in britannia

I'm not usually terribly homesick while away, but this week I started to feel more and more yearning to go back home to see my family. Matt came up from Eton to visit, which was nice. And I spent some time chatting online with my Mom, which is always fun. (We had been attempting to use iChat AV for Macintosh, but neither of us has been successful. Grrr.) But the most deep-down of sensations is always the sense of smell. Memories point us to specific events in time, smells can do that and much more: they envelop you in a kind scented haze which may not point to a specific blip on a timeline but which evokes feelings of happiness and comfort. Some of what I miss from home is the smell of my Dad's cooking, so I've been attempting to replicate his food here. In fact, moreso than I did in New Jersey. Dad's steamed fish always had an accompanying sauce of chopped green onions and soy, the smell of which is unmistakably part of my childhood. This weekend, I had the opportunity to cook a simple beef and vegetable soup that my Dad used to make, and which I love. Just cubed beef, carrots, tomatoes, onion, and white cabbage. Not difficult, but after 2 hrs of simmering, it's such a comfort.

Well, into another hellraiser of a week, especially given the added holidays of All Souls and All Saints days. At least I have a big pot of soup to keep me warm.

This is why I am not an archaologist or an epigraphical scholar:

"In the blazing heat, I went from one end of the row of statues, and I checked all of them out of the hope of finding what every scholar wants something which someone hasn't seen before, something which you could publish, something to make your name. That was the hope, and it took me three hours in the blazing heat during which I confirmed that the original publications were, in fact, excellent and there was nothing at all which I could take. Great frustration."

This, again, from John Ma, who was narrating over pictures of a long row of honorific statues bases in the Amphiaraion, or healing shrine, in Oropos, about 30 minutes from Athens. The statues are long gone, but the bases and their epigraphs remain, and Dr. Ma had gone while on his sabbatical last year. I'm more content to spend my days in libraries than in the blazing heat. To me, archaologists are nuts.

For some reason, this term is much more jam-packed with stuff than any of the previous three. Or, frankly, any two of the previous three put together. And it's not the extra-curriculars, as some people might wish to point out. I'm not rowing this term, since it's for novices only. I go to the odd training session when I can, but usually I'm so tired that it'd be impossible. I make up for it by walking a lot, since my bike is busted. I'm taking a lot lectures than I usually do. And, unlike in other years, the lectures require actual pre-lecture work. So I'm hit hard by having to read for those things as well as do my reading and writing for my supervisor.

I'm also writing my thesis, which is difficult, because it's not like writing a 5,000 word essay each week. Well, it is, in that each chapter is about 5,000 words, but unlike a freestanding essay, each chapter has to coalesce with the others, and the writing itself gets much more complex. It's been fun, but I'm very tired. Working Title: "Conducting Athenian Lawsuits After The Amnesty Of 403 BC". In 404 BC, at the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans set up a junta of 30 oligarchs who would run Athens as a sympathetic Spartan dependent. These oligarchs came to be known as the Thirty Tyrants (always capitalized). Their chief weapon was surprise. Surprise and fear... Fear and surprise... Their two weapons were, um, nevermind. The Thirty ruled Athens for all of a year, when the democratic survivors banded together and forced a civil war which lasted for a few months. However, such deep-seated animosity between the democrats and oligarchs remained that even after the cessation of open hostilities, they were attempting to use the law courts as a means to imprison and execute their political rivals. Thus, a sweeping amnesty was declared making everyone but the Thirty themselves (and a few others) entirely immune from prosecution for deeds occurring in that period. My thesis attempts to analyze the different types of arguments used by both prosecution and defense in this period, especially the arguments made from historical narrative, which should theoretically have been illegal.

In addition to the thesis, I'm continuing with both private Greek tutorial (on Mondays) and Greek class (on Wednesdays). On Tuesdays, I meet with my supervisor, which means that the chapter is due at 5pm on Mondays, which means that I spend the whole weekend writing. After Tuesday, I do my Greek homework, which is usually about a hundred lines of translation for Wednesday. Wednesday I go to American Politics and Greek History in the morning, then Greek in the afternoon. This is the turning point for my week. Thursday is just an 11 am lecture with John Ma (yay!), and Friday is a library day for me. Overall, it's not a bad schedule, but when the thesis gets particularly frustrating (as it did this week), then all hell breaks loose. Oh, and Saturdays I have that Roman Law seminar.

