back in sac

Hi everyone!

I arrived back home last night around 8pm (there were thunderstorms which my flight from Dallas had to divert around which delayed it slightly). After sleeping for some 10-11 hours last night, I think I've sufficiently recovered from any jet lag. I have a couple days left home in Sacramento before I leave for LA later this week.

I just wanted to let you all know that I went through and edited the entries that didn't have pictures, as I just uploaded them all last night, so if you want to skim through and/or reread, you'll have the accompanying visual reinforcement.

I also wanted to thank you all for reading my blog! My travels for the last 5 weeks were an amazing experience and it was a lot of fun to chronicle it all, I hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed my times in Europe! :)

-Briana

C'est le fin...

My last night in Paris!!! Ahhh I can’t believe my European adventures are finally coming to a close :( but before all that sentimentality, let me outline you on what we’ve been up to for the last several days:

Thursday morning, Thea and I were so exhausted from our last week of frenzied sightseeing on little sleep that we took a late morning and slept in until 11. We took our leisurely time at lunch and meandered over to Jardin de Luxembourg, which was really pretty and colorful, there’s a lovely fountain in the middle where children have little motor-controlled sailboats. We didn’t actually go into the Palais du Luxembourg, but just seeing the outside was really majestic.

Then we wandered over to the Pantheon, which was incredibly cool, I think my favorite historical monument I’ve seen so far in Europe. We got to see Foucault’s pendulum, which is strung from all the way at the top of the ceiling and swings really slowly several feet from the floor. There was incredible architecture, including a monument dedicated to the heroes of the French Revolution, and the crypts underneath were also really awesome to see. The people buried underneath the Pantheon include Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Pierre and Marie Claude, Toussant L’Ouverture, Emile Zola and Victor Hugo.

After that we once again exercised our considerable knowledge of the Metro and got over to Montmartre, where we climbed up the large hill (even though it had started raining by this point, Thea and I were troopers) and took a look around Sacre-Coeur, a really pretty cathedral. We walked up 300 stairs (by this point, that’s nothing to us!) and got to see the most amazing unobstructed panoramic view of Paris from all directions, it was pretty amazing. Again there were a multitude of stairs (over 300) and most of them were granite. In the rain, it was really slippery and dangerous, so we had to be even more super careful. We had dinner there (pizza, yummy) before metro-ing back and calling it a night.

On Friday, we made a day trip to Versailles!! We walked over to the Invalides metro station, which had the line that went to Versailles, and bought tickets to the chateau there. This turned out to be a really wise decision… we arrived a half hour later and the line without having already purchased tickets was probably around 3 hours, it was absurd! Luckily, Thea and I only had to wait like 20 minutes before entering. We toured the Chateau itself first, which included the state apartments of the French King and Queen, some of the old galleries, the chapel, and the Dauphin’s apartments. The Hall of Mirrors was incredibly amazing in particular!

Next, we walked through the gardens, and although it started to drizzle a little bit it was still a lovely stroll. It started to let up as we reached Marie Antoinette’s estate, which is good because that was all outdoors. We got to wander through her entire outdoor fantasyland that she had created for her as a diversion from the oppressive courtesan life at Versailles. She had lakes and gardens installed, along with her own theatre at which she performed, and she and her children would play in the estates frequently. Afterwards, we got dinner at a nearby café (I got French onion soup which was delicious, and after Thea and I split a nutella crepe-- soooooo good!!) We spent practically all day at Versailles (we left Invalides at 10am and returned there around 7:30pm) so we again crashed at the hostel.

Today was our last day here!! We first walked through the Palais-Royal, which is nearby our area but we hadn’t really examined it, so we walked through and saw a lot of pretty gardens. Next we headed to the Centre Pompidou and the Musee National D’Art Moderne. It was without a doubt my FAVORITE museum I’ve seen in Europe thus far! All of the modern works were extremely colorful and textured, and I found tons of them so incredibly interesting. There were also a lot of pieces of the heavyweights like Dali, Picasso, Matisse, and also some by Cy Twombly (which was cool because he had some stuff at the Tate Modern in Britain, but it wasn’t on display when we were there), and also some works by the Russian artists Malevich, Goncharova and Larionov, all of whom I studied in my Modern Russian Art coures last fall with Prof. Bowlt! That was really awesome, there weren’t any displayed of the particular works we’d looked at in our class, but it was neat seeing other examples of their art. Plus the building is fantastic as well.

