Escaping the 'Cambridge bubble'

Hooray! Michaelmas term is over! I'm overjoyed. Apart from having to stay up extremely late for many of them, the past several days have been excellent. A quick rundown of the highlights:

Wednesday -- Stephen Hawking speech at the Cambridge Union... very cool to see him in person!

Thursday -- rowed in Fairbairns Cup Race (we placed 24th out of 73 boats... not bad, and much better than last year's 37th place finish!), then that evening had a mulled wine and mince pie party for first-year grads and undergrads, went to undergraduate formal

Friday -- champagne reception for boat club, then formal dinner (with black-tie!) and hands-free desserts (yes, means what you think it does!), followed by drinks with friends from the IR department

Saturday -- played in soccer match (ended up a draw, 5-5), massive party at our residence

Sunday -- watched several West Wing episodes (great show!) with friends from IR, ate dinner at a delicious Turkish restaurant

--

So that's just a brief synopsis; it's been nice to have a couple laid-back days after the last frantic academic push. I'm heading to bed right now because I fly to Edinburgh tomorrow morning and need to get some rest! And then it's Amsterdam on Saturday. I'll try to post in between if I find an internet cafe, but I won't be back to my computer in Cambridge until December 12.

Here some are quick pics from our Fairbairns Cup race (I'm sitting at position 2, the second to last in the boat) and the boat club dinner the next evening. I'll provide captions later... but the pictures are probably self-explanatory :)

Almost done!

Wow, I'm very sorry I haven't posted anything in... three weeks?! I had no idea it'd been that long. Unfortunately I can't spend too much time at the moment because term ends tomorrow and there's quite a few things I still have to do. We had our final rowing race, the Fairbairns Cup, this morning. It went well, but I don't know our official time yet. Last Saturday was the Clare Regatta; it was about half as long but because the weather was way colder, felt like an eternity compared to this morning's race! I need to go get my haircut (first one since I arrived!), work on a couple practice essays due tomorrow, go to carol service at the college chapel and then undergraduate formal tonight (which is sometimes described as 'carnage,' though I'll have to behave because I need to finish my essays). I'll probably stay up all night working on them, turn 'em in before 2pm and go to the last seminar of the term, History of Thought, where we'll talk about the revolutionary 18th century German military strategist Clausewitz. Hopefully I can sleep for a couple hours afterwards, in preparation for the boat club formal dinner tomorrow night... whew!

Monday I fly to Edinburgh to see my good friend from Grenoble, Rachel, who I haven't seen since June 2006. I can't wait!

Oh, and because I haven't posted many pictures, here are a few... I'll post more this weekend! My new camera arrived, too, so I'm going to take plenty in Scotland.

A beautiful tree-lined walk on Jesus Green along my daily path to town



The Round Church



St John's College



The main court of Trinity College



A view south on Trinity Street. Look at all the pesky tourists! I've become very adept at avoiding... or intimidating them!

More pics from Queens Ergs

Just a handful of pictures from the Queens Ergs event last week. These should do a better job of conveying the atmosphere!

The calm before the storm...



Note the boat progress display... great motivation tool!



In the thick of it...



Anxiously awaiting their turn...

It's getting dark at 4:30pm

Oh no. The cold is finally starting to set in, but worse than that, daylight is vanishing more quickly than I thought was possible of regions outside the Arctic Circle. I am typing this at 4:29pm and the sun has almost completely set and the sky is darkening. Unbelievable. Supposedly it'll be getting dark by 3:30pm in mid-December. I don't doubt it.

Time is also flying by, with all the formal halls, lectures, seminars, rowing practices and days full of reading. I seem to be developing a tea habit as well. I used to only need one cup a day, early in the morning, to jumpstart my system but now I need tea infusion throughout the day to ward off sleep. I have some Red Bull stowed away, but I'm saving them for a real emergency... like the two essays I have due this Friday.

Classes are all going well. We're well into the seminars, which are 90 minute sessions in 'small groups' where we discuss a specific topic in detail, with everyone in the room participating. For example, in the Middle East and North African Politics class our three seminars so far have covered the Palestinian-Israeli dispute, Egypt's role in the Arab world and the Gulf Cooperation Council. In History of Thought, we've been talking about Hobbes, Thucydides and the Spanish Scholastics; this week's seminar will focus on Immanuel Kant's Perpetual Peace and Idea of a Cosmopolitan Commonwealth. Fascinating stuff, but because we're all supposed to participate it means we have to do lots of additional reading beyond the normal prep for lectures.

