Two things have occurred thus far since I last posted. The first being that as I suspected, there hasn't been quite as much adventure the past few days, not in the exciting lets post on my blog about it sense anyway. The second is that time is indeed picking up and moving much quicker. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but the first week felt like it was a month long. This week has gone by much quicker; it has still been just as great, but for different reasons.
Monday was certainly the most uneventful day. I had lecture at 9 and that was my only class for the day. I spent the majority of the day in my room skimming through scientific articles on addiction and reviewing notes from lecture. I am here to study, after all. I did purchase a man-purse. My friends have suggested that it is actually a satchel or a "carry-all", though it possibly meets the criteria of a manpurse. It's a manpurse, that's my ruling.
Things got a bit more interesting in Tuesday's lecture. Seminar was earlier in the morning and fairly uneventful. In lecture we finally began covering the specific effects of certain drugs (the first up was psychostimulants-cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine). At the end of the class he went to assign presentations for seminar, and it made me a bit ill. Not towards the professor, or the fact that I had to do extra work (I don't mind, it forces me to become even more acquainted with the material and I get more experience presenting). But towards the laziness or lack of devotion of my fellow students. It goes to show that no matter how smart you are, you can still be lazy as a sloth. What he does here is assign an article to two students (two different articles) and they make a powerpoint presentation for seminar and present it and answer questions about it. He had assigned the first one, and then for the second presentation he wanted done he actually wanted two articles presented. He asked if anyone else from group 1 had not presented (Group 1 and Group 2 were originially 15/15 students. There were course conflicts so some people had to switch from 1 to 2, and this opened the door for the particularly lazy students to switch to 2 for the safety of number and to sleep in later. Group 1 now has 8 students and Group 2 has 20 or so). There was one girl who had not presented, but she didn't speak up, so he then assigned the two papers to me. No big, whatever, I can deal, and as I said, more experience for me. He then went through three people in group two who all had excuses that for some reason he accepted. They were "It's my birthday." Then grow up. "I don't have a laptop yet so I can't make a presentation." If only they had a bank of computers where people could just go and make use of them when they needed to work. They might call it a COMPUTER LAB. "I have to work on a midterm for another class." Yeh, which is due Friday, cry me a river. Someone finally volunteered to take it. Talk about things that burn me up.
I went back to my room after grabbing a Hoi Sin Duck baguette (I usually eat some sort of baguette from the cafe for lunch--I can take it back to my room and no matter what kind I get its delicious). I set out reading my two articles. If you know anything about reading scientific articles, it can take a bit of time to truly grasp everything they are saying. I have found that the best method for really getting the articles is to make the painstaking original read of them and then come back an hour or two later and things will just fall into place. It probably took me 30-45 minutes to get a good read through both articles, and at this point after being in my room all day the day before I was ready for an adventure. I got some bearings bout where ASDA was and set off on an adventure.
The store was about 1.7 miles from where I am located. As I am not about to use a taxi or bus while my feet work, it was a bit of a walk when made roundtrip. I found my way to the store with relatively little difficult, but I did end up with a nice little cut in my left forearm about 4 inches long from where I walked too close to a pole and something protruding from it just ripped me open. I liked the area that I got into because it was out of the middle, touristy part of Cambridge. There was a lot of housing, almost suburban areas. The shopping centre with ASDA had several other shops, including a TJMaxx. The ASDA was wonderful though. You see, buying things in Cambridge is more expensive from a quantitative standpoint. That is to say, the amount you pay is more before you figure in the exchange rate. At ASDA it seemed that things were at least quantitatively the same, and in some cases a bit more like equality. It was nice. I didn't really have anything particular in mind to get, I just wanted to see how the prices were and I needed to get out. I did find some q-tip equivalents (gotta clean the ears, man) and snagged a bottle of rum. It was the first litre I've purchased here, most things at the grocery stores in town are 70cl. I actually got carded, and the lady was a bit suspicious of the ID. Go figure.
Once I got back to my housing I began work on my presentation. I was a little over halfway done when Brenden and Sean stopped by to chat for a moment. Brenden told me that he had a friend from Harvard who was staying in his room for a few days that was going around doing shows in pubs and such in England and later Scotland (If I'm up there when he is I'll have to go see him) and the was going to put on a show for friends at 9 in his room if I was interested. Live music in the room above me? Hell yeh I'm interested! I managed to get through most of the rest of the presentation in time to go up there and meet him and all before it started. His name was Dan Masterson, and I think he's got the talent to take it somewhere if he stays with it. There is a video of one song he did in the pictures in the Cambridge album. I bought an album from him, it was one of the first 100 made so it was numbered and he signed it to me. Pretty awesome I think. He mentioned that he would like to get around to Universities and play, so I plan on contacting Jeff Constant sometime soon to let him know about him and hopefully get them in contact.
Today it was really hard to get out of bed. It always is when you know you actually have to do something, like present. Luckily I've realized I need something with a little more sustenance than dry Frosties for mornings when I won't be able to eat until after 1. I acquired some sausage rolls from Sainsbury's and have been eating 3 for breakfast on such mornings. I'm still trying to cut down on my food consumption, I know I was eating too much before I came here. And with the amount of walking I've been doing, I do feel a bit better. But I digress. The presentation and all went pretty well. There was a moment at the beginning of seminar that is worth comedic note, though.
The PA had arrived a bit late to open the room and set up the projector. The projector was on, but he was having no luck in getting it to display the image from the macbook. He was getting quite irritated and hitting buttons mutliple times, and suddenly it displayed the image. "Aha!" he exclaimed with a smile. "Vhat did you do to make it verk?" Asked Zoltan. "I pressed the button 20 times." "Zo you prezzed de button twenty times and den it verked?" "Yes!" And the PA took his leave. Afterwards, someone from the group at the table said, "FR20!" (fixed ratio 20--20 lever or button presses are required for the rewarding effect). Zoltan followed up with, "And you zee how happy it made him vhen it verked? The next time he comes into this room he will immediately go to zat button and prezz it twenty times." This is probably one of the funniest things that has happened since I got here.
