Across the Atlantic: A Summer at Cambridge
Monday, August 23, 2010
I've Had the Time of My Life
On Friday morning Dad, Barrett and I went punting. Barrett hadn't been punting all summer so I made her come. I did a much better job at punting than the first time I went, but dad was not so good at it. It was his first time though so it's understandable. Barrett was quite good. It was alot of fun. We went down past King's towards Trinity and John's which was fun because last time I went punting we went the other way down the river. After punting, I took dad to Grantchester for lunch at The Orchard. I love it there. It's absolutely, perfectly British. Then we walked back to Cambridge and explored for a while before going to dinner at The Eagle. A lot of my friends were also eating at The Eagle so there was a second wave of goodbyes. Later that night, a bunch of us met outside of the library and there was yet another wave of goodbyes. Then we ran across the grass, but I've already described how awesome that was :-)
On Saturday morning I finished my packing and checked out. I handed in my swipe cards for the Union, Pembroke and King's and I was really disappointed that we weren't allowed to keep the one for King's. I did, however, keep my King's lanyard. After that, we headed to the train station to go to King's Cross. When we arrived in London, we checked into our hotel and started our sightseeing. During my previous times in London, I had skipped most of the major sightseeing because I knew I would be back when dad came to visit. So Saturday was spent doing all those touristy things. We saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The Abbey was closed for the day by the time we got there which was disappointing because I had really wanted to see Scientist's Corner because Newton and Darwin are buried there. We then headed across the river to the London Eye and also saw some cool street performers. After that we headed to Trafalgar Square where I climbed up on one of the lion's that guard Nelson's column. Next we went to Picadilly Circus which was pretty underwhelming and filled with tons of tourists. We tried to get tickets to see Phantom of the Opera, but there were no unobstructed views available so we grabbed a late dinner and headed back to the hotel for the night. On Sunday we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then decided to go back to Buckingham Palace to go inside the State Rooms which are only open to the public for 6 weeks every year. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited. The rooms were spectacular. After that we grabbed lunch and then headed to the train station to catch our train to Paris. I was a little nervous about going in the Chunnel, but I ended up falling asleep most of the time anyway. When I woke up, I thought we were still in England, but as we came out of a tunnel and pulled into the Calais station, I realized we had just exited the Chunnel and were actually in France.
Today was our first full day in Paris and it was spectacular. I am absolutely in love with this city despite the fact that I got stuck in a Parisian monsoon. We decided to do the Free Tour and about an hour into the tour it started to pour. Our tour guide said she has never seen it rain so hard in Paris. Wonderful. Anyway, the tour was still very good.
I'm continuing this posts about 2 months after getting home, but I figured I would quickly finish it up. After Paris, dad and I went to Geneva, Venice, and Rome too. I would update about everything we did there but it would take more time than I have right now. I'm very busy with grad schools applications (Yes, I'm applying to Cambridge). I'm currently trying to decide where I want to travel to next summer, but I'm sure nothing will ever be able to compete with this past summer.
Cheers!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Talented PKP-ers
Last night was the PKP 2010 Talent Show. My fellow PKP-ers are incredibly talented. Most people played instruments and sang and everyone was really good. One kid did a fantastic beat boxing performance. And, of course, the PA's sang "American Boy" which was hilarious. Well, I'm off to finally do my two essays that are due tomorrow and friday.
