Last Lap

Last night was Choriel's first choir concert. Now for the win! As seventh week draws to an end and I begin the eighth and final week of the Michaelmas term, I've been finding it harder and harder to do work. They time it so perfectly in that you're given so much work that you literally couldn't keep going another week. This means by eighth week, you're almost out of your depth. Then you go home and teach yourself everything you'd derived yourself beforehand in the homework or been showed by a tutor. As far as I'm aware, most students learn little during the actual lectures. Still, this probably isn't the best use of my time during lectures:

This morning, I woke up and found myself tired despite my good night's sleep, and found myself feeling so lazy that I just couldn't get myself to do any work. What's more, I had no other food in the room, so I began snacking terribly on the dessert components to the candy turkeys my loving mom brought me. It was terrible.

Then 12:45 came, and I had what the English refer to as "macaroni and cheese" today at our weekly "everything left over from the week" Saturday lunch, which is almost as tasty as Friday lunch, but for all you American readership, you agree with me wholeheartedly when I proclaim this phony to be "not macaroni and cheese." Macaroni and cheese shouldn't have character!!

God gave us a beautiful morning, though, which I enjoyed profusely. It was nice not to have to wear a jacket all the time, and you could see the sun. I decided to go jogging to get out of my funk, but some friends of mine were headed to Christ Church's meadows, and as I hadn't yet been, I accompanied them on a walk.

Christ Church, despite being the Slytherin House of the University of Oxford, really does have a gorgeous meadow (again, for England). It's got a river and all. The whole thing was so picturesque, in fact, that the entire walk was spent with me hopping around taking pictures from every imaginable position and having my buddies pose in strategically gorgeous locations. They humored me, bless them. I got some truly amazing shots, and felt really fired up for the first time in awhile. I took over 200 shots, but here are a few of my favorite things:

Profile picture? I think yes.

We found the most perfect bit of land jutting out
into the river in just the right spot.

I assure you, Oxford's not usually this picturesque
this time of the year.  Only in pictures.

I saw the tree and was like, "Ooh!! You're perfect, Tree!"

The ducks started coming toward me SECONDS
before I took the picture. Fantastic! 

Future wife, I'm adding this to the list of romantic spots
for future reference. And yes, of course it's an actual list.

That was the first tree I'd seen in Oxford that
looked really Autumn-y.

When I got back to my suite, I was finally energized and motivated, and did some Probability (wow, I won't have probability ever again...). Then I had "High Tea" with my mom, sisters, uncle, and one of my sister's old friends, who is currently doing a semester abroad in Scotland and came down to visit her this weekend. 

For those of you who still don't know, I don't use names in my blog, as I illustrated before famously in the post that described Awesome Belch's visit, so I won't use my sister's friend's name here. However, I feel comfortable using the pseudonym "Foreign Tea." Ms. Tea got a picture in the exact same spot as Mr. Belch did in front of Oriel Hall, decorated for Chrstmas:

I said good-bye to my family members, but it wasn't that tearful with the knowledge that we'll all be back home together in just two weeks time now. I then showed Foreign to her guest room at Oriel College, gave her a tour of Oriel, attempted (unsuccessfully) to give her a tour of the nearby Christ Church college, where they filmed some of the Harry Potter films and where Lewis Carol taught (that porter was MEAN; I walked up, about to ask if we could get in at that hour since I was a student, and before I even came close, he pointed a figure at us and motioned for us to BEGONE!), returned her to her room and bid her farewell and good haggis-eating, and worked on Probability for several hours. 

I feel confident now, despite the persistence of hard work over time, knowing that God will always strengthen me when I need His strength. Thanks to Him, I'm back on track and ready for Functional Programming, then Analysis, then Linear Algebra, then cleaning out my room (ugh), then the plane flight back home.

This post is brought to you by

  John Khouri, Doodler Dude

Thanksgivakkuh

Happy Thanksgivakkuh!!!

For those of you who don't know, "Thanksgivakkuh" is a portmanteau of the words "Thanksgiving" and "Hannukah." For the first time in a long, long time, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as the start of Hannukah this year. Because of the way the two calendars differ, though, we won't have another TRUE Thanksgivakkuh for another five thousand years or so. However, in around sixty years, I believe, we'll have a PARTIAL Thanksgivakkuh. So see you then!

