February Review

I know, your first thoughts on reading this title are: it's the middle of March, who cares about February? And I must admit, I have no reasonable answer. Perhaps I've lost all cognitive ability with the conclusion of Hilary term? I'm open to further suggestions (all within reason naturally and please, let's not tear down my already precariously low self esteem).
February was by far the most rigorous academic periods of my life, but we won't dwell on it. Suffice to say that I completed my weekly quotient of two papers for tutorials, read some monster novels like Eliot's Middlemarch (now sitting at number two on my top ten list of novels - John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany holding number one - if you haven't read either, and have a few spare hours/days, do it) and Dickens's Bleak House, contemplated the philosophies of Aquinas and Hume, read four Shakespeare plays, tried desperately to uncover the secrets of Hamlet in my seminar research paper (I'm still not sure what possessed me to attempt what no one has been able to do for four hundred years - youthful arrogance?), and generally tried to stay healthy and happy. Happiness, as you know, is pretty standard in my case, but the health may have suffered a bit in the process. Thankfully, I managed not to succumb to the plague that traveled around CMRS, but the month of February wasn't without its minor sore throats and runny noses.
The month saw a great expansion in my activities around Oxford as well. I continued my weekly international Bible study, meeting more members every week and coming to know the veterans more and more. Choir still met every Sunday and Thursday for evensong. I even got to sing a couple solos! I didn't screw them up too badly. In addition, we met every other Tuesday evening to rehearse for the epic St. Matthew Passion, which we finally performed (after only four rehearsals, mind you) on March 8th. Including intermission, the concert lasted three and a half hours! Gorgeous music though. That was officially my last choir event of my time here in Oxford. Since Hilary term is now finished (8th week ended on Saturday), university is on break until April 20th or so, meaning that all extracurricular activities are on hold until after that date. Seeing as how we are forced to leave here on April 18th, I won't be joining in any of the Trinity term events.
In February, I also finally made my executive athletic decision, and went out for the water polo team. My only exposure to the game had been playing with Dad's Masters group every Friday this past summer, so I wasn't exactly a pro. I emailed the captain, and he set me up with practices with the dev squad (short for development), just to gauge where my level of play was. So, on Monday, Feb. 16th, I left Bible study early and started walking toward Iffley, one of the "suburbs" of Oxford. I can't properly call it a suburb, since Oxford isn't necessarily large enough to have real suburbs. Technically, Iffley is, or was, a town just on the outside of Oxford that was gradually assumed into the larger city as it expanded. Unfortunately, I'd never been to the university athletic complex before, nor had I been down Iffley Road, so I managed to get lost on my way there, and showed up to my first practice late, and nervous. Wonderful combo.
The practice itself was basic. We had a coach for that first one, and he ran the practice supposing that none of us had played before, just to put everyone on the same footing. We started off with a swimming warm-up, and even that was a trial, seeing as how I hadn't swum since October. We moved from there to short passes, and then on to long passes across the pool. The best part, shooting was up next, and we got to pound away free shots at the poor goalkeeper for about ten minutes. We finished the evening with a scrimmage with the varsity team (not against thankfully). I then had to make the thirty minute walk back to CMRS, and with jelly legs, it's a little easier said than done. I had forgotten how treading water for a couple hours can really drain your energy. Sadly, I only made it to a total of four practices, and happened to be in Scotland the weekend of our only match, but it was well worth it regardless. The guys on the team were pretty cool, and it gave me yet another perspective of this crazy city. The thing that I loved about it most was the fact that I was playing a sport so quintessentially English in its birthplace. One could argue the same about baseball in America, but let's be honest, it just doesn't compare. I mean, some of these guys have actually played waterpolo as their primary sport for years. The captain had played it for eleven years after giving up competitive swimming! A highlight was definitely the final practice I went to for the term. The girls team didn't have practice, so we had the entire pool to ourselves and played a full-pool scrimmage. I was worn out after probably the first five minutes of play, but still managed to snag a few sweet goals toward the end, and even stole the ball from the captain! After the game, I joined the guys at a pub (how else would you conclude an athletic practice in England?) just around the corner from the pool, and then made the long, long walk back to the city centre.
I also tried my hand at exhibiting some culinary skills. I successfully made banana bread, authentic Chinese stir-fry, and lemon muffins. Yes, just lemon muffins. Who'd have guessed, but the local grocer doesn't carry poppyseeds, one of the requisite items for the more common lemon poppyseed muffins. So my baking companion and I made do without. Actually, to clarify, they were more just "muffins" (minus the lemon) than anything, seeing as how, despite my zesting and squeezing two lemons, they still didn't have much lemony flavor. They were still delicious though, to silence those cries of doubt on the reader's (particularly a certain irascible cousin of mine) part. The Chinese stir-fry was particularly good time. One of my friends in the program is originally from the Phillipines, but her parents have some Chinese ancestry, so she was raised with that style food. We journeyed to this Chinese grocery market (yes, apparently such things exist in the UK), where everything was labeled in Oriental characters and we picked out our ingredients. It was a combo of chicken, shrimp, onions, peppers, spring onions, broccoli, garlic, noodles in oyster sauce. We accidentally made enough to feed a family of twelve, so we were eating stir fry for dinner the next couple nights as well. The most entertaining thing about baking here is the fact that I have to convert all the measurements. Everything is in grams, liters, and pints. There have been some very rough estimations in some of these instances, but I don't think anything's gone too wrong yet.
Another February highlight was Valentine's Day. I know, not everyone's favorite day of the year, mine included, but we managed to make it a festive holiday around here. Since many of the people in our program have significant others back in the states, we felt it would be a good idea to give people a way to spend the evening, rather than moping around thinking of boyfriends and girlfriends. Our JCR staff hosted a Valentine's Day prom. The dress code: funky fresh. Yeah, I think it was deliberately vague. To prepare for the event, a group of us walked to a store called Uncle Sam's Vintage American Clothing. Pretty styling. I found a pair of funky blue pants to combine with my red argyle sweater. It was a loud combo, to say the least. Our awkwardly clothed group danced the night away while indulging in chocolate covered strawberries and pineapple (we had a chocolate fountain!), sangria, and biscuits (the British word for cookies).
That covers the high points of my month of studies. The best times are yet to come, as we are now officially finished with the intensity of Hilary term, and only have to attend class every morning, leaving our afternoons and evenings entirely free! Hope all is well back home!