You Know What Day It Is...

Awkward

• The above photographs.  (But you know what’s awesome? I got that purple sweater from Value Village for $3.  Nifty thrifty! (Awkward: Saying “nifty thrifty.”  I don’t actually say these things aloud in public so that’s a relief. (Though I am prone to saying “Whoa, Nelly!” and “Holy mackerel!” at times.)))
• Locking myself out of my room.  Again.  And being in my pajamas and not having any shoes on.  And then having to borrow a housemate’s shoes (which were 2 sizes too big) and her military style-coat.  So I looked like a child/clown/soldier whilst walking around Cambridge.  At 10 o’clock at night.  Fantastic.
• Having to constantly ask people working in the grocery store where different things are located.  I can’t find anything!  And asking her where sour cream and buttermilk are, only to have her go, “They’re right next to you.”  Oh.
• Standing in a club and having a guy come up to me, run his finger down my nose, smirk, and walk away.  Um...okay?
• What this slightly damp, slightly warm air does to my hair.  How does every other girl here have gorgeous straight or gorgeous curly hair even whilst walking around outside in the mist?  My hair frizzes, flips in seventeen different directions, and my bangs…oh dear…you don’t even want to know.  No matter what I do to them—hairspray, straightening—they just don’t listen.  Maybe I should just wear a bonnet until summer.

Awesome

• Finally getting to wear my new Hunter boots!  For being part of England, Cambridge gets practically no rain.  Which is super disappointing since I just got these gorgeous new rain boots.  But today it was raining (well, sort of…enough to constitute wearing wellies) and I busted out the boots!  So exciting.
• My new Dalek “Exterminate!” water bottle from the Doctor Who Experience Gift Shop.  It looks like something a seven-year-old British boy would own, but I don’t care.  I proudly whip it out in lectures and have a sip of water.  Anyone else parched?  Because I’m not!
• Finally getting to read The Tempest.  And it was just as awesome as I was hoping it would be. 
• My supervisor sitting me down to talk to me about my paper and starting off by saying, “There were so many fantastic things about this!”  Such a relief after last week’s disappointment. 
• Caving in and downloading Spotify.  Now I can listen to Amelie and Bon Iver and Pale Young Gentlemen and I don’t even have to try to find them in one of Cambridge’s many libraries!  Huzzah!
• My friend brought this up, and I'm ashamed that I didn't mention this: but I spent the weekend in London and it was super awesome.  The real reason I didn't mention it: because I'm planning on doing a whole blog post about it this weekend.  But I'll put a little teaser right here: it included copious amounts of food, hilarious Frenchies, and, of course, The Doctor.

Cambridge Botanic Gardens

Right now I’m trying to avoid working on an essay I should really be working on.  It’s all right, though, because I’ve been working on it for about three hours straight now and I think I deserve a break.  This post is rather old, but I enjoyed my adventure, so I’d like to share it with the whole class.  Towards the beginning of my stay here at Cambridge, we had really good weather (okay, the weather’s still decent, but not has blazingly warm as it was).  Because of this, I decided it would be a good idea to see the Cambridge Botanic Gardens.  A girl I met through a graduate Freshers event decided to go and I tagged along.  It was about a twenty to twenty-five minute walk, which is rather far in the Cambridge world, but it was well worth it.

The gardens were stunning.  The centerpiece has to be a beautiful pond with water lilies which is surrounded by all these little paths and climbing rocks.  A group of children was playing along there when I stopped by and it was so adorable and picturesque.  

The greenhouse had themed rooms (much like the Domes back in Milwaukee) with stretches of cacti, tropical plants packed in so thick you would think you were in the jungle, and, coolest of all, a carnivore room with Venus flytraps and the like. 

The scented garden definitely stood out from all the other areas.  Walking through it was like walking through a bunch of restaurants.  A whiff of cooking chicken.  A whiff of curry noodles.  Rosemary.  Mint.  Lemon.  Oregano.  A very tantalizing sensory experience. 

The whole garden had a definite feel to it.  Though it looked very proper and cultivated, many people chose the grassy greens for picnicking, reading, and even napping.  It almost felt like a very well-kept park.  Since entrance is free for University students, I may have to come back to do some writing or reading.  If the weather stays, of course.  :)  

I also want to note how my original title was "Cambridge Botanic Garens."  Clearly I have had a long day of writing and can't be expected to spell properly.

Awkward and Awesome...Cambridge Style

Wow.  It’s actually been weeks since my last Awkward and Awesome Thursday.  And behold! it’s my first A&A in England! So exciting! 