After seminar it was time to go punting. If you don't know what punting is, it is where you get into a punt, a fairly flat boat that holds 5 or 6 people, and someone stands on the rear of it and uses a very long pole to maneuver the boat through the water. This was quite fun, as we go to ride for a while to see the backs of several of the colleges, and then we got to try to punt ourselves. If you know me you know I can barely stand on a skateboard, so the initial balancing was not easy at all. It really wasn't bad after you got yourself balanced though. Right after I was given control though there was a huge traffic jam. Jon said I did pretty good in dealing with it, Didn't lose my cool and just kept trying to push through it. We got through it and went a little ways, and then a big punt came up from the rear and gave us quite a nudge. I saw it just as it was happening, so as I began to fall I jumped downwards into the open area below the punting platform and avoided an unintentional swim. Belinda and Jared told me later that it really looked like I was going to lose it and the save was impressive. After that I handed the punt over to Captain Watson, and later both Belinda and Jared gave it a go. It was great fun, and the punts can be rented from the university for 4 pounds an hour. If you have a group of 4 or 5, that's hardly anything. I definitely plan on doing it for fun with some other people later on, and Sean and I plan to rent a canoe at some point and make a bit more exploitative trip on the Cam.
The rest of the day was uneventful. I prepared my midterm a bit, slept, ate, and went to a plenary lecture by a retired head of Mi6 who is now the Master of Pembroke College (the college which I claim as mine). The lecture was interesting, though it just covered issues that I am not particularly familiar with or interested in. I guess that is bad as the lecture was on National Security in the 21st century. Something that I have come to realize is as being a chemistry major I just don't have many interesting things that people want to talk about. I mean I love some chemistry, but I'm one of the few. Compared to the arts students who study the classics, or the economists and social sciences that are up on current events. They do have much more interesting things to speak about or entertain a group with. I don't suppose I should feel bad about this, it is just something that I've begun to realize.
Tomorrow will be filled with mid-term paper writing and a formal hall in the evening. Don't forget to check the pictures, I added a few to Cambridge and made a new album. All albums are also now set to show the newest pictures first. Cheers!
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Sunday, 10 July 2011
July 9th and 10th--The Scottish Capital and the Journey South
I got a fairly decent amount of sleep Friday night. Even though the hike wasn't very strenuous, it still took a good bit out of me. I awoke fairly early and had an absolutely delicious breakfast in me by about nine. There was an itinerary set up for the day to meet in groups to do things, but the group for Arthur's Seat left at 10:30 and I really didn't want to wait that long and decided to trek out myself. I saw Mims at reception and checked with her to get a general idea of the path (I probably would have asked her even if I had known, because I think her accent is my favorite of all of the English I've met so far. I kind've want to just hand her Harry Potter and ask her to read it to me and see what she says). It wasn't hard to find, I mean its a giant hill overlooking the city.
I didn't make it all the way up to Arthur's Seat, through reading maps later I'm pretty sure I just didn't continue far enough to get to that particular path. The path I walked was probably only 75 feet or so lower than the Seat, so I felt pretty satisfied and my feet hurt a good bit. You can see the pictures, they are quite spiffy I think. After walking on the overlook I continued up behind Scottish parliament and on into the city. I stumbled across the Museum of Edinburgh and had a look around it. If you know me you know I've never been a big history fan. I didn't really read much, rather just look at all the shiny and interesting things. Afterwards I set my sights on the Scottish Museum. I spent several hours in this one, it was much more extensive. Check out the pictures of the swords and such. It's pretty intense. I'm guessing the early Scots must have played final fantasy.
I stopped in a sandwich shop on the way out of the museum on the way to Brewdogs. It was really one of the more authentic feeling things I've done thus far (but then again, I don't really know authentic). It was a small sandwich shop with a cute Scottish girl behind the counter. I picked out my bread from where I was and handed it to her, she cut it and made the sandwich (ham, roasted peppers, and mozzarella). She toasted it, brought me tea, and I ate my sandwich whilst drinking tea. It was tasty and relaxing. I then set off for Brewdogs, a bar my friend William informed me was in the area. It was in the lower part of the city and it took me a bit to find, but when I did, a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
Really, it was some tasty beer. It is a "punk bar". The music the play is pretty punky and it has a bit of a punkish theme to it. I told the bartender what I liked and he let me try a few different brews before I settled on Punk IPA for my lunch brew. So tasty. Brewdog is a UK beer maker that makes some different sorta beers. One is about 41 % alcohol, called "Sink the Bismark!" and another is "Nuclear Tactical Penguin" ranking in at 32 % alcohol. These beers are drank by the nip, which is basically a shot. The idea is you sip on it, then sip on another beer which compliments the taste. I was allowed to sniff the cork from the Nuclear Tactical Penguin bottle, and let me just say that it smelled magical. The bartender put the cork back in the bottle and a few drops even splashed on me. I felt honored. Anyway, there was a bit of a sad point to this fabulous bar. This is to the best of my memory what the bartender said, just be sure to read it with a Scottish accent,
"The location is just no good. There are clubs around and there are lots of stag parties. We get some people in here like you looking for good beer, but we get a lot of people that just stumble across it looking to get wasted. They'll order 5 nibs of nuclear tactical penguin and just shoot it. It's just such a waste, but its my job and I have to give it to them. Then they get sick and throw up everywhere and make a bloody mess and we have to clean up after them."
