated - sorry! Life has been fairly hectic and I've finally found some time while back at home to let you all know what has happened the past 5 weeks or so.

I left off just before thanksgiving - which was pretty amazing! The food was great, as was the company and it felt like a really special day. Getting to West Chester was easy enough, and I even had a chance to catch some of the Macy's Parade - I've put up photos on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidjohnwilson

Arriving we headed to Susan's house and after a glass of wine we tucked into dinner. The spread was massive - turkey, sweet potato mash, roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, yams (still not entirely sure what they are), stuffing, tomatoes and caesar salad! It all tasted fantastic and on commenting about this I made my first faux pas of the day - it went something like this:

Me: "Susan, the stuffing is fantastic! Do you mind if I ask what is in it?"

Susan: "David, honey, I work full-time and own a law firm; you'll have to ask the take-out menu..."

Needless to say I was a little embarrassed, and things didn't improve when I then asked about Christmas traditions:

Me: "So if you have a big turkey dinner for Thanksgiving, what do you eat for Christmas dinner?"

Susan: "We have chinese take-out... We're Jewish..."

Luckily Susan laughed off me putting my foot in it and we all headed to the banks of the Hudson to watch the sunset - simply stunning.

With Thanksgiving over I still had 3 days of vacation before lectures resumed so on the Friday I headed in to New York for "Black Friday" - the US equivalent of the Boxing Day Sales. I personally think it's a great idea - having the sales in November means that you can get some bargains for Christmas presents, instead of finding the presents at half price the day after giving them away! New York was crazily busy but I met up with Dana which was lovely and I also managed to get myself a classical guitar in the sales which was even better!

It was then back to the grindstone that is trying to get a PhD in math - not all that fun but I also made sure that even though I was working hard, I was playing hard too! The next few weeks were filled with KEEN and training - I was in New York most weekends for KEEN and then training 6 days a week - 2 days cycling, 2 days running and 2 days hitting the gym.

The fitness stuff has been really great - it has been a good stress reliever and I've been losing weight - currently I've lost 25.4lbs and only 10.6lbs to go for my target weight. I want to be a bit lighter and slimmer for the cycling season; after all, if I'm going to lug my big fat behind round a course for an hour or two, I may as well make it as light as possible!

(OK - so I lied. I didn't have time to finish this off back home so I'm back in NJ now :P)

As part of my fitness drive I've done something impulsive (and rather reckless) and signed up for my first ever triathlon! It's Olympic length (1.5km swim, 23.5mi bike, 10km run), is the New Jersey State Triathlon and at the moment I'm alternating between being really excited and really scared. It's being held on my birthday (25th July) so I reckon I've got plenty time to train(!) so hopefully I'll at least be able to finish... Those of you who have ever been swimming with me will know I've got quite a bit to work on - at the moment whenever I breathe out underwater I can't help but breathe in straight after; not so good when you're swimming in a lake! I'm going to be raising money for two charities by completing the triathlon - both close to my heart. In the US I'll be raising dollars for KEEN New York (http://www.keennewyork.org) while back home I'll be raising pounds for the MND Association who helped my granda with his, ultimately fatal, fight with this horrible disease (http://www.mndassociation.org).

To help with the fundraising I have decided to offer an incentive for people sponsoring me - if people sponsor me over a certain amount (probably £5 and $10) then they will get entered into a prize draw for some goodies! To that end I've been contacting celebrities, authors, athletes and others to get some signed stuff to giveaway. So far I've got a signed book from Terry Pratchett, signed game from PopCap Games and signed photo from Sir Steve Redgrave! If you have any ideas of people to contact (or if you know anyone who might be interested in donating personally) then please get in touch! You can either leave a comment or email me on davidjwi@math.rutgers.edu and I should get it.

Finally, the end of term came around - unfortunately bringing Finals with it. Finals sucked big time, but at the end of the day they were only for a week and although the 50min oral exam was possibly the worst exam I've ever done, I survived... And straight after my final exam on the Friday I headed into NYC for a documentary screening with Fulbright. The documentary is called "From Mambo to Hip-Hop: A South Bronx Tale" by Henri Chalfant and is a fantastic watch! It's even better when followed by a question and answer session with the director, producer and two of the people featured - absolutely fascinating stories and I learnt a lot about an area of New York I was pretty ignorant about beforehand.

That night I got back to the flat at around 3am and started to pack. At around 3.05am I realised that I really shouldn't have left packing until the night before the flight. At around 4am I hadn't really done much except move a load of stuff around my room in a vain attempt to pretend to pack. By 5am I had filled a hand luggage bag and decided this was enough effort for the night so went to sleep - only problem was I had stripped my bed to wash the bed clothes but hadn't had time resulting in me sleeping fully dressed on my lovely plastic mattress. Waking at 8am I carried on my 'packing' and by 11am I had more or less got everything I wanted to take home laid out. At 11 I headed to New Brunswick to get my hair cut so that dad wouldn't moan when I got home that I looked like a scruff, and went to meet up with Tarek for lunch - except unsurprisingly he had slept in... At about 1pm I headed back to the flat, I quickly finished packing and noticed it had started to snow - "how pretty!" I thought. By around 4pm there was a veritable blizzard outside and I decided to head to the train station an hour earlier than planned in case it got worse. Good idea. I rang for a taxi at 4 and it arrived at 4.30. By this point I was fairly peeved that it had taken so long - but bundled my bags in the boot anyway, while the blizzard tried to turn me into a pretty impressive yeti lookalike. I soon found out why the taxi was late when it took us 30 minutes to travel a usually 5 minute drive. The roads were horrific - Route 18 (a 3-lane motorway) had seen no sign of grit so we crawled at a paltry 5mph while the back end of the taxi slipped and slided its way to the train station.

Thankfully the train journey was uneventful - if only the same could have been said at the airport! It started as I queued to drop my bags off at the express check-in. I was two from the front and idly waiting for the passengers in front to get a move on when I glanced at the sign regarding what you could take in your hand luggage. I've seen this sign countless times and could pretty much recite it by heart but was nevertheless reading it to pass the time. When it came to the liquids section a sudden realisation hit me and my stomach immediately felt like it had been sucked into a black hole...

I had been Christmas shopping in New York a couple of weeks earlier and got all my family's presents so I wouldn't have the stress when I got back to the UK. For Sam, James' girlfriend, I had got a very nice Molton Brown selection box thing - with six different bubble baths, body washes, body cremes and other things I wasn't really sure what you did with (needless to say when the man in the shop asked me what I wanted in the box I told him I didn't have a clue and for him to pick out some "nice smelly stuff"). Now as I didn't really trust BA to get me and my luggage to the same destination I had decided to put all my Christmas presents in my hand luggage - including Sam's... With the sudden realisation that security would not appreciate about 1.5l of good quality bubble bath in my hand luggage I raced to the back of the line with my cases, flung them open on the floor in the middle of Newark airport and proceeded to pack my hand luggage with dirty gym kit and underwear to make space for the present in my hold luggage. The crisis averted I checked in my bags and proceeded to the departure lounge for a much needed cup of tea.

I thought that would be the end of my transport issues, however, arriving at the departure gate I noticed that my plane was already scheduled to be 30 minutes delayed - no big deal, I had experienced much worse in the past. Rather suprisingly, we all got onto the board at the scheduled time and were sat in our seats with only a 40 minute delay or so. Then the captain came on the intercom - "Excuse me, but we have a rather large amount of snow on the plane that has frozen so we will be needing to de-ice the plane before take off. This will take approximately 30 minutes after which we should be good to go." 30 minutes - again not a huge deal, so I sat patiently reading my book while a mechanised robot (looking surprisingly like a gangly version of WALL-E) sprayed the plane with industrial strength de-icer (which, for the record, smells exactly like celery..). So after a little over an hour the captain comes on the tannoy again - "Excuse me, but it appears that while waiting for our flight slot the plane has re-frozen and will need to be de-iced again. Sorry for the delay."

Now I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want to be told that the plane I'm sat in has a rather inconvenient habit of freezing when we are about to head up into the ridiculously cold air 35000ft above us. An hour later the captain comes back on the tannoy to inform us - "Once again the plane has refrozen, however I have been assured that once we are de-iced we will be able to take off immediately" - this I found out later was probably because we were one of only 6 planes to take off after 9pm from Newark - bloody snow! Finally - after nearly 3 hours sat on the plane with no entertainment or refreshments - we managed to take off and proceeded to hit some major turbulence heading through the snow clouds. Once above the cloud level it levelled off and we were served dinner.

Now I'm pretty sure turbulence has something in for me - whenever I'm on a turbulent flight the turbulence seems to subside about an hour in and then wait until I'm just about to take a bite of my scalding hot, unidentifiable-meat based flight dinner and then proceed to spend the next 30 minutes trying its best to cover my lap with beef hot pot. The bumpiness continued while we crossed Canada and Greenland (thank go I don't like drinking tea on a plane) before finally settling down while we crossed the Atlantic.

We finally touched down at Heathrow about 3 hours delayed and after another bout of security I finally boarded my Newcastle flight and was nearly home. The views were incredible as we flew up the East Coast - everything was a winter wonderland - and it was getting whiter and whiter the more north we got. Touching down in Newcastle I was greeted by big hugs from mum and dad and promptly fell asleep during the car journey home...

That's it for Part 1 - tune in to part 2 for loads of celebrations - Christmas, Hogmanay and a very special engagement!

I am thankful for...

2009-11-26T01:15:00.002Z

During Thanksgiving dinner it is customary in the US to go around the table and for everyone to say what they are thankful for this year. To that end, I thought I would share what I am thankful for:

I am thankful for the support of my family during the last year. They have all been so supportive of me coming out to the States and without them I would never have got here. Mum, Dad, James, Sam, Gran and everyone else - thank you so much.

I am thankful for my friends from home. I am so glad I have managed to keep in touch with you guys. I am especially thankful for the handful of you (you know who you are!) who put up with me on Skype when I'm feeling down, homesick or just stressed out. You always know what to say to put everything in perspective and never fail to make me smile - thank you.

I am thankful for the Fulbright commission for giving me this scholarship. Without the Fulbright scholarship I doubt I would have made it across here, and with the scholarship I get to have so many amazing experiences and opportunities - it really is like no other scholarship in the world.

I am thankful for fellow Fulbrighters, both in the US and UK. I have yet to meet a Fulbrighter who I didn't get on with and wasn't an amazing and interesting person. You all make the experience that little bit more special. I will never forget Miami and hope to have many more unforgettable memories with you guys in the future.

I am thankful for KEEN. I am so glad I found KEEN, and it has really changed my life while out here. Before I started going to KEEN I was stressed, overworked and really homesick. KEEN put everything into perspective and now is an integral part of my life - I can't wait for the weekend to come around and am gutted when I can't make a session. A special thank you to Nichole and the other KEEN volunteers who have made me feel so welcome, such an important thing when I'm away from home.

I am thankful for Ms. Freedman who has so kindly invited 12 Fubrighters into her home tomorrow for a Thanksgiving feast. It is incredibly generous of her and I hope will be a special day, and an opportunity to experience this American holiday in a very traditional way.

Finally I am thankful for everyone who reads this blog or The Fulbright Report. I know I can ramble on sometimes but I'm glad I can share my experiences with you all.

Please let me know what you are thankful for by leaving a comment below, and

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Pedalling Photos, Parents & Prizes (Part III)

2009-11-24T18:14:00.011Z

Its finally time for...

PART III: Prizes

First off, sorry for the delay in the final part of the post - there was a little problem named midterms and so my life has been on hold for the last week or so... Secondly, apologies for the very tenuous link between the title and content of this part - I wanted an alliterative title, and prizes was about the only thing I could come up with. Anyways, on to the post:

The rest of the week when my parents left was pretty mundane - getting back into the grad student life (i.e. lots of work and ramen, not much of anything else) until Wednesday. Wednesday started with a gym session - I'd booked a training session with a Sports Science major to set me a gym program to help me get in shape for the road racing season in Spring. I had already been for my fitness check and this session was my first run through of the program. It started off with a nice easy warm up followed by some squats and shoulder presses. Next came dead lifts. After starting with just the 45lb bar I informed Ben that it was pretty easy to do the set of 15, so he added 50lb to give me a bit of a challenge...

Now I had been stuck working at the department on my seminar talk until midnight the night before so hadn't really had dinner; by the time I had got in I really wasn't very hungry and just wanted to go to bed. I didn't really have much for breakfast either (big error...) and so wasn't feeling all that energetic and strong.

I then proceeded to force out a set of 15, during which I kind of forgot to breathe... Now you would think breathing is pretty easy to remember to do - after all we do it all the time right? Well combined with heavy weights and obstination it turns out I can forget the most basic things!

