I've Had the Time of My Life

Well PKP 2010 has been over for a few days now and, although it was sad to see everyone leave and to walk out of King's as a PKP-er for the last time, I have eight weeks worth of amazing memories to look back on. On Thursday morning I took my British and Their Sports exam and it went well. After my exam I headed over to Parker's Piece to meet dad at the bus stop. I gave him a tour of Cambridge and took him to Pembroke and King's while I continuously talked about how amazing Cambridge is. Thursday night was our final Formal Hall. It was actually a Masquerade Ball and everyone looked incredible. The Dining Hall looked great and I had so much fun. It was bittersweet, however, because it was our last night all together as a group. It's sad to think that we (all the PKP students, the PA's, Greg and Carlos) will never again be together in one place at the same time. Greg gave a speech about how good this summer has been and what a great group we were. He got a standing ovation, of course. Then Oli presented some awards to various PKP students for random things. After the Masquerade Ball there was a disco. It was a ton of fun and I stayed until it was over. They played such good music which made it even better. I was a little sad when they played "Time of my Life" but it was an appropriate song since this was by far the best summer of my life. The night ended with "Hey Jude" and then came the first wave of goodbyes.



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!

Talented PKP-ers

Monday night was the last "Pub Night" here in Cambridge. Despite having a ton of work to do (which I still haven't made much progress on yet), I decided to go. We went to the Pickerell Inn and it was alot of fun. It was a small group of people, but it was really nice. Afterwards a few of us walked up to Castle Hill to see the stars but it was pretty cloudy. We did have a fun experience with a Russian student who told us that if any of us were from New York he would kiss our feet. He had never met any Americans before. At first I was a little creeped out by him, but he told us that he is a graffiti artist in Russia and has come to the UK to improve his English. He hopes to be a New York graffiti artist one day, but he has not yet been able to come up with the money to get all the required documentation and get to New York. It was really strange. He was seriously in love with New York and was really sincere about his dream. He explained how he is not really free to express himself in Russia and he is excited to get to NY because he won't be seen as a criminal (I tend to think of people who paint graffiti as criminals so he might be a bit confused...) and will be much more free to express his ideas. It was odd to find a foreigner who is really in love with America and Americans. Although, we were with another PKP student who is from Poland and she told us that most Europeans have absolutely no problem with Americans to which I responded that it must only be the French who hate us then. Her response- "The French hate everybody." It was great.


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!

At Home in Cambridge

I have just returned to my room after sitting in the King's Bar for a few hours doing some reading and I have just had one of the most profound experiences I have had since coming to Cambridge. Upon leaving the bar, I stepped outside and found that I was entirely alone. There was not one single person anywhere on the paths near the chapel, library or river which, after a day when the college was, as usual, overwhelmed by hordes of tourists, was a wonderful thing. It was perfectly quiet for a moment until someone, somewhere began to play a calming, soothing piece of music that seemed to perfectly transform every feeling I have been having about PKP coming to an end into musical notes. It was a sweet but sad tune that echoed my bittersweet feelings about the end of PKP- I'm happy to go home and see my friends and family, but incredibly sad to leave my few friends and this amazing place that quickly became a second home for me this summer. I fell in love with this place as soon as I arrived and whenever I was away for the weekend and would talk about going back to Cambridge I would say that I was going home. In my three years at PC I have never referred to it as home. As I walked down towards the river, with the library on my left and the off limits grass on my right, the music faded away and it was totally silent once more. It was a deafening silence. Cambridge is typically quiet, but this silence was overwhelming. There was nobody punting down the river, nobody anywhere around me and I was totally alone with my thoughts. I took the opportunity to just look around and I was astonished by what I saw. I was suddenly filled the same overwhelming awe I had felt the very first time I walked into King's and saw the gorgeous buildings, the river and the perfectly manicured grass. When I first arrived at Cambridge, I had vowed never to let that awe disappear, but after two months here I have found that there are times when I forget what an amazing place I am in. My love for Cambridge has never wavered, but the PA's were right when they said that living here and even eating in the Dining Hall would become just part of a daily routine. As I walked down towards the river, totally aware of the silence and my complete solitude, the wonder I felt as I followed the same path nearly two months ago came flooding back. I think would be perfectly content to live at King's for the rest of my life. I would be quite happy to spend everyday sitting on one of the benches by the river, reading and watching groups of punters pass by. But, alas, PKP is going to end and I will have to leave King's College, Cambridge, but I am certain that I am a far better person for having been here.