The War and Society class is unique, though, because we're only assigned one book for each week's seminar, though we're expected to have read it cover to cover and analyzed it thoroughly. Last week's was "Ambivalent Conquest: Maya and Spaniard 1517-1570." The book examined the Spanish military and religious conquests in the Yucatan during the 16th century, attempting to provide a view from both the Spanish and Mayan sides. It was pretty easy to tell the Spanish were bad guys, but Inga Clindennen, the author, may have romanticized the Mayans a bit much... our professor commented that he thought, "Inga wouldn't have minded having her heart cut out." There's not much time to reminisce about the book, though, because we're expected to have already starting reading the book for next Monday: "Elementary Aspects of the Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India." I kid you not. Should be a good read!

Let's see, what else can I cram in the next 7 minutes before I start reading up on Woodrow Wilson for tomorrow's US Foreign Policy seminar...

• Rowing - Going well, this week is the first week that the first men's boat starts practicing on our own. We have a 7:30am Wednesday erg session in the gym, Friday morning practice on the water and Sunday afternoon practice on the water. It's been great exercise and I've really enjoyed it so far. That said, rowing on the water is far more difficult than practicing on the erg machines. On the water there are all sorts of tricky issues involved in balancing the boat, making sure your arms are at the correct height, keeping in time with the rest of the guys... it can make for some pretty frustrating moments when you're just a bit off and your oar goes into the water at the wrong angle, making a huge splash and totally throwing off your rhythm. Not that that happens to me... Also, rowing makes me hungry ALL THE TIME. If I try to snack, my stomach just gets angry. Like tonight's after-school snack: I've had nearly a third of a delicious Camembert-like cheese (of course, it's French; English cheeses so far have been terrible), lots of Ritz crackers (thanks Mom!), two yogurts, two cups of tea and a banana. And I'm still starving. Argh.
  
  
• Travel - Looking at traveling to Edinburgh at the end of term, followed up with a trip to Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen? Overly ambitious right now, so I think I might have to just pick two of the four and save the others for next term.
  
  
• Electronics - I've had terrible luck so far. First a friend dropped my phone into the River Cam while we were punting. Then my laptop hard drive died and I had to have a new one shipped from America. And now my camera is dead after suffering a fatal drop Saturday night! Terrible! After 2.5 glorious years, countless expeditions throughout France and Europe, it's bitten the dust. Rest in peace DSC W-7. You will be missed. Though your replacement has already been ordered... I've been forced to do away with my Lexmark inkjet printer, too, because it guzzles ink faster than Sean Sean drinks Pepsi. Ink cartridges are like $25 and last, at most, 230 pages or so. A cheap HP laser printer arrived today, so I'm eagerly looking forward to vastly more efficient printing.
  
  
• Cycling - A bike is a critical element of life in Cambridge. It makes practically every point in the entire city no more than 10 minutes away from any other point, except for perhaps the train station which is probably more like 16 minutes away.("Equidistant" is a fancy way of saying the same thing.) Lights are essential at night. As I mentioned, it gets dark really early, so you need to be able to see other cyclists barreling down at you. Also, the police will fine you if you don't have lights (assuming they can catch you, muahaha). I have a helmet, but I don't wear it as often as I should (though I do always remember to don it after a night out). I've become quite a fearless cyclist; normal cars don't faze me, though my heart still sinks when I glimpse a double-decker on my heels. But taxis are the worst. I think the cabbies all play some sort of twisted game where they attempt to get as close to a cyclist as possible without touching them.

And lastly, a few pictures!



Two weeks ago we had an exchange formal at Corpus Christi, the college across Trumpington Street from St Catharine's. It had quite a pretty dining hall, much more 'old-fashioned' than ours.



Sat next to Joanna; oddly enough we weren't intermixed with the regular Corpus Christi kids, which I thought would've been more interesting. Odd.



That Friday the Catz girls' drinking society invited me to the 'Bombay Brasserie,' an Indian restaurant more commonly known as the 'Mahal.' I was entirely unprepared for the Mahal experience and I must regretfully admit that the Mahal won. I conceded around 10pm and was home by 11pm. I never knew what hit me, but I suspect that much of my defeat owes to the terrifying practice of "pennying."



