A Very Cambridge Christmas

Sorry for the delay on this post, but I got a bit overwhelmed with coming back to the States and seeing everyone and eating all the delicious American food I could get my hands on.  So…this is a bit late, but still before Christmas which is successful in and of itself.

Christmas at Cambridge isn’t just a one day event.  Oh no.  It has multiple parts.  It lasts weeks.  It starts in NOVEMEBER.  Here’s how my Cambridge Christmas broke down:

Advent Hall: After an awesome Carol Service I went and ate amazing food with friends.  This was in the middle of my intense exam week so it was good to relax and enjoy delicious food. I must have had such a great time because I didn’t take any pictures!

Festive Hall: First Hall that’s actually more than just a normal Hall.  We had crackers!  No, no, not those grainy things you eat with cheese.  Party crackers that have awesome paper crowns inside of them and games and such.  Such a British thing—I remember first learning about them from Harry Potter.  Festive Hall also included awesome table decorations, fancy napkins (if you can get fancier than napkins with your College crest on them), and a HUGE TREE.  My friends and I drank too much mulled wine, flaunted our crowns, and took a bunch of hilarious pictures around the Hall.  I was recovering from an awful cold and was swamped with work, but I still had a blast.

SBR Christmas Party: For grads only, this event was one for which everyone was waiting.  I spent all day with my friend decorating the SBR, picking up mince pies and drinks from Sainsbury’s, and basically running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make everything perfect.  (I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I was elected to the Social/Dining committee of the SBR, so this was part of my responsibility.)

Dressed up in a fancy dress I’ve been saving since summer.  Got to Hall, picked up my complimentary glass of mulled wine, and went to find my assigned seat at High Table (as part of the SBR, I get perks like this).  I found various friends, took more pictures, then went back to my seat for the start of dinner. 

Dinner was, if I can remember:

First course: split pea soup with vegetable crisps and roll

Second course: turkey, brussel sprouts with chili flakes, turnips with mustard, and potatoes

Third course: Christmas pudding (but I opted for the fruit plate), St. John’s truffles, and coffee/tea

And, of course…more mulled wine, white and red wine, and port

Afterwards we trekked up to the Senior Combination Room to enjoy complimentary wine.  I got to mingle with friends and take more pictures before being shuffled off to the SBR for…port and caroling!  We packed into one tiny room with one tiny piano and belted out various Christmas songs.  It was incredibly fun and really got me energized for the rest of the night.  Best moment: spilling a glass of port down the front of my dress.  Yes, you read correctly.  But let me clarify: it went down the front of my dress…as in, INSIDE my dress.  Here’s what went down: someone asked me to take a picture of them so I held the edge of my port cup between my teeth, leaned back to get the people in the photo, and…well, you can imagine.  The port ran down my neck, down my chest, and kept going down. But it was a Christmas miracle!  I didn’t get a single drop of port on my dress!  On the downside, my white bra is now red.

After that we all ran off to Hall again where it had been transformed into a massive dance floor!  A Scottish ceilidh band was there and we spent the next few hours dancing the night away.  This ceilidh has to be on the most fun things I have done at Cambridge.  The band instructs you in the dance for about five minutes, then you dance for the next five or so minutes before the next dance starts up.  It was hilarious since almost no one knew what they were doing, so you were always smacking into people.  And when I ended up in the back I couldn’t hear, so we were just trying to figure out the dance based on what everyone else was doing.  Hilarity ensued.  Thanks to my great dance partners who dealt with my two left feet and awkward laughter all night long. 

Thanksgiving/Christmas Party: One of my friends threw a vegan-ish Christmas party complete with Secret Santa.  There were so many of us we had to eat on the floor, but it only added to the experience.  I ate sooo much of this delicious food, a really random mish-mash of things that should have made my stomach explode, but only had it asking for more.  We played charades (the highlight of the evening was me trying to act out "Bear Grylls: Born Surivor...I had everyone in stitches they were laughing so hard) and chatted about the most random things, from snakes to sexual dancing.  Yes, just your average Christmas party.

Austrian Christmas: One of my friends from…you guessed it…Austria…threw a small Austrian Christmas party complete with mulled wine and delicious Austrian Christmas cookies.  I ate waaaay too many of these cookies.  But I had a great time just hanging out, relaxing, saying goodbye (for now) to my friends.

