Cambridge pt. 4 - Wrapping Up

*disclaimer: as I am writing this I have just returned to the States so while I’m writing about all these things after they’ve long past, but hey there’re still stories to tell so read on. I’ll write one more after this (yeah kind of defeats the purpose of blogging while you’re overseas, but oh well these things take a while to write and I don’t have all the time in the world)

I leave in less than a week so things are certainly wrapping up (for me at least. The rest of the people are leaving next Friday because the last round of finals is next Thursday) It’s strange to consider the fact that we’ve all been here nearly 2 months now and now that we’re at a point where we’re comfortable with one another and are used to seeing each other on a daily basis it’s a shame to think that we’ll all be leaving soon. Just how things go I suppose. In any event, this past month has been a little less exciting that the first mainly because I’ve gotten used to getting around and have gotten comfortable with being here, but as I have found out there are always new things to see and experience.

Kayaking + Punting: Punting in Cambridge is probably the signature activity after visiting the various colleges. Much like Venice is characterized by going up and down the rivers in gondolas, Cambridge is known for the many punts that run up and down the River Cam, a tribute to a larger river that runs along the west side of Cambridge. The river itself is separated into two tributes: the lower and the upper river. The lower river is the more popular one as it runs past a number of the larger and richer colleges (King’s, Queens, Trinity, St. John’s etc.) and it’s because of the views of the colleges that the river offers that the lower river is typically packed with punts, especially during the afternoons. Typically between 11am and 4pm every day the lower river is filled with punts (at least 30 punts will go past if you sit in a spot for 10 minutes) which are filled with all sorts of tourists. Mixed in with the punts that are chauffeured by tour companies are people who have hired out private boats where they handle the steering themselves. Because there are no limits to how many punts can be on the river at any one time, there are some days where the river will have dozens of them. The smallest punts are designed to fit about 5 people comfortably, and the biggest punts fit up to 12 people. At night some companies offer a dinner on the punt so the 12-seat punts (which are the widest ones) will be retrofitted with a table where food for 2 can be placed and a couple can enjoy a nice evening meal on the river. It’s nice.

 I tried doing it once for about 20 minutes and I don’t find it too hard to figure out, but I can understand why some people would have difficulty with it. It is a good workout though because it takes some strength to push the boat forward, especially if you have 11 other people in the boat.

A punt, for lack of a better description, is a skinny, shallow boat that is maybe 15 feet? and is propelled by pole vs. an oar (which is what a gondola uses) Pretty much the punter stands on the back end of the boat and uses the pole to push against the bottom of the river and propel the boat forward (simple in theory, but in practice it’s actually pretty difficult to steer). It’s pretty funny watching some people try to get around because what typically happens is that people understand the concept of moving forward, but not necessarily in a straight line. What usually happens is that people do a zig-zag pattern along the river and bump into other boats + walled sides of the river a couple times. A lot of people are afraid that the punts will tip over, but in all honesty the likelihood of that happening is really low because the boats are usually wide enough and shallow enough that flipping over completely is not going to be a common occurrence. What does happen more often is that people will lose their poles in the mud (these poles are usually 20 feet long and are either made of wood or metal. The wood ones are more traditional, but you can get splinters from them if they’re old and wearing out) and if you happen to get stranded in the middle of the river with your pole floating away you either have to brave getting into the disgusting water to retrieve it or hope that another boat comes along and gets your pole for you.

All throughout the central square there will be a dozen or so employees of various punt companies who will hold boards advertising punting tours and asking every group of 2 or more people if they would “care to go punting today” or “if they are interested in going punting this afternoon” or some similar request. The cheapest fare is about 8-10 pounds for children, and can be as pricey as 15-18 for adults. Another company that I went on charges 60 pounds for the whole boat, but you can fit up to 12 people so it really depends on how many people you can organize at any one time. Students in our program however have a fortunate alternative: King’s College owns about 5 boats that residents of King’s can rent out for 4 pounds an hour and you can fit up to 6 people so it’s infinitely cheaper. Downside is that you actually have to punt yourself; a task that is harder for some than others. The tours the companies offer usually last 45 minutes and take you up and down a stretch of the lower river that run past the major colleges. During your time on the river the punters will typically give you a short history of the colleges or sites that you are passing by (granted, some companies provide more informative tours than others). The downside of punting past the colleges is that the banks that run from the edge of the river to the college grounds are pretty steep so if you want to take pictures of say, college buildings, your shots will be taken at odd angles and most of the time the bottom half of the buildings will be cut off.

I later found out that a lot of the punters who are employed by these companies do tours during the summer as a temporary job to help pay for tuition later in the year, and I must say it is pretty lucrative. As I mentioned earlier, the largest punts cost 60 pounds for a 45 minute trip, and sometimes the punter doesn’t even do the punting the entire time; he’ll ask people in the boat if they wish to try and while they do he gets to kick back. While the punters don’t receive the full 60 pounds, they still make a good amount of money considering that one can easily do one trip per hour for say a work day of 8 hours. I had a thought: a lot of Chinese people like to do punting tours, and thus far I have yet to see any Chinese punters giving the tours, so I think there’s definitely an employment opportunity. There are a couple dudes that speak French and a couple Spanish speakers, but otherwise the market for speakers of Asian dialects is still open.

