Moving on up...

Well, I'm spending my last few days in East Oxford before moving across town to West Oxford for the summer... I think that Wednesday or Thursday will be the magic date, although I haven't sorted it all out yet (dear oxford peeps: there's a six-pack in it for anyone with a car who wants to help me move! I reckon it will only be one car load, two tops...email me or text me!) Here is a list of things I will and won't miss about East Oxford:

Will Miss:

• being 90 seconds from the Zodiac
• being 90 seconds from Tesco's
• all the funky ethnic/independent shops along Cowley Rd.
• the crazy homeless people on the street
• the student 'vibe'
• my large room
• not paying council tax
  

Won't Miss:

• drunken students yelling outside my house at 3am
• drunken students yelling inside my house at 3am
• Cowley Rd. roadworks (that's 'construction' for my fellow Canadians)
• being a 1/2 hour walk from work and the city centre (that's 'downtown' for my fellow Canadians)

Here's the coolest part though - the house I'm moving to is on an island! Osney Island to be precise! Granted, it's not a very big island, and it is well connected to the mainland, however that's still pretty f'ing cool! Like I've written before, I have a deep connection with water, and so it's awesome to be surrounded by it! One of the banks is even the River Thames! All right, so it may seem like a small thing, but I'm super-pumped about it, so be happy for me! I think this place is gonna be better overall...it's about 10 minutes closer to the city centre (albeit on the other side from where I currently am) and I know the 2 guys I'm moving in with from hOME. It's also in a better neighbourhood, and it's right beside a pub! (which thankfully closes at 11pm, so no loud drunks after that!) It will literally be 45 seconds from my room to a beer, if I so choose. Awesome. Granted, it is a little bit more expensive than where I currently am which doesn't bode well for my Scandinavian trip, but I think I'll still be able to pull it all together.

Well, it's time to start packing...I'll write more from my new digs!

Revenge of the Myth

All right, so I still haven't blogged about Paris (as I was definitively reminded by folks at hOME last night) however there are more pressing things to discuss, such as Star Wars.

My schedule yesterday was this:

8:30am - Alarm clock goes off
9:30am - Queueing to see 10am showing of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
10:30am - After half a FREAKING hour of adverts and trailers, the film finally starts
12:45pm - I cross the street to work, already wearing my uniform, arriving 45 minutes late (although I had cleared it with my manager the day before, so he was ok with it)
8pm - Close up the coffee shop and head to hOME
10:30pm - Arrive back at my room at collapse into bed


On a side note, I was in London on Monday visiting my cousin Greg on his stopover to South Africa. He had to leave around 5pm to catch his flight, so I decided to wander down to Leicester Square where Star Wars happened to be premiering that night...I saw George Lucas, Hayden Christiansen, Anthony Daniels (C3PO), Kenny Baker (R2D2) and the giant of a man who plays Chewbacca (Peter something-or-other I think...I forget his name)...kinda cool.

So anyhow, I saw the actual movie for the first time yesterday morning, and I had somewhat of a mini-revelation...it suddenly all made sense to me. First of all I should say though, that once you come to terms with the facts that George Lucas simply can't direct, and Hayden Christiansen can't act, then you should be free to enjoy the film. If you get hung up on either of these aspects however, you're likely to miss out. As far as the prequels go, I think this would have been the hardest one to screw up...after all, George had to get from the end of Attack of the Clones to the beginning of A New Hope, and really, his hand was pretty much forced (as opposed to Episode I, where it was virtually open to his imagination...unfortunately)

But my revelation was this: ...actually, (like everything else) I don't really know how to put it succinctly...

George Lucas is an excellent story-teller but a rather shitty filmmaker. He is an extremely creative individual, and good at creating characters and over-arching stories, but really, he should leave the details to other folks. This is most clear when you compare Empire and Jedi (where he left the screenplay and directing to other people) to Phantom Menance and AOTC, where he did both himself.

The other thing that struck me was the content of the original trilogy vs. the prequel trilogy. I remember learning about Joseph Campbell's theory of myth in one of my university religion classes...this guy studied myths from every culture and every time period and came up with a sort of universal formula for myths to become successful with the masses - basically, it was a young, scrappy hero fighting an oppressive evil with help from the supernatural, overcoming great odds to prevail. This is a gross-simplification of an extremely complex study, but for this purpose (my crappy little blog), it will do. Anyway, apparently Lucas studied Campbell and was somewhat of an apprentice of his, applying his theory to the creation of the original trilogy. Not surprisingly, these ancient, tried-and-tested devices resounded with audiences who fell in love with the films (myself included).