After Brewdogs I bought a few souvenirs and headed back to my housing for a nap. Just as I got settled in the clouds settled in with a nice storm. Some would say I wasted part of my day by sleeping while in Edinburgh, but that was such a blissful nap listening to the rain and thunder. After napping I gathered my things a bit and headed back out in to the city. Where? To Brewdogs, of course. I was really going to meet a family friend, Jacqui King, at Ghillie Dhu for some live music, but I had time and wanted to try another of Brewdog's brews. This time I got the Alice Porter. It was exceptional as well, I've never had a beer so dark that was so drinkable. And by dark I mean this thing was absorbing all the light in the room like a black hole. Afterwards I wandered around downtown Edinburgh, stopped at a subway for a sandwich, and eventually found Ghillie Dhu.
Jacqui met me there, my first time meeting her in person, but she seemed like family I've known for some time. Her long time friend Kevin was there, along with several other fellows and the bounciest lady I've ever seen. The music was great, and I actually got to hang out with some real Scots (I seriously doubt that many people from the programme I'm in can say they did that!). Jacqui is into the music scene and many of her friends play as well (as you may or may not know I am into music a bit myself). The plan is that I will visit Edinburgh again in the fall, and one of the things I want to do for sure is go to the proper jazz club to see some improv and such. The band that played was good, but they were playing what I guess you might call well known American jazz classics. The people in the bar certainly didn't have any shame for dancing either. To be honest if I had had shoes that weren't hiking boots and my feet hadn't been close to blistering I probably would have gotten up too.
The music ended about 12:30 and Jacqui had to go so I did too. I was a bit inebriated, and I have never gone back to my housing the way that I was to go that time. I did have my map, but I found it quite difficult to read. I believe it was about 2 miles away. I really should have just called a cab. I did make it back eventually. I packed a few things and passed out to wake up about 5 hours later. I got everything together and went and enjoyed my last delicious buffet breakfast. All good things must come to an end, I suppose. The coach left shortly after 8.30 and we were on the road again. The trip was filled with good chat or decent sleep. We stopped in Richmond to tour the castle and grab lunch (fish and chips....so delicious) and then I got some cake for the bus. It was absolutely delicious cake. Shivani more or less had to make me stop eating it, as I was approaching sugar coma but my tastebuds just wanted more. We eventually arrived home and I grabbed the washer and a shower as soon as possible to avoid any potential queue. Next week we begin classes in earnest.
Things are likely to slow down a bit now, but I will still keep at least a short tab on things even if it was uneventful. There is still more to come though, as I still have another trip to Edinburgh and two trips to London in the planning.
I didn't make it all the way up to Arthur's Seat, through reading maps later I'm pretty sure I just didn't continue far enough to get to that particular path. The path I walked was probably only 75 feet or so lower than the Seat, so I felt pretty satisfied and my feet hurt a good bit. You can see the pictures, they are quite spiffy I think. After walking on the overlook I continued up behind Scottish parliament and on into the city. I stumbled across the Museum of Edinburgh and had a look around it. If you know me you know I've never been a big history fan. I didn't really read much, rather just look at all the shiny and interesting things. Afterwards I set my sights on the Scottish Museum. I spent several hours in this one, it was much more extensive. Check out the pictures of the swords and such. It's pretty intense. I'm guessing the early Scots must have played final fantasy.
I stopped in a sandwich shop on the way out of the museum on the way to Brewdogs. It was really one of the more authentic feeling things I've done thus far (but then again, I don't really know authentic). It was a small sandwich shop with a cute Scottish girl behind the counter. I picked out my bread from where I was and handed it to her, she cut it and made the sandwich (ham, roasted peppers, and mozzarella). She toasted it, brought me tea, and I ate my sandwich whilst drinking tea. It was tasty and relaxing. I then set off for Brewdogs, a bar my friend William informed me was in the area. It was in the lower part of the city and it took me a bit to find, but when I did, a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
Really, it was some tasty beer. It is a "punk bar". The music the play is pretty punky and it has a bit of a punkish theme to it. I told the bartender what I liked and he let me try a few different brews before I settled on Punk IPA for my lunch brew. So tasty. Brewdog is a UK beer maker that makes some different sorta beers. One is about 41 % alcohol, called "Sink the Bismark!" and another is "Nuclear Tactical Penguin" ranking in at 32 % alcohol. These beers are drank by the nip, which is basically a shot. The idea is you sip on it, then sip on another beer which compliments the taste. I was allowed to sniff the cork from the Nuclear Tactical Penguin bottle, and let me just say that it smelled magical. The bartender put the cork back in the bottle and a few drops even splashed on me. I felt honored. Anyway, there was a bit of a sad point to this fabulous bar. This is to the best of my memory what the bartender said, just be sure to read it with a Scottish accent,
"The location is just no good. There are clubs around and there are lots of stag parties. We get some people in here like you looking for good beer, but we get a lot of people that just stumble across it looking to get wasted. They'll order 5 nibs of nuclear tactical penguin and just shoot it. It's just such a waste, but its my job and I have to give it to them. Then they get sick and throw up everywhere and make a bloody mess and we have to clean up after them."
After Brewdogs I bought a few souvenirs and headed back to my housing for a nap. Just as I got settled in the clouds settled in with a nice storm. Some would say I wasted part of my day by sleeping while in Edinburgh, but that was such a blissful nap listening to the rain and thunder. After napping I gathered my things a bit and headed back out in to the city. Where? To Brewdogs, of course. I was really going to meet a family friend, Jacqui King, at Ghillie Dhu for some live music, but I had time and wanted to try another of Brewdog's brews. This time I got the Alice Porter. It was exceptional as well, I've never had a beer so dark that was so drinkable. And by dark I mean this thing was absorbing all the light in the room like a black hole. Afterwards I wandered around downtown Edinburgh, stopped at a subway for a sandwich, and eventually found Ghillie Dhu.