Stonehenge + Bath: So I realize that being in Europe usually means – take advantage of being close to other countries and travel around as much as you can since you’re already there. I agree and if ever you find yourself here by all means go out and explore; personally, I decided that during my stay here I wasn’t going to go out of the country and instead just see England. I must say I’ve enjoyed it, granted I haven’t gotten to go everywhere I wanted to (trip to Liverpool was upsetted by the riots that broke out there after they broke out in London, and a day trip to Wales wasn’t worth the $100 train ticket). I did however get to visit Bath and Stonehenge and it was great.

There’s a local tour company that runs strictly out of Cambridge (if you’re ever here, check out Roots Travel Company) and the main tour guide lives about 15 minutes from my place. Anyhow, the company is small but it runs several day trips out of Cambridge to cities across England such as York, Windsor, and Bath and Stonehenge. I took the trip with one of my friends I met here and also found out on the day of that there were other people in my program going on the same trip so all together there were about 20 people including 8 people from our program. From Cambridge to Stonehenge the trip takes about 2.5 hours and the scenery is nice, but it was a rainy day so it’s rather grey. Stonehenge is…somewhat anticlimactic, but if you’re in the country you kind of owe it to yourself to check it out because it is world famous and it is actually a pretty impressive site when you think about it. The stones themselves sit in the middle of nowhere and it’s a little strange because in all directions of the rock formation are miles and miles of plain fields (which for the most part have been converted into agricultural land so there are cows and haystacks all around) In any event, there isn’t too much to see when you get there: there’re the rocks themselves which you can’t get that close to there’s a trail that runs all the way around the but closest you’ll get to the rocks themselves is maybe 20 ft., there’s a small gift store that sounds random junk, and a coffee stand that sells overpriced consumer goods. It is worth it to go once though especially if you’re already in the country because it’s so famous.

From Stonehenge to Bath you have to drive about 50 minutes…east I think it is. You drive through more green open space but apparently portions of that land are used by the British military for training purposes so while you drive you’ll see signs for pedestrian crossing, cow crossing, and tank crossing. Bath itself is an odd town sandwiched between several mountains so the buildings themselves are built in the valley as well as all along the mountain side. It’s a very beautiful city and it’s well worth the visit – the architecture is really cool and the city is very nice to walk around in as everything is pretty old but clean and the atmosphere is just very nice. The most famous attraction at Bath is the Roman baths (go figure…) which were built who knows how long ago, but pretty much what stands today is a significant portion of the original building which was this very large rock building where people could go to bathe in the natural hotsprings (it’s cool the ground still producing the natural hot water so while there is a standing pool in the baths themselves you’re not allowed to actually do anything in them. What has been developed is one of those modern saunas that feed off the natural springs, but naturally they charge I think 35 pounds for the most simple treatment so yeah…) The baths have also been converted into a museum where they display old artifacts from the time period of when they were still in operation and there’s more to see than you’d expect (it’s not free though so if you want to see it it’s 10.5 pounds) Other than the Baths, the city has some significant landmarks (Jane Austen lived here so you can go to a museum dedicated to her), there are some very rich and nice looking neighborhoods that other famous Brits such as David Livingston lived in, and there are small shops too but I didn’t have time to walk around much. Bath is a little far out from Cambridge it’s a 3.5 hour drive and I think from London it’s a similar distance, but definitely worth a visit.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theater: In addition to Edinburgh, our program offered one other trip that was included in our fees and that was a day trip to London. The day trips would happen every weekend so you could choose which one to go to. Over the course of the trip I visited London a bunch of times but this is what I did when I went with other PKP people. We left from Cambridge by bus in the morning and were there all day – they dropped us off in two main tourist attractions and from that point we were pretty much free to do whatever we wanted until night when we were to meet at Shakespeare’s Globe as the trip includes a ticket to see a play there. We had the choice of being dropped off at either the Tower of London (here is where the Royal Jewels are kept and in another time it was a big prison) or at Trafalgar Square (where the Harry Potter Premier was and where the National Gallery is located). I chose the former but didn’t opt to go into the Tower which is now a museum and luckily it was a nice day in London so walking across Tower Bridge (the subject of “London Bridge is falling down…”) and along the river was great. A group of us led by one of the PA’s walked over to the Borough Market (Jamie Oliver shops here for his produce) which is this large open-air market where you can buy all sorts of stuff, but mainly fresh fruit, flowers, meat etc. On this particular Sunday though they were offering this condensed version of the market (they’re usually closed on Sundays) where it was just one square with maybe two dozen stalls that sold a variety of stuff, but all food. It was a really great environment because they had hired a small band of 3 (upright bass, accordion, and clarinet) who provided mood music and there were stalls selling all sorts of stuff – you could get freshly shucked oysters, Turkish delight, tea leaves, fresh fruit, wheatgrass shots. And they sold old fashion slices of watermelon which was awesome (cut the long way) and artisan sandwiches composed of fresh bread, ham, and cheese. Afterwards we spent some time at Harrods (an awesome department store that is an absolute must in any visit to London), the Kensington Museums (3 museums – the Natural History, Science, and Victorian & Albert; all free), and then headed off to the Globe Theater. The globe itself is really cool: it’s an open air, circular theater that is constructed of wood and has a thatched roof and while I don’t know what the history of the place it, I imagine that it looks very similar to what it was like during Shakespeare’s time. We watched one of Shakespeare’s comedies “As you like it,” and like it was with Richard III there were definitely bits which I just could not understand. The performance itself was a lot of fun though it was a pretty small production (6 actors who played multiple parts) and there were musical interludes throughout the whole play which were great (the people were really multi-talented and could play violin, clarinet, harmonica, accordion, guitar, and spoons haha. Oh and they could all sing too.) The downside of the performance had to be our seats (or rather lack thereof) As the theatre is circular, the seats run all the way around, but there is a significant courtyard in the middle where people can stand for 5 pounds. It’s a nice experience, but really standing up for 3 hours is no fun. It’s kinda cool though the actors make use of that courtyard and walk through the crowd and it’s a good experience (granted we’re fortunate that it didn’t rain because it’s an open roof and during the performances umbrellas are strictly prohibited). Anyhow, if you ever get the opportunity, go watch a Shakespeare play at the Globe (they do perform other stuff that wasn’t written by Shakespeare and it differs from week to week so find something that suits you)

