For the first time in approximately a decade I did not spend July 4 on Tahoe. I sorely missed catch phrase, cookies, Bruce Springsteen, and Tahoe City fireworks on the water, but I still managed to have a pretty great day. Irony of ironies, I spent Independence Day on the soil of the nation from whom we seized our independence. Naturally, we went to McDonald's to celebrate.
Prior to Micky D's, we climbed the tower of Great St. Mary's Church, which you may recall is the church right outside my window. It boasts some of the most spectacular views of Cambridge, which I gobbled right up.
They say the academic rigor gets to a person...
.... just kidding. Those are for the bells.
Trifecta: Kelsey, Jenessa, Me. I can't get enough of these people.
After several hours of aimless gaiety (and a boring meeting), we decided to go for a night jog, which developed into more of short nature walk. It was one of the best evening nature walks I've ever had the pleasure to experience. The beauty of this city is staggering. In particular, the King's College backs epitomizes the inspiring serenity that you come to associate with a place like this. The sun setting on the river Cam could not have been more picturesque. Ironically, I didn't get a picture because I unfortunately don't run with my camera; rookie mistake. But I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that it was a perfect moment, made more perfect by the boy from Harvard playing the guitar. I think that evening was when it all hit me- that I get to study at the best university in the world for two months, with some of the best people I've ever met. It's perfect.
On a side note, I need to tell you about Evensong, because for some reason I forgot to mention it on the day I actually attended it. Evensong is about an hour long service which includes prayers, psalms, and hymns, sung by the King's College boy's choir. I actually went twice, and the second time it was a special joint service with the St. John's college boy's choir as well. It is a truly spectacular production. The chapel and choir at King's College is world renowned, and for good reason. I've always felt strongly that the binding commonality between various religions is much stronger than the doctrinal differences that divide them. (3 points) Evensong served as a powerful reminder of this point. The service was a beautiful declaration of faith and devotion to our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ, and I loved it.
Here's some contraband documentation:
Here's some legal documentation:
Choir boys.
The great hall.
That hole in the ceiling is where the owls come through to bring us our mail.
On Sunday, July 1, I arrived at Cambridge. The intellectual mecca. The Hogwarts of the muggle world. The promised land. It's everything I could ever have hoped for and a whole lot more. I've been limited on tourist time and have not taken many pictures, but I'll try to tackle that today. Anyway, here's some to tide you over:
View from my room. That's Great St. Mary's. The bells ring periodically, which is kind of like living next to the byu bell tower, only a little (a lot) better.
The view from the other window. It's a really happening market.
My humongous room. Yes, that is a fireplace on the right.
Things I've done so far:
Sunday, July 1
Struggled to navigate through town on arrival day - there was a big community race for breast cancer; lot's of closed roads.
Struggled to find my hostel - nobody had heard of it. Apparently they change the name for this program. The locals were confused.
Opening feast in the great hall of King's College. It's rumored they wanted to use the King's College dining hall as the great hall for Hogwarts. Not sure why that didn't happen, but they ended up using Christ College at Oxford instead. But still, our's is really magnificent.
Walking tour given by BYU grads now completing Master's and PhD's here.
Sleep
Monday, July 2
Breakfast/ mingling
Various introductory sessions
Errands - walked all over town trying to find an outlet adaptor. No dice. Yet.
Library inductions. Seriously cool libraries at Pembroke and King's. Minuscule compared to the HBLL, but a little more history.
More mingling. Lots of people from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Berkely here.
More errands - successfully found adaptors at John Lewis, the local department store at the local mall.
Surprisingly large city. Yet very walkable.
Dinner
FHE
Nice hearty chat with Drew, one of the BYU grads, who is about to finish up his mphil. He spoke words of comfort.
Things I'm about to go do:
Meet with my supervisor Dr. Martland. According to those who know, Dr. Martland is a very good man to have in your corner. He holds a lot of weight here, and apparently makes some great home cooked meals. Word is, he's the guy to know if you want to come back here for grad school. So.
After I meet with him at 1:00 I have his class (spooks and spies) at 3:25. Toooooootes excited.
Right now I'm going to go grab some lunch and then try to find the Cambridge Union Society. I've been there before, but I have subpar sense of direction. Maybe I'll take some pictures along the way.
For those of you who care about my mental and physical well being:
People are very friendly, I might make some friends.
I've been gargling/ airborning/ alaverting, and I think I nipped my potential cold in the bud.
The city made me feel, in a word, triumphant. See what I just did there?
But I'm long gone, so here are a few parting thoughts:
Bathrooms
Parisians must be immune to claustrophobia and heat stroke. Either that or their genetic makeup has blessed them with larger bladders than mine, and they don't need to use public restrooms. That's probably the case. But their public toilettes reek of Dante's Inferno. Sometimes, they are bold enough to charge you for entrance, which is apparently pretty standard all over Europe. But I have seen little to no quality gap between those pay-for-potties and the free ones in the good ol' US of A. But it's alright, I still really like their city.
