Settling into a Routine

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I've now developed a rhythm of sorts for my days/weeks it feels. That doesn't make things any less exciting though! This past Thursday was a day of reading and the debate. This week's topic was whether the two state solution is unattainable. It was a difficult discussion with good point made on both sides. The proposition made the point that Palestine, as it is, with Israel's most generous offers, would not have true state sovereignty. The opposition suggested that there are no other viable solutions because other states that have implemented a one state solution have been unsuccessful. They said that the two state solution would be hard, but nothing else could work. Both sides brought up the amount of research that has been put into the two state solution, the proposition was saying that we should put some equal considerations into alternatives and the opposition said we shouldn't throw away the hard work of the international community. As with the last debate, and all of these debates, they had time for short member speeches (people from the audience). An American student spoke for the opposition, giving a speech about the fear he felt when he visited Israel because he heard about stabbings that occurred right where he'd been 24 hours earlier. This was along the same rhetorical lines of fear that had been used by both sides, but primarily the opposition all evening. As I have just completed a research paper on fear and attitudes, I felt I had something to contribute to the discussion. I raised my member card in the air and the Student Union President called me up to talk. I had points that I wanted to make, that fear of crime is always greater than the actual threat and that when we are afraid, we become less rational. I also wanted to point out the strength of Israeli defenses and the weakness of Palestine's offensive capabilities, creating an un-level field of threat : fear. Well, I was definitely a living example of my second point. When I took the microphone and turned to the audience most of my semi-cohesive thoughts flew right out of my head. Let me paint a picture. The room itself is large, there are 15-20 rows of student seating going backwards and 6 rows of seating on the sides filled with people in suits with bowties or dresses. There is also balcony seating. There are 3 video cameras. There were some members of the Israeli government there so there was the equivalent of a Secret Service agent at the door, earpiece and all. Then there's me, in my Iona sweater, a pair of yoga pants, ponytail, and sneakers. I started off fine with the couple sentences I had prepared in my head before walking up, but then I started repeating my words and searching for thoughts. I wasn't up there for more than 2 minutes, but it felt like much longer and I'm not sure either side really agreed with my point. I'm told that I did a good job, but I was shaking quite significantly. If I can find the video recording of the debate I'll share it. I ended with a thank you (as all the speakers had so I knew that was expected) and walked back to my seat. MC was sitting next to me and later described my sitting down as "vibrating the bench" because I was shaking with adrenaline and nerves. I'm very glad that I spoke because it really pushed my comfort zone and ability. Afterwards, anyone who spoke on the floor was invited up to the President's drinks party (I had OJ). I spent most of the time listening to others chat about specific points of the debate, interjecting a question every once in a while. I met a few full time Oxford students and the guest speakers which was really cool. (The way my tutorials are set up, it's just me and my tutor so I don't meet many Oxford students beyond my housemates.) It was a very worthwhile and fun evening.

Friday I read a lot for my tutorial, at this point, I've read 2.5 books on the First Crusade. The third book had a bunch of phrases randomly in French, Latin, German, and some of the phrases weren't translating in Google so I was kinda guessing and skimming for what I could understand. Even some footnotes were in foreign languages! It took me more time than I'm used to because I took fairly detailed notes which came in handy yesterday when I sat down to write my paper. We didn't have any trips this weekend so I slept in a bit and took my time getting ready to write. Once I sat down I wrote about 4 double spaced pages in the course of like, 4 hours. It's not record breaking or anything, but that's fairly fast for me. I wish I had time to read 2ish books before writing every paper! But when you have 5 classes that's a little less practical unfortunately. I'm going to savor it while I can, and hopefully I'll get faster at note taking and maybe I will be able to read more per class per paper when I have an increased work load (woo, goal setting!). I've added some finishing touches to the paper today and I'll read it again before I send it in.

But back to a more fun note, last night some of my housemates and I went on a little trip to town. We went to the Lamb and Flag pub, which is famous for a literary club "The Inklings" that was attended by JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. It wasn't as packed as we had anticipated (it's a big tourist attraction and it was a Saturday night...) we think the rain deterred some people. It had a cool fireplace and the booth that we sat in reminded me of a church pew. It was a very interesting place with lots of small, side-ish rooms where groups could go hang out. I enjoyed the visit quite a bit! On the way back, I did a very tourist-y thing and took a picture in a red telephone box, those doors are heavy. When we returned home we all called it a night and went to our rooms. Fun was had by all!

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