We then walked across the river to l’Hotel des Invalides, where we got to see Napoleon’s tomb (seriously huge for such a little guy!) and walk through an interesting but thoroughly exhaustive museum outlining France’s history in WWI and WWII. Afterwards, we got crepes and ice cream for dinner, and spent our last night sitting in front of the Tour Eiffel and watching the lights show :)

So that’s the end of Paris for me! It’s really sad because I fell in love with this city so hard, and it’s been a dream come true being able to visit and immerse myself entirely in Parisian culture. All of Europe that I've been able to see has been incredible, with my wonderful experience in Cambridge that I wouldn't trade for anything, and the cosmopotlitan travelling I got to do afterwards. Tomorrow morning I’m taking the metro to Charles de Gaulle airport and flying back home, with a layover once again in Dallas/Fort Worth before arriving in Sacramento at 7:30 pm PST!

Mes premieres jours dans la ville de Paris

Salut de Paris!

I arrived in Gare du Nord two nights ago with nary a problem, and successfully navigated the metro to meet Thea at the stop nearest our hostel. It was my first ever practical implementation of conversational French, and it went fairly smoothly (when I asked an attendant for help with finding a line that went to Louvre-Rivoli). As the metro name suggests, our hostel is located very near to the Louvre. It’s a pretty central location and nice facilities, although the bureaucracy is somewhat annoying/unprofessional, but the two of us are working through that, as it were. It was pretty surreal for me to emerge from that subway station, though, and realize that I was in Paris, the city that I have most wanted to visit ever since my childhood studies of French. That was really exciting in itself, even though that night we were too tired from our travels from London to do anything else but crash (besides, by that point it was fairly late anyhow).

Yesterday morning, we woke up and got our petit dejeuner (breakfast) at a little café, ordering un croissant et un café noir (standard French fare- they’re not into large breakfasts, which is fine by me). The two of us first ventured across the Seine to the Musee d’Orsay, which was really nice, we saw Leonardo’s The Virigin on the Rocks amongst other works that aren't coming to mind yet. D'Orsay mostly houses the works that are too modern to keep in the Louvre, which includes a lot of Impressionist works. We got lunch at a little café (again) and I ordered a croque-madame (something I’ve also been dying to try ever since studying the French names of certain dishes in elementary school), which is a fried egg, ham and cheese sandwich. We then headed to the Opera Garnier (wholly unintentionally, as we were looking for a Tourist Information bureau, but we passed it and figured we might as well head in) which was very pretty as well, and where the Phantom of the Opera takes place which is really exciting! The actual auditorium is gorgeous, as is the entryway. The ceiling in the auditorium was painted by Marc Chagall, pretty neat.

We went back to our hostel to catch a breather, and then strolled out through the Jardin des Tulieres past the Louvre until it hit the Champs-Elysees. There is a lot of high-end retail shopping, and I kind of poked around but nothing particularly caught my fancy. We walked it all the way down to the Arc de Triomphe and got to see the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which I thought was really cool, I’ve always wanted to see it. Plus, we got to climb the stairs all the way to the top and that was a pretty neat view.

Afterwards, we headed back down the Champs-Elysees on the other side to make sure we didn’t miss anything, before doubling back and heading to the Eiffel Tower to meet Rex. Due to unforeseen metro complications, he met us kind of late but that was ok. We grabbed dinner at yet another café, I got un steak-frites (steak with fries) and we got to hear all about his travels in Edinburgh. Initially we’d intended upon ascending the Eiffel Tower that evening, but for one reason or another changed our minds, and we took the looonnnngggg walk back to our hostel. Seriously, from the Tower to the Louvre, it was probably close to 2 miles. We ended up at a McDonald’s (MacDo in French) because there was free wifi there, haha. Rex then left us and that concluded our first Parisian day.

This morning, we woke up and had our same breakfast before making our way through a walking tour of historic Paris, according to Rick Steves (who wrote this tour guide book that Thea swears by). We made our way towards l’Ile de la Citie started at the Notre Dame which was pretty, although far more gorgeous/impressive from the outside, I think (particularly from the sides/back, the front is the least impressive). We were planning on climbing the Tower, but the line was too long, so we made our way instead towards the Deportation Memorial, which honors the 200,000 French victims of the Holocaust. It was pretty startling after all the grandoise architecture we'd seen, as it's very simple yet moving and a definite change of pace. After that, we headed off towards the other side of the seine, through the Quartier Latin which was really awesome, we saw some old churches and grabbed lunch at a cheap gyros place. We next walked through the Sainte-Chapelle, which has the prettiest stained glass windows of any church I’ve ever seen, and then the Conciergement where many prisoners of the French Revolution were held, including Marie Antoinette. After that, we made our way back to l’Ile St. Louis where we got amazing ice cream (the best in Paris, apparently... it was really good!). We headed back towards the Louvre over the Pont Neuf bridge, which I thought was pretty cool because in my French class last semester we watched the film Les Amants sur le Pont Neuf, which takes place/was filmed on that bridge.