Today, I had the great pleasure of seeing my family again after eight weeks! It was great catching up after all this time. After a special chapel hosted by Oriel Christian Union (which was incredible), we all went to formal hall together. Then I showed off the library, the JCR (Brawl anyone?), and my room. I even demonstrated my newfound Dark Knight voice for them.

And what a meal! I was so stuffed after spiced pumpkin stew, turkey roast, potatoes, veg, chocolate cake and ice cream. And THEN my mom gave me some chocolate chip cookie cake and the raw materials to make the Khouri family traditional turkey desserts! I feel kind of awful, especially considering how healthy I've been getting. Honestly I feel kind of sick now. 

Still, one HAS to make the turkeys. It's tradition!

Last night I got the pleasure of hearing a friend of mine play in one of Oxford's great orchestras. I thoroughly enjoyed the hour-long show. I felt kind of like Inspector Morse, for some reason, and thought about going to see operas and orchestras a lot when I'm older. Then the orchestra came back and I realized it was a two-hour show. I didn't realize how long it was, and I honestly got a little bored during the second half. Still, I got to see my first performance in the Sheldonian Theater, and that's a huge plus. I hope one day I'll be able to sing there, most likely in a choir, because that's an incredible venue. It's like Great Britain's equivalent Radio City Music Hall.

 I was very impressed with the orchestra and even more so by the fact that my friend is good enough to play in the orchestra as a result.

I have been so blessed today, and I hope that tomorrow I can maybe share the blessing around with friends before I explode. Ugh. Anyhow, I'm thankful today for America, Britain, God, family, Oxford, Christopher Wren (architect who designed the Sheldonian and a few other amazing places here), great television, friends, love, mercy, Brawl, food (although I'm beginning to question that one), and Liechtenstein. Because really, who isn't thankful about Liechtenstein?

Stuffedly yours,

    John Khouri, the Stuffed

Endeavors

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts." - John Khouri

Actually, it was Winston Churchill, but hey, let's not quibble.

Before I begin, I wanted to include these hilarious Who-themed memes:

Ah, Grumpy Cat. I want you to be the next companion. :D

Since the Day of the Doctor aired, I've been working almost nonstop. Sunday I had church followed by choir, and I got to meet with my dad, who has been in Ireland and London on a business trip. It was great having breakfast with him and discussing things after having not seen my family for ages. I think I might miss my family and friends more if I had any time at all to think about things outside of what's going on RIGHT NOW and what I have to accomplish IMMEDIATELY. Not that I don't miss them, just not as much as I feel I should. But my mom emails me every other day or so giving updates about what's going on at home, and I Skype home weekly, so I still keep fairly up to date about goings-on at home. It's my friends I don't see much of, which is sad. Facebook me, friends!!! I'm waiting on you!!

I spent Sunday evening trying to bang out as much Probability work as I could before falling over the "homework cliff." Yesterday, on Monday, I ended up spending about fourteen hours on work. I spent the first five hours on Probability and Functional Programming, then around nine hours on Analysis. The Analysis problem sheet was, I think, the hardest sheet we've gotten yet. I spent nine hours on it and got two out of six/seven questions done. That's just insane. I ended up falling asleep late and waking up late, just waking up momentarily to disable my two systems of alarms before going back to sleep. I woke up to realize I'd slept through my Analysis lecture. Go figure. I worked for about one and a half hours on the Analysis this morning, and I ended up finishing three problems in that space of time. Go figure.

