Beginning of 1st Week

All,

Greetings from Oxford! I have moved to the UK to do graduate work in Comparative Government (this week, my class is trying to figure out exactly what that definition means--I'll let you know). Between living abroad, reading and writing things that (I hope) are interesting, and traveling, I figure I'll have plenty to write about. I think that blogs are often a bit self-serving. In my case, this definitely is true--I want to write this to have a chronicle of what I am doing here in Oxford. You, my friends, are the excuse for doing that. I'll be writing about details of my life that may or may not be interesting to you--I hope they are. So the best I can hope for is a blog that is substantive and entertaining on top of that.

The last time I tried to do a blog was the ill-fated rossbaird.blogspot.com in the Georgia summer of 2006. Apart from a couple of successes (the wrestling post most notably), I was very bad at updating it and it fell off. (The one other difference is that, unfortunately, the barbecue reviews that were a regular part of the last posting are not possible. This country does not have barbecue. I will try to fix this with my own hands at some point.) I will try not to do that this time--hopefully the time I have to read and write will also help me update this. I'll be writing about a mixture of observations of British life and travel, plus some academic observations on Comparative Government--somewhat in the vein of Bill Bryson, hopefully. But, more likely it will be something in the vein of Ross Baird.

I am here at Oxford on the Marshall Scholarship. The Marshall Scholarship is named after George Marshall, former Army General and Secretary of State, and is the United Kingdom's official recognition for the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan is one of the most ambitious and best things the United States has ever done as a government. After World War II, the United States lended foreign aid to rebuilding a destroyed Western Europe. In 1947, the government authorized what would end up being $13 billion to rebuild infrastructure, industry, and agriculture. With the economic aid, Western Europe saw unparalleled growth and prosperity, and their economies exploded to well beyond pre-war levels.

The Marshall Plan ended in 1951, and the currently prosperous condition of Western Europe is due, in large part, to this significant American investment. So, as a "thank you," Great Britain funds graduate students from America to come to the UK for two years. I am very proud of my country for what it did in 1947--it helped a lot of people who really needed it. I am proud to be here on this commemoration program and try to live out what it represents. So, for the next two years, my time in the Mother Country will be saying "you're welcome."

This is the end of 0th Week, or Noughth Week, in Michaelmas Term at Oxford. Oxford has three terms: Michaelmas (fall), Hilary (winter), and Trinity (spring). The terms are named after the feast days that coincide with the beginning of each term. Each term is 8 weeks (creatively named 1st-8th week), and the beginning of the term is 0th week--a sort of orientation. I definitely have played around a bit during 0th week--I attended a practice of the American football team here (95% Brits, very nice guys, too), I saw a lecture by Bjorn Lomborg, known as the controversial "skeptical environmentalist," and I have settled into the town and my college, New College, which isn't that new--it was founded in 1379! (More on New College in future posts). The beginning of first week is a good place to start for the blog, since not that much has happened yet! In the future, I will be posting thoughts on politics, Oxford, and more, so stay tuned.

ERB