Perspectives

So I genuinely forgot it was Thanksgiving.

…Oops?

It’s not my fault. It’s not celebrated here in the UK (obviously), so I didn’t remember until I called my mom yesterday evening and she wished me. That’s when it hit me.

I’ve had a day to reflect on what I’m thankful for, and there are a lot of things that I truly am thankful for. But they all tie back to me being here.

To be honest, I still find it hard to believe that I actually am here. I know I’m one week shy of completing my first term at Oxford (!!!!), but as I’m writing this now, at 3:21 AM on a Friday morning (I know I should be sleeping…), I still somehow can’t believe it. You’d think it would have hit me by now, but there are moments, such as right now, where it still doesn’t feel real.

If you had told high school me that I would one day be lucky enough to call myself a student at the University of Oxford, I would have straight up laughed in your face. At the end of my senior year, I was honestly kind of miserable. At the time, I dreaded the thought of going to college. Case Western was not my first choice, and at this point, I somewhat resented all of my friends who were going to colleges they were genuinely excited about, while I had to stand back and fake my enthusiasm about college.

Obviously, things (thankfully) changed. In time, I fell in love with Case Western – with its campus, with its environment, and especially with its people. Choosing to leave Case for a full year was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. At first, I was hell-bent on only staying for the fall semester, but after some convincing from my parents and my brother, I relented. I am now so glad that I did.

There were many, many moments when I doubted myself, when I thought that I couldn’t do this. From October 2015 to March 2016 (Yes, the application and waiting period took over five months. I know. It was like reliving the horror of college applications.), I constantly found myself panicking, scared at the thought of failing and getting a rejection letter. However, I was surrounded by constant support.
At Case Western, two of my favorite professors wrote my recommendation letters for me. Nikhyl proofread my application many times over. Some of my friends on the MUN team tried to make sure that my last two conferences were special for me, because they knew how much I would miss competing with them. My sorority sisters constantly hugged me and gave me chocolate in the week leading up to getting my acceptance letter, and were my biggest cheerleaders when I finally did. Another one of my professors, who got his MPhil from Magdalen College at Oxford, pulled me aside after class one day and showed me an entire map of Oxford, pointing out pubs and landmarks that he wanted me to check out. And that’s just naming a few groups of people. Case Western has given me so much, and I am so thankful to the university for giving me this opportunity, as well as for the additional scholarship they awarded me at the end of last year.

Outside of Case Western, my debate friends from high school, even though they’re located all over the country, were amazing. They supported me when I informed them I was planning on being gone for a year and put up with me when I got incredibly anxious in the last few weeks before I got accepted. There are a few special ones in particular – Julia, Greg, Michael, and Rahim – the five of us together are arguably the strangest mix of friends and personalities, but somehow we make it all work. I appreciate / miss / love you all more than you know.

Tin and Vi – The three musketeers have stuck together since the first grade and we’ve never looked back. Our video chat this weekend made my day (or night, since it was after midnight for me and we were up talking til almost 3 AM my time, but you get the idea – point is, it made me really happy).

My best friend of 18+ years – Avi. We’re both really freaking weird. That’s undeniable. But I’m thankful that you’ve been in my life for so long, and I know that we’ll continue to be in each other’s lives for many years to come. We might as well start looking into nursing homes that can put up with the both of us in 60+ years.

Mom, Dad, and Nikhyl, plus my extended family – Thank you for pushing me to do this (I know I’m stubborn…) and thank you for believing that I could do this. I can’t wait to see you all in India in a few weeks J

Last, but certainly not least…to the people I’ve met at Oxford, both the visiting students and the international / domestic freshers – thank you. The past seven weeks have been more than I could have ever dreamed. From late night TV sessions to Indian fusion concerts to pub quizzes to the hours spent in the library, I’ve pretty much loved every minute of it, and it’s all thanks to you lot.

All in all, I am thankful for this experience, and I am especially thankful to all of the people that got me here. Thank you for loving me and supporting me at times when I couldn’t do that for myself.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, everyone.