This resulted in me nearly collapsing, feeling sick, having to sit down for 5 minutes and drink lots of water. Feeling a bit better I then decided to stand up - bad idea. Suddenlymy vision went completely blurry and I sat straight back down again. It was a good 10 minutes before I felt any better and was a few days before I stopped feeling a complete and utter idiot...

With that mishap I headed to the department to give my first ever seminar talk - 80 minutes on "Amalgams and the Coset Graph". This was what I did my masters dissertation on, so it wasn't too scary and I think it was successful. Nobody fell asleep, there were only a couple of questions I couldn't answer and everyone seemed reasonably interested - not too bad for my first attempt!

I then headed to Livingston Campus armed with my camera and tripod to take the Rutgers Cyclocross Team photo. I arrived at the practice field to find... nobody. In their defence I was a few minutes early, but it was a good half hour later before everyone arrived. I finally managed to gather everyone together and started the 'photo shoot'. We started with some standard photos - the 'angry look' shot, 'nonchalently leaning on bikes' shot and the 'shouldering bikes' shot.
Earlier on someone had joked about doing a 'cage' shot against the snow barriers - with them all looking like they were trying to escape and me on the other side looking throught he cage. At the end of the 'serious' shoot I asked if they fancied doing the photo. I could kind of tell that people wanted to, so I kind of bossed everyone into going and climbing the fence. I'm pretty pleased with the end result, and it seems everyone else is too! Here's the picture:
As always, the photos are on my Flickr Page so please check them out!

Next up was the KEEN Happy Hour. This was on Thursday night and was a chance for KEEN to raise a bit of money, as well as do

some socialising/drinking. It was held at Public House in NYC (unfortunately a bar, not a good ol' pub...) and entry was $10 or a toy donation. This also got you a free raffle ticket you could place in one of the 6 prize draws - with some pretty good prizes. I arrived (having headed there straight from lectures), grabbed a beer and started talking to some of the other volunteers. It was really nice to meet these people outside of a KEEN session, and I met quite a few people who weren't regular volunteers (an

d hopefully convinced some of them to become regular volunteers!).

In the course of the evening I bought a few extra raffle tickets and put them in a few of the prize buckets. The prizes were really impressive, including tickets to a New York Yankees game, a huge stack of DVDs, a huge stack of books, some beauty vouchers, a free meal in NYC, a KEEN sports bag and much more! I put my tickets in a few of them and at 8 they were drawn. To my great surprise I won the stack of DVDs! There was a big selection with everything from the X Files to Walk the Line and one of the guys I had been talking to earlier asked me if he could borrow the X Files after I had seen

it. I told him sure, and then went back to the bar to grab another beer.

I was waiting for the barman when Nichole came up asking me about a raffle ticket number. I checked my tickets against the number and sure enough I had a match - and I had won the NY Yankees tickets! I was ridiculously pleased :) I then told Nichole to redraw the DVD's - after all, out of everyone there it wasn't really fair that I took two prizes - so she did, and in a nice coincidence the guy who wanted to borrow the X Files won them! The night ended with a goodie bag - containing everything from a Team USA Beijing Olympics towel to 3 free tickets to the Brooklyn Botanical garden!

Along with the yankees tickets my prize included two vouchers. Each of the vouchers are worth either $50 of waxing or $200 of laser hair removal for men or women in NYC. Now, I don't think I have $400 worth of hair on my body, and I certainly don't want to find out so I'm offering these vouchers up. If anyone wants these then I would be happy to give them to you. They need to be used in the next fortnight, and can't be used together, but otherwise there are no restrictions. If you want them, leave a comment and I'll get in touch. It would be nice if you would consider a small donation to KEEN for them, but don't feel obliged.

At the Happy Hour Nichole was also selling the brand new KEEN NY wristbands. They are really cool and a bargain at only $3! If you want one, leave a comment and I'll get you one from Nichole - here's a picture of one:

That Saturday was KEEN swimming - my favorite session! That week, I was first partnered with a autistic boy for the first half, and then a 5 year old girl with Spina Bifida for the second session. The first athlete was pretty interested in the water fountain at the end of the pool so we spent most of the session trying to swim under it and trying to stop it with our hands. The second athlete had no sensation below her knees so me and her other volunteer had to carry her around - this didn't stop us having a lot of fun! She had just turned 5 so had got a fake Minnie Mouse tattoo at her party so she proceeded to use this 'super hand' to either push away from the wall (when I would lift her out of the water as she 'flew through the air') or push me away (when I would go flying backwards and under water - much to her delight!).

It was a fantastic session and was followed up by some drinks at Brother Jimmys - whose slogan was "Put some South in yo' mouth"! I then got to experience some true Southern food - frickles. Now you may ask, as I did, "What on earth are frickles?" Well it turns out these are fried pickles. Yes. Pickles. Deep-fried. Needless to say they were rather unique in taste and texture and one was more than enough for me... I also got to try deep fried onions (served in a bucket!) and sweet potato fries (which were amazing!).

I then headed back to Penn Station with Nichole who was meeting some people from her old school in North Carolina - I then ended up joining them as they headed into Times Square. It turns out the two girls and teacher were here for a conference and it was great to talk to them and find out their impressions of New York. It also turned out that they (along with Nichole) were headed to see Memphis, the same musical I had seen with Mum and Dad. I therefore assured them that they would love the show - and sure enough they did!

Heading back to New Jersey, Sunday was a day of work, getting all my problem sheets done (or at least trying to!). I also decided to start getting serious about losing some weight and getting fit for the cycling. To that end I joined Daily Burn which is a website that you can track your nutrition, exercise and body measurements on. I'm really impressed, especially as it's free, and since joining I have now lost around 10lbs from my personal training assessment 3 weeks ago!

On the sports side of things, on Wednesday I finally got out on my first group ride with the Cycling team. It was a designated "fat & slow" ride for those of us who are "over insulated & speed challenged" and we did a 20mile ride at around 15mph. It was great fun and we finished by doing some sprints and chase-downs which was definitely my favorite part of the ride. It was great to really work the legs to exhaustion and a lot of fun to really push yourself to catch someone who has sprinted ahead. I then went out again on the Friday and am heading out again tomorrow so the cycling is certainly stepping up a gear! (No pun intended...)

I also went to karaoke on Thursday with some of the cycling grad students which was great fun - there is nothing better than listening to cheesy retro rock being sung by slightly drunk people. I also got given my cycling kit! Its very... erm... spandex-y but is also seriously cool - I can't wait to go out riding tomorrow so I can use it :)

This weekend I had my first experience of KEEN in the Bronx - and it was pretty awesome! I was paired with a kid with mental retardation who had never been to KEEN before. We spent the session doing a variety of things, from basketball to quoits to playing with the parachute. At the end of session we do the "proud circle" where everyone says what they did that made them feel proud during the session. It was touching when my athlete turned to me during the circle and said "can we play some more after this?" I then felt really bad when I had to tell him that he was instead going to have to go home and wait until the next session before we could play some more - he was heartbroken.

That evening I was invited to Nichole's birthday meal. I was delighted to be asked, especially as the other guests were Nichole's boyfriend and friends of hers for many years. It felt great to be included in such a close knit group and they were really welcoming.We went to a great vegetarian restaurant called Dirt Candy and the food was amazing. I had portobello mushroom mousse to start followed by grilled spicy tofu with broccolini. I swear that food could even turn my Uncle Mike into a vegetarian! Unfortunately the evening ended far too early - with me having to leave straight after the meal to make sure I got the last train home.

Finally, I had a midterm yesterday - this time in Real Analysis. I was a bit worried heading into the exam but I think it went ok. Could have gone better, could have gone worse - like pretty much every other exam I've ever taken! We broke up for Thanksgiving break today so tomorrow will be spent cycling and trying to catch up on work before heading to West Chester for Thanksgiving - but more about that in the next post!

As always, please feel free to leave comments!

Pedalling Photos, Parents & Prizes (Part II)

2009-11-16T04:56:00.005Z

Now for the second installment!

PART II: Parents

Its true what they say, and there is no rest for the wicked, so after a short lie in on Monday morning I sat in lectures slightly distracted and waiting for a text which came around 3pm - Mum & Dad had landed!

Just like myself 3 months ago, Mum & Dad have never visited the States before, so we organized this trip so that they could see where I live, where I study and the country I live in. Then we were heading to the Big Apple for some shopping and sightseeing.

Due to my crummy lecture schedule I had to wait until around 7pm to see them, but they assured me they would just get settled in to the hotel, and maybe even try to sleep off some of the jet lag.

I had decided to get Mum some flowers and Dad some wine for when they arrived, a little thank you to them for visiting, so I headed to the only flower shop I know of in New Brunswick. A few minutes later I emerged with a Fall-themed arrangement and headed for the only wine and liquor store I knew of to get Dad's wine - only to find it shut... bugger...

I seemed to remember another shop the other end of town, and couldn't really give Mum a present and not Dad, so set off while texting them saying my bus had been delayed (a little white lie, but I really wanted it to be a surprise). Needless to say, the liquor store was a lot further than I remembered, and had a very limited selection of wines, but I managed to find a nice Californian Red for him to enjoy - if only I had remembered a corkscrew! As it was, it was 5 days later in NYC before we could finally open the wine - but I think me and Dad agree it was worth the wait.

So I arrived at the hotel 20 mins late with flowers and wine in hand to be greeted by such a big hug from Mum I was nearly knocked to the floor. I didn't mind in the slightest though, and sat down on the bed for a good catch up.

It was great to see them again and they presented me with a small suitcase of stuff I had asked them to bring over. In it included text books, music books, my Bose speakers, some clothes and reading books, as well as some things I wasn't expecting - my Brit's survival kit. I was ecstatic to find everything from Marmite to Bisto to Suet and, most importantly - Mum's homemade raspberry jam. It's strange how you miss little things, and I never though that I would ever miss gravy granules - but after only finding jars of ready made gravy at the local supermarket, I was ridiculously happy to get some Bisto!

We headed out to dinner and stumbled upon a fantastic restaurant called Due Mari. It specialises in Italian & fish, and it is definitely the best meal I've had in America so far - Duck Confit & Pumpkin Nudi to start followed by pan seared cod on butternut squash and brussel sprouts. Pair this with a nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and along with fantastic service and pretty reasonable prices made it a exceptional restaurant.

Leaving Mum & Dad I headed back to the apartment to unpack my goodies before an early night followed by lectures the following morning. That afternoon though I got to show Mum & Dad a bit of New Brunswick, the math department, Busch campus and my apartment. It was nice for them to see all the places I'm constantly babbling on to them about on Skype.

This was followed by a trip to Highland Park, dinner at a Steakhouse followed by a much needed supermarket trip. The Steakhouse was great, although neither me nor Dad were brave enough to go for the 32 oz Porterhouse, and I'm pretty sure mum would have been content with just the salad bar!

Princeton was the plan for Wednesday, and after a short train journey we arrived at a ghost town. Walking through the university we saw a grand total of 2 students and got slightly worried that there had been a mass evacuation of the area... It turns out it was their fall break during which most students leave town - so we didn't have to worry about a flu epidemix or nuclear fallout after all.

Brunch was traditional american pancakes, with maple syrup of course, and we started to explore. Princeton is a lovely town and there are some great shops - highlights include a massive book shop, homemade chocolate shop, hand-blown glass shop and the Bent Spoon - an amazing ice cream/sorbet shop that even gives G&Ds a run for their money!

That night was Due Mari again for another fantastic meal, and I briefed Mum & Dad on getting to Philly - I had lectures all day on Thursday and so I was sending them to see the Liberty Bell, reenact Rocky and try a Cheesesteak. unfortunately, I hadn't counted on the Philly train service going on strike, so I was a little surprised the next afternoon to get a text saying "we're in NYC instead!"

Meeting in NYC we headed to B&H - the biggest photography store I've ever seen - Dad has been looking at getting a wide angle lens for his SLR for quite a while now, so he was rather pleased at both getting it, and saving a good $200/300 from what he would pay in the UK.

It was a bit of a pain having to head back that night, but at 10am on Friday morning we were back on the NJ Transit heading to New York, and soon arrived at the Sofitel - our hotel for the weekend. The Sofitel was the definition of grandeur and sophistication. From the classy art deco bar to the widescreen HDTV in each room to the ridiculously comfy beds (which you could actually buy for $5000!). This hotel was pretty amazing!

The weekend flew by in a flash, but was so unforgettable. We found a Christmas market in Bryant Park, saw Times Square by night, went up the Rockerfeller center and simultaneously froze and took amazing photos, shopped on 5th Ave, went to a Broadway show, visited Ground Zero, walked down Wall St, tookt eh Staten Island ferry pas Ms Liberty herself and much more!