Riots: It was strange to hear on the news that riots had broken out in London because they broke out Sunday which was when we were there for the trip, but they were only in certain parts of the city. Over the next few days things certainly escalated and we found that the riots had spread to other cities (ie. Liverpool, even Cambridge) so we all got forwarded emails telling us to be very careful and to maybe cancel any plans we had made to the particular areas. It reminded me a lot of emails that we would get at Berkeley when there were odd protests or riots. In any event things got pretty serious in London as buildings were burning and there were mass lootings. In Cambridge it wasn’t a big deal: one night there was a group of about 20 teenagers who picked a fight with the cops but it wasn’t as drastic as the London riots; there were a lot more police around the streets though. I had a friend who was studying abroad at the London School of Economics and she told me that the whole city was crawling with police as the London City Officials apparently called in extra police from neighboring cities to handle the situation. Interesting stuff. 

Cambridge pt. 3 - Odd stuff happening around Cambridge

Whoa look at that a new post so soon? Finals just finished not too long ago and this week has been a lot slower once since new classes have begun and there isn’t too much work to do yet (at least for me) In any event, there have been almost 4 weeks separating today and the Scotland trip so here are some odd tidbits of happenings here and there throughout all those week

Harry Potter: The premier of Harry Potter was in London during our weekend in London so unfortunately none of us were able to go there and be with the crowd and see the cast and whatnot, but I did catch some of it on tv and it’s probably a good thing that none of us went. The premier was held in this big square (Trafalgar Square to be precise) right in front of the National Gallery, and while it is of sizeable dimension it can’t fit that many people. After adding in a fat red carpet and leaving room for cameras and whatnot there didn’t seem to be much space for the public to actually stand, and thus the only people who actually managed to get decent “spots” were there days before. Interestingly enough, the actual movie didn’t come out in general theaters until a week later (7/25). It was a pretty big deal even in Cambridge and a ton of people in the program did the whole let’s-get-midnight-tickets-because-i-can’t-possibly-wait-for-another-day-to-watch-it and given that there are only 2 local cinemas in Cambridge I know that some people actually took a train to London to see it. Personally I did want to see it but was in no hurry so I bought tickets to see it Tuesday the next week. Prior to my own screening I was hearing mixed reviews across the board: some people loved it and some people despised it. All I have to say is that the book was much better, and that there was so much potential for the movie to be amazing but it fell short in almost every single opportunity.

Richard III: Kevin Spacey has been the artistic director of the Old Victoria (“Old Vic”) theater in London for a number of years, and I got the chance to see him perform in Shakespeare’s Richard III a few weeks back (it’s the one that starts with “Now is the winter of our discontent…”. I think he does a performance in London every year, but in any event our program secured I think 20 tickets and so a group of us went to London one random Thursday night. It was a really cool experience because I’ve never seen a Shakespeare play live and it was a good production with good acting, but it was a little strange because they took the original play and put it in a modernized setting (so Richard III wore a modern military uniform and most of the characters wore suits. The language was unaltered though). We got the cheapest tickets so they had us sitting up in the balcony (it’s u-shaped, and our seats were on the opposite tips of the U if you can imagine that…) in any event it meant that my head was permanently shifted to the left for the entire performance so it felt a little weird after 2.5 hours. Honestly though I didn’t understand all of the language because Shakespeare is still hard for me to deduce sometimes so perhaps I’ll go read the actual play (although I highly doubt that that will happen in the near future)

