Existential crisis

Really pissed off :O (not sure whether that's the 'angry' face..).

In stressing over my essay crisis, I forgot to apply to this placement at the foreign office which I *REALLY* wanted to get...well..I say forget but (due to sleep deprivation..well...that's my excuse for stupidity), I thought 12pm meant midnight instead of noon :(

Anyhow, links to my existential crisis because I have recently been thinking 'deep' thoughts; one of which is about future careers and something in the foreign office was definitely something I was keen to find out more about/experience...

NOTE TO SELF: apply for something as soon as you find out about it!

Because I was pissed off at myself (I cursed myself for a while- "you plonker", that type of thing), I procrastinated to keep me from thinking about a missed opportunity. In times like these, you turn to websites like miniclip and facebook - apparently I'm only 62% Chinese!?! My Chinese identity crisis may rear its ugly head again.

A day of contrasts...

I recently had a day which once again saw work sidelined (nothing unusual there!)...alas..it'll be the undoing of me! Anyhow, despite the river being wayyy to high for us to do any training, the river was now low enough for torpid qualifying rounds and thus we went out having only done one (or two - I forget) river sessions in the term. I can't say that all our erging sessions helped much!

Anyway, the time trial itself went reasonably smoothly until one of our crew 'caught a crab' in the last 100m! Noooo! Hopefully it wasn't the reason why we *just* missed out on qualifying for Torpids. Although I only took up rowing as it was an 'Oxford' thing (and I like trying new stuff), I was very disappointed having immersed myself in rowing culture. Oh well...hopefully come summer eights, we'll be more fined tuned to race! Ha ha..and maybe the photos of me rowing won't look so..'constipated' as one friend commented :/



After a quick change, it was off to the Oriental Ball (held at Freud's cafe) to sort out the dancing area for the dancesport pairs which were performing on behalf of OXCIA - ha ha, not exactly demonstrating 'Chinesey-ness' but my committee certainly wasn't going to do an act (despite my own enthusiasm!). The ball itself was *ok* but a bit lacklustre at the end true to the sad truth that..well...Asian people don't really do the whole 'UV-light raving' scene and so I left earlier than I usually would from a black tie event!

Tired and exhausted as usual, I couldn't muster enough energy to look at another e-journal on refugias and so I just went to sleep. Oh dear. I can already see myself in a pre-tute essay frenzy come Wednesday night/Thursday morning :( and then the now obligatory moaning post about essays! It's all become rather routine for me!

Half-way through!! WHOOP! :)

Just had half-way hall which is our formal hall where we celebrate getting through half of our Oxford degree! I'm half sad/half happy....probably the latter though that's only because of recent stress.

Talking of which I'm SO pissed off that literally the rest of the year in college are going out celebrating whilst I had to go to Sainsbury's to get some GOOD coffee (I'm sick of cheap tesco coffee - false economy) and that will comfort me and keep me awake till morning or whenever finish my essay AND my presentation both in for tomorrow :( I'm predicting a 9am finish. I hate such work crises.

Ok...I've moaned on facebook and moaned on here. I *really* need to just start working already!! :(

Lunch with Krebs!

AWESOME. That's one word to describe Lord Kreb's house. I recently got invited as part of the JCR committee into the principal's home which looks modest in 1st quad but is MASSIVE inside and so luxurious. Being principal of a college isn't too bad! It's like some sort of plush mansion/museum within a college with paintings of Elizabeth here and there, those marble head things, mahogany long tables etc. Mmmmm.....the food was delicious too! He had these fancy people around serving stuff whilst we talked about college welfare and stuff! I knew there were some perks to being elected into the committee :P

Oh yeah and yes. This is THE Krebs of Krebs cycle fame!

(Well...the son of! Though he is a world famous ornithologist himself!)

Happy Birthday Darwin

Yeah it may be a bit of a geeky post but well worth it. I've had a bit of an evoltion overload this term though as I'm doing my option of biogeography this term and there's loads of evolution happening on islands and stuff :)

I still can't believe that some people don't believe in evolution and I met someone who didn't know who Darwin was! People should watch that Attenborough show - see BBC iplayer!