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!

Stonehenge Rocks

Although I will not be home until August 29th, this weekend is the last full weekend of PKP. Since it's our last weekend together (until we have one of our many planned reunions), Marisa, Katie, Barrett, Lauren and I decided to go to Stonehenge. We took a 6:45 am train to London, headed to Notting Hill and grabbed breakfast at an adorable little cafe. After we finished eating, we walked over to Portobello Road to do some shopping. Fighting our way through the masses, we all managed to find some great stuff. Marisa, Lauren and I bought Venetian masks to wear to our last Formal Hall on Thursday which is a Masquerade (with a Disco afterwards). I also bought some gifts for people at home. After spending a few hours in Portobello Road we headed over to the pickup point for our trip to Stonehenge. We were getting picked up at the Thistle Kensington Gardens Hotel which happens to be located directly above a Shell gas station. We decided to go into the store to buy some snacks for the 2 hour trip to Stonehenge. Well, as I was looking for some chips, I saw the bag that I have been waiting to see for years- a bag of Frazzles. My two major non academic, non travel related goals for my time in England were to 1) Meet Stephen Hawking and 2) EAT FRAZZLES. I was unsuccessful in both of these goals until today (unfortunately, meeting Stephen Hawking seems unlikely to happen, but another PKP student claims to have seen him outside King's which made me very unhappy). You may be wondering what exactly Frazzles are. Frazzles are bacon flavored crisps and I have been dying to try them since I heard of their existence several years ago. Unfortunately, as far as I know, they are only sold in the UK (unless you want to buy them online and have them shipped to the US but that seemed a bit sketchy and unnecessary). I have been looking for them since I got to England, but I have amped up my efforts in recent weeks so much so that I had an English businessman suggesting that I go on Google and look up where to buy them. Well, I finally found them and they were absolutely delicious. They definitely surpassed all expectations and my obsession with bacon is probably going to be even worse now. It was a really exciting moment. Anyway, after a two hour coach ride, we arrived at Stonehenge. It was awesome. One might even say Stonehenge rocks...pun intended. They include an audio guide and it was really interesting to listen to some of the myths about Stonehenge. We also had a great time taking jumping pictures in front of the rocks. When we got back to London, we went to The Black Lion pub for dinner and I had the Big Ben Burger which had an egg on it. It was so good. Then we headed back to King's Cross only to find out that there was a train failure so no other trains could get back to Cambridge from King's Cross. We had to go to Liverpool Street and take a very, very indirect train back to Cambridge. Apparently, some other PKP kids were stuck on a train for 5 hours because they were in the train right behind the one that ran out of fuel. Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of productivity, but I'm not sure if that will happen. I have alot of work to do before Thursday though so I should probably get something done. There is a Garden Party tomorrow night which I'm really looking forward to. Hopefully it wont rain.

Cheers!

The Final Countdown

My European history class with Dr. Steinberg officially ended today (although I still have a paper due next week). The exam was okay considering I only studied for it for about 3 hours. I'm actually sad that the class is over because Dr. Steinberg was an incredible professor. He is one of those professors who is immensely knowledgeable, but not awkward and he actually wants all of his students to do well which is why he doesn't grade on a curve. Luckily, most professors I have had, with the exception of Dr. Breen, of course, have also had this outlook. I'm pretty sure none of my professors have come anywhere close to meeting the number of historically important figures that Dr. Steinberg has met over the course of his career. Also, the end of this class means that PKP really is almost over and I don't want to think about that yet.

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!