Jacqui met me there, my first time meeting her in person, but she seemed like family I've known for some time. Her long time friend Kevin was there, along with several other fellows and the bounciest lady I've ever seen. The music was great, and I actually got to hang out with some real Scots (I seriously doubt that many people from the programme I'm in can say they did that!). Jacqui is into the music scene and many of her friends play as well (as you may or may not know I am into music a bit myself). The plan is that I will visit Edinburgh again in the fall, and one of the things I want to do for sure is go to the proper jazz club to see some improv and such. The band that played was good, but they were playing what I guess you might call well known American jazz classics. The people in the bar certainly didn't have any shame for dancing either. To be honest if I had had shoes that weren't hiking boots and my feet hadn't been close to blistering I probably would have gotten up too.
The music ended about 12:30 and Jacqui had to go so I did too. I was a bit inebriated, and I have never gone back to my housing the way that I was to go that time. I did have my map, but I found it quite difficult to read. I believe it was about 2 miles away. I really should have just called a cab. I did make it back eventually. I packed a few things and passed out to wake up about 5 hours later. I got everything together and went and enjoyed my last delicious buffet breakfast. All good things must come to an end, I suppose. The coach left shortly after 8.30 and we were on the road again. The trip was filled with good chat or decent sleep. We stopped in Richmond to tour the castle and grab lunch (fish and chips....so delicious) and then I got some cake for the bus. It was absolutely delicious cake. Shivani more or less had to make me stop eating it, as I was approaching sugar coma but my tastebuds just wanted more. We eventually arrived home and I grabbed the washer and a shower as soon as possible to avoid any potential queue. Next week we begin classes in earnest.
Things are likely to slow down a bit now, but I will still keep at least a short tab on things even if it was uneventful. There is still more to come though, as I still have another trip to Edinburgh and two trips to London in the planning.
Friday, 8 July 2011
July 8th, the Valley of the Goblins
I got up early this morning as normal. I like to make sure I have plenty of time and I usually arrive places at least 10 minutes early. I sat with Austin and two of his friends at breakfast. I have no idea at all what their names are. I have learned something about my memory of names during this trip. I remember names through the memory of the image of their named spelled out. When someone tells me their name and it is not a name that I can spell in English I have no chance at all of remembering it. With the number of non-English people on this trip, there are many people's names I have had to ask many many times and still cannot remember.
I was leaving at 10 to go to the Trossachs and hike. At breakfast Austin asked me about this and told me they had told his bus that both of the groups were leaving at 9, instead of one at 9 and one at 10. This was at 8.40. I immediately left breakfast and went back to my room to gather my things and run towards the bus. I made it in plenty of time, but they did both indeed leave at 9. It was supposed to be announced on the bus, but no one bothered to on ours. I am quite grateful that I sat with an inquisitive and helpful group at breakfast, otherwise I would have had no idea.
Now if you'll remember, I was rather irritated about the whole Trossachs sign-up ordeal, what with how I had to fight and only managed to get the very last available seat. Well, in my own little vindictive way I got complete retribution. Those same people that were sitting up there signing up numbers and numbers of people were the same ones that obviously paid no attention to what the trip was going to be like. We were warned that it was actually going to be a hike. That you shouldn't wear shoes that you don't want to get quite muddy. That the trip would involve some steep bits towards the end. For instance, take the girl beside me for example.
"I really hope these shoes don't get too dirty, I just bought them before I left." (She is wearing white tennis shoes.)
"Are you kidding me? They are going to be brown. We are going hiking in the mountains. In SCOTLAND."
People just don't listen. Apparently a lot of them thought it was going to be a nice path all the way up the mountain, which wasn't the case. To be honest, it was unlike any hiking I'd ever done. We were in a group of about 100 people. Once we got to the real trail, well, there wouldn't have been a path, had 100 people not tread on it before me (I was at the end with all of the BYU or BYU+ as the group of us that chooses to associate the most with the BYU people have been deemed). There was more mud than I've ever seen for such a stretch, but I guess that is what you get with the weather. We were told by the hiking guide before we got off the bus that we were likely to experience all four seasons, and he was right. At one point I could see my breath, and at one point it was uncomfortably warm. Be sure to check the pictures from this trip, as they should be brilliant if they capture even half of what I saw.
It was only a 2 mile hike there, and then 2 miles back, but it took 2 hours both way due to the size of the group. The short hike was an all day affair, as the bus ride there also took about 1.5 hours there and then 1.5 hours back. It was totally worth it though, I would much rather see the wilderness and nature of an area than the urban part if given the option, and tomorrow I will have a chance to see a bit of the city anyway.
Though I lost sight of my feet multiple times beneath the mud the dry sanctity of my socks was never violated. I was probably one of about 10 in the group of 100 that had actually worn proper footwear and had such a nice foot haven. I felt no pity for them.
After returning to my housing I found a shower on another floor (many people had gone hiking on my floor and thus there was a large shower queue...only a floor up and on the opposite shower there was no queue). I went to check out the Ceilidh (a traditional Scottish party) after getting washed up. I took advantage of the free drinks and watched a few dances. Not only were my feet tired, but there just wasn't anyone there that I wished to dance with. If my girlfriend or anyone I was closer to had been there I would have loved to try it, but not with the people I didn't really know all that well. This is neglecting the fact that the only shoes I had were hiking boots. All in all, it was fun to watch for a few dances, but I don't regret the fact that I skipped out pretty early. I can say I went to one, even if I didn't dance.
Tomorrow we'll see what the city of Edinburgh is hiding.
I was leaving at 10 to go to the Trossachs and hike. At breakfast Austin asked me about this and told me they had told his bus that both of the groups were leaving at 9, instead of one at 9 and one at 10. This was at 8.40. I immediately left breakfast and went back to my room to gather my things and run towards the bus. I made it in plenty of time, but they did both indeed leave at 9. It was supposed to be announced on the bus, but no one bothered to on ours. I am quite grateful that I sat with an inquisitive and helpful group at breakfast, otherwise I would have had no idea.