Monday I woke up at 3am, since I scrapped a section of the chapter and needed to re-write it and re-work the rest of it. Unpleasant. Very stressful. Tuesday, I woke up at 5 to do my Greek translation, and to look over my essay before my meeting. Also, I just couldn't sleep. Unfortunately, I was sent to the library after my supervision to look up some key points for this week's chapter, and it ate up most of the day instead of my doing Greek. So yesterday, I woke up at 4am in order to finish up the translations. Which were fine and they got done. But that meant that I was absolutely shattered last night. Dragged myself home, dove into bed, and woke up this morning (at 5!) feeling awful. Thank goodness I was able to get back to sleep. I woke up an hour ago and I've been answering emails from the previous 4 days. Ew.

And delightfully, the process starts all over much sooner than I want it to.

Honestly, it's not all bad. The evensong service yesterday was fun music, Magdala on Tuesday was amazingly good music. And on Monday, we had a special dinner in Keble Hall: fanned melon with berry compote (starter), seared duck breast with caramelized orange sauce, served with baton carrots and roasted baby potatoes (main), and a tia maria chocolate torte (pudding). First off, I tried making duck two weeks ago. It's hard, and I have a new appreciation for it. Secondly, fanned melon with berry compote is not a starter. Boo hiss! And if they're going to pass it off as "fanned melon", then the mellon should not just have been cut, it should have been fanned out on the plate, which it was not. Again, boo hiss. And, while the chocolate torte was unctuous and rich and fantastic, I tasted no Tia Maria. Not so much a boo hiss as a puzzled "hmmm?".

But anyway, the White Sox won (yawn!), and I expect that Graham and Tacy are over the moon by now. Good for them. Don't get me wrong, I love that the White Sox won. But it's hard to root for A.J. Pierzynski. Really really hard. And I love that on my friend Eric's friendster profile he has stated "Pinstripes through and through. Though right now, baseball is dead to me." Yankees suck.

It seems that whatever spare time I have is involved in relatively serious conversation. Last weekend, I got into a massive discussion with my friend Jonathan over different periods of Roman history and when to place the real turning point between the rise and fall of Rome. I say the splitting of the Empire into the tetrarchies. I think he said the death of Trajan. Jonathan is one of the more articulate people I've met so far.

Last night was a conversation with a guy I worked with in the dining hall named Forrest. He's from outside of Beijing and he would be here studying law if they'd give him funding. But there's no funding available, so he's one of the hall managers. We talked about the new direction of China, and the mistakes that China will have to avoid if it doesn't want to end up like Russia. Great conversation.

And then over lunch, a disagreement and debate with Salvador over personal responsibility in the dorms and whether dorm security is really all that necessary. My contention is that for issues of public safety, it's crucial. But Mila, for her part in the conversation, decided to argue for the placement of security guards around our dorm in order to make sure that drunk people weren't too loud and disturbing her sleep. Which is a matter not of security but of comfort. Public safety is one thing, and I think that Salvador and I came to an agreement over that point. But what Mila wants is for the drunk people who make noise and waker her up to stop without being that person who actually tells them to stop, because she can't be asked. And that's just a cop-out.

Also, final birthday gift arrived today. Diana sent me the Gourmet cookbook because, as she said on the Amazon card, "because you already have the joy of cooking."

Wow. You know when you've got a brother at Eton College when...

Seriously. This is the exchange that went down with my brother on Friday.

Phone message left for Matt: "Hi, it's Joe. I know your long leave starts today, so do let me know where you're staying and when you're thinking about coming down to Oxford. Just let me know a bit in advance. Thanks."

Text message from Matt, quoted verbatim, unedited: "Im in mikes private helicopter and its too loud for my phone call you when i get to his house"

Private helicopter? Matthew calls me at 1:10 saying he's in Yorkshire. I looked it up on Mapquest: Eton is more than four hours away from York. Even if Matt boarded the helicopter exactly when he got out of classes, that's still only 2.5 hours...

And honestly, a private helicopter?

