Travel Series: York

So once again starts the travel series blogs on the places that I will be visiting (largely but not entirely with Sara) this break. Anxiety leads people to prepare extra for the coming weeks, though I will admit that most of my focus was on surviving the first week before being able to fly home.

Sara and I set off our journey at 10 am with her friend John, dropping him off at the airport. We then met our friend Heather in London to chill before our megabus trip to York. It soon became clear that with my bow and everything that I stuffed in it and my bag which for some reason seemed larger than usual, I was carrying around a lot more weight than last time. My arms were screaming and I was quickly becoming fatigued with our travelling. I avoided complaining about it and looked forward to not having to carry it around at the hostel. While hanging out with Heather, I looked at my watch and all about freaked, thinking that we had only 30 minutes to get to the bus station. We rushed to leave and it was about the time that we hit the underground that I realized I was off by an hour. Deciding that it was best to continue on at this point and certainly a good thing that we now had an hour and a half to get to the station, we continued on our way. It turns out that for part of the megabus trip, we would be on a west midlands train and then pick up a bus that would take us the rest of the way to oxford. Our train left at 3:15 and we arrived in York around 7pm.

It was a Saturday night and there were plenty of young people out and about looking to party. We followed the directions to the hostel that I had reserved in advance and asked for directions once. We found it a good 15 minutes later. We were pleasantly surprised to find the hostel to be a gorgeous townhouse and a historical sight in itself. The micklegate house was practically a mansion and it included a generous free breakfast and a very nice and cozy atmosphere as well as a kitchen. We settled in for the night, pleased that we had found it without too much trouble. The wifi wasn't the strongest, and the lounge was more crowded than we would have liked but for the most part it was great.

After a semi-restful night (how much sleep can you get with 10 girls in one room), we had breakfast and set out to do some exploring. York is a small town. You can walk from one end to the other in about 30 minutes (this is specifically talking about the historic part of town, anything included in the wall). We went towards the York Minster cathedral and walked along the wall around its gardens. The cathedral was gorgeous in its gothic architecture and very similar to many of the churches we had seen before. Walking along the ancient ruined wall was particularly fun in that it provided a uniquely historic perspective.

Once we had finished following the wall, we continued to monument park and botanical gardens, which was a beautiful sight to behold. The ruins of some old churches and the oldest known hospital still remained. Not to mention it was a gorgeous day in the sun. The flowers were in bloom and the air was warm and crisp. No matter who we ran into, they were helpful and friendly. This was a pleasant surprise which led to a comparison of Yorkshire individuals being the Canadians of the UK.

We continued walking through town and passed by a large mound with fort atop it and the palace museum. Both attractions had a fair fee, but given that we are poor college students, we merely admired from afar, particularly the numerous daffodiles that covered the sides of the mound. We found the Viking museum and had a nice picnic lunch outside it. At this point, we realized that we had covered most of the ground of the city and so we headed back to follow up on some advice and visit Betty's tea house. There was a line stretching outside and it sold some of the cutest desserts and chocolates. We each got the house tea and shared some french toast and the famous scone.

We were pretty stuffed by then and had about 2 hours to kill before a performance that was being held at York Minster that Sara and I had decided to attend. We went back to the hostel and Sara practised her violin while I did archery reversals with my bow. We then set off for the recital performance/religious service at the York Minster cathedral. The men and boys choir sang pieces accompanied by readings of passages for lent. The service was very beautiful and calming and largely relaxing. After the performance, Sara and I went to cook some dinner and settled in for a night of relaxation.

The next day, Sara and I had time to kill before our bus and so we walked along another portion of the wall and came across a park. We then visited an old monastery which had an exhibit talking about the life of the monks and nuns in the area, their founding and religious persecution as well as numerous aspects of their culture. It was quite a neat exhibit and someone was practising the organ the whole time which provided a nice atmosphere. We collected our things from the hostel before waiting at the bus stop for the 5 hour return journey to London and the continued travel to Paris, but I will leave that for the next travel series.

York on a whole was a lot smaller than I expected. The city itself was quaint deeply historical but also a bit monochromatic. The people were very kind and that it probably the biggest and best impression that York left on me. We had fun, and in many ways, the city served to ease us in to bigger travels to come. I hope you enjoy the many pictures. I'm sure Paris will have even more. Until next time.

