Oxford and Bath

It's been awhile since my last post and I know some of you have been eagerly anticipating a post about my weekend in Oxford and Bath so here goes (it's going to be a long one, but I promise it will be good...and there are pictures!). First I need to discuss the events that occurred on Friday. Friday afternoon I had my Gothic Architecture final. I think it went fairly well and I'm pretty sure David just wants us all to do well. After our final, our whole class took a picture and then proceeded to enjoy pitchers of Pimm's in the CUS courtyard with David. It was quite an enjoyable afternoon spent with good friends, refreshments and a great professor.

Celebrating the end of our exam

The rest of the afternoon, however, was spent in anxiety about trying to find a costume in time for the Brit Bop that night. It seemed as if the whole idea of going to the bop was going to fail miserably until I got the brilliant idea to dress up as a Wimbledon linesperson. I had the perfect clothing for it (although I didn't have white pants, but I improvised and wore navy blue corduroys instead) and I also had the accessories since I had bought a lanyard and keychain when I went to Wimbledon. So I donned my linesperson gear and headed to the bop with Lauren and Heidi who both decided to go as tourists. The bop was great fun. One of our PA's, Ruth, dressed up as Hermione and it worked perfectly because she looks just like Emma Watson. Another PA, HY, dressed up as the great vowel shift (she studied Linguistics so it makes sense) which was really funny and far more creative than anything I could have ever come up with. Two other PA's decided to go with a James bond theme so Alexander dressed as Bond and Moses dressed as a Bond girl in a bathing suit. Funny stuff. So the night went very well and there were some really great costumes. Some of my favorites were the punters, the Black Death, a Remembrall and a chimney sweep. I left the bop around 11 because I had to be up early the next morning to catch the bus to Oxford.

I rolled out of bed around 5 am and met up with everyone an hour later as we headed over to Parker's Piece to catch the bus to Oxford. The bus ride was about three hours. During the ride I had a revelation of sorts. I was looking out at the beautiful English countryside and it hit me that I was really excited for all the weekend trips I had planned. I had obviously been excited about the trips before that or I wouldn't have planned them to begin with, but there was something about that moment that made me feel as though travelling was the most wonderful and perfect aspiration and something I wanted to do forever. It made me feel as though I had to plan out trips for every vacation I would ever have. So I started to plan and I now have big plans for Christmas break, spring break and next summer (which hopefully includes a PKP reunion in Bonaire). I'm also loving the fact that I just got back from Oxford and Bath and will be in Prague on Friday and Berlin five days after I get back from Prague. The travel bug is extremely powerful.

We arrived in Oxford a little before ten and dashed off to Christ Church College in hopes of seeing the Great Hall which is used in the first and second Harry Potter films. Christ Church is absolutely magnificent. Everything about it is beautiful. We entered the college and went into the cloister and towards the Great Staircase (also seen in Harry Potter) and found that the Dining Hall wouldn't be open until eleven. So we headed over to Christ Church Cathedral, passing through Tom Quad (which gets its name from the seven ton Great Tom Bell which hangs in the Tom Tower over the gatehouse) on our way. First of all, the fact that a college has a cathedral in it should give you a sense of the grandeur of Christ Church. Also, the cathedral was beautiful (although the architecture was rather odd and definitely showed signs of several different periods of construction) and there were Cathedral stewards there to point out interesting features and tell you about the history of the Cathedral. One steward found us and told us about various parts of the cathedral. We learned that the shrine of St. Frideswide had been destroyed by Henry VIII, but the fragments were found at the bottom of a well 350 years later and put back together. There is also a window in that chapel that tells the story of St. Frideswide and which also features a very modern looking toilet. On the south side of the cathedral there is a chapel that holds the Thomas Becket window which was made in 1320 and shows the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket who was murdered in his own cathedral. The window was ordered to be destroyed, but was cleverly preserved by simply blocking out Becket's face. After seeing the cathedral, we rushed back to the Dining Hall and got back just as it was opening. We took several pictures on the Grand Staircase and then headed into the Dining Hall to see where they filmed parts of the first two Harry Potter movies. That was probably the most exciting part of our visit to Christ Church. I was so excited. The Hall itself is actually much smaller than in appears in the movies, but it was still pretty awesome to be there (if only the portraits could move...). The Hall has more connections with Lewis Carroll's book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but you can look that up if you're interested. There were various Harry Potter related items (including very tacky looking wands) in the gift shop which I was very tempted to buy, but I ended up buying Hogwarts House pins for my sister instead. After leaving Christ Church, we headed to Magdalene College which is considered to be the most beautiful of the Oxford Colleges, a reputation which I certainly thought it deserved. The college was magnificent and very large. Upon entering the college, you can see the President's Lodgings and Founder's Tower which was the original entrance to the college. The cloisters were breathtaking, but it was disappointing to not be able to ignore the 'Private' signs like we can do here at Cambridge. We headed to the New Building at Magdalene which is where C.S. Lewis resided and which is marked by flower boxes in the three windows of his rooms. Edward Gibbon also resided in this building. Magdalene has had seven Fellows who have won the Nobel Prize including Erwin Schrodinger!! We then continued onto Addison's Walk which lead us into the Magdalene College Fellows Garden and eventually to the deer park. The rest of the day was spent walking around Oxford trying to get to the Kilns which is where C.S. Lewis lived for about 30 years. The story of how we got there is actually very entertaining. While Heidi, Lauren and Cassie were very excited to go to the Kilns, Barrett and I did not really care so we were walking very slowly while the other three sped ahead. We eventually lost sight of them and called them only to find out that they had been given incorrect directions and were heading back in our direction. A few minutes later we hear Cassie shouting our names as they pull up in a car being driven by an elderly English gentleman. So (with some slight hesitation) we got in the car as well. I know many of you are probably thinking that this was a bad idea, but everything worked out just fine and this elderly man was absolutely wonderful. It was very kind of him to give us a ride because our destination was actually about a 15 minute drive down the highway. He also referred to his wife as "my good lady" which we thought was quite funny. So after a slightly sketchy situation we finally made it to the Kilns. The house next to the Kilns has a sign on it that says "Narnia" with a picture of a lion. Very entertaining. We walked through the C.S. Lewis Nature Preserve. It was so peaceful and it was great to sit and relax for a bit before heading to the train station (where I proceeded to buy a massive box of biscuit curls which I devoured in less than 24 hours) to catch our train to Bath. Overall, my impressions of Oxford are mixed. The colleges are stunning, but the city itself didn't really impress me. It's much more urban than Cambridge. I would choose Cambridge over Oxford any day (and no I'm not just saying that because I go to Cambridge). Oxford is great, but I love the intimacy of Cambridge and the warmth of the people here and I would do anything to come back for grad school.