Love,

Tasha

Hey friends,

I spent the weekend up in the Lake District with IFSA-Butler students from Oxford, LSE, UCL, and Lancaster University. (For people who don’t remember – IFSA-Butler is the institution I applied through to get into Oxford!) I left from Oxford early in the morning with a group of my friends, and we all just barely managed to make the train up to Penrith thanks to massive train AND tube delays (It was a struggle and a half). After nearly five hours on the train, we reached Penrith just after 6 PM, and it was already pitch black. We settled into our hostel and had a fairly relaxing night.

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning to head out for various activities. I signed up for the half-day morning hike and canoeing in the afternoon. The hike was definitely difficult – it was fairly steep, although thankfully not too muddy. We climbed to the top of an old slate quarry, nearly a thousand feet up, and the views along the way as well as at the top were absolutely breathtaking. I’ll be posting all the pictures on my photography page (which you can find here) but here’s a few shots:

The hike took about three hours, and we headed back down to the hostel for lunch. After lunch, we drove to the local lake to go canoeing. It was cold and windy, but overall, the canoeing was great – the water was crystal clear, the surrounding mountains were gorgeous (and some were snow-capped!) and it was overall very serene.
Now, to explain the title of this blog – parts of Star Wars, Episode VII were filmed on the lake and the surrounding forests where I was canoeing! Maz Kanata’s bar was CGI’d onto one of the islands in the middle of the lake. The forest fight scenes between Ben Kenobi and Rey near the end of the film were filmed in the surrounding forests. The mountains surrounding the lake were the inspiration for the mountains where Rey finds Luke Skywalker; however, the actual scene between Rey and Luke itself was filmed in Ireland. Our guide actually worked on the set of the movie back in mid-2014, and he told us about all of the secrets and the confidentiality contracts he had to sign, since the project hadn’t been revealed at that point.
Here’s a few more pictures:

Following canoeing, the night was pretty uneventful – I ate dinner with my friends and spent the rest of the night hanging out with the IFSA-Butler staff and getting work done.
The next morning, we had the option of exploring a cute local town nearby; however, the second we reached town, I found the closest café and proceeded to do work – I had so much to catch up on! Thankfully, I got almost everything done, and I was able to sleep (relatively) peacefully on the train ride back to London without worrying about getting work done (until I got back to Oxford, that is…).

This weekend was amazing – cold, wet, and windy, yes, but I loved every minute of it. I’m so glad I was able to get away from Oxford for a few days and see England’s beautiful countryside.

Lots of love,

Tasha

Hey friends,

Today marks a month since I moved into Oxford. It’s weird – I can acknowledge that it’s been a month, but at the same time, I still haven’t really comprehended that I’m here. The time has flown by, and, as all of you know, a lot has happened. I’ve been getting a lot of the same questions recently, so I figured I’d take a few minutes and answer them all here:

1. Are you experiencing culture shock?

Honestly, not really. I suppose the biggest thing I’m still getting used to are certain terms / different word pronunciations. For example, I have a hard time remembering that fancy dress = costume, and that pants = underwear in this country.

2. What’s a typical day like for you?

It honestly depends. On days where I don’t have lectures or tutorials, I spend the entire day in the library, researching and/or writing for my essays. One thing I’ve noticed here is that I study in the library a lot more. Back at Case, I loathe studying at KSL, but I pretty much live in Teddy Hall’s library at this point. I have tutorials on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and each tutorial is an hour long. I have two hours of lectures on Fridays in the Examination Schools.

3. What do you do in your spare time?

If I’m not in the library, I’m either watching British TV shows with my friends (I’m getting into University Challenge and the Apprentice), wandering around photographing Oxford (surprisingly haven’t gotten lost yet), or practicing piano and flute.

Speaking of music, I joined a wind band and an orchestra here. I’m also enjoying jam sessions with my friends on Friday nights. It’s nice to be back into music full time.

