Oxford

To be honest, this trip wasn't spectacular because I should have gone to Berlin with my friends; unfortunately, I had class on Friday, so there would have been no point for me to go with them (At the London Study Abroad site, if you miss even one day of class you lose three percent of your final grade!). Instead, we had to go to Oxford University to attend a lecture on "the Morality of Immigration for the EU", which I thought was complete bullshit. We still got a tour of Oxford out of it so I suppose it wasn't a complete waste of time, despite the three hour bus ride there and back.

Highlights:


Our tour guide.

He tried to incorporate a lot of American ties to the Universities, such as which of the founding fathers of the individual colonies went to which school and where Bill Clinton lived while he was on his Rhodes Scholars, but sometimes it went a little over the top. Even still, it was a nice touch for him to try to get us relate to the school.


The infamous Oxford University Press which I am sure you have all cited as the publisher on your papers at one point or another.


One of the oldest buildings in Oxford (almost 700 years old!) although it has since been converted into an Orange Mobile store.


After the tour, we went to the market to check it out. Dead rabbits for sale...


Meat pies!!! Delicious, especially with the mashed potatoes, minty peas, and gravy poured on top of everything.


Einstein's proof for the red shift theory, preserved from his guest lecture at Oxford.

Additional Pictures

-Emoinacloset

Enron: The Play

Enron Theatre

I was originally expected a musical. The play had been promoted as a musical, yet there were only a couple songs. The actors did not burst into song at random intervals as you would expect. The play was went to had been organized by NYU, and the actual performance was on 12 March, even though I haven't posted it until now. I thought it would be prudent to talk about this, because I thought it was a great show.

However, the aspect of the play I want to point out the most is the intensity of the whole scandal. For those of you who don't know, the Enron scandal was caused because Enron, despite it having no profits allowed its debt to be placed into a separate company technically owned by Enron. With the financial crash that happened after 9/11, Enron officially became bankrupt.


Enron Stage

In any case, the sense that the people who ran Enron were geniuses who let their convictions of "social Darwinism" let them think survival of the fittest and get too greedy with themselves was well portrayed. Philosophical arguments such as these which were littered throughout the play were insightful and made you think. For example:

“You ask me how can you take advantage of that? That’s what businesses do! Asking me that question is like asking me... how do I make a living?” (referring to deregulation in California energy markets)

On the whole, I felt the play did a good job in explaining how the Enron collapse had actually happened so that even non finance/econ/business majors could understand it. Also, interesting note: although it seems the British really like the play as well, they do not give standing ovations. I guess they are too dignified to do anything like such. Overall, it is a powerful, timely and thought-provoking piece of theatre. I would like to leave you with a quote from the play itself, so that you can think of its own merits:

[At the final monologue,] pointing at the peaks and troughs on a large historical chart of the US stock market, [Jeff] Skilling, [CEO of Enron convicted of fraud] turns to the audience and says: “That’s our mirror. Every dip, every crash, every bubble that’s burst, a testament to our brilliant stupidity. This one gave us the railroads. This one the internet. This one the slave trade. And if we hope to do anything about saving the environment or getting to other worlds, we’ll need a bubble for that too. Everything I’ve ever done in my life worth anything has been done in a bubble; in a state of extreme hope and trust and stupidity.”

Production opens on Broadway in April; I highly recommend this play. If I could watch it again, I would.

-Emoinacloset

Epilogue: Land Of The Shady Characters

Yes, I am still talking about Spain.

And yes, despite all the paella, art, and beaches that we enjoyed, there definitely was a shady aspect to both Madrid and Barcelona.

There must not be very many Asians in Spain because when my friends and I went, people kept staring at us. Granted, this might not have seemed strange; after all, we were a group of ten Asians, half of us were holding DSLR cameras, and we kept consulting the tourist map every turn we reached. Even still, what unnerved me was the fact that people seemed to single us out for this very reason. Spain must not get too many Asian immigrants -- I don't think they've had any major Asian interests since the 19th century -- I suppose they've never had the opportunity to get to know Asians.

I mean, this one time late at night when we were going to go out in Barcelona, this group of drunk Spaniards tried to trip me and my friends on our way up out of the subway. This might not seem like much, but it was still pretty sketch.

As for pickpocketing in Spain, we were standing in a subway car, minding our own business, talking about the sights we had just seen when an old Spanish lady sitting near us warned us about a shady looking guy who had been eyeing our cameras, wallets, and bags. She said she had seen him on the subways a lot, pickpocketing people here and there. We thanked her afterwards for the warning, and as we left, she told us that pickpocketers target Asians because they know we are tourists. Our professor back at NYU had warned us before we went abroad that at least one in ten of us were going to get pickpocketed. I laughed it off then, thinking that I wasn't going to be another statistic; but it really did happen.

We had two real pickpocketing incidents:

The first time, a pickpocket lifted my friend's wallet from her purse while we were on the subway. He was trying to take the wallet and slip through the train doors as it closed, but she managed to snatch it back from him, saying, "Give that back!" We were lucky the first time.

The second time we were not so lucky.

In Barcelona, a couple of guys in our group decided to go out. We (me and Jim, mostly) had been waiting for this moment ever since we had gotten to Spain; we even brought our dress shoes from London because we heard the bouncers in Spain didn't let guys in if they didn't have dress shoes. Ruby's friend, Hannah, and Kevin's friend, Connie, who were studying abroad there at the time took us out. However, the night we went out in Barcelona was unnerving as well.

On the way to the meeting point, we were bombarded in the subway by a group of drunk Spanish people yelling "Chino!" Now, I had no idea what this meant so I shrugged it off, but one of our friends did and she knew this was a racial slur against Asians.

Next, my friend and I were waiting to get on train a little ways away from the rest of the group. Once the train came and the doors opened, we started to get pushed into the car by a group of four people. At first, the only thing I thought was 'well this is certainly strange and unwarranted' until I felt a hand feeling up my back pocket. I instantly put my hands in my pockets so that he wouldn't be able to take anything -- I could feel his hand brushing up against mine as he tried to lift my wallet, but fortunately I was able to prevent my wallet getting stolen. My friend on the other hand was not so lucky, and his wallet got taken from his front pocket.

At this point, he had a look on his face that said, "I will beat the shit out of you" to the one woman in the group out of four, so eventually they threw his wallet on the ground and said, "Hey! Your wallet is on the floor there!" I suppose he just went with it, because he knew he had lost 20 euros to those thieves, but at least he was able to get his wallet and his credit cards back...

In conclusion: Spain is a nice place, and I encourage you to go visit, but just be wary of your surroundings and any potential pickpocketers

-Emoinacloset

Scorpion Lollipop

Remember that Scorpion lollipop at Powell's Sweet Shoppe that we were always too scared to try? Well Kevin tried it!


Here we go!



At this point Kevin has gotten to the tail.



Kevin stares at the daunting challenge ahead.



No fear



According to Kevin, the scorpion tasted like salty ass and once the scorpion was gone, the whole lollipop lost its appeal.

And there you have it kids. A scorpion lollipop will not kill you but will leave your mouth tasting like ass. I am tempted to try the one with the cricket now.

-muffinman