The staircase used in Harry Potter!!

In the Great Hall used in Harry Potter!!

In the Magdalene College Cloisters

We arrived in Bath around 10 pm and took a cab to Bath University which is where we were staying for the night. The rooms (like those in Scotland) were nice and modern. The rooms, which were very, very small, had 14 outlets! I feel the need to mention this because I have two outlets in my room at Cambridge and I am constantly having to unplug one thing in order to plug something else in. I presume students at Bath University don't have this problem. We all settled in for the night with plans to meet at 8:30 am for breakfast. We ended up meeting much, much earlier when the fire alarm went off at about 2 am. It was quite the experience. There was a large group of Spanish teenagers who had been being loud and obnoxious (or so I was told...I fell asleep right away and didn't hear them) all night and we presume one of them pulled the alarm. After debating whether or not to ignore the alarm (assuming it was going to go off rather quickly), I finally got out of bed and got dressed and went outside. For some reason (obviously we have too many fire drills at home), I felt no sense of urgency and just assumed nothing was wrong which is probably not the best thing to assume when a fire alarm is going off! Anyway, we were outside for quite awhile before the alarm shut off, but we finally went back to bed and I fell asleep again right away. After the alarm situation we had decided on a later meeting time so we met up around 9:15 and began our day. We visited the Pulteney Bridge and then went and took pictures of Bath Abbey. Barrett and I briefly stopped by the Jane Austen Centre so she could buy something and then went to see The Circus and The Royal Crescent while the others went on a tour of the Jane Austen Centre. The are hand painted lions all over Bath this year which will be auctioned off in the fall as part of a charity event. These lions were so cool and all of them had different themes. My favorite was "auROARa Sulis". Anyway, we all met up for lunch at Sally Lunn's which is the oldest house in Bath. After lunch we grabbed some (fantastic) ice cream and headed to the Roman Baths. I had been really looking forward to the Baths since I felt that they were clearly the most important thing to see in Bath and I was not disappointed as it was (for me) the highlight of the weekend. The baths were far more expansive than I had expected. There was a great museum that you walk through first and then you finally get down to the level of the baths and I was absolutely in awe. You get an audio guide so I was eagerly listening to everything it had to tell me about life in Aquae Sulis (which is what the Romans called Bath). I was also excited when I was able to correctly state that the piles of bricks in some of the rooms were used to elevate the floor so that the hot water would pass underneath and the steam would rise up to create a sauna. With admission to the baths you also receive free entrance to The Pump Room (a fancy restaurant) and a free glass of spa water. After we finished exploring the baths we went to get our glass of spa water. It was possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. It was warm and tasted like metal, but at least I can say I drank spa water from the Roman Baths. After that we just walked around for awhile until we got on the train back to Cambridge (on which Lauren and I enjoyed multiple free five minute previews on the TV's in our seats...we learned to manipulate the system by watching 5 minutes on one TV then 5 on the other and then realized the 5 minute trial renewed after each stop...it was very exciting because I have not been able to watch TV since I got here!) Overall, Bath was much more enjoyable than Oxford. Bath is very classical in style (except for Bath Abbey) and I was reminded of Tuscany as we drove down the winding hill from Bath Univeristy to the city centre. The Roman Baths were just overwhelming (I could have spent hours more in there) and have forced me to reconsider getting some type of further degree in Ancient History (I've been pushing this idea aside in favor of a further degree in Modern European History, but now I just don't know).

"AuROARa Sulis"

Roman Baths with Bath Abbey in the background

At the Roman Baths

This week has been absolutely crazy. Module II classes started and I am loving The British and Their Sports, but it's a ton of work. I have stuff planned for just about every single day that's left in the programme. Yesterday I did get to enjoy some time just sitting by the Cam which I haven't done in awhile. I am done with classes by 11:40 everyday so I've decided to make the most of my afternoons and plan some short half day trips in the areas around Cambridge. Today I went to Audley End House which is a short 20 minute train ride from Cambridge. Audley End is a small town and the train station was deserted. There wasn't even anyone there to check tickets! It took me some time to find Audley End House since there were very few signs to show the way and the "footpath" was actually just a sidewalk along the main road. I finally arrived and was very impressed. I began in the Parterre Garden which was designed to be admired from the first floor rooms. It was stunning. I made quick stops in the Tea Room and Service Wing. Then I went into the house itself. The house is massive. When you enter, there is a very large entrance way that leads to a staircase with a balcony at the top that made me feel like Evita could have been filmed there. Soon after, I entered the library and I fell in love. I wanted to take pictures so badly, but they have people stationed in every room preventing this. I learned that the first room of the library has 2,500 books and the second room has 7,500. There are about 11,000 in the whole house. 11,000 books. I was ready to move in. The house even had its own gothic style chapel with a stained glass window and mock fan vaulting. If you look over the chapel screen, you look down into the great entrance hall. Apparently the children who resided in this house were obsessed with taxidermy and there were two long corridors packed with birds and even the head of a bull and a moose. There were several painting in every room, a dining hall with two fireplaces and a clock that shows what the weather is like. After touring the house I got some ice cream and sat down under a tree to eat and do some people watching. Then I went to see the various other gardens around the property, the organic kitchen garden, the waterwheel and the stable yard. There is also a WWII pillbox on the property which I really enjoyed. The whole afternoon was just fabulous. It was so relaxing and beautiful. I have a few other afternoon trips planned around the area so I hope I get to do all of them and make the most of the time I have left in this amazing country.


I'm leaving for Prague on Friday afternoon and I am so excited!! I have alot of reading to do before then and I have to pack as well. I also somehow managed to lose one of my Ralph Lauren polo's in the process of doing laundry which I'm very unhappy about. I'll leave you with the video of the bumps races which I've been meaning to put up, but haven't been able to because the internet hasn't been working. I'm sorry this post was so long, but I hope you enjoyed it! Look for another update after I get back from Praha!!