A glimpse of the Mahal chaos... it may appear relatively calm, but I assure you, bedlam reigns. What you don't see: food being tossed around, people standing on chairs declaring "General Fines" (for instance, 'General Fine for all persons with facial hair' or 'General Fine for all Americans') and overall ridiculous behavior.




A much calmer evening a few nights later with some people from my course -- here's Norwegian Bendik and American Kate.

And here, just so you can all laugh at my ridiculous facial expressions, a few pictures from our Halloween party on Saturday. (The theme -- "your worst fear." I dressed up as a creepy old man.)







That's it for now!

Queens Ergs

UPDATE: Woohoo, I made the first boat!

On Wednesday evening, I competed in the Queens Ergs competition for novice rowers. It's called Queens Ergs because it's held at Queens College and 'Ergs' because that's the short/affectionate/dreaded abbreviation of 'ergometer,' an indoor rowing machine. Each college enters as many 8-man teams as they can. Most colleges tend to have two teams, though some of the big ones have four, five or even six (like St Johns). I was on the 2nd team for Catz, which I was at first peeved about, but later decided wasn't that big of a deal. I didn't have much time to even think about it because I was too preoccupied trying to focus on the task at hand -- completing a 500 meter sprint as fast as I possibly could. That's no small feat. We were told that girls are supposed to have a time of around 2 minutes and guys 1 minute 50 seconds or better. My fastest time heretofore had been 1 minute 44 seconds and it'd been extremely demanding. I would do even better this time... but I didn't know it yet.

The event itself was absolutely electric. Amidst a throng of people outside, we warmed up, in the cold, doing some stretches and quick sprints to get the muscles loose and blood flowing. We filed in, one by one, to a deafening gym filled with 12 other 8-man teams, scores of cheering spectators on the gym's second level balcony and a tuxedo sporting MC. A DJ provided tunes - ranging from Chariots of Fire to Alien Ant Farm's "Smooth Criminal" cover to popular techno songs. I'm not sure that I've ever felt as "fired up" as I did then. All the teams got in position, our first rower's feet were strapped in and our two coaches knelt next to him, holding his feet down and speaking encouragingly. They'd soon be shouting.

The MC pulled out an airhorn and let it roar -- and the room exploded in a flurry of motion as rowers began straining furiously to row faster than they'd ever been before. The 7 other members of our team yelled support and the coaches shouted at the current rower to row faster, ROW FASTER, I WANT TO SEE YOUR SPLIT TIME (the 500 meter time indicated on an electronic screen in front of the rower) GO DOWN, MAKE IT GO DOWN NOW DAMMIT! It was intense. Very, very intense.

As soon as the first rower's 500 meters were up, the coaches unbuckled his feet and slid him off the seat while buckling in the feet of the second rower. We only had 12 to 15 seconds between each rower, so a quick swap was essential. The first rower tried to limp away. He didn't make it very far before collapsing to his feet. We patted him on the back, but he could barely speak. Whoa.

One by one, my teammates finished their 500 meters. I was the seventh rower, second to last. I was psyched. I'd looked around for paramedics earlier because I thought I might have a heart attack. I didn't see any but figured a hospital would be close by, so I didn't worry too much. (Seriously, don't laugh!) As Rob, the rower in front of me finished, I hurriedly moved to the seat while the coaches buckled in my feet and patted me on the back encouragingly. They sounded pretty composed, until the clock counted down... :03, :02, :01, :00. GO! ROW NOW! FASTER! Whoa.

I remember seeing 1:25 on the screen for the first 30 seconds or so -- a very impressive time, but one I wasn't quite able to sustain for long. I was rowing so hard, absolutely straining with all my might, that the end of the machine was popping up and one of the coaches had to stretch to hold it down while keeping my foot secure. Despite my intense focus and determination, the time inched up. 1:30. Crap. 1:35. Oh no. 1:40. With each stroke, I felt like I had less and less strength. 150 meters to go. I couldn't believe time was moving so slowly. The music faded away and I could only hear fragments of phrases from the screaming coaches. I literally felt disembodied for a bit. I don't mean that I 'floated above and saw my own body' or any nonsense like that. I felt extremely detached from the entire experience, removed, as if I was no longer the person rowing, but I happened to be inhabiting the same spot. It was an odd feeling, for sure.