We then spent the rest of our afternoon at the Louvre. It was great, not my favorite museum though simply because it’s far too large/overwhelming with huge crowds, and it got a little bit overheated/claustrophobic at times. We paid for an English tour, which was informative although my audio thing didn’t work and I got separated from the group at one point, so that detracted slightly from the experience. The Mona Lisa was amazing though, I absolutely loved it, as well as the Venus de Milo. We also got dinner there, I had Liberian food which was AMAZING, I absolutely recommend it. After we left the Louvre, we got on a riverboat cruise of the Seine, which took us down past the Notre Dame before turning around and ending at the Eiffel Tower (after about an hour total). We hopped off and finally got in line!!!

So, the Eiffel Tower was an incredible experience, I’ll try to chronicle as much of it as possible. We stood in line for maybe 45 min before walking up, stopping on the first floor just to peek around, and continuing to the second. We took some pictures (the view is astounding, you literally can see all of Paris from every conceivable direction) before next immediately getting in line to take the elevator up all the way to the top. That was something, let me tell you. The view isn’t that much better, but the fact that you’re up almost 1000 feet above Paris, it was quite daunting and exhilarating at the same time. About this time it was getting dark, so the lights started coming on, and it was so lovely. We went back down to the second floor after 40 min or so and took more pictures now that it was night, and the city lights were absolutely gorgeous. The lights on the Tower started flashing then, and against the actual blue lights of the Tower, it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. We only left the Tower reluctantly after grabbing a pastry to share, and I once again navigated the metro correctly back to our hostel, where I am now currently writing this entry.

Tomorrow is either Versailles or more explorations of Paris, we’ll determine in the morning. I am exhausted though, so bon soir tous les personnes!

** One final note though: Not to brag, I am impressed despite myself at my ability to use French well enough to get by in this city. I mean, I’m not fluent or anything, but I’m definitely not struggling (most of the time, anyway). I can buy our tickets, order at restaurants, ask for most kinds of help-- I’m not gonna lie, it feels pretty damn validating to actually get some practical usage out of my 7-odd years of French instruction!

Something I keep forgetting to mention:

A week or so ago while Jeff and I were reading on the lawn in Selwyn Garden, a photographer approached us and asked us to pose for a couple pictures he was taking for the newspaper he worked for. Being relatively open-minded people we obliged. A couple days later, this picture was in the Cambridge Independent, accompanying an article about Selwyn College and how it's up and rising amongst the colleges at the University of Cambridge. We, the American study abroad students from USC, are the representatives of Selwyn College. How funny is that! I never got a chance to see a hard copy (although apparently Lindsay's lecturer passed it around their class), but here's a link to the internet article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/poorer-college-tops-cambridge-degree-table-878699.html

In other news, today Thea and I went for a cruise up and down the River Thames, which was our last go at sightseeing in London. Right now I'm hanging out in St. Pancras, the Eurorail station from London. In a couple hours time I will be peacing out to Paris, France, the newest and last leg of my journey! I'm really excited to implement my hopefully not too horrible French. I'm also going to have to get used to using Euros now...

Last day using GBP...

So Thea and I realized this morning that we in fact leave for Paris not on Tuesday, as we'd originally thought all weekend, but actually tomorrow, haha. So it was a good thing we figured that out today! Anyway, we kind of had to rush to finish seeing everything we wanted to. Thea woke me up again (she's so responsible like that, and also very patient, as many of you know I am a very difficult person to wake up).

By the way, I feel like I should chronicle the hostel experience, since it's entirely new to me and probably unfamiliar to a lot of you as well. There are 6 of us crammed in one room, co-ed, with a tiny sink and a decent amount of floor space. We're bunked together in these little cubible beds, I'm on one of the top bunks (woohoo) and everytime I climb down I'm afraid I'm going to kill myself. The bed itself is springy and not that comfortable, and continuing in the UK's adamant opposition to air conditioning, the room gets really stuffy and hot since air does not circulate. But you meet all sorts of interesting people from all over, and it's really a great experience so far... that is, I'm not miserable yet, haha. We'll wait and see how the Paris one is before I make a final determination.