I’ve also joined MUN here, for those who were curious.

4. What’s been your favorite memory?

As unbelievably cheesy as this sounds, every day brings a new memory. However, I think the best day I’ve had here so far would have to be matriculation and the bop. Everyone was dressed up in their sub fusc during the day, and wearing silly costumes – I mean, fancy dress – in the evening. It was a day of fun and laughter and LOTS of pictures (which you can all find on Facebook).

And finally, the most important question:

5. Are you happy?

Without a doubt, yes. I’m working harder than I ever have before, but every minute of this experience has been so worth it. The people are amazing, the environment is unlike one I’ve ever been in, and I’m so excited for what the months ahead have in store for me.

Love,

Tasha

PS: Thank you to everyone who has been following this blog! I love you all 🙂

This weekend is Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Everyone who has known me for a long time knows that Diwali is my favorite holiday. For the first eighteen years of my life, I spent every Diwali at home with my parents and extended family. From lighting up diyas all over the house, to setting up the rotunda for the puja, to running around the neighborhood delivering boxes of mithai to neighbors, to helping my mom cook a massive feast for dinner, to the puja itself, I love every aspect of this holiday.

Last year marked the first year I was not at home for Diwali. I spent Diwali in Cleveland with my brother, Nikhyl. We ordered in Indian food and, after we FaceTimed our parents, watched The Chef’s Table on Netflix. Even though it wasn’t the traditional Diwali that I was used to, I was still with Nikhyl, and that was enough.

This year is different. I’m thousands of miles away from my parents in New York and my brother in Cleveland. Even though I’ll be spending the day in London with my cousin Shefali, who I’m extremely close to, things won’t be the same.

I haven’t been homesick up until this point, and to be honest, I’m not even sure if I can even call this homesickness. I guess this is more just missing my family back home, as well as missing the traditions I grew up with. It’s bittersweet – I’m so happy that it’s Diwali, but at the same time, I’m sad I’m not at home.

—————-

At the same time, however, Diwali is not just about the pujas and the food and the candles – Diwali is the New Year, and it’s a celebration of happiness, love, friendship, and looking forward to the year ahead.

I am unbelievably grateful for my amazing parents, who have willingly sent their only daughter thousands of miles away to study at the best university in the world for a full year. For the longest time, I didn’t believe that I could get into the University of Oxford to study for a full year. My parents and my brother believed in me at a time when I didn’t believe in myself, and I hope I’m making them all proud.

Beyond just my parents and brother, I am lucky that I have an amazing extended family – from all of my cousins to my many aunts and uncles, they have been so supportive of me.

My high school friends, from both Edgemont and debate, who somehow still love me all these years later and talk to me regularly despite time zones being unbelievably annoying.

My Case Western friends are amazing. To my sorority sisters, I’m so proud to be a part of an inspirational group of women, and I’m especially proud of my incredible sorority family. To my MUN family, I miss you all more than words can say, and I know you all are going to have an absolutely incredible year. Good luck at everyone at NCSC!

And last but certainly not least, to the new friends I’ve made here at Oxford. In the past month that I’ve been here, I’ve met friends from all over the world – beyond just the obvious majority of people being from the UK, I’ve met people from my own hometown (I’m not kidding – there’s someone here from Westchester County), from Ireland, from Germany, even from as far away as Indonesia. There is so much I could say about each and every one of them, but I simply don’t have the space for it. The most important thing I have to say to them is thank you – thank you for including me and accepting me, with my “weird” American accent and all. It means the world to me. I’m so excited for the next year of adventures with all of them.

The past year has been unbelievably wonderful, and I’m looking forward to what this next year will bring me.

Happy Diwali, everyone.

With much love,

Tasha

Hey all,

I’m procrastinating hardcore for my essay on decolonization during the Cold War, so I’ll keep this REALLY short.