Anyone for tea?

The internet has not been working very well around Cambridge over these past few days and it's starting to get very annoying. Hopefully it will be fixed soon. So the Tuesday night I went to the Town Bumps. Alot of city clubs participate in this event and many of these city clubs are made up of Cambridge rowers. One of our PA's, Alex, rows for Pembroke so we were cheering for the city club that his Pembroke friends were on. Bumps races are a type of rowing competition in which the boats line up in single file (the order is the same as the finishing order from the previous year) and each boat attempts to bump the boat in front of it. The competition lasts over several days so if you manage to catch the boat in front of you and bump it then you move up to their starting position during the next race. Obviously, if you're the front boat you just have to try not to get bumped. Cambridge (the Lent Bumps and the May Bumps) and Oxford each host two of their own bumps races each year. Despite the fact that it took us over an hour to walk to where we were going to watch the race from, it was a great experience. It didn't last very long, but I'm glad I went to see. It was especially fun to cheer on the Pembroke rowers. We even got to see some bumping! I'll put up some pictures and video once the internet is back to normal. That night was Cassie's birthday as well. Unfortunately, I missed her birthday dinner because I didn't know it would take so long to walk to the bumps, but I did meet up with everyone for a bit later and watched a movie.

Nothing very interesting happened yesterday except that I realized the internet was not working properly. Today two PA's, Ruth and Emma, brought us on a literary tour to Grantchester. Dr. Grace had suggested I go to Grantchester for tea so I was happy to join the tour. We walked along the river through Grantchester Meadows until we came to The Orchard. It was a lovely walk and I was excited to go to The Orchard (another place Dr. Grace suggested) because it's quite famous. The Orchard is a tea garden that had been popular with Cambridge students (many of them are very famous) since 1897. The Stevensons, the family that originally owned the Orchard House, took in Rupert Brooke as a boarder after he graduated from King's and he attracted many of his friends to the Orchard. This group of friends became known as The Grantchester Group and includes Rupert Brooke, E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Bertrand Russell, Augustus John, Maynard Keynes and Ludwig Wittgenstein. One of Rupert Brooke's most famous poems- The Old Vicarage, Grantchester- is about afternoon tea and life in general at the Orchard. After the May Balls at Cambridge, there is a tradition in which students punt up the river to Grantchester for an al-fresco breakfast that includes strawberries and champagne. There have been many other famous visitors to The Orchard as well including Watson and Crick, Alan Turing (inventor of the computer), Rutherford, Sylvia Plath, Salman Rushdie, King George VI, Prince Charles, Hugh Laurie, Tim Rice and, my favorite, Stephen Hawking! Also, just as an FYI, Cambridge has won more Nobel Prizes than France or Germany. It's a completely overwhelming feeling to to realize just how many brilliant people have passed through the gates of King's (or other Cambridge colleges) and The Orchard. I was pretty much freaking out when I learned that Stephen Hawking has been to The Orchard (although it wasn't as exciting as the time I thought I actually saw him and had a mini stroke until I realized it wasn't him). I also learned that someone from our programme saw him right outside of King's! I'm glad to know that he is in Cambridge and that there is a possibility that one day I may catch a glimpse of my scientific hero.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I have my Gothic Architecture final which I'm not worried about and then our entire class is swarming the Union Bar and having drinks with David (Dr. Oldfield). Tomorrow night is the Brit Bop which is a costume party. I don't think I'll be going since I don't have a costume, but I don't know yet. Then over the weekend I'll be in Oxford and Bath. Katie and I also bought tickets to Prague for next weekend and I bought my ticket to Germany for the following weekend and I'm really excited for both.

I'll leave you with a quote from The Old Vicarage, Grantchester...

I only know that you may lie
Day-long and watch the Cambridge sky,
And, flower-lulled in sleepy grass,
Hear the cool lapse of hours pass,
Until the centuries blend and blur
In Grantchester, in Grantchester...

Cheers!

Procrastination

As many of you probably know, I tend to procrastinate alot. It's even easier to procrastinate here because 1) it's summer, 2) i'm in Cambridge and 3) there is always something to do besides waste time on Facebook. I feel that I work better under pressure anyway (I did get a 100 on a paper that I researched and wrote in less than a day), but I'm sure things would be much easier if I didn't procrastinate quite so much. I had a 2000-4000 word paper (they are very clever here...using a word count instead of page numbers means that chaning the margins or font size is totally ineffective) due for my Gothic Architecture class today. Obviously I didn't start it until last night. I almost had to pull an all nighter, but luckily it didn't come down to that. Although it wasn't my best work ever, I think the paper came out just fine. We also got our midterms back today and I got an 'A' so I'm not really worried about the final which is the same format as the midterm, but longer. Dr. Oldfield is the craziest and funniest professor I have ever had and I've really enjoyed his course, but our course is coming to an end and I will be moving on to my Module Two Course- The British and Their Sports- which is also promising to be a great class.

I've also finally solidified some weekend plans. This weekend I will be visiting Oxford and Bath with Cassie, Heidi, Lauren, Barrett and Grace Ann. All of them really like Jane Austen so they will be visiting some famous Jane Austen related sights that I will not be going to because I dislike Jane Austen just about as much as I dislike Shakespeare. But I think we are all looking foward to seeing some great sights, such as the Roman baths, together.

I'm now wishing that I had gotten more sleep last night because today is turning out to be very busy. In a little while I am going on a walking tour of some of the other Cambridge colleges that I have not yet seen. After that I am attending a graduate studies question and answer session with Dr. Alan Dawson who is the Director of Intenational Programmes. After that I am going to the Town Bumps. I'll explain what bumps are (with pictures!) in my next post because I have to head over to the Union now.

Cheers!