We left our hostel again around 10 and went to the British Museum first. This is the largest museum I think I've ever been to before, not even kidding. We got an audio tour with some 50-odd highlights, and after an hour and a half we'd seen maybe 20 before deciding to head out. We got to see the Rosetta Stone, which was really neat, along with really well-preserved corpses from ancient Egypt, an entire samurai armor outfit, the Royal game of Ur and the Oxus Treasure, amongst many other interesting treasures. We got lunch at a cute little cafe in the park right outside the museum, and then headed to the British Library. They had an interesting exhibition on an old Indian story, the name of which I forget. We also got to see one of the remaining original copies of the Magna Carta, and also some of the fair play notes of Beatles songs. Also of note was Virigina Woolf's original handwritten copy of Mrs. Dalloway, which was really exciting!

Afterwards, we got back on the tube and went south a ways to get to Kensington Palace, where William and Mary lived, along with several other later British kings and queens. We got to tour the State apartments which were quite impressive, and also see a collection of Princess Diana's dresses, all of which were fabulous. Kensington Park was also a lovely walk-through. Finally, we stopped at Harrod's on the way back, a designer department store with absolutely exorbitant prices. We spent like 15 minutes there before I realized that it was far too ridiculous for me to expect to buy anything there. So, we went to H&M instead :) where I got a lovely grey cardigan (I've been wanting one the whole time I was in Cambridge, so it's been a long time coming).

So that about wraps up London, we have a little more time tomorrow before we leave, but the next time I update, je serais a Paris!!!! Or to translate for you anglophiles, I'll be in Paris :)

A demain!

Sightseeing and such

So Thea and I had our first authentically tourist day in London! We woke up fairly early and were out of our hostel in time to get to the National Gallery when it opened at 10am. Thea and I took the highlights audio tour, so we got to see all of the most famed works like da Vinci, etc. The tour was really impressive, very informative and detailed, and we were there for an hour and a half.

Next, we were going to make our way to the south end of London, so we hopped on the tube, but the lines that would take us there were closed so we were a little bit thrown off. But we were able to find the corresponding bus route, so the two of us legitimately had a Londonesque double decker experience. It surprisingly didn't take that long, and we grabbed lunch at a pizza place in St. Catherine's docks before heading over to the Tower of London. It is a MASSIVE castle where many of the British kings and queens have lived, and where a lot of notorious people have been executed (Anne Boleyn, Jane Gray, etc.) We also got to see the crown jewels and they are fabulous, particularly the Imperial Crown of India. Additionally, we got some sweet views of the Tower Bridge.

After that we walked over to St. Paul's Cathedral, where we walked up a total of some 800-odd stairs to get to one of the highest points in London, and certainly one of the best views. You could see practically the entire city, it was pretty overwhelming. I got a little bit dizzy going up just from all the stairs! Afterwards we went to the Tate Modern, which was also a really cool museum, with an especially incredible urban photography exhibit that i loved. We were sort of museumed out by that point, not to mention tired from walking around the south end all day and those stairs, so we hustled back to the station at St. Paul's (the closest one whose lines would take us to Leicester Square) and met up with Corbin, Katherine and Kristen, all USC kids from Cambridge. It's been really good to see them the last two nights, sort of extending my Cambridge experience and making it easier that it's ended, haha. Now Thea and I are back at the hostel and my internet time is about to run out again, but I'll try to update again tomorrow- we're going to the British Museum and Library!

Cambridge: fin

the last several days of Cambridge post-essays were so much fun! Wednesday after class, I went back to Grant Chester with Ning, Jeff and his friend Shawn who flew out to visit him. We went swimming in the Granta, which feeds into the river Cam. It was chilly, muddy and kinda gross, but so much fun just to splash around and be silly. Since it's been really humid/warm all this week, it felt doubly nice. That night, a group of us went to a club called the Fez, and after we got back stayed up in the garden watching daylight come out and being generally ridiculous.

Thursday night was the last dinner at Selwyn Dining Hall, so it was a formal one. We all got dressed up fancy, the boys looked especially dapper in their suits and ties, and enjoyed our last meal all together. They served us wine which was very enjoyable :) To celebrate our final night in Cambridge, we didn't even go out anywhere but stayed in my room and had a low-key, chill night enjoying each other's company. I am so sad that the program is over, I've met such amazing people who I've become so close to in the last 4 weeks. When I left for Europe ago, I never imagined that I would form such close bonds with everyone, but the friendships i've forged have far surpassed my expecations. At least the USC kids I will be able to have semi-regular reunions, and everyone else is required to visit me in LA!! Here's a USC group shot:

So this morning I checked out of the room, Rex and I took a cab to the train station and I was off to London for the second time! I found the hostel and Thea, and we spent the day wandering around. We went to Westminster Abbey and the Churchill War Room/Museum, both of which were really interesting and engaging, and also large and slightly overwhelming, haha. This evening we met up with Corbin, Katherine and Kristen who are all still in London, and we got Indian food (my third round since I've been here, mmmm) before seeing Spamalot, which was excellent and hysterical. I liked it even more than Avenue Q.