Awkward

• Having a super long conversation with someone, and realizing that you STILL don’t remember their name, and knowing it’s way too late to ask them. 
• Having my phone go off three times in a row about thirty seconds after I sit down to have a meeting with an esteemed professor.  And then scrambling to find it in my massive bag, and just having him sit there while it ring and rings and I nearly throw everything out of my purse trying to find the blasted thing.
• Tripping.  A lot.  Me+cobblestones+listening to my iPod=disastrous.
• Going to other people’s colleges.  By this time I pretty much know my way around John’s.  But then I got to Corpus Christi today and could not have been more lost.  This was even after the porters pulled out a map and showed me where to go.  Really, it was a maze with random courtyards with no exits, big circular paths, creepy alleys, and stairs that look they’re going to lead into a basement but actually lead into a garden.  What?  What?  And then I asked like ten different people at CC for directions and none of them knew where I was going.  I wanted to yell, "Do you even GO here?!"
• So.  We have these people called bedders.  They come in to our hostels and clean the shared areas, as well as do minor cleaning in our rooms.  And my room is trashed.  I just haven’t fully settled in yet and my posters keep falling off the walls so they’re draped over furniture like they’re melting clocks in a Dali painting.  And every day when I go into my room to find my garbage changed, I cringe because I know the bedder must think I’m a complete slob.  Which I guess I sort of am.  At the moment.  But not all the time, I promise!
• One day, whilst wearing skinny kakhi pants tucked into brown combat boots…
• British Professor: Do you ride horses?
• Me: What?
• Professor: [gestures to attire]
• Me: Oh. No.
• Professor: Oh, well, I guess you are from the Midwest so…
• Me: [internally] What is THAT supposed to mean?!  Do I make generalizations about Brits and their attire just because you're British and happen to wear penny loafers and tweed?!

Awesome

• Dinner in Hall.  I can’t get over it.  It’s so awesome.  I love wearing my gown.  I love having to stand for Latin prayer.  I love the hilarious (and sometimes disgusting) Cambridge traditions that involve food and money (for another post, perhaps…).  I love that when I walk to Hall at night in my gown I seriously feel like I’m at Hogwarts.
• “The Balcony” by The Rumour Said Fire.  I cannot stop listening to it. 
• Müller Corner Yogurt.  It has yogurt on one side and fruit compote on the other.  It’s soooo delicious.  I had it for the first time in Ireland back in March and was so excited to find it in England.  The yogurt itself is delicious but then you add the fruit and it tastes like a melted shake.  I have no idea how many calories it is but I totally don’t care. 
• Getting a package in the mail from my mom.  Among the contents (which pretty much sum me up as a person): five Shakespeare plays, one pair of Oxford shoes, my Jurassic Park box set, and massive amounts of candy corn.  Guess who’s munching on a mellowcreme pumpkin right now… 
• All the Freshers’ guides said to get to know the porters (these guys who are essentially a mix of security guard, bouncer, and tour guide) at your college.  Oh man, did that come in handy.  One of the lovely gents I’ve met is Peter.  Not only does Peter save me every time I’m running late to a meeting and have no idea where I’m going, but he also presented me with this (once more...please disregard how unflattering this picture is...the wind is not good to my bangs and a cold is not good to my face):

He said a mother of an undergraduate from years ago brought it to the Lodge and told him to give it to a Fresher.  And to whom did he give it?  Moi.  A lovely St. John’s scarf (priced at around £30) for free.  Yeah, Peter’s definitely getting a Christmas card from me.

One Perk of Not Having a Car

I walk a lot in Cambridge.  Sometimes I really miss my car.  Though I spend a lot of time (mostly in my head) complaining about how much I hate having to walk everywhere—back and forth and back and forth from my hostel to my college to the store to the pub (okay that I really shouldn’t be driving to and from anyway)—it’s actually really good for me.  First of all, I’m pretty sure I’ve already lost a pound just from walking everywhere.  Also, it’s better for the environment.  And it’s really just sensible for anyone living in Cambridge since parking sucks and some parts of the city are blocked off from cars. 

But I realized how nice walking is when I had to walk to my lectures yesterday and today.  You certainly wouldn’t get this view by driving on the road.

Yeah…I guess I’m pretty blessed.  Though I do still enjoy complaining about how much my feet hurt.