I Will Always Hate Shakespeare

After going to bed very late on Friday night/early Saturday morning (despite my intentions to go to bed early), I woke up bright an early to take the coach to London for the day. The trip to London was a bit odd for me because I had already been in London for 4 days before coming to Cambridge. I had already seen a few touristy sites and had purposefully not gone to other touristy sites because I'm leaving those for when I travel around after the programme ends. So I basically just went to a few random places throughout the day including Buckingham Palace (I know, not so random and very touristy but I'm planning on going back again for a more proper visit) to see the changing of the guard. Unfortunately, I couldn't actually see anything so pictures over other peoples heads have to suffice and I almost got trampled to death (I'm really not exaggerating all that much) when a mob of people pushed forward as the procession passed by. After that, I got some lunch and walked along the Thames and then everyone on the trip went to see Henry IV (Part I) at the Globe. For those of you who don't know, I absolutely hate Shakespeare so although I was glad to have the experience of seeing a play at the Globe, I was not thrilled about having to stand for three hours to watch a show that I did not find entertaining or interesting. I was literally falling asleep and had to catch myself a few times as I almost fell over...my friends really got a kick out of that. The actors did do a pretty cool dance at the end though. After that, a few of us went to Covent Gardens with Ruth and Oli (two of the PA's) for dinner. The Tube ride to Covent Gardens was one of the scariest things that has ever happened. As we got onto the train, we were greeted by 3 very drunk young men who reeked of alcohol and were swearing, screaming out racial slurs and just saying very crude things. One of them had a dog. I don't know if that is even allowed. As the last PKP student got on the train the one with the dog said something to him and this student must have said something back, but I'm not sure exactly what was said. But as soon as this exchange took place the drunk guy started flipping out. He was screaming and telling the PKP kid that he was going to kill him and "knock his bloody block off." As the rest of us started to get a bit nervous (and as I personally started hoping that this guy didn't have a gun and wasn't planning on shooting us all), another PKP student (who is apparently an idiot) told the guy to "just calm down" which is probably the worst thing to do in a situation like that. The guy started flipping out even more. Luckily some British guy intervened and managed to calm the guy down a bit until we got off the train. So that was certainly the worst Tube ride ever. Once we got to Covent Gardens we had a great time with wonderful food and entertainment. On the train ride back to where the bus was waiting, however, we had another interesting (but far less dangerous and scary) experience. A group of drunk guys were singing very loudly and being generally silly and of course they followed us and were getting on the same train. We managed to get into a different car than they did, but they also got off at the same stop as us and their singing followed us for awhile. At least they were funny though. Apparently the Northern Line should be avoided when possible. Our bus was waiting for us right near the London Eye so I got some nice pictures of it and I saw Big Ben as we drove past. I'm really looking forward to getting back to London to ride the Eye.

Today I slept late and then met up with some friends for brunch. Later in the afternoon we headed down to the Pembroke Sports Grounds for Sports Day which featured a PKP vs. UCSS football (soccer) tournament and a barbeque. It was pretty fun. I didn't play in the tournament, but I got to kick a ball around for a bit and I enjoyed a typical British burger that tastes more like meatloaf than like a hamburger. Tonight the PA's took a bunch of us to see Inception. Movie theatres here are alot different than those in the US. If all of them are like the one we went to tonight, then they are way better than the ones in the US. First of all, you have to reserve seats which is a fantastic idea. So I purchased my ticket online and picked a seat which was then reserved for me so there was no need to rush in order to get a good seat. Upon entering the theatre we went up a few flights of stairs to the area where you can buy snacks and drinks for the movie. If you go up another flight of stairs, you come to the bar. Yes, there was a bar in the movie theatre so you can buy drinks and bring them into the movie. The women next to us had a bottle of wine and wine glasses during the movie. It was pretty cool. I can't picture Showcase Cinemas selling you a bottle of wine and giving you wine glasses to take into the theatre with you. The movie itself was incredible and definitely in my top 5 favorites ever (I can't bring myself to say that it tops Evita for the number 1 spot, but it's definitely up there). Go see it right now.

Cheers!

Rugby School

Today was the first day I got to sleep in since I've been in England. I didn't have class until 11:50 today so I got some much needed rest and headed over to the Union for class around 11:30. After class, I rushed over to Pembroke to catch the bus to Rugby School with the rest of my The British and Their Sports class. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Rugby School. The tour that we received was quite interesting despite the rain and freezing cold weather that we had to endure for the outside portion of the tour. It was exciting to learn about how much a group of teenage boys influenced the evolution of games into the codified, organized sports that we have today. Rubgy School also has some rather distinguished alumni including Neville Chamberlain (British Prime Minister 1937-1940), Lewis Carroll, Salman Rushdie (in addition to attending Rugby School, Rushdie also studied history at King's), Rupert Brooke and William Bateson (the first person to use the term "genetics"). In addition to being the birthplace of Rugby, Rugby School is considered to be the birthplace of crosscountry running. The Crick Race, which still takes place at the school, is the oldest half marathon in the world. We also learned about the various other games invented at Rugby School including racketball and squash. The Rugby School even has its own musuem which is pretty cool. The school itself was beautiful with ivy covered buildings and, of course, plenty of spacious green areas for sports. The students all play some type of sport 6 days a week and only have Saturday nights free. I wish I could remember more from the tour right now, but I'm very tired and I need to be up early for London tomorrow so this will have to do for now. For anyone interested in the history and evolution of sport, I suggest you read up on the history of Rugby School.

On the bus ride home, we passed through the very center of England. It's referred to as "The Heart of England" and there is a plaque to show the location. After we got back, I grabbed a pizza from Gardenia's and then hung out with some friends for a bit. We headed out to the Back Lawn of King's to watch the fireworks that had been advertised in the Union. Little did we know that the fireworks were being put on as part of the Fellows Ball. Every year the King's Fellows have a Ball which is paid for by the College and is apparently very costly (according to our new grad student friend, Thorton). There were Fellows everywhere and they were dressed to the nines and some even had masks on as if it were a masquerade ball (which, of course, it may very well have been, but I have no idea). The Fellows were all congregating on the Back Lawn and they were given sparklers to play with which, given the general state of intoxication in the crowd, was probably not the most brilliant idea. Anyway, the firework display itself was wonderful and far better than the fireworks we saw last week at Parker's Piece. Since I'm missing the feast at home this weekend, I guess these fireworks were my way of celebrating. After the fireworks, the fellows were going night punting which is supposed to be very fun, but Thorton, who was one of the punters for the evening, was a little worried that the Fellows might try to tip the boats. I think this Ball may have been an early celebation of the graduation that is taking place tomorrow. Several of the PA's are graduating tomorrow. We were all invited to the graduation, but I will (unfortunately) be in London. It would have been really fun to attend the graduation because it is steeped in tradition and apparently blunted swords are used in some way during the ceremony so I'm sure it's pretty cool. I guess I'll just have to wait until I graduate from Cambridge to see it :-)

Cheers!