Adventures Await

KH

Phobias

This week was another week of business. I barely had a moment to myself until Wednesday, but then, a certain amount of busy is preferable. Between archery, role playing society, my remaining essays and other social obligations, I was stretched thin. Add that to the anxiety that I had acquired about travelling and it left me a bit shaken.

The week started off fun but busy. I went to see the Lego movie and dinner with some archery people, which was fun and the Lego movie was great. Then on Monday, I had my last philosophy of mind tutorial, which was similarly fun and also bitter sweet. I will miss having tutorials on the topic. Monday night fitness was also fun and had the special surprise of boxing gloves and pads adding some variety to the work out. I really loved cardio kick boxing when I did it for soft ball fitness in high school.

On Tuesday, I continued work for my next tutorial, had archery in the afternoon and then the debrief for role playing society's society game.  It was walking to archery that I was suddenly crippled with an anxiety attack. The days had already flown by and the anticipation of travelling again and perhaps subjecting myself to the same struggle and stress that had afflicted Sara and I last break made me terrified. I got some reassurance from my lovely archery team, but at the same time I was frustrated with myself. I knew that this fear was irrational, but in my gut and brain, vast amounts of hormones were switching my body into the fight or flight mode and I just wanted to cry. I tried not to think about it too much, but over the next couple of days, I would be struck once again with the same irrational fear.

Wednesday was the first day I had a little time to myself. I got my final essay of this term on Tuberculosis written and began watching parks and rec (setting in my home state of Indiana). I have been watching it on and off for the last month but in this last week I have become quite hooked. I think part of it is home sickness. Whenever they talk about Indianapolis or other Indiana specific references it makes me very happy. It also helps that it is fairly clever and the characters are quite interesting. I am ready to go home and I am to some extent honestly counting down the days until I get on my flight home for the first time in 6 months. There was also a pancake social that evening with Archery and I may have enjoyed a few too many thin crepe like british pancakes with nutella, chocolate, whipped creme, bananas, marshmellows, lemon and sugar and even bacon (not all at once).

The remainder of my week was a mix of anxious packing and planning (of which included making about 10 pounds of trail mix...I was worried about being able to cook during our travels), and hanging out with the people that mattered. The unfortunate side effect of my anxiety was a lot of stress eating and a bit of a falling off the horse in terms of my exercise regime. I was also under pressure to eat anything perishable remaining in my flat and that only exacerbated the problem.

One of the things that I hadn't expected to experience upon coming to the UK, happened this week. Xenophobia or general negativity/dislike/insult towards the US. I recognize that the US has a somewhat shaky world persona. That being said, I don't generally blame individuals for the presence of their government. Sara's friend John came to visit from the US and he has a habit of wearing cowboy attire, the boots, the hat, the whole nine yards. While at one of the meals, a waiter came over and informed us that he needed to take off his hat because some of the other people in the hall were offended by his american attire. I would have been fine if it was about respecting a dining hall and not wearing a hat, but from the way the waiter described, it seemed specific to the American nature of it. I would have let this moment go and counted it as just an odd situation, but then later in the week, while Rebecca (flatmate also from Jewell) and I were sitting at dinner, the guys next to us (older gentleman and faculty) blamed us for taking the extra appetizers when they were late for dinner. Now yes they used joking tones, but it was the immediate assumption that we were at fault when honestly it was primarily the other Regent's students at dinner and that this assumption was made based on our American status was frustrating. When I pointed this out, he made reference to how it would have been fine if actual Regent's students took them, insinuating that Rebecca and I don't count because we are visiting. I was extremely offended but just took the opportunity to ignore the group for the rest of dinner. These sort of xenophobic comments and alienation was disappointing and I didn't really expect to experience them in a respectable and scholarly university such as Oxford.

So break has begun and I have made it to York. I will likely do what I did last break and post at the conclusion of our time in the city (with pictures). I will leave discussions of our travels to York in the future.

Until next time,
Adventures Await

KH

Balancing Act

This week was in some sense, relatively mundane. I didn't have a lot of work, as my two remaining tutorial papers were due this upcoming week, but I did do work. The remaining time I spent doing archery, role playing society and a little rest and relaxation.