From an article in today's New York Times magazine:

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Without a swim bladder to work from, the ur-toothfish needed to develop an alternate buoyancy device. Over time, glands developed under the fish's skin that secreted fats directly into its muscle tissue. Fats, being lighter than water, performed the same function as a swim bladder, lightening the animal and allowing it to rise from depths of 6,000 feet to as shallow as 200 feet with little effort.
---

This is the set up what has got to be one of the funnier lines in food journalism in a long while:

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This trait made the toothfish a very effective predator for millions of years. But when the modern human seafood diner evolved a taste for fish, the fat-as-flotation scheme made the toothfish into very desirable prey. Because when you secrete fat directly into your body, you are in effect giving yourself a deep-tissue marinade for your whole life.
---

mmm... deep-tissue marinade...

Indidentally, I went to a law seminar yesterday by Prof. David Ibbetson of Cambridge University. He's probably the country's leading expert in European legal history, particularly Roman Law, which was the topic of this seminar. Prof. Ibbetson is a very, very smart guy. Wow.

I was surprised, this weekend, to read a bizarre article about Anheuser-Busch's promotion of "Bud Pong" the game. Francine Katz, spokesman of the Anheuser-Busch company, had this to say in the article:

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"It's catching on like wildfire," Ms. Katz said. "We created it as an icebreaker for young adults to meet each other." But Ms. Katz said Bud Pong was not intended for underage drinkers because promotions were held in bars, not on campuses. And it does not promote binge drinking, she said, because official rules call for water to be used, not beer. The hope is that those on the sidelines enjoy a Bud.
---

Now, I've played the non-branded version, called "beer pong", and it's fun enough game. But to play it with water seems childish. Even at Princeton, the non-alcoholic version used milk. Anyway, it's kind of a moot point now, since I found this article on the Boston Globe's website today. It seems that someone called them on the ridiculousness of the promotion. Again, back to Ms. Katz:

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While it might seem odd for a brewery to market a water-drinking game, Katz said in an e-mail statement that Anheuser-Busch attached its name to "Bud Pong" in the same fashion the company sponsors NASCAR races or Major League Baseball games.
---

I don't think anyone was buying that. That said, I think I'm a bit out of practice, but it would be hard for me to find a place to play around here. It's all about the snooker tables here, not ping pong.

Now older and busy.

First and foremost, I'd like to say that I had a wonderful time on my birthday. Many many many thanks to everyone who wrote. I'm sorry I haven't thanked you personally. I will after tomorrow. I promise. The freshers matriculated, I celebrated with them, celebrated with friends, went to dinner, celebrated some more... It was quite the celebration.

But now the giddiness has worn off, and I am back to being very busy.

Choirs at Queen's and Magdalen have started up again, as have rehearsals for Oxford University Orchestra. Quiz Squad was yesterday too. I turned in the first chapter of my thesis to my supervisor yesterday. He wants to see it revamped before next week (too much literary analysis, not enough historical analysis, he said today). I have about 75 lines of Greek to translate tonight, and the light in my room just blew out. Maintenance won't be in until tomorrow to fix it.

My Greek is not progressing as I'd hoped, which is discouraging. Hopefully, some fun lectures will lighten the mood. Tomorrow is American Politics followed by Greek History. And then Greek Language Class, which will be, um, interesting.

And I'm very, very sleepy. And hungry. But if I eat now, I'll get sleepier and just pass out, and I need to do more of my Greek.

Well, this is it. 2 hours and 20 minutes ago was the end of the business day in Washington DC. And with the close of business comes the greatest thing about turning 26 that one could hope for. As of 2 hours and 20 minutes ago, I am now ineligible for the United States Selective Service.

That is to say that I can no longer be drafted. Whoo! It's not that I don't respect military service or respect the men and women who made and protected the greatness of this nation. It's just that, if I serve my country, I'd like for it to be my decision. That's probably all I should say here before I get into trouble with either side.

So yeah, according to Greenwich Observatory, it's my birthday now. Last year was the year of the quarter-century. This year it's the year I no longer have to worry about being drafted. I think, to be fair, I liked last year's celebration theme better.

More when I wake up. I'm tired.

"Look at what the Spartans can do with ravaging! They are masters of this type of warfare: they use it like torture. Does this hurt? Does this hurt a little bit more. Are you going to surrender now? What if we burn your crops, what if we destroy your lives, are you going to surrender now? It took extraordinary skill!"