British Comedy

Yesterday I only had one seminar in the morning so I had planned on devoting the rest of the day to writing my paper for Gothic Architecture. Naturally, that didn't happen. I didn't really do too much during the time I had set aside for writing. I joined several friends at Pembroke for lunch and then went down to the Union (after stopping to get ice cream at Benet's, of course...my loyalty card is filling up rather quickly) to purchase our group photo that was taken outside the Chapel before our first Formal Hall. The photo is wonderful and everyone looks great. I opted to have the photo framed as well. Later on I had a quick dinner at King's and rushed off to my course introduction for The British and Their Sports.

The introduction was more of a lecture than an introduction, but it was pretty interesting. I learned that schools referred to as "public schools" here are actually private schools, but are referred to as public because they are open to anyone (although the use of the phrase "public school" has gone out of fashion because the people in charge of these schools are embarrassed by the term and so are the rather wealthy students that attend the schools so these schools now refer to themselves as "independent schools"). What we would call public schools are "state schools" here. Our course introduction was meant to give us a little background before we have our field trip to Rugby today. Rugby is the town that is home to Rugby School which is one of the 9 original "public schools" in England (the 9 original schools are known as the Clarendon Schools and Eton is one of them). As you may have guessed, Rugby School is considered to be the place where the game of rugby originated. In addition to rugby, however, the boys at the school developed many other games, particularly racket games like squash. The boys who attended the school came from wealthy backgrounds and they used their money to build sporting facilities and to hire local companies to produce balls for them. The Gilbert rugby ball (featured several times in the movie Invictus) is still in use today and the Gilbert company is still located in Rugby. The boys never had any coaches or anyone to tell them how to run the teams. They did everything by themselves and they began the tradition of organized sports that we have at schools today.

After my course introduction, I headed to the Union for "British Comedy Night". Some of the PA's picked out their favorite comedy TV shows and we watched them. We watched Peep Show, Black Books and The Inbetweeners. The Inbetweeners was easily the funniest one, but the others did have their funny moments as well. What I did learn, however, was that British comedy is incredibly crude. I found that rather odd since I generally think of the British as being far more sophisticated than Americans. After we watched Peep Show, however, one kid asked the question everyone was thinking- "They show that on TV?" The PA's were surprised that something like that wouldn't be shown on television in America (okay, something like it might be shown on HBO). The Inbetweeners is my new favorite British comedy and I definitely need to find episodes of it online.

Cheers!

Spicy Uno at the Pub Crawl

The past few days have just been a blur. I had my Gothic Architecture midterm yesterday which went fairly well. We just had to compare and contrast two slides showing two very different styles of architecture. The pictures were not the best so that made it a little more difficult, but overall it wasn't too bad. Plus, it only counts for 10% of my grade anyway. Today I had a midterm in my European History class. Dr. Steinberg decided to do a little experiment and give us a midterm that doesn't count for a grade (unless we all do really well). He just wanted us to relax and see that we do know the material without having to worry about the grade we would be receiving. It sounds like a good idea in theory, but in a class full of very intelligent kids the idea of relaxing about an exam, regardless of whether it counts or not, is utterly crazy. This is why I studied more for the history exam that doesn't count (but that does have alot more material to learn) than I did for my Gothic Architecture exam that does count. I do have to say that I didn't really study all that much for either one, but I know some kids put alot of time into it. For some reason, I have the ability to read through history notes two or three times and have them pretty much memorized which is wonderful. Anyway, the history exam was probably easier than the Gothic Architecture exam...pick 3 ID's out of 12 (!) and 1 essay out of 4.

Yesterday I also went on a rooftop tour of King's College Chapel. It was so much fun, but I was a bit nervous up there even though I'm not usually afraid of heights at all. It was still immensely fun. Two of the PA's, Ruth and Moses, unlocked a door that lead to a narrow spiral staircase that we climbed until we came to the ceiling of the chapel. We then entered the area between the ceiling and the roof so we were walking on the ceiling of the chapel. There are some holes in the ceiling that they use to hang microphones through when they do recordings which I thought was pretty interesting. Also, people used to go up there to have lunch. I have no idea why they did that, but they did. There are also various types of carvings in the stone as people working on the building wanted to leave their mark on it. After leaving the crawl space, we walked along a long passageway that lead to the opposite side of the chapel and then climbed yet another spiral staircase until we came out onto the roof of the chapel. It was incredible. We climbed up to the very top point of the sloped roof and walked along it to the other side and took various pictures. It was rather cloudy out yesterday, but the views were still great. Moses told us about night climbers who climb up to the very top of the pinnacles on the four corners of the chapel and stick things on them. Last year a night climber put Santa hats on one of them at Christmas. The Porters saw it the next day, but they couldn't reach it and they didn't want to climb up the outside of the pinnacle to get to the top so they put up big spikes to prevent it from happening again, but they only finished half of the project on the first day. So that night, the same night climber went up and moved the hat to another pinnacle. Quite a cheeky chap, but I sure got a kick out of that story. Unfortunately it started to rain after a little while so we had to go back down, but it was an amazing experience that most people will never have and I'm so glad I did it (I'm actually thinking of going again!).

Today was mainly spent stressing out about trying to get everyone from the Arcadia group into the London trip for this Saturday. The online sign up process was a disaster. The server crashed because so many people were trying to get on at one time...it was worse than Cyberfriar on registration day. So I was able to get on in the morning before they shut down registration, but nobody else was. Luckily when they reopened registration later on in the afternoon almost everyone was able to get in. So I will be going to London on Saturday, but I'm hoping to spend most of the time in Greenwich at the Prime Meridian and the Royal Observatory. We will also be seeing a Shakespeare play at The Globe Theater. Tonight was one of the best nights I have had in Cambridge. A large group of us met up with some of the PA's for Pub Night. They took us to an area of town that has three pubs (Cricketers, The Free Press and The Elm Tree) right next to each other. I spent most of my time in Cricketers playing "Spicy Uno" with Lauren, Heidi, Jenna, Andrew and some of the PA's- Oli, Chloe and Ruth- played with us as well. Spicy Uno is regular Uno with a few fun twists. It was so much fun even though I didn't win at all. It was really fun to just hang out with everyone. One of the best parts of this program is all the people I have met. Everyone is so nice and fun to be around. It makes me think that if I did come back to Cambridge for grad school it just wouldn't be the same because it's the people that really make it special. I really do love it here though...there's just something magical about Cambridge. Every time I feel like I'm completely settled in and I'm in a routine that doesn't feel any different than the daily grind back at PC, I find a new restaurant or ice cream shop, try something that I have never done before, or even just meet a nice British person and I realize all over again why I love Cambridge and everyone here. Even living in King's College and eating in the amazing dining hall can't keep you in awe forever, but there is always that one moment- the moment where you see something new or just appreciate something that you've looked at over and over but have never really seen- that ushers in the sense of awe and appreciation all over again.