Berlin and Potsdam

Things have been getting crazy around here now that PKP is coming to an end. I have an exam on Friday and two papers and an exam next Thursday. I also had a paper due Monday so I've been very busy, but I finally have a little bit of time to write what promises to be another long update about Berlin so here goes. On Friday morning at 2:30 am I got a cab to Parker's Piece to catch my 3 am bus to Luton Airport. After a 90 minute flight, I landed at Berlin Schonfeld Airport. The first thing I noticed was the lack of signs posted in English (even less so than Prague which surprised me). The theme of no English continued as I walked into the Shonfeld S-Bahn station and found that even the people at the information desk didn't speak English. After pointing out where I wanted to go, I got the very unhelpful response of "Ja! This train and change." I could not get an answer to where I was supposed to change so I got on the train assuming I could look at the map and figure it out. Unfortunately, that idea didn't work out so well because the public transportation maps are impossible to understand. The Berlin public transport system is similar to Prague's in the sense that it works on the honor system (until transport police actually check your ticket, but that never happened in either Prague or Berlin). Unlike Praha's three clearly marked and colorcoded subway lines, however, Berlin's system is impossible. In Berlin you buy one ticket that works for everything- trams, regional express trains, buses, U-bahn and S-bahn. There are absolutely no signs in English anywhere in train stations. Anyway, I miraculously found some people from London who also had no clue what was going on and we found a German guy who told us where we had to change. So we got off the train and waited for what we thought was the right train until another German guy told us that we actually had to go downstairs to get the train we wanted. So we finally got on the right train and got off at Friedrichstraße. That's where I left my new English friends as we headed in opposite directions. With my map in hand I assumed I could easily navigate my way to the Brandenburg Gate. My assumption was dead wrong. Luckily, I found an STA Travel office and got directions. Slightly late for my prebooked tour and furious that I couldn't navigate my way around the city, I booked it to the Brandenburg Gate and joined the New Europe Potsdam Tour.

The Potsdam Tour was a six hour tour and it was definitely not the best tour I've ever been on. It had a few interesting moments (including a stop at a nude beach because that was the best place from which to view the Marble Palace), but overall it wasn't that great. I'll give you some of the highlight. We went to the Bridge of Spies which is where the US and USSR exchanged spies during the Cold War. The bridge actually belongs to both Potsdam and Berlin so half of the bridge is painted by Postdam (light green) and the other half is painted by Berlin (dark green). Also, from the bridge you can see the former summer palace of the kaisers and right behind the palace is the movie production studio that produced several great films like The Reader and Nine as well as some terrible films like Inglorious Bastards.

After that we headed to Cecilienhof which is where the Potsdam Conference took place. One of the reasons they chose Cecilienhof (other than because Berlin was in ruins) was because it had enough entrances so that each of the Big Three (Stalin, Truman and Churchill/Atlee) could have their own entrance and wouldn't fight over who went first.

We also saw the original Brandenburg Gate (Potsdam is the capital of the State of Brandenburg) which is a whopping 21 years older than the more famous gate of the same name in Berlin. The last thing we saw was Sanssouci which is the former summer palace of Frederick the Great. Fred was quite the eccentric, but his palace was incredible. Voltaire lived in the palace for two years. Fred is also the man who introduced the potato into the German cuisine. He is buried at Sansoucci and at the end of the tour our guide gave each of us a small potato to place on his grave.

After the tour I was absolutely exhausted. I finally headed to my hostel, got some food and relaxed for the rest of the night. After a good nights sleep, I headed downstairs for free breakfast and then to the Starbucks near the Brandenburg Gate for the Third Reich tour.

Having easily navigated my way from the hostel to the Brandenburg Gate, I was in a much better mood than the day before and I really enjoyed the tour. The tour began at the Brandenburg Gate where our guide told us about Hitler's recorded entrance into Berlin. He entered at night carrying a torch and this was recorded, but the film was too dark to be used so they restaged the whole thing and rerecorded it two days later and then released this footage to the press.

