Memories of Michaelmas, Comments from Copenhagen

Friends and Family, lend me your ears!

My first term (called Michaelmas) as a second-year MPhil has officially come to an end. It was much busier than I expected, but that is only to be expected (hmmm...) The exciting news is that I am now in Copenhagen observing the COP15 events and side events. I wish I could say I was here for one exciting cause like lobbying a minister, tracking a negotiator, or organising a demonstration. However, I can only honestly say that I am here to learn what I can, experience life on both sides of the UN Police barriers, and report back to you all.

First, an update on the past few months...

1. Research/courses: Research is progressing, if slowly and wanderingly. I turned in my first official written work... 5000 words on methods. Response from my adviser, Sarah Whatmore, was generally positive but intimidating in that she strongly suggested I do some more interviews outside the community and also reminded me of the timeline I have... i.e. running out. For more on all this exciting stuff (including my exciting but massively time consuming GIS work), check out my research blog at www.alywex.wordpress.com.
2. Rugby: Our bad luck and losing streak continues. First, our men's team lost their Varsity (Oxford/Cambridge) match last week. My team continues to do poorly in our matches, at least partially due to an unnatural number of injuries -- casualty count up to two broken legs, broken hand, and countless smaller injuries that only mess up a few games for the person. This includes the broken nose and cheek bone I got three weeks ago. Can only wait for the gargoyle face to go away... wait, that's just how I look. Damn.
3. Rowing: After I got the hang of it, my beefy rugger legs earned me a spot on the 1st novice boat. I got to participate in one regatta. We won our first race there by miles (well, meters) as you can see in the video (I have a braid and red cap). You can also see that we are definitely novices, haha. Unfortunately, (un)luck of the draw for our second race pitted us against the team that went on to win and we lost to them (though only narrowly). I've been enjoying the early mornings and team camaraderie, but next term the big race is on the same weekend as my varsity rugby match, so I will probably only be subbing. Ah well.

Now on to the juicy stuff! Copenhagen! I will break this up into a few posts so as not to be overwhelming. I arrived on Friday, the fifth day of negotiations here. I arrived in the morning, exhausted from a few weeks of increasing sleep deprivation. It was a bit like a technicolor dream, walking out of the secure area into a sea of signs like Nigerian Delegation, YUNGO, BINGO, RINGO, ENGO meeting points, and the ever helpful "Information." I went directly to the conference centre, the Bella Centre, and queued for about an hour to get registered. This was not bad compared to the four hours the Monday arrivals experienced.

Structure

Considering how many people are here, everything has been remarkably well organized. Here, your badge is everything. It determines if and to what events you can attend. I am a lowly yellow NGO observer (Oxford is a RINGO, or Research/Independent NGO). There are also orange media badges and pink party badges.

The conference centre is in a number of temporary (i.e. removable) carbon-zero buildings. There are tons of wind turbines around here, one (symbolic?) one next door to the Bella Centre, others further away next to their smokier counterparts (see pics). Decor is a bizarre mix of open ceiling modern/industrial and "nature." There are giant bamboo trees in the main hall and little saplings (instead of cut flowers) on cafe tables. When we (I had met up with a fellow NSEP friend, Nick) made it inside, Nick and I were fortunate enough to find yet another NSEPer who is now working for Birdlife International. He showed us around and helped us get our bearings. The centre is organized into several halls. One is for observing organization stalls and side events. Another is for the actual negotiations -- there are two main negotiation strands. One is about what to do with the Kyoto Protocol (the CMP) and the general conference of the parties (COP). Then, there are press conference rooms, delegation offices, cafeterias, and massive banks of computers (the one I'm at is of about 450 or more) with free printing (environmentally friendly?) There are so many events going on at once that it would likely take a year to see and do everything. So Friday afternoon I went to a few side events, browsed NGO stalls, scored a free dinner from a delegation, and stumbled back to my sleeping place for the evening (the floor of a friend's guest room).

First Impressions

My first impressions were pure awe and hope at the numbers and diversity of people attending. Groups of Bolivians in traditional clothes and bowler hats with laptops wrapped up in bright woven blankets, indigenous leaders from Amazonia with face paint, feathers, and briefcases, youths in suits, youths in sandals, youths with dreadlocks wearing suits... To be honest, my first day here I was oblivious to the negotiations themselves. There was so much else to do and see! It turns out negotiations had been suspended at that time due to demands put forth by Tuvalu and the small island nations. Yet another NSEP student from last year is an official adoptanegotiator.org tracker, and she has a great blog tracking official negotiations here. This is her video from Friday.




