Taking over England (or wherever): Giant Photo Blog 5 – The Cambridge Tour Edition

So, because I can't sleep and I know this is the photo blog you've all been waiting for...I present to you the Cambridge Tour Edition.  (We took a brief, 2-hour, walking tour of the city centre and some of the colleges as part of our Freshers' week festivities today).  You can find all the pictures on Picassa.

The Oh My God This is Insane Edition...and Other Observations

-  You know what I found to be a really awesome idea?  Riding our new bikes home after dark from the bike shop.  Jolly good fun, that!

Allow me to set the stage...Michelle and I finished eating at our traditional Thai place (with the quirky Thai waitress who we still can't really understand, is pleasantly neurotic, and asks me all the questions because she knows what's up) as dusk was settling in over beautiful Cambridge.  After our waitress finished rearranging the dishes on our table, we walked several blocks back to where our new bikes were parked in the mall bike garage. 

After we got everything unchained and our lights affixed...we made our way out onto the street.  Now, the streets in the city centre are quite narrow (more like pedestrian paths) and don't have many cars, especially at night...but the few cars do tend to drive at breakneck speed.  So car wise we were pretty much ok...however, I failed to properly account for the fence on the left side of the road as I launched myself out of the parking lot in a grand display of cycling acumen.  The good news is...I drove on the correct side of the road.  The bad news is...I pretty much missed the road entirely.  Turns out that riding a bike isn't "just like riding a bike" after all.  14 years of bike-free living does create a bit of rust...especially with turning.  Fortunately there were only 6 or 8 pedestrians that saw my little adventure with the side railing.  I played it off pretty well though...pretending like I just failed to pull off a new and daring bike trick (or something)...if I ever see the onlookers again...I won't make eye contact.

As an aside, I was quite appalled that I could be so bad at such a simple athletic task.  I mean, there are a bunch of uncoordinated nerds around here...a bunch.  And they all seem to manage to zip around on their bikes like it's nothing at all.  I don't allow myself to be subpar at athletic activities...so there will be serious practice sessions this weekend.  Otherwise, the bike will stay safely locked to the rack outside.

Anyway, after the inauspicious start...things marginally improved.  We (by that I mean I...Michelle seemed to have no problem) made it home in one piece.  I still had significant trouble keeping the vehicle going dead straight when close to the curb and being passed by cars, but I managed with little incident.  The main problem is that I can't signal for turns (lose my balance) and I can't turn efficiently (I think I was over-analyzing it...I was trying to decide if I needed to shift my body weight as well as turn the wheel or just let it happen).  Other than that I'm good.  Unfortunately our route isn't a straight line.  Hence, I was terrified for the entire 8 minute ride (or hour ride...it's all a blur really) that I would either careen into a pedestrian, the curb or another fixed object.  However, as I said, we did make it home safely, where I promptly fell asleep for several hours...out of sheer terror no doubt.

-  The Cambride equivalent to texting while driving is apparently texting while biking.  I've seen it several times and it somehow seems even more dangerous.  I can just picture someone riding straight into a poll or sliding into a group of Japanese tourists (the good news is the latter would be chronicled on film).  Oh wait...that was my ride home.

-  First two days of lecture went quite well.  Pretty interesting stuff.  A lot of information, so it's hard to take everything in and the 2-hour lectures are too long as I lose my focus and start thinking about my awesomeness (or whatever) sometime during hour 2.  I also met some more classmates and got scooped up for lunch dates both days.  I've decided that this is all very nice...but I'll try to limit it somewhat in the future.  When it comes to school...I tend to revert to the high school mentality that who you hang out with is important for some reason.  Worrying about socializing with different people (which doesn't come naturally) tends to get in the way of why I'm really there...to study and learn.  My goal is to play it more cool this time, chart my own course, and let others follow me if they are so inclined.

-  This weekend we have some college matriculation activities and a field trip to Winston Churhill's home just south of London.  Should be smashing.









 

The Societies Fair and Assorted Observations Edition

A couple of quick notes, since I have my first lectures tomorrow and I need my rest.

-  First and foremost, good luck to the UCF Knights tonight!  I haven’t missed too many home football games in a while…but I’ll certainly be there in spirit.  I’m not going to think too much more about this now…it will make me too sad.