Now if you'll remember, I was rather irritated about the whole Trossachs sign-up ordeal, what with how I had to fight and only managed to get the very last available seat. Well, in my own little vindictive way I got complete retribution. Those same people that were sitting up there signing up numbers and numbers of people were the same ones that obviously paid no attention to what the trip was going to be like. We were warned that it was actually going to be a hike. That you shouldn't wear shoes that you don't want to get quite muddy. That the trip would involve some steep bits towards the end. For instance, take the girl beside me for example.
"I really hope these shoes don't get too dirty, I just bought them before I left." (She is wearing white tennis shoes.)
"Are you kidding me? They are going to be brown. We are going hiking in the mountains. In SCOTLAND."
People just don't listen. Apparently a lot of them thought it was going to be a nice path all the way up the mountain, which wasn't the case. To be honest, it was unlike any hiking I'd ever done. We were in a group of about 100 people. Once we got to the real trail, well, there wouldn't have been a path, had 100 people not tread on it before me (I was at the end with all of the BYU or BYU+ as the group of us that chooses to associate the most with the BYU people have been deemed). There was more mud than I've ever seen for such a stretch, but I guess that is what you get with the weather. We were told by the hiking guide before we got off the bus that we were likely to experience all four seasons, and he was right. At one point I could see my breath, and at one point it was uncomfortably warm. Be sure to check the pictures from this trip, as they should be brilliant if they capture even half of what I saw.
It was only a 2 mile hike there, and then 2 miles back, but it took 2 hours both way due to the size of the group. The short hike was an all day affair, as the bus ride there also took about 1.5 hours there and then 1.5 hours back. It was totally worth it though, I would much rather see the wilderness and nature of an area than the urban part if given the option, and tomorrow I will have a chance to see a bit of the city anyway.
Though I lost sight of my feet multiple times beneath the mud the dry sanctity of my socks was never violated. I was probably one of about 10 in the group of 100 that had actually worn proper footwear and had such a nice foot haven. I felt no pity for them.
After returning to my housing I found a shower on another floor (many people had gone hiking on my floor and thus there was a large shower queue...only a floor up and on the opposite shower there was no queue). I went to check out the Ceilidh (a traditional Scottish party) after getting washed up. I took advantage of the free drinks and watched a few dances. Not only were my feet tired, but there just wasn't anyone there that I wished to dance with. If my girlfriend or anyone I was closer to had been there I would have loved to try it, but not with the people I didn't really know all that well. This is neglecting the fact that the only shoes I had were hiking boots. All in all, it was fun to watch for a few dances, but I don't regret the fact that I skipped out pretty early. I can say I went to one, even if I didn't dance.
Tomorrow we'll see what the city of Edinburgh is hiding.
Thursday, 7 July 2011
July 7th, The Journey North
Today was the day that everyone was looking forward to--The 10 hour bus trip to Scotland! I was actually quite surprised that the trip went by fairly fast, as was everyone. Our bus left out of Cambridge at 8.30. Sitting next to me was a girl named Annie, and across their aisle was her husband Alex. They were both BYU students. Sitting in front of me was a girl I didn't know and an Indian girl from my drugs class named Shivani. It was in the first few minutes of conversation that I learned/realized that BYU (Brigham Young Universtiy) was indeed a Mormon school. Why does this matter?
I would say at least half, if not a majority of the students that I've met and had significant socialization with have been from BYU. I have been wondering why it seemed that most of the people I was meeting didn't drink or ever mutter a curse word. Now some of those are still because of some of my previous thoughts--they are just too uptight or uppity. But for many of them, its been because they were Mormon! This was indeed an "Ah-ha!" moment for me. There were many good conversation had on the bus to Fountain's Abbey, though they mostly involved the areas we came from, and weren't particularly notable.
As we arrived at Fountain's Abbey a good rain set in. The driver unlocked the back of the bus so I could get my raincoat out of my bag, but of course it was in the very back. I took a dive into the compartment and managed to get it, but it was quite a hassle getting out. I mean, they could have closed it with me in there. Anyway, Fountain's Abbey is the ruins of an old cathedral. It is quite beautiful as you'll be able to see from the pictures when I put them up--I left my card reader in Cambridge. My group of friends wandered around taking pictures, stopped for a bit to eat our food, and then stopped at the cafe for some tea. It is here that I accidentally said an entire phrase with a British accent.
"Excuse me, but where would you like me to place these spoons?"
I brought it up later with Shivani how I had accidentally done this, and she said she had heard it and found it quite amusing, but that it sounded right to her. I don't know how to feel about the situation.
Our group had trekked pretty far in the grounds to see the "Surprise View" marked on the map we had been given. I'll mark it on the pictures when I upload them. It was nice, but not really a surprise (I guess they spoiled that for us). None of us had realized how far we had come and we didn't leave in enough time to get to the bus on time. We cut down a hill and jumped in a window to the cellar of the abbey to cut straight through it instead of having to walk all the way around it. Success.
After getting back on the bus Shivani let me listen to some Above and Beyond. It's electronica/trance. Really good stuff too. We all got to talking about techno and such, when a girl behind me asks if anyone likes dubstep. Well if you know me, you know I love the wub wub. She was asking because there is a dubstep show in London on the 23rd that she wanted to go to but hadn't found anyone else that was interested. Duh, winning. I'm really hoping I get to go, and I should be able to.
Somewhere along the bus ride we hit Scotland, and shortly after I fell asleep for a bit. Scotland looks like England except with more hills. We checked in at the Edinburgh First--college dorms that they rent out in the off season. I had to pay 10 quid for internet for the trip, which isn't terrible but still a pain. The cafeteria food here was amazing, though I think it may have simply been because they had more familiar foods, and it was buffet style. Cheese sticks, pizza, baked pasta. Good stuff. I took a little walk around the town afterwards to enjoy this 55 degree weather before settling in for the evening. Tomorrow I'm going to hike a part of the highlands.
