Jen McClure's Ruminations

Giovanni Rodriguez Tagged Me

My friend, colleague and SNCR Fellow Giovanni Rodriguez tagged me ... so here goes... five things you may not know about me:

1. I once spent 8 weeks on a tour bus traveling across America with "10 of America's favorite story book characters" as part of a cause-related PR campaign for Visa.

2. I used to sing in a band in NY, write music, play guitar and recorded some of my work.

3. I'm adopted. My (also adopted) brother likes to introduce me to his friends with that disclaimer ("This is my sister - we're adopted") ....hmmmm....

4. I moved to the Bay Area about a dozen years ago from NY - no plans to return! :-)

5. I was once the deputy town clerk / tax collector of Woodstock, NY.

OK - the tagging continues - :-) Elizabeth Albrycht, Lisa Fletcher, Steve Crescenzo, Mike Manuel, John Cass - it's your turn.

Week 3 - Finishing Up Work & Winding Down Our Visit

I kicked it into high gear during last week in Oxford, trying to see all the things we wanted to before leaving England, finishing my classes, presentations and papers and getting packed up and ready to leave. I am definitely going to need a vacation after this! :-)

July 17th was Dave's and my wedding anniversary, and we celebrated by attending a wonderful performance of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Ernest" by the Oxford Shakespeare Company at Wadham College. Evan behaved very well, and even seemed to enjoy it and relish in some of the baudy jokes. One line in particular seemed to tickle his funny bone: "I know exactly how to treat women," stated the character of Algernon Moncrieff. "If they're pretty you sleep with them, and if they're not, you don't." To which my five-year-old son slapped his knee, laughed loudly and announced "Thats the really funny part." Needless to say he was the real show stopper.

We also visited Christ Church College, where several scenes for the Harry Potter movies were filmed. An incredibly beautiful college campus! Our final family event in Oxford was a perfect conclusion to our stay. We attended an excellent performance of "Robin Hood" by the Creation Theatre Company in Headington Park. The stage was built around a large old tree and the action took place in and around the stage in the wooded area of the park, so that we really felt like we were in Sherwood Forest or watching a performance in much the same way that the play was originally performed. Robin Hood is such rich play from a historical, cultural and artistic perspective covering the Norman/Saxon aspect of British history and excompassing the economic, political and religious issues of the time. Evan was "afraid of the ghostes" at the end of the play, but all in all, we very much enjoyed this last evening in Oxford.

The final week's lectures included: Dr. Martin Conway with a fascinating look at "Fascism and the Modern State," Dr. Philip Davies who asked "What Have the Blair Governments Achieved?" Dr. Sarah Whitmore who provided a perspective on "The Orange Revolution in the Ukraine" and addressed the question of whether this could indeed be considered a full and effective revolution, given the current state of political affairs in the Ukraine. Dr. Ashley Jackson gave a sobering lecture entitled "Into Africa: Security Challenges for the Modern World" and Dr. Mark Radford concluded the lecture series with "The Irish Peace Process: Ending The Long War."

On Friday evening, I attended the final ceremony at Exeter, which started with a lovely champagne reception in the Fellow's Garden, followed by a formal dinner in the Great Hall and presentation of our certificates. Then it was back home to pack and set our alarm for 3:45am to make our early morning flight back to Chicago! The experience of a lifetime!

Week 2 in Oxford - Settling In

Another busy week as we began to settle into life in Oxford -- getting to know our way around and discovering our favorite shops, restaurants and pubs.

In class we discussed the Euro and the inner-workings of lobbying the EU, and in my sociology class we explored the topics of class, ethnic minorities and employment trends in contemporary British society. Lectures continued to be stellar - with a wide range of impressive speakers, including my Sociology professor Dr. Amanda Palmer, who explored the changing role of men in British society; Dr. Richard Caplan, who discussed the International Governance of War-Torn Territories; Dr. Rana Mitter who focused on China's role in the modern world; Professor Anthony Glees who spoke about intelligence and "the war on terror" and Professor Lord Morgan FBA, a member of the House of Lords who reviewed past and present Labour governments in Britain

From a sightseeing perspective, we visited Stonehenge over the weekend. Fabulous! A first visit for all of us. One of the theories on why Stonehenge was built in the exact location it was is the idea that there are energy currents in that area. Supposedly one can detect these using a couple of divining rods. Several people of our tour tried this, and it worked brilliantly. Dave tried it and it didn't work at all - so either the theory is incorrect, or my husband is just a freak of nature.