Chinese Tourists: When I came to England I figured there’d be plenty of Europeans walking all over the place, probably a good population of Indian people, and given that it’s summertime, probably a decent mix of other people. What I did not expect in Cambridge however was a massive influx of Asian, particularly Chinese tourists. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad thing, I was just extremely surprised to see as many Asians here as there are. On most days, it’s like walking through Cupertino or perhaps Chinatown because there will be hundreds of Chinese people mixed in with the locals and other tourists, mainly on large tour groups, walking all over the city. And it’s not just adults and families; there are a ton of groups of young students (middle school age) and even older ones (high school and college) and they are just everywhere. It’s actually kinda funny watching them walk around sometimes because in every tour group, the tour guide will hold their respective token that helps identify to the group where they are. I think most of you know what I mean: they’ll hold up random, usually brightly colored items, that purposely stick out, and these objects will range from assorted umbrellas, posters, and the funniest one I saw was at a museum in London where the dude had one of those cheap, multi-colored “lightsabers” that they sell at amusement parks where it’s just a regular flashlight on the bottom and a series of plastic pieces that fold together.

What I found out was that there was once a very famous Chinese poet named Xu Zhimo who attended Cambridge (King’s College to be precise) back in the day and he wrote quite a few pieces about Cambridge and his work effectively put the school and the town on the map for Chinese people. It’s pretty cool – to commemorate his work the school petitioned the carving of one of his poems located beside the main bridge that spans the river into King’s College and it’s still there now (the name of the poem is Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again). Regardless, each day the rivers will be packed with punts containing dozens and dozens of Chinese tourists and they only all seem to disappear after 6pm.

This past month there’s been a group of Japanese students who I think are doing a special program also at Pembroke College. I think there are about 80 students and I’m not entirely certain of what they’re doing here, but they’re sharing some of the school accommodations with us. Sidenote: other than our program (PKP-Pembroke King’s Program) there have been other study-abroad programs from the states: in July there was a group mainly from UC Irvine that was here for 4-weeks, and for these first 2 weeks in Irvine there’s another group of students from the states who will spend 2-weeks here in Cambridge then their next 2 weeks I think in Sweden.

High Tea: So as popular stereotypes would be enforced, our program has organized weekly sessions of high tea where tea, coffee, and assorted snacks are provided in one of the rooms in Pembroke College. I realize that tea time is highly iconic of British Culture, and I must say it’s a very nice change of pace and I’m very glad that we have the opportunity to partake in the tradition while we’re here. What happens is pretty much you get together with people and dine lightly on: a variety of teas (to be taken with milk and sugar lumps), coffee, scones (laden with clotted cream and strawberry jam), cakes (dark chocolate, coffee, and berry), and random sandwiches (salmon, beef, ham, egg; these all kinda suck honestly). All the while you are expected to make nice conversation, and it actually is cool because sometimes professors and other important college people will stop by and chat with us (there will usually be about 30 people, but people sneak in all the time) We have one roughly once a week (there’ve been 4 so far I think and there will be 3 more) and we need to sign up because there is limited space (the room itself isn’t very big, but it’s nice: it’s one of those traditional spaces with decorated wood paneling, nice antique tables, some padded chairs etc.)

Golf: It turns out that just 15 minutes walk south of my place is a community golf course (community as in there’s no country club or whatnot; it’s meant for people to just walk in and play a game) so I went a few Fridays ago to play my first game of legitimate golf. I’ve held very particular reserves about golf. Personally I think the idea of maintaining golf courses is an extremely stupid undertaking that wastes a ton of water (seriously what sense is there in maintaining a green golf course in the middle of a desert aka Nevada?), it’s kind of elitist with the rich members of society buying into some expensive country club and spending odd afternoons putting their thousand-dollar set of clubs to actual use. It’s really boring to watch too. In all honesty, playing once hasn’t really changed my thoughts much, and perhaps it’s hypocritical of me to even play, but I must say I’ve always been curious to see what the big deal is about this sport so I figured this is a good opportunity to try. The course in Cambridge is pretty small: 9-holes, all 3-par, and a few odd lakes and sand traps; it’s compact, but it was nice because I still got the whole experience of trying to avoid ponds and whatnot. Needless to say I did not do terribly (finished with 42 strokes to a par 27), had quite a bit of fun, but still don’t particularly like the sport’s practices and customs