I would say at least half, if not a majority of the students that I've met and had significant socialization with have been from BYU. I have been wondering why it seemed that most of the people I was meeting didn't drink or ever mutter a curse word. Now some of those are still because of some of my previous thoughts--they are just too uptight or uppity. But for many of them, its been because they were Mormon! This was indeed an "Ah-ha!" moment for me. There were many good conversation had on the bus to Fountain's Abbey, though they mostly involved the areas we came from, and weren't particularly notable.
As we arrived at Fountain's Abbey a good rain set in. The driver unlocked the back of the bus so I could get my raincoat out of my bag, but of course it was in the very back. I took a dive into the compartment and managed to get it, but it was quite a hassle getting out. I mean, they could have closed it with me in there. Anyway, Fountain's Abbey is the ruins of an old cathedral. It is quite beautiful as you'll be able to see from the pictures when I put them up--I left my card reader in Cambridge. My group of friends wandered around taking pictures, stopped for a bit to eat our food, and then stopped at the cafe for some tea. It is here that I accidentally said an entire phrase with a British accent.
"Excuse me, but where would you like me to place these spoons?"
I brought it up later with Shivani how I had accidentally done this, and she said she had heard it and found it quite amusing, but that it sounded right to her. I don't know how to feel about the situation.
Our group had trekked pretty far in the grounds to see the "Surprise View" marked on the map we had been given. I'll mark it on the pictures when I upload them. It was nice, but not really a surprise (I guess they spoiled that for us). None of us had realized how far we had come and we didn't leave in enough time to get to the bus on time. We cut down a hill and jumped in a window to the cellar of the abbey to cut straight through it instead of having to walk all the way around it. Success.
After getting back on the bus Shivani let me listen to some Above and Beyond. It's electronica/trance. Really good stuff too. We all got to talking about techno and such, when a girl behind me asks if anyone likes dubstep. Well if you know me, you know I love the wub wub. She was asking because there is a dubstep show in London on the 23rd that she wanted to go to but hadn't found anyone else that was interested. Duh, winning. I'm really hoping I get to go, and I should be able to.
Somewhere along the bus ride we hit Scotland, and shortly after I fell asleep for a bit. Scotland looks like England except with more hills. We checked in at the Edinburgh First--college dorms that they rent out in the off season. I had to pay 10 quid for internet for the trip, which isn't terrible but still a pain. The cafeteria food here was amazing, though I think it may have simply been because they had more familiar foods, and it was buffet style. Cheese sticks, pizza, baked pasta. Good stuff. I took a little walk around the town afterwards to enjoy this 55 degree weather before settling in for the evening. Tomorrow I'm going to hike a part of the highlands.
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
July 6th
Since I've gotten to Cambridge I have been neglecting checking my email daily. I have been getting to it at least semi-daily, but that's really not enough. So I check my email at 8.20 (class begins at 9.00) and I have 2 emails from Dan. The first is to the class in general asking if someone would please switch and do the presentation he was supposed to do that morning because he just realized he had a scheduling conflict and had to attend a lecture instead. The second was just to me, with a powerpoint he made attached asking me to present it for him. Of course I emailed him back and told him I would. Speaking in front of people has never bothered me, not to mention it probably helped me gain more favor in the eyes of the Zoltan (prof.). Oh, another note, at the beginning of seminar, Zoltan asked to borrow my pen,
"You zee I ran into him at ze pozt offiz yezterday and borrowed hiz pen there. He is ze keeper of ze pen!"
After seminar I was done with classes for the day. I went to the Pembroke cafe where I met up with Mr. Watson (another student, he calls me "Carolina") and had lunch. It was at this time that he explained to me what "Cambridge" is. It is probably bad that I didn't know this until now, but here it is. The University of Cambridge is not really a single institution. It is the collective body of all of the colleges in Cambridge. That's about as simple and straightforward of an explanation as I can give. A much needed nap was acquired after lunch. Later I spent a few hours working on this blog and talking to my girlfriend, then getting a few items from Sainsbury's. I knew that it was mentioned that I needed a rainjacket ("waterproofs" they call them) to make the highlands trip. After looking around in the outdoors shops the cheapest I found was 22 pounds. That's pretty expensive, so I decided not to get one. Upon returning to my housing I checked my email to find the itinerary which stated that one was required to have waterproofs or they would not be allowed on the trip. I begrudgingly made the trip back out to buy one. I'm not about to miss hiking in Scotland because I wouldn't buy a rainjacket that I will use anyway.
For supper I had BBQ meatloaf, some sort of vegetable stew, and noodles. The food from the cafeteria is ridiculously good. It is also expensive, but I look forward to at least a meal a day there. After supper Mr. Watson and I headed to CUS for the briefing on Scotland. Mims, one of the PA's joined me in seating. She is studying chemical engineering in Cambridge (i.e., she lives there and studies full time). I enjoy talking to her because we often cross subjects where things are completely different from America and she doesn't realize it. For some reason this seems strange to me as she is a PA and has contact with so many of us Americans, but I suppose most of them are too busy asking questions about the English system and don't mention anything about their own. Upon leaving the briefing she invited me to a pub with her friends later, and I told her I would join them.
Leaving the briefing was a bloody mess. We immediately were going to sign up for the Highlands hike. Everyone wanted to go, but there were only 280 spots (and about 350 students). I pushed and tousled and fought to the table and just when the paper was within reach the PA supervising it announced there were only two spots left. Now if people were coming and signing themselves up it would have been one thing, but no, people were sitting at the table, not letting other people get up to it to sign it, and signing their friends names as they shouted them across the room. Total bullshit. I had my own pen, so I struck my name on the paper while she was writing right above it. She was pissed because she had had one other person to sign up but I had taken the last spot. She wrote their name in between some names. Things that piss me off.