We then headed to the Reichstag which was very impressive. By this time I was becoming more impressed with Berlin mainly because of the architecture of the few sites I had seen so far. Next we saw many WWII related monuments including the memorials to the murdered politicians, murdered Soviet soldiers, murdered homosexuals and, of course, the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. We also saw the planned location for the memorial to the murdered Roma, but that has yet to be completed. The stories behind the memorials were very interesting. The memorial to the murdered Roma is being kept very secret, but it is rumored that the design will incorporate black triangles because that is what the Roma had to wear on their clothing to signify that they were Roma. The memorial to the Soviet soldiers was the most impressive architecturally speaking. It is also the oldest of the memorials as it was built right after WWII ended and was completed before more other post war construction even began. Knowing perfectly well that the location of the memorial would be in the British sector when Berlin was divided, Stalin purposely had it built there so the British would never forget that it was the Soviets who first entered Berlin and liberated it from the Nazis. Revenge was had, however, when the street on which the memorial is located was renamed as "The 17th of June Street" so that the Soviets would never forget the day that the Soviet government directly ordered the murder of 250 citizens. The memorial to the murdered homosexuals was very interesting. It appeared to be just a large concrete block. When you move to the other side of it, however, there is a viewing window that looks into the block onto a film which shows two guys kissing. Also, the memorial was originally going to be in the same area as the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe which is right across the street, but it was decided that it should be in its present location to symbolize the isolation felt by homosexuals. Homosexuals were the most persecuted group after the Jews and in addition to suffering from Nazi persecution, they were also persecuted by homophobic prisoners in concentration camps. The memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe is a very modern looking memorial that is often thought to represent a mass grave. I was a bit upset to see people climbing on the blocks and jumping from one to another. I really didn't think it was appropriate behavior and the German government doesn't think so either as there is a list of rules governing behavior at the memorial. The Jewish-American architect of the memorial, however, disagrees with both me and the German government. He believes that if you don't allow people to act freely then the memorial will come to be the place where they go to think about the Holocaust, but it will leave their minds as soon as they leave the memorial. If, however, you allow people to act normally then the memorial will become ingrained in their lives and they will never forget. It's an interesting theory. The government has done away with two former rules governing behavior- no barbeques and no sunbathing (if you need to tell people not to do this at a memorial then something is seriously wrong).

After this we went to the site of Hitler's bunker. Being that the bunker is underground, you obviously can't see it, but we stood on the unmanicured plot of grass above it. It made me very unhappy to hear that most of the bunker has been destroyed. The bunker has been destroyed and the land above it unmaintained because of the fear that the site would become some sort of Neo-Nazi shrine to Hitler. This is understandable, but the fact that so much history has been purposely destroyed slightly sickens me. I also learned that Pink Floyd was once going to put on a concert at a nearby site and when security was looking for anything that could be hazardous, they found an old SS bunker with SS porcelain, portraits and weapons all totally intact. Once again, fear overpowered rationality and everything was destroyed because the German museum that was going to take the artifacts backed down because of the controversy surrounding them. On another note, I also learned that it is still illegal in Germany to give the Heil Hitler salute or to display a swastika anywhere. We then saw the former sites of Hitler's Chancellery and Propaganda Ministry. We also saw the former site of the SS and Gestapo Headquarters which were right next to a portion of the Berlin Wall that's still standing. When the Soviets came into Berlin and the process of denazification began, the SS and Gestapo headquarters were examined to determine if there was any danger in keeping them standing. Of course the Soviets determined that the buildings were unsafe and needed to be destroyed. The demolition team did not fully follow orders, however, and the foundations were left standing and simply covered over. The foundations were found years later and now there is an exhibition that goes along the foundations of the buildings.

Next we saw the Neue (New) Synagogue. During Kristallnacht, this building was set on fire, but one brave man ran over with a paper in one hand and a pistol in another claiming that he had direct orders that this building was to be spared. Of course, he had no such orders, but the fire was put out and the building was spared. Unfortunately, it didn't survive Allied bombing during the war and the only original piece of the building is the left tower. We concluded the tour at the memorial found at the Old Synagogue. The synagogue escaped Nazi destruction (but not WWII bombing) because it was attached to a post office, but it was turned into a prison. The Nazis liked to classify people and the Jews were put into two different groups. Those with 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents were Jews while those with 1 or 2 Jewish grandparents were "mixed race" or "mongrels". If these mixed raced Jews were married to an Aryan, Christian then they were sometimes spared. Many, however, were take to the Old Synagogue prison. Somehow, a group of women found out that their husbands were being kept there and went and started to protest. More and more Aryan, Christian women came with their children and parents to protest. Machine guns were aimed at them but they simply shouted "Murderers!" and the guns were taken away. Eventually, Himmler actually backed down and released the men. Later that night, I met some really cool people in my dorm from Australia, New Zealand, London, China and Japan. After dinner I headed down to the bar and grabbed drinks with a few of them. The Australian girl seemed so familiar. She graduated from Uni last year and is spending 8 months traveling and has been to Southeast Asia and is heading to South American after finishing up in Europe. She kept talking about taking things as they come even in regards to post grad work and career plans! Nick would have freaked out. It must be that laid back, no worries Australian mentality.