The meters slowly trickled down and I gladly watched as the coaches unbuckled my feet and prodded me out of the way while they strapped in the final rower. I glanced at my time -- 1:37.2. Not quite the 1:35 that I wanted, but I was pleased. I had the fastest time on my boat, our team placed 8th out of 31 teams and I placed 27th individually out of 248. Not bad! Click here to see the stats.

I staggered to the wall and tried to lean against it but my legs couldn't support my weight, so I slumped down, chest still heaving. It took a couple minutes before I was able to even walk. On our way out of the gym, the music still echoing in my years, I spotted a pair of paramedics with an automatic defibrillator. Whew. My adrenaline was still pumping hours later and I couldn't fall asleep until 1:30am.

Here's a generic picture I snagged from someone else... there should be more coming soon! This one doesn't really do the event justice, I think it's taken from the girls' event. During the mens' event there were at least 140 people on the gym floor and another 80 or more on the balcony, screaming and waving college scarves.

Iran

Do we need to bomb Iran? Should we? Can we? Why is the topic even being discussed?

These are some of the issues we're discussing in many of my classes -- and in many informal conversations, at the cafeteria or pub. There are several military personnel on my course and they all uniformly agree that it's a logistical near-impossibility. Not only is the US military stretched so thin already, the Iranians have spread the critical components of their nuclear program around the entire country. Estimates in the media say "two dozen," but what we're hearing is that it's more in the range of 75 to 160, and could be as high as 350 different sites! Not only is that an incredibly high number of targets -- of which you must hit every single one, without fail -- but they're buried in extremely deep, extremely fortified bunkers. You'd need to pound each site multiple times, and even then you're not guaranteed success.

The US military guys are saying that it'd require at least two carrier groups. The UK military guys don't want to even speculate because they don't think such an operation is remotely feasible. We just don't have the men or equipment. The men and equipment we do have are already fatigued and stressed to exhaustion. Some soldiers are returning for their fourth tours.

Another problem: the US administration is conflating Iran and terrorists, just like they did with Iraq and Al-Qaeda. Iran and Al-Qaeda are sworn enemies. They're not allied! They have radically different visions. It'd be foolish to think of all Muslims the same, just as it was foolish to think in the '50s that there was some grand Chinese-Soviet alliance. There wasn't! Bush made a speech last week where he spoke of "terrorist networks and terrorist states," a linking that tends to blur the two together into one vague, scary "terrorist."

The Iranians are quite rational actors, even if we don't see them as such. They've been in power since 1979. They want to stay in power. They're not going to turn their capital or their country (of 70 million people) into a desert of glass just for a chance to launch one bomb... at who? Israel? The Israelis have 200 nukes and could decimate Iran, even without US help -- which they would receive in an instant. Who else would the Iranians target -- Europe? That's a ludicrous reason -- the Europeans are the ones restraining the US, the Europeans are the ones holding the flush Iranian bank accounts -- but it's a reason that Bush is citing as an excuse to build a missile defense system in Europe. Would the Iranians nuke the US? First off, they're nearly a decade away from having that sort of capability. Secondly, we faced off with the Soviets for 40 years and maintained our cool. We ought to keep our composure now, too.

If you want to read a very good article about this topic, check this out.

The first cheesy pics

And so they begin... here's a few pictures from a fun night out a couple weeks ago at "Cindies," a very cheesy "club" playing extraordinarily cheesy music. During my year in France, I thought the French were bad dancers. Well, the Brits are far, far worse. They're appalling dancers. As long as I just sort of nod my head and bounce on the balls of my feet, I look incredibly graceful by comparison. Which is what I mostly do, because it's impossible to dance to the horrendous music that's being played. It's so horrendous that they typically only play a 30- or 45-second clip of each song before switching (with no transition) to the next song. Unbelievable! So, you have to go with friends and prepared to amuse yourselves.



Grinning with Pascal, a quirky German. He's a grad student at Catz, too, but I'm not sure what he studies.



Random girl, Jenny, Joanna and myself. Jenny and Jo are Catz grads, too, and Jo is in my department, though she's doing the Contemporary European Studies program, not International Relations.



