Category: Travel

My actual travels, those I aspire to, and those of others

Wales in under one hundred hours

Asteraceae (Compositae) Barnadesca Rosea

With my departure for Wales only five days away, I have been trying to do a bit of reading about the place. The derivation of the name, from the Germanic word ‘Walha’ meaning ‘foreigner’ or ‘stranger,’ is an interesting one. It makes you think about how perceptions of difference still remain local, despite all of the economic and political integration that has taken place in the last century.

The Walking Club plan includes the strong possibility of climbing Snowdon: the highest Welsh mountain. At 1,085m it is about 150m shorter than the mountain on which my parents live, and about ten times higher than anything close to Oxford. It is also slightly higher than the tallest of the Five Sisters of Kintail, which I hiked with the walking club in August. The fact that Snowdon has one of the highest annual rates of precipitation in England should help to avoid any excessive contrast with Oxford. That said, I am really excited about the prospect of visiting a new place, meeting new people, and climbing some mountains, all over the course of four days. I am not even overly concerned that the draft of my third thesis chapter is due three days after I return.

Thirteen people are going on this expedition, none of whom I know. Judging my my prior experiences with the Walking Club, most of them are likely to be pure or applied scientists. The same was true of the group with whom my mother and I walked in Malta. I wonder why hiking has such a special attraction for scientists.

I will be bringing both my digital camera and one of my film cameras on this expedition, though the black and white T-Max film I have left over from Turkey is not what I would have chosen for a wilderness foray.

PS. I am interrupting my series of daily images from various Oxford colleges. I haven’t had time to explore new ones recently, and the remaining ones are somewhat scattered. That said, I will complete the collection before I leave.

Hegemonic geography

You probably aren’t American, but can you name all fifty states in ten minutes? I got 48. It would have been 49 if I could remember how to spell ‘Massachusetts.’ With that freebie, why not see how good you are at it.

PS. Which one did I forget entirely? One hint: while there are a few sets of North-South states, there is only one ‘West’ state.

PPS. One more hint: start with the ones you have visited. Then, do the coasts. Then, think of the states major cities are in. Then, think about recent news events, prominent primary elections, and whatever else can possibly assist you in the last couple of minutes.

Scientific tourism

Pembroke College, Oxford

During the last little while, I have become aware of a group called the Earthwatch Institute which has an interesting approach to participating in environmental research and the promotion of sustainability. Since 1971, they have linked more than 80,000 volunteers to more than 2,500 different research projects. The volunteers contribute both financially and through their labour, in exchange for which they get to see some amazing places, meet and work with scientists, and generally gain a better understanding of the world. While you have to wonder how helpful non-specialists could actually be during such a project, it does sound like it would be fascinating.

If you have always envied the people zipping around on helicopters or piloting ships through Antarctic waters, this might be your only opportunity, short of becoming a research scientist. Right now, they are organizing expeditions to Alaskan glaciers, the Amazon river basin, coral reefs in the Bahamas, and a number of other places besides. They seem to cost about $2000-3000, not including travel to the location in question.

For those without scientific training to go on such expeditions may be a bit touristic, but I can see how it could contribute valuable resources to projects – particularly those involving scenic places and photogenic animals.

Scribble, scribble and fancy dinners

Brasenose College, Oxford

This is going to be a busy week. I have one project due on Thursday, a thesis chapter due next Wednesday, and a great many smaller things to get through besides. Rumour has it that I have some kind of international law seminar ongoing, as well. This week, we are discussing: “International Law-Making: Treaties, Custom and Beyond.” This is also going to be my second week at Oxford that involves a trio of formal dinners: the Strategic Studies Group dinner in New College tonight, my Senior Scholarship high table dinner in Wadham on Wednesday, and the Wadham College Stahl dinner on Friday. The last of those apparently commemorates a rich benefactor of the college and involves fellows and a handful of students. Hopefully, I will see some of the people who I have met once or twice over the course of the year, but very rarely see week-to-week.