Ghost Stories: From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In the 19^th century, it was a holiday custom in Britain to read mystery or ghost stories aloud by a roaring fire while indulging in tasty, comforting foods of the season…The contrast of a chilling story read amidst the warmth of hearth and family seemed to make the experience that much better.”

I had been looking forward to this all year.  A ton of students got together in the SCR to listen to professors read ghost stories.  We got our glasses of wine, found seats by the fire, and readied ourselves to be creeped out.  The first story was quite good though try as I might I cannot remember the name of it or who wrote it.  The second was part of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and the third was one of my favorites: “The Monkey’s Paw.”  Afterwards we had more wine and mince pies.  It was my last night in Cambridge and the perfect way to conclude my Christmas festivities in England.

So that—in a not-very-small-nutshell—was my Cambridge Christmas.  I hope my American Christmas can live up to it, but considering I’ll be spending it with family and friends, I know it’s going to be fabulous.

Christmas Wish List

‘Tis the season of giving and receiving, and though I can’t wait to go home and give (my time at SANC, presents to all my friend and family, etc.), there are a few things I want as well.  Some of these things I won’t probably buy until I’m rich and famous (see #12), but some of these I hope I will be getting under the tree on Christmas day (*winkwink* Mom).

1. The Lab Rat Chronicles by Kelly Lambert 2. Light brown Oxford shoes 3. Adorable mushroom light switch cover 4. Gola bag with St. John’s colors 5. Spot It! 6. Dexter Season 5 7. Laura Veirs’ album, July Flame 8. Polaroid film 9. Earrings from Modcloth 10. Sweater from Modcloth 11. Bare Minerals powder 12. Diana toy camera 13. Lots of knee socks for my Hunters

What are you wishing for this Christmas?

PS: I’m totally distraught I forgot to ask for one of these for Christmas!

And I completely forgot to put this on my Christmas list!

Okay, now I'm just being greedy.

Visitors from Afar!

A couple weeks ago my two friends, Katie and Clay, came to visit me in Cambridge!  It was super exciting since I knew them from Milwaukee and my undergrad, so I felt like I was getting a piece of home when they came by.  And the Wisconsin accent!  I love it.

The first night we ate at a vegetarian/vegan restaurant called The Rainbow Café.  It’s down a narrow alleyway off the main street and in a tiny building’s basement.  We all ordered food from completely different ethnicities: spinach lasagne for me, three bean chilli for Clay, and Ethiopian mesir-wat for Katie.  The food was simple and lovely. 

We were a bit rushed, though, because we wanted to get to Newnham College to see a production of “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie, which is the play adaptation of one of my favorite novels.  After wandering in the cold and dark for a bit, I finally found the college and a nice lady (actually one of the actresses) led us to the theatre.  Actually, it was more like a tiny house with a medium-sized room where the play was going on.  They had the room divided in threes with the middle section as the stage.  It was a really cool intimate atmosphere with only about forty people tops in the audience. 

The play really was a fantastic adaptation.  All the actors were perfectly cast (and it didn’t hurt that the lead guy looked like Lee Pace *swoonz*).  It was funny and scary and tense and the perfect way to end the night.  After the show we went back to my hostel, ate a ton of candy, chatted, and went to bed.

The next day we threw together a massive breakfast from all the stuff in my kitchen.  I had to go to a lunch at the Master’s lodge, so I dropped Katie and Clay off at the Fitzwilliam art museum.  I think they had a lovely time.  Afterwards we did some shopping in town and I made my friends get pasties for lunch.  Needless to say they devoured them.

Clay was horribly jetlagged, so he went for a nap back home while Katie and I went to Patisserie Valerie for coffee/tea and postcard writing.

That night we had dinner at Bill’s, a delicious restaurant really close to St. John’s.  I got a fantastic burger that really hit the spot.  We stayed there for hours just chatting while the staff cleaned around us. :)

Night: more candy-eating and talking.  We know how to have a good time.

The next morning was another massive breakfast before I had to send Katie and Clay on their way.  I wish they could have stayed longer, but it was beyond fantastic seeing them.  I can’t wait to go back to the States and hang out with them in our homeland.   

  

Happy A&A Thursday!

