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

A Love Story

Friends and family, I have some exciting news to report. After years of waiting, I have fallen in love. I didn’t previously believe in love at first sight, but after only one week of knowing mon amour, there is no doubt that I am head over heels. My love can be a bit of a wild, rugged individual, but is also distinguished and (dare I say it?!) beautiful. We share a passion for whisky, wool, and long walks down rocky coasts. I know it’s premature, but I may be moving in next fall. We do have some problems to work out. It would be hard for me to leave Oxford now, and I’m not sure if I am ready for this commitment. And the trifling matter that we have an age gap of some 350-700 years (depending on how you look at it). Of course, I speak of Scotland.

Last we spoke I was sizzling away in Portugal, and so much has happened since then! I know these events are all a month old, so bear with me! I left Portugal for Scotland on the evening of January 8 and spent a sleepless night in the London Gatwick airport. I had found out on the 7th that my Grandma Carol passed away that morning, and I’d been racing around since then to find a way to Skype home. The airport at 2am wasn’t ideal, but it was the best I found. It made me feel particularly alone and far from home. I will miss her so much, and I am eternally grateful for my weekend in New Mexico last fall and her words for me on Christmas day. All my love to my family – I wish I could be there with you.

Luckily, I had good friends to help through hard times. Brady and I met up in Edinburgh and had a great time exploring a bit of Scotland. I decided from the moment I arrived that I was in love with Edinburgh, and my regard has spread to all I’ve seen of the country so far. Its sights and history are stunning. Brady and I climbed “Arthur’s Seat,” a very tall hill/small mountain in the middle of the city when I arrived on Friday and took a seven or eight mile jogging “tour” of the city the next day. That night, we took a tour of Edinburgh’s “haunted underground,” a series of vault-like rooms that were formed as the city built up around the arches of an old bridge. There are tons of ghost stories associated with the underground from satanic worship to hundreds of fatalities from plague, fire, murder, etc. Didn’t get to see any ghosts, but I was thoroughly creeped out for the rest of the night. I highly recommend taking the tour if you’re ever in Edinburgh... it’s one of the few tourist attractions I’ve felt deserved my £10!












We travelled to Aberdeen Sunday for Brady’s geology conference, and then I popped back down to Edinburgh for a meeting with the director of the Environment and Development masters program at the university. Turns out she’s from Boulder, CO! (But I won’t hold that against her...) On my way back to Aberdeen, I did a six-mile coastal walk across the bay from Edinburgh. Along the way I explored some caves with Pictish rock carvings and the ruins of MacDuff castle (from the family of Shakespeare’s MacDuffs!) Brady and I met up again and continued on to the little town of Elgin, launching point of the famous Whiskey Trail of Speyside. We only toured one distillery, Glen Moray, but it was amazing and included an excellent tasting at the end. Since we were the only tourists silly enough to brave Elgin in January, we got the extended tasting experience.













Now I’m back in Oxford – finished my essay (barely,) and am working too much for my own good. It’s going to be a busy term! A very nice diversion last week with a visit from a Laramie-turned-Oregonite – Elijah was here and I had a good time showing him around Oxford on a lovely sunny day and then he got to see me pummelled in a rugby match against UWIC (that really, really good team we played last term). I’m afraid I couldn’t be a great hostess, what with classes and rugby practice, but it was still grand to catch up! Now I’m off to more rugby practice in the freezing cold followed by a sickening amount of reading... wait, this sounds familiar... reading reading reading rugby! reading reading rugby!
All my love,
Alyssa