Well, I'm writing this on the computer at the hostel and my internet time is about to run off. Sorry I won't have any more pictures for a while, but I'll try to keep updating regularly! To all my Cambridge crew: keep it debonair.

Freedom!!!

So I finished my papers this weekend, which is super exciting because it gives me the rest of this week to fully enjoy the remaining time I have left here at Cambridge! I leave Friday morning and will be taking the train back to London, where I will be meeting up with Thea and resuming my adventures there :) But until then, I am content to live it up here. I will be really sad when it ends, I've met some amazing people and while a lot of them I'll be able to see again at USC, some of them I won't and I'll miss them a lot.

Corbin's birthday was Sunday, so that morning we went to Kings' College and met up with his friend Tomoko there for brunch. It was the same full English breakfast but at a later time than 9am, so I preferred it, haha. This pic is of me, Tomoko, Corbin, Meredith and Nick. That night, we had an ambitious night planned out of clubbing and pubbing but we only made it to the Anchor before realizing that we were all too exhausted to continue. All of my running around on little sleep finally caught up to me that night and it was the first time since I've been here that I've slept for more than 8 hours at night (except the first night when I was seriously jetlagged).

Last night I met up with Khushboo at Revolution and we got to party together for the first time!! It was seriously fun, I got her to drink the Absolut Chambulls (our crew's staple drink there) and we danced together of course, we were a little bit ridiculous. Hopefully I'll get to see her a little bit more this week before I leave!

normalcy

Sorry for the lack of updating!! So it hasn't been a very exciting last few days here, it's been kind of low-key since I've been doing research for my papers, finally. I've been doing a lot of reading in the Selwyn garden the last couple of days since it's been so nice outside! I just take out a blanket and my books and iPod, it's really relaxing. Although the lawns are so well-kept-up, the grass isn't that springy/comfortable, but it's still nice.


On Tuesday, Jeff and I went out to high tea for the first time which was yummy. We went to a place called Auntie's tea shop, and I got the standard cream tea which came with a cress and egg sandwich, two scones, and of course tea. It was a cute little experience, definitely an authentic British one. And the scones were delicious with the clotted cream and strawberry jam!



And yesterday I got my first ice cream cone from one of the many vendors that line the streets of Cambridge. This doesn't sound that exciting until you actually see the double scoops- it's a double cone!!! Super cute, right?? Although a bit melty.

Today we went to The Eagle, a really famous pub in Cambridge that I hadn't been to yet. I had my first British fish and chips which were simultaneously excellent and greasy. We also had pints of Carling, a really tasty lager, and glasses of water with ICE and LEMON!! (you probably don't understand how revolutionary this is, but in Britain all eating establishments are opposed to ice in drinks. The customer service in general is also markedly worse than in the states.)

My papers are going well, I'm almost finished with one and expect to get the other done before Sunday night, which is Corbin's birthday. That way, I'll have all of next week to explore the last of Cambridge, see anything else that I haven't. On the to-do list are punting (actually doing it ourselves this time), the Botanical Garden, Trinity and St. John's College, so I'll have more to document here. Plus, I'll have more time to blog once I actually get these papers done!! Next updates will be both better and more frequent, I swear. (And better-formatted... sorry about that, but I'm too lazy to fix it or make it look prettier right now.) Hope you're all doing well! :)

London: my first taste

In a nutshell… London was AMAZING! I’d flown into Heathrow, so it wasn’t exactly my first time there, but obviously I hadn’t really had time to see any of it while I was there, so I was really looking forward to exploring the big city. Thus follow my exploits, replete with many a picture (yay!):

We departed kinda later Friday than we’d intended because it took a while to rally the troops (there were 6 of us total and I was the only girl… haha), but we finally left Selwyn a little after noon, and walked over to the train station which took maybe 20 minutes. The train to London lasted about 40 minutes because it was the express one that didn’t stop until it got to London. We embarked at King’s Cross and from there immediately transferred to the Underground to tube over to our hotel, which wasn’t too far away from our stop at Great Portland Street. Our hotel room was pretty cozy what with 6 people! We arrived there probably around 4 and just chilled in the room for a while before hopping back on the tube to go get dinner at a pub and meet up with some other USC girls. We all then went to see Avenue Q, which was hilarious! I’d heard some of the songs before but never actually seen the musical, so that was really entertaining. Afterwards we went back on the tube to Soho and spent most of the night at a place called Bar Soho. The drinks were kind of expensive but it was a really fun time anyway. At the end of the night we all packed into our room (3 of us on the bed, 3 scattered throughout the floor space).