Highlights are definitely the Rockerfeller, Broadway and Ground Zero. I wasn't sure we were going to get Mum up the Rockerfeller (especially after she struggled with the church tower in Oxford) but she made it right up to the 69th floor, and eventually even cam outside to admire the view. I would definitely recommend heading to the top on a clear night - the views are spell binding and if you are taking a camera, remember a tripod!

Me & Jame shad been trying to get Mum & Dad tickets to a Broadway show for their Christmas box but without much success, so on Saturday morning we asked the Concierge if he could get us any. His first offer was tickets to most shows worth $100 for the paltry price of $250 each... I think not! He then mentioned that the less famous shows often sell remaining tickets on teh day of the performance, and told us that Memphis was meant to be both good, and reasonably easy to get tickets for.

Sure enough, arriving at the Shubert that afternoon we offered tickets for the top level, center and 4 rows from the front. We said yes straight away and returned at 8pm with no knowledge or expectations of the musical.

First off, let me just say that the musical was amazing - and possibly the best show I've seen on the West End or Broadway. It is in essence a love story between a black female singer trying to make it big, and a white local radio DJ trying to promote soul music during the 1950's in Memphis amid segregation and racism.

The play was at times quite shocking, and has a really unexpected ending (I won't spoil it for anyone) but it was truly the music that made the show. Between soul, RnB, rock & roll and gospel the music was stunning and the singing even more so. The leads (Montego Glover & Chad Kimball) stole the show, but that wasn't to say the rest of the cast weren't great. My two favorite songs were the 'showstoppers' - Glover's 1st act belter "Colored Women", and Kimball's 2nd act soulful "Memphis Lives in Me." I've put clips of both of these below:

The trip to Ground Zero was understandable a lot more subdued and sombre - and it really moved me. The site itself is mainly conspicuous by the absence of anything other than a construction site but the memorial center was what really brought home the scale of what happened.

It was while watching videos of survivors & relations of the dead I started to really understand the scale of this thing. This wasn't a couple of hundred people, this affected thousands upon thousands and really shocked America. Suddenly I understood the passion and patriotism Americans feel regarding the war on terror. I felt that America had lost more than just the Two Towers that day; they had been personally violated on their home soil - a horrific experience for any country. The memorial is due to be completed before I leave, and I certainly want to revisit, as the plans look like a fantastic tribute to those that lost their lives, as well as proof that America, although hurt by these events, will keep fighting and stay proud.

Oh, and I've got to say that I was a bit disappointed by the Statue of Liberty - I suppose after spending so much time in Manhattan surrounded by ridiculously tall buildings I was expecting something bigger... maybe France should offer to upgrade it?

Leaving Mum & Dad in New York was hard. I had had an amazing week and knew I was going to miss them when they went - but unfortunately life had to go back to normality, I could be on a permanent vacation (although that would be nice!). I left Mum in tears and me on the verge, and headed back on the good ol' NJ Transit (I'm getting to know those trains far to well...) to New Brunswick.

That's the end of Part II - the final installment brings us up to date - including embarassment at the Gym, more photography and my streak of luck at the KEEN fundraiser...

Pedalling Photos, Parents & Prizes! (Part I)

2009-11-15T04:44:00.007Z

As I always seem to do, a short disclaimer - the next three blog posts are going to be pretty long. I was originally going to post just the one, but its kept expanding until it needed to be split. I've been writing the posts on the train to and from New York and it seems when I handwrite I tend to babble on more than when I'm directly typing in the entry.... As always, please comment: I like to hear what you think and welcome any constructive criticism. All that said - here is:

PART I: Pedalling Photography

It seems like ages since I last posted, but I've had a hectic couple of weeks, so sorry!

So much has happened that I'm going to fill you in on the main three events - the Highland Park Cyclocross race, my Mum and Dad visiting and the KEEN Happy Hour - oh, and not forgetting the great American tradition that is Hallowe'en!

So when I first turned up at the Rutgers Cycling Team welcome meeting we were warned that to get our free, snazzy, Rutgers Cycling kit we would have to volunteer at the HPCX race in November and the Rutgers Road Race in the spring. Not too bad considering we would be getting $200+ worth of kit!

I had never hear of cyclocross before coming to Rutgers and had certainly never seen a cyclocross race before, so it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I arrived at the Rutgers Student Center parking lot on a drizzly Hallowe'en afternoon.

Gradually more and more members of the cycling club arrive, introduced themselves and I promptly forgot their names (remembering names has never been my strongest suit - I only found out one of my flatmates names 7 weeks into term, and even then it was only by looking on his departmental website...). We piled into various cars, trucks and minivans and headed for Jamesberg, the site of the annual cyclocross race held by Rutgers and Highland Park Hermes.

I don't know what I was expecting, but I don't think I expected just a regular park, complete with tennis courts, play park and small forrest. This was going to be transformed in just 5 hours to a 3mile cyclocross course with everyone riding from amateurs to Olympians... yeah, right!

Well I was soon proved wrong, after 4 hours of raking leaves, staking the course and putting up multiple gazebos the course was finished and members of Rutgers and Hermes tested it out. I expected a pretty basic loop course, but I was way off mark here. The course wound about, went up and down hills, had sharp hairpins and one particularly interesting section where, in the space of 20yds it went up a hill, had 3 90° left handers, one 90° right hander and went back down the hill it started on! Mental! Clearly cyclocross wasn't as simple as I had imagined, and on the Sunday I found out this was clearly the case...

It was great to meet all the other members of the cycling team - I had only briefly met a few of them at the meeting and I got on really well with everyone - and it got me very excited about eventually racing with Rutgers.

Heading back to the apartment I had a quick shower (the course was already quite muddy) and got changed ready for the evenings Hallowe'en party. I had originally planned to go into NYC for the Hallowe'en parade with Tarek, Natalia and Berna but with an early start needed for the race on the Sunday I decided instead to head to a party held by one of the older math grad students.

To that end, I was picked up by Justin and with Shashank, Moulik, Li Zhan and Xiao Ming we headed to Sara's in Highland Park. By this time the rain was really pouring outside (not a great sign for the race...) and after getting lost and rather damp we arrived at the 'Haunted House.'

That certainly showed me how much more seriously Americans take Hallowe'en than back home. Sara had completely decorated her house with severed heads, floating ghosts, singing pumpkins and flying witches.

Sara herself was in a Jack-the-Ripper-esque costume and two of the 4th years were "Lowe Deehi" and "Heidi Lowe" forming the mathematically geeky double act of the quotient rule... If that wasn't geeky enough, Shashank had gone to a party the night before with a piece of paper with "i" written on it - it was an imaginary costume... *groan*

There were creepy snacks (including 'mud pie': chocolate pudding with jelly snakes) and an American 'Hallowe'en classic' on the TV - something involving Snoopy and Charlie Brown. However, about an hour into the party the spirits were at work and suddenly the electric went! Now the assortment of battery operated ghoulies were pretty innocuous when the lights were on, but in pitch blackness and a small amount of candlelight they took o another level. I'll happily admit that happening upon a floating head in the doorway at the toilet I nearly leapt out of my skin (luckily I managed to stifle a shout...).

It seems like electricians enjoy Hallowe'en just as much as every other American, since it was a good 90 minutes before power was restored. So we spent the time telling ghost stories/gossiping about our professors (perhaps the same thing?) around a coffee table filled with candles and fake skulls.

Unfortunately, at around half ten I had to head back to the flat. The first CX race was due to start at 8am so I had to be at Jamesberg (where the race was held) at 6.30am, meaning a 5.20am meet at the Student Center, resulting in a disgustingly early 4.30am wake up... I realise that from rowing I should be used to early mornings, but this was ridiculous - even by Boat Club standards! I had one saving grace though - American Daylight Savings Time is a week later than the UK, so although it confused me regarding time difference for a week, I have never been more grateful for an extra hours sleep...

I got picked up by Nick at 5am and started on my many cups of tea that morning. If I was going to last the day then caffeine was a definite must.

Arriving at the parking lot, team members started arriving in varying degrees of consciousness and we headed back to Hamesberg for a course check before racing started. It had been raining constantly all night, but had slowed to a small drizzle by 7am - so the ground was more than a little soft underneath. This, I was told, would make the racing a little slower but certainly more 'interesting'.

Now I had been warned that once racing started there wouldn't be too much to do as a volunteer - mainly it would be keeping an eye on the course and performing any necessary repairs when the riders crashed through the tape barriers (as I was assured they would). Because of this I had decided to bring along my DSLR - if I was going to have a load of free time I may as well take some photos.

So once racing was underway, I positioned myseld at various parts of the course and started taking pictures. And more pictures. And even more. I ended up with around 700 photos (with at least half being pretty bad) and kind of became a team photographer - taking pics of racing as well as podiums and even the BBQ guy for his website.

I've put my photos up on my Flickr Page but before you check them out I should probably explain how CX works.

CX is a unique mix: part road cycling, part off-road cycling and part cross country running. The course is a loop, generally approx. 3 miles, and the number of laps is calculated mid-race. The first two laps of your category are times and the laps are calculated to roughly equal a set time: 30mins for beginners and working up to a full hour for elite men.

The course is mainly off-road and its generally rather twisty, with a handful of sprint-worthy straights. The other distinctly CX feature is the presence of 'barriers' - a pair of them in HPCX> These are planks of wood hammered into the ground across the course, forcing the riders to dismount, shoulder their bike and jump (if they have the energy left) or stumble (generally if its the last lap) over them before remounting. This isn't the only part that riders dismount: generally when a hill is particularly steep, or a section particularly muddy, it seems beneficial to dismount and run that section, followed by a quick remount and a nice lead over your rivals.

I don't think I am quite doing CX justice here, it is something that has to be seen to be believed, but hopefully my photos give a flavour of the mud, sweat and tires involved... CX certainly looks 'fun' (read that to mean painful) and I can't wait to try it out next season. At the moment I'm going to concentrate on getting fit for road - and photography! I feel that I got a few good shots and am eager to keep up the cycling photography.

Arriving back home that night, instead of getting started on the weeks work I started uploading photos and tinkering with them - resulting in the following team collage which the team hopes to print off and hand out to sponsors - something I'm pretty chuffed about!

Thats the end of part I, but stay tuned for part II (Parents) and part III (Prizes).

KEEN - Kids Enjoy Exercise Now

2009-10-30T23:33:00.004Z

I want to talk in this post about a charity I volunteered with at Oxford and which I've started volunteering at across here.

KEEN (Kids Enjoy Exercise Now) is a charity that was originally set up in Oxford over 20 years ago to encourage mentally disabled children to be physically active. It has since grown there to 3 sessions a week for children and young adults of all ages and disabilities and aims not only to get them physically active but also encourage their imagination, communication and other day-to-day skills. It has also headed across the Atlantic to the USA - more on that later...

When I arrived at Oxford 4 years ago, I joined the Oxford Origami Society, as I've always had a bit of an interest in the Japanese art of paperfolding (as a lot of mathematicians are). As part of this society, I volunteered to help out at a KEEN Oxford Zig-Zag session by teaching the younger kids how to make paper hats and boats as part of a "around the world" session. That session got me hooked - I really enjoyed it and went back the next week, then the week after that, and so on, until I was going to Zig-Zag every week. I also convinced Steph and Nicole to come along and got them hooked too.

The 'athletes' I worked with as a 'coach' had a range of disabilities - from verbal & non-verbal autism to downs syndrome to cerebal palsy - and each presented their own unique challenges to try and engage the athlete. Not only did they each present a new challenge, but each presented a new reward - you realize that little things can be big achievements. I will always remember when I was working with a non-verbal autistic athlete, who was about 10, and after not receiving much interaction for a couple of weeks, managed to get him to pretend to be a dog (we were reenacting the Wind in the Willows). Now getting a kid to bark doesn't sound like much, but this was a major step for this athlete and he looked genuinely pleased to be involved in the activity.

Unfortunately, for the next couple of years I found it harder and harder to fit in KEEN. I was rowing for my college 1st VIII meaning training 7 days a week, and also trying to get a degree (!) and so KEEN fell by the wayside. Then in my 4th year, Nicole started going back every Saturday to AllSorts, the sports session for athletes of all ages. Nicole caught the bug again and was soon selected as KEEN sports coordinator - organizing which activities would be done each week and setting up and clearing up each AllSorts session.

Now inevitably Nicole telling me all her KEEN experiences got me interested again and I started going back to AllSorts. Now I had never done an AllSorts session before and they turned out to be quite different from ZigZag! ZigZag concentrated on arts, crafts, drama and the aim was to get the athlete's imagination stimulated. On the other hand, AllSorts concentrated on 3 sports activities per session and the aim was to get the children physically active (The other session each week is GrEAT, which was for the older athletes and concentrated on social interaction by going bowling, karaoke etc). With the emphasis on sports AllSorts made a lot of the athletes quite excitable and there seemed to be a bit of a parity - usually either your athlete was really excited and the main challenge was to be careful they didn't run out the sports hall, or the athlete was difficult to engage with and the main challenge was to get them involved in the sport.

