Oxford

I went to Oxford on monday to give a job talk at the Wellcome Center. Actually its a little outside of Oxford itself, but part of the university. It was kind of a hectic two days, and I am writing this in the airport right now: my first chance to de-stress. I still get pretty agitated before talks, particularly when presenting new material (as I was this time), but things were heightened by the fact that this was Oxford, and I would be talking to a group that just published back to back Nature papers.

I got into Heathrow at 7:30 PM, and experienced the wonderously welcoming immigration area, where you are required to have a card filled in with various information, but there are no pens or pencils to enter the information (exactly like in the US, only with less hysteria). One amusing difference from the US is that there are dozens of signs stating that physically or mentally abusing the immigrations officers is a crime. Signs like this are unnnecessary in the US, because if you even think about stepping out of line, you will wake up in Guantanamo the next morning, naked except for duct tape underpants and Kiss music playing at 105 db

After almost getting run over because I was looking the wrong way for the cars, I found the X70 bus to oxford and walked to the Cladagh guest house in Heddington. It was late and I hadn't eaten, so I found a kebab joint and avoided the english hooligans who asked me "Wheres your lunch, mate?" while weaving in and out of the middle of the road on their bikes.

The next morning I escaped horribly Dull and bleak Heddington, and went to the Center of Oxford. Along the way, I managed to get another taste of the whole "wrong side of the road thing" when I missed my bus because I was waiting on the wrong side of the road.

I got off the bus in the center, and after several more exciting street crossings (although I would start looking in the right direction, force of habit usually made me look the wrong way by the time I was across the street), I found myself at the Bodleian library



A few steps away is the St. Mary the Virgin Church, which you can climb the tower of. The views are nice, and the light was beautiful.

All Soul's College:


Back down in the chapel itself, I was a bit surprised to see that people were buried ounder the church floor. Maybe they do that elsewhere, but I certainly hadnt noticed it before!

The highlight of Oxford for me was Christ Church College, which I stumbled upon by accident when I walked down King Edwards St. and found the exit of the tour. I walked out to the meadow,


in through the official entrance (4 pounds), and up to the Dining hall


which has a strong (almost tacky?) affiliation with Lewis Carroll and his weird obsession with the deans daughter. I found it silly that they made a stained glass window of Alice in Wonderland, but thats just me. The famous fireplace-thingy was cool, though

The really wonderful thing about the hall is the sense of continuity and tradition that it evokes; it is still very much in use, almost five centuries after its construction. Of course, there are some modern additions, like ye olde coffee maker

and ye olde Heinz ketchup

YEAH BRITISH PIGDOGS, LOOK AT WHATS IN YOUR ELITE POLITICIAN FACTORY: AMERICAN KETCHUP! HAHAHA
or wait, maybe Heinz is owned by Unilever? I smirked at the sign warning the young imperialists to "dress smartly", that "shorts are inappropriate for both men and women", and if they should wish to dine less formally, they should go somewhere else. I was so impressed by the dining hall that I left, hesitated and then walked back in again for another round of photos. Incidentally, this is where they filmed the dining hall scenes from the Harry Potter movies.

I followed the signs to Tom quad,

and into the cathedral. The cathedral has some beautiful stained glass windows,

but is otherwise unremarkable. Then again, I'm not really a conoisseur of churches: after a while they all start to blend together for me.

The last thing to see was the Peckwater quad


Which, like the dining hall, is still in use by the cigarette smoking, sometimes barefoot future leaders of the British Empire. I'm very jealous that they live and work in such a beautiful place. I dont think Ive every worked someplace where people had to pay $7 to take a self guided tour of. Then again, Williams was pretty picturesque as well, as was the Salk. I ended up at a map store on High St. to look for something for chloe. The woman who worked there was American, so we commiserated over the election for a bit, and then I started rooting through their selection of French maps. To my amazement, they had a very good selection of the first Atlas Nationale after the creation of the Departments, which are not that easy to find in France. Also, the prices were very reasonable. I guess there's not much demand for French maps in downtown Oxford! The lady gave me a good deal on a 1751 map of the Dauphine in beautiful condition


Another funny thing was that she saw my middle name on my credit card, and turned and asked "You're not related to THE Harunobu, are you?". Of course I'm not, but thats where the name comes from, and it was actually the first time in my life that anyone has known the significance of it. Kudos to mom and dad for coming up with the most obscure middle name on the planet.

After finding a place to buy chocolate and 1.5 kilos (almost $30) of wonderful English Cheddar, I headed back to the bed and breakfast to obsess over my talk a few more times.

I arrived at the Wellcome Center a bit early, and got a WEP key for the WiFi network, sent some stress filled emails to chloe, met the interviewers, and setup the projector. I was put much more at ease when I saw this on the bookshelf in the seminar room.


These were my kind of people.

After some rounding up of people by martin and bob, I gave the talk, which went well, and I think the interview did as well, but you never know. Afterwards, I got taken on a tour of their new protein production facility, and got to see their impressive crystallization tray imaging and storage machine.

They also have a tabletop mass spec for QA etc in one of their back rooms. Swanky. We ended up at a pub, where I of course ordered the fish and chips.

When I got to the airport this morning I wandered around, looking at the overpriced single malts and nice looking food that Harrods sells, when something in my brain woke up. Here is my unedited stream of consiousness: mmmm... caviar... mmmm shortbread.. hmmm.. foood? I have food. I have 1.5 kilos of three of my favorite english cheddars........ WHICH ARE IN THE REFRIGERATOR AT THE B&B. My only consolation is that I'll be going home to berkeley at the end of the week, where I will be able to get some more Neals Yard. I'm sure it wont go to waste, but damn. It made me want to cry.