I just went punting, and it was quite the experience.
Punting -- at least according to my experience -- is when you get in a little boat called a punt that's kinda like a canoe but has a flat bottom and flat surfaces on either end that you can stand on. One guy stands in the back with a long rod and steers the boat by sticking the rod in the water, all the way down to the river bottom, and using that leverage to push the boat forward. I didn't take any pictures b/c I didn't want my camera to get wet, but here's a picture that I took later (when I was safely back on dry land):
There are tour guides who'll take you for a fee, and dozens of them harass you all day long on every street corner, demanding to know whether you've been punting yet, even if they saw you say "no thank you" to the pushy punt guide standing 3 centimeters away from him. Anyway, the Trinity Hall porter kindly offered us the use of the college's punt for free from 6-8 p.m. today because another group cancelled, so we pounced on the opportunity to punt on our own. ...Who needs a tour/punt guide, right? It can't be that hard, right?
Wrong.
So we (7 of us students) get to the river bank, and our grad teaching asst and his wife are standing there in front of this rickety little punt that has water inside. Does not look seaworthy at all. We decide to try it out anyway, and when the 9 of us got in, the thing sank so low that if anyone sneezed and rocked the boat, the whole thing would flood. So the teach and his wife got out and decided to just let us go. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm skirmish around bodies of water, and this ridiculously low punt was too unnerving for me, and I got out, too. So off they went.
Jeremy (the teaching asst) told me that Prof. Jahanbani and her spouse were coming, so I decided to give it another try and punt with them. I felt a lot more comfortable with just five people in the boat, and I had a great time. It was a nice, relaxing way to spend an evening, and the scenery, with the ivy-colored colleges, arched walking bridges, manicured lawns, ganders of geese and willow trees, was absolutely perfect. And the teachers turned out to be a hoot-- to say the least. :) Punting is a skill that takes practice, and Jeremy's first go at it was amusing. Our boat kept drifting off to the sides, hitting both river banks back and forth, like a pinball. We even went in a circle at one point. And it didn’t help that other punts were in the water -- we hit at least three of them. But I came to the rescue, using my mini-oar to push off against the banks and steer us back in the right direction. Prof. Jahanbani's partner steered next, and things stabilized a bit. The teachers were very laidback, joking around and having fun with the whole thing, and I think we all had a blast.
The past couple of days have been extremely busy. Yesterday was the field trip to Oxford. We visited the world headquarters of Oxfam, and international nongovernmental org whose mission is to fight poverty. We heard from two people who work there, one who is a KU alum and started in Oxfam's communication dept and went on to work on several relief projects, and an English gentleman who spent a few years in the West Bank helping the Palestinians. We covered a lot of ground, getting a sense of how Oxfam operates, what the day-to-day jobs of the people are like, how they choose which projects to fund, what they can and can't say in the press, where money comes from, etc. We also talked a lot about how international law relates to the whole process.
We then spent the rest of the day exploring Oxford on our own. I was a bit bummed about it at first, because it was rainy and I wasn't feeling too well, and I just wanted to go home asap. But then I decided that I shouldn't waste the day, since I may not go back to Oxford, so I decided to tour the city on my own and get some much-needed quiet time to myself. The group is great and I really enjoy their company, but I've been so social lately that it was just nice to have a little alone time. I saw a few of the colleges, saw the Oxford Castle and ate and read a bit at the cafe there, bought some homemade jewelry at a little outdoor market and just casually toured the streets. I had dinner at Pizza Hut, which was like a weird comfort zone, since it reminded me of home. (Except for the "Texas barbecue" wings with sauce that tasted nothing like Texas barbecue, lol.) Took a couple dozen pictures, although it's hard to capture the beauty of the buildings in a snapshot, since you can't capture the full view.
Today was class, then lunch at an Italian place with the other girls, then some window shopping. And we got fruit and sandwich meat at the grocery. (Maybe that'll keep these outrageous food costs down a bit.) And then a nap, dinner in college (quite the experience...the plates, mugs and napkins have the official Trinity Hall crest on them, and these official-looking cooks serve the food to you at your seat in courses) and the punting, of course.
I'm tired, but I have reading to do for class. And I need to finalize my weekend travel plans. ...No big plans for tomorrow. Jessica and I want to visit the outdoor market after class, and maybe I'll try to look inside some of the churches (they charge you to enter some of the chapels). It'll be one of the guys' birthdays, so we'll undoubtedly go to a pub or a club, or both.
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