I was addicted again! I think the reason KEEN is so addictive is the little things - whether it be a child smiling or laughing, a parent being grateful for a little 'time off' or just that hint of recognition from an athlete when you return the week after and they remember you.

So I spent the rest of my final year at Oxford volunteering on any Saturday I could and then, when Saturdays became a problem due to rowing, on Friday nights. I made some great friends through the other volunteers and enjoyed 'special' sessions like an easter egg hunt and, my favorite, swimming. The swimming session was the first I had been to at Oxford and was something really special, but I'll talk more about that later.

So coming to the USA I was keen (no pun intended…) to keep up working with disabled children and so was really pleased to find KEEN New York. It turns out that Elliott Portnoy, who started up KEEN in Oxford, brought KEEN to the Washington, DC area in 1992 which then expanded to 7 US cities, including New York in 2008.

I got in touch with Nichole, who runs the New York program, before coming across here, and went to my first session a few weeks ago - a sports session held in Manhattan. KEEN runs a sports session every fortnight in Manhattan as well as a swim session in Manhattan and sports session in the Bronx, both once monthly.

Arriving at the sports hall I noticed people there to volunteer from all ages, though mainly people around my age. We had a briefing by Nichole about safety guidelines etc (mainly the same as the UK) before being assigned athletes. I got paired with an athlete with autism who is non-verbal. He finds it very difficult to communicate and his vocabulary was mainly 'food' and 'steak' - he obviously has an expensive appetite! After a brief difficulty getting him to leave his mum we started the session. He went straight for the slide, which he enjoyed for a good 15 minutes before deciding that he wanted to sit on the ping pong table - even if someone else was playing on it!

After convincing him it wasn't a great idea to stop someone else's game he decided to head downstairs. Now KEEN mainly consists of the sports activities, but athletes can do arts & crafts downstairs for some of the session if they want to. Normally my athlete doesn't have any interest in the craft session but for some reason he really wanted to get involved this week. We sat him down and handed him some paper and crayons and he started drawing circles. He then got some glue and glued on some bobble-fluffy-things before starting the next one. He got very interested in this which was great, and then he started telling us what colours he was using - a real surprise after only hearing 'food' and 'steak' all session! I found out his favorite colour was definitely green (and don't try to take the green crayon off him!) but he also pointed out blue, yellow and red.

This tied in nicely with, once we left the craft section,the parachute upstairs. It seems to be a universal activity across both sides of the atlantic, and one all athletes enjoy. Basically, the athletes get under a big colorful parachute, then the volunteers waft it up and down. The sensory stimulation really seems to bring some children out of their shell and you get lots of giggling athletes (a good thing!). My athlete headed under and, after getting a little scared, I joined him to calm him down a little. He then proceeded to point out the green, blue, yellow and red sections of colour on the parachute.

Then it was nearing the end of the session so we did something we didn't do back in Oxford but I thought was really nice. Everyone sat in a circle and we went round so that each athlete/volunteer could explain what they had done that session, and then receive a round of applause. It was great to see the kids so proud of what they had done - and I felt proud for myself and my athlete when I described the arts and crafts and sports we had done. Next up, a few athletes did a small show of little red riding hood and then we finished with a race. Back in Oxford, every session finished with a rendition of the Hokey Cokey, whereas in KEEN NY it was a race along the hall with athletes and coaches. What was particularly nice was that quite a few parents had already arrived, so my athlete's mum got to see him race, and his look of joy when he realized his mum was watching was truly heartwarming.

Just like Oxford, the session was finished with the coaches heading for a drink together which was a great chance to get to know some of them. It turns out a lot were there through a scheme called New York Carers - something I don't know too much about but seems to be an online database of charities which need volunteers. It seems a really great idea and covers everything from KEEN to dog walking for rescue shelters to serving at soup kitchens.

I then headed last week to the monthly swim session held in Manhattan and I was really excited! Like I mentioned before, I had attended a swim session in Oxford and they are truly unique sessions. The NY session was two 45min sections with different athletes in each one. There is something about the water that brings out something in the athletes - some who have minimal communication are suddenly laughing and giggling, and quiet athletes can become quite talkative. I think one of the best things is to see the athletes who are in wheelchairs (through cerebal palsy, spina bifida etc) get into the water. All athletes get floats and the wheelchair athletes get lifted into the pool using a chair lift and suddenly they are off trying to get to the other end of the pool!

As I arrived, I got into the lift with an athlete (in a wheelchair) and parents and started up a conversation asking the athlete if they were looking forward to the session. To this, the athlete just grinned and then the mother explained that they only told the athlete he was going swimming as they arrived at the building - if they tell him earlier he doesn't sleep and even finds it hard to eat because he gets so excited! I think this shows how important this session is for the athletes - its something that they would struggle to do in a communal pool so being able to do it in such a safe environment is fantastic for them.

I was partnered with the same athlete as the week before and it was nice to notice him recognize me when he arrived. We were straight in the pool and he headed for the deep end… Obviously we want to keep all athletes in the shallower end so I went off after him and guided him back to the correct end. I then had a really fun 45 minutes while we played water polo with some other athletes, played with some floats and investigated the water fountain at the end of the pool. He also pointed out colours of all the floats we used - another really pleasing moment.

After getting him out the pool and sending him off with his mum we started the second session. My athlete hadn't arrived yet so I waited at the end of the pool without he other free coaches. Maybe I'm still slightly traumatized from my school days but I felt like we were being picked for teams and, inevitably, my athlete didn't turn up so I headed to the pool and went round helping anyone and everyone. This was really nice getting to interact with all the athletes as well as watching the coaches interact. There was a really nice idea by one coach who had a little girl where he gave her a ring float which she used as a "steering wheel" to direct where he would take her. This really brought her out of her shell and got her interacting a lot more - I'll have to try that myself next time!

As always, the session unfortunately had to come to an end so we headed to a bar before I went to meet my Fulbright friends for a nice night out. Midterm revision meant I had to miss this weeks sports session and I can't make next week with my parents being here (although maybe they would enjoy it?) so my next session is in two weeks - another swimming session! If anyone fancies coming along, please get in touch with me or Nichole (through the KEEN New York Website ) - you won't regret it. I hope I've managed to convey how rewarding it is and hope that some of you might get a chance to join in sometime soon! KEEN is something that I'm coming to realize is really important to me and I hope to do it the whole time I'm here so if you ever fancy it then drop me a line...

Later days

David

NOTE: As with my disclaimer to the right of the page, the views expressed in this blog are entirely my own and may not represent the opinions of KEEN Oxford or KEEN New York .

It's Broadway!

2009-10-23T17:52:00.002+01:00

Just a quick post this time to talk about my first ever Broadway experience...

So, the story starts 2 months ago, when at the International Orientation at Rutgers we had the chance to buy a Broadway Ticket for the Lion King or Billy Elliot. As luck, or rather lack of luck, would have it - me, Vukosi and Simon just missed out on the tickets - by about 3 people… Considering there were a good one or two hundred tickets it was *really* annoying that we missed out.

However, a couple of weeks ago it was announced that anyone that didn't get a ticket in the orientation would have a chance to get another ticket, this time to the Lion King or Mamma Mia. Needless to say, I didn't particularly want to see Mamma Mia, but I've always wanted to see the Lion King so thought this would be my chance. This time I made sure that I was one of the first in line and got my ticket for $25. Now to put this in perspective, the ticket included transport both to New York and back which would usually cost $17, so the actual ticket for the show cost me a grand total of $8 ≈ £5. NOw in the West End if you're really lucky you can get tickets to shows for £15, but on Broadway the cheapest Lion King tickets are $60 - So I saved at least £30!

So that's how I ended up on a coach last night with Tarek, Simon, Berna, Natalia and other international students. I've never experienced going to New York by road and, to be honest, I don't really fancy doing it again! The roads were crazily busy, before we were even halfway there we were gridlocked and it continued all the way to Broadway.

We got dropped out straight outside the Minskoff Theatre - the home of the Lion King on Broadway. Now most theaters in the West End I've been to are decorated to match the show - the Phantom of the Opera was like a Parisian opera house, Wicked had everything green, but they were nothing compared to this! There were full scale costumes, a mask that must have been at least 20ft tall, and everything was gold or orange.

We headed into the theatre and were shown to our seats. We may have been in the 2nd last row on the upper level, but we were smack-bang centre and had a perfect view. The seats were a lot bigger and comfier than on West End, and the leg room was amazing! The theatre was huge, and on each side of the stage, where the boxes are usually, there were two booths where the percussionists were, which was really cool as throughout the night you could see them play bongos, djembes, gongs and everything else in between.

Before we knew it, the lights dimmed, the curtain lifted, and the first sounds of 'Circle of Life' started…

I can't begin to describe what the experience was like - it really is something that has to be seen to be believed. The costumes were amazing - they captured the essence of the animals perfectly, and were ingenious. 'Elephants' and 'rhinos' walked through the aisles, 'birds' flew above our heads and 'gazelles' leaped all over the stage. The staging was incredible, with had the stage tilting, staircases emerging from the floor, people 'swinging from the trees' and the canyon scene was one of the best things I've ever seen in a theater. When the scenery first appeared for it, I was a bit disappointed - it looked like 3 MDF wedge cut outs with a box in front. I couldn't really see how this was going to replicated a stampede, but then suddenly wildebeest appeared *everywhere*. It was stunning, and that's all I can say to describe it.

The characters were all really well developed, Timon and Pumbaa were hilarious, Scar was fantastically devilish, and the adult Simba, adult Nala and Rafiki had stunning voices. I suppose I shouldn't expect otherwise from a Broadway show, but every single person was a fantastic singer as well as dancer, gymnast and puppeteer. I did feel kind of sorry for the people who were dressed as grass - seems like a bit of a crap part, but I suppose if you're in a Broadway show you can't complain! The music was also fantastic. The original soundtrack to the film was pretty damn good, and the new songs fitted in well and really fleshed out the storyline.

To try and demonstrate what it's like, here's a clip of the 'circle of life' scene from their performance at the Tony Awards… (so add to this a revolving staircase rising from the floor and half the stage rising up and you're getting close to what it was like last night):

I'm not even going to attempt to carry on articulating my night - needless to say it was amazing, and one I will definitely remember and gladly repeat! I'll try and post another update soon - I'm going to write one on KEEN, the charity I'm volunteering at in New York, but I've got a midterm coming up so it depends how much I can pry myself away from revision...

Later Days

The next installment of the David Chronicles...

2009-10-03T08:18:00.003+01:00

Well, I've just survived a work week from hell and had a 5 hour nap (about as much sleep as I've had each night this week...) so thought I'd finally update you on the last few weeks. I've got 4 or 5 weeks to cover so I'm warning you that this may be a long one...

I left off last time at the start of IMR - the new math grad seminar. Being held at the Hill Center (the math department) it was a chance to see where I'm going to be based for the next 5 years, as well as helping me prepare for grad school and get through all the admin stuff. It was also a chance to meet my peers, and grad students from other years.

It all started with tea and coffee with a few professors which was great. I met Prof Lepowsky who had given me some advice on selecting courses and a few of my course professors - it was useful to know that they are real people and not just scarily-intelligent exam-setting robots! This was the start of a very intensive 3 days - 15 lectures on everything from Linear Algebra to Differential Manifolds, other grad student's research topics and how to be a 'good grad student'. 100 pages of lecture notes, a scavenger hunt (only mathematicians would set a scavenger hunt that involved solving limits, differential equations and classifying algebras!) and a party with the senior grads later, I emerged as a fully fledged grad student... I also got my own website, which I'm gradually updating with things like contact info, my dissertation, which courses I'm taking etc (the website is here)

Then term started...

I've done quite a bit over the last 4 or 5 weeks so I'm not going to go over everything, so here are my highlights etc...

*Lectures - not so much a highlight, but a necessary evil taking up all my time. I'm taking 4 courses this term - 2 core courses and (because I got exempt from the other core courses) 2 extra courses (effectively 2nd year courses). I have two 80 minute lectures for each course each week (plus 2 lectures in a course I'm not taking for credit) and then 4 seminars a week (each 1 hour long).
For the two core courses I have to hand in a problem set every week, and for the two other courses I have to hand in a set every fortnight. This means that I alternate between 'nice' weeks and 'evil' weeks. For each set I have to hand in about 20 pages of typed solutions, on top of actually working out the solutions, so the workload is pretty intense... Even so, I suppose this is what I'm here for, so I can't complain too much! Combine that with not getting much work done last week (with me being ill) means that this week I've gotten to bed at 4am, 4am, 2am and 4am - this lead to a 3hr nap yesterday afternoon and a 5hr nap this afternoon (the first one planned, the second one unplanned) which certainly leads to a screwed up sleep pattern...

