Ski Trip!

I leave this coming Friday for a ski trip in Tignes, France. The trip is made up of around 2000 students from Oxford and Cambridge. Below, a picture of what I'm greatly looking forward to!

Rowing

I've been rowing for Balliol's novice crew this term, comprised of eight new rowers. We raced for the first time two weekends ago, where we won our first and lost our second race. Below is a video of the race we lost.
This last week was the big novice race of the year, the Christ Church Regatta. It started on Wednesday, where we had one race, which we won. Unfortunately Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were canceled because the river became too high. I was pretty disappointed! But, yesterday we still celebrated with a black tie dinner for all the Balliol rowers. After the meal, there's a tradition of eating the official Balliol mint by placing it on your forehead and only using facial movements to get it down to your mouth- I was unsuccessful due to laughing too hard.

And below is our crew holding our cox, and Clarissa and Brianna, two of the other grad students who are rowing with me.

Finally, the entire novice rowing team for Balliol, and a goofy picture with a few of the other rowers. Good fun.

From Oxford to Wall Street

Both at Oxford and within the Rhodes Scholars, I am amongst a very unique collection of individuals. The time has passed to ask "do I deserve this?", and I'm temporarily content with the conclusion that people deserve very few things in their life that occur. Many of the 1st year scholars are just beginning to ask, "How can I use this?" I've seen the post-Oxford paths of many Rhodes Scholars; the opportunities this silly award affords can be impressive. As 32 more American Rhodes scholars are announced this evening, I look back at this night last year and realize I had absolutely no clue what I was about to walk into. It's perfect timing for this article in the Washington Post, written by Elliot Gerson, the American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship. Click on the link below to read:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112003374.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
And below is a cartoon, drawn by Joe O'Shea, a 1964 Scholar, in response to Mr. Gerson's article. Joe, after having a debate at Rhodes house with a Time magazine editor about the Vietnam War, was hired on the spot as a correspondent. He reported on the Civil Rights movement, later joined the Department of Justice and State, and now consults on international nuclear law. Talk about fighting the 'World's Fight'...

Lab group

We went out to dinner last week as a lab group, and below you can see a picture of the group, plus a few of the guys' significant others. The research group is led by Dr. Richard Berry.

We study rotary molecular motors, most often the bacterial flagellar motor. Basically, some bacteria, such as E.Coli., have a motor in the cellular envelope that is attached to a helical filament. They spin this filament in order to swim. Their goal is to swim towards food, and they are able to spin their motors backwards to change direction. It is our goal to understand how these motors work. One challenge in this process is developing advanced imaging techniques in order to 'see' the motors. In a typical optical microscope, the motor is not able to be resolved.

Bicycle

Check it out! I finally bought a bike! It could use a tune up and some minor improvements, which I'll get around to eventually. But now my daily commutes will be much faster. I live about a 10 minute walk from my lab and about a 12 minute walk (in the opposite direction) from the track. Oxford is a very walkable town, and I enjoy strolling from place to place. However, once in a while, efficiency is nice.
Here she is, an old Dawes racer:

Freshers' Varsity at Cambridge

A couple weekends ago the Athletics team (what the U.S. calls track), had their Freshers' Varsity competition against Cambridge. This annual competition is a chance for Oxford and Cambridge to show off their new talent, as it is only open to Freshers (graduate and undergraduate). It was held in Cambridge this year, and we lucked out with gorgeous weather. I didn't vault very well, partly due to lack of poles and trying to coach my teammates who have just started vaulting. Although this was initially disappointing, everyone was out to have fun, so there was nothing to do but brush it off. Plus, I still won the event, which was what we were looking for, since we desperately wanted to beat Cambridge. I also got to long jump and run the 4x100m, which were both fun. At the end of the day, Cambridge won by a good bit. The rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge is pretty serious, but the teams are very friendly with each other; we stayed in Cambridge for a pint and dinner after the competition. Although we were disappointed to lose, this was only the Freshers competition. Here, the world revolves around the real Varsity Match, which takes place in the spring. Thus begins the training to beat Cambridge!

Guy Fawkes Day

Ok, so America has some pretty weird holidays. But, listen to this: In 1605, a man named Guy Fawkes, who was the leader of a group of Roman Catholic Restorationists, came up with the Gunpowder Plot. The idea was to blow up the house of parliament, and all the Protestants within. Although they managed to sneak explosives into the cellars underneath Parliament, he was arrested on Nov. 5, hours prior to the planned explosion, and the houses of Parliament were saved. In celebration, the UK and parts of the commonwealth light fireworks and burn a huge effigy of Guy Fawks every November 5. Here is the 50 foot effigy before (the fuel for the larger bonfire is in the background):

and after:

Children learn the following poem in school:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder treason and plot,

I know of no reason

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Strange, but it made for an amazing display!

Bop!

I thought I'd post a couple pics from Balliol's first Bop. As far as I've managed to figure, a Bop in England is a themed costume party and an excuse for cheap alcohol. Each college holds a few bops per year and invites all the other colleges, which effectively creates Halloween once a month. Balliol's bop was themed 'I won't grow up.' Five people and I went as Captain Planet and the planeteers. I was Linka, who's power is wind. According to Wikipedia, "She is a very independent, fair-minded and strong-willed young girl and typically one of the most naive and bookish planeteers...when you look up perfectionist in the dictionary, it has Linka's picture." So basically, no resemblance whatsoever. On the upside, she is a master at hacking Eco-villians' computers. Here she is,

and here we are.

Sports

In the last 24 hours, I've had three rowing practices and a pole vault session- tough to keep up with everything! Although I hate waking up early, especially since I'm still a bit sick, being out on the Thames as the sun rises is really cool. I don't think I'll ever become a serious rower, but I can see the appeal. The rhythmic feel of the boat as 8 people become in synch and watching the water break with the oars and glide under the boat is quite nice.

Alright, I'm off to the lab. But first, a couple pics of the inside hall of Rhodes house, taken by one of the photographers at the Coming Up Dinner.

Coming Up dinner

We had the Rhodes 'Coming Up' dinner last Friday night, where all of the first year scholars gather at Rhodes House for a formal dinner. At the end of our time at Oxford, we'll have a 'Going Down' dinner. I got the chance to sit by a few people I hadn't met before, which was wonderful. The meal was fabulous as well- three courses including salmon, lamb, a brownie sundae, and copious wine and port. We hung around afterward until about 2am, largely due to the open bar, chatting and enjoying each others' company. Though I neglected to take photos, below are a few I have stolen from others.
We invited a few people over for a couple beers before dinner in Balliol's Middle Common Room:

Josh (Statistics), Scott (Internationa Relations), Lindsey (Comparative Social Policy), myself, and Lucas (Econ)

Josh, Scott, Sarah (IR), Lucas, Mallory (Education), Chase (Econ and Social History), Lindsey, myself, and Obrian, (from Zambia, Econ for Development)
And somewhere around 2am:

Shad (Comparative Soc. Policy), Jisung (Environmental Change and Managment), Vincent (Latin American Studies), Scott