The past two days, I've noticed some "Endeavour" filming near me walking around campus. For those of you not in the know, "Endeavour" is an Inspector Morse prequel. For those of you still not in the know, Inspector Morse was a popular crime series of mini-movies about a brilliant detective who worked in Oxford. They were quite brilliant, actually, but if you left the room, even for a minute, or watch the installment in two nights, as I did, you'll find yourself completely lost. That's how clever they were. I've never seen "Endeavour" myself, but I need to. (25 JP to you if you've heard of Inspector Morse and you're not English, 75 if you've heard of Endeavour and you're not English)

On the way back from a Functional Programming lecture, I saw the Endeavour crew filming near the Sheldonian Theater/Bodelean Library/Bridge of Sighs/Radcliffe Camera sort of area. People like to film there because those four places are so iconically Oxfordian (apart from the Bridge of Sighs, because that resembles the Rialto Bridge in Venice) that when people see them, they understand, "Oh! Not Cambridge, then. Oxford. Right! Okay, then! You may proceed." They say all of that out loud, of course. Don't question it. Anyhow, I think I walked right past one of the main actors, like, shoulder-to-shoulder, because after I passed him, I heard the director or someone giving him cues and stuff. I don't know. I'm still waiting for the Doctor Who Oxford episode.

I guess if there's one thing I've learned from this is that the American Dream, that if you work hard enough at something you can achieve anything by your own strength, is kind of a bogus myth. We achieve nothing more or less than that which is God wills. It doesn't mean we can't make endeavors, as I certain will continue to do, but if those endeavors come crashing down, there's little reason to be disappointed. As I once said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts." I should really write that one down before some English prime minister steals it...

Best wishes,

    John Khouri, Endeavourer 

P.S. I wanted to let everyone know that I've received five votes for hairstyle so far. I've gotten one vote for day 2, one vote for day 3, one vote for day 4, one vote for day 5, and one vote for day 6. Lol. I need a tie-breaker! Check my previous blog and send me a message!!

Day of the Doctor (and the Homework Cliff)

It finally came!! The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special, for which we've all been waiting for over a year now (or more, depending on what kind of fan you are). I won't offer any spoilers, but I'm delighted to say it was absolutely wonderful. It completely blew the audience away in a way that I've never seen any other movie/episode do. Mr. Steven Moffat got it all so perfectly right.

...Now to finish my Probability homework.

Remember all that talk of the "financial cliff" in American politics? Well, I'm approaching what I've dubbed the "homework cliff" in my studies at Oxford. It usually takes me around the better part of a day to do a single problem sheet in any given class. I get four problem sheets every week. I have one problem sheet due Monday, two problem sheets due early in the day on Tuesday, and as of now, I only have about 2/3 of a problem sheet done. And tomorrow, I only have approximately a two-hour gap of time to work on homework in the afternoon between seeing my dad again (yay!!), church, and singing for the Sunday chapel service. You see the problem? So as soon as I finish this blog post (hopefully soon), I'll be desperately trying to finish up as much of the Probability homework I can do.

In other news, I've been trying out different hairstyles over the past week. I decided that I didn't like my homemade haircut that I'd done before leaving for England now my hair had grown out some, so I used some leftover Wolverine hair gel to make it "dance" a bit. I've used a little almost every day since then, but in different ways. The first time was last Saturday. So I'd like to ask: which style looks the best? Or should I just stick with my haircut? Let me know, either by FB message or by commenting below - 200 JP for responding (but just the first time)!

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 7:

And yeah, I missed a day there sometime. I wasn't feeling very well on Wednesday. Anyhow, back to work!!

From,

    John Khouri, Lord of Out-of-Time

Dark and Nolan-y

Today was a promising day with a promising start. I woke up and went to Meat, where I did some reading of the Bible, did some praying for others, and had some bacon and toast. That's how I wish I could start every day. Considering I'd never really had bacon until three weeks ago or so, it's amazing how much I crave it in the mornings now. Mmm.

Had Eucharist service today, where I sang in the choir. It was pretty alright. I've been so happy the past two days because yesterday, I realized that although I'm still recovering somewhat from my cold, my voice has returned 100%. I'd never realized how much I'd missed it. I'm glad I had a chance to be without it for a change, though. Kind of like a singing fast, like the one I did for a friend a long time ago (it was pretty hard).