Cheers!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
At Home in Cambridge
With only 3 days left of classes and less than a week left in the programme, I have been doing alot of reflecting about my time here at Cambridge. I came to the conclusion that I have to come back. I have such an absolute loyalty to King's and to Cambridge in general that I can't even imagine going anywhere else for grad school. Not even Harvard can live up to Cambridge in my eyes anymore. I've learned so much from being here and, in particular, I have learned alot about people. The most important thing I have learned about people is that most of them are amazing. My typical "I hate people" attitude has disappeared (although it is still present when speaking of tourists because they are absolutely infuriating). Every person that I have met here, with the exception of maybe two people, has been incredible. There are two schools that are overwhelmingly represented in PKP- the University of California (there are students from all of the UC schools) and Brigham Young. The UC students are great, but the BYU kids are absolutely awesome. The BYU students are a much more distinct group than the UC students because they are constantly together- they eat together, go to church together, do everything together. Being that they go to BYU you may have (correctly) guessed that most of them are Mormon. Despite my belief that religion should not have any role when forming an opinion of a person or group, I still find it necessary to mention that they are Mormon. I think that it's necessary simply because of how important their religion is to them. I also now feel that I must personally defend them from the unjust accusations that are often conferred upon them by popular culture. I had never met a Mormon before coming to PKP, but I fully agree with Sarah's belief that they are possibly the nicest people in the world (right up there with the Duggar's). I know it's not very proper to lump them all into one group as if the individuals were not important, but I feel that there is something significant about the cohesion of their group that allows me to take the liberty to do so. It feels a bit weird to be writing about them like this in my blog, but I felt compelled to talk about them because they have been such an overwhelming presence during PKP. Everyone knows who all the BYU kids are and, as far as I know, most people think they are just as great as I do.
I have been away from Cambridge for the past three weekends so I really enjoyed being here today. I spent some time reading in my favorite place in the world- one of the benches in Bodley's Court right by the river. I also got an inexplicable urge to run out onto the middle of the off limits grass of the Back Lawn, set out a blanket, lay down and read. Knowing full well that such an idea was completely impossible, I still wondered what would happen if, after convincing the Porter's to allow me to fulfill my absurd fantasy, I staked my claim on a portion of the Back Lawn and was able to just lay there and read while telling off anyone else who thought that they might be able to join me. It was a fun moment. When I told my friend Heidi about this idea, she wondered whether any Cambridge students actually do go crazy during exam time and simply ignore the rules and lay on the grass until they get kicked off by a Porter. I would be interested to know if it does happen.
Cheers!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Stonehenge Rocks
Cheers!
Friday, August 13, 2010
The Final Countdown
After my exam I met up with Lauren and we did some souvenir shopping. I now own enough Cambridge University/King's College apparel to last me about a week. I'm quite pleased. Tomorrow a bunch of us are heading down to London in the morning to do some shopping at Portobello Road. After that we are taking an afternoon tour to Stonehenge! I'm very excited because Stonehenge is one of those "must see" sites in England since it is considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World. It's going to be a great way to spend our last weekend together.
Cheers!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Berlin and Potsdam
This is a well-written interpretation/analysis of Hughes's novel, demonstrating a real engagement with the text (and its moral and political messages). You write very well and reference rigorously, and if formally graded at this point this would be a straight A.
It struck me that you might make some adventurous comparisons (in concluding discussions) as you develop the piece for the full term paper - with sport in your own university for instance, with the Providence blend of Catholic admin, high-profile sports, and the study of Western Civilization ...