-  Managed to stop by (and get into) the societies fair today.  Let me tell you…the Brits are serious about their societies.  If you make the slightest eye contact, the game is up and you are pretty much on the hook.  So, beware if you ever attend one of these.  I ended up signing up on a few email lists for societies that had some events and speakers of interest to my field.  I love email lists…and receiving email in general, so it was a productive afternoon.  Also took a look at some of the sports and student groups.  The tennis table was manned by a fairly dashing and handsome young man (about what you would expect from tennis players), the table tennis table was manned by a nice Asian girl (obviously), and the black student association table was manned by a person that definitely wasn’t black (shrugging my shoulders with palms facing upward).   Unfortunately, the croquet guys were nowhere to be found.

-  One other Cambridge observation.  There are some serious fast walkers around this town.  By US standards I’m pretty quick with my stride.  But even my walking to a UCF game pace is mediocre over here.  In fact, just yesterday I was walking by myself to the city and a guy literally passed me up and left me in the dust.  Obviously, I pushed myself enough to keep in shouting distance of him and keep things respectable…but I was shaken.  I’m going to have to step up my game.

Taking over England (or wherever): Part IV and Photo Blog 5 – The Development Studies Edition

Nothing too interesting to report today as I didn’t have any official program events scheduled.  Michelle and I headed out this morning to the University Societies and Activities Fair for Freshers (or something) that was held at the big event center on the east side of the city centre.  As we approached the event location, we were continually accosted by students and peddlers looking to give us coupons, flyers, goodie bags, and the like (it was kind of like Egypt…but less sunny).  On the plus side, I think I managed to score about 17 pizza coupon books and a flyer advertising a dance party/rave where neon paint and glitter would be provided (obviously, I will be there…whether Michelle will go with me or not…I’m down for any event that features neon paint and glitter).  On the not so plus side…there was a huge queue to get into the fair so we ended up bailing.  (An aside…I really dislike that the British use ‘queue’ rather than ‘line’…it’s so much harder to spell queue consistently).  It didn’t really feel like our type of scene anyway…as most of the people seemed to be about 13 or so.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  My favorite part was that two guys came out of the arena…quite sweaty and bothered…and talked to the 15-year-old girl in front of us in line.  They said it was just a mess in there, was too hot, and they weren’t getting any sign-ups for their croquet club.  Mind you…this was like an hour and a half after the thing started…and their advertisement was a crumpled up piece of notebook paper with the word ‘croquet’ hand-written in black marker.  I certainly couldn’t fault their effort.

From there we headed over to my department and gave Michelle the grand tour.  Michelle took the obligatory pictures (see below).  Also checked out the departmental library and checked out some books for me to read for class (or not).  (On that note, I did manage to read almost an entire book written by one of my professors this afternoon/evening…so I’m pretty pleased with myself for that.)  Finally, we had a lunch at what turned out to be a kind of hoity-toity café.  It was pretty good, but not exceptional.

Otherwise, I’m just gearing up for the beginning of classes and starting to get my study on.  I’m also pretty excited about all the general talks and events that pop up on the notice boards and websites around here.  It’s amazing how many high profile people come here to speak.  For example, Lord Winston is coming to my college next week (I didn’t know him…but he’s apparently a doctor…among other things…big into maternal issues…obviously Michelle is super stoked about this one) and authors Chinua Achebe and Tracy Chevallier have events in town later this month.  I guess I should mention my most embarrassing moment from last night at the introduction event.  I was rather passively involved in a conversation with several other students that were sitting in my area.  I noticed the Chinua Achebe flyer on the board and pointed it out.  Nobody really said anything about it…so I panicked and said something insightful like, “he’s a really well-known author.”   One of the girls looked at me like I was perhaps the stupidest person on the planet.  Good times.

Facade of the building that faces mine.

My building (aka where I try to scrape by) and me.

The Highly Overwhelmed and Fish Out of Water Edition

So, if you ever get the urge to have yourself knocked down a few pegs…or better yet feel the need to make your life up to the current point seem like an exercise in mediocrity and boredom…I suggest that you sit in on an introductory session at a Cambridge graduate program (Development Studies, for example).  Of course, not everyone there has done extraordinary things (like live and work in Japan or Ghana, help prevent human trafficking in the US and Haiti, start and run a non-profit, or clerk at the UN), but many have and those are the ones that stick out.  Add on top of that the ones that previously studied at Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Johns Hopkins (or some combination of those) and you have quite the intimidating crowd.  Not to mention that 95% of the people in the room are younger than you…some significantly so.