Welcome to St. John's...Officially

Ah, matriculation.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the actual act of matriculation involved me signing my name to a sheet of paper. But there’s quite a bit more to it than that.  First and foremost, it involves this massive photograph taken outside on St. John’s Backs (possibly the only time outside of summer we’re allowed to walk on the grass).  The photo gets together all Freshmen undergraduates and postgraduates (as well as various Senior Tutors and Fellows) for a group photo.  See above for an example.

There are dress code requirements.  Men must wear suits and ties.  Women must wear white blouses, black shirts, and black tights.  Everyone MUST wear their gown.  Then—somehow, miraculously—we’re organized into alphabetical order and ushered through rapid-fire individual photographs before being directed to our place in the photograph (luckily for me, I didn’t have to stand on the bleachers).  Since it went in anti-alphabetical order, I was one of the first people place, which meant I had to wait ages for everyone else to get together.  Thankfully I was standing next to some very interesting grads I had met before, including a guy from the Netherlands and a guy from Italy. 

After quite a bit of waiting, and various reminders to stand between the shoulders of the people in the row in front of us, we were ready.  The photographer took about ten photographs in about two minutes, so the actual photo shoot took no time at all.  Unfortunately for all us with long-ish hair, it was an incredibly windy day (however, this made our gowns billow out in a dramatic fashion, so that was kind of cool—see above).

The photo was followed by a brief mass in St. John’s chapel.  The Gents (our choir) sang.  They were incredibly, especially a young boy who never seemed to run out of oxygen and who hit incredibly high notes.  Our Chaplain read from A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which was awesome (Douglas Adams was a St. John’s graduate…apparently he was a poor student (awesome gossip abounds)). 

Before dinner I joined fellow students for a wine reception with our Tutor.  Yes, once more, Johnians do enjoy bonding over alcohol.  Dinner was fantastic.  I somehow got placed at the High Table which is usually reserved for Fellows and (on rare occasions) graduate students.  I was sitting next to my Tutor and a rather lively Gent. 

Check out the awesome menu:

Minestrone Soup with Dunryse Blue Cheese Straws

Roast Breast of Guinea Fowl with Grape & Cream Sauce

Panache of Celeriac, Carrots, and Turnips

Spiced Pineapple with White Chocolate Sorbet & Candied Ginger

Dessert Bowl of St. John’s Truffles & Coffee

Chateau Patache d’ Aux Medoc 2000

Dow Ruby Port

Fancy schmancy, right?  And John’s has really, really good food.  I think I may have to eat in Hall every night.  My favorite part is the tradition.  We MUST wear robes to eat in Hall.  And then someone clangs a gong and everyone has to stand while they read a Latin prayer.  When they bang the gong again later in the meal (even if you have a mouthful of food), you have to stand in silence again for the prayer.  You’re not allowed to take pictures or, as I just found out, go to the bathroom until the Fellows leave.

Once we’d sealed the deal with a meal (whoa, totally did not intend for that all to rhyme), we officially become Johnians.  We are joining the likes of (as mentioned) Douglas Adams, William Wordsworth, Manmohan Singh (current PM of India), John Couch Adams (he discovered Neptune), Patrick Bronte (father of the Bronte sisters), three saints, and eight Nobel Prize Winners.  A lot to live up to…but I’m ready for it.

Welcome to Cambridge

Dearest reader, you’re probably wondering why it’s taken me so long to post this blog (at least, I hope you’re wondering since that means you read my blog and care whether or not I post).  The main reason is this: I have yet to sort out the complicated world that is Cambridge internet services and get internet in my room.  My big plan for tomorrow is seeing the IT department at St. John’s.  Part of me kind of hopes they’re like Roy and Moss from The IT Crowd but the other part of me hopes they aren’t since Roy and Moss seem to never actually fix computers on that show.  And, yes, I realize that reference will be lost on 95% of you. [Note: Went to the IT people today.  Got internet in room.  IT guy not like Moss or Roy.  Actually an American.  Bummer.]

So, no internet, no blogging.  I’ve been able to use Starbucks internet for a while, but trekking a half an hour away with my massively heavy laptop is not my favorite activity.  But, still, here it is.  Let me give you a brief intro into what I’ve been up to this past week, and then hopefully I can give more detailed posts on specific topics.

Cambridge is a beautiful city.  Okay, that’s very simplified and cliché, but it’s truly beautiful.  The streets are all cobblestones (which is only cool until you have to walk long distances every day), the buildings have been around for centuries (and haven’t changed much), there are quaint pubs, narrow alleys full of shops, massive churches, terrifying people on bikes (not terrifying like they’re dressed up as clowns, just terrifying because I almost get hit ten times a day), and, of course, the picturesque River Cam running right through the city (and my college’s backyard). 