Archery this week was continued minor improvement with a little bit of frustration. I started using the clicker this week. A clicker is a small metal bar on the riser which you put on the outside of the arrow (relative to the riser), and when you reach full draw and the tip of the arrow slides passed the bar, it makes a clicking sound and signals you to fire. It is a very useful way to ensure that you always get to a full and consistent draw length. And it did wonders for my consistency. I was shooting 52-53/60 fairly regularly. The downside was that it forced me at full draw and at least earlier in the week I was confronted with the poundage of my bow. I have gotten stronger and it is better I do it right.

On Saturday (yesterday) was the final BUTTs competition and the BUTTs ball. I shot ok. I was shooting consistently well until I kept having random bad arrows. I also had one really terrible round, where I was doing something wrong, not sure what, and dropped way too many points. As a result, despite should being able to, I did not break the 500 score barrier but got continuously closer at 496. This was still a good score but considerably frustrating. On the plus side, given that only four of the novice team archers were there, I was on the team for total score and with the three other gentleman scoring 506, 515, and 527 we made a new Oxford novice team record of 2044! So I was proud of all of us in general. The ball was also fun, with some of the bigger awards being handed out and a nice dinner. Plus there was dancing and it made me happy to dance as a team! Of course this meant we got back late (2am).

In role playing society, the final round of Ragnarok Society game came to an end. There was a bitter sweet feeling in the air as everyone's characters talked of the future and fair wells. While I recognize this is a fictional universe, these characters were very much alive in the sense that Ragnarok was a game of many plots and relationships and drama. I look forward to the next week when we debrief and I will get to know exactly what was going on. In the meantime, most of us are looking forward to the society game next term and some character concepts have been tossed around. I am excited.

We also had the role playing society banquet on Friday. It was a wonderful time and it was great to see everyone dressed up nicely for another tasty meal and socializing. The fun didn't end until 3 am, but it was most enjoyable.

So, I had a lot of good happen to me this week and particularly at the end. But, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was just not right in terms of balance. I didn't like the fact that I had more free time than normal. I get some fulfilment from having work and there was an actual point in the week where there was nothing that I could do academically to get ahead or do the work that I knew I would have. Similarly, I'm not satisfied with this work out regiment. I can tell that I am losing some of the progress that I achieved from Jillian Michaels. I can tell that it isn't a regiment that is intensive enough to counteract the eating habits that I co-developed with the Jillian Michaels routine and with the stress of break looming over me, that I may be compensating for.

All of these things make me realize the importance of listening to yourself and finding balance. When something works, it works and I may need to alter my behaviour to suite my life style as it changes. Here's hoping I can find some way of doing that in the last week of term. Also, here is to hoping that break goes as smoothly as possible. I am looking forward to being home and to go on the Archery Isle of Man trip, but I still fear the uncertainty of the rest of my travels and my inability to plan some of it due to information I don't have yet. But these worries are but a minor backdrop to a pretty good thing I've got going.

Until next time!

Adventures Await

KH

Risk Management

This week was another week of highs and lows but on a whole, another pretty great week. After resolving to do what I love and not try to fill unnecessary expectations, I think I have found a system of taking care of myself and being with others that really suits me. The break is still looming ahead (there has been a set back but I'm problem solving), but the present is actually quite nice.

The week started off with a great high. My bow came in and I don't think I have ever felt so much love for an inanimate object. I imagine it is a lot like getting a brand new car that is all your own. It is beautiful and sleek and shiny and it handles like a dream and you just want to find excuses to drive it everywhere. Unfortunately, when I put up the bow on Tuesday, (which ended up being more work than I initially expected), we, all the wonderful experience archers helping me and myself, discovered that one of the spots on the mount for the riser had not been properly sunken in, such that the screw did not make contact with the riser and could not be mounted onto it securely. That was certainly a moment of frustration. I have worked it out with Merlin and the replacement part arrived on Friday. So no harm no foul. Also, on the next Thursday, we hooked up the sight from the club bow that I used. After two days of trying it out, I shot with my beautiful new bow at BUCS indoors, but more about that later.

The week also brought with it some bipolar weather. On Tuesday, I walked through 4 different descriptions of rain, light drizzle, heavy downpour, rain mixed with hail, and blistering wind blowing sideways rain. It was not pleasant, and then later in the week it was 50-60 F weather and a pleasure to jog in! I had been keeping up with jogging and doing strength and core training. One of the days I went jogging, I off roaded a bit more than I intended and scratched up my leg pretty badly. But on the whole it was a nice relaxing jog. Also with my new bow comes a heavier draw weight. I'm still getting used to that, and the last couple of days has made me very aware of my back muscles.

