Punting and Such

I took my time getting up today, with it being my first Friday in Oxford and all. I wanted to sleep in until about 9, but there is some serious construction going on at Exeter this summer. I kept hearing a power drill through the wall and thinking it was my phone on vibrate. Every time there was the same level of dissapointment that not only was no one trying to call me, but instead there are angry British construction workers mere feet from where I'm sleeping seemingly with the sole purpose of keeping me from getting any rest.. After waking up this way for the 10th time or so I decided to just go ahead an get up.

I went to the lecture for today, which was titled Europe: Origins of a Crisis. Dr. Martin Conway gave the talk, and he focused on international problems with the European Union so far. He focused on this topic from a Historian's point of view, since we have already had an Economist weigh in on the subject. The most interesting point was brought up in someone's question after his speech, dealing with the possibility of Germany leaving the EU. He discussed possible conflict, maybe even military, if the EU were to collapse. Like Dr. Kewley though, he seemed doubtful that it would ever go that far. 

After the talk Blake and I headed to lunch, where we met some friends. After eating, we walked down to try punting. We first decided to just take a rowboat out, but our friend Brittany convinced us to try actual punting (It was Blake, Joanna, Brittany, and myself). I started off rowing, and got us going, albeit with the occasional ramming into trees or a stone wall. Brittany took over after me, and then Blake finished out by taking us back to dock. My advice to future visitors to Oxford is hence this: prior to going punting, scout out how many other people are doing it. From my now invaluable personal experience I can say that when there are large groups of people who don't know what they are doing, its like bumper cars with a long, easily tip-able boat you need to stand up on to operate.The worst part aside from the fact that it was nearly impossible to turn were the other boats full of screaming tourists scared that they were going to crash into us. It was much more difficult than I imagined, but I highly recommend it, with it being part of the Oxford experience and all. If that isn't selling something well I don't know what is.

After our wonderful punting expedition, I headed back to Exeter with my punting team. We stopped by an ice cream place where I bought some of the tasty snack from a Frenchman who didn't seem as interested as I was that Louisville was named after a French king, I forgive him though since he had an awesome accent. I got back to my room, read a little and took a nap. 

We had an early dinner tonight (fish and chips). Blake, Joanna and I went to Blake's room to play rummy for a while, and our friend Emily came up to join us. We laughed and had a good time before meeting some of the other students to head to a club. Blake and I had fun, but being the non-club types we are, headed out a little early. Tomorrow I am hoping to get my British Politics paper's first draft done. That is a bit idealistic, but we'll see how it goes. Cheers.