After running my errands I met up with Mims at the Panton Arms pub. Turns out all her friends were Asian, and they had filled the table. Mims and I squeezed in at different places and really didn't have any conversation. I instead talked to a few fellows named George and Jimmy. They answered two long standing questions I have had. The first was, why in asian places do you see store signs and advertisements partly in Asian but with a few english words thrown in? The answer was that for one, the shop owners or advertisers want to give off the image that they are smart or better than others because they know another language, or specifically english. The second reason is there are so many visitors to Asian countries than can not read or speak any Asian characters, the familiar english helps to draw customers in. My second question was why do they commonly throw english words into their speech when they are speaking chinese (in their case)? The answer to that was simply that the english word was so much simpler than the Asian counterpart they just preferred to use it. Intriguing.
It was a good day, and tomorrow morning I leave for Scotland.
"You zee I ran into him at ze pozt offiz yezterday and borrowed hiz pen there. He is ze keeper of ze pen!"
After seminar I was done with classes for the day. I went to the Pembroke cafe where I met up with Mr. Watson (another student, he calls me "Carolina") and had lunch. It was at this time that he explained to me what "Cambridge" is. It is probably bad that I didn't know this until now, but here it is. The University of Cambridge is not really a single institution. It is the collective body of all of the colleges in Cambridge. That's about as simple and straightforward of an explanation as I can give. A much needed nap was acquired after lunch. Later I spent a few hours working on this blog and talking to my girlfriend, then getting a few items from Sainsbury's. I knew that it was mentioned that I needed a rainjacket ("waterproofs" they call them) to make the highlands trip. After looking around in the outdoors shops the cheapest I found was 22 pounds. That's pretty expensive, so I decided not to get one. Upon returning to my housing I checked my email to find the itinerary which stated that one was required to have waterproofs or they would not be allowed on the trip. I begrudgingly made the trip back out to buy one. I'm not about to miss hiking in Scotland because I wouldn't buy a rainjacket that I will use anyway.
For supper I had BBQ meatloaf, some sort of vegetable stew, and noodles. The food from the cafeteria is ridiculously good. It is also expensive, but I look forward to at least a meal a day there. After supper Mr. Watson and I headed to CUS for the briefing on Scotland. Mims, one of the PA's joined me in seating. She is studying chemical engineering in Cambridge (i.e., she lives there and studies full time). I enjoy talking to her because we often cross subjects where things are completely different from America and she doesn't realize it. For some reason this seems strange to me as she is a PA and has contact with so many of us Americans, but I suppose most of them are too busy asking questions about the English system and don't mention anything about their own. Upon leaving the briefing she invited me to a pub with her friends later, and I told her I would join them.
Leaving the briefing was a bloody mess. We immediately were going to sign up for the Highlands hike. Everyone wanted to go, but there were only 280 spots (and about 350 students). I pushed and tousled and fought to the table and just when the paper was within reach the PA supervising it announced there were only two spots left. Now if people were coming and signing themselves up it would have been one thing, but no, people were sitting at the table, not letting other people get up to it to sign it, and signing their friends names as they shouted them across the room. Total bullshit. I had my own pen, so I struck my name on the paper while she was writing right above it. She was pissed because she had had one other person to sign up but I had taken the last spot. She wrote their name in between some names. Things that piss me off.
After running my errands I met up with Mims at the Panton Arms pub. Turns out all her friends were Asian, and they had filled the table. Mims and I squeezed in at different places and really didn't have any conversation. I instead talked to a few fellows named George and Jimmy. They answered two long standing questions I have had. The first was, why in asian places do you see store signs and advertisements partly in Asian but with a few english words thrown in? The answer was that for one, the shop owners or advertisers want to give off the image that they are smart or better than others because they know another language, or specifically english. The second reason is there are so many visitors to Asian countries than can not read or speak any Asian characters, the familiar english helps to draw customers in. My second question was why do they commonly throw english words into their speech when they are speaking chinese (in their case)? The answer to that was simply that the english word was so much simpler than the Asian counterpart they just preferred to use it. Intriguing.
It was a good day, and tomorrow morning I leave for Scotland.
July 5th
The morning started of well with a successful presentation in my Drugs and the Mind class. Make a note, however, of the fact that at the beginning of class the professor asked to borrow my pen. Of the four people he asked to present the article I was the only one who actually came up with a powerpoint and all. Afterwards I purchased and umbrella and a cell phone. My number is 07581 697710 if you can call UK mobiles without being gouged. The Drugs in the Mind lecture met soon after. It was a bit of a bore. We were going over basic neurobiology. I had seen a good deal of it before, but what I hadn't seen was mainly just systems and pathways--the reasons that I switched from biology to chemistry.
Afterwards I snagged a "seafood wrap" (still no clue what was in it, but it was tasty, though I preferred the bacon, chicken, and onion sandwhich from the day before) and headed back to my housing. There I began work on this blog and talked to my girlfriend for a bit before she went to bed. Later on I went out on a quest for post-it notes and to the post office. So who do I run into at the post office? Dr. Sarnyai from Drugs and the Mind. He was there with his wife, it sounded like Deutsch but there are several languages that sound a bit like it I believe. Anyway, he asked to borrow my pen. Because he needed to fill out the stuff he needed to mail. I complied, of course.
I headed to supper about 5.45. They began serving at six. If I hadn't been there a bit early, I would have had to wait in a humongous line and been very late to the following plenary lecture. Jonathan, a psych major from Yale joined me at dinner and we went to the CUS for the lecture together. I looked over at him and he looked a bit confused. I noticed his phone was all in Russian.
"Accidentally put it in Russian?"
"Oh no, I can read the Russian just fine, I just can't figure out how to use the phone!"
At least in South Carolina, it's rare to find someone that can read/speak russian. The lecture was on why Cambridge is unique. It was quite interesting and I learned a little background on the historic city.
I have finally caught up with my backlog of events...perhaps the future posts will be a little less what I did, or at least include a little more of that I think or of the things I am learning.