Fellow Catz grads Rachel and Catherine, though they're both PhD students. Rachel is doing something biology-related and Catherine is researching Caribbean writers/revolutionaries in the 1960s... a very convenient topic that she'll probably exploit to get funding to the Caribbean during the dark, dungeon-like Cambridge winter that's poised around the corner.



A fellow American, Max (he just finished his undergrad at St Andrews in Scotland), drinking water from a bowl, in the St Catharine's "MCR" -- the Middle Combination Room -- a couple rooms in the college that are for the grad society's use. There's a few chairs, a mini-kitchen, foosball table, TV, computers, fishtank... and it's conveniently open 24 hours so we can pop in to do some secluded reading/work whenever.

Sorry for the curt captions, but I need to go do some more reading -- I'll post a list soon of this week's texts.

Oh, and I've discovered something quite unfortunate -- the software that I used in 2005-2006 to upload dozens of photos at a time to my blog has ceased to exist, so I'll be restricted to 4-picture posts from now on. I'll try to find a way around it...

Knock, knock

Yesterday, I received this slightly Orwellian notice...

Though it is a little eerie, nothing will come of it -- there's simply no TV in our flat!

On another note, the UK is often derided as a "hyper-surveillance society" but I really feel more free here than I often do at home. To explain: yes, there are CCTV cameras EVERYWHERE, and no, their ubiquitous presence don't make me feel particularly safe. The cameras are nearly all passive, so they'd only be of use after a crime's already been committed (plus, their deterrence factor is questionable).

What makes me feel 'freer' here is the behavior of the UK police. Unlike their American counterparts, UK police (at least here in Cambridge, and I've seen them in London, too) are almost always only seen on foot, strolling around on their beat, and usually in pairs. They don't tend to glare from their cars at passers-by and they maintain their cheery dispositions and eager helpfulness even in dreadful weather. When you speak to them, they're uniformly sympathetic, not recalcitrant, suspicious or hostile like many US police.

You feel freer because while it's not "okay" or socially encouraged to be drunk in public in the UK, it's also not an activity that will get a cop breathing down your neck -- as it would in the US, unless you're on Bourbon Street. You feel freer because the police don't launch SWAT raids against the 15- and 16-year olds smoking marijuana in the park; they're more likely to either ignore them, wisely recognizing that it's a temporary adolescent phase, or issue a caution or notice, not an arrest.

In contrast to the states, where the police try to protect you from yourself, police in the UK seem to concentrate more on protecting you from others. We could learn a few things from our friends across the pond.

The coming week

This coming week should prove to be quite interesting indeed. It marks the start of seminars - now, in addition to lectures for each course, there will be a corresponding 90-minute small group seminar where we'll dive into much greater detail of certain topics in a more interactive environment. I don't know the exact format for every course yet; for some, students will give a presentation each week, but in others everyone will simply have to come prepared to discuss in depth.

I signed up for these classes -- War and Society, US Foreign Policy, Middle East and North African Politics, History of Thought -- but I also plan to regularly attend the lectures of International Economics and European Geopolitical History (fascinating, really!), as well as those of International Theory and International Law. Occasionally I'll pop in on the remaining classes -- EU Politics, EU Economics, EU Security and Integration, EU Law and International Political Economy, though the first four are more for students doing a Master's in the Contemporary European Studies program than International Relations (mine).

So here's what the week looks like so far:

• Monday
• 10am-11am - Middle East and North African Politics lecture
  
• 1pm-2pm - War and Society lecture
• 2pm-3:30pm - ME & NA Politics seminar
  
• 3:30pm-5pm - War and Society seminar
• 7:30pm - Two-way videolink with Libyan leader Col. Qaddafi at the Cambridge Union (the university debating society!) - I don't really know if it's a debate so much, or just him speaking/gesticulating wildly... we'll see!
  