Well, this should keep you reading for awhile... upcoming blog for Saturday in Copenhagen. Previewed: KlimaForum, anarchy, marches, Development Forum, more marches, life on both sides of the police barrier, and the famed NGO party! Until then... be well. Send good vibes to Copenhagen, negotiations are looking dire.

Lys

The Master Fall in Oxford

Hallooo to you!
I know I'd promised to continue on my updates from the summer, but I think that it is futile at this point. Just know it was a great summer and the biggest important bits were my visits to my study sites (read more at my research blog alywex.wordpress.com) and meeting my new sister Mebbie who I absolutely fell in love with. There are not words to describe...

Back in Oxford, there have been several highlights worth noting. I went to an absolutely amazing Josh Ritter concert with some fellow Marshall folk in September. I'd known about Ritter (a singer/songwriter from Idaho) for a few years, and although his concerts came highly recommended I had never been. Who knew I would get the chance in England of all places?! I have been listening to and learning his songs non-stop since then.

Then there has been rugby rugby rugby! We had a good preseason tour, made better by my amazing social sec skills. The theme I decided was pirates vs ninjas and there were many grueling battles between the two parties accompanied by two matches and some fun nights out. We had our first official league match last week against Exeter. We lost, but we saw some great play and I think when we meet Exeter on our home pitch in a month we will have no trouble crushing them.

Since I was already in Exeter last week for rugby and therefore practically next door to one of my communities and the friends I'd made there, I stayed on for a few days to try to get some more work (and walking in the beautiful autumn woods!) done. It wasn't a good time for an extended stay at the community, so I stayed with Neo (another WWOOFer from this summer) and his family just across the hill from the community. He showed me beautiful forests with changing leaves and ancient stone circles on the tops of clear, moorish hills. All within sever miles of his home! No pics of my own, unfortunately, but here is a borrowed one from discoverdartmoor.co.uk so you can get the idea. The ones I saw weren't fully restored like this one, but that gave them a genuine, mystical feel, especially with the mist and wind... Dartmoor (Devon in general!) is an amazing place... the first place in England to which I've felt truly connected. And although my time at the community was limited, I did manage to set up a time to come for a longer visit. I also left some cameras there for my participant photography project. Hopefully they will be a hit and I can follow up on the photos when I go back in two weeks. So a successful trip, all in all.

The academics side of it all has been quite fun, as well. I have been able to spend a lot of time finding the readings I want, analyzing data I gathered this summer, etc. I have desk space in the DPhil research room, so I feel like a proper researcher now! Also, this term I have to take one more elective class and write an essay for it. None of the electives fit with my dissertation, so I decided to do GIS/remote sensing because it will be an important skill. Hopefully I will even figure out a way to use it for my dissertation! Unfortunately, it takes a massive amount of time -- lots of reading and something like 20 hours of lab work each week. But it's really nice to have a change of pace. You can also see my lab write-ups and reading summaries on my research page.

Finally, in all my spare time I've decided to try rowing. It means I will be seriously fined by the rugby team, but I thought that while at Oxford I should at least try the main Oxford sports. I've got rugby well covered, so why not try rowing for my college? It actually fits quite well with rugby... one or two rowing sessions in the mornings, and a gym session that happens to be on my non-rugby training day. I've only done one outing so far and managed to make a general ass of myself, but I'm not giving up yet. If I'm lucky, I will get to participate in one of the rowing regattas this fall (the yellow boat here is Linacre overtaking another college... it shall be me!) I dig the early mornings -- they get me up and active and ready for more reading and research...

Last year at this time my "three R's" were reading, reading, and rugby (rrremember?) I guess this year they have multiplied -- reading, research, rrriting, remote sensing/GIS, rugby, Ritter, and rowing. Yahoo!

Well, back to the GIS grindstone...

Embrace the changing seasons, it's a fabulous time of year!

Falling leaves love,
Alyssa

New Research Blog!

Exciting news! I have created a new blog so you can follow my research. This new blog will be more focused on the whacky ramblings of a deranged grad student in the death grip of research (i.e. fewer pictures, more jargon) but I hope it is a way I can better answer people when they say, "So what exactly is it you're doing?"

Just to be terribly confusing, the new blog is http://www.alywex.wordpress.com (as opposed to this one, alywex.blogspot.com). They automatically generated the address based on my username and I forgot to change it before setting up the official page. Ah, well.

This is a work in progress, but I hope you will follow it and enjoy!

As for my life in Oxford... well, more on that later. I'm too busy trying to keep my head above water at the moment! But know I am more or less healthy and happy and missing you all.

Alyssa

Summer Daze of Our Lives, Part III

Hello friends and followers!