Role playing society is still plenty of fun and I am sad to see the society game wind down this next week. My character has really found her own as we reach towards the end and is actually a part of some of the drama (she managed to fly under the radar for most of the first half). The plotting and scheming is enjoyable and the people are just loads of fun as well. Now comes the planning for the Society game next term.

I also got information about my character for the Gencon larp that I will be participating in. She has a snooty (I'm thinking posh/southern) British accent and wields a bow. She is a winter Sidhe (fairy lord) and her name is Lady Lenneth. I'm actually considering naming my bow after her...as the character is almost made for my british bow of blue and silver.

On Wednesday night was the general meeting for archery. The meeting consisted of motions and elections and afterwards to dinner and the club (though only a few of us actually went). Despite not being here next year, I went to show support and also help to meet numbers should it be necessary (Most clubs and societies need a certain number or percentage of people at meetings to pass motions and hold elections). As I throw myself more and more into archery I am recognizing the borderline obsession as it is most of what I talk about it, if not role playing society. I guess passion may be the kinder and more appropriate word but really where is the distinction between passion and obsession?

Finally yesterday, and the reason that this post didn't come out yesterday, was that I was at BUCS indoor championships. Another beautiful day brought us to Telford, about 2 and 1/2 hours from Oxford by mini bus, and the largest archery hall I have ever seen. I believe there was between 45-60 bosses out across the length of the hall and 3 shooting times. So you can just imagine the number of archers. There was something exhilarating about being at such a large competition. It reminded me a lot of my days as a competitive swimmer at some of the larger meets where there are just loads of people in such a massive space ready to compete with one another. The shoot went ok. I, like anyone, have high expectations of myself, and in particular, high expectations for how I do when I feel like I've recently acquired a new edge, this case my bow. But as many are want to remind me, I did get a competition and overall PB, it was just a slightly frustrating one. I scored 492/600 which is really quite great and in a lot of ways, if the nerves hadn't gotten me on the front end, and then, the beginnings of muscle fatigue on the back end, I could have broken that 500 threshold. All that being said it was pretty good and only 4 points shy of actually being part of the scoring team (I was 4th of our team with only the top 3 scores contributing to the team total). It seemed like all the experienced and novice alike were having a bit of an off day, with poor Sarah retiring after only a few ends. The nerves were definitely a lot higher. The experienced team took 2nd place overall narrowly loosing to Nottingham, and the novice team came out 7th. I am proud of us, but at the end of the day, I was exhausted. Still, there are few places I would rather be on a Saturday than at competition with a load of people who brighten my day.

So that has been my week. Full of ups and downs, but I am left feeling strangely secure and pleased with my current life. I have two weeks for both my tutorial essays and so more effort needs to go into planning break. There is still plenty to do, but I have confidence that I can do them. Until next time.

Adventures Await

KH

Re-education in Social Gatherings

While it may seem that this blog often gets the worse side of my experiences here, I do have a lot of good moments. In particular, this week has been an extremely good one.

I have been experiencing a sense of lethargy and lack of initiative over the last couple of weeks. I think this is due primarily to the grind of school work and the monotony of it all. Additionally, despite all of the good, I was clearly coming down with some kind of cold (I'm guessing I caught it at St. Catz). About half way through the week, I was living on ibuprofen (Of course not to an excessive degree, I followed the warning label) to not remind me of my sore throat. The winding down of term also meant that I needed to focus and get travel plans for next break sorted out which honestly stressed me out given the struggle I face last break. Despite all of this, I was in a considerably good mood for most of the week.

Physically, I feel great. The Jillian Michael's work out made me feel a lot stronger and with greater endurance and in general more comfortable with my body. I began a new work out routine under the guidance of a friend of mine which involves a core and strength routine twice a week, archery fitness once a week, and then jogging whenever I want to fill in the time. I'm planning on making a more regulated schedule with jogging on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and Strength/fitness on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, taking Friday off. Archery fitness this week was also special, as one of the members brought Champagne to celebrate the A team's first place win at BUTC championship. One of the coaches, Nat, then gave me a ride through town in her land rover, which was an experience in itself. When I jogged to fitness that day, I was amazed at how much endurance I had acquired. Despite feeling a bit too full from a snack I had had before, I ran much farther than I had in November. The weather had also improved dramatically here. It was warmer than it had been for a few weeks and the sun was even out. This likely contributed to my good mood as I saw a rainbow on my way back from archery on Friday morning and then had a lovely 30 minute jog later that day. Both fitness and weather have a huge effect medically speaking on one's mood and I really see the value in taking care of one's fitness as a form of anti-depressant. If anything, I've learned that I can't stop and that this life style change needs to be a permanent one.