Awkward

• When you accidentally insult someone by making a comment that sounds bad but isn’t and then they don’t let you explain what you really meant and then they just go on thinking that you think raped women in the Peace Corps had it coming.  Yeah.  It was that bad.
• Accidentally being really grumpy and rude to my supervisor when I bumped into him in the library but I was totally stressed out and did not expect to see him there amidst my stress.  Yeah, it’s been a week of accidentally insulting people.
• Breaking into a five minute long coughing fit in the middle of a conversation with a friend.  And then he just sat there awkwardly waiting for me to compose myself.
• Standing between two people at the Carol Service who clearly know how to sing.  And having to sing carols in their presence with my crappy voice, which was even worse with the cold I’m fighting off.  As if I wasn’t insecure about my singing voice in the first place.
• Running late to compline and bursting into the chapel only to realize…that a concert is going on?  Then asking the porter who tells me compline is in the Music Room.  Then running super late to compline and bursting into the Music Room and having a young man welcome us in only to realize…they’re rehearsing carols?  And the guy grabs sheet music to give us.  “You’re here for rehearsal?”  Nononononono, sir.  I think I may have actually laughed.  No singing in the choir for me.  So then we have to quietly scurry out of the room (the quiet part was a bit useless since we’d clearly already disturbed a rehearsal process).

Awesome

• All the Christmas dinners and parties I had this week.  Advent Hall AND Festive Hall.  And more to come!
• St. John’s truffles.  Yes, we have our own truffles.  Yes, they are out of this world delicious.  No, you can’t buy them; they’re just for us.  *evillaugh*
• Going home to see all my lovelies in only a week!
• Just sitting around and drinking hot chocolate with a friend and chatting.  Simplicity at its finest.
• Being able to read a book. For fun.  That isn’t Shakespeare.  My first choice: Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man.
• Brussell sprouts.  I kid you not.  I had them four times this week.  FOUR TIMES.
• Being done with term.  Lord, you don’t know how awesome that really is.

Thankful

I have so much to be thankful for.  Seven weeks ago I came to a country where I literally knew no one.  And a month and a half later I celebrated Thanksgiving with twenty fantastic Americans and Europeans.  We spent the night cooking, eating, drinking, playing games, laughing and sharing stories, and marveling at the fact that almost none of us knew each other just a few short weeks ago.  I am thankful for this beautiful city and this beautiful university and the wonderful, brilliant people here who make me feel like I’m at home.  I am blessed beyond belief.  

A&A Thursday!

First of all, I want to wish everyone a very, very Happy Thanksgiving!  Despite being in the UK, I plan on celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow with a bunch of lovely Americans and super excited Europeans.  It’s going to be a wonderful day.  We even managed to find a turkey!  (You would not believe how incredibly difficult it was to find a turkey here.  You could find guinea fowl, pheasant, and partridge all before you could find turkey.)  But anyway, let’s get on to A&A Thursday, which you’ve all been waiting for with bated breath. 

Awkward

• Using words that are perfectly acceptable in American English but completely inappropriate in British English.  This usually results in my English friends sniggering at me and then having to awkwardly explain what the word “actually” means.
• The ONE TIME I make food for one of my housemates and I (accidentally) heavily over-salt it.  Thankfully he was such a gentleman he had TWO helpings!
• The amount of times I go into Hardy’s Candy Store.  The young guy at the counter (who is incredibly cute…another good reason to visit) must recognize me by now (if not by face, by accent) and he probably thinks I’m the biggest pig in the world.  What can I say?  I love my British candy!
• The first night my American friends stay over they’re super tired.  And, of course, this is the one time my usually anti-social housemate has like five people over until 3:00 in the morning making a ton of noise in the common room (which is right outside my door).
• Me: Who’s that guy?  Rob: He lives with us.  Not recognizing my housemate whom I’ve lived with for two months…well, in my defense I don’t think I’ve seen him since the first time I met him two months ago. 

Awesome

• Having American friends visit for the weekend!  We ate good food, saw a good play, wandered the city, chatted about people at home, and generally reveled in our American-ness.  (See a teaser photo above.  Awkward: our squinty-ness.  Awesome: Us in general.  More awesomeness to follow in a full blog post.)
• Not having an essay due this week.  And then my DoS cancels the essay he was going to assign me!  Yippee!
• Thanksgiving approaching!  I’m so excited for stuffing and rolls and sweet potatoes and turkey (if we can find any…apparently there are no turkeys in England).
• Getting a package of sweaters from my wonderful Madre.  I’m totally prepared for the chilly English days ahead of me. 
• Getting three cards from my friend, aunt, and mom within two days.  The porter asked if it was my birthday and I had to just tell him that I know some pretty amazing people who always brighten my day with mail!