Saturday, we wanted to wake up around 10 so that we could meet with Kimberly (our program director) for lunch, but we’d been out late the night before and missed it. Four of us (me, Jeff, Corbin and Chase) were going to see King Lear at The Globe that afternoon, so we tubed it over there before the show started at 2. The performance was incredible- I’d read King Lear freshman year so I could follow the story, and the acting was really stellar. And watching a Shakespearean play acted out in a replica of the original Globe was seriously cool. I’m really glad we had seats though, there were a lot of standing seats and the performance was at least 3 hours; that would have been a long time to stand!

After that, we went back to the hotel and met back up with the other two (Rex and Nick) before going out to an AMAZING Indian restaurant. Seriously, talk to any one of us and we will keep gushing about it. The naan was incredible. British Indian food is renowned and I now know why… we are going to get some for sure back here at Cambridge. Later that night, most of the group went to an underground indie club close to our hotel, but Jeff and I wanted to go out to Soho, so the two of us met up with another USC student Ning and went to Heaven, an ENORMOUS club- it had three separate dance floors/DJs and like 5 bars throughout. We stayed there really late, by the time we left it was daylight again! But it was a fun trek home to our hotel (the tube was closed and we didn’t know the bus routes well enough, so Jeff and I walked all the way back to our hotel). Here is a triumphant picture of the three of us having survived to the morning:


This morning, we woke up around 11 because we had to check out of our hotel by noon. We did so successfully and split up again. Armed with our packed bags, Jeff, Corbin and I tubed to Westminster and saw Big Ben, and also walked around the House of Parliament which is a really neat building, although there's so much security and restricted civilian access you can't see that much of it. We then had a hilariously awful lunch at a local pub before walking over to Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, there weren’t any of the guards around, but it was still neat to see. It's actually a pretty underwhelming building- grey and rectangular, but the front gates are gorgeous and they all have gold incorporated into it. Afterwards, we walked to the tube station at Victoria, which took us back to King’s Cross where we caught a train to Cambridge and got back around 5pm.

Overall, it was a fabulous whirlwind weekend and I absolutely fell in love with London. My favorite part of being there was just walking around and absorbing the city’s culture and sights, even if we didn’t really have enough time to do much of touristy sightseeing. I definitely got a bearing for London and am really looking forward to exploring it further in two weeks with Thea! But now I’m back to the grindstone, class starts again tomorrow and it’s nigh time to start considering work on my essays… hmm…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!

Sending birthday wishes all the way from England to Sacramento- hope you have a great day! :)


On with the bloggage: Two days ago, a group of the USC kids were hanging out in one of the gardens after class and chilling. It’s so beautiful outside, and it was a really nice and sunny day. The British are really big on upkeep of colorful gardens, so when it’s bright outside it makes it that much prettier. We continued after dinner too and transformed it into a midnight garden party. We’ll have to actually do a picnic out in the garden before we leave with sandwiches and wine :)

Yesterday, I almost overslept because my alarm clock didn’t go off, but luckily I only woke up 25 min late and was still able to catch breakfast. After class, Jeff, Rex and I went out on a run through the countryside out to Grand Chester, which is about 2 miles away from Selwyn College. It took us through some of the residential streets, and the actual trail ran through a lot of meadows, lakes and trees. I swear, I sound like a broken record but everything here is just gorgeous in its quaint little Cambridge way. We had a low-key night afterwards, hanging out in my room. A group of girls who live on my floor also stopped by and chilled with us, which was fun.

This morning I got to sleep in because my A class was cancelled. Instead, we had a field trip to the Fitzwilliam Museum, which is a Cambridge arts and antiquities museum. We only got to spend about an hour there looking at ancient Greek and Roman artifacts, which was really interesting, but I would like to go back to see the other collections. Tonight, I think the boys and I are doing a pub crawl, starting the Gallon Challenge. You have to drink a pint in eight of the different pubs in Cambridge over the span of two weeks, and are ultimately rewarded with an ugly XL t-shirt. Sounds worth it to me!

And we solidified the travel plans for the weekend! We are leaving for London tomorrow, taking the train sometime in the early afternoon, to check into our hotel (Holiday Inn at Regents Park- terribly exotic, I know). Not sure what sightseeing touristy kinds of things we’ll be doing, but we for sure want to see some musicals, Avenue Q and possibly also Spamalot. Saturday is when we get to see King Lear at the Globe, so we’ll have that also. And of course, experiencing the London nightlife! I’m ridiculously excited as I have not yet spent a decent amount of time in London, so I’ll be sure to blog all about it when I get back Sunday night!

shopping, eating and clubbing. (no wonder i love it here...)

