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!

Yeah...it's Friday...so what?

Do you know what yesterday was? Apparently it was Thursday.  I kind of forgot about this because the whole day I was under the impression that it was Friday (and hence today would be Saturday).  So, apologies for no Awkward and Awesome Thursday.  I’ll include some A&As below, but first I mention how lovely my day was today.  I went to a café, ate a delicious sandwich, had a cup of tea, wrote some letter and postcards, read some of Richard II, and generally had a great time hanging out by myself.  Then I went to the Cam market and bought three books at a used book sale (bad Deanie!): The Man in the High Tower by Philip K. Dick, The Stories of E. M. Forester, and Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne (which I have to read for next term).  The weather was gorgeous: sunshine and cool breeze—I only had to wear a cardigan, it was that warm out.  I have vegetable soup for dinner and another market to look forward to tomorrow.  Life is good.

Now, on to the A&As.  It’s going to be brief this week because I don’t know how much I’ll remember.

Awkward

• Being the only underdressed person with a group of fancily dressed people.  Fail.
• Having to scurry out of a massively packed lecture so I can go have a coughing fit out in the hallway.  And having the door situated at the front of the room right next to the professor so that everyone (including said professor) can give me the stink eye as I rush out of the room and then try to sneak back in five minutes later.
• Sitting in a really quiet café and crunching on a really loud toasted sandwich.  “Oh…don’t mind me munching over here like a dog eating dry dog food…” 

Awesome

• The Compline Service in the St. John’s Chapel.  Such a relaxing and inspiring event.  Plus, there’s hot chocolate afterwards! 
• Getting a package in the mail from my mom that contained (among other things) my adorable brown boots, new Halloween socks, and a ginormous bag of Halloween candy.  My mom is the best.
• Getting another letter in the mail from my dear friend, Michael.  So exciting!  Actually, just getting legit mail in general.  Postcards, cards, and letters keep cropping up.  You guys are the best and those notes always make my day.
• Making pasta bake, Italian rice with spinach, pumpkin cupcakes, pan-fried chicken, roasted vegetables…the list goes on.  I am so impressed that my previously non-existent culinary skills have suddenly appeared.  

Yeah, okay, that’s all I can think of.  Sorry guys.  Hope your week was more jam-packed with awkward and awesome (but mostly awesome) moments.  In the meantime, enjoy this picture of the delicious dinner I made myself the other night.

Be jealous.

Halloween in Cam

I just busted out 1,000 words of an essay in about four hours (all right, that’s not too impressive, but give me a break here!) so I’m taking a little rest from Shakespeare.  In the meantime, I wanted to grace you, dear reader, with another blog post.  Technically this post should have gone out yesterday, since it’s already November (November! Yikes!) but we all know how slow I am.  So here it is: my first European Halloween.

The grad students at St. John’s had a hostel crawl, which is a bit like a pub crawl but cheaper, more exclusive, and with nicer bathrooms.  I was very excited to have a real Halloween party to go to (I don’t think I’ve every been to a seriously intense Halloween party where everyone dresses up).  As usual, I went to my wardrobe for the base of my costume, and ended up using this awesome $11 red dress, an Express belt, and Nine West heels for most of my costume.  The horns I (obviously) didn’t have lying around, so I had to purchase them.  You may think that I was a simple devil for Halloween.  Don’t be fooled.  You can’t tell in the picture, but I put Prada labels on my belt and shoes.  So…I’m the Devil Wears Prada!  “How cheeky!” one student remarked.  I know, right?

I also took the opportunity to bake cupcakes for the occasion.  I never have a reason to bake 24+ cupcakes (who’s going to eat them besides me?) so I was very excited.  I had to go on a massive hunt to find cupcake tins and pumpkin puree, but I finally succeeded.  In the end I produced fantastic pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I used THIS recipe if anyone is interested.  They turned out marvelously, but stupidly I forgot to take a picture.  Oh well. 

The hostel crawl was tons of fun.  We had hard cider and lots of candy (my one friend will be jealous that we got to eat bags and bags of Strawbs).  I talked to people about amphibian diseases, the Wisconsin accent (one guy made me say “and” about twenty times), dating in England versus Germany, and how to make a s’more.  I tangoed in someone’s kitchen and almost killed myself tripping over my own heels.  I questioned Minnesota Mike about why he was dressed like a cow and I wasn’t. 

Later we went back to the SBR (graduate union) for drinks, mummy wrapping, and bobbing for apples.  My group dominated in the mummy wrap and we came away with a bottle of wine!  Props to Julia for being such a good mummy. 

After a porter politely asked us to wrap up our party (no pun intended) and get out of the SBR, a group of us went off to Kambar, a Cambridge nightclub.  We were practically the only people dressed up (does no one else in Cam know how to have fun?) but we didn’t care.  We danced the night away and got home at an outrageous hour. 

I must say, Halloween in Cambridge was a major success.  Now, even more than this last holiday, I’m looking forward to the next one.  You know what it is…Thanksgiving!  I’m already wrangling in various Americans and Europeans to help me create the most extravagant and fun Thanksgiving ever.  More details to come about whether any of us actually figures out how to cook a turkey.

PS: In the comments below, tell me what you dressed up as for Halloween?  Was your costume as “cheeky” as mine?

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.