• Tuesday
• 10am-11am - European Geopolitical History lecture
• 11am-12pm - International Economics lecture
• 12pm-1pm - US Foreign Policy lecture
• 2pm-4pm - Rowing practice at the Catz boathouse
• Wednesday
• 9am-10am - History of Thought lecture
• 10am-11am - International Theory lecture
• 11am-12pm - International Law lecture
• 3:30pm-5pm - US Foreign Policy seminar
  
• 7:30pm - Exchange formal dinner at Corpus Christi college
  
• Thursday
• 9am-10:30am - History of Thought seminar
  
• 2pm-4pm - Rowing practice
  
• Friday
• 5:30pm - Intelligence Seminar at Corpus Christi (last week's presenter was the CIA's chief historian - whoa!)
• Saturday
• 11:30am - Football (soccer) match - I'm not sure who we play yet
  
• Sunday
• 2pm-4pm - Rowing practice

So, as you can see -- pretty busy the first few days, following by a relatively lighter schedule at the end of the week, with some good exercise (rowing and soccer) sprinkled throughout. But what that schedule doesn't really show is the incredible amount of reading that I'll be doing in the morning, afternoon and evening every day.

The most demanding class in terms of reading will doubtless be War and Society, where we're required to read a full-length book for each seminar (which we have each week). For the first seminar, we were assigned "The Jewish War," by Josephus, a Jewish priest/historian who turned traitor in 66 AD and allied himself with the Romans as they fought the Jewish uprising/revolt/hopelessly doomed enterprise. The book weighed in at a healthy 408 pages - next week's assignment (which I don't have yet and hope to acquire within the next 24 hours) is Marcel Foucault's "Society Must be Defended," relatively lighter at 336 pages, but probably a great deal denser and dull. That's for... one class.

The other three require me to consult three or four books -- for each class, for each week -- and a handful of journal articles/course packet readings.

I'm nearly done reading "State, Power and Politics in the Modern Middle East" for the MEast/NAfrican course, though I also need to do some reading about the Gulf Cooperation Council for tomorrow's seminar. Apparently it wouldn't hurt to also look at, "A Peace to End All Peace," "History of the Arab Peoples," "The Origins of Alliances," and "Security Communities." For this week.

For History of Thought, I re-read Machiavelli's The Prince, though I also need to pick up Guicciardini's The Discourses and Botero's Reason of State. Before Thursday's seminar, I'll hopefully have read Francisco de Vittoria's section on "De potestate civili" in The Spanish Origins of International Law. For this week.

And lastly, US Foreign Policy - I've started to read "Writing Security: US Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity," but I shouldn't forget about "Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World since 1776," "American History: A Drama of Sweep and Majesty," "Surprise, Security and the American Experience," "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire" and "Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity." And if I want more to read... Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," "The American Dream," "Public Opinion and Foreign Policy in the US," "Ideology and US Foreign Policy" and the speech of Col. Frederick Kienle at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, on October 5, 2005, all are heartily recommended. For this week.

As you can see, I've frittered away more than a precious hour cataloging the very books that I ought to be reading. Shame, shame!

A few more matriculation day photos

Our official matriculation day was October 8 -- we had a whole afternoon full of ceremonies, photographs and, of course, drinks galore. Here's Max, me and Edward in the Main Court at St Catharine's. As you can see we're wearing our academic gowns/flowing robes/Harry Potter costumes. We're also holding champagne glasses, an offense we'd later be gently reprimanded for. No food or drink in Main Court! And don't even think about walking on the grass...

I stole this picture from Max; it's of our matriculation formal dinner in hall.

Here's a copy of the menu (in case you can't see it, I'll write it below):


Pre-prandial: Vilmart Grand Reserve N/V

Roast Loin of Shetland Organic Cod served on a bed of Vine Cherry Tomatoes

Loin of Lamb served on a ring of Herb Mashed Potatoes with a Redcurrant Sauce [La Massa, Chianti Classico, Garantita, 1998]

Steamed Orange Sponge with Marmalade Ice Cream & Orange Sauce [Chateau Simon, Sauternes, 2001]

A selection of Cheese with Biscuits (Cambozola, Crottin, Stilton, Heneford Hop, Cashel Blue, Mature Cheddar) [Grahams L.B.V. Port, 2000]

Coffee and Mints

--

And then lastly here's post-dinner revelry in the St Catharine's (by the way, for brevity I'm going to start referring to my college as Catz, since that's what everyone does here anyway... "St Catharine's" gets exhausting to say and type!); the guy next to me is Luc, a PhD engineering student and my Quebecois roommate:

I have lots more to add, but I need to get some reading done before going to the MCR (the Middle Combination Room, the Catz graduate students society/social room) to watch England and South Africa play in the Rugby World Cup tonight... of course we all know England's going to win (though they're 10-1 underdogs). You should be watching it, too!