After our visit to Stonehenge, we explored the lovely town of Salisbury, home to one of the original copies of the Magna Carta - which we viewed - as well as the beautiful Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral has an interesting history. It was one of the few that was not bombed during WWII, because it has one of the tallest steeples in England - more than 400 feet. Instead of destroying it, German pilots used it as a landmark and to guage the location of other targets.

Our First Week in Oxford

Our first week here was very busy. I struggled to overcome jetlag, settle into our new temporary home, orient myself to being a student here and still spend some time as a tourist discovering this wonderful old city.

At college, the week was filled with several wonderful lectures on the EU by Dr. Stewart Kewly (my professor in my international business seminar) and WWII by Professor Jeremy Black, as well as two other fascinating lectures titled "Government by Consent: Ideology and Mythology" by Dr. Christopher Nock and "The Middle East at a Crossroads" by Dr. Farhang Jahanpour. Dr. Nock posited that the great myth of Western liberal democracy is that government exists at the consent of the people. Rather, it's not consent, but rather the lack of illiberal dissent that keeps liberal democracthe Arab-Isries working. In an equally fascinating lecture, Dr. Jahanpour analyzed the different forces that will shape the future of the Middle East, including Islamic fundamentalism, non-democratic governments, Arab-Israeli conflict, Western policies and the importance of oil in East-West rivalry. I also began my first week of seminar courses. In my politics/economic class, we studied the evolution of the EU and the single European market, and in my sociology class we examined family and education in the UK.

As tourists, we spent out first week in high gear. We introduced ourselves to the rich and interesting history of Oxford University with a bus tour. Did you know that Oxford University was founded in about 1100 and is now comprised of 39 colleges with a student population of nearly 18,000 from 130 nationalities - clearly making this a very rich and multi-cutlural envioronment. We climbed the Tower at St. Mary's and got another great view of the city (check out Dave's photos). We also visited Blenheim Palace - birthplace of Winston Churchill. The gardens are fabulous and feature the second largest hedge maze in Europe and a butterfly house. We ended the day with a lovely dnner in the town of Woodstock in a 14th century hotel that beautifully blended the past and present. (They played Jack Johnson, featured modern art and had a disco in the back - not to mention marvelous food.) We also toured Oxford Castle, which was an active prison from 1070 until 1996.

On the 4th of July we celebrated Evan's 5th birthday with a small quiet dinner at our house. I bought a very cute cake, but once we cut into it, realized I had bought a fruit cake with marzipan frosting. Ugh. Oh well. Evan was still delighted because got the gift he had been asking for all week - a toy double decker bus and British cab and a small British Airways jet. We had prepared Evan for the fact that there is not a great deal of celebration on the 4th of July here. (Have you ever tried to teach early American history to a 5 year old?) However, we were al delighted to discover that there are many American students living in our neighborhood, and so not only were we treated to a small fireworks display, but one young student even played the National Anthem on her trumpet and they were nice enough to give Evan a sparkler.

Over the the weekend, we raced off for an impressively whirlwind trip of London, packing several days of sight-seeing into one. We managed to see the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace (even got to see the guards march around a bit), "Big Ben" (which is actually not the name of the clock tower, but just one of the bells) and Westminster Abbey, took a little cruise on the Thames and a spectacular ride in the London Eye (again, you've got to check out the photos to get the idea). So cool! We ended our day with a traditional English dinner of meat pies, potatoes and ale in an old pub before hobbling back to the train station to return to Oxford.

Needless to say, Sunday was a quiet one, with me focusing on some school work and Dave and Evan playing quietly as we prepared for week 2.

Discovering Oxford

For the next few weeks, I'll be posting little trip reports from Oxford, England.