*Cycling - After finding out that I won't be able to row while here, I decided to take up another sport. It didn't take me long to decide on road cycling and I went to the first meeting of the Rutgers Cycling Club. They seemed a really cool bunch, and it seemed a sport I could really get involved with. I've decided to concentrate on road cycling rather than cyclecross or track - but hopefully I'll be able to pick those up some time during the next 5 years... I ended up getting a bike from Kim's Bikes - the local bike shop, and the owner's son cycles for Rutgers so I ended up getting a really good deal on it. It is an absolute dream to ride and I've been on a few long rides, including a great one along the canal in the glorious sunshine. Being ill the last fortnight, the rides have been sparse, but I'm hoping to step up the training again, and look to be racing with the cycling club come the spring.
One note about cycling - it takes a while to get used to being on the wrong side of the road... Normally it doesn't really bother me, but roundabouts are terrifying! I swear when I first went round one I thought I was going to die - it just seems so wrong to be going round them the wrong way...

*New York! - So the first weekend after term started I decided to visit the city that never sleeps and see what all the fuss is about. Me and Simon, my flatmate, headed up to have a look around and meet some of the other Fulbrighters. It really is an amazing city - there is so much going on it is crazy. We first went to the typical sights round Manhatten - the Empire State, Rockafella Center, Times Square before meeting with the Fulbrighters. Now a bit of advice - never try to organise a group of around 20 people meeting in New York - it is the worst logistical nightmare ever imagined. We decided to meet at the Apple Store just off Central Park (such a cool shop) and it seriously took us about an hour to find everyone. Afterwards we had a wander around Central Park and caught up. It was really nice to see how everyone was doing and it was a shame it was such a fleeting visit. I'm heading back up to New York next weekend to start volunteering at KEEN NY (the New York branch of the charity I volunteered at in Oxford helping at youth clubs for disabled children) so hopefully will start seeing more of the Big Apple more regularly.

*Food - American food is different from British food, and when I say different, I mean really different. First off, words don't necessarily mean the same; when I was asked if I wanted some 'Veggies' with my meal I thought it was some weird "Buy a lunch, get a free vegetarian" offer... Also, the word might be the same but the pronounciation different; I still can't pronounce yoghurt or raspberry so that they understand me first time.
Next up, cereals. These take on a completely different form than back home - everything is either chocolate coated, or bright red, green, blue and orange. I found a pack of Raisin Bran and thought I had finally found a healthy cereal, only to open up the box and be shocked and appalled - they coat the raisins in sugar! I mean, this is a simple breakfast of bran flakes and raisins and they can't help but add sugar - as of now, I'm sticking to toast.
Ask any Brit here about tea and it seems we all agree - Lipton's tea tastes like tea, but only if you add sawdust, grit and anythign else you might find on the ground. Not to be disrespectful to Lipton's, but their tea just doesn't come close to a good cup of Tetley's, Yorkshire, Rington's, PG Tips etc. Hence my excitement when (a) mum sent me some Earl Grey in the post and (b) I found a local shop that stocked a full range of Twinings!
Finally, a non-US specific moan: why did people think condensed soup was a good idea? Obviously it saves space, and probably makes it last longer, but it is one of the worst ideas in the world. When I was ill last week, I decided to have the stereotypical comfort food and opened a tin of chicken soup. Now the problem with condensed chicken soup, is that if you are ill and feeling naseous, then the last thing you want to see is condensed chicken soup partially mixed with water. Seriously, why make it look like that?!? Sorry, rant over...

*Shopping - Americans have truly turned this into an art form. My nearest mall is Menlo Park and I assumed being a 'local' mall, it would only have a handful of stores. How wrong I was. The mall had any store you could name: Macy's, Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale, Barnes & Noble, American Apparell and a HUGE food court. Top that off with a Target next door and you pretty much have naything you could ever need in one place.
You might remember me complaining about not really being able to get much food anywhere locally - well then I discovered Stop & Shop. Think of a huge Tesco's, and make it even bigger... They have everything you could ever want to eat, and then some. They have a massive freezer section (about a 1/3 of the store) and in the veg section, every few minutes they freshly 'mist' the root vegetables - giving them a nice sheen, but it does soak you if you stand too close when it goes off!

Well that's about all for the updates right now, I'll try to update again soon!

Later days

P.S. By the way, the British accent is still working it's charm :) It seems most days I get at least one girl saying how cute it is, it's all rather flattering really!

P.P.S. I'm going to try and put some more pictures up on my Fickr page, so have a look here

The long awaited (and much needed) second post! (Part Two - Rutgers)

2009-09-14T20:23:00.006+01:00

Seeing as I'm on a roll (i.e. I've actually posted something recently - see part one) I thought I'd carry on with my update.

So after arriving back from Miami I headed back to the apartment and immediately went for a run as there was still no one else there and after spending a week with 90 other Fulbrighters I didn't particularly want to spend the evening sat on my own in my room! It was still ridiculously hot and I had another running 'incident'... I didn't stray into sprinklers like last time as I took a route around the back of the soccer pitch but as I was running along, minding my own business and listening to my iPod, suddenly a beast jumped from the bushes into my path. I nearly had a heart attack as I tried to stop suddenly/change direction/jump over it all at once. Needless to say I felt like a bit of an idiot when I realised that the 'beast' was actually just a gopher (which is like what would happen if a beaver and squirrel decided to cross breed...). Now in my defence, the gopher was pretty big (I think it had been snacking on the leftover hotdogs from the stadium...) but I still felt like a bit of a wimp - so I ran a little bit further than I planned to make myself feel better about myself...

Arriving back at the flat, slightly flustered, I unpacked all my things and read through some of my Fulbright info I had recieved before getting a much needed early night in bed. The next morning I met one of my new flatmates - Czanad (pronounced Chanad) who is a 3rd year Hungarian MicroBiologist who had been on holiday in Colorado for the last few weeks. It was nice to see someone else about the flat, and useful to have someone to ask questions like how on earth the bus system works here... The buses are all lettered, and during term time it all makes sense, even to the point where the L goes to Livingston campus, the B to Busch etc. However in the holidays they seem to pick the routes by random, so advice from Czanad was much appreciated.

On the strength of his advice I decided to explore New Brunswick a bit more and was pleasantly surprised at what I found. New Brunswick isn't a huge town, but it has plenty of stuff in the center - as well as the student center it has a wide range of shops and I managed to get food, toiletries, a cell (mobile phone to us Brits) and a load of stuff for my room all pretty cheaply. Getting back to the flat with so much stuff was quite interesting, but I managed and dumped all the stuff in my room before meeting the third flatmate - Simon (pronounced more like Seemon) who is a first year Physics PhD student from Belgium. We are quite a mix of people but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get on well with both of them and think we'll have a good flat for the year.

Sunday was a quiet day (which really means I can't remember what I did...) but I think I spent most of it getting sorted for the start of International Student Orientation, which began on the Monday morning.

Me and Simon left pretty early as we were warned that there would be loads of queues, and we arrived at 10 on the dot (the registration was between 10 and 12). What we didn't expect was a queue out the door and only *just* getting registered before midday. Luckily we met Vukosi, a South African Fulbrighter I met at Miami so at least we had some company during the wait.

After a brief introduction we were thrown head first into the Orientation process. I thought the Fulbright Orientation had been intense but this was something else. They were constantly throwing info at you (health insurance, tuition fees, registration for courses, Visa stuff - all of it 'urgent') and seem to want you to be in about 3 places at once... On the upside there was plenty of free food, I got to see a lot more of College Ave Campus and I met some really great people. I spent alot of the week hanging out with Simon, Vukosi, Tarek (a half-Egyptian, half-Welsh Comp Sci Phd first year), Natalia (a fellow Brit here for a year exchange during her undergrad) and a few others. It was really nice getting to know everyone and I'm hoping to stay in touch with them all while I'm here.

One of the highlights of the week was the Skit night where the volunteers (all International Students) put on a sketch show about what it's like studying at Rutgers as an international student and in the process we learnt the Rutgers Fight Song - it really has to be heard/seen to be believed so I've included a video of the University Glee Club singing it. The part in the middle where they all go a bit crazy and start yelling "R U RAH RAH, R U RAH RAH, OOH RAH OOH RAH RUTGERS RAH!" is the Rutgers chant and can be heard at most sports events etc. Enjoy!

(and if you want the lyrics to sing along (!) then here's a copy the Rutgers Fight Song)

I also got an opportunity to order my course books - and nearly had a heart attack in the process! In the UK, a course textbook is nice to have but not essential to the course - a lecturer may refer you to the text for additional reading, but all the course topics will be covered in lectures. In the US, the textbook forms the backbone of the course - the lecturer might expect you to pre-read sections so his/her lectures form supplementary coverings of topics and most of the time the problem sets will come straight from the textbook. So a textbook is pretty essential - and the library doesn't tend to have more than one copy of each book - so buying them was pretty much given. What I didn't expect was to pay around $500 for 6 textbooks! I suppose it was a necessary cost but that didn't make it easier to hand over that much money for books I know will haunt me once exams come round...

The Orientation seemed to be over almost as soon as it started and I was thrust into the IMR - Introduction to Mathematics at Rutgers - a 4 day mini-conference for all Math PhD students starting. I've got a lecture in a bit so I think I'm going to leave this post for now, but tune in next time (hopefully soon!) for:

IMR! START OF TERM! FINALLY SOME MATHS! NEW YORK!!! I MEET OBAMA!

(That last one isn't true... I just wanted to see if you were paying attention...)

Later Days

David

P.S.
As a bonus I'm going to share with you some of the Rutgers branded items you can buy here - I told some of you that you can literally buy *anything* with Rutgers on it, and here is my proof (all of which are available online at the Rutgers University Bookstore):
A licence plate cover:
A baby-gro:
Golf Balls:
And even a standard lamp...

The long awaited (and much needed) second post! (Part One - Miami)

2009-09-12T04:22:00.008+01:00

Well, first off I owe an apology to all you avid readers of my blog - this update is more than a little late and should have been written at least 2 weeks ago...

Now that I've got the apology out of the way its time for my update. I'm warning you now that because I'm covering about 3 weeks of stuff this is going to be a long one... Consider yourself warned!

The last post left off just as I was starting to settle in to Rutgers - I had walked a bit around the area, been to the football stadium, got lost and was sorting out my room (and still didn't have any bedding...). The next day was the start of my trip to Miami for the Fulbright Gateway Orientation - a chance to meet Fulbright Scholars from all over the world and also to prepare for the reality of being a Fulbright Scholar.

Leaving the flat that morning I headed to the train station, arriving in plenty of time to get a cup of tea from Dunkin' Donuts (unfortunately not to try the donuts) before hopping on the NJ transit up to Newark Airport. The train journey was surprisingly pleasant - the train was a double decker swish number with plenty of seats free and plenty of space for my luggage. I was sitting reading my book and generally minding my business when (about 5 mins into the journey) a conversation was struck up between the strangers around me. Considering that no-one knew anyone else I found this rather surprising and decided to join in (after all, even if I made a fool of myself I would never meet these people again!). After talking a little about how hot the weather had been recently, they asked about where I was from (another lesson: everyone will love the British accent and will ask you lots of questions about the UK, including usually 'Why did you choose to come to America?' - I think the UK has a special place in the hearts of a lot of Americans so the thought I could actually leave there is shocking to them...). After letting them know I was studying at Rutgers I mentioned about being a Fulbright Scholar - I have never seen a reaction like it! Everybody was amazed and impressed and couldn't praise me highly enough. I knew that Fulbrighters were well respected in America but I didn't realise the amount of acknowledgment I would get from (a) complete strangers; and (b) non-academics.

This set me in a rather good mood for the flight to Miami and the week ahead - and I wasn't disappointed. The flight was uneventful but also long - I didn't realise it would take nearly 3 hours to fly just 'down the coast' - as my 1st lesson showed me - the US is HUGE! I arrived at Miami airport and attempted to find a couple of other Fulbrighters I had organized to share a taxi with. A useful hint: trying to find 3 people in Miami airport, all arriving on different planes, at different times, none of whom you've ever met or seen before is COMPLETELY FUTILE! Needless to say I didn't meet them and ended up just heading to the hotel by myself.