Tonight was Open Mic Night, the second and final one of the Michaelmas term. I regret to say that, though I spent maybe two or three hours preparing my material and went in feeling confident, the initial lack of laughter led to me getting nervous and fumbling lines and not being nearly as funny as I'd hoped. I wasn't doing it for my own glory, but considering how much I'd prepared, the failure of the routine kind of hurt. I did the routine on some dogs in Peru (those gags fell flat so I moved quickly on to the next one), original Batman vs. Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight (Have you ever noticed how 60's Batman fought a lot of hyenas?), and what Scooby Doo would be like as a live-action movie directed by Christopher Nolan (a brilliant gag which I'm really sad didn't work because of reasons). The funniest bit that I didn't forget to tell or forget how to tell was my (scarily accurate) Dark Knight impression ("I'm the hero that Gotham deserves...but not the one it needs...because I'm Batman!!"). If you laughed at any part genuinely, then good on you, you get 100 JP.

Also, someone pointed out to me that apparently my ears go red when I'm really nervous. I don't think that's something that happens very often, so I've never noticed before. I guess that's one thing I've got in common with Ron Weasley.

'Cause I'm a Weasley at heart :D 

Ever ya'lls,

    John Khouri, the comedian that Oxford deserves...but not the one it needs.

Juggling as a Metaphor for Stuff

Today I've been juggling a lot of things. Literally. Not metaphorically. In fact, I only had one problem sheet to do today, for Functional Programming, so in terms of having to balance a bunch of different things at once, that was not a problem for me today. I mean, it was a HUGE problem, and I spent almost the entire day working on it, but I didn't mean juggling in the metaphorical sense.

I meant juggling in this sense:

That's right, I've taken up juggling.

Why, you may ask? Because I've been so sick the past two weeks that I've been unable to sing. I've already mastered Spanish and it would be too time-consuming to learn Russian. I need new shoes, someone able and available to play with me, and foreplanning before I can play squash. And I get way too engrossed nowadays when I read, so reading's reserved only for days when I have nothing to do (which, at Oxford, is never). So I've needed a new hobby.

I came up with the idea when I saw some oranges in hall. We're allowed two pieces of fruit or one dessert every meal, so the past few days I'd been getting a banana and orange with every meal. Finally, three days ago I had three oranges, so I started to teach myself how to juggle.

And it's been great. I can literally spend as much or as little time as I want doing it, and it's just fantabulous. Two of them have cracked their peels slightly so far, and I've opened those up and eaten them. It's definitely easier than trying to open them with my fingernails (which never works)! I also lost one. I don't know where it is, but I do know that I need to find it some point before I leave for Christmas break, because otherwise I'll come back to a room that smells of rotten mandarin. And I ain't talkin' Iron Man 3.

I'm at the point where I can juggle three oranges, but I need to get into the right rhythm so that I don't end up throwing them too far forward or too close to me and end up dropping them all. Which is a great metaphor for life, isn't it?

Nope.

Well...sometimes.

Just not for me, not right now. I'm very, very focused. Perhaps to my detriment. I'm more like that guy from that joke I heard from a friend of mine last year. I call it "The Makeshift Weaponry." The man is charging into No Man's Land unarmed, with nothing more than hope, determination, and focus on his side. He's like a tank, barreling forward, but without the safety net of actually being in a tank. I like this metaphor better, because with this metaphor, I'm alluding to my own book, which would drive up demand if the book didn't exist entirely within my head, and because when you juggle something, you always drop it, but the focused guy in my joke won the battle. Plus, a battle's much more meaningful than some pieces of fruit flying through the air.

Hopefully yours,

    John Khouri, unlicensed tank driver (shhh!)


P.S. As correction to an earlier blog post, the word "bop" (a dance shindig at the college bar with costumes) is not an "English" term, as a friend of mine informed me this evening. It is actually specific to Oxford, possibly Cambridge as well (although what do they know about having fun).

Sickness and Amazingness

(I promise, the story gets more fun after the second picture.)

I've been sick for the past two weeks or so. Initially I had a cold, and my voice went out, and so I had to sing base for choir Thursday and Sunday. Then it finally came back Sunday, and I was able to sing Tuesday, but the next morning I woke up sick AGAIN. Ugh.