On Sunday I headed to the Brandenburg Gate once again and found a large group of people meditating in front of it. I also saw Free Hugs people and thought of Haley because she often does Free Hugs. I went on the Free Tour and our guide, Tim, was absolutely incredible. He is from England so we had a nice conversation about what I'm studying and why Cambridge is better than Oxford. The tour covered alot of things I had already seen in the Third Reich Tour, but there were plenty of other things I hadn't seen yet. One of the first things Tim mentioned was Hotel Adlon which is in Pariser Platz right across from the Brandeburg Gate. Apart from being the most expensive hotel in Berlin (8,500 Euro per night for the Presidential Suite), Hotel Adlon is where Michael Jackson hung his son out the window! I had no idea that happened there and was pretty excited to hear about it.

Tim also told us a square in the middle of Berlin came to be known as Pariser Platz (Paris Square). The square was renamed Pariser Platz after the Prussians overthrew Napoleon and captured Paris. Also, as another blow to French pride, the goddess Victoria, goddess of victory, is driving the Quadriga on top of the Brandenburg Gate and appears to be looking in the direction of the French Embassy. So, when you put it all together, you get Victory looking over Pariser Platz and the French Embassy=Victory Over Paris/France. Very clever. On this tour we also saw the former Luftwaffe (Air Force) Headquarters (today it's the tax office) and a memorial to the victims of the Massacre of the 17th of June. We briefly stopped at Checkpoint Charlie and then headed to Gendarmarkt which is the site of the Deutscher Dom (German Cathedral) and the Franzosischer Dom (French Cathedral) as well as the Konzerthaus (concerthouse) all of which are absolutely stunning buildings. The two cathedrals are essentially exactly the same, but it is often said that the German one is slightly taller just so the French knew who was really in charge. Next we saw St. Hedwig's Cathedral and Humboldt University. I had no idea how prestigious Humboldt University was, but some of my favorite historical people went there or taught there including Otto Von Bismarck, Bonhoeffer, Du Bois, Friedrich Engles, the Brothers Grimm, Haber, Hegel, Heisenberg, Helmholtz, Hertz, Kirchoff, Koch, Marx, Planck, Schleiermacher, Bernard Schlink, Schrodinger, Virchow and Einstein!! We also saw the Nazi Book Burning Memorial. There is a plaque on site with the following quote by Heinrich Heine- "Where books are burned, in the end people will burn." What's remarkable is that this quote is from 100 years before the book burnings. The memorial also features a window that looks underground through which viewers see empty bookcases. This underground room was built to be completely inaccessible in order to symbolize the knowledge and information lost because of the book burnings. Next we went to the Neue Wache (New Guardhouse) which is now a memorial for all victims of war and tyranny. The building houses just one sculpture- "Mother with Her Dead Son" and an oculus that exposes the sculpture to the elements so that when it rains it looks like the sculpture is crying. We finished up the tour at the Berliner Dom where Tim told us the incredible story of how the Berlin Wall fell.

After the tour ended, I headed to the airport. Of course my flight got slightly delayed so when I arrived back in London I ran up to the bus stop just in time to see my bus pulling away. Great. It was after midnight and I still hadn't finished writing my paper that was due at 9 am. So I went to the train station where I was told that if I wanted to get back to Cambridge before morning I would need to take a taxi to another train station and catch a train from there. So I did this and I got back to Cambridge around 2 am. I decided I would rest for 10 minutes before writing the rest of my paper and typing it up. Not a good idea. I fell asleep until 6 am! So I had less than three hours to finish wiritng more than half of my paper and type it up. I rushed through it and sent it in at about 8:40 thinking that it was absolutely terrible. This is the response I received from my professor today...

"Dear Nicole
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"

Apparently every paper that I write at the last minute turns out to be fantastic despite the fact that I usually think they are awful. I was also quite shocked by his knowledge of PC and Civ and I must be sure to find out how he knows about it. He's from England so I'm not sure why or how he would know about PC's Western Civ program. I just thought it was pretty funny since many people from America that I've met have never heard of PC.

I went to Formal Hall last night and it was quite good, but it was even better because we played Rock Band afterwards. Today in my history class Dr. Steinberg told us about the two times he has met Gorbachev. So cool. I'm starting to get really sad that PKP is coming to an end. I'm definitely not ready to leave Cambridge and all the incredible people I have met here.