Well, another month has passed, we’re moving into autumn and October. Oxford is sunny but chilly, the leaves are changing, and the city is redistributing its population like an aging man redistributes his hair – we have a thinning tourist hairline and students are sprouting up in unexpected places. And I’m still back telling you about July! Well, I’ll do my best to catch up a little…

Last time, on Summer Daze of our Lives… Alyssa, Anya, England, camping, ball, punting, Switzerland, Zurich, Walenstadt, mountains, bikes…









The next day we packed up a lunch and set off up the mountains on the other side of the lake (which looked even more vertical). We didn’t know what to expect, especially given that the mountain looked like a vegetated cliff, but found a beautiful hut serving traditional Swiss lunch and found out that you could also stay in these huts for a reasonable price. Thus we started devising a plan that included a long loopy trek with an overnight at a hut. We were still debating exact routes so decided to take the following day off to plan, swim, and rest. We woke up to… rain, and more forecasted rain. We sadly canceled our trekking plans and decided to head back to Zurich a day early. It’s not much fun to sit in a tent in the rain in a crowded campsite full of screaming children – a local summer circus camp for kids was hosting its final show at our campsite and the kids pretty much had the run of the place.












We arrived in Zurich just in time to miss the last spot in the cheap, funky, downtown backpacker hostel. We were advised to catch a bus to the International Youth Hostel. Bus, hah! The Wechslers don't do buses! Three miles and three heavy bags later…


ANYA: The hostel is just a little further on, I’m sure. What a nice walk!


ALYSSA: I knew we should have called a cab. Wait, you found blackberries?! All is again right in the world…






The hostel was out in the boonies, no kitchens, no nearby restaurants, and definitely not Walanstadt mountains. Still stuck in mountain mode, we asked a hostel worker about “non-touristy” things to do. We ended up having a grand walk/run up a mountainy-hill on the edge of the city (where, incidentally, I’d been three years before while visiting a friend in Zurich while on vacation during my French study abroad…) We went downtown for the afternoon and met back up with Fritz, Martin’s dad, for a coffee and a chat. We then headed back toward the hostel we'd heard about a gig at a nearby venue in an old, edgy converted warehouse. It was “some little American group…” None other than Michael Franti and Spearhead!!! The venue was cozy, and we were literally right at the stage. We saw an absolutely fantastic show, got a hug from Franti at the end, and on our way out struck up a conversation with Manas, the drummer. In the end he signed some drumsticks for our brothers and invited us backstage for a drink. We hung out in the tour bus and green room, chatting with the other band members and roadies. They were all such interesting and engaging people! No drugs or weirdness, just a few beers and great conversation. Manas had an extremely interesting perspective on what it's like to grow up in Nigeria and then become part of an internationally-known band. We exchanged numbers and email addresses with him and headed back to the hostel for a few hours sleep before our flight back to England. As an epilogue, the band just played near Missoula where the family got VIP backstage passes, and Manas hung out with them for the opening band. We all hope he can come back to the mountains soon so we can take him camping (but only once I’m back from Oxford!)












Back in England, I had some dissertation work to get done, so Anya headed off for a couple of days to a WWOOF site near Totnes in Devon. Totnes was recently described to me as “the crusty hippie centre of England,” and while Anya seemed to enjoy the short time she got to spend in the town, her WWOOF experience left something to be desired… lots of rain and little food. But she’ll have to tell you those stories! We then met up at a WWOOF community near Hereford that you will all be hearing much more about because it is one of my dissertation study sites. A beautiful old converted Georgian manor house and stable block on 40 acres have been converted into private flats for about 45 adults and a bunch of children. As a community, they work and play together, growing vegetables all year in several passively heated greenhouses, hot houses, polytunnels, and a walled garden that always reminds me of The Secret Garden. They also have cows, goats, sheep, chickens, and turkeys. We spent five days there working, learning, observing, drinking tea, and eating fabulous fresh food.
Since I could spend a whole separate blog talking about each individual day, I’ll do just that! I will soon be setting up a new blog about my research. I’ve realized that each day, both on and off my research sites, I learn about people’s perceptions of sustainable development, but I quickly forget details unless I talk about them and get comments from others. A research blog will likely be less interesting in terms of “what’s up in Oxford” but more interesting in terms of learning more about what I am “researching” here. Hopefully it will provide an outlet for my mental mutterings and a venue for research participants (from communities) and others (friends, family, colleagues, advisors) to comment. I guess this is what blogs were traditionally set up to do… amazing! I will be sure to let you know when it's up and running.