Sincerely
Alan"
Thursday, August 5, 2010
A "Kwik" Update
Cheers!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Prague: City of a Thousand Spires
The Castle Tour began in Lesser Town where we saw Wallenstein Palace which was absolutely gorgeous. The gardens were stunning and showcased several water features, statues relating to Greek mythology and a very unique feature wall. Wallenstein Palace is currently the home of the Czech Senate. After leaving Wallenstein Palace, we saw the other St. Nicolas Church and the monument to Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. I'm certain that several of you have heard of Kepler (and his wonderful laws of planetary motion), but as far as I can remember, even I had not heard of Tycho Brahe. Kepler was Brahe's assistant until Brahe died. There is alot of suspicion surrounding Brahe's death because recent (but inconclusive) tests suggest that he died of mercury poisoning and many think this was Kepler's doing. Apparently, Prague City Hall approved a request to exhume Brahe's remains and testing will be done this coming November. Anyway, being a big fan of Kepler and his work, I would like to stick with the other theory of Brahe's death. This theory claims that while dining with the King, Brahe did not want to get up to use the bathroom because the King was still sitting and it would have been a breach of etiquette. After many toasts, Brahe passed out and died a few days later from kidney failure. We then made our way to the Strahov Monastery which offered some amazing views of the city. Next was the Czernin Palace which is currently home to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Palace was the sight of what is often considered to be the Third Defenestration of Prague. I suppose I should explain what the First and Second Defenestrations of Prague were. First of all, a defenestration is the act of throwing someone out of a window so I think you can probably see where this story is going. The First Defenstration of Prague occurred when a group of radical Hussites threw members of the town council out of a window and onto some sharp sticks and lead to the start of the Hussite Wars. The Second Defenestration of Prague was due to a conflict between Catholics and Protestants lead to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War. After being shoved out the window, the Catholics landed in a pile of manure and claimed it was because angels were assisting the Catholic cause. Protestants claimed that it was just horse excrement that saved the Catholics and not the angels. I've definitely gotta go with the Protestants on this one. Anyway, the so called Third Defenestration occurred when Jan Masaryk was found dead in his pajamas in the courtyard of the foreign ministry. It is still unclear whether it was suicide, murder or an accident. After that we saw the Loreto and the Domecek which was a WWII Gestapo prison and then we rushed over to the Castle gates to catch the other changing of the guard (this one was way better because I didn't almost get trampled to death) and admire the Archbishop's Palace. We headed into the First Courtyard of the Castle where the treasure of St. Vitus was displayed until 1990. Next was the Second Courtyard of the Castle where we were greeted by the massive, breathtaking structure that is St. Vitus Cathedral. The sun shined brightly through the large rose window caused beautiful colors to appear throughout the nave. It was incredible.
After exploring the cathedral for awhile we continued the tour with stops at the Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica and All Saints Chapel. We then saw the window where the Second Defenestration of Prague occurred and, after several more pictures overlooking the city, the tour was finally over. We grabbed some dinner at a restaurant right on the river and then headed for the Charles Bridge. After Katie and I both bought some nice souvenirs we continued across the Charles Bridge until we reached the statue of John of Nepomuk. There are two plaques on the bottom of this statue and legend says that rubbing one of them will bring good luck and rubbing the other will bring bad luck. Thanks to our tour guide Kate, we knew exactly which one to rub for good luck. Being very tired after our long day of tours, we decided to head back to the hostel. We soon found ourselves in the hostel bar enjoying a wonderful night. We had several Americans come and talk to us, but one story trumps all the rest. I happened to be wearing my Harvard shirt that night and soon after we sat down, the DJ came up to us and asked me if I went to Harvard. I said no and told him that I was from RI and went to Providence College. His response- "My dad is from Warwick!" That's right folks, I somehow managed to find possibly the only person in Prague with RI connections. Anyway, Steve then proceeded to invite us up on stage to sit in his awesome beanbag chairs and talk with him for awhile. Steve went back on stage and I spent the next few minutes convincing Katie to come up on stage with me. She finally gave in and we went and hung out on stage in the most comfortable beanbag chairs ever. Steve turned out to be absolutely awesome and his music is great (you should all check it out...www.mindbeamdigidub.com). We spent Sunday doing some souvenir shopping and returning to our new favorite hangout, Bohemia Bagel for lunch. We spent the rest of our time in Prague sitting in a park looking out at the river and Prague Castle at which point we (jokingly) considered skipping class this week in order to stay in Prague for several more days and then head directly to Berlin from there. We got home at about 8 pm Sunday night and met up with Lauren and Marisa at The Eagle to share stories of our Prague adventure and hear about their weekend in Paris. It was an absolutely fantastic weekend.
Last night I watched Chariots of Fire with my British and Their Sports class. It was so good! The music was fantastic and it pretty much made me want to be British. This week is a four day week for us but it's pretty busy. I'm playing cricket tomorrow, going to Formal Hall Tomorrow night and leaving for Berlin at 3 am on Friday morning. And I have to write a paper before I leave. Oh well. With less than three weeks of classes left I plan on packing everything I possibly can into the time I have left.
Cheers!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Oxford and Bath
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!!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Anyone for tea?
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!