The first pictures

Gathering for the official matriculation photograph in front of the St Catharine's College gates. I am in the third row, directly center -- sixth in from the left, sixth in from the right. Oh, the symmetry!

Of course, it wouldn't be an official Cambridge event without some afternoon champagne!


Sitting with Kevin during one of the matriculation day speeches. Note the oh-so elegant, flowing black academic gown!


Just to show you how ingrained the pub/bar is in English life, here's a picture of me, Jacob and Kevin with the St Catharine's College Chaplain Anthony, a very nice fellow, discussing some finer theological points in the college bar. (There are 31 colleges in the University of Cambridge and I'm fairly certain they all have at least one bar on site.)


On Friday night of Fresher's Week, the MCR (Middle Combination Room AKA St Catharine's grad student society) organized a 'punting' trip on the River Cam. The concept is deceptively simple: up to six people board a narrow wooden boat, sit crunched together and collectively offer advice to the person piloting (the punter) the boat (the punt) with a giant wooden pole. Here I'm relaxing with Edward, a nice Aussie, after my own harrowing experience punting -- though I didn't fall in (whew), my unlucky cell phone slipped from a friend's seemingly safe pocket... into the Cam.


Posing in front of Madingley Hall, a striking university-owned estate a few miles north of the city. My department, the Centre of International Studies, held an all-day event there last Sunday. We toured the American Battle Cemetery nearby (sorry, didn't feel comfortable taking pictures) and it was quite a moving sight, with more than 3,800 graves, a long wall of missing and a beautiful chapel. The rest of the day consisted of speeches by the faculty, socializing and a dinner -- all punctuated with frequent breaks for alcohol, of course.

Multi-tasking

I'm very sorry for the paucity of updates. After lectures this morning, I'll make a few long posts and toss up a couple pictures. Quickly, here's lots of little details:

• Cambridge is such a gorgeous town. My jaw still drops looking at some of the buildings.
• The weather is entirely unpredictable. We've had two or three days straight of pouring rain, followed by 65-70 degree weather (which feels glorious after the depressing deluges).
• My classes are all VERY interesting and they will all be extremely challenging. This will definitely be quite different from year in Grenoble.
• That said, while my travel options may be limited to the occasional weekend jaunt, I might have the opportunity for some extended travel at the end of term (November 30!). We'll see.
• I'm playing soccer and I'm going to try to do rowing, too. Gotta stay in shape!
• My laptop's hard drive died, so I'm borrowing a friend's computer until a replacement hard drive arrives. I might not be able to answer e-mails right away.
• St Catharine's is a great college. It's quaint and a little small, but everyone is extremely friendly and I'm already starting to feel settled in there.
• However, my college provided accommodation is abysmally small. I call it my monk's quarters.
• A bike is essential. I bike practically everywhere, and so do 10,000 other people. It's a sea of bikes!

I have to run to class now, but as I said, there'll be more updates coming in a few hours!

Deja Vu

Wow, has it really been two years since I started my first blog, "A Year In Grenoble?" Shocking how fast time flies.

After returning from France in June 2006, I spent a lovely summer at home before returning to Arizona State for my senior year. I had a glorious final year in Tempe, attended every football game, soaked up as much sun as I could and managed to send off several graduate school applications during an otherwise sleepy winter break. Responses trickled back in spring 2007 and I had every intention of going to the University of Chicago. I finished up my honors thesis just in time to graduate and headed back to Indiana for another peaceful summer (though this one was fraught with disturbing phenomena: several weddings of friends... my age!). I worked occasionally, traveled to Phoenix to visit friends, labored wearily in New York and relaxed for two weeks with old friends in France and Corsica.

But my tranquil summer was disturbed one mid-July morning as I checked my e-mail. The University of Cambridge had also decided to offer me admission. This presented a bit of a dilemma and I waffled between the two UC's until ultimately settling on... Cambridge. For reasons economic, social and purely selfish, I decided that I would be more likely to have a more enjoyable, fruitful and overall better experience in the UK.

Visa application submitted to the British General Consulate: check.
Graduate residence accommodation deposit wired to St Catharine's, my college: check.

I'm buying my plane ticket in the next 36 hours. Now if only the pound weren't twice as strong as the dollar...