What struck me yesterday however, especially during the first half of the film, was how he did away with that structure this time around. The prequels are focused more on the overall political manoeuvrings of the Senate and the Jedi Council rather than the story of a single protagonist who, with his group of friends, grows up to eventually bring down the evil empire. Now this could have been extremely cool, and in fact I really enjoy political dramas, however they are clearly not Lucas' strong point. I suppose it could be argued that George was trying to expand and didn't want to just recreate the original trilogy, however part of the theory of the 'universal myth formula' is that it never really gets old, so long as it is retold in new and interesting ways. Now this is by no means the only problem with the prequels, there were certainly many details that screwed them up along the way as well, however structurally speaking, I think George built on the wrong cornerstone...or perhaps the problem was that he didn't have a cornerstone at all this time around...

All that being said, Ep III was definitely the best of the prequels, and worth seeing if only for the lightsaber battles. There are a few scenes toward the end of the film where the wonder and the intrigue of the original 3 are hinted at, and I must say that it did stir the nostalgia inside of me.

Summer travel plans

Well, I have been thinking a lot lately, although I've been neglecting my blog. And rather than actually post a proper update, I'll just copy and paste an e-mail I wrote to my mom. It's a compromise we can all be happy with.

-Chris

Well, this is the rough plan at the moment:

Mark has booked tickets that arrive in London on Aug 17 and depart
Amsterdam on Sept. 6. I think that on the 18th we will fly to Oslo or
Stockholm. The plan is to spend the first couple days in the big city,
then kick off our 15 day unlimited rail pass. We'll use that throughout
Scandinavia, eventually working our way down to Amsterdam (before the rail
pass runs out!) then spend a couple days there before mark flies back to
Canada. Aug. 18 - Sep. 6 is 20 days, and the rail pass is good for 15
days from the first time that you use it, so we figure if we spend a few
days on either side in big cities, we should be set. Now, for
expenses....

The Eurail pass that we're looking at is this one:
http://www.raileurope.com/canada/rail/passes/eurail_youthpass.htm

it seems like the best deal...15 days unlimited, and it lets us travel in
norway, sweden, finland, denmark, germany and the netherlands (as opposed
to some of the other options, which restrict which countries you can
travel through) that's $500 CDN (I'm going to do the rest in Euros)

Flights to and from London, plus transportation to and from the airport
will be about €120 (€50 or so for the flight, plus €10 or so for a bus to
the airport/city centre)

beyond that, I'm going to try and budget €80/day for everything else
(accomodation, food, beer, sightseeing, etc.) realizing that some days
will be more expensive and some will be less. Sarah said she did Western
Europe on about €50/day, but Scandinavia is much more expensive (or so I
read/am told). So multiplied by 20 days, that's a whopping €1600. In
pounds sterling however, that's just over £1000, and I've already got £300
saved, so that's about £250-300/month between now and then. That wouldn't
cover my flights or rail pass however...

The other thing I was thinking about was that I don't necessarily have to
leave when Mark does, however financially speaking, it's looking like I
will. I'll have the time, so it would be nice to take another week and
work my way down to, say, switzerland, however that would mean additional
train expenses, and even at €40/day, that would be and additional
€250-300. Also, after 3 weeks I may be ready to head back.

The real question though, is where do I head back to? By that point Oli
will have returned from chicago and will be wanting his room back. I'm
sure it will be no problem to store my stuff there, and I could crash on
the futon for a while, but I need to sort out within the next month or so
whether I intend to stay in oxford or move on when I return to the UK.
(Or come home to Canada or move to France or Switzerland or whatever it is
that I do next! I think the UK is the safest bet at the moment, and I
don't want to waste my visa)

A Few Days in Paris

Well, I'm off to Paris for a couple of days, mostly just because I can! I have 3 days without any work, and I found a cheap bus ticket (£50 return, 8 hours direct each way from London) and I haven't been to Paris since 1998, so I figure I might as well take advantage while I'm over here.

I am completely knackered however, and I still have to pack, so I shall bid you adieu (in the most French fashion possible). Maybe I'll update again when I'm in France....

Cycling IN the Thames

Yes, you read correctly...not 'Cycling along the Thames,' nor 'Cycling beside the Thames,' not even 'Cycling on the Thames,' but rather 'Cycling in the Thames.'