Given the sort of wretched experience I had at social gatherings in the last week and the realization that the friendships that I was forming in both Archery and the role playing society were one's that I wanted to foster and were the parts of my life here in Oxford that I truly enjoyed, I made an effort to be more present in both (within in enough reason to make sure that I was doing my school work as well). This was also a good choice on my part. The society game on Tuesday was a lot of fun and then on Friday I went to the usual 5th week pub crawl (though slightly belatedly). It was really awesome to get to hang out more with the people who until then I had mostly only known through their characters. It also helped that the role playing society finally got a facebook group so that I could friend ALL the people. I even just went on a walk with one of my role playing society friends and chatted about life,philosophy, science, and travel while enjoying the beautiful weather.

As for archery, I went to all the shooting sessions during the week, with exception to the one outdoors on Saturday (do be explained soon) and then went to our annual dinner on Saturday night. Another highlight of this week was the ordering of my own bow which will arrive on Monday. I found that once you had ordered your own kit, it was difficult to feel motivated to shoot the club kit. Thankfully it is only two more sessions of shooting before I can start playing around with my new equipment. Annual dinner was also a lot of fun. My two close friends, Sara and Sarah, all got together to get ready and do some pre-drinking, followed by a reception of champagne, before walking to the Boathouse for a nice dinner and plenty of wine. Safe to say that after more than a few drinks, I was in a good mood. But despite that, it was good to talk to everyone and see everyone dressed up. It was the type of gathering that I wished St. Catz ball had been. I really cherish the people that make up my role playing society and archery families. These are the types of social experiences that I want to be having.

Other than all of this, which has made my week quite grand, I managed to stay on task enough to complete all my work in a timely fashion. I am constantly amazed by my own efficiency, needing little more than an hour and a half to physically write an essay and thus, having plenty of free time on my hands. On Saturday (I had a busy Saturday), I met with Sara and Ben and we made some decisions and actually started the planning process for break. It looks like Sara and I will be going to York for the weekend of St. Patrick's day, followed by a few days in Paris and then I will continue on the Barcelona where I will fly back to the States. After about 2 and a half weeks at home, I will fly back to London and go on the Archery Isle of Man trip. Then I will go to Loch Lomond in Scotland for a few days of hiking and nature immersion before ending the trip with a few days in Athens, Greece at Ben's aunt. I will be travelling alone for parts of this break and that is a bit nerve racking but also exciting. Hopefully, I can work out more of the details today given that my tutor has yet to give me this weeks assignment.

So, with all of this, I am in quite a good physical, mental, and emotional state. This trip has taught me all the things that make my life feel fulfilled and happy and allowed me to tailor my life around this. I look forward to another good week.

Adventures Await

KH

Lessons in Social Gatherings

This week has been one of the busier weeks (hence the later than usual blog post). For once it isn't archery that takes centre stage in my life, but rather a number of social events and of course Valentines day. This week also marked the end of Sara and My 30 Jillian Michael's work out challenge.

I will start with Jillian, because it is more of an aside than the main topic that I would like to cover in this post. Yesterday (Saturday) was the last day of Jillian Michael's 30 day shred. It was still tough but we managed to push through. I haven't felt this good about my body in awhile and I am proud of our accomplishment. I really do love participating in and completing fitness and I already have another routine set up around the corner to keep up the hard work! I can't let myself deteriorate because Jillian is done.

So on to the meat of the topic which came up a lot this week. I am going to preface this by talking about myself for a moment. I have always sort of been a line jumper when it comes to the introverted and extroverted spectrum. I really enjoy large social gatherings, provided I know at least a few people, and I enjoy meeting new people. I can be outgoing and charming when I need to be. That being said, I also really prefer small groups and getting to know people. Whatever the setting, I know that people make any event or occasion and so the people I chose to spend my time with are highly valued. I'm at my happiest when I am with good friends.

