5 Lessons From America!

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!

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

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)

...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)

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!

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...)

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