Taking over England (or wherever): Part III and Photo Blog 4 –The Queen’s College Edition

So, some huge news today…we bought bikes!  Turns out that this was pretty much a must have purchase as seemingly everyone here has them.  The bike shop said we should be able to pick up our new babies next weekend.  Because we bought the “student specials,” which were the only bikes that were remotely reasonable in price, there was a bit of a wait.  Safe to say in Cambridge that it’s definitely a seller’s market for bicycles!  Putting that aside, we’re very excited about cutting down our commute time to the city centre from 20 minutes (walking) to like 5 minutes biking.  While I was never particularly adept at cycling and I haven’t been on a bike in like 15 years…I plan on riding fast, because that’s how I roll.

Taking over England (or wherever): Part II and Photo Blog 3 – Out and About and the King’s College Edition

So we’ve had a chance to get out and check out some of the sights of Cambridge the past few days.  Since we arrived on Wednesday, we’ve had alternating weather days…rainy on Wednesday, sunny on Thursday, rainy on Friday, and sunny (for the most part) on Saturday.  Temperature has stayed in the high 50’s to low 60’s during the day…very pleasant when the sun is out.

Taking over England (or wherever): Photo Blog II

The Churchill College Edition...

Front Entrance to Churchill College (aka where I dominate)

Taking over England (or wherever): Photo Blog I

Our quarters...

View out our back windows

Taking over England (or wherever): Part I

Cheerio!  So we arrived safe and sound in jolly old Cambridge at around 3:00 pm (that’s British Time for all of you rubes still stuck on crappy East Coast Time) yesterday afternoon.  The trip from Dublin to Cambridge was quite smooth…overall, the entire trip was surprisingly easy.

We touched down at Heathrow in London around 11:00 am or so.  Wrangled our bags onto the luggage carts relatively quickly…in fact, the luggage almost beat us to the terminal…quite efficient.  From there we made our way towards the train station downstairs.  This was as far as we had gotten with our advanced planning.  So, we were trying to decipher the self-service kiosk and I guess we looked sufficiently bewildered, because a friendly airport worker asked if we needed help.  Luckily, I put my ego aside for a brief moment and asked how to get to Cambridge.  She told us to take the bus (or coach as they like to call it…I think to distinguish it from the public transport that operates within cities) and pointed us in the right direction…which turned out to be a good call.  In retrospect, not sure where we would have ended up had that lady not happened by. 

Anyway, we made our way to the bus terminal in the airport and purchased 2 one-way coach tickets to Cambridge on the good old 787.  I paid with British pounds and everything…because I’m super prepared like that.  The bus left about 15 minutes or so after we got there…perfect timing.  The trip took about 3 hours because there were several stops along the way.  I missed most of it as I was sleeping off my hangover from the ridiculous amount of mini-cocktails I imbibed on the flights (not really).  At the last stop before Cambridge, one passenger shouted out to the bus driver, “is this the Cambridge stop?”  I yelled out “newb!” and heckled him relentlessly. 

After that bit of fun…we off loaded in the middle of Cambridge…complete with our 7 bags.  We were greeted by a nice young lady from the Cambridge Christian Student Society (or something) at the bus stop (I didn’t get a chance to ask her if she knew that there was room on the cross).  All kidding aside, she was very nice and helpful in pointing us toward the taxi stand.  Everyone we’ve come across in our short time so far has been very nice and helpful but…I guess I would say…not too hands on.  This is a great improvement over a university I went to briefly in the U.S. (not UCF), where the people were friendly, but also liked to get all up in your business. 

The taxi dropped us off at our college and we went about getting our apartment keys from the Porter’s Lodge (love that term) and taking care of some paperwork with the student liason person…who was awesome.  After that, we made our way…with 7 suitcases in tow to our new home just up the street (about 200 meters or so).  Of course, it had started to rain by this point, which was ideal.  I have to say…the World’s Strongest Man Competition might consider adding the long distance suitcase pull/push as real test of dexterity, strength, and stamina.  If they did…I’m quite confident I could finish in last place…at best.  But alas, we did finally make it and lugged all our possessions up to our second floor apartment. 

After settling in (and napping), we managed to spruce up and head back down to the college for a Fresher’s week pizza social for new grad students.  This turned out to be rubbish as it lacked any semblance of organization…but we managed to throw down a few quid (or something) and cut to the front of the pizza line and grab our allotment…because that’s how Americans roll.  Didn’t really talk to anyone as many seemed to have their little groups…or they were at least faking it…but I did make one very promising connection with a young Asian lad.  He asked me if the party had started yet and I gave him directions to the person in charge (I think) and told him how much it cost.  I think we really hit it off…though I’m not at all sure he was in the right place.