Midterms, Essays, and Espionage! Oh, my!

After spending a good part of Saturday exploring the city and playing ultimate frisbee I decided to take it easy on Sunday and spent a good portion of the day reading out by the river even though it was unbearably hot. I had a nice chat with one of the PA's about Gabriel Garcia Marquez and saw two people fall into the river while punting. The first guy that fell in caught himself on the ladder by Bodley's Court so he only fell in half way but it was extremely funny and he was a good sport about it. The second person was a Spanish kid who got bumped and just sort of jumped in which made it far less funny. Later on in the evening I went to the King's bar to watch the World Cup final. Although I usually like Spain and although I did have Spain winning in my bracket, spending so much time in Bonaire compelled me to be a loyal Dutch fan last night. Unfortunately, Paul the Octopus predicted that Spain would win and he was right once again.

Today was the first day it's actually been fairly cold since I arrived in the UK. It was a welcome break from the swelteing heat with which we have been dealing. Despite the cold weather, I still got ice cream and, thanks to a friendly and talkative Benets employee, I am now the holder of a Benets Loyalty Card- "Buy 9 ice cream cones, get one free." After a hurried dinner at King's, I walked over to the Union to attend a lecture, entitled "A 21st Century View of National Security," given by Sir Richard Dearlove. Sir Dearlove was the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1999-2004. He joined MI6 in 1966 and spent time working in various places including Prague and Paris. During his time as "C" (Chief...like M in James Bond), Sir Dearlove had to deal with the 9/11 attacks and was on the only plane to fly into American airspace on September 12. Sir Dearlove discussed the recent US/Russian spy exchange and the potential for a rapid escalation of conflict between India and Pakistan. He also discussed "the new terrorism" that is practiced by groups such as Al-Qaeda. In contrast to traditional motives for terrorism, organizations such as these do not have clear political motivations, but rather have ideological motivations that do not discriminate against clear targets or locations, but instead aim to bring down an entire culture. Sir Dearlove also mentioned the fact that our entire world is constantly on the edge because if our technology fails for a prolonged period of time, we would be in a great deal of trouble. He cited examples such as the volcanic ash that shut down air travel across Europe and the Atlantic and emphasized the chaos that this one natural event caused. The possibility of bioterrorism is also a major threat in the modern world since it is fairly easy and cheap to get access to viruses that could wipe out entire populations or at least cause mass panic like in the cases of SARS and Swine Flu. It was yet another lecture that I wish all of you could have attended.

Tomorrow I will be going on a rooftop tour of King's College Chapel. Rooftop tours of the Chapel are only granted to students at King's College and I read something where it was referred to as a "money-can't-buy" tour which, in my opinion, makes it even more exciting that being able to walk through all the gates that say "Private". I also have two midterms this week and a paper due on Monday so look for an update about the tour later in the week (although I will probably end up procrastinating and writing an update about it tomorrow).

Cheers!

Touring Cambridge

So last night a bunch of us went to see fireworks at Parker's Piece. It certainly wasn't the best firework show I have ever seen, but it was perfect for a night in Cambridge. They actually had a whole carnival set up...I guess that was my version of the feast this year. After that some of us went to a club called Fez. It was actually alot of fun depite my aversion to dancing and my lack of ability to relax and enjoy myself in a place where there is dancing. The music was a little too loud...my ears are still ringing which I'm not too pleased about. We left around 1:30 and I went back to my room planning on going to bed. I ended up watching Killers, which was surprisingly good, until after 4:30 and then I went to bed as it was getting light out.

Despite my lack of sleep, I was up and out by ten this morning because I had big plans for the day. I wanted to do some Cambridge sightseeing since I haven't had a chance to do so since I've been here. So I started off my tour by going to Bene't St. to take some pictures of things I have already seen but haven't taken pictures of yet. I even took a picture of the hideous Corpus Clock. I then decided to skip the Fitzwilliam Museum for the time being and went down to 22 Fitzwilliam St. to take pictures of Darwin's old flat. I then headed to Downing St. to cover as many musuems as I could. I went to the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the University Museum of Zoology. The Sedgwick Museum had some rocks brought back by Darwin and a really nice mineral collection, but other than that it was more of a place for C.B. than for me. I almost didn't go to the Archaeolgy and Anthropology Museum, but I'm so glad I decided to go. They have a special exhibit there this summer called "Assembling Bodies". There were some fun interactive activities like listening to various heartbeats and diagnosing the murmurs. And there were some weird things too like cast hugs which you are meant to pick up and hug in order to feel like someone is hugging you. Very strange. There was also some brain imaging stuff and a book about the Human Genome Project that showed the sequence of Chromosome 1 which has 247199719 base pairs. The exhibit is catalogued online so here's the link for anyone who might be interested in it (by which I mean Nick and Sarah )...http://maa.cam.ac.uk/assemblingbodies/

Then I headed over to the Zoology Museum. The only thing I really wanted to see here was some of Darwin's collection. They had his beetle box in which he collected all the beetles he found. There is a funny story about his beetle collecting in his autobiography..."I saw two rare beetles and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas it ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as well as the third one." In a letter he describes the beetles..."I could not bear to give up either of my Carabi, & to lose Panagæus was out of the question, so that in despair I gently seized one of the carabi between my teeth, when to my unspeakable disgust & pain the little inconsiderate beast squirted his acid down my throat & I lost both Carabi & Panagus!" I'm sure not too many of you will have found that very entertaining but I thought it was pretty funny.

