29.04.07 vs cambridge (again)

In another episode of the continuous competition and network building between Oxford and Cambridge, we hosted a day of sports competition between the two business schools. There were a ton of competitions, but most interesting to me were rowing, rugby, and cricket. I had to miss our rowing defeat (Henley all over again), but got to see the other two. The rugby was touch instead of tackle, and was co-ed. We won. The cricket was limited to 20 overs (I think this means it only goes on endlessly for hours instead of going on endlessly for days). We won this as well. Of note here is the fact that there were maybe 2 non-Indians on the Oxford SBS cricket team, and also the emergence of Murtasa, an unassuming guy who turned out to be an amazing batsman. He basically just stood up there knocking it out of the park, over and over again. Everyone was pretty impressed. Cricket is basically impenetrably complicated for those of us who didn't grow up playing it, but that's cool, because a cricket match is more like a picnic than a sporting event. Everyone just brings blankets and snacks and drinks and socializes while the game sort of putters along in the background. Every once in a while something exciting happens, and then everyone oohs an ahhs for a few minutes, then it's back to picnic time. I dig it!

sbs students watching the cricket match

me with cricket in the background

julie and reba at the game

Julie Young was out for the weekend, as she had been on some Starbucks business in Europe, and then came to hang out with us for a few days. It was nice to have a hometowner out to visit. She came along to the party after the sports, and out drinking with the MBAs, etc. The party was pretty cool, another incarnation of the birdbath played, this time with Pat on bass and Prashant on vocals. We did 6 songs: "The Future Is Now" by Pat's old band The Solids, "Adding to the Noise" by Switchfoot, "Fell in Love with a Girl" by The White Stripes, and "Olympia" and "Snocone" by us. We finished off with a semi-improvisational harcore bit where our friend Robin would yell "hey, fuck y'all" in the breaks (ala "Lady" for any old Sicko fans reading this). The drum set sort of fell over at the end, and I left the guitar feeding back for a while after the set. Not particularly innovative from a Seattle hipster perspective, but shocking enough for my b-school colleagues. People certainly seemed to like it well enough. We kept changing our band name throughout the set, and went through "The Va-jay-jays", "The 5 Forces", and "Laser Cats UK". However, I prefer to think of this as Tales From the Birdbath - Version 6.

me and prashant

pat

reebs doing that hair thing she does

Of note is the fact that Prashant (an Indian) picked Switchfoot, which is a Christian rock band. The song is hardly identifiable as such, but the rest of their album is pretty well Jesus-ed up. He's not Christian though, he just liked the song and was a little puzzled about the notion of Christian rock. I have to say that I did too. The night ended up, of course, with us all going out dancing and drinking, and then finally stumbling around inside Merton bar (not in the college) at 3 AM.

a tab, kevin, me, jurgen

We also acquired a Cantabrian (person from Cambridge) who needed a place to stay after the party, since the bus had already gone back to Cambridge. Her name was Svetlana, and she's an investment banker from Moscow. She and Reba rapped about Tolstoy a bunch while Julie and I talked about boob jobs. The next morning, all 4 of us went to breakfast at a cafe before we put Julie onto her bus back home.

svetlana and reba

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22.04.07 exeter college ball

Oxford has balls (no Josh, not that kind), i.e. grand balls ala cinderella, etc. Saturday night was the ball for Exeter College, and about 20 MBAs went and danced the night away. I'll fill in with details later, but for now I think a few photos will give you an idea...

al (finance guy)

katy and reebs

me and my date

I definitly should have done night school...

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15.04.07 santorini!

Julie, Jean and I went to Santorini Island in Greece for the final leg of our vacations. This place is so beautiful, it's somewhat hard to do it justice via description. Technically, Santorini (or Thira in Greek) is a caldera, basically a big volcanic crater filled with water. Roughly, Thira is a big circular ring of rock cliffs surrounding a central lagoon 8 by 4 miles wide. There are a couple waterways entering the lagoon, and a volcano in the center. Some really beautiful and strange towns are built along the cliffs, they were once homes to locals, but now they are hotels and restaurants, etc. Apparently there was an earthquake in the 50s, after which the town we stayed in (Oia) sat empty until the 80s when someone got the idea of fixing them up for tourists. Good idea! We rented a cheap hotel room (not on the cliffs, those are really expensive) and basically chilled out for a few days. Reba and I are definitely coming back here this fall. Basically the only thing we did besides eat, drink, and gawk at the view was rent ATVs and drive around the island one afternoon. We went to a canyon where an old town had been built into caves, and even ended up driving through a square where a greek wedding was going on. Neat! I really liked driving the ATVs, I think I am going to get a scooter or a motorcycle after I get a job again!

Oia and the girls

the lagoon and me

more lagoon

Oai + e

atv-ean!

restaurant at the end of the island that's great for sunset watching, and a good one of julie

atv rental dude, when he found out we were mbas, he was really into talking with us

scooter gang

town in the canyon

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09.04.07 vacay midway

I'm in town for a few days, but won't be able to post pictures until my computer gets back (long story). The highlights:

-Paris: Tasha caught a French guy on fire in a bar, I put him out.

-Torremolinos: Shelby bought a belly dancing outfit, and demo-ed it. Movies to be posted soon.

-Hay on Wye (Wales): There were a lot of lambs in the fields when we drove out the day before Easter Sunday. There were a lot less when we drove back the next day.

-Belgium: cancelled, for various reasons.

-Now: Writing papers again. Blah.

-Greece: booked and on it's way!

e

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