There were two major events this week that I participated in that I really just didn't end up liking all that much. The first was a crew date. Now a crew date is not particularly common or heard of in the US, but essentially two groups, generally one all girl group and one all guy group, agree to meet for dinner and hang out and get to know each other. It is always assumed that plenty of drinking is to occur with the hope that in a group setting that is more relaxed people will open up. Plus there isn't the pressure of having to drive conversation. That being said, there really wasn't all that much conversation. As I sat at the Indian restaurant across from strangers I had only just met nearing the end of the night, I was struck by how little I knew about them. Everyone had gotten fairly drunk and I could tell that meeting new people in the sense that you actually get to know them was not really the purpose of the outing. Rather, this was a perfect example of a phenomena that seems quite popular among my generation in particular. What I will call "pick up" culture, in which the only purpose of a meeting is to find a casual partner. It is designed in such a way that there is a certain expectation that a casual one night stand is perfectly acceptable and given that everyone's inhibitions are low, common. As soon as the night was over and I could remember only one of the three gentleman's names and knew next to nothing about them, I dashed and turned in for the night. It is not that I don't see the appeal of the "pick up" culture and I certainly don't judge people for wanting or engaging in it. It isn't something I want at this point in my life. When I reflect on the types of relationships I want to foster and develop, the "pick up" culture guy is just not it.

Feeling naturally disappointed at the lack of fun I felt due to the strange social pressure of the "pick up" culture, I was quite hopeful that the ball that I was attending at St. Catherine's would be a redemption. I got all dressed up and Sara continued to masterfully do my hair and make up. Plus, given that the last day of Jillian was the morning of the ball, I also felt physically accomplished. I felt good in my dress, having to lace the corseted bodice about as far as was possible for the dress, and still finding that the top struggled to stay up.

When we got to St. Catz ball, I was hopeful. There was an amazing amount of things to do. Plenty of food, drink, shisha, dancing at one of 4-5 dance areas, and even laser tag. But was also readily apparent was that it was an overbooked ball. The food was perhaps the worst of it, as no semblance of a queue ever existed. Rather it was a mob of slightly tipsy people pushing, shoving, and grasping for what little food could be offered up at a time. I was surprised I even managed to snag a piece of, while admittedly warm and delicious, not worth the trouble, pizza. There were plenty of drinks, though none were particularly strong enough to alter my state of awareness. Similarly, people rudely bumped or poured their drinks all over my dress and within the first two hours, nice dark stains raced up and down the dark blue fabric. I was pissed and frustrated. The consumption of so much food and drink ultimately made me a bit lethargic, but I did enjoy some dancing. It was at this point though that I was struck by how few people I knew at the ball. There were plenty of Regent's people around, but of those I would count as friends, there were few and there was certainly a lack of archery and roleplaying society people, with whom I spend a lot of my time. As a result, I clung to Sara who was more than happy to accommodate. Probably the highlight of the night was when we found our mutual friend Amelia and got a chance to go through the photo booth.

#

Overall though, I was once again struck with this "pick up" culture. At one point in the evening, when I was getting rather tired, a guy started hitting on me but it became quickly apparent that all he wanted was sex. I managed to get away and was at this point fed up with the ball. I unfortunately had to stay for the next two hours, as I couldn't leave Sara and I had her checked coat ticket. This gathering was nothing more than a Crewdate on a much larger scale with a few more things to do. I don't regret going as much as I wish more people that I knew and who actually cared about who I was as a person were there. Thankfully a friend kept me company via text late into the night, so that I wasn't entirely bored.

So what do these two events have in common. Drinking. I think that having such a rich drinking culture only furthers the "pick up" culture and I, at this moment in my life, do not like it. People make my life. Whether it be family or friends, I find that I can't enjoy the activities I do without at least some company. No, I don't need to be with people all the time and I can enjoy detoxing in my room with TV or movies. But when it comes to living and acting and doing...I would rather have a friend by my side.

Once again, this trip has revealed more about myself and my limitations. Who knows what will happen in the next week. Until then.

Adventures Await

KH

More Hair Pics! Look at how Sara has outdone herself!


Valentine's day Hair:

St. Catz Ball Hair:

Health, Happiness, and Archery

This week has been continued revelations on what makes me happy and healthy and why when June comes around I am going to be reminded that life is a string of beautiful moments that you can't recapture, you can only cherish them while you have them.