Yesterday was probably one of my favorite days since I first got here. My friend/sorority sister Leah, who’s currently studying at King’s College London for the semester, came to Oxford to visit Natalie and I yesterday! We met around lunchtime and ate at this cute little Thai restaurant on the main road before we decided to go punting on the Thames. I didn’t actually try punting because knowing my luck, I would have slipped off the edge of the boat and into the water (I’m the clumsiest person I know) but I did help out with the steering.

After punting, we decided to check out the Christ Church College grounds. For people who don’t know, Christ Church College served as inspiration for the scenery and sets in the Harry Potter films, and I believe a few scenes were actually filmed there as well. (No wonder – the grounds are gorgeous). We walked through the Great Hall (which is not as big as you think), wandering across the quads, and checked out the centuries-old chapel, which is covered in beautiful stained glass windows. The rest of the day was pretty quiet – we stopped briefly at a bar before Leah and her friends had to catch the bus back to London, and instead of going out in the evening, I stayed in and hung out with some of the visiting students in their off-campus dorms.

Check out my Facebook album for all the pictures!

Love,

Tasha

Hi friends,

I had my first primary tutorial two days ago, so this post is going to be about the tutorial system and what exactly I’m doing here at Oxford.

Here at Oxford, I don’t take regular daily classes like I do at Case Western. Instead, we take tutorials, which are essentially small hour-long meetings where you meet with a tutor, who is either a student getting his or her D.Phil (doctorate) from Oxford, or has recently received it and is now working full-time as a professor. The tutorials are usually either one-on-one or two-on-one, with another student being present. You will never have more than three students in a tutorial, which means there is a lot of individualized attention.

These tutorials do not involve daily lectures or classes like Case Western. Instead, we spend the entire week before the tutorial reading a series of books and/or articles that the tutor has provided us beforehand and we craft our own essays based on what we’ve researched. It’s very independent, with no one around to really guide you along the way. The night before the tutorial, you email your essay in to the professor, and when your tutorial time comes around, you spend the hour of the tutorial going over the essay – your ideas, your thought process, and how you brought everything together to create the essay. Tutorials allow you to receive personalized, focused feedback on your writing.

You take two tutorials per term, a primary tutorial and a secondary tutorial. The primary tutorial meets every week for eight weeks (terms are eight weeks long), while your secondary tutorial meets four times out of the eight weeks. The primary tutorial translates back to eight credit hours, and the secondary tutorial translates back to four, so in total, I’m earning 12 credit hours per term, for three terms. This is actually really nice – at home, I usually earn 38 credits per year since I take 19 credits every semester for two semesters. By the time I finish up here at Oxford, I’ll have earned 36 credits, which is only two credit hours shorter than what I’ve done in the past in a single year.

My primary tutorial this term is Political Sociology. I am taking the class with a PPE (Politics, Philosophy, and Economics) student named Martin, and my tutor graduated with her D. Phil in sociology from Oxford a few years ago. It’s been really wonderful so far – my tutor is letting Martin and I pick the topics weekly, and during the tutorial itself, it was nice to get to talk through my essay and explain my arguments and the thought process behind how I wrote it. It’s certainly rigorous and demanding, as well as slightly nerve-wracking, but I’m loving it.

My secondary tutorial is International Relations in the Era of the Cold War, and I’ll actually be taking it by myself at St. Antony’s, another college within Oxford. This happens a lot – many students will often take their tutorials at other colleges within Oxford if no one else at your home college (in my case, Teddy Hall) is teaching the tutorial that term. I will not be starting my secondary tutorial for another week.

In addition to tutorials, there are supplemental lectures every week held in the Examination Schools. There are also additional seminars that the PPE department hosts weekly (even though I am studying Politics and History here, with Politics being my primary subject, I am still considered a PPE student, even though I’m not studying philosophy or economics).

All right, I think I’ve procrastinated from my political culture and social capital essay long enough. I’ll blog again in a few days!