But I digress… We have come to the end of Alyssa and Anya’s Europe adventures in “Summer Daze of Our Lives.” However, only five short days after Anya flew home, I followed for some Wyoming lovin’ of my own! More on that next time.

Like sands through the hourglass…

Alyssa and Anya

Summer Daze of Our Lives, Part II

[Cut to]

Anya and Alyssa rushing through the busy streets of Oxford, sweat is flying, pedestrians bowled over… a massacre.

ANYA: This almost counts as training for the Enduro!

ALYSSA: I knew we should have called a cab…

Luckily, our heroines reach the station with just enough time to buy round-trip tickets from Oxford to Luton Airport. Their Swiss friend Martin is there waiting with two suitcases, a garment bag, and a guitar – his life in Oxford over the past year. The sisters sheepishly show him their two backpacks and giant duffle bag for their week-long trip to Switzerland.

Hey, to be fair those bags contained tents, sleeping bags, climbing gear, running shoes, and a clean pair of underwear! In any case, the flight to Zurich otherwise went smoothly. Martin’s dad Fritz picked us up at the airport and brought us back to their very nice home where we got our first taste of Swiss bread, cheese, and chocolate. Joygasmic, my friends. I had frequent Homer Simpson moments.

The next morning we got up early and met a friend of Martin’s for a day of excellent climbing. The trip to the climbing area was a little long (two trains, a bus, and a gondola) but the views and routes were worth it! We finished the afternoon with a dip in the cold-but-but-not-as-cold-as-you’d-expect lake. On the way back we had a short layover in Lucerne, so we got a quick walking tour with our expert Swiss guide (Martin). Saw a viola player busking! Then, back in Zurich, we walked down the river and met some of Martin’s old friends. The river scene was really neat – hundreds of people swimming, picnicking, playing music…

The following day Anya and I left (after a BBQ and a watermelon eating contest between Martin and I) for the fairly randomly selected town of Walenstadt. We picked it because it was next to a lake, had a campsite (you’re not allowed to just go out and camp in the mountains), and was between Zurich and Innsbruck. This final point was important because our good friends Dan and Kathy were going to be flying into Zurich and driving to Italy via Innsbruck the very next day! Our plan was to meet with Dan and Kathy, maybe spend an extra day, and then move on; however, Walenstadt turned out to be a gold mine of exciting activities.

After an excellent lunch with our friends, Anya and I rented mountain bikes and set out. Walenstadt is located on a valley floor surrounded by quaint towns and towering mountains. Great for the view, rough on my very unpracticed legs. We managed to try to ride across a shooting/artillery range, and found a few fun trails, but much of our time was on tiny paved roads that switchbacked up into mountains that looked impossible to summit by foot, nonetheless bike (or car!) Although there were hundreds of little tracks leading to hundreds of little houses and meadows, we realized that if you followed the yellow-brick “Wanderweg” signs, you could always eventually get back home. We found some delicious wild raspberries and strawberries and “stumbled upon” some less-than-wild cherries. We returned the bikes satisfyingly mud coated. (Not to say we wouldn’t have washed them if we could!)

We returned to camp tired and hungry… We sat down in front of our maps… so many trails, so little time! Will our heroines find the perfect trail up those inspiring mountains, or will they be unceremoniously booted out of the country for making fun of all the “fahrt” signs? Werkeinfahrt, like a workin’ fahrt! Ausfahrt, you fahrt, we all fahrt together!

Find out next time, on “Summer Daze of Our Lives…”

Alyssa and Anya

Summer Daze, Part I

Hi everybody!

I am so good at this not writing for months on end thing! Here’s the plan… over the next week or so I hope to put out a whole slew of the “Summer Daze Chronicles” to recount my adventures of late.

The story begins (or picks up) with the completion of exams, which were as horrendous as anticipated. But it was fun to watch Oxford fill up with nervous students all dressed up in sub-fusc and gowns, most sporting a carnation – white for first dayers, pink for middle dayers, and red for finalists! We had a very fun afternoon and evening after our final exam… swimming, picnicking, BBQs, burning notes, and possibly some booze.




The next day, Queen Anya arrived from the kingdom of Montana! We had a day to nurse her jetlag and buy/rent dresses for the upcoming Linacre Ball, and then we carpooled with some of my classmates to Wales for some British-style camping. We pitched tents in the yard of a beautiful old farmhouse and cooked giant meals in the neighboring bunkhouse… but we had a great time with music, “speeches,” and toasts with Mongolian liquor supplied by Bama.