My college, St. John’s, is one of the largest, richest, and (IMHO) best colleges out of Cambridge’s 31 diverse colleges.  I walk through the corridors and courtyards and I feel like I’m at Hogwarts.  This feeling is amplified when I go to Hardy’s, the adorable candy shop across the street from college (dangerous, I know) that reminds me of Honeydukes. 

The city is mostly full of students, but there are a lot of tourists, which is new for me being from Milwaukee (a not very touristy city).  It’s kind of an interesting feeling NOT being the tourist and actually being a member of the college (I’m an official member now that I’ve matriculated, which basically means I signed a piece of paper saying I would obey the Fellows and all the ordinances of the university, etc. etc.).

I spent my first days in the city getting to know the lay of the land, and I feel pretty sure about where I’m going most of the time.  This only applies to the city, though, because as soon as I get into my college I get all turned around.  Every single court looks exactly the same!  But in the middle of last week there was a punting trip for international students.  A punt is a gondola-style boat that is steered by a person standing on the back with a long pole (this person is, therefore, a punter, and going on the punt is punting).  What I didn’t know when I got on the punt is that we didn’t have a punter.  So, as you can guess, we had to do the work ourselves.  Yes, even I took a turn.  It was terrifying at first, but once I was up there it was rather fun.  I was awful at it and we smacked into the wall a lot, but I think I did about as well as any of us, especially for a first-timer.  I plan on practicing more, so if any of you readers visit I should be an expert and can take you around town.

I also got to move into my hostel during my first days.  I’m located about a seven minute walk from college, which is nice, though it does get tedious when I go back and forth four plus times a day.  The building is an old brick three-story house, which has seen better days (the windows certainly need to be cleaned (see below)) but my room was surprising HUGE.  Yes, HUGE.  I think I can fit maybe eight or nine people in sleeping bags on my floor.  So, feel free to visit me in groups!  I also have a LOT of furniture (especially wardrobes and dressers), which is great since I brought a crap ton of clothing with me.  J  I’m going to wait to post pictures of my hostel until I have decent decorations up.  Right now it sort of looks like a rather large dorm at a prison-like all girls boarding school from the 1800s.  But I went to a poster sale down the road and picked up some prints, including an awesome A Clockwork Orange movie poster (you definitely won’t see that at an all girls boarding school from the 1800s (though I’m also hesitant to add it my walls since I don’t want Alex staring me down from either my bed area or my bathroom…hmmm…a conundrum (also, also, I think I need footnotes in this blog…sorry for the excessive parentheses))).

The only downside to my hostel lies in the fact that it’s a breeding ground for spiders.  Actually, I think all of Cambridge is.  This is what I found as soon as I walked into my hostel bathroom on day one.

Lovely, right?  I named him Ralph.  And then Ralph went (as my aunt put it) into the Witness Protection Program in the toilet.  Ralph was then followed by a handful of unnamed beasts that are coming out of the woodwork (probably literally) and camping out under my tables, by my windows, on my curtains, and on the doorframe.  Not cool, arachnids, not cool.  I guess this is the price I pay for having a big room AND my own bathroom.  (Now that I think about it, I could probably fit two to three more people sleeping on my bathroom floor.  Not that you’d want to with all the spiders running around like they own the place.)

Anyway, this blog is getting long, but I’ll just mention one more thing before I go.  This current week is called Freshers Week and is full of events for freshman (both grad and undergrad) students.  So far I’ve gone to a wine tasting (which was stocked with 100 bottles of free wine…you can imagine how that night went) that led to a night out at a local bar.  I’ve gone to a club night at a rather awkward tiki-themed British club.  Last night I went to another bar event.  Yes, as you can see, Cambridge folk love their liquor.  Just wait until I tell you about dinner in Hall (next post, I think).  Thankfully I’m from the beer state, so I can handle my own.  But coming up are quiz nights, themed parties (Disney, I think, is next weekend), more punting trips, library tours, speed dating, and fancy dinners.  I’m trying to enjoy it all while I can (aka while I still don’t have school). 

So that is a really, REALLY brief summary of the chaotic first week I had.  I plan on posting a few more blogs soon, one on dinner in Hall, one on Cambridge Quirks, and one on the Cambridge Botanic Garden.  Once I have internet in my room the posts will be coming quicker.  As of now, I may be a little slow.  So, forgive me.  And, as usual, comment, follow, tell your friends.  More updates soon!