Afterwards I snagged a "seafood wrap" (still no clue what was in it, but it was tasty, though I preferred the bacon, chicken, and onion sandwhich from the day before) and headed back to my housing. There I began work on this blog and talked to my girlfriend for a bit before she went to bed. Later on I went out on a quest for post-it notes and to the post office. So who do I run into at the post office? Dr. Sarnyai from Drugs and the Mind. He was there with his wife, it sounded like Deutsch but there are several languages that sound a bit like it I believe. Anyway, he asked to borrow my pen. Because he needed to fill out the stuff he needed to mail. I complied, of course.
I headed to supper about 5.45. They began serving at six. If I hadn't been there a bit early, I would have had to wait in a humongous line and been very late to the following plenary lecture. Jonathan, a psych major from Yale joined me at dinner and we went to the CUS for the lecture together. I looked over at him and he looked a bit confused. I noticed his phone was all in Russian.
"Accidentally put it in Russian?"
"Oh no, I can read the Russian just fine, I just can't figure out how to use the phone!"
At least in South Carolina, it's rare to find someone that can read/speak russian. The lecture was on why Cambridge is unique. It was quite interesting and I learned a little background on the historic city.
I have finally caught up with my backlog of events...perhaps the future posts will be a little less what I did, or at least include a little more of that I think or of the things I am learning.
July 4th in the Motherland
I started the morning out with a bit of Frosties and a hot shower. We had to meet in the Cambridge Union Society debating chamber at 9:00 for a commencement speech of sorts. Part of it was a welcoming ordeal, part of it was rules and recommendations. This was made much more interesting by the speakers,
"I think that it is most wonderful to see that so many of you have decided to return from the colonies, to the motherland, on this particular day."
"Someone has been telling some of you that you can't drink the water here and so you've been going out and spending money on these bottles of water. Don't do that! The water is perfectly fine to drink here! Don't waste your money on water, waste it on alcohol!"
Afterwards but before class there was time in which I managed to procure an adapter for my computer and a few other sundry items. Back at the CUS class started (for me, anyway) around 3.25. The teacher for the course has a very thick accent. I believe it is something Dutch. Me and a few others I had been speaking to before we could go into the classroom decided to sit up front. At the start of the class the teacher asked to borrow someone's watch. I complied, probably a mistake. The material was not too bad as it was all introductory material. The way the courses are taught here is through two different class meetings: lectures and seminars. In the lectures everyone meets and the teacher presents materials. In the seminar only half the class meets and the students present scientific articles and they are discussed. The first seminar was the next day, and shortly after the end of the first lecture we were required to go to a formal hall, so there wasn't really any time to do much. He picked two people (one for each article) and guess who the very first one was? The one who he remembered because of the watch he had been looking at.
Afterwards I freshened up and donned my coat and tie. I arrived at King's College to meet the group of PKP students to be walked to Queen's college as we had never been there before. We were led out of King's College, down an alley, and into Queen's college to a lawn. It was a bit funny, as the leader of the line led us to the lawn, but no one walked on it at first. Only after being assured that it was ok to walk on the grass at this time did anyone dare set foot on the sacred green turf. Drinks were served and we chatted it up for an hour or so before being led to Queen's great hall for a three course meal consisting of caesar salad and a roll, a steak and vegetables, and apple pie and coffee for desert. The people around me were interesting to talk to when I could hear them. The table was pretty large so it was difficult to hear women sitting on the other side of it. At this point I learned from one of the PA's that Charles Darwin used to live on the same street that I am staying at now. He told me there is a marker somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. We left the dinner about 9.30.
Returning to my room I began working on a powerpoint for the presentation I had to give the next morning. The professor had said that he didn't feel he could require us to have a powerpoint and all done for the article as he knew it was very short notice with no time, but I was determined to get one done anyway. After a couple hours of labor, my presentation on the effect of cocaine on Drosophila was complete.
"I think that it is most wonderful to see that so many of you have decided to return from the colonies, to the motherland, on this particular day."
"Someone has been telling some of you that you can't drink the water here and so you've been going out and spending money on these bottles of water. Don't do that! The water is perfectly fine to drink here! Don't waste your money on water, waste it on alcohol!"
Afterwards but before class there was time in which I managed to procure an adapter for my computer and a few other sundry items. Back at the CUS class started (for me, anyway) around 3.25. The teacher for the course has a very thick accent. I believe it is something Dutch. Me and a few others I had been speaking to before we could go into the classroom decided to sit up front. At the start of the class the teacher asked to borrow someone's watch. I complied, probably a mistake. The material was not too bad as it was all introductory material. The way the courses are taught here is through two different class meetings: lectures and seminars. In the lectures everyone meets and the teacher presents materials. In the seminar only half the class meets and the students present scientific articles and they are discussed. The first seminar was the next day, and shortly after the end of the first lecture we were required to go to a formal hall, so there wasn't really any time to do much. He picked two people (one for each article) and guess who the very first one was? The one who he remembered because of the watch he had been looking at.
Afterwards I freshened up and donned my coat and tie. I arrived at King's College to meet the group of PKP students to be walked to Queen's college as we had never been there before. We were led out of King's College, down an alley, and into Queen's college to a lawn. It was a bit funny, as the leader of the line led us to the lawn, but no one walked on it at first. Only after being assured that it was ok to walk on the grass at this time did anyone dare set foot on the sacred green turf. Drinks were served and we chatted it up for an hour or so before being led to Queen's great hall for a three course meal consisting of caesar salad and a roll, a steak and vegetables, and apple pie and coffee for desert. The people around me were interesting to talk to when I could hear them. The table was pretty large so it was difficult to hear women sitting on the other side of it. At this point I learned from one of the PA's that Charles Darwin used to live on the same street that I am staying at now. He told me there is a marker somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. We left the dinner about 9.30.
Returning to my room I began working on a powerpoint for the presentation I had to give the next morning. The professor had said that he didn't feel he could require us to have a powerpoint and all done for the article as he knew it was very short notice with no time, but I was determined to get one done anyway. After a couple hours of labor, my presentation on the effect of cocaine on Drosophila was complete.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)