Plenary Lectures: In addition to our regular class lectures, the program has organized a series of plenary lectures to be given pretty much weekly by an assortment of smart and respectable people. It’s a cool idea because they have invited a very odd cast of people to come and speak with us, but in reality some of these talks have been kinda boring. All talks are given in the debating chamber of the Cambridge Union Society which is designed to look like British Parliament (so in the middle of the room is an open space, and chairs on both sides of this open space face one another). We started with a talk about “Why Cambridge is Unique” given by a professor who alternates teaching positions between Cambridge and UPenn (this one was pretty good, but the last half hour was terrible because when he opened the floor to questions it just got kinda lame). Next guy who came to speak with us was the ex-head of MI6 who spoke to us on the future of national security. Pretty good premise right? Too bad it was somewhat disappointing because he was really general about his predictions. There’ve been lectures by expert linguists, esteemed history professors, and other highly qualified individuals and their lectures make for a good change of pace, but attendance to these lectures have steadily declined…

Finals: Our first half of the program wrapped up in the last week of July. As a reminder: there are 3 modules – two 4-week sessions, and one 8-week session. We are allowed to mix and match depending on what classes you want to take and how your schedule works out. For July I was taking 2 classes: one 4-week and one 8-week so I’m done with my first 4-week class and a new one just started last week. Finals are 2-hours each and all occurred on Friday. It went alright but it’s a little strange: for finals they obviously spread us out, but the PA’s proctor us and wear their black gowns, and you’re not allowed to leave for the entire time even if you finish early. The test itself was alright…meh it’s done at least and that’s all that matters. In any event, I’m done with Behavioral Ecology and for this last month I still have my British culture class and I’ve started a new class on the history of the city from 1890-1990.

Doesn’t that all sound grand? 

Cambridge pt. 2 - Scotland

Part 2 of this comes a little late in the day seeing as the Scotland trip was a long while ago, but it was certainly noteworthy so here’re the details.

My oldest sister actually did this same program back when she was in undergrad and she told me that back then when the program had just been going for a few years (I found out from the program director that PKP: Pembroke-King’s Program, has only been going on for about 10 years) there weren’t really any organized trips besides a day trip to London which they still do. Somewhere down the line the people in charge had a good idea to ship everyone off to Scotland for a long weekend. At first it didn’t make much sense to me why they chose our very first weekend for a big organized trip but in all reality, it was a good move. The trip was basically the only thing that everyone in the program will do together besides the first and last formal, so it was a good opportunity to meet people, get to know them a little better, and travel together in a foreign land 

(sounds grand doesn’t it?)

For our first week we only had classes Monday-Wednesday so come Thursday morning they brought a fleet of busses (I think there were 6. Our seating assignment was based on where we lived with the first bus leaving at 8? and the last one leaving at 9. The annoying part was that the busses were of varying quality: some were the nice kind with toilets and spacious seats. I unfortunately got stuck in the cruddy, older one that wasn’t really designed for guys (or anyone for that matter) taller than, say, 5’4) and off we were on our 8 hour trip. Yeah…the bus ride was a bit much, but on the plus side the English/Scottish countryside was quite pretty to look at

The 8 hour trip was split into 2 bits. We’d drive for 4 hours, then stop at a town/attraction for 2 hours, then drive for another 4 hours. They split the attractions by bus so on the way to Scotland, 4 busses went to the town of Richmond while the other 2 busses went to Fountains Abbey, and one the way back they switched. The town of Richmond is one of those quaint little towns in the middle of nowhere and surrounding the town is fields for sheepherding and agricultural stuff (which most of the countryside is). Most notably in the town is an old castle that stands somewhat in the middle of the town. The castle (like much of the old stuff that still stands all over England) isn’t very big and is composed of a large(ish) keep and surrounding walls that have deteriorated over the centuries but still make for some nice photos. Other than the castle however there really isn’t much to do in town. The other stop was Fountains Abbey, again a very old stone abbey that stands in ruin in the middle of this really big park. The park itself contains the abbey as well as an old castle, gardens, pretty lakes, and serene landscapes that make for a nice view when hiking around.

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland located along the coast. It’s not a very large city (basically everything was within a 40 minute walk from where we were living) but it’s nice. You can see some of the ocean from the higher up parts and the whole city is on a series of hills so there’s a park/mountain to the east, another mountain to the west on which the castle stands, and a valley sort of runs through the center of the city and that’s where the train station is. Consequently it’s a little strange walking through the city because there’re some really odd streets that run up the hill, then you have streets that wind around them hills, and then you’ll cross some bridges that are pretty high up, but below you is a train station. Dunno seemed weird to me. It is beautiful though and the country itself is beautiful.

They had us all staying at one of the campuses of the University of Edinburgh which has I think three or four campuses spread throughout the city. Our particular campus was composed of mostly dorms and was located on the outskirts of the city right by the base of this big hill/mountain that we later climbed. Their dorms really, really nice, but because there are quite a few buildings were built in different decades the quality and condition of some of the buildings vary. Interesting to note: during the summer since all the local students are away, the campus operates as a hotel so guests to Edinburgh can live in the dorms and have their complimentary breakfast in the school cafeteria. Smart plan I think other schools should adopt a similar strategy. The campus had one central cafeteria and also operated a bar. Breakfast was complimentary, and everything else we had to pay for ourselves.