Sunday Jeff and I met up with a group of the FL girls (the pic is with Taylor, Stephanie and the two of us) and we ate lunch at this cute little Italian restaurant called Bella Italia on the south side of campus, which we had not explored before. It’s right next to this really pretty lake where there was more punting, naturally. We walked into town and did a little bit of window shopping at Grand Arcade, which is basically the Cambridge mall. I didn’t buy anything because it mostly consists of high-end European retail stores which will suck away my money. That night was the first time all week that we didn’t go out, haha. Instead, we spent some time in the game room after dinner, which has, amongst other amusements, a set of huge Jenga blocks, so that provided massive entertainment. I also beat Corbin repeatedly at Connect Four. Afterwards we chilled in Chase’s room for a while until it was past our respective bedtimes.

Yesterday Jeff and I went shopping again, and this time I actually bought some things because we went to H&M which is relatively cheap (although it still makes me cringe every time I do the mental conversion of pounds to USD), and got two shirts, a sundress and a top for going out for £14- not too bad, right? We grabbed sandwiches at Pret a Manger, a little café slash takeout chain which is delicious. Last night, we went back to Revolution, of which I've included a pic of its daytime appearance, and had what I think was our craziest night there! The pic is of Lindsay, Laura and me- yay Helenes!


Today I’m going to Wagamama with Jeff, Lindsay and Laura (who’s visiting her) and then tonight we’re planning on having our own garden party in Selwyn J I also wanted to go to tonight’s lecture on the American presidential election, I think it would be interesting to hear about it from the point of view of a British academic. Tomorrow Jeff and I are determined to actually run and go out to Grantchester (I have no idea where it is and he partially remembers from last year, so it’ll be an adventure). We’re also trying to arrange for a group of us to go to London for the weekend, since we’re seeing King Lear at the Globe this Saturday anyway, we might as well spend more time there. Hopefully it all works out!

garden party + rest of wkd

Friday I went to the garden party with Corbin, Jeff and Chase. It was in a different College the name of which escapes me at the moment, but we passed by the flat where Darwin once lived when he was at university here (literally, it's marked by a placard that says "Darwin lived here"). There was a pretty garden there with paths that we walked around in, and being the rebels we are, we ran across the grass there since there were no signs disallowing it. (Everywhere in Cambridge people are very stern about staying off the lawns, I suppose to keep them meticulously well-kempt. There are signs prohibiting it in Selwyn and Kings, and I'd say it's forbidden to tread upon approximately 90% of the total lawns in this city.) Here's a pic of Jeff, me and Corbin (pretty well done for me holding out the camera, if I do say so myself):

Yesterday I chose to sleep in rather than go to the walking tour, but others who went on it said that it was really interesting and that they got to explore Trinity College and St. John's, both of which are well-known for their prestige and beauty, so I'll for sure have to visit that later on. A group of us then went into a carnival in town- you know, one of those campy ones with cheesy bad rides and food vendors. But this one was really cool 'cause it was in Cambridge :) so that was fun, then we had a punting tour again, and our guide actually let us try it this time! I didn't quite pick it up, but I'm determined to master it at some point during my sojourn here.

My room has sort of become the social center, partly because it's the biggest and partly because I'm the original bridge between USC and non-SC people, so that's actually been fun, we've been hanging out here after dinner and before we go out. The last two nights we went to Revolution, and I can foresee that becoming our staple night dive (Jeff said that's where they went the most last year too.)

Today I intend to do some reading (haha), but I think that Jeff and I are going into town as well, to eat at one of his favorite noodle bars Wagamama, and also do some shopping. Tonight will probably have to be more low-key or else my body might literally collapse from exhaustion!

ahoy weekend!

It has been an absolute whirlwind the last couple days, and it's only now that I have a chance to take a breather, unwind, and of course blog. Class is over for the week, and this weekend should be accordingly fun! But first, a recap of what's been happening:

Wednesday we spent most of the evening at the Selwyn pub, but I was again persuaded to go out with Emilio, Jeff and Rex. We went to a different club that night, The Fez, which had a cover and expensive drinks, but was still really fun for the short time that I ended up spending there. It was foam party night too, which was kinda gross. Thus continued (and still does) my trend of not getting enough sleep, but whatever... rest is for the weak, especially when you're in Europe.