A "Kwik" Update

Yesterday afternoon I played Kwik Cricket which is a high speed version of cricket and it was so much fun. I wasn't too good at batting but I was a pretty good bowler and I bowled someone out twice in one over (have fun figuring out what that actually means). The most enjoyable part of Kwik Cricket was being wicket keeper which is essentially like being a catcher in baseball. I'm really hoping I get another chance to play before I head home. I'll definitely have to look into get some cricket equipment at home. I have far too much work to do before I leave for Berlin at 3 am tomorrow morning so I should probably get started on my paper.

Cheers!

Prague: City of a Thousand Spires

Before I begin the story of my amazing weekend in the most beautiful city in the world (yes this is going to be a long post filled with Czech history, but it will certainly be interesting), I have to tell you about punting. As of last Thursday I still had not been punting. I was told that it was a sin that I had been in Cambridge for over a month and had not yet gone punting. I had wanted to go punting since before I even arrived in Cambridge, but all the organized punting excursions had taken place while I had classes. So I made up my mind that I would punt myself down the Cam. So on Thursday night Lauren, Marisa, Ami, Joyce, Katie and I went to the Porter's Lodge, got ourselves a key to the punts and headed down to the river. After struggling to unlock the punt, we finally settled in and I became the first punter of the evening. Punting, although it may look simple, is quite difficult particularly when the pole used to punt you down the river is more than twice the height of the punter. I moved us slowly down the river with a few bursts of speed (relative to the average speed of my journey) here and there. When I failed to properly turn our punt around so we could head back the other way, Joyce took over as punter and she was very good. Everyone else took turns punting while Oscar Wilde was read aloud. Overall, my first punting experience was very successful. And by successful I mean that nobody fell into the river. We did see some other punter fall into the river. He also lost his pole in the process and proceeded to jump back into the river (not a good idea) to retrieve it. Enough about punting...on to Prague!

On Friday afternoon Katie and I headed for the Cambridge train station with passports, railcards and boarding passes in hand to begin our journey to Prague. We arrived at Gatwick Airport, proceeded through security and then grabbed some lunch at an Italian restaurant. Our flight arrived in Prague around 9:30 pm and we headed outside to catch the bus. After a great deal of confusion over bus tickets (nothing was in English despite my arrogant assumption that everything would be in both Czech and English), the attempts of a taxi driver to rip us off and various encounters with sketchy people, we managed to get a bus ticket and get to the metro station. The Prague metro is way better than the Tube in London. There are only three lines which are conveniently color coded for those of us who don't speak Czech. The stations and trains are very clean and efficient and, in my opinion, far less sketchy than the Tube. We successfully navigated our way to the hostel and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found when we arrived. We stayed at Mosaic House which is a combination of hotel and hostel. We stayed in a 26 bed female dorm and it was great. Everyone basically had their own cubby since each set of bunk beds was in a cubicle type structure and had curtains that you could close for privacy. We settled in for the night because we had a long day ahead of us on Saturday.

Before I get into all the details of what we did and the things we saw, I have to make something quite clear- Prague is the most amazing city I have ever visited. Prague (Praha, in Czech) exudes every characteristic you associate with "European"- charm, beauty, history and more. Prague's indescribable charm is evident as soon as you enter the city. It's history is a fascinating story of kings, empires, wars, occupations and defenestrations (more about defenestrations later). Prague's beauty is difficult to describe but I think the best way to describe it is as a quintessential European type of beauty. It doesn't have the modern feel of London or the glitz and glam of Paris, but Prague is filled with stunning architecture, cobbled lanes and countless church spires and it is a place where east and west have converged. You can still feel hints of the 42 years of Communist rule in the industrial style architecture that has been mixed in amongst the Gothic and Renaissance style buildings of the city. Communist rule in Prague came to an end a mere twenty years ago with the fall of the Iron Curtain, but the city has come very far in the short span of time. Prague had been on the top of my list of places to visit for a long time and the city did not disappoint as I fell in love with it instantly.