So some people in England like to eat fish for breakfast (called kippers) and personally I think it’s quite good but I might be an anomaly. Also characteristic of all the breakfast meals was black pudding (solidified blood basically) and vegetarian haggis (no idea how they made it vegetarian) but needless to say I stayed away from them. Probably due to the fact that I don’t really know anything about what to order when in Scotland, but the local cuisine didn’t seem to be anything special. Oh and Edinburgh is home to this place called The Elephant Café where J.K. Rowling apparently first wrote the Harry Potter saga and the café itself makes for a nice photo op but it was too crowded for me to actually want to sit down and order something.

Activity wise, the program organized several things for us to do and we could pick and choose. Option 1 was a trip to the Scottish countryside/Highlands (Trossachs) where you would go for a hike and be immersed in nature. Nice idea, but given that it rains a lot there the trail itself was extremely muddy and if you didn’t have the right shoes they recommended that you not go, so I didn’t. If I ever go back I’ll definitely try to do this. I did hear though that it was beautiful. Option 2 was a serious of attractions in the city of Edinburgh and the surrounding area.  One was a hike up Arthur’s Seat (the hilltop that I mentioned earlier that’s located right next to the dorms) The hilltop itself stands in the middle of this really big park so there’re a bunch of trails that go all the way around and up. It took us us about 1.5 hours to walk up and given that most of us hadn’t gone hiking in recent years and given that some of us were wearing attire such as rain boots the trip was a little more exhausting than expected, but the view from the top was amazing.  Other trips included a ride to the national gallery (nothing special just your typical art museums), excursion out of the city to Rosslyn Chapel (I think it’s mentioned in “The Da Vinci Code” but I haven’t read the book in a while so not sure), and a guided tour of the Scottish Parliament building (it’s alright)

Throughout the city itself there are odd museums that are all surprisingly small, street performers (which include old guys in kilts playing bagpipes. Gotta have these), some nice architecture, and a bunch of statues of famous people like Adam Smith. The other campuses of the University are spread throughout the city and while the one I believe is the main academic campus was under construction, the facilities are ok overall but Cambridge is better. There are a lot of pubs/bars all throughout the city (no surprise there), and the Castle of Edinburgh stands on the highest hill. It looks pretty nice from afar, but up close it’s less impressive and with a 14 pound entrance fee I figured it’s not worth going in.

Weather in Scotland is somewhat strange, but when it rains it pours and it sucks. It was mainly sunny in the morning on both days, but pretty much throughout the afternoon and sometimes in the evening there would be freak storms where the rain pours down ridiculously hard, rivers suddenly form all over the street and people suddenly start congregating under shelter. I was unfortunate to be caught outside during two of these downpours and it was most uncomfortable, but hey, welcome to Scotland.

One interesting experience was this…dance party that the staff organized. It’s not what you’re thinking exactly. The Scots call it a Ceilidh Party and it involves traditional music (drums, violin/fiddle, guitar) being played while traditional dances are danced. Traditional might be a stretch though seeing as they were using a modern day drum set but minor technicality. It was quite something to say the least. On our second night there they invited these 3 musicians to come to the dorms (we used one of their conference rooms located above the cafeteria) and we all (most of us anyhow) gathered together and went about learning a handful of Scottish dances for the next hour and a half or so. Not quite sure how long it was, but given how much activity was going on it felt like we were going on forever because for some songs they just kept playing and playing and playing and you just got too tired/sick of it after a while. There were maybe 200 of us all mixed together in the room and pretty much for every new song the 3 dudes would introduce a new dance and spend some time going through the proper motions/steps/whatever, then play for maybe 5-10 minutes. Putting myself out there, I must admit that it was quite a bit of fun, maybe because no one knew what they were doing but got into the spirit of things (more or less) and went along so it was enjoyable. It went on perhaps a bit too long though I don’t know how the musicians did it but they ended up playing for at least 2.5 hours by the end of the night but the grand majority of people left after the first half (myself included)

Overall I did enjoy Scotland a lot, but honestly I didn’t get to see too much seeing as I was limited to a single city over a long weekend. Is it worth a trip? Hm perhaps I think if you’re already in England you should definitely make a trip up. The city is very nice to walk around, but a long weekend is more than enough time to see everything. If not, I think there’s a lot more of Scotland to see so you could definitely make something from an extended stay, but at least for me I’m quite content. 

Cambridge pt. 1

So…I’ve never been a fan of blogging. I did once update(operate?) a xanga, something that I haven’t touched or looked at in years, and all things considered it was pretty sad (I think all I really did was post comic strips and pictures) In any event, I figured that given this opportunity I have to study abroad blog posts are probably the easiest way for me tell you all what’s been happening so that I don’t have to keep saying the same things to everyone (but I guess if you’re really curious or want further insights, gchat me) Heads up: this is probably going to be long, so if you are not too keen on scrolling through a bunch of text, feel free to skim, I won’t mind.