A&A

Yeah.  It's Friday again.  In my defense my whole week is off.  I keep thinking yesterday was Friday and today was Saturday (which I guess is no excuse because then A&A still wouldn't have been posted).  But anyway, here it is.  Enjoy!

Awkward

• The photographer was right by us the entire pre-Matriculation photo and I knew he was taking pictures of me.  Of course, the one that gets put up on line is of me with my eyes closed.  Le sigh.
• The couple that is always making out in the alleyway near my hostel.  It would all right if I didn’t have to walk through this alley to get to college.  “Oh, excuse me…can I just…yeah…pardon me…”  Get a room!
• When my housemate does this creepy laugh “heh heh heh” every time he walks into a room that I’m in.  And then I say hi and he says NOTHING.  Um…okay, sir.  What?!
• When you know something really scandalous about a person but they don’t know you know, so every time you look at them you’re thinking, “Ah!  I know this scandalous thing about you and you pretend to be all proper and such but I know you’re not!”  And they just give you strange looks because you’re giving them strange looks.
• When I walk into my hostel, run into a housemate, have a twenty-minute long chat, go into my room, and realize my hair is insanely windswept and sticking out in seventeen different directions.  Oh dear.  

Awesome

• Homemade mojitos + homemade chicken/peppers/onions + homemade tortillas = a fantastic night of food and friends.
• Getting my paper done at 2:30pm on Wednesday when it’s technically not due until 8:00am on Thursday.  Yay me!
• Leftover Halloween candy.  It’s probably why I got my essay done so quickly: sugar high.
• Swing dancing with a random guy in the SBR.  I know I mentioned this via facebook and Twitter, but I love swing dancing and it’s been so long.  And the best part was that he was really good so I didn’t have to think at all and I just had to follow the step.  No work involved.  Can’t wait to go home and swing dance at The Ale House!
• The new Hunger Games trailer.  I got chills, seriously.  It looks soooo good!  The only way it could have been better is if Robert Downey Jr. had played Haymitch. 

Woo Hoo! It's Actually Thursday!

Guess what!  It's Thursday!  And I'm actually posting it ON Thursday.  Aren't you proud of me?  Well, I'm pretty dang proud of myself so I guess that's all that matters.  Okay, I admit, it's eight minutes to midnight, but it's still Thursday (technically) so I'm good.  

Awkward

• How long it’s taken me to do my dishes.  Like five days.  My housemates probably think I’m the biggest slob in the world.  Which I feel like I am sometimes. 
• Telling my dreams to people.  I get really excited.  And they probably think I’m crazy.
• Being at an SBR committee meeting where I and a handful of other new committee members are being inducted.  President: “All in favor of these new members, raise your hand.”  So I, of course, raise my hand.  And I’m the only new member to do so.  President: “Actually, only current members are voting now.”  Yes.  Yes, that I can see.  Duh.  Because why would you vote for yourself, Deanie?  *facepalm*
• Playing trivia games and always getting question about geography or capitals or famous people…all things good Cambridge students should know…but I don’t.  So then I just look like the idiot and everyone’s thinking, “Dear Lord, how did this girl get in HERE?”
• Also being embarrassingly bad at pool. 
• Forgetting (somehow) that I was brushing my teeth and leaving my room to go to the kitchen and bumping into (of course) my most awkward housemate in the hallway.  And then having to say hello through a mouthful of toothpaste before I scuttle off into the kitchen (To get what?  I’m brushing my teeth!). 

Awesome

• Going to H&M and buying a crap ton of clothes and not having anyone tell me not to.  I got a gray cardigan (I think I’m going to sew the Cambridge crest on it), a white sweater, a chambray shirt, and a pair of uber-cute, semi-dressy navy blue skinny pants.  I want to wear of all of it at once! In layers! Happiness!
• Going to the Fitzwilliam after hours and getting free wine.  And wandering around looking at paintings, drinking wine, and talking to European guys about art.  I felt super pretentious.  It was great.
• Not having snow.  Poor, Milwaukee.  Sorry guys.  J
• Thursday in general.  I’m always busy but by the end of the day, when I have all my supervisions, lectures, and classes done, it FEELS SO GOOD.  I go to dinner.  I go to Compline.  I drink hot chocolate and attempt to play pool and laugh with friends.  And the weekend seems long and life seems good.  It’s a great feeling.
• Having my supervisor point to a section of my paper and say, “See these paragraphs?  They’re perfect.  I wouldn’t change anything about them.”  Big sigh of relief.