Much love,

Tasha

Hi friends,

Today is Fresher’s Move-In Day here at St. Edmund (or Teddy, which I’m slowly learning to call it) Hall, so all of the domestic students are moving into the quad. I’m currently hiding out in my room to avoid the chaos, so I decided I should finally sit down and write another blog post. I’m sorry I’ve been so AWOL for the past week or so – the days have been SO hectic! I’ve officially moved into Oxford, but I’ll go over that a little bit later in the blog post. For now, I’ll briefly explain what I’ve been up to recently!

From Thursday through Sunday, I was in London for IFSA-Butler’s Orientation. (IFSA-Butler is the organization I applied through to apply to Oxford!) I got to meet about 30 other students from various universities across the US who will be studying at many different colleges throughout Oxford. Besides just the actual orientation (which was hours long but overall pretty enjoyable), the three days involved going out for dinner, various historical walking tours, and pubbing. I also went to visit the Tower of London one day, and saw a play with my friend Natalie, a fellow Case Western student who will be spending the year at St. Catherine’s Hall.

Early Sunday morning, I and the other Teddy Hall students through IFSA-Butler (there were three of us total) hopped on the train at Paddington Station and made our way to Oxford. I unfortunately fell under the weather that morning, but overall we made it with little fuss. Mom came down to Oxford for the day and helped me move in and pick up a few things I needed (thanks, Mom 🙂 ).

Below are a few pictures of my room:

Here’s a few pros and cons I’ve figured out.

Pro: I HAVE MY OWN BATHROOM.

(Sorry the pictures are awful – I couldn’t get the camera angle right – but I think you all get the idea.)

I was not expecting this.

It’s small – about the size of an airplane bathroom – but it’s perfect for me.

Con: I’m a tad isolated. My room is the only one in this corridor, which is separated off from the main corridor by two separate doors. There’s a set of showers around the corner from me, so I guess the only time I’ll meet people is when they’re heading for the shower? A slight pro to this is that I kind of have my own entrance into the building – there’s a back staircase which leads directly into my corridor, so I only have to walk up one flight of stairs instead of the two sets of staircases at the front.

Pro: I’m living inside the quad (see blog post from last Tuesday), which is absolutely gorgeous, and very centrally located. The dining hall is right outside my room, and the library is a two-minute walk.

Con: I’m the only visiting student living inside the quad – the others are living in townhouses further down the road – which means I’m living with Freshers. To be honest, I’m not quite sure how much of a con this is yet – I haven’t met any of the domestic Freshers yet since they’re all still moving in, so I’ll keep you all updated on this.

Fresher’s week (essentially Orientation Week) kicked off on Sunday night, when all of the visiting students as well as the international freshers (they moved in the same day we did) were invited to have drinks with the deans of Teddy Hall. I got to meet even more visiting students, as well as full-time international students who will spend their undergraduate years here. I had a few great conversations with the deans here, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them more.

Yesterday was much quieter, as there were no mandatory events for Fresher’s week. I spent most of the day working on a paper I have due on Wednesday night (I’m the only person who has a paper due during Fresher’s week…ugh). At night, a large group of us Teddy Hall people went out to a pub for a few hours, and a few of the IFSA-Butler people who are studying in other colleges came to join us.

Today is going to be a hectic day. I woke up early this morning and  spent an hour at the post office finalizing my visa. I’m meeting friends for lunch soon. Later this afternoon I have college registration, a welcome meeting with the Vice Principal and the JCR President, a meeting with all of the tutors over drinks, and then our formal Undergraduate Fresher’s Dinner! I’ll go into more depth on all of these events tomorrow.

I promise I’ll be better at keeping my blog up to date in the future!

Much love,

Tasha

Being a photographer, I love the art of capturing images. I enjoy taking pictures and experimenting with different subjects and techniques to showcase an image. In particular, I love photographing nature, especially flowers. Today, Mom and I went out to Kew to visit the Royal Botanical Gardens. As they say, a picture’s worth a thousand words, so here’s a few of my favorite shots:

 

The rest of the pictures from this series will be posted to my photography page on Facebook, so if you’re not following me there, go like the page now so you can see the full series when I post it!