I’ve only been at Cambridge for 2 weeks (or a little longer since I started writing this), but thus far it’s been rather grand. It feels really strange though being back in the classroom and being at school in a different country, but I’ve very much enjoyed figuring out how things work and seeing what there is to discover.

General timeline: I arrived in Cambridge by train from London (~45 min.) on 7/2 and stayed at some odd youth hostel where a few other people in the program were also staying. Orientation/welcome day was the next day (7/3) starting at 10am and people trickled in all throughout the day. It really felt like freshman year all over again: people steadily arriving, everyone going through the customary “hi what’s your name?” + school + year/age + home etc. and in the back of your mind you’re wondering if you’ll actually be able to keep track of everyone’s name. We had a long weekend our first week so we all headed out to Scotland, but more on that later.

Lodging and the town of Cambridge: While I’m not actually living in one of the college dorms, I’m living on a street just south of Pembroke College. The street is a short one with houses on both sides, and pretty much every house is inhabited by students whether they be members of this program, Cambridge grad students, or some other variety. There are 6 other people in my house: 1 grad student, and 5 from my program. The house itself is 4 stories + basement/kitchen + small backyard and 1-2 people live on each floor. I’m not sure how things work during the actual school year, but everyone here has a single which is a little excessive because the rooms are really quite large. My own living situation is a strange case because I have 2 rooms that aren’t connected: 1 has my desk and chair, and the other my bed + dressers + table (I guess they didn’t know what to do with the smaller room so they just decided to split one completed room up) Oh and there’s an added luxury which isn’t really isn’t a luxury for people here because it’s a common activity that still fascinates me: every house or dorm has cleaning people that come and change your sheets and towels I think 3 times a week

Cambridge as a whole isn’t exactly what I expected, but it’s all good. It is essentially a college town, except the University of Cambridge is composed of 33 smaller colleges such as Pembroke that are dotted all throughout the city. Mixed in amongst all the school campuses are private residences, a river, churches, and surprisingly, quite a bit of tourist stuff. There’re a bunch of odd restaurants, clothing stores, and things like an indoor mall that really feel out of place. The school itself has been around for 800 years and it’s really cool walking up and down the streets (some of which are of the cobblestone variety) and looking at the different architecture and seeing how everything mixes together. I think my favorite spots so far are the bridges that connect a lot of the colleges to odd trails that run through parks because they give really good views of people punting and trees and ducks. The parks are nice too.

The who’s-who: The program is 340 students not including our staff. Staff is composed of I think 20 individuals all of whom study at Cambridge (but at different colleges) The students come from all over the place but most of them come from the States. There’s a good population of UC people (all campuses accounted for except Merced I think not sure though) with about 35 people coming from Berkeley. The other US students come from a bunch of states (Utah, North Carolina, Indiana, Hawaii etc.) and there’s also a good number of Ivy kids from Harvard and Yale (all the Ivy leagues minus Brown I think are represented here). There is also a good handful of international students: there’s a contingent of Indian people (it’s weird because there are people our age, but then there are also several adults/parents which makes for a really weird experience especially when they’re in your class), couple people from China and Hong Kong, met some guy from the Netherlands, France, and probably a few others that I can’t think of now. In any event going to classes and stuff with all these different people is a really cool and unique experience because each of us brings our own stories, areas of interest and expertise, and knowledge and we learn together. Granted, there are a lot of really smart people here and it’s strange sometimes being in class with them especially since they think differently and act differently in the classroom than what I’m used to at Berkeley. Other than the students and staff there are the people who serve us food in the cafeteria and lunch (some of them are great, some are really cranky) all of whom I’m vaguely familiar with at this point and the porters. I guess the easiest way to describe them is security guys? Dunno their roles are a little weird they’re a staff of I think 12 guys and every college operates a group of porters. They’re not porters in the traditional sense where they take your bags and whatnot rather they chill in their lodge (a room right next to the gate/heavy wooden door that serves as the entrance for every college) and handle everyday things like lock-outs, lightbulb replacements, advise, screening etc. they’re your go-to handy men who are all 50+ years old but they’re really nice and helpful.

Academics:  While I’m here I’m taking 3 courses that count as 3 semester classes (works out perfectly, but kinda sucks because while I’m taking all my classes for letter grades the majority of people here are only getting elective credits so they’re taking classes on a pass/no-pass basis). One class lasts for the entire 8-week and that’s my British Culture class which focuses on the Bloomsbury group: a group of intellectuals who gathered together and became highly influential on writing and theory and all that other intellectual stuff (yeah…); and then two 4-week classes. For the month of July I’m taking Behavioral Ecology: science stuff but it’s been a lot of fun because our experiments involve activities including feeding ducks and surfing through “dating websites” (craigslist) and making observations about animal mating systems. In August I’ll be taking the Development of the City, 1800-1900.