We began Saturday morning by doing a little exploring on our own and we walked down to see the Dancing House. We strolled around for awhile, taking pictures by the river as we went. We soon navigated our way to Old Town Square and grabbed some breakfast at Starbuck's until it was time to meet up for the Free Tour offered by New Europe. While we were waiting for the tour to begin, we struck up a conversation with two cool students from Holland who are spending the summer travelling all around Eastern Europe. Our tour guide, Kate, was awesome. Kate is Australian and came to Prague right after finishing up at Uni in 1991 with the intention of teaching English for 6 months. She fell in love with the city and the man of her dreams, got married and has been in Prague ever since. The tour itself was very good. I don't usually enjoy tours since I would rather explore places on my own, but we got to see alot of the sites we wanted to see and hear some great stories about Prague's history and it was all free! We began the tour in Old Town Square where we saw the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, St. Nicolas' Church, the monument to Jan Hus and the Astronomical Clock. I want to briefly share some cool info about these few sites not really because I think you will actually care, but more so I don't forget the stories so here goes. The two towers of the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn are not the same size. They are known as the "Adam and Eve Towers" and Adam is supposedly bigger because it protects Eve from the weather...Kate thinks is just an excuse used for poor craftsmanship and mistaken measurements. The Jan Hus monument was erected to commemorate the martyrdom of Jan Hus who was burned at the stake in 1415 after propagating what the Catholic Church deemed to be "heretical views" (Hus was a key predecessor of the Protestant movement and his views greatly influenced Martin Luther). The execution of Jan Hus caused his followers (the Hussites...I never knew the name came from Jan Hus!) to become revolutionary and the Hussite Wars began a few years later. I had been looking forward to seeing the Astronomical Clock for some time so I have to tell you a few things about it. The oldest part of the clock was built in 1410. The clock is most well known for "The Walk of the Apostles" during which the 12 apostles can be seen (through 2 doors that open every hour) processing across the clock tower. There is always a large crowd gathered to watch this event, but most people, forgetting that the clock was built in the 1400's, are disappointed. It may not be very high tech to us today, but it was like the iPhone of the 15th century. On the sides of the clock dial and calendar there are a total of eight figures. The top four represent vices (or, more accurately, threats to Prague during the time of construction) and include vanity, the miser/Jew, death and a Turk. The lower four figures represent virtues (I'm not exactly sure how) and include a chronicler, an angel, an astronomer and a philosopher. So the clock is pretty cool and it is beautiful. There is actually a legend that claims that the town council had the clockmaker's eyes burnt out with a hot poker so that he could not make a clock for another city that would rival the beauty of fame of the Prague clock. The clockmaker got his revenge by cursing the clock so that it would not work and the clock did, in fact, stop working many times.

We continued our tour by walking to a building that would have been of particular interest to Nick- the Estates Theater. It was at the Estates Theater that the world premiere of Don Giovanni, conducted by Mozart himself, took place in 1787. It is the only theater left standing where Mozart performed. Our next stop was in Wenceslas Square which many of you have probably heard of before. The square was the location of many events of the Prague Spring of 1968. The Prague Spring was a period of reforms that occurred under Alexander Dubcek which lead to increased freedoms in the Communist society. This lead the Czech's to believe that Communist rule was coming to an end. Unfortunately, the Soviets eventually intervened and sent in military troops to crush the Prague Spring. In early 1969, a student named Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square to protest the renewed suppression of Communist rule. The Velvet Revolution, a non-violent revolution that lead to the overthrow of the Communist government, also occurred in the square in 1989. On November 17, 1989 the police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in the city and a rumor spread that a student had been killed (the person who was thought to be dead was actually a secret police agent and he was just pretending to be dead, but nobody knows why and he still refuses to say why he did it). This rumor sparked massive outrage and within three days over 500,000 people had flooded into Wenceslas Square in protest and the jingling of keys, a symbol of the unlocking of doors that were locked during Communist rule, were heard throughout the city. By June 1990 the Communists were out and Czechoslovakia had its first democratic elections since 1946. After this we headed to the Municipal House before grabbing a bite at the coolest bagel shop in Prague- Bohemia Bagel. So good. We also decided to go on the Castle Tour which was happening right after the Free Tour ended so we bought our tickets for that and then continued on with the Free Tour. We made stops at the House of the Black Madonna and the Franz Kafka monument and then continued to explore the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) where we saw the Spanish Synagogue, the Old-New Synagogue and the Jewish Cemetery. We also saw the Prague Metronome which is a functioning metronome constructed in the very spot where a huge Stalin monument used to stand and which symbolizes the time lost under Communist rule. We concluded our tour outside the Rudolfinum, home of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, said goodbye to our new Dutch friends and got ready for the Castle Tour.

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!