Arriving at the hotel I was greeted by an all you can eat buffet for us which I promptly dug into (after surviving on pretty much only cereal for 2 days this was much needed sustenance). I met a few of my fellow Fulbrighters and headed to a bar on the bay front for a drink and some salsa dancing (don't worry Dad, I was watching not dancing - so I didn't break Wilson tradition...). Then it was off to bed to get some sleep before the sessions the next day.

The next morning I got up bright and early and headed for a run around Miami - my roommate Fabian came with me and we explored a bit of the bayside. I thought running in the heat in New Jersey was bad but this was truly something else - the humidity meant it felt like you were running through sludge, it was pretty horrible. We then headed to Miami Dade College to be greeted by a bag of freebies and a packed schedule for the next few days.

The next few days flew by - we had lectures every day on subjects ranging from what to do if you're arrested (or rather, how not to get arrested in the first place), to 'culture shock' (the process of adapting to life in a new culture), to leadership (as Fulbrighters we are expected to be cultural leaders), to the US judicial system (the supreme court is a fascinating topic) to a jazz seminar (which consisted pretty much of listening to our own private performance by a jazz band for an hour and a half - bliss). I learnt so much during the week and it was hard to absorb all of it in, but then I think the main thing I took away from the week was not stuff I got form the classroom.

I've got to tell you something - every single Fulbrighter I met at Miami is amazing! They are all really cool, grounded, amazingly intelligent and friendly people. I can't list everyone here because I'd inevitably miss out some people but I made some really good friends there - and ones I'll stay in touch with in the future. I've included a picture here of some of us before heading on the airtrain.

During the week there was so much to do outside of the lectures - we had a cruise of the bay and 'star island' seeing such sights as the house from Scarface, and many celebrity homes, we had a night at an all-the-meat-you-can-eat restaurant, we went to a local club which had amazing live music for free(Jazid if anyone is ever in Miami), explored little Havana, and had a night at a private club on South Beach where we swam in the Atlantic (much warmer than the North Sea!) and tried to spell Fulbright in the sea... There is photographic evidence, but I think we ended up spelling FULBRGHIT - you win some you lose some...

All in all it was just a fantastically good time, and one I'll remember for a long long time. And I've now ticked another state of my list to visit!

This is the end of part one, tune in next time for part two:
MORE RUTGERS! MORE FREE FOOD! MORE ORIENTATIONS! FINALLY SOME MATH!

Later Days

David

5 Lessons From America!

2009-08-17T00:22:00.007+01:00

Wow... I'm actually here, at Rutgers, in AMERICA! It still hasn't quite sunk in and I think it'll be a while until it does (probably once term starts).

A quick update since my last true post: First off, Verona was unbelievable. Me and my Auntie Jude went to visit her friend Sally who works for Saga taking tour groups to the opera and the Arena there and although we were only there 3 days we managed to pack loads in - seeing both Aida (amazing spectacle) and Turandot (fantastic and moving) and visiting Mantua - the 'birthplace' of Opera. I think I may possibly have been the youngest person to have ever been on a Saga holiday but I didn't really care and had a fantastic time. Next up was a week where I packed, visited Edinburgh with Mum, went to visit my Godmother Sharon and said my goodbyes to everyone. Next thing I knew I was getting up at 3am to travel to Newcastle and suddenly I was flying over the Atlantic (a bit of a shock!).

I landed on Friday just before 1pm EST and got through customs and immigration without any problems (even though I slept through the instructional video on immigration forms on the plane...) and collected my suitcases to start my mission to get to Rutgers. It was really hot and I queued up before getting into a taxi for a slightly scary ride to New Brunswick. I say to New Brunswick in the loosest sense as on the way we managed to get lost multiple times with the taxi driver asking about 5 different people how to get to Buell apartments. All in all it wasn't the best introduction to the USA but we got there in the end. Newark struck me as very industrial (and not that nice to look at) but once we got out the city I was struck by how green everything was. Even along the interstate there were loads of trees and bushes that we really really 'green'. You can definitely tell why they call it the Garden State!

After arriving at Rutgers I picked up my keys and got my picture taken for my Rutgers Card (for once, not too bad a photo) and headed into the apartment. None of my flatmates were in (although a lot of their stuff was, so I'm guessing one or two have already moved in and are away for the weekend). The apartment is pretty big and has everything I need - there are 4 bedrooms (with desk, bed, bedside table, drawers, under-bed storage and a massive wardrobe/storage area), two sinks, a bathroom, two big store rooms and a kitchen/living room/dining room with kitchen stuff plus a sofa, comfy chairs and dining table.

I just had time to head to the Post Office before it closed so I headed straight to the Campus Center and set up my post box. I therefore now have a permanent address people can send post to so please drop me an email if you want my address. After this I had a wander around campus and went for an evening run before turning in for an early night. The campus is pretty big, but everything I need is nearby. The Maths dept is less than 5 mins walk and the Football stadium around 10 mins; then there are things like the University Parks and 'Recreation Center' (i.e. gym, swimming pool etc) all even closer. I think its going to be a bit weird living at a Campus university after spending the last 4 years at a town one but I'm sure I'll get used to it pretty quickly - I can already see the massive advantages.

Saturday was a day to get some groceries, and this led to my first lesson on the USA:

Lesson 1 - America is BIG - If you go looking for groceries and don't know where you are going you WILL end up taking a 6 mile detour... and still end up with no groceries

Normally, if you just want a box of cereal or quart of milk then you would pop to the Campus Center, but with it still being the Summer Session this closes at weekends so I decided to venture to Piscataway to grab a few groceries. This turned out to be a mistake... I had looked online to find that there was an ATM on the road out the back of Campus about a mile up and decided to hunt it out, as surely if there is a bank machine there must be some sort of shops, right?? Wrong... turns out that banks are placed in the middle of nowhere and it was only after walking for an hour and a bit in the 32 degree sun and crossing the Interstate that I finally admitted defeat and turned back towards the campus. On the way back I decided to call into the local library (again, in the middle of nowhere) and ask for directions to the nearest shop. The lady was very kind and directed me up a nearby road with instructions of how to get to Piscataway town center - turns out she didn't mention it was miles upon miles away! After another hour walking I reached a Charlie Brown Steakhouse and decided to stop for lunch (it was around 1pm). After a nice turkey and bacon club sandwich I finished my diet coke watching the Little League World Series and asked how far Piscataway was. It was clear by the bartender's expression it wasn't really walking distance so I admitted defeat and ordered a taxi back to campus.

Back at campus I decided not to give up and so headed in to New Brunswick on the free Rutgers Bus (which I didn't know about that morning). This was really nice as, unbeknownst to me, the bus visits all the other campuses (Livingston, Douglass/Cook) before getting to College Ave where I hopped off the bus and started exploring. New Brunswick is really nice and I had a root around the shopping areas before finding a C-Town and 7-11 where I got myself some cereal, milk and a few other essentials before grabbing a bus back to the flat. Back home I looked in the mirror to realise lesson number 2:

Lesson 2 - ALWAYS wear sunscreen in summer and don't have aviators on all day... or you WILL end up looking like a lobster-panda hybrid...

Consider yourselves warned! I decided to try and take my mind off the sunburn by going for a night run but soon I discovered yet another lesson:

Lesson 3 - If you go for a night run in the university parks, there WILL be surprise sprinklers (and you will end up quite damp...)

Not only will you end up damp, but because it will be a bit dark you will not really see the sprinklers until it is too late and you will let out a little yelp in a slightly girly way... Oh dear.

After that escapade I retired to bed to watch a bit of Grey's Anatomy and catch up on some emails. This morning I decided to have a bit of a lie in then grabbed some cereal and jumped in the shower. After coming out the shower I had a sudden realisation and hence discovered the next lesson:

Lesson 4 - Getting locked out your room in only a towel after showering DOESN'T just happen in the movies...

Not only that, but you will then have to knock on a neighbouring flat's door, in said towel, and ask to borrow their cell phone to get let back into your room - great... After that fantastic start the rest of the day has been spent unpacking - so now my room looks a lot more lived in (and a lot less chaotic) and I decided to head to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights annual Meet-n-Greet. This is where fans of the Scarlet Knights come to get autographs from the players and meet the new squad. Now, for the final lesson of the weekend:

Lesson 5 - American Football is RIDICULOUSLY HUGE here. Seriously, RIDICULOUSLY HUGE...

Now, bear in mind that this wasn't a pre-season game and most students aren't back yet, so pretty much all the people there were locals. The festivities started with performances by the Pep Band and Dance/Cheerleading squads before the kids got to play on a load of inflatable games while everyone waited for the doors to open. Once they did everyone descended onto the pitch to see the players. I was first struck by the sheer size of the stadium: this is a University team, yet the stadium has a larger capacity than St James' (and I bet you it sells out more too...). Then at the amount of people there - there was well over a thousand, and of all ages too. It was great to see how passionate people were about the game and I can't wait to go watch a game or two.

That seems a good note to end on and I think I'm going to grab an early night before Miami tomorrow. I'm going to give the run a miss tonight (I don't want to get damp again...) but will try and get one tomorrow morning before setting off. I'm really loving finding out more and more about here and can't wait for the days, weeks, months and years ahead. I leave you with a picture of the Scarlet Knights Stadium:

P.S. Please leave comments and let me know who's reading - I'm intrigued to know! If you want to leave a comment then click on the title of this post then scroll to the bottom of the screen - you can even post anonymously...

I'm Here!

2009-08-16T01:55:00.001+01:00

I'm here!!!!!

Expect a longer post in a bit but I just wanted to let everyone know I arrived yesterday safe and sound. Currently nursing a little bit of sun burn due to it being ridiculously hot (32 degrees!) and me forgetting to put sun cream (sorry, sunscreen...) on...twice...

Anyways, off for a run then will try to post properly later...

Gatherings, Graduation and Goodbyes

2009-08-02T21:33:00.005+01:00

Wow, I can't believe suddenly it's all over. In the space of a couple of weeks I am suddenly a graduate and my undergraduate career lays behind me. As clichéd as it may sound, it truly feels like only yesterday I was arriving at Fresher's Week a nervous little First Year Undergraduate - and it is even more surreal to think that I'm going to be arriving at Orientation at Rutgers as a nervous not-so-little-anymore First Year Graduate...

But before that happens I've had an amazing week or two starting with spending quite a bit of time with my parents. I've been around the county taking photos to remind me of home and doing things like eating fish & chips at Bamburgh Beach (something I know I will miss) but mainly we were getting sorted for `the party'.

James & Sam arrived on Thursday night with Ben & Darren (Sam's brother and his boyfriend) and we had a really nice chilled evening staying up and chatting and generally catching up. Friday, however, was a bit more manic!

Firstly we had the problem of getting everyone down from the station - this involved 4 separate car trips (each a hour long round trip) and my brother and dad were stars in sorting it all out. Next we had the problem of where to sleep everyone - solved by my Auntie Jude lending us her motorhome - where Hazel, Jo and Hedd slept - meaning we only needed 3 people to each room - not 5 as we originally thought!

All morning was spent making lasagne and this was dutifully eaten by everyone that evening - to the sound of a lot of happy tummys! When everyone did arrive things did slow down a bit and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the living room catching up and talking about the future. The night was devoted to the annual (2 years counts as a tradition, right?) Bamburgh Bar Crawl. If anyone has never been to Bamburgh, don't be too impressed... Bamburgh has only 4 bars (all of them connected to a Hotel) and they are all within about 250 yards of each other so it didn't take too much effort to complete. It was really good fun and included a rather fun drinking game where you take the name of the person across the table and then one person is 'it' and they have to say the name of someone 3 times in a row before the other person can respond with their name once. It doesn't sound too complicated but add in the confusion of having someone else's name and alcohol and it becomes very entertaining!

Saturday morning was a frantic rush for the showers - unfortunately I was last and after 19 people before me there was no hot water whatsoever - before climbing into our costumes (sometimes literally). I was really impressed with the effort all my friends and all their costumes we had
Me - Rutger's Baseball Player
Steph & Lucy - Cheerleaders (The "Double D's"!)
Paul - Indiana Jones
Nicole - Scarlet O'Hara (including mahoosive dress!)
Wik - A Scarlet Knight (the Rutgers Mascot)
Tom - Captain America
George - Mafia
Jo - Minnie Mouse
Hedd - Stars & Stripes
Hazel - Cowgirl
Christine - Hawaiian
Simon - Cowboy
So altogether a bit of a motley crew! I'm going to put up a post of all the photos so you can all judge their efforts for yourselves... They also got me some really amazing presents that I'm definitely going to keep for many years to come. I got my camera off my parents as an early birthday present so I wasn't expecting anything - but they had got me a new lens for it, and my brother and Sam had got me some USA guidebooks and a digital photoframe to take with me and put in my Office :)

Guests started arriving around 2pm and the festivities got underway. The Pimm's was flowing, the bucking bronco was going and everyone had a great time. It was really nice to see family and friends I hadn't seen for ages and everyone had well wishes. I even made a speech! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for coming and I had special thank-yous to Becca, all my Oxford Friends (especially Steph and Nicole for putting up with my stress this year), Gran, Granda and Granny, James and Sam and of course Mum and Dad. It was a surprisingly emotional time and I had to head inside afterwards for a couple of minutes on my own to get my head sorted. I think it was really one of the first times it had hit me just how big a move this was, and not just for me but for everyone around me too.