Overall the program offers I think around 40 courses? Rough estimate; but there’s a really wide variety which is cool. There’s your run-of-the-mill econ and finance classes but there’s also stuff like the history of spies, gothic architecture, and drawing classes, but probably the most unfortunate class is this math lab where you apparently just do problems for 4 hours at a time (including Saturday classes which only they have) Each class ranges from 10-35 people and are taught by professors or dr.’s or other people who are all affiliated with Cambridge so it’s a good mix. The schedules are extremely bizarre however as everyday and every week my class schedule is different, so one day I’ll have a lecture starting at 4:50p, but the next day I’ll have a lecture for the same class but at 9am.

All classes are taken either at King’s College (in random rooms with elaborate histories) or at the Cambridge Union Society Building (it’s essentially a big club-house for lack of a better term. The Union Society is Cambridge’s equivalent of the student body, but it’s more serious than our American version). The building itself is pretty old and it’s not really meant for classes but what they’ve done is clear out several of the rooms (dining room, pool room, part of the library) and added desks and chairs and portable screens and there’s your classroom. The Union Society building also has this big debating chamber where we occasionally hear lectures from famous people (so far we’ve heard from some professor from UPenn about Cambridge History and from the ex-head of MI6 who spoke about national security) Good stuff. Oh but their café sandwiches suck.

British Culture (cuisine included): Above all, I still just like listening to them talk. Hehe. But really it’s been really cool just walking around and watching/listening people (as creepy as that might sound). I’m still getting used to the way they say things (quite a few people I’ve ask don’t know where the restroom is, but they know where the toilet is) and I’m still getting used to how much it sucks to pay with stuff in pounds. Still getting used to the weather too (not sure if it’s a universal thing this year seeing as global warming has done weird things to weather) but it’s strange; one some days it will pour for half an hour, then clear up for a few hours, then pour and thunder again. Probably time to invest in a solid umbrella. The Brits also have an odd habit of closing up shop around 5pm everything weekend so it makes for a frustrating time when you need to buy something or say, find something to eat after 5pm.

Food as a whole is really…lacking and unimpressive, but that’s ok because I had zero expectations coming here so I’m not really disappointed. Fish and chips here are good (and you actually do need to add the salt and vinegar because they don’t typically flavor the fish) and the meat pies remind me a lot of stuff I used to eat in South Africa which is awesome, but other than that it’s rather lackluster, especially the food served at the school cafeterias. We are each given a set amount of money for the duration of our stay, and unfortunately at the rate I’m going I’ll likely be done with 3 weeks still to go. Lunch is typically a Panini ordered at the Pembroke Café (a really nice little place tucked in the back of the college amongst the dorms that serves hot sandwiches, coffee, and alcohol if you wish); the alternative being some gross cold sandwich from the union society building. Dinner is served in the Pembroke cafeteria and while the food isn’t bad (selections vary daily: they’ll have fish, local English favorites like toad in the hole: sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding, meatloaf) it’s just not very good, and it’s expensive. Meals are paid per item so things add up pretty quickly.

One awesome occasion though is formal dinner. So apparently it’s a common tradition for the students to get dressed up (suit and tie/dress) and enjoy a nice(er) dinner (candles and clothe napkins and all) in one of the grand dining halls. Before the meal of course you must have drinks: a choice of red or white wine (taken from the college cellars, I’m told that every college has one) or juice, served to you by waiters in glass goblets; and all taken casually on the lawn usually overlooking the entire school around dusk where the students are expected to mingle for a while with their drinks in hand. The English certainly know how to do things right. The meals are taken in a grand hall (think Harry Potter) where a prayer in Latin is said before food is served (and everyone stands up for this) and the meal that commences is usually of the three-course variety with coffee/tea served at the end. Our program makes the first and final dinners mandatory, and then during the program we choose 3 formal halls to attend that are held either at Pembroke or Kings (sad part about Pembroke: their dining hall just started renovations the weekend before we arrived so in the meantime they have set up tents which will have to suffice for our stay)

I remember thinking to myself “what the heck am I doing here…” on the first formal hall (which occurred on day 2) as I stood on the lawn of Queens College. Here we are, an odd mix of students from all over the world, standing on a well kept lawn in Cambridge during the summertime, sipping wine, wearing suits, and making conversation. There is something strangely surreal about being here and there are times where I can’t help but feel out of place. In spite of that though, I try to remind myself of this great privilege and how blessed I am to have this opportunity, and seeing as I’m only here for a few months I might as well try to make the best of it and enjoy.

So I’ve written plenty, but there’s more to tell, but I suppose that will have to wait for another day.

Oh, and it’d be nice to hear from you all. I still very much enjoy getting letters in the mail there’s something extremely satisfying and nostalgic about it all. My address while I’m here is
Jeremy Pi
Pembroke-King’s Programme
King’s College
Cambridge
CB2 1^ST
UK

As an added incentive…if you can find time to write me I can guarantee that I will write back (handwritten letter, stamps, the whole shebang) before I leave