Remember, Remember...

Ah, Bonfire Night.  Also known as Guy Fawkes Night.  You know, the guy wearing the V for Vendetta mask who tried to blow up Parliament.  Or something like that.  Most Americans have a very stylized understanding of who Guy Fawkes was and what this whole holiday is really about.  So…are we supporting Guy Fawkes?  Or are we celebrating his demise?  Probably the later since people like to burn effigies of him on Bonfire Night.  Or does that really happen?  Honestly, the holiday is a bit confusing and the origins weren’t really explained to me.  But you know what, that didn’t stop me from taking my Saturday night off to enjoy the Bonfire Night carnival at Midsummer Commons.

With a large group of fellow Johnians at my side, I stepped out into the drizzly night (an improvement from last year’s Bonfire Downpour).  Terribly excited to go to an actual carnival (I kind of have the impression that Cambridge is stuck in the 19^th century, so modern inventions like roller coasters and bumper cars have yet to be invented), I couldn’t stop talking about all the fantastic carnival food I was going to eat.  My number one need: a burger.  With lots of ketchup and mayo.  *drools* 

My burger dreams were delayed because I suddenly was dragged on a handful of rides, each more nauseating than the one before.  When I did get such a weak stomach?  At that point the thought of a burger made me want to barf.  Thankfully we were able to take a break when the fireworks started.  

While nothing compared to Milwaukee’s Fourth of July bonanza of aerial explosions, I must say it was lovely watching their display.  Bundled up in my St. John’s scarf, chatting with an Australian about celebrating Christmas in the summer, it struck me how crazy cool my life is: I was in Cambridge. Watching fireworks. Cambridge. England. I was with people from India, Ireland, Australia, Switzerland, America, and England.  And we were all just having a good time at a carnival in Cambridge.  Sorry for the rant, but sometimes the awesomeness of my life just hits me at weird moments. 

Anyway, after that I thought I was done for rides, but I go pulled into a bumper car fight which was quite hilarious. Want to know something weird?  Most of the rides made us pay once we’d been seated.  So we’re spinning around and around on these crazy machines and this guy pops up next to us asking for our money.  Um, sir, I’m trying to keep from vomiting.  Could you wait like two minutes?  And there aren’t really lines so when the ride stops, everyone just bolts onto the ride trying to get seats.  Which I guess then becomes a game in and of itself.  Do I knock over this eight-year-old girl to get a bumper car?  Yes.  Yes, I do.

After that I was dragged—yes, literally—onto a terrifying ride known as Oblivion that had a random sign with a half-naked guy and girl embracing.  Um…okay?  The ride was actually the most fun out of all the ones I went on.  Here’s a picture of it:

Scary, no?  Super scary!  But also scary fun.  I must admit I probably would have gone on it again if it hadn’t been £5. 

Finally, FINALLY, I got my burger at the end of the night, but alas, it wasn’t what I was hoping for.  Still, I ate most of it, and the rest was gobbled up by these two Australian garbage disposals.

Yes, it was the night of the never-ending bowl for the two of them.  I think they must have sampled at least one bite of everyone’s food.  

Poor Devyani only ate three bites of her own candy apple.  (Okay, I'm not going to lie, I had at least three bites of that candy apple myself...)

What a good night.  Hung out with people I hadn't seen in a while; made new friends.  It felt good to step outside the academic confines of Cambridge, where even hanging out at a pub or club ends up including some sort of scholarly debate on plasma or American politics or pure vs. applied mathematics.  *sigh*  

But Bonfire Night was blissfully all about eating crappy food; and not wanting to go on rides that we eventually went on and (sort of) enjoyed; and being incredibly thankfully that Guy Fawkes didn’t blow up Parliament and unleash anarchy upon dear old England. 

PS: Most of these photos were taken by Chris or Devyani.  My camera is afraid of the dark and won’t take pictures if there isn’t sufficient lighting, but thankfully these trigger-happy photographs did the job for me.  Thanks, guys!