The rest of the day was spent drinking, playing rounders and generally having a good time. It all rounded off with a big game of Mafia, involving all the Oxford lot, James, Sam, Ben, Darren, Dad and even Gran! It was really good fun but it wasn't long before the long day took its toll and we all headed off to bed. The next morning was rather subdued and we all headed in to Alnwick to see the castle and leave the family to go to Rory's (Kate's little boy) Christening. The castle was really interesting (I am ashamed to say I had never been before!) and Daniel (a friend from High School) not only took us on the general tour, but also used his time off to show us around the inside rooms - an amazing tour guide! Finally, we all headed to the Lord Crewe on Sunday night for a 'last supper' which was great fun before staying up playing 'The Thing' and the Oxford Game before once again heading to bed.

Monday was a day of goodbyes, and hence quite emotional - especially seeing as it was the last time I would see Jo, Hedd and Nicole before heading off so a few tears were shed and suddenly the party was over. Since then, I've been sorting out suitcases (shopping for suitcases is ridiculously stressful...) and everything else to try and get sorted for America before heading down to Oxford for Graduation...

We all headed down on Friday (31st) to Oxford and had the journey from Hell... nearly 8 hours in the car, numerous road works and just crazily busy roads meant we were all knackered when we finally got here! However, we checked in at the Randolph and got to our rooms, which, in a word, were unbelievable. The shower was huge, the bath massive, you sank into the bed and pillows, the room ginormous and the whole thing spotless. You can see how this hotel earned its 5 stars. It is a massive treat to stop and I doubt I'll ever stay in anywhere this nice for a very very long time... We had time for me to pick up my doctors notes to take with me to the US and get changed before we headed out to Pierre Victoire, a French restaurant we have been coming to ever since Open Day 5 years ago. We had a fantastic meal, as always, and James, Sam and I went to meet a few of my mates at a local pub before turning in for the night.

Graduation day was, to be honest, weird. We had an amazing breakfast here before I headed to college to sort out my new gown, then headed back to the hotel to chill for a bit - where Mum and Dad gave me a really nice hip flask, and James and Sam gave me some lovely cufflinks for my graduation. Needless to say, I used the cufflinks but not the hip flask! Walking back to college, I suddenly got very pensive, and I thought a lot about the future and my time at Wadham and Oxford. As the Vice-Chancellor commented on later, the Oxford Ceremony is quite solemn and I think the whole proceedings led to a very thought-provoking atmosphere. At 11.30 we headed to the Hall Balcony to meet the Dean of Degrees (Ray Ockenden) for pre-drinks before lunch with everyone's family. Lunch was really nice and it was great to show everyone Hall (as Sam put it, she felt like she 'was eating at Hogwarts'...). All the family got lead out then while the graduands got told what to do in the ceremony. Basically, the rule of thumb was to bow to everyone and often and then at one point say 'do fidem,' meaning 'I swear' (or as Hazel corrected us, it more correctly translates to 'I give my heart to you' - pedantic classicists! :P)

The actual ceremony went off without a hitch: we sat down, watched loads of degrees, got called up, bowed, spoke latin, bowed again, got led out, changed into new robes and hood, waited for the BA's, processed back into the hall, bowed again and then left again. Outside, we waited for the parents but suddenly the heaven's opened and it was a mad dash to college to avoid being soaked through. At college, James, Sam, Paul and Steph joined us for afternoon tea and the photos began... I still think I have a pemanent fake smile ingrained on my face from smiling so much and the professional photographer had me looking over my shoulder, staring in the window, me with Mum and Dad, me with everyone and then with a degree certificate and mortar board... All very stressful and that was before the photos with friends taken my the Mums and Dads! Soon after it was Simon, Wik and Lucy's turn to say their goodbyes (very sad...) and then we headed back to the Hotel for a nice hot bath before dinner.

Dinner was at Brasserie Blanc, Raymond Blanc's more casual in-town restaurant. I can honestly say it was possibly the best meal I've ever had - and the company was the best too. I had Rillettes of Pork to start (amazing), an 8oz Sirloin for main (you didn't have to chew it was so tender) and a summer fruits, strawberry sorbet and champagne dessert (the champagne was freshly poured at the table). All in all it was just fantastic and a perfect ending to a fantastic and memorable day.

Unfortunately, Sunday was a day full of goodbyes. Firstly to Tom and George before saying bye to Wadham itself. Next up was Hazel before my Mont Blanc buddies - Nicole, Steph and Paul. It was all a bit emotional and Steph refused to let me go at one point - trapping me in a bear hug and only letting go when me and Paul prized her off... Next up was a quick shopping trip at Bicester before another big goodbye - this time to Sam and James. It's surreal to think I'm not going to see them before I head to the States... Finally, a 6 hour journey back during which I slept, typed up notes, read, listened to music and was generally indolent. Now I'm off to bed to get ready for starting to sort out stuff to pack tomorrow - ah, the stress!

Meeting Gold Medallists, Lords and Charge D'Affaires... (Part Two)

2009-07-17T23:02:00.007+01:00

...PART TWO

Well when I left off I had just arrived home from Henley and about to head to London for the Fulbright Orientation. As I mentioned, I had an email from Kat (one of the staff at Fulbright and an absolute Godsend! Seriously, I think I would have torn out all my hair by now if she hadn't answered all my banal emails...) asking me to fill out 3 visa forms, acquire a passport photo and self addressed special delivery envelope all in about 12 hours before leaving for London!
After spending three hours in front of a computer filling out forms and trying to remember which countries I've visited in the last ten years instead of spending time with my parents and Rock I finally finished the forms and went to bed. I was starting to feel a little ill so needed my sleep but had to get up at 7am to pack and get sorted before my 11am train...
I arrived in London, dumped my stuff in my hotel and made my way towards Westminister Abbey for the Abraham Lincoln memorial lecture. Then it started to rain... and when I say rain I mean a ridiculous thunderstorm! I have never seen rain like it and so spent about an hour hiding under one of the archways at Westminister Abbey reading a soggy copy of the International Herald Tribune (the international New York Times) getting scared witless by the thunder and lightning.
Finally 6pm arrived and after briefly meeting my fellow Fulbrighters we sat through a lecture by Prof. Carwardine (a Fulbright alumni) on Abe Lincoln followed by discussions by Lord Owen, Lord Hurd and Lord Bingham. It was very interesting but went a bit over my head. Combined with the general lack of sleep and tiredness meant I was almost willing the lecture over but it was still very enjoyable and all speakers were excellent. This was followed by a couple of pints at a local with the other scholars before dinner and much needed sleep. The hotel wasn't bad - it wasn't anything flash but did the job and had free wi-fi which was much appreciated.
I met up with Emma, Phil, Mike, Andrew and Sam for breakfast (full English...) and we grabbed a Starbucks (feeling very American in doing so) before heading to the University of Notre-Dame for our first day of Orientating (is that the right verb?).
We had introductions from Penny Egan (head of the UK-US commission), a guy from the US embassy and Michael Scott-Kline (Awards Director) before an ice breaker called autograph bingo. It was quite a cool way to find out about people where we all got a card with 6 facts about people like `guest edited the Today Programme' and 'learnt Arabic in Cairo' and we had to find who was what and get them to sign the card. It was quite a nice way to find out random facts about people which led to our three minute introductions which were next.
The introductions lasted about an hour and a half as there were 35 of us to get through (a combination of postgraduate awards, distinguished scholars, journalists, MBAs, policemen/women, musicians and more) and it was amazing to hear what everyone is going to be doing. I think the most commonly used word by us to describe the group was 'random' and I was truly in awe of everyone else. I was the youngest by 3 or 4 years and there was a massive range of subjects being studied. They ranged from studying fertility (Phil) to Sir Walter Raleigh (Anna) to US media coverage of mental health (Mary) to Spanish (Mariama) to Social Work (Andrew) and so much more inbetween! I really felt out of place almost, and did not feel worthy to be there and be put in the same league as everyone else - but it seems like all of us were feeling like that. We are also being spread out across the country, although there are concentrations in New York and Boston there are people heading to Seattle, San Fransisco, Cincinnati, Mississippi, Chicago and a couple of the Police officers are doing tours all over the country. At least this means (a) there are plenty of Fulbrighters nearby in New York (7 or 8 at last count) and (b) there are plenty of couches I can use when I travel around the country!
After the introductions and lunch we had hours and hours of info thrown at us about life in the states, visas, the BFSA, the IIE, what its like to actually study there and so much more. I'm not going to bore you with the details but needless to say it got me slightly terrified and utterly confused. Luckily everything they told us we were given written down so hopefully after a second reading it'll be much clearer...
That night we headed to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to see the 3rd years do their final performance of `Damn Yankees' - a 50's musical based on Faust but set to a baseball storyline. It was as camp as Christmas but good fun - I think it was just what we all needed after such a serious day and the students were amazing. The girl who played Lola (a demon sent to seduce the main character) was ridiculously good looking, had an amazing voice and played 5 or 6 six accents flawlessy... some people are just *too* talented!
The next morning it was another Starbucks before heading back to Notre-Dame for a panel session with Toby Young, James Crabtree, Dr Clodagh Harrington and Will Straw all about current affairs in the US. This was really interesting and as 3 of them (excepting Clodagh) had been Fulbrighters it was really useful. Soon after we headed to the Texas Embassy for a tex-mex lunch after which there was time for a quick change before me, Alex, Anna and Andrew (+ wife) headed to the embassy for our visa interviews. It was amazing to see what being a Fulbright Scholar gets you - instead of a 4 hour wait outside and 4 hour wait inside we were all done within an hour! We were fast tracked inside, fast tracked to get our fingerprints scanned, then fast tracked to our interview, after which I was told I had been granted a visa and could go and study! Wooo!
We headed straight from the embassy to Winfield House, the US Ambassadors residence, for the reception. We had time to do some portraits and groups shots with Juliette Atkinson who has photographed royalty in the past! Then it was time for the reception - I was expecting it just to be the scholars and our guests (unfortunately Steph couldn't make it as her supervisor wouldn't let her have the time off) and the US Charge D'Affaires (the US Ambassador is currently waiting for approval from the White House before he can take up the position) however we were informed that 520 people had been invited and all to honour us! This was rather daunting and so I had to get networking and thanking people for coming. It was quite funny as you could tell who was doing an MBA or journalism as they were quite good at making conversation etc however I was more than slightly embarassed to walk up to people and say "Hello, I am one of this year's Fulbright Scholars..." I did talk to some very interesting people though, including Simon Lewis and a couple who were scholars in the 50's and are now setting up their own University. One person I wanted to talk to but didn't get a chance to is Baroness Amos who was the first black female member of the Cabinet and the forthcoming High Commissioner of Australia.
After the drinks all the scholars headed to a local for some pub grub and conversation. I had some really interesting and quite deep conversations and was reminded of how intelligent, diverse and fascinating a group I was now part of.
Slept well that night feeling quite run down with cold/flu (I always get ill at the end of term - I think my immune system thinks it can take a vacation when I do!) and so woke up the next morning with absolutely no voice whatsoever... Even my morning Starbucks couldn't help and so I spent most of the day writing down notes rather than trying to speak. All the others found it quite humourous and we made our way to Westminister to get on a river cruise down to Grenwich. The cruise was really good and I learnt some new things about London before we landed and headed to Cafe Sol for yet another tex-mex lunch. I hadn't had much tex-mex before the Orientation, and I don't think I need any more for a long time now either! We gave the staff some champagne and then I decided to head off as I was feeling crap and just wanted to get home to bed. I left with a few of the others back to the centre and stopped off at my favourite shop in the whole of London - the Apple Store. I had decided that my 23" iMac wasn't the most practical of computers to lug about so I wanted to get a 13" MacBook which I could use at the department and while travelling while leaving my iMac at my flat. I had decided to pay for it out of my first grant payment and get it all set up before heading out but am currently discussing with parents as they want to get it for me for Christmas as they say they can't really get me much else (like stockings and little presents) as I probably won't be able to take them out with me. I opened and set it up on the train home and posted the last blog post from it so its all working now! It is ridiculously cool and I'm really pleased with it. I went for the most basic model as I don't need it to do amazing things - I've got my iMac to do that - I mainly want to be able to access internet and emails and word process and LaTeX on it - which it all does perfectly!
I arrived back home around 8 and had a quick dinner before pretty much crashing out for the night.
Next up - the Lake District the next morning to meet Becca, Katie and a few others - 6 hours on a train and I got there, had a nice walk with Becca before we all headed to Bowness for dinner and drinks before the heavens opened... I've never slept in a tent with it raining so badly but surprisingly we all stayed dry and packed up the next day for a quick jaunt on Windemere in a boat before meeting Paul, Steph, George and a load of Paul's friends for a drink before the drive back. By this time my voice had pretty much gone and I was feeling pretty awful so I slept the entire way back and went straight to bed!
Next day I headed down to Becca's in the afternoon and we headed to Gianni's for dinner. We have been to this restaurant so much and it was really nice to have a 'last supper' of sorts and it was good to just catch up really. Then on Tuesday Becca came up here and we chilled out for most of the day - chatting, jamming and the like. She also gave me my birthday presents - two great photos framed for my office out at Rutgers and then two really personal presents. First, she had been up a couple of weeks earlier to nab the photo album she had got me when I turned 18 and had filled the rest with photos from Uni and left some pages for people to sign before I leave which was really thoughtful. Then she had made me a film for me to take out with me - it was of the area so I could show people and watch if I got homesick. It was really thoughtful of her and I definitely was welling up watching it. Then it was time for her to leave - for graduation, then Thailand) and I'm not going to see her before I head out so it was rather an emotional affair. I'm really going to miss catching up with her - but at least there's Skype and she's planning on visiting around Easter time so it should all be ok.
Since then I've been sorting out my room and thinking about packing - it's a very scary thought! I've also been chilling out - I'm not going to get much of a chance after this week as we'll then be sorting out stuff for the party, then it's the party, then graduation, then Verona and then before I know it I'll be flying - argh! It's going to be hectic but I can't wait...
Well that's it for now - sorry for the mammoth posts - hopefully I can keep it shorter next time...