Now I'm suffering from something unknown I've been referring to as "Dumbledore's hand." I call it that because for whatever reason, my hands have been getting progressively drier and drier over the course of this week, and today they were so dry they were starting to bleed a bit, and it was kind of unbearable. It might just be the extreme wind that goes on at Oxford, or maybe the brand of soap I've been using. Or the cold tap water. I got some treatment from a pharmacist, and it's definitely helped a lot. I took a picture of my hands before the treatment, but I decided to spare you, since you were kind enough to take the time to read my blog.

I'd like to take this moment to rant about English healthcare. Today I mentioned to a good friend of mine my situation and she told me that she had signed up for an appointment last week, but that she was going to London this weekend and couldn't make it, so she give me her appointment slip so I could go instead. I trekked all the way to Jericho's health clinic, my hands in mild pain. Then the receptionist told me I couldn't do that. I asked her to schedule (pronounced "shed-yule") an appointment as early as possible, so she booked me for Wednesday. That's five days, people. I was so irritated that got myself a trumpet and then marched around the building a few times until it fell down (25 JPs if you got the reference the first time).

And that's not just because I'm a student; apparently, that's the way it is all around the country. I seriously hope that America's not going to follow suit under the new Obamacare system, because that's just seriously annoying always having to wait that long, considering that you only actually book an appointment if you're already suffering from something. Fortunately, the pharmacist had a home-brewn remedy (no, not really home-brewn), so at least I won't have to suffer.

With that said, here's a photo of some kittens.

I love Friday lunches, because it's the one time of the week when they serve us junk food. I mean, it's Englandy junk food, but it still tastes delicious. Mmm. Friday lunches. And the chocolate cake they serve is the closest thing we have on earth to the food served in heaven.

I also had chocolate cake later in the day when a friend of mine had some free time and decided to bake. It was scrummy. But not quite as literally perfect as the chocolate cake served at hall. Then we played a bit of Brawl, since we haven't played for ages, even though I should've worked a little more on Functional Programming homework.

This week has been hard. I've kind of had what they refer to as "fifth week blues." Some say it's some myth, others say otherwise, but for me, it became real. I found myself partway through the week realizing that even though I was caught up with the homework, I was behind in the understanding of the material. But I spent two essentially "free" days catching up, and now I'm more-or-less caught up. Although I'm not sure about this weekend, considering I've been resting a bit the past two days...

...In other news, I've discovered that the shiny new Mathematical Institute at Oxford has SUPER posh bathrooms. Last night, after realizing that I'm officially fluent in Spanish, I started to learn Russian.

And then this morning, I stopped.

The educators here say some funny things sometimes. I can't tell if they're just English idioms and I'm being a complete American idiot or what. But they amuse me. Here are a few:

- Our Linear Algebra I lecturer, referring to the Algebra of Limits, said about a problem "Let's play AOL games on it." I don't think the AOL that I was thinking of is well-known here in England.
- Our Analysis lecturer told us, "Now, this problem is very fiddly. We want a way to reduce the fiddliness of this expression." I'm guessing "fiddly" is pretty common in England, but to an American idiot like me, it sounds hilarious.
- Finally, the choir director told the alto section, "If you can't hit that top note, just open your mouths suggestively." Lol :D

Finally, I wanted to express how useless I've been feeling. I haven't been doing much in the way of helping others this week, mostly because I've been so sick. I hate that I can't do anything to help others. I feel like that's letting down those I care about, but there's so much work to be done and I'm so sick and all that it's hard enough to take care of myself.

I also haven't been keeping up-to-date very much with others and how they're doing, I feel. Most of the conversations I've been having recently have been either selfish ones or discussions about homework sheets or concepts. I had not one, but two long conversations this week where I posited that you could make a standard basis of the "weather set" if you made a set that contained a drop of water, a slight gust of wind, a wisp of cloud, 1 Joule of heat, 1 Joule of energy, and 1 lightbulb. That was probably the best conversation I've had this week, although to be fair, it was a pretty fascinating topic. Depending on your point of view, I suppose.

It's also been far too long since I've made someone laugh "big ba-ha laughter," as I call it. That's not fun.

Still, I trust in God and have hope for future.

Illy,

    John Khouri, Sick as a Dog if the Dog Were Wearing Sweet Rockstar Shades