(Read: I’m absolutely exhausted and am just too lazy to post the rest of the pictures right now).

Tomorrow, I’m leaving my relatives’ home in Southfields and will be going to meet the rest of the Oxford group! I’m so excited to finally meet the people I’ll be studying with for the next several months. Wish me luck!

Much love,

Tasha

Hi everyone!

Mom and I landed around 6:00 AM local time in London (for my friends and family on the East Coast – that’s around 1:00 AM!), spent what felt like forever getting through the queue (the British word for line – see, I’m already picking up British slang and I’ve been here for less than 48 hours!), and finally ended up getting to my aunt’s and uncle’s house in Southfields (a small, quaint district in London) by around 9:30 AM.

Once we got to Southfields, the rest of the day was pretty relaxing…until Mom and I woke up at 1:30 AM to watch the presidential debate live, which was set to start at 2 AM local time! The debate ended around 3:30 AM, and Mom and I finally crashed around 4:30 AM. Are we crazy? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

Today, Mom and I decided to take a day trip down to Oxford so I can get a first look at the place I’m going to call home for the next year. The journey from Southfields to Oxford took hours (no, I’m not kidding – hourS). We took the tube from Southfields, had to get off early at Earl’s Court due to a signal error, got back onto the tube after a short delay, got off at Paddington Station, then transferred to the Great Western Rail to get to Oxford, and finally, took the bus from the Oxford Rail Station to Queen’s Lane, Oxford, which is where St Edmund Hall is located. The whole trip took just over two hours.

After nearly getting lost, we finally found our way to St Edmund Hall, and were instantly amazed.

This is the first thing we saw when we walked past the lodge – the beautiful main quad.

See the smaller tunnel to the right of the big door? If you go through there, you’ll find the library and many of the residential areas, including the building where I’m living, which is called the Besse building. Work was being done there, so I didn’t take any pictures, but it’s a small townhouse-like building that’s tucked away towards the back of the Hall.

After, Mom and I came back to the quad and went to explore a few other parts of the Hall, and ended up stumbling into this graveyard! It was creepy in the best way possible.

We then enjoyed lunch at a café around the corner, and ran into two elderly sisters who flew in from Oxford to watch their grandniece / granddaughter respectively graduate from Oxford at the end of this week! Funnily enough, we mostly ended up chatting about the presidential debate – they are as disgusted by Trump as my mother and I are, so it was a wonderful conversation.

After lunch, Mom and I stopped and checked out a couple of hotels for my Dad (he’s going to come visit in the spring) and wandered around the streets a little bit more before making our way home.

No idea what the plans are for tomorrow – Mom and I are planning on traveling around London a bit, but I guess we’ll figure it out along the way.

Right now, however, I’m back in Southfields watching my mom teach my uncle how to cook. I think I’ll sign off now and go join them.

Much love,

Tasha

It has been my dream to study abroad ever since my brother, Nikhyl, came back from studying abroad in the Netherlands three years ago. When I finally started college the following summer, I almost immediately started thinking about when and where I would go abroad. In my sophomore year, I finally settled on applying to study abroad at the University of Oxford. I was drawn to the subjects Oxford offered, as well as their tutorial-style education (which I’ll explain more about in a later blog post).

After several months of anxious waiting, on March 25, 2016, I received an email that changed my life.

Today, exactly six months after I received this email, I will (finally!) be leaving the United States for the United Kingdom, where I will be spending the next academic year.

I’ll be using this blog to chronicle my story over the next year – every photograph, trip, and memory I make along the way. I’ll also be regularly updating both my social Facebook page as well as my professional photography page, which you can find here.

Before I end this blog post, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone in my life who has helped me get to this point today. Every friend, family member, teacher, professor, mentor, and colleague – I hope to make all of you proud.

I’ll be in touch with a longer blog post once I settle into London!

Lots of love,

Tasha