6th Week

As I mentioned in my last post, my host Rotary club, Banbury-Cherwell, invited me to participate in Banbury's local Remembrance Sunday service (similar to Veteran's Day in the U.S.). Each year, my host Rotary club helps direct traffic so that the parade runs smoothly.

The day began with a parade from the village hall to a local church, St. Mary's (apparently the 800 church attendees nearly set a record!). Nearly 500 people ranging from veterans and active duty soldiers to the fire brigade and young Beaver Scouts represented their various organizations in the parade. The British soldiers and community warmly included me and two other Americans, an Air Force LTC and his wife, in this special event.

The British commemorate Remembrance Day by wearing poppies on their clothes (the money raised from selling the poppies funds the British Royal Legion to support soldiers and veterans) . In local ceremonies around the UK, they gather to place wreaths of these poppies on war memorials. These pictures are at the People's Park where we met to present the wreaths after the church service. While I think Americans have a great respect for the many soldiers we have lost in war, I felt an even stronger sentiment here. The reason is that many more families were directly affected by the two World Wars. Unlike the U.S., which has been fortunate to have few wars fought on its soil or in close proximity, Britain was in the thick of both World Wars. In World War I alone, seventeen times more British soldiers and civilians died per capita than Americans.

After the ceremony, the parade followed the original route back to the town hall where everyone was invited to a lunch buffet. There was a strong sense of community throughout the whole morning, so it was fitting one of the prominent beverages was a locally brewed beer. Though Banbury is quite a bit larger than Schoolcraft (45000 to 1500), the small-town feel reminded me of home.

Yes, in case you were wondering, this particular Banbury has a cross and a fine lady upon a white horse.  However, I visited via automobile and left my cock horse back in Oxford. According to the gentleman I walked next to in the parade, Banbury was a major printing town and one of the printers took advantage of his occupation to insert 'Banbury' into the poem before it was printed. Perhaps its just a local myth, but it's entertaining all the same.

One of my most loyal readers (from LA!) has asked more British lingo, so here are a few more that I get a laugh out of: parts of a car, such as bonnet instead of hood (both types of headwear, I guess) or windscreen instead of windshield (kind of makes sense, but then what do you make of a screen door?); bullock instead of bulls (ok, this one makes sense too, but you have to admit the 'Chicago Bullocks' doesn't have the same ring.

When I did my exchange at the Naval Academy, one of the officers giving the welcome had a good nugget of wisdom that is helpful whenever you are thinking about another culture. He told us that we will realize the Navy does many things differently than the Army and uses a different vocabulary for the same ideas. Instead of trying to decide which approach is better, we should just look at these differences as two acceptable ways of accomplishing the same goal. I try to keep this in mind as I experience the UK and I hope that you are able to while reading my blog.

In other news, I visited two local Rotary clubs to talk about life in Michigan, my experiences at West Point, how I am finding Oxford, and my goals for the future. The enthusiasm the Rotarians show for learning about me and the community I come from makes the presentations a lot fun. It's impossible to predict which aspects of the presentation they will be most interested in, but I had a lot of questions about the military as well as what I found to be most different from the U.S.

On Saturday, I went to see Airborne Toxic Event in concert. It was the last performance of a two-year world tour that started and ended in Oxford. No, I hadn't heard of the group either, but they're from California and put on a terrific show. We also had our first crew race on Sunday to help us prepare for the Christ Church Regatta next week. We still need to clean up our technique quite a bit, but at least we didn't crash like one of the other novice boats that managed to put their boat halfway up the bank:)

Alright, take care! Off to our rugby match...

Chugging Along

Before I get to the weekend events, I wanted to briefly conclude my last post. The debate was held at the Oxford Union, a large open room with a small open area speakers at one end and rows of seating for the audience at the other. The debate was so popular that after the seats on the floor were filled and the wrap-around balcony was packed to standing room only, ticketholders had to be turned away at the door. In addition to the crowd, the spectacle was completed by the formal dress of the speakers and the strict adherence to an eccentric set of rules governing the debate. For example, someone objecting to a statement must stand, place their hand on their head (although people get away without this one), and say "point of information." It is then at the discretion of the speaker in command of the floor to acknowledge the objection and allow for elaboration. The proposal for the evening was (more or less) that western democracies have a moral obligation to spread liberal democracy to the rest of the world, by force if necessary. Prominent members of the community (a Member of Parliament or MP, a newspaper editor, a professor, etc.) representing each side took turns making their arguments. My initial response to the proposal was no, primarily because I was fixated on the clause 'by force if necessary,' and I felt it was a clear-cut decision. The general argument against the proposal was that democracy is inherently not a form of government that can be forced onto a people and that some societies cannot support democracy. Although the speakers against the proposal made a good argument,  I felt that the proponents of the proposal presented a more convincing case. Their argument hinged on supporting basic individual rights and using force only in certain situations. After six speakers had made their statements, a few members form the audience were invited to make short statements. Finally, one additional speaker from either side gave the concluding remarks, restating earlier arguments and making one last appeal. When everyone had finished, the votes were collected according to whether attendees departed through the 'yea' or 'nay' door. Thus, the bad news: I never found out which side won. And the good news: I'm going to another one this Thursday on bringing Christian values back into British culture.

In my Diplomatic Practice course yesterday, we divided into four groups to discuss the political response to a deadly collision of two fishing boats from the hypothetical countries of Savona and Matapan and to propose statements for a news release. The groups had nine people with each member representing a different part of the organization (the Political Under-Secretary, Press Spokesperson, Fisheries Ministry Representative, etc.). When the groups came back together to discuss their results, Mr. Hunt had one member from each group comment on the effectiveness of the group in completing the task. When each group received mostly positive comments, Mr. Hunt humorously noted that it was unreasonable to expect anything more critical from diplomacy students who realize they still have an entire year with their classmates. The interesting part of the discussion however was that we only discussed the content of our news releases for a few minutes. Instead, we focused on details of the meeting overall such as how each group arranged the seating (who sat at the right hand of the Under-Secretary?), whether nametags were used, how the number of actors affects discussion, and the effect of using a cramped space or a comfortable one (meetings are typically faster in uncomfortable spaces, but if participants tend not to get along, more space is better).

Yesterday evening, I went bowling with KEEN. The volunteers did not have a chance to put too many balls down the lanes, but we had a lot of fun helping the athletes. This morning, I went down to the boathouse to row at 6:30, only to find that another Hertford boat had a morning outing. Since only one boat from a college can be on the water at once (in the mornings), we had to get creative. We considered just taking the fine, 'borrowing' another colleges oars to hide our identity (good idea until their crew showed up), and rowing on the ergs for a while (unfortunately also occupied by another crew). In the end, we had to leave with out a workout.

Finally, this weekend was Remembrance Sunday, so my next post will hopefully have some pictures and stories about it. Take care!