Oranges
They like them.
I did not take this video. But I did have this experience.
She likes Orangina.
We like Orangina. And that shop full of cookies.
Music
It's available for dummies now. Provided they speak French.
The live music is abundant and delightful.
Shelley and Sara, this one's for you.
Fashion
It's no secret that Parisians are hip and trendy. All the men look like they just stepped out of a J Crew catalog. I'm not complaining.
Jambon
Ham here, ham there, ham everywhere. Ham and oranges make up 86% of the Parisian diet.
Anyway, I loved it. But now I'm in Cambridge. Read on if you please.
It's official. I've seen it. Any of you homebodies out there that have never been to Europe (like myself, last week) might feel like it's some distant romantic entity that exists only in movies. I'd like to bear my testimony that I know this city is for real, and it is amazing.
We landed in Paris yesterday around 10 am; unfortunately my body clock was convinced it was more like 1 am. That was rough. We ended up taking a 5 hour nap around noon. Jet lag is also not a myth. Fortunately the nap gave us the energy requisite to hit the city. I really like it here. The architecture is spot on.
We dropped by the Eiffel Tower and did a scenic boat tour on the Seine, during which it finally hit home that I am in Paris, and that I love it here.
Today we went to the palace of Versailles. Hot hot heat. The French do not believe in air conditioning, and they gyp you on ice. But that place was very large, and quite aesthetically pleasing. Here, have a look:
They don't take pictures with civilians.
Edward Scissorhands, trimming some topiaries.
Mom went to art school. She's been waiting her whole life to see this fountain.
French architecture at its finest.
Observations to date:
These Parisians must have missed the memo from the attorney general (they should really take the advice of U.S. officials). Smoking is not a good thing.
Doug noted that "the 60's De Gaulle era is long gone." Apparently the French were at the hight of rudeness then, but they've snapped out of it or something. They have been an absolute pleasure. Our concierge and the guy that sold us fresh squeezed orange juice were downright accomodating. And I'm so glad they all speak english since I didn't bother to learn French :)
The youth of Paris are not all together very different from our own. They too enjoy mooning tourists on boats.
The homeless men are very well equipped, and they all own puppies. There was a whole colony of homeless men with foam pads, sleeping bags, luggage and puppies camped out together on our street. They were just nestled peacefully in some alcoves.
Forget NY. Paris is the city that never sleeps. It gets dark quite late here. (10:30 pm last night) And nobody seems to notice when it does. Everything just keeps going. Neat.
Epiphanies to date:
I can do whatever I want. Not a good mantra; my mother says it makes me sound spoiled. But the foundation to a nice realization nonetheless; If I want to, I can live in Europe. I can just get a job here when I graduate. I'm an adult. I'm not a part of your system.
I am a very fortunate soul. Tomorrow I am leaving the country because I get to study at Cambridge University with the Pembroke-King's Summer Programme. While there I will have the opportunity to study alternate British spellings and develop my English accent, all the while seeking out a British husband with whom I will raise British children. Only after they've developed their accent will I bring them back to the homeland - the land I love.
On a more serious note, this is what I'll really be doing:
1. Taking two classes:
Spooks and Spies: A history of British and U.S. intelligence communities, 1909 to the present
The Development of the City, from 1890 to 1990
2. Participating in old "Oxbridge" (that's British jargon for Cambridge and Oxford) tradition called a supervision. I get to work with Dr. Peter Martland, who will assist me in the development of a sort of thesis paper. I've decided to write on cyber security threats to the United States. I know nothing about this topic, but you can bet I will by the end of this term.
3. Going to the Olympics. I'm meeting up with Melissa Richardson, an old roommate doing an internship in France, to attend the Women's Volleyball bronze medal game. For anybody watching the game, I'll be wearing a big panama with a purple hat band. Look for me.
4. Ideally, I'll be doing all kinds of traveling on the weekends. Maybe get in touch with my Scottish roots. I'm definitely going to the Harry Potter Studio Tours though, because it would be a big mistake to miss that.
In short, this will be lots of fun and I'm feeling very blessed. Up to this point I've had a really great summer. Good times with friends and family. Tahoe trips, river rafting, horseback riding, etc. I just made myself sound outdoorsy, but don't worry, I spend a fair amount of time watching ABC Family.
I had a great time catching up with high school friends though. I really have had it good. Everybody's lives are taking off in the most amazing directions (shout out to Hayley Jensen, who just climbed Mt. Shasta and raised $15,000 for the Breast Cancer Fund), and we still gel so well and love spending time together.
Anyway, my time in Reno has been wonderful, and I imagine my time at Cambridge will be pretty great as well, so if you want to keep up with my activities, this is the place.