I concluded my morning tour of Cambridge sites of scientific importance with a stroll down Free School Lane to see the site of the old Cavendish Lab which was founded in part by James Maxwell (developer of electromagnetic theory) and which is where J. J. Thomson discovered the electron and where Watson and Crick discovered DNA. 29 Cavendish researchers have won the Nobel Prize. Finally, I climbed the tower of Great St. Mary's. There were amazing views of King's and the rest of the city from the top. I could even see the University Library which I really want to visit. Unfortunately, it is really difficult to get access to that library. Students generally have to show documentation from theirs tutors indicating that they need access to the library for research purposes and full time undergradutes don't even get the right to borrow books until they are in their 3rd year. I spent the afternoon playing ultimate frisbee on Jesus Green in the unbearable Cambridge heat. It was actually alot of fun despite the heat. Now I'm looking foward to a relaxing evening.

Evensong and Ely

So I forgot to mention that I went to Evensong yesterday. Evensong is an Anglican service in which just about everything is sung. Evensong takes place daily at King's College Chapel and there is always a very long line to get in. Since we are King's students, we had the pleasant experience of getting to go in the Members line so we got to go in before the general public. The King's College Choir was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI and is the most famous and, according to many, best choir in the world. They are especially known for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols which is a Christmas service that is broadcast from King's to countries around the world. There are 14 male undergraduates in the choir (including the 3 boys we met last week) and 16 young boys who are all educated at King's College School. Anyway, Evensong was fabulous. I actually got chills the first time the choir sang. They were just spectacular. I'm really glad I got to experience it because it is really an integral part of Cambridge life. Plus it was fun to hear our choir friends sing.

Today I went on a field trip to Ely Cathedral with my Gothic Architecture class. It was really amazing. I don't really know how to describe it so I'll just put up some pictures. I think the most interesting thing were the statues with all their heads chopped off as a result of Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. The shire of St. Etheldreda was also destroyed by Henry VIII, but it was located in a specific spot of the cathedral so that the sun would fully illuminate it at a specific time of day. The sculptural work was incredibly intricate. I'm going to see fireworks in a little while so I'll leave you with some pictures of Ely.

Flip Flopping

Well I still can't decide if the days are dragging or flying by. Everyday seems far longer than 24 hours, but I still don't seem to have any free time at all. The past few days have been good, but the weather has been crazy...gray and cold in the morning then sunny and warm an hour later and I still haven't seen more than 5 minutes of rain (and it only sprinkled) since I have been here (excluding Scotland of course).

On Tuesday I heard US Supreme Court Justice Breyer speak at the CUS. Justice Breyer was appointed by Clinton and had to spend 11 years as the junior justice (he missed the record for most time as junior justice by 1 month). He was interesting to listen to and was actually very funny. He spoke about what he does on a daily basis and about how they get to decide which cases they want to hear and which cases they don't.

In the past few days I have managed to change my plans for this weekend about 75 times. Originally, I was planning on going to Bath and Oxford for the weekend. When the Netherlands won their World Cup semifinal, however, I decided I wanted to go to Amsterdam for the weekend and watch the match from there on Sunday night. Well, I had everything planned out (it was possibly the most convoluted travel schedule ever), but in the few minutes it took me to do that, plane fares went up by almost £200 so that didn't work out so well. Then I decided I would just go to Bath and Oxford instead like I had planned from the start. Well, last night a bunch of us got together to plan out our weekend trips for the remainder of the programme and decided we would do Bath/Oxford sometime in August. So, I changed my plans again and decided to go to Dover to see the White Cliffs, but I changed my mind again soon after that and I have finally settled on staying in Cambridge to see the many things that I want to see here and to maybe do some work since I have 2 midterms next week and a paper due the following Monday. Anyways, our weekend plans are looking pretty great...London (July 17th...there is a day tip to London included in the programme), Paris (July 23rd), Dublin (July 30th), Barcelona or Istanbul (August 6th which is a long weekend for us...I'm hoping for Istanbul since I have already been to Barcelona) and Bath/Oxford (August 14th).

Today I'm going on a field trip to Ely Cathedral with my Gothic Architecture class. I think I have already been on more "field trips" (by which I mean short visits to buildings around Cambridge during seminars) than I have been on in my entire life before Cambridge (excluding PEGASUS because we went on quite a few field trips). Our professor was telling us how he had to plan it for this week because next Friday Ely holds its annual Rave in the Nave. I definitely thought he was kidding, but I looked it up and it actually is a real event although I'm not entirely sure what the event entails. Anyway, I'm really looking foward to the World Cup on Sunday and, even though I have Spain winning in my bracket, I really want The Netherlands to win.

Cheers!

Haggis and the Highlands- A Weekend in Scotland

First of all, I didn't actually try haggis (but it made for a catchy title). Also, Scotland was incredible. It was beautiful. The ride up there started off with flat, boring English countryside but turned into lush, green, rolling hills. In general, I really like ocean views and really dislike the open countryside, but once we got into the hills, it was unlike anything I have ever seen before and it was breathtaking. I have also never seen more cows and sheep than I did on that bus ride. Our journey north began at 8 am on Friday morning. Our coach driver, John, was the best. On the way there, we stopped at Richmond Castle. It had great views over the town and we climbed to the very top of the tower...135 steps to the top. There was also a cool, small, semi-secret spiral staircase that we went down. Then we had lunch in town and I bought a bottle of water for 29 pence ($0.43)!! We stopped at the border between England and Scotland. There is someone that stands there all day and plays the bagpipes. I also bought a Scotland sweatshirt. We finally arrived in Edinburgh and went to our rooms at Pollack Halls at the University of Edinburgh. It was really nice there and we had a great view of Arthur's Seat. The University of Edinburgh is far more modern than Cambridge and the modern conveniences that are somewhat lacking here at Cambridge made Edinburgh feel more like America. On Friday night we went out to a club called Espionage which was super fun. Alot of the PA's came too so that made it even better.