Back to Oxford the next day to catch the Linacre Ball, themed “Vintage Vegas.” Unfortunately, I had to work the bar from 12-3am and left Anya at the mercy of the Linacre lads. Fortunately, as we all knew, Anya knows how to take care of herself! In the end, a good time with the Wechsler gals obviously stealing the show.

The next few days were more relaxed. Running tours of Ox. A visit to the famous Pitt Rivers Museum, a collection of Brittan’s colonial exploits (and, incidentally, where Philip Pullman’s Lyra looks at the trepanned skulls… we got to see them, too! Plus real shrunken heads. Yummy.) Punting and pubbing. Anya tried her first English bitter (ale). Her description: warm, flat, and… bitter. Who knew? Not to worry, she chased away the nasty with some delicious “black ice” gum which turned out to be black licorice and mint. Good fun.

On the first of July, an uncharacteristically hot day for England, the sisters Wex strapped on their matching North Face Gompa packs and slung a giant Atmosphere Mountainworks duffle full of camping and climbing gear over the shoulder. Being Wechslers, time was ticking toward bus departure as the girls sweatily weaved through the throng of robe-wearing students and camera-slinging tourists. Will they catch their bus to the airport? Will they ever get to explore the mountains of Switzerland? Will they get to hobnob with the rich and famous? Or will Alyssa’s sweat destroy her passport and Anya tortured by an herb-wielding hippie? Find out in the next installment of “Summer Daze”…

Alyssa (and Anya)

Out of the dark!

Hi all! Last I wrote, it was.... well, it was a long time ago. Can you believe it's been four and a half months?! Needless to say, I've been slacking on the blog -- one or two things have happened since February! The biggest overall news actually comes from the States. I have a new sister! Perry and Julie went to Ethiopia last week to adopt the lovely Mebrat. I can’t believe I have to wait until my visit in August to meet her! I cannot wait -- I’m so happy to have a new member of our family. My family(ies) is what you might call an ultra-modern one! Or maybe post-modern… I’ll have to think on that one. The biggest news on this side of the pond is that I applied and got accepted to the University of Edinburgh! However, love's a fickle thing, and when I also got an offer to stay on at Oxford for an MPhil, I couldn’t refuse. So essentially I am staying for a research-based continuation of my current program, meaning I get an extra 8 months or so to write a longer, better dissertation. Which should leave adequate time to put into my new posts of the rugby team’s Social Secretary (I plan the parties!) and Treasurer. On that note, anyone with amazing party theme ideas should let me steal them!
Varsity Match, 7 March, Before and After...
A rundown on life since February. Suffered an incredibly busy and stressful term (initiating my lack of communication). Played and lost the grand Cambridge vs Oxford Varsity match. Went home to Wyoming for a happy visit (got to do all the quintessential WY activities -- horseback riding, skiing, Yellowstone, Jalan Crossland show, Buckhorn Bar, hiking, driving long distances, perfect sunshine, raging blizzards, not to mention friends and family! I guess I missed climbing, but not for lack of trying (thanks Frank!)
Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, birthday shots, and Dublin Castle

Got back just in time for a Marshall trip to Northern Ireland with a stopover in Dublin (where I had my birthday!) Then essay-writing deliciousness and a class trip to Paris to present websites we designed to Bruno Latour, one of the head dudes in my field (which apparently is some blend of Science and Technology Studies, Human/Economic Geography, and Anthropology… not environmental policy as I’d once thought). That was fairly intense, reading Latour’s work all year and then showing it to him in a website! On a lighter note, it must be said, for any Lost lovers, I may have geeked out in Paris and gone to the Jules Verne Awards to see the creators of Lost given lifetime achievement awards. Plus, Kate and Ben were there! Very fun…

	Then my third term began (which sounds a little too pregnant, but there you go.) The last few months have been short on classes, but heavy on writing and studying. We had a big literature review for our dissertations and then studying for our upcoming final exams. I have three three-hour-long essay style exams, so a total of nine essays in nine hours. More on that next week after they’re done! I have been having some fun in the middle of the studying (or revising, as it’s called here) and dissertation. The most exciting bits have been a ball (yes, a ball!) that almost everyone from my course went to. Basically an opportunity to get really dressed up and eat, drink, and dance from about 8pm to 4am. Then, I went on a day-long climbing trip to the Wye Valley (right on the border between Wales and England). It was so beautiful! Big cliffs perched right up above Tintern Abbey! And the climbing was much less sketchy than the Lakes District.

Well, enough from me, for now. I’m off to write a three-hour practice exam! Kill me now!!! I miss you all, and I will really try to get posts out regularly again. Bad as the exams are, I think the worst is behind me.

Your bar-hopping, ball-bopping, rock-topping American transplant,
-Lyssa