With the entire thesis due – printed, bound, and dropped off – in nine weeks’ time, I don’t see subsequent weeks being any less busy. At least there is the four-day exception of the Snowdonia trip to look forward to, not to mention the monastic thesis completion retreat to Dorset at the beginning of April.

Back to reading and scribbling…

[Update: 21 February 2007] Since no fellows are dining tonight or tomorrow, it seems this will be the first week this year where I don’t get a dinner in Wadham as a Senior Scholar. It will be a shame to break my thirteen week run of them, but I suppose the Stahl dinner on Friday is a good substitute.

PS. I have decided on a topic for my Richard Casement internship application. I just need to edit it, as well as come up with proper Economist opening and closing sections. Ideally, you want to open the article with something interesting, esoteric, but seemingly unrelated and then close it with a further clarification that reveals the analogy in a witty way.

Separate not a man from his techie tools

I have a request for intelligent people around the world. Can we please agree that tiny little multi-tools like my SOG Crusscut are in no way dangerous weapons? Certainly, they are no more so than all manner of items (from pens to umbrellas) that are legitimately carried into all manner of places.

As one of the items that I carry around virtually everywhere, I am quite reliant upon it: particularly the scissors, screwdriver, bottle opener, and ruler. When I am forced to not carry it, usually because of travel, I frequently find myself frustrated and annoyed. The same should go for the Leatherman Micra and similar tools. Gram for gram, these little things are up there with LED headlamps, in terms of usefulness in varied circumstances.

PS. This minor tirade was prompted by this lengthy article on survival equipment, written by Neil Andrews. Judging by his ‘modules,’ he is the fellow to know in the event of a massive natural disaster or zombie attack.

Halfway through Hilary term

Staircase in the Oxford Union

The idea that I will be climbing Welsh mountains in just over a month is quite an appealing one. Between the weather and the need to do academic work, I have barely been cycling in any capacity beyond getting from my flat to the centre of town. As such, I have been feeling somewhat lumpish.

I am hoping to have virtually all of the critical reading for the thesis done by the time I am heading west with the Walking Club, giving the information the chance to consolidate with each bootstep upwards. I just hope it doesn’t treat my knees quite as cruelly as the Scotland trip did. I was walking strangely for the better part of a week, afterwards.

PS. This interactive page on orbital debris is really interesting. It includes information on the consequences of the Chinese anti-satellite test.

Mountains on the horizon?

Provided I win one of two ballots, I will be going hiking either in the Lake District or Snowdonia before the term is out. This is with the same excellent student group that arranged the trip to Scotland in July (photos).

I will know how my bid fared by Tuesday. On the off chance that neither was successful, perhaps I will go to Morocco during the Easter break, after all, though probably not by hitchhiking. While the thesis is daunting, there are simply too many excellent travel opportunities here for me to stay cooped up in the few square kilometres of Oxford.

Crossing the Bridge

Radcliffe Infirmary Fountain

Tonight, I watched the copy of Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul that my flatmate Kai gave me. Quite aside from its virtues as a documentary, it demonstrates something about tourism. The whole thing is basically shot in areas we never saw: areas you couldn’t hope to access without knowledge of the local language. Those of us most familiar with English are lucky that it has become the standard for business, technology, and science. Unfortunately, that very status can help to push English speakers to the margins of places they visit.

The music that forms a constant backdrop to the film is excellent. Indeed, the musical segments are a lot more engaging, overall, than the various statements made by musicians about Istanbul or Turkish music. My favourite, among the musical offerings, is the rap music made by a man called Ceza. I will need to track down some more of his work. Just be sure not to watch the film using tiny laptop speakers as the audio source. The Etys and the A510 vie for the title of ‘best electronic purchase per dollar.’

PS. There has been a bit of progress on the job front. I actually have an offer of a job in Oxford, starting immediately. I am a bit wary for two reasons: it involves two shifts a week starting at 6:30am, and I suspect that the pace of academic work may get somewhat fevered this term (not that I could ever devote as many hours a day to it as my flatmate Alex does). On the matter of a job after I leave Oxford, there has been some progress as well. All this seems to indicate that even very tangential personal contacts are a more effective route than openly advertised positions and recruitment websites.

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