Anyhow, that’s how we spent our first night.  Today we’re just working on getting some more administrative issues taken care of…for example, I apparently have to register with the police office because it says so on my visa.  Can’t blame them really…I’d want to keep a good eye on me too.  Hopefully we’ll get to check out the city a bit as well and purchase a few essentials…like tofu.

Stay tuned for some photo blogs…the first one will give you a look at our quarters.

The Dublin Report

Happy to report that we reached our layover point (Dublin, Ireland) with ease and way ahead of schedule.

A couple of notes from the first leg of our journey…

-  First impressions of Ireland…a lot less red hair than I anticipated, a decent amount of large families with lots of kids as expected, and really good muffins.  One of the first things we passed by upon entering the commercial area of the airport was a big Bailey’s display on one side and a big Guinness display on the other.  Rather cliché if I do say so myself.

-  Our departure was a delayed by a bit for some additional mechanical checks/repairs on our plane.  The gate attendant that announced the delay was highly apologetic, but said it was best to be “safe rather than sorry.”  Fair enough…I would have to agree.

-  As we were taxiing in Orlando, a firetruck sprayed us its hose as we passed by.  This was a bit alarming…especially considering the “mechanical problems.”  I was certainly hoping that the mechanical problems weren’t wings engulfed in flames.  That would certainly have been a bad omen.  Turns out our captain (Gareth) was flying his final voyage before retirement.  While I was happy to learn that the plane wasn’t on fire…the captain retirement news left me a little unsettled.  I could almost read the heartbreaking news story…”Aer Lingus pilot crashes to his death on final flight.”  Also turns out that the Irish don’t mind a little adulation…as a member of the flight crew gave a touching professional eulogy to dear Gareth.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to meet the man himself at the end of the flight…my suspicion is their might have been a fair amount of cocktails flowing in the old cockpit on this occasion…they are Irish after all.

-  Speaking of adulation…Michelle missed out on a great opportunity for some recognition.  Apparently there was a medical issue during the flight with a passenger and some Irish lady (Emma) offered her professional consultation.  The flight crew announcer recognized Emma over the P.A…right after the Gareth eulogy.  And get this…he also gave a shout out to her husband!  Needless to say I was quite miffed by the missed opportunity.

-  Tried out a little electronic gaming during the flight on the plane entertainment system.  Played what is undoubtedly the most difficult golf course in the world.  It was a par 60 and all the par 3’s were like 300+ yards.  Par 4’s were 500+ yards.  Also tried out what turned out to be the most bewildering version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire ever.  Must have been an Irish version or something, but it was ridiculously difficult.

-  One of the male flight attendants was simply gorgeous and charming.  Honestly, if Michelle left me for him I probably couldn’t have blamed her.

-  There was an in flight duty free offer of 2 cartons of cigarettes for $34.  Seemed like a good deal…

-  Dinner was actually quite decent.  Curried tofu with mixed veggies and rice for me.  I was surprised by the lack of potatoes on an Irish airline.  I figured maybe the potato blight was wreaking havoc again.  (I couldn’t wait to use this joke here.  I tried it on Michelle, but she didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as I did.  I can’t see why…nothing beats historical humor).  

T-Minus 24 hours and counting edition

Just a couple of quick notes because our flight is tomorrow (well…maybe it is and maybe it isn’t…just in case there are any cyberstalkers out there).

-  Just found out some highly awesome, yet highly depressing news today.  Billie Joe Armstrong will be making his Broadway debut this week in the Green Day-inspired show American Idiot.  If we weren’t headed abroad…I would seriously consider flying to NY to this weekend to catch it because he’s only appearing for one week.  So, any readers in the NYC area…try to catch the show this week…and if you do, please light a candle for St. Jimmy in my honor.

-  Another disappointing tidbit.  Lady Gaga is taking her Monster Ball tour to the new Amway Center in Orlando on April 15, 2011.  We’ll still be gone.  Strangely enough…the concert date just missed by one week my nuclear scenario that I mentioned in my “Are you a sports fanatic?” post!

-  That’s it for tonight and will probably be my last posting before we make our way to the old country.  Blog you on the other side.  Until then...take it away MIA...