I'm here at Exeter College taking two classes this summer to finish my degree requirements for my masters, and enjoying this lovely old city with my family. My husband Dave, our son Evan and I arrived this past week and have been exploring the city.

Our little house is lovely; in a quiet neighborhood about two miles outside of Oxford City, with a big meadow and playground right across the road - wonderful for Evan! On our first excursion around Oxford City, we visited the Covered Market, which has been a mainstay in Oxford for more than 1,000 years. (You can take a virtual tour here.)

We also climbed the Saxon Tower at St. Michael at the North Gate and rang the church bells. Evan was very proud to receive a Certificate of Achievment for climbing all the way to the top, and Dave took some great pictures that you can check out here in my photo album.

The Saxon Tower is Oxford's oldest building, having been built in about 1040. St. Michael at the North Gate church was constructed in the 13th century, and is now the City Church of Oxford.

A bit more interesting history about this old building: The Tower was later connected on its west side to the Bocardo Prison, which held Bishops Latimer, Ridley and Crammer who were burned at the stake by Queen Mary for refusing to convert to Catholicism. We saw their cell door at the Tower.

The first lecture of my program was presented by Oxford Fellow Tom Buchanan. He spoke about the current state of politics in the UK, and posed the question, "Will the forthcoming change in leadership (i.e. the departure of Tony Blair) be enough to re-energize Britain's Labour Party?" What do you think?

Technology or the US State Department Will Be the Death of Me

So... my family and I are preparing to leave for England for a month. I will be studying at Oxford - finishng my last two electives for my masters before returning to begin to write my thesis this Fall. Here's how things are going so far as we prepare for our journey:

Over the weekend my laptop just decided to stop working - yep, just stopped, no particular reason. Just got tired I guess. And, of course I was informed by the company that I am out of warranty and so any repair will be on my dime, but the good news is that the company's repair facility is local, so, I drove around Fremont today trying to find the facility in order to expedite the repair. Who knew Fremont Blvd. was so long? Arrgh!!! Yeah, I've got NOTHING else to do right now but this!

And, of course we have not yet received my son's passport. So, here's the little letter I emailed via the travel.state.gov website today after trying to reach someone via phone today more than 20 times. In fact, I'm on hold again right now - even as I write this. Who knows if it weill get any better response than I have been able to get via phone.

"I have been trying to reach your offices all day today. The first two times I called, I was told your systems were down and to call back later. The third time I called I was put on hold for 40 minutes, and when someone finally took my call, apparently the woman who answered could not hear me and she hung up. The other 20+ times I have called over the last 9 hours, I have been notified that your call volume is too high and I should try back later.

I tried to check the status online, but the application has not even been entered into your system yet - even though we should have already received the passport. I was informed by the gentleman I spoke with this morning (the first one who told me your systems are down) that you are "a little behind" in updating the online system.

Needless to say, this is incredibly frustrating and absolutely unacceptable.

My family and I are leaving for England in only 11 days from now. We applied for our son's passport more than six weeks ago via our local post office in Newark California. We were assured that we would receive the passport in plenty of time, but of course we still have not received the document.

I am aware that I need at least two weeks to expedite a request for an application, and now I have lost another day to follow up on the status of this application.

Can you PLEASE help me? Thank you."

Please someone tell me this will all be worth it. Right now, I am tempted to just chuck it all and instead spend my summer running through the sprinkler in our backyard and drinking lemonade and vodkas.

My Child Wants a Puppy

I guess I should have known this day would come when I had a son - remember that old nursery rhyme about "[something I can't remember] and snails and puppy dog tails."  Well, now my 4-year-old son wants a dog, and here is why that will never happen.

A Slice of Life in Suburban California

In my neighborhood no one really knows each other, but it's amazing what you can learn about your neighbors when the postman delivers mail to the wrong house. 

Apparently someone on our street is an administrative assistant Scientologist who collects things from the Danbury Mint. Who knew?

(Please note: no law was broken in the writing of this post. Said mail consisted only of catalogues and magazines and direct mail flyers.)