Equinox at Stonehenge

After cooking dinner with some friends Friday, we settled down for a quiet night of watching Planet Earth. By midnight, we split, and I was thinking of heading to bed. But, next thing I knew, a friend had convinced me to stay up all night and head to Stonehenge at 3am in order to make the sunrise on the equinox! So, Chris, Matt and I popped in a movie at 1am, then left at 3am for Stonehenge. We arrived at about 4:30am, and we were allowed into Stonehenge around 5:30am (you are only allowed to enter stonehenge 4 days per year: on the two equinoxes and the two solstices). The crowd of around 200 people was mostly comprised of Druids, who were there to beat drums, chant, and pray for world peace. I could attempt to describe the druids further, but to be honest, I was rather confused by them, so I'll leave it to wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid.

I took some photos of Stonehenge and the entire experience, but Chris made a movie of it, so I think I'll just post that. It's quite weird, but so was the experience.

After Stonehenge, we drove to Portsmouth, a city on the sea. We explored the town, enjoyed the sea, ate a traditional English breakfast, then left for home. We were exhausted!

End of Term Fun

Oxford opporates in trimesters (although D.Phil. students work year-round). The second term, Hilary Term, just ended last week. So, the undergrad students go home or on vacation for six weeks now, and Oxford empties out a bit, which I enjoy. Below is a very candid shot from our last bop, which was themed 'Over the Top'. Yes, my hair is frosted pink, and I have a black lightening bolt across my face. And a shot from this past weekend: some friends got together at a Russian restaurant to celebrate a friend's birthday.

King Lear

Last Thursday I went to Statford-upon-Avon with a group of students from Oxford. We had tickets to see King Lear, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Statford-upon-Avon is the birthplace of William Shakespeare, and we drove past his home. I had not previously read King Lear, so I decided to read the synopsis on the bus ride up- I think this greatly aided my comprehension of the play, because I easily get lost in old English and Shakespearian prose. The production was impressive; I knew going into the play that 'King Lear' was a tragedy, but wow, what a tragedy! The entire play revolves around dishonesty. I liked Shad's synopsis of the lesson he learned from 'King Lear': "If anything I guess we learn that those who twist the facts to their own personal gain will die, and those who are victims to those actions... well, they'll probably die too."

Track Photos

Our athletics (track) team faced Cambridge a couple weekends ago, and I went to coach and help out. Unfortunately, Cambridge beat Oxford. But, while the Cambridge team is all currently healthy, we have a lot of girls out with minor injuries. So, we're hoping to have a shot at winning the Varsity match (the big, final, all-important match against Cambridge) in 11 weeks. I'm hoping to be back vaulting by then, but it might be cutting it close. Below, a picture of our girls team, and our combined team.

Summer Expedition!

The last few weeks have been a blur of working, vaulting, dinners, lectures, movies, wine tastings... I've even managed to slip in a few salsa dancing lessons! I've come to really love oxford; life here is intense, but not necessarily stressful. If only I could learn to fit everything in and still sleep!
The two big news events in my life:
1) I have a partial tear and partial avulsion in my achilles tendon. This came on after a few weeks of pain, followed by a pole-vault competition in Birmingham. I suppose I should have backed off sooner, but at the time, the pain was only a mild annoyance. I'm thus disappointed that my body didn't give me sufficient warning to quit running. But each injury allows me to learn a bit about how my body works (I probably won't continue running next time a tendon feels like that). Lesson learned (well, hopefully). The prognosis is around 10 weeks off of it. I'm bummed, but determined to find the best way to let it heal. The varsity athletics (track) meet is in 11 weeks, and I would like to vault in it and help beat Cambridge! For now, back to pool workouts.
2)On an entirely more exciting note, it looks likely that I'll be headed to China for a six week expedition this summer! Check out our new website! www.uzatagh.com

Burns Night

Balliol celebrated Burns night last weekend! Robert burns was a Scottish poet, who influenced many poets to followe. To name a few, John Steinbeck took the title of 'Of Mice and Men' from the last stanza of Burns' poem 'To a Mouse': "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang aft agley." Bob Dylan selected Burns' 1974 song 'A Red, Red Rose' as the lyric that had the biggest effect on his life.

Anyway, the brits celebrate Burns by eating haggis (sheep heart, liver, and lungs mixed with oatmeal and spices!) and drinking a lot of scotch. The haggis was brought out on a huge platter, and led by a bagpiper. With the dinner came some readings from Burns' works, and 'Burns': the guys of the college read a speech mocking (burning) the girls in the college, and vica versa. The night finished with more Scotch, and a ceilidh, a traditional scottish dance. Below is the haggis, and some post-dinner socializing.

Cairngorm Mountains

I headed up to Scotland (near Aviemore) for a few days to do some winter climbing and practice some winter skills. I built some shelters, dug a bunch of avalanche pits, did some deep snow navigataion, practiced some self arrests, learned some new snow belays, and just generally played around in the snow and mountains. The area has more snowfall than it has seen in over 30 years! It was fairly cold, and we saw wind gusts up to 100mph at the summits, so I didn't take any pictures, for fear of frostbite! Below is a single shot, taken by someone else. Though nothing like the dramatic peaks of the Tetons, the Cairngorms are pretty, and I could definitely spend a lot of time exploring there. I have, however, come to the conclusion that traveling anywhere in the U.K. when there's snow on the ground is generally a bad idea. After many re-routings and missed trains, I feel like I know the train stations of the U.K. pretty well!