I went to a lecture yesterday by my old professor from Princeton, Dr. John T. Ma. He's no longer called "professor", since that designation at Oxford goes only to those with university-wide appointments. Anyway, it was a great lecture he gave and I really enjoyed it. The quotation above is a bit of his talk on the Spartan way of war and how useful ravaging could be. He got a bit excited when describing this type of torture, with a gleeful look in his eye. Very entertaining.

He said something interesting when I went to talk to him after the lecture. "I'm a little surprised to see you doing graduate work, Joseph. I always thought you were making money." I don't really know if this is a good or a bad thing. Whatever happens, I'd like to make money, but I have no idea how. For goodness sake, my only stable employment has been teaching for three years. Certainly one does not go into teaching for the money. Perhaps it is a sign of my getting older (hint, hint!) that I begin to think about the future and what to do with it.

Ew. I think, honestly, the worst feeling in the world in the morning is sitting up in bed and feeling your sinuses drain. I think it's probably just the exceedingly fast adjustment to an actual British autumn that's doing it to me. That and the fact that I'm starting to work hardcore again and perhaps my immune system is being worn down by the long hours. Thankfully, it's nothing more than some sneezing, some sinus congestion, and a sore throat in the mornings. Which is probably caused by the sinus congestion not allowing me to breathe through my nose at night.

Anyway, I finally made it to a couple of lectures yesterday. I decided to broaden my horizons a little bit with a lecture in American Politics. So, not entirely broaden, but more broad than the average Oxford Classics student, anyway. It actually was a fantastically done lecture: it raised questions I hadn't even considered before. But then again, maybe I'm stupid. They mentioned, of course, race and slavery as a major component of American Politics, but also the requirement of nation-building, the factor of receiving the vote before the onset of the industrial revolution, etc. I think sometimes it takes an outsider to point out new details in what is very familiar. I enjoyed myself.

Second lecture was the history of Greece from 479 to 403 BC. I was prevented from taking that lecture last year by my Greek language class. Great lecture: I always enjoy hearing Prof. Parker. I also had my Greek class yesterday. Ew. But it's a graduation requirement.

Today I'm off to hear Prof. Ma lecture on the history of the early 4th century BC. This was one of the lectures that was moved from Tuesday.

Also, I'm experimenting with voice-recording the lectures. I know that this makes me even more of a dork than I'd admitted to previously. I think it'll be good to get to revisit the lectures when completing and filling in my notes. Which I also take on computer.

Just when I start to settle into this university, I find yet one more thing which makes me annoyed: incorrect lecture lists.

Perhaps some background would be helpful: there are no real 'classes' here, just lectures, seminars, and the one-on-one tutorial for which Oxford and Cambridge have become famous. Well, for which Oxford has become famous... Anyway, lists of seminars and lectures are produced each year by each department and then approved and distributed. An email from the Classics department reads thus: "I’m afraid the printed lecture list is considerably inaccurate so it is best to use the online version at all times!" So I do, and I read the online version, and I plan my day around going to two lectures:

1) Early 4th Century History with Dr. John Ma. Dr. Ma was one of my professors at Princeton. It'd be great to see him again.

2) Aristophanes and Greek History with Prof. Robert Parker. Prof. Parker is my advisor, and his lectures are amazing.

So I get to the examination schools building where the lectures are being held and find that the Ma lecture isn't on the flatscreen TV that flashes the locations of all of the lectures. Luckily, I'm about 8 minutes early (go me, I'm a nerd), so I ask one of the administrators to track it down. He says it's moved, but he's not sure what to. I'm thinking "thank goodness I'm early: I can sprint to anywhere if I need to." He says it's moved to Thursday mornings. Darnit. But then there's a lecture which *is* on the board: Religion in Greek Literature, with Dr. Scott Scullion. I took Dr. Scullion's lecture on Euripidean Tragedy last year. He's pretty good. No worries: I'll go to that one. I walk in, sit down, and set up my laptop (again: nerd). And then we wait for 15 minutes before it becomes apparent that Dr. Scullion is not coming. I read the email from my department a little bit closer and find that this lecture is one of those which is "in the printed course booket, but not being offered." I hadn't remembered to check that one because, well, I wasn't taking that class originally.