It happened like this:

It was another lovely day in Oxford, and I had the day off, so I decided to hop on my favourite possession and head up the Thames today, rather than along the canal like I did yesterday. I came to one part where the path was very narrow and close to the bank, and I remember thinking on my first time past "wow, it would be really easy to fall in along here." I made it past all right, but on my way back, I wasn't so lucky. I'm not sure if I hit a root or a rut or what happened, but the next thing I knew, I was on my ass in the water, leaning back on my hands (think of the 'crab walk' position). At first all I could do was laugh at the irony of it all. It became a little less funny when I realized that my feet were stuck in the mud and would take some careful pulling to remove them with my shoes still on my feet. After about a minute of careful manoeuvring, I managed to crawl out of the swampy bank and retrieve my folding bike as well. I spent the next 5 minutes or so just laughing at my own misfortune. It's a shame that it was in such a rural part of town, because there was no one to share my laughter with (although I did get a few peculiar looks when I returned to civilization). So, all's well that ends well, however I'm probably going to have to purchase a new pair of shoes sometime soon.

The upside of this whole adventure (though not that the above was particularly a downside) was that I found my favourite place in all of Oxfordshire, and possibly, all of the world! It's an old tree that has fallen over an offshoot of the Thames and it is perfect for sitting/laying on. I took pictures of it and have posted them below...I think I'm going to end up spending a significant chunk of my summer here....




There it is!




This is the view as you approach




And this is me on top





(note the clean shoes and trousers...they are not currently those colours at all...)

I LOVE MY BIKE!!!

It is my favourite possession, bar NONE! It was a nice day so I decided to go for a ride along the Oxford canal and a few hours later, I found myself in Kidlington! Not particularly wanting to spend the same amount of time biking back, I just folded the thing up, hopped on a bus, paid £1.50 and took the easy ride home :D

This beautiful ride inspired another travelling dream for me: cycling across the UK! I'd start in Brighton and end up in Northern Scotland somewhere (maybe catch a ferry to the Orkney Islands or something) [EDIT: i found this after some more research - apparently it's the tried, tested & true cross-country cycling route]. Thanks to the National Cycling Network this dream isn't actually all that far-fetched. I reckon I'd need a few things though:

• a partner
• a real, solid mountain bike
• a better knowledge of how to fix said bike
• some spare parts
• good rain gear
  
• a map
• a tent
• a thermarest
• a sleeping bag

The only cost (after the initial investment in all of these things, of course) would be food. You could easily just find fields along the way to camp in, so you wouldn't have to pay for accomodation (except maybe in London or something). It would probably have to be done in the summer, and it would most likely take a while, but it's totally within reach. Probably not this summer, but maybe next, or the one after that. It's gotta be within the next few years while I'm still mobile enough to make it happen :P

In other news, I've also been thinking about the big move again. This Sunday I will officially have used 1/3 of the time on my UK visa (8 of 24 months), and while I do love Oxford, and have met some wonderful people here, it does sort of feel like I wouldn't be making the most of my time if I didn't travel and experience some more of the UK. So I'm thinking of investigating the capitals of the other countries in the UK: Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. All are beautiful I am told, and would nice places to live. Now if this does happen, it probably wouldn't be until the end of summer...my friend Mark wants to do some travelling in August/September, so that would sort of be the ideal time to quit my jobs and move on (it would also mean I could sublet a room from a student for the summer and not be tied into a year long contract), but on the other hand it would probably mean that I'd be low on funds. So who knows, maybe I won't go anywhere at all...I'm definitely going to spend the summer in Oxford and then we'll see after that....

Home For a Rest

Well the weekend of doom is over, and I made it through relatively unscarred. I've also made a new friend! She is a bisexual Russian Jew who regularly lives in Chicago but is currently studying philosophy in Oxford! She got robbed last week and is moving in with her boyfriend who lives on a boat in the canal for the remainder of her time in the UK. Her and I have virtually nothing in common except for our sense of humour and place of employment, but nonetheless, she's pretty cool!

I would love to write more about the bizarreness of May Day and other such things, but I am far too exhausted. What I would like to record, however, is that one of the Spice Girls is currently performing in a club not 90 seconds from my room. What a sad and depressing concert that must be! You used to be internationally famous...now you're playing a gig in East Oxford...poor thing.

All right, one more shift tomorrow, then a couple days off...excellent.