The last few months and the next few months

Dear reader,

I have not abandoned this blog – I’ve simply dedicated it no time in the last four months. It’s been a great summer of travels – I was in Boston, Istanbul, Prishtina, and finally, St. John’s.

In the next month, I will be traveling to Israel and Palestine, back to Newfoundland for the holidays, and then off to Prishtina for a few weeks of research and Sarajevo and Mostar for some thesis interviews.

Time in Oxford is flying by too quickly – I’m only eight months away from finishing my MPhil! eeck!

That said, it doesn’t mean I have not kept busy here. In the last year, I coordinated social action projects in my home college, St. Antony’s. I volunteered with Oxford Aid to the Balkans to Kosova, among other places. And, I made a meaningful contribution to decorating (don’t laugh) last year’s Rhodes Ball, which was a huge success!

I joined a yoga class for three lessons, only to discover that while I needed to relax, I thought about all of the valuable time I put to waste by relaxing – it’s unhealthy, I know, but it was better that I stopped.

I also started to take sporadic Arabic lessons, which began with a French-Arabic exchange – I taught a fellow Rhodie French while she taught me Arabic. It didn’t quite work out in the end, and she disappeared after the fall break, but I learned the basics of the Arabic alphabet!

My thesis is getting the best out of me these days, in addition to two course I’m taking this term – Global Institutional Design with Walter Mattli, and Post-Conflict State-Building with Richard Caplan. To say that I am enjoying taking these two courses is an understatement – not only have I learned a great deal in class, but I’ve been exposed to a whole literature on issues I feel most passionate about.

Informally, I’m a member of a number of discussion groups, including a group on Canadian issues, which discusses the current problems ailing Canadians in Canada and abroad.

St. Antony’s Library

The college library at St. Antony’s used to be a chapel. It is now a beautiful library – the frescoes have been preserved, though, which makes for some very distracting reading, while you focus on the beautiful artwork on the walls.There is something socialist about turning a chapel into a library, and it goes well with the history of the College as a popular spot for those who wanted to study Rusology during the Cold War. While in other colleges, chapels are used to attract tourists and are therefore restored to their original shape, ours is quite utilitarian in nature and quite exclusive on top of all that.

The odd thing about the library, and St. Antony’s Library is no exception to the other 38 college libraries in Oxford, is that you need to swipe your student card to be able to enter. I think I blogged about this before – How strange it felt to have exclusive access to a building that should normally accomodate everyone. Everyone, that is, who has been granted access to use the facilities, and everyone who is a member of St. Antony’s College.

The other strange thing about the Library is that it contains, in the collection, donated books from the personal libraries of some of the most well-known international relations thinkers, Hedley Bull being one example. It’s a little breathtaking to randomly find books signed by Bull, especially since he is put on a pedestal in the English school of IR. I feel as if these should be put in a glass case somewhere, so the ink and notes on the inside don’t fade away.

I do like the chapel-turned-into-a-library idea, even if I’m constantly distracted by Biblical scenes on the wall that I hadn’t noticed before.

Renting in Oxford

As is probably obvious, renting in Oxford is a bit of a problem. Rent is sky-high, if you’re lucky to find a nice place that you can afford.

When I got here in October, I was guaranteed College housing at St. Antony’s, since I was a first-year student. Since I will finish my first year in a couple of months’ time, I will no longer be eligible for College housing. So. in the last three weeks, Muneera, Tania, a friend of Tania’s and myself decided we would look for a place to rent in the fall.

Summertown and Jericho, Oxford’s posh neighbourhoods, have been the neighbourhoods we looked at the most. This is the safe, quiet, green part of Oxford, where cute independent fashion stores and small candy shops adorn both sides of the streetwalks.

So far, the places we’ve looked at are all 1900 pounds and more…Shared between us, the rent is about 475 pounds, plus the bills. That’s about CAD$1000/month for a room.

We’re going to see three houses on Monday. I’ll post an update if we decide to go for one of them.

Goodbye to Statistics

It turns out, I passed! Celebrations began last night with a trip to G&D’s, a local ice cream parlour, with Mun and Tania – Mun and I are done with Stats! Life begins now!*

*Actually, life will begin after April 23rd, when my other, Qualifying Test (a 3-hour writing exam to test our knowledge of International Relations), is done and over with. Until then, all is well!

Statistics exam on Tuesday

If I survive this upcoming Tuesday’s statistics exam, I will be the happiest person on Earth, for at least a week.