Anyhow, going to have a work-free day today - need to clean up my room which is strewn with notes, books and clothes. My excuse is that I've got no time to clean up - this week saw the worst essay crisis I've had so far - 8am finish and then I had to skip lectures to sleep :/.

Snow, snow and more snow!

Ahhhh...snow. Unfortunately, it doesn't signal closed schools for me anymore....does Oxford stop for NOTHING??? Grrr...news from home told me that my sister is getting days off school...I haven't had anything cancelled at all! Oh well.

Yeah, haven't been posting for a while...I've been recovering from the aftermath of the event-that-shall-not-be-named *shudder* - I've erased it from my memory! Usually memory loss isn't a problem for me (got a memory like a broken sieve) but this, I fear, will be in many nightmares to come. Advice to people: AVOID trying to run big events and your own society....unless you've got great support from committee members (which I largely didn't), nothing much can be achieved!

Anyhow, despite me only being in my 2nd year, already worried about finals. Although the essays marks are not telling (they certainly don't *seem* like 12 hour read and write jobs!), I'm worried for the long term as I've got no notes! Just essays! I keep saying this but I really should've cut down on extra-curriculars...oh well. Final year will be comparatively easy (I hope!) compared to this hellish year!

The only good thing about the cold weather is that rowing has been put off! Although I do like being out on the water, those extra time slots in my schedule would have ruined me. Luckily, I think I'm back to 'normal' stress levels now. I'll post up some nice pictures of Jesus (college!) and random Oxford in snow when I get a chance...

So GLAD it is all over!!!

I'm going to try and keep this shortish as I'm absolutely knackered. I have been so stressed leading up to the event and alas...the event of course couldn't go smoothly like planned. I certainly don't think we broke even though hopefully when my treasurer reports back, I'll be proved wrong.

Everything went wrong, the prep (only me and a friend initially turned up to move the chairs out the hall, no not those small ones, great big bench type things...) the tickets (why couldn't the secretary have just turned up to the meeting yesterday..well..now two days ago) and just sorted it out then!?!? Instead, reservations which I took, yes me not the secretary, turned out to be just time wasting because in the end, everyone paid regardless of whether the had paid already or not (which then created more trouble as we had to rip up the cheques etc). ANNOYING. Some heads will roll. I need to be less nice to them and just FIRE some of my committee.

Though I guess praise should be given where due. Most of my committee were good on the night and indeed on the run up to the event. However, all our plans of stalls at the edges of the halls just didn't materialise and of course, people had to be greedy and take seconds, push, shove, take loads - I guess I was too naive thinking people would line up in a single file and think of others (i.e. people who hadn't go first portions) before taking seconds. Greedy b.........

Then the tidying up had to occur and I've STILL got all of it to store. The rest of my committee don't seem to make any sacrifices and yet my flat has to have all the OXCIA stuff. I couldn't even enjoy the snow....(Oxford's so pretty in snow..) nothing went as planned though I guess everyone else seemed to enjoy it. The old president said that he felt it taught people about Chinese culture and stuff so that was worth the money. Mmm...I guess.

Oops...short post turned out to be a long rant. Need to go into the Union AGAIN early tomorrow morning to move benches back in. Yeah sure..my committee are going to help my ASS. And THEN I have to fit in my essay :( Anyhow, need to sleep now...I feel better already from that mammoth post.

No lychee juice!!

GRRRRRR.....I hate Tesco!! Well Tesco online! They say it's available and then WHAM no lychee juice WHAM no lychee cocktails. What next?!? I think I've had to deal with all sorts of obstructions...let's hope the actual event itself goes smoothly :O .....I'm crossing absolutely everything and being quite religious as well. Yes I know I shouldn't just turn to religion when I'm stuck but that's the way it is!

I've sold my labour...what next?!? I'm stressed, I'm tired - I can't wait till Sunday is over!