On Saturday we went hiking in the Trossachs to Loch Lomond. And by hiking I basically mean mountain climbing. The hike was really intense and definitely not as easy as they made it sound. We drove about 2 hours or so to get there and when we did arrive, it started to rain. Luckily the rain didn't last very long, but the ground was still wet, muddy and slippery. It took us a little over an hour to get to the top and we were moving pretty quickly. There was alot of complaining, but that stopped once we got close to the top. Once we got up there, the view of Loch Lomond and the surrounding area was incredible and well worth the effort it took to get up there. We stayed on the summit to eat and just relax for a little while then began the treacherous descent. Going down was much harder than going up. Everything was wet and slippery but we finally made it back down to the coach. I don't think I have ever been more tired than I was after that hike.

After getting back from the hike, we ordered pizza and got ready for the 4th of July party that they were having for us. It really didn't celebrate the 4th of July in any way since it was just alot of Scottish dancing, but it was still really fun. Some people were really good....I was not one of them. After that we went out to Espionage again and had fun singing and dancing to classic American songs at midnight.

On Sunday I went to the Royal Mile and did some shopping. We then went up to Edinburgh Castle which was pretty cool and which offered some amazing views of the city. We didn't do too much else on Sunday as everyone was wiped out from the rest of the weekend. We all just hung out and that was nice too. Today was the journey back to Cambridge. This time our bus stopped at Fountains Abbey. I had been really looking forward to going there and I was not disappointed. Of course I found myself analyzing the ruins like we do for the buildings we visit in my Gothic Architecture class. But it really was an amazing place. So, overall the Scotland trip was fantastic. I'm so glad they planned it for us. I absolutely loved Scotland and I could totally see myself living in Edinburgh. It's so different from London...more like NYC but without the skyscrapers. It's basically the best of both worlds...the modernity of the city plus the beautiful scenery and views from Arthur's Seat and Edinburgh Castle make it a phenomenal place. I really loved it there.

On another note, I'm so glad I'm doing this programme. It has been so cool to meet people from all across the globe including people from China, Lebanon, Turkey, Romania, France, England and all across the US. I have been here for less than two weeks and I have already gotten to go to Scotland. I'm hopefully going to either Bath or Oxford this weekend, back to London next weekend and then possibly Paris the weekend after that. Tomorrow night I'm going to a lecture by US Supreme Court Justice Breyer at the Union Society. I still have to try punting, take a trip to Granchester for afternoon tea, and go to see where Watson and Crick announced that they had discovered DNA. This is such an incredible opportunity, but being here for eight weeks isn't enough. I think I could stay in Cambridge alone for 8 weeks and not see all there is to see. Oh well, I guess I will just have to see as much as I can and then come back to see the rest!

Cheers!

"Oxford talks, Cambridge publishes"

Tonight I attended the first of several Plenary lectures being offered at the Union Society during my time here at Cambridge. The lecture, entitled "Why is Cambridge Unique?", was given by Dr. Steinberg who, as you know by now, is my professor for my European history class. Just like every class lecture, this plenary lecture was not to be missed. His brilliance and eloquence, coupled with his humility, astound me. How can Cambridge be unique when Oxford is governed and structured in the exact same way? Dr. Steinberg explained that Oxford has always been literary and political while Cambridge is scientific and technical. It was here at Cambridge that Isaac Newton, a member of Trinity College, discovered the laws of motion. It was here that Charles Darwin, a graduate of Christ's College, was a "champion nerd" who collected beetles and later returned to 22 Fitzwilliam Street after his voyage on the Beagle to write The Origin of Species. In The Eagle pub Watson and Crick announced that they had discovered the secret of life- DNA- while working in the Cavendish Laboratory. The Cavendish Laboratory is also where Rutherford did his work on the atom. The scientific greatness that exudes from Cambridge cannot even be tarnished by the fact that Paradise Lost (a.k.a. the worst thing ever written) was written by John Milton who studied at Christ's.

Oxford is urban and Cambridge is rural. Oxford talks and Cambridge publishes. Unlike at Cambridge, for many years Oxford scholars sat around and talked and rarely produced any publishable results. This is why Oxford was not even within the top 5 in the first few years of the Research Assessment Exercise. But now Cambridge and Oxford are on a more level playing field in this area. So what is it that makes Cambridge unique? It is the unique set of circumstances in which it was founded and the unique scientific spirit that is found here.

In the few days I have been at Cambridge, I have become a "Cambridge person". Yet I have also become a "King's person". Being a "Cambridge person" is unique in the sense that you feel a loyalty to the University, but the University is something of a ghost-like entity that is everywhere and nowhere all at once. Students feel a stronger loyalty to their college. Although the programme is a joint one between Pembroke and King's, I am living in King's so I have quickly become a "King's person". It is impossible not to fall in love with this place. I cannot fathom how anyone would choose to live somewhere other than King's (of course if you are not admitted by King's you wouldn't have a choice, but I can't see how anyone would even put anything else down as their first choice). I visited Corpus Christi College briefly yesterday and was less than impressed (especially because of the hideous Corpus clock that I see everyday when I walk down King's Parade). King's was founded as a royal college and its beauty and grandeur are astounding. I have absolutely decided that I need to come to grad school here because I will always be a "King's person."

Now that I have bored you with all that, I do have more interesting stories to tell. After our Scotland orientation yesterday, I grabbed dinner at Gardenia's with some friends and we went down to the river to eat. We ended up meeting three guys who go to Cambridge and are members of King's. All three of them sing in the choir here at King's which is incredibly impressive since there are only 15 members and it is very competitive to get into. They tour all around the world...US, Australia, Japan, France, Singapore. We had a lovely time talking to them and hearing their stories about life at King's. It was particularly interesting to hear about the types of initiation they have for new choir members during their first term....basically it's like hazing, but a bit less intense (except for the person who cracked a rib after they pushed him off a low bridge into the river). I really enjoyed all their British words (DJ=dinner jacket not disc jockey). After hearing what we have to do for work this summer they claim that we have more work than they do during term. Today I signed everyone in the Arcadia group up for hiking in the Trossachs on Saturday. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I know the view will be spectacular. I opted out of the trip to Rosslyn Chapel (made relatively more famous recently by it's use in The Da Vinci Code movie) because I think I would rather explore Edinburgh on my own. So tomorrow at 8 am I will be on my way to Scotland for 4 days which will include stops at Fountains Abbey and Hadrian's Wall, hiking in the Trossachs to Loch Lomond, a 4th of July party starting on the 3rd of July and a day exploring beautiful Edinburgh.

Cheers!