Hilary Week 1

Week 1 was the first week of Hilary Term classes. I kicked off the new term with a GTC Formal Hall, a trip to London, bhangra, and some Sherlock.

Classes:
Classes began this week. We are all required to take Research Methods 2 on Monday mornings and attend a workshop every other Wednesday afternoon. We had to decide between Advanced Quantitative or Advanced Qualitative Analysis, so I am taking Qual on Friday mornings. We also take two option papers: I am taking Digital Era Government and Politics on Tuesday afternoons and Digital Social Research on Thursday mornings. I also plan to sit in on Internet Economics lectures that sound interesting.

Topics: ethnographic research // public goods, the nature of politics and democracy // intro to digital data techniques // foundations of the qualitative approach on and off-line

I had a meeting with my thesis advisor on Wednesday to discuss my progress, what I want to focus on, how I can conduct my interviews, and what type of info is available for my literature review.

Formal Halls:
I'm kind of over St. Cross formal hall. I don't really plan on going this term unless the meal looks excellent, it's a special event, or I have nothing better to do that week.

I attended my second formal hall at Green Templeton College on Thursday night with some classmates.

Nikki (China), Hilary (Quebec), Marina (Switzerland)

The meal was delicious, and the dessert was much better than the last time I attended in Michaelmas week 4:
Appetizer: caramelised pear and dolcelatte salad (non-veg option was parma ham and fig instead of pears)
Entree: roast aubergine (eggplant) and smoked tofu timable with a tomato beurre blanc (non-veg option was roast cod)
Dessert: almond and blood orange syrup cake with mascarpone

The hall is very small, and there is a small room off to the side, which is where we were seated. Another classmate was seated in the main room (assigned seats) with a friend, so we gathered together after dinner to chat over tea/coffee and chocolates in the common room upstairs. Sadly we spent too much time hanging around the hall and going to the bathroom after dinner, and the tea was gone by the time we got upstairs (there were way more coffee pots than tea pots).

Activities:
I attended a free yoga class that was offered in the St. Cross hall on Monday evening. After dinner and some homework, I biked over to St. Catherine's College to take a free bhangra class run by the Bhangra Society. It was really fun, and I plan to attend every Monday when possible. Because of my Rangila experience and general dance know-how, I was able to pick it up right away. When I was trying to get to the proper building, I asked someone I saw coming out of the SCR who told me to take the Master's path, which was a shortcut. Apparently fellows/professors don't even care about those rules if the Master is gone for the day.

On Wednesday evening I attended a presentation about consulting case study interviews. The girl I was sitting next to happened to be a study-abroad student from West Orange who went on a teen travel program with Ilene and Alana and knows one of my West Orange friends. Small world.

I left class early on Friday morning to go into London for interviews (which were done through video-conferencing with offices in the US). I then spent about seven hours hanging around London before arriving back home at St. Cross some point after 11:30 (I'll write about what I did in a different post). St. Cross was hosting a karaoke night in the bar, making this the second time in a row that St. Cross held a bop on a night when I'm not out and can hear things going on despite living two floors above the bar. At least this time I didn't have a cold and an upcoming exam.

the Queen's Walk

I stopped by the international careers fair on Saturday afternoon, but I didn't find it to be particularly helpful. I got a nice pen and canvas bag from the Google table, though. Career Services apparently cares about that kind of thing, since they have a person at all the career fairs who asks you a few questions when you leave, one of which is which company had the best give-aways.

On Sunday I was introduced to Sherlock, the BBC show that sets Sherlock Holmes in modern London. Each series contains three 90-minute episodes; the first series premiered in 2010, and the second just finished. It was amazing, had a bunch of great one-liners (British humour), and everyone should watch it. I watched it with my Western Canadian friend, Kate, and we made London Fogs. Though it sounds English, it is actually a Canadian drink made with vanilla syrup and Earl Grey tea steeped in frothed steamed milk. I know so many Canadians that sometimes I feel like I'm learning more about Canada than England. Sometimes they tell normal stories that have one aspect that makes you think, 'that's so Canadian' (like someone building a log cabin because he didn't like living at home).