Let's start the week off with Cambridge. Now I know I promised pictures but in truth, I just didn't take any. When we go to an archery tournament, it is often go, go, go with little time to enjoy the scenery (plus being the middle of winter, the scenery isn't always all that pretty or enjoyable anyway). From the very brief impression I got of Cambridge, it has a slightly more industrial feel than Oxford. Similarly, its city is a bit more of a labyrinth with no cause and more spread out. Though even these impressions feel funny as the only thing I truly remember from Cambridge was how it was one of the worst shoots that I have ever done. My head was just not in the game and every shot felt unnatural and wrong and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Frustrated and upset by the end shooting a measly 376, a good 60 points lower than my pb (personal best) and 40 lower than competition pb, I gave up thinking about it in favour of the Indian food we would have later that night.

Over the next week, I would try to find joy through problem solving. Tuesday night role playing society ended up being an exercise in problem solving and it was immensely pleasurable. I was once again reminded why I love role players and role playing. I also joined officially, the Oxford University Role Playing Society for life (trying to stay at least a little optimistic)! I also received my first assignment from my major tutorial and I was suddenly faced with a shorter than average deadline to get the work done. My time managing skills prevailed, and so this was only a minor annoyance.  Additionally, I went to archery and with a little coaching fixed one of the major problems in my form. Looking ahead to the tournament this past Saturday (yesterday) at Derby, I knew I would improve.

An additional challenge this week was the move from level 2 to level 3 of Jillian Michael's 30 day shred. The jump from level 2 to level 3 was not as difficult as I anticipated. I honestly found the jump from 1 to 2 much more difficult. That being said, it is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. Despite the work though, I do find myself to be more confident and comfortable with my body, than I have been in a long time. I also feel stronger and healthier in general. While some may question the healthy nature of the 30 day shred given its lack of rest days and also my own insanity in participating in an additional fitness session for Archery on Monday nights, I really do think that it has been an improvement and not a detriment so far. Once it is over, I will have to come up with a new regiment (perhaps less strenuous) and a friend has already offered his assistance.

My week continued with my first tutorial in science for this term. My tutor is very nice, though her home is 25 minutes away from campus, which only adds to my collection of walks here at oxford. Given the broader and more interdisciplinary nature of nutritional anthropology, I am not worries at all about my ability to speak on the subject and am not worried about the level of work it will be. I find the topic mildly interesting and in a lot of ways, learning about nutrition is more of a personal challenge than something I think will assist me in my major. That being said, regularly reading scientific papers is important and exposure to a variety of ideas can only assist me in my intellectual pursuits.

The week ended with the tournament at Darby and like I said, I definitely improved. The Archery session was a practice in patients and consistency. I got myself into a routine and continually worked to calm my nerves (for some reason I have gotten more and more nervous at away shoots). Yawning and deep breaths helped me to keep a slow pace and make sure that no arrow was wasted. As a result, I got a whopping 100 point improvement with a final score of 479 and a white pin demonstrating my ability to score above a 450. Last week this score would have allowed me to place in the ladies novice recurve, but unfortunately, my competition was a little stiffer and I likely came out 4th overall. I think something has clicked and it will be fine tuning that really pushes my ability to break the 500 barrier. There aren't many tournaments left.

I want to finish off as I usually do on a more philosophical or self introspective topic. All the time I have spent with archery and the people here in oxford has only made me realize how much people make a place home for me. I am not looking forward to leaving Oxford, not because the city itself is pretty or special, but because of the people that are in it. I know the realities of a long distant relationship (even just friendships) and even with skype and facebook, I know it will be difficult to maintain the relationships I have here. It is terrifying and saddening. The only thing I can do is live in this moment. Try to not let the rumblings of an uncertain future prevent me from enjoying today. It doesn't mean that it is easy, and I am not looking forward to another uprooting of my life.

On a more positive note/aside, over the break when I travelled with Sara, some people may have noticed that my hair was often braided. Sara is such a wonderful hairstylist/make up artist and she happens to find joy in playing with my hair (something I am well accustomed to). In her ingenuity and creativity, she has done some wonderful hair and make up for me (particularly on Friday nights when we have formal). I will post pictures here, because my posts have been lacking a bit in pictures lately.

The Front:

The Back:

A few weeks ago:

Until next time, Adventures Await!

KH