Hilary Week 7

Week 7 was a busy week of coding, hanging with GU alums, and watching Oxford beat Cambridge in rugby.


Classes:
Topics: experiments and quasi-experiments // policy-making and agenda setting // data cleaning and databases // presenting on final qualitative projects

I went to a lecture on Tuesday about interactive documentaries given by a professor from GWU SMPA. Remember make-your-own adventure books? You can basically do that now with documentaries, like in Prison Valley, a web documentary about a town devoted to the prison industry.

I had my formative for Digital Social Research due this week. My project involves getting data about the most viewed YouTube videos in a bunch of different countries. I had to have some working code with sample data, so many hours were spent in front of my computer feeling like this:

But I eventually got it to return the data I needed! It was very exciting. I still need to write code that will automatically put the data into a CSV file to open in Excel, but at least the code for the most important part -- actually getting the data -- has successfully been written.

Activities:

Jobs+London:

I had a job Assessment Day on Wednesday, so I got to experience my first rush-hour commute to London. I had no problem getting a seat on the train, but by the time people boarded at Reading, a small city about 45 miles (and 40 minutes on the train) outside of London, the train became standing-room only. The office I was going to was in Canary Wharf (in zone 2), a business district along the water that is one of London's two big financial districts. After seeing how crowded the 2 and 3 trains going downtown from Penn Station got, I assumed the Tube to Canary Wharf would be pretty packed. I was partially correct -- there was no room to step onto the first train from Paddington. I then realized that a large amount of the middle of the car was empty. In DC, the conductors remind people to move to the center to make room; many people don't move, but at least the reminder gets some people to do so. When I switched trains to get on a line that went to Canary Wharf, the train was surprisingly not too busy. The Canary Wharf station lets you out into a big underground mall that seems to span the entirety of Canary Wharf. There is a Waitrose (I've been told it's like the British version of Whole Foods), a bunch of cafes and restaurants, and a ton of shops. I even found a little piece of America down there -- I was quite excited when I stumbled upon a do-it-yourself fro yo place. There is no fro yo in Oxford.

After the Assessment Day, I took a light rail train back into zone 1 and went into a Caffe Nero to do some homework. I ordered an iced tea, and it was the worst iced tea I think I've ever had. I was very confused when I was given what looked like brownish syrup at the bottom of a glass full of water. It looked like regular iced tea once I stirred it, but it tasted like some sort of oddly flavored sugar water. I think this was the only time I've ordered an iced tea since I've been here, so I don't know if this is unique to this cafe or if Brits should just stick to traditional hot tea. Any unsweetened normal iced tea I may want in the future might require a trip to Starbucks.

In the evening, I went to a Hoya cocktail night across from St. Paul's Cathedral hosted by UK Hoyas. They have monthly cocktail nights and occasional basketball game watches, and I conveniently happened to be in London on the same day as one of their events. I learned that they are actually a club oriented towards alums in London, but they recently renamed themselves in an effort to seem more inclusive to people outside London. On my way out to go back to the train station, I heard two guys arguing if Nevils is in a good location. The discussion was between a bro and a normal-seeming guy, and the bro's argument in favor of the location included the proximity of Nevils to Rhino. LOL.

I went to a networking event for a different company on Thursday evening, and I had a phone interview for a third company on Friday afternoon.

Social+Sport:
St. Cross held its termly big black-tie feast on Friday night, but I opted not to go. You can only go to one feast at half price, and since the menu didn't look as good as last term and I didn't have that many friends going, it didn't seem worth it. Instead, I went out to dinner on Friday evening with my usual Friday night group at our usual Friday night dinner spot where the menu changes every day, Turl Street Kitchen.

On Saturday, a group of us went down to Iffley Field (which is on the other side of town from me) to watch Liz, the Canadian political activist, play in the Varsity rugby match. We did not go for the earlier match between the second level teams, as Liz plays for the Blues team (the highest level team). Most sports have Blues teams, and you can "get a Blue" by playing in the Varsity match against Cambridge. I guess this is kind of like getting a varsity letter jacket if getting the jacket depended on playing the one game against your school's biggest rival. Oxford students want to "shoe the tabs." I don't know what the shoe part refers to, but it's basically about beating Cambridge. Tab is a derogatory term for a Cambridge student. It comes from Cantabrigian/Cantabrium, the latin word for Cambridge.

The Oxford men's rugby team held a BBQ in the middle of the two rugby matches. We got there way before they had planned to start grilling, so we went to go get some lunch in the little cafe in the athletics centre. Considering the cafe was just a little place in the building, they had a shockingly large selection of condiments. It was like walking into a grocery store and having your pick of condiments from a variety of cuisines.
Attendance at the game was pretty strong for a women's sport. Basically all of the bleachers on the side of the field where they let people sit were full. A bunch of alums from the Cambridge Blues team showed up to the game in their Blues jackets, which are fancy embroidered blazers in Cambridge Blue (which is actually like a seafoam green). The Cambridge fans, mostly led by these girls, were way louder than the Oxford fans. And they ended up sitting right behind us. My American friend decided to do what Americans do best - be loud and obnoxious - by filling in the pauses of their chants of "Cambridge" with "sucks!" and yelling other adjustments to their chants. Sometimes the rugby songs get really intense. Some are about sex and drinking and don't seem to relate to rugby or competition at all, while some talked about killing the other team and other crazy things.
The Oxford ruggers (a rugby player) on the lower level women's team sang song popular at sporting matches: "Oh I'd rather be an X than a Y." The line is repeated over and over and sung to the tune of "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain." The ruggers sang, "I'd rather be a tory [as in the political party] than a tab."

Oxford crushed Cambridge 28-8. After everybody shook hands, the second Oxford team sprayed the Blues team with champagne. After a bunch of team photos with the trophy, the players were free to go say hello to their friends and family. Later on, the Cambridge and Oxford teams go out to a giant group dinner. The second-level Cambridge team beat Oxford's team, so at least each side had a win, but apparently the teams sit separately at the dinner. For the next week, the Oxford team attempts to celebrate their hard work leading up to the match by going out each night in what they call the "week of sin."