Meeting Gold Medallists, Lords and Charge D'Affaires... (Part One)

2009-07-10T18:46:00.002+01:00

Wow - what a few weeks I have had! Last time I properly updated I had just finished my finals and starting to enjoy my freedom. The story continues... (this may be a rather long post... don't say I didn't warn you!)

So the day after I had finished so did Hazel so I got drunk. After I had finished I had one pint and then pretty much went home and went to bed - but Hazel finished at 12.30 and I was much more awake so we had champagne in the MCR! After that, as I mentioned before, I spent a lot of time doing good old admin and form filling. I swear for every form I filled in another three forms appeared...

After about a week suddenly everyone else started finishing, in very quick succession. So suddenly it was Saturday of 8th Week and Lucy was the last of us to finish. My parents came down that weekend which was lovely but I felt quite bad because I had to leave them loads. Firstly on Friday it was Schools Dinner - a great tradition when the third and fourth year mathematicians at Wadham have an amazing 5 course meal with wine and port with all the tutors to kind of say goodbye. We got the tutors presents and the food was fantastic and ended up convincing Steve (our tutor in first and second year) to come out clubbing which was certainly an experience and a half. Then I had to leave them for Lucy's birthday followed by Croquet in the gardens and the Warden's Garden Party. But then we had a lovely dinner on the Saturday night and did lots of packing on the Sunday before they set off back up North.

Then 9th Week was the week of good times and goodbyes. We had some great times like Finalists Fling (ending in Kukui - a Hawaiian themed night club in Oxford) and cycling to Blenheim Palace - but then some of the best were when we just sat around chatting and it really reminded me how many good friend I have at Oxford. I decided to write a letter to everyone in the flats plus a couple of others - just to tell them how grateful I was to have them as friends and how much I want to keep in touch with everyone. I gave them out when people left and some were incredibly difficult to write - I certainly shed a tear or two which isn't all that like me. Other than goodbyes I also had a lot of cleaning to do :( The flat gets inspected at the end of the year and the college fines for anything not clean enough. As I was the alst in the flats I had to do all the last minute stuff and clearing up. Even though the rest of the flat had done loads of work I was still up till 4 cleaning which wasn't my favourite thing to do! I also took James my bike and it was great to catch up with him - it also happened to be Mel's 21st Birthday (Sam's sister) so we had a lovely meal and a great day.

From Oxford I went straight to Henley to work Regatta week. For anybody who doesn't know, Henley Royal Regatta is a massive rowing event held on the Thames at the venue of the last two British Olympic Regattas and every year Remenham Club hire Wadham BC students to work their bar. It's pretty good money and great fun so this was my 3rd year of working there. This year was even more busy/crazy than usual as it was Remenham's centenary year so there was plenty celebrations - culminating in Prince Michael of Kent visiting on the Friday to unveil a new Honours Board and to watch a Spitfire Flypast especially for Remenham. The prices are pretty expensive (£8 for a pint of Pimms!) but it gets bought as if it's going out of fashion - we sold 40 kegs of Pimms and ran out of pretty much everything by the end of the week. A definite highlight was on the Sunday evening after we finished our shift Andy Triggs Hodge (gold medallist at Beijing with the GB M4- and a member of Remenham) came over and started chatting to us, asking how the week had gone etc. It was really nice of him and something he didn't have to do.

Another highlight of the week was definitely getting my results and the associated celebrations... I got a First! I was ridiculously pleased and it still hasn't sunk in. It means I'm definitely off to the States, and has given me the confidence to think maybe I am good enough for a PhD.

After Henley I arrived home at about 8 on the Monday to find an email from Kat at Fulbright asking me to fill in 3 visa forms and email them to the US embassy that night. Needless to say I didn't get too much sleep (I didn't realise how awkward visa forms are!) and then had to get up at 7 to get sorted before heading into London for the Fulbright orientation. But the last three days have been so jam packed they deserve a post to their own so that's the END OF PART ONE...

(I told you it was going to be long...)

I'm off to the States!

2009-07-07T08:14:00.003+01:00

Found out a couple of days ago that I GOT A FIRST! :)

So I'm definitely off to Rutgers :) I'm off to London for the Fulbright Orientation but I will write more once I'm back...

Red Carnation! (Warning: May contain maths...)

2009-06-10T19:04:00.007+01:00

For those of you who don't know Oxford traditions - you wear a carnation for all your exams. Your first exam of your exam period you wear a white carnation, then after that a pink carnation and for your final exam you wear a red carnation meaning...

...They're all over!

The reddening of the carnation is meant to symbolise you bleeding and hence sacrificing yourself for your exams (which seems a little gory and over the top to me) but as of 4pm on Monday I have been a free man with no more Oxford Exams! The exams were stressful (as ever) but I feel they went better than I thought they would.

WARNING: The following 3 paragraphs may contain Maths! You have been warned...

First up was Graph Theory - last Friday morning, 1.5hrs. This went quite well (I think!) and I answered 2 questions (as I needed to) fully and am quite confident in my answers. First was about Hall's Marriage Theorem (as always) but with some weird applications to perfect matchings of regular bipartite graphs. The second was chromatic polynomials and pretty straightforward. Even the last part was pretty easy so I just hope I haven't missed the point!

Next was Lie Algebras & Representation Theory of Symmetric Groups - Monday morning, 3hrs. This was definitely the exam I was most worried about (I was very nearly sick on Monday morning beforehand) and I felt that this was a particularly hard paper (as all the other people taking the exam seemed to agree), however I answered 4 questions (2 from each section as required) and was quite happy with what I put down. I think that even though I 'hand-waved' some bits I still put down reasonably sensible answers. The two questions on Lie Algebras were weird (one involved weird direct sums of perp spaces with respect to the killung form, and the other involved the Cartan Matrix and calculating valid roots) and I think some of my bookwork may have been off but I got two reasonable answers at the end of it. The representation theory was, if possible, even weirder. The first went well (it involved a combination of the Hook Formula, Murnaghan-Nakayama and weird properties of tableaux) and the second I was pretty pleased with too (it involed Specht Modules, the Submodule Theorem and D-lambda modules). The last part involved Gram Matrices which the lecturer had briefly mentioned in the last lecture of the course. She had also said in passing that the rank of the Gram Matrix was the dimension of D-lambda whcih I somehow managed to remember in the exam so I was pretty pleased. Especially as I don't think anyone else remembered it.

Finally I had Axiomatic Set Theory - Monday afternoon, 1.5hrs. This went fine as well I think - I answered all three questions so hopefully at least one will be decent! The first was about the V-alpha hierarchy with a bit of a tricky question about the validity of certain axioms in V-lambda for lambda a limit ordinal. The second was cardinal arithmetic - the König inequality, the generalized continuum hypothesis and some exponentiation problems. I couldn't do the problems but did the bookwork fine. Finally, the last was about absoluteness and upwards-absoluteness. I hadn't practiced this much but reckon I did a decent job - answering all parts with at least a small degree of confidence.

END OF WARNING: No more maths from now on! (Or at least none explicitly...)

So overall I think my exams went well - I'm quietly confident I got a 2:i (what I need for Fulbright) and hopefully may have retained my first but you never know with Oxford exams (and I still don't know about my dissertation).

Since then I haven't been up to much other than sleeping, enjoying doing nothing and doing a load of admin for Fulbright. Nearly set up my Citibank account now and found out I have yet another Orientation to attend (that's four so far!). Ever since finishing I've suddenly become a lot more excited/nervous about America - all of a sudden it's very real...

In other news, I ordered some Rutgers Stash for my party today. Everyone is going to quite a bit of effort for the fancy dress - so far Tom is thinking of coming as Captain America, Steph & Lucy as cheerleaders or cowgirls, Jo has an idea but is keeping it secret and Nicole has bought a Scarlett O'Hara style Southern Belle dress.

And so that's about it. I haven;t got much planned for the next few days (other than finally getting to some KEEN sessions this term) but I think the next two weeks are going to be emotional. I found the boat club cruise pretty tough a couple of weeks ago - it was such an end of an era - and I've already felt myself welling up a couple of times - like last night in the music room realising that we would only have a couple more singing sessions ever...

Anyways, enough about me getting sentimental - I've just got to twiddle my thumbs until Monday 29th June when I get my results! Argh!

Later Days

David

Run up to Finals (aka getting very stressed over 6 hours of exams)

2009-05-24T09:35:00.000+01:00

Well finals are now under a fortnight away 'o'
I've got 6 hours of exams coming up:

1.5hr Graph Theory Paper - Friday 6th Week (5th June) 9.30am
3hr Lie Algebras & Representation Theory Paper - Monday 7th Week (8th June) 9.30am
1.5hr Axiomatic Set Theory Paper - Monday 7th Week (8th June) 2.30pm

It doesn't seem all that much on paper - considering it is half the amount of exams I've had each of the last three years - but I'm getting a bit stressed about it now. I just feel I'm not going to be anywhere near ready for it. I also have no idea what kind of marks I'm going to get for my dissertation. I have a sinking feeling that considering my examiner it might not be as high as I hoped.

But anyway, enough about scary exams - I've been filling in VISA forms this week (slightly terrifying!) and am about to start on my Citibank forms (very complicated!). Also, the preparations for my leaving party are well underway. My dad has managed to get a Bucking Bronco from somewhere and I'm going to order some Rutgers Stash from their website to put up around the place. Can't wait!

It is finally starting to sink in that in 2 and a half months I'll be flying to the U.S. At my uncle Paul's wedding last weekend it was really nice having all my relatives asking me about my impending departure but it was also slightly daunting. It suddenly made me realise the enormity of my move - living for 4+ years in a country 40 times the size of the UK that I've never even visited... At the same time the thought of the challenge of it all really excites me - I really like the fact that I'm not going to know anyone, or the area and it'll be an 'adventure' at least!

Well, it's time I should be back off to finals revision but I'll hopefully post once I'm through the other side...

David

First Post

2009-05-13T11:44:00.000+01:00

Well I've set up this blog as somewhere I can write about my experiences when I head across to America... I'll probably not update it much before I head across but keep checking just in case! In case you didn't know, I'm off to Rutgers University, NJ to study for a PhD in Pure Mathematics (Group Theory) in the Fall (did you notice me trying to use the US lingo :-P ) and I've been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for my first year's study. This means I'm actually going to be heading out to the States on the 14th August when I'll be heading down to Miami for 5 days for an Orientation week (and getting paid to do it ^-^ ) before another Orientation week in Rutgers for International Students. Oh, and I've got an Orientation week with Fulbright in London before I leave the UK! Hopefully 15 days of Orientation should leave me fairly prepared for the States!

Big exciting news this week - the Fulbright Schoalrs have been invited to dinner at the US Embassy on the 9th July! Should be pretty fun and not something I usually do... :-P

Anyways, more updates later

David