I stop by the administrators on the way back out and ask against hope whether Dr. Parker's class on Aristophanes will be given today, as it says on the lecture list and on the online lecture list. They say no, it's been moved to Thursdays, and will only be given in weeks 5 - 8 of term.

3 lectures in two hours: all of them cancelled. I mean, I'm grateful for the free time; I used it well in the library with a stopoff for coffee. But really, come on!

Anyway, also sang last night with Magdala. Great to get back into the swing of things. I love it.

So I sang my first concert at Oxford this term last night. I sang half of the chorales and all of the choruses of the St. John Passion. Also, I sang the part of the "Diener", or servant, of the high-priest. I had two recitative lines: once after I had just slapped Jesus in the face for lecturing the Caiphas, and once when nosily interrogating Peter about having seen him in the garden at Jesus' arrest. I've never done recitative before: this was really something new for me. I must say that I was terrified and not really sure of myself. But my friends assure me that it went well.

This morning I decided to make some chicken stock. Honestly, it's lovely having my own kitchen (or at least, a kitchen) that won't stink up my room if I cook. But meals this week have been variations on the theme of limited ingredients listed thusly: pasta, rice, olive oil, butter, shrimp (prawns, in this country), chicken legs, onions, garlic, shallots, soy, chili paste, and cheese. There are only so many times I can do a teriyaki chicken with onions over rice before I go nuts. Same with chili prawns or fried rice. So I decided to make stock: at least I'll have an ingredient that can be used to make other things. Also, I now have a lot of shredded boiled chicken for chicken salad. :)

Dinner was also an adventure in cooking. I made a delicious pan-seared duck breast, served with wilted chinese brocolli, sauteed mushrooms, and a gala apple and parsley/shallot sauce, made with my fresh chicken stock and some lovely butter from the farmer's market. I will say this, though: I don't thnk parsley and duck are meant for each other. And I wish I'd had some red wine for the sauce. I would have used some blackcurrant jam, but mine went bad so I had to throw it out. Somehow, I don't think that duck would go terribly well with a strawberry sauce. Maybe I'll go out for some honey, or a balsamic vinegar and maple syrup reduction. Perhaps mustard as well.

Well, the MCR officially signed up for the North American Sports Network, which means that we are now set up to watch baseball, college football, NFL, and curling. Oh, and NASCAR. This is, generally speaking, fantastic. Unfortunately, it meant that the first game I saw was the Red Sox blowout. Ouch. Tonight will be better. Surely it must be.

Got a call this morning: I've been asked to sing in a performance of Bach's St. John Passion on Friday and Sunday. Thank goodness term hasn't started, or I'd be busy. Which is not to say that I'm not busy. But I sang the St. John Passion three years ago and memorized it for fun. So this is going to be a piece of cake.

mmm... cake...

POST SEASON BASEBALL!
oh yes.
I must say that it feels a little weird seeing the Yankees and Red Sox tied and knowing that we're the wild card anyway. Every newspaper I've logged onto has about two or three pages to explain the math. It's like the BCS, but without any real whining. Or disparity.

I mean, I'm not a fan of the math either, but I know that it exists for a reason. Better that we do it like this than we try to slug it out for another game just for the game's sake. That said, maybe the season should contain an odd number of games.

Still, I'm psyched. Bring on the White Sox.

Meanwhile, I'm also psyched about Michigan beating Michigan State. But as for Michigan alumni doing well, Tom Brady and the Pats getting beat last night was a shame. I mean, we beat Pittsburgh! Argh.

So the hope is on the Red Sox again. Boston teams have, so far, been plagued by injury, and I'm not as optimistic as I'd hoped to be. But aside from that, GO SOX. And by "Sox" I don't mean White Sox. Silly White Sox.

So I've officially been at Oxford for a full year. This is it. Fresher's week starts today. I can't believe it's been so long. It's been a lot of fun (don't forget to check out the photos!), and for certian it's going to be even more fun this year.

I'm one of the welcomers, which means that I get to play the knowledgeable old guy. Welcomers dinner tonight, which will be fun. My welcomees are great. This is going to be fun.