Yesterday, a group of us wandered into town for a couple hours, and I finally got my jacket back! We wandered around the open-air marketplace for the better part of an hour. One of the many things I love about Cambridge is that it's such the idyllic little college town, where you walk everywhere, and it's just so comfortable and cute.


We also went to church at the Kings' College Chapel, which besides from being the first Anglican service I've ever been to, also houses a legendarily good choir, they were seriously good. The chapel itself, like everything else here, is spectacular. Later that evening, after dinner, a bunch of us went to the Ceilidh, which was arranged by the Cambridge program. It was an Irish riverdancing lesson, and we had so much fun being silly and attempting to dance. It got really hot and sweaty since the room was poorly ventilated, and we had to leave early because of it, but it was seriously one of the most fun things I've done in a while.

Last night a huuuge group of us went out again. After convening at the Selwyn bar, we headed out and arrived at another bar in town, Ta Bouche, which is actually really close to The Fez. I didn't buy anything there because drinks are really expensive at bars, the cheapest you get are at Selwyn. We actually went back to Revolution, which I think might become our hotspot because there's no cover, and the drinks are the cheapest, especially since we now have at our disposal a discount card that cuts the prices even more. Some pics from last night of me and Lindsay (yea Helenes!), and me, Nick, and Valerie (OG Sunday crew):



So this afternoon I finally went running (trying to burn off all the carbs I'm consuming here!) and I feel a million times better. In a little bit, I'm going to a garden party with my friend Chase and some other USC people- I guess his professor is hosting it for his class, and he's allowed to bring guests, which is pretty sweet. Then tonight might be more low-key, we're going to the evening lecture on A Midsummer Night's Dream by Simon Browne, one of the lecturers that my friends have and say is really great. possibly going to the mall center in town or seeing a movie, but then again I keep saying that I'm going to take it easy and look what happens, haha. Tomorrow morning we are going on a walking tour of Cambridge, although we've already seen a lot of the city, I hope that we get to explore parts that we haven't yet really uncovered. Then we're punting again in the afternoon- I think it's a tour, but I really want to try it ourselves, so that is for sure going to happen in the next 3 weeks!

PS- It just started raining like 5 minutes ago, so I'm super glad I went out jogging earlier while it was still sunny! This Cambridge weather is so unpredictable, but I love it!

Did I mention that I love this city?

Because, um, I absolutely do. I actually know that I've said it here already, but it bears repeating, several times. Cambridge is seriously freaking amazing, and I've already realized that 4 weeks is going to go by so so quickly.

I know that I said that last night would be an earlier night for me, but it turns out that I am a pushover who can be convinced to go out without too much difficulty. We started at the college pub, which incidentally, is convienently located right next to our dormitory building. This pic is of Jessica, me and Melissa (2 of the FL-ians) with Strongarm ciders! However, the bar closes at 11, and instead of retiring for the night, a group of us ended up at Revolution again, the club wasn't open but the bar was, so we hung there for an hour. We did get back home at a slightly more reasonable hour and I was able to catch a couple more hours of shuteye than I had the prior night.

This morning I was still pretty tired in my first class, so I went back to my room and took a quick nap. BTW, realized that I never posted pics of my dorm. It's really spacious, with a large sitting room and smaller bedroom. It's bigger than any of the other peoples' rooms I've seen. I also have 5 chairs total, lol. Please disregard the somewhat messy state of affairs (although anyone who's ever roomed with me or has observed the way I maintain my living space should hardly be surprised):

Both of my classes went really well today, the professors are engaging and I find the subject material of both to be really interesting, so I'm enjoying the actual studying experience as well (which I'm sure is a relief to my parents who are footing the bill in the name of education!). After class, I went into town on my own for the first time, I still don't have a map but was able to navigate myself fairly well (after a couple days I've gotten more of an intuitive layout of the city). It was drizzling the whole time I was walking, which I actually don't mind: everyone here is complaining about it but I really love this kind of weather, as long as it's not frigidly cold or pouring rain I really enjoy the rain. Plus, I think it makes Cambridge that much prettier. I took this pic while standing in front of Kings' College, it's the road that runs right in front of it, and I think it's incredibly picturesque.

I finally met up with KHUSHBOO then!! I found out why her program is way different than mine in terms of lodging and where her classes are; it's because she's enrolled at Kings instead of Selwyn. Makes sense. We visited her flat(!) which I thought was super neat. Then we walked around the marketplace a bit, I had my first Cornish pastry (delicious), and I bought myself a Cambridge sweatshirt (super cozy), some postcards, and a bag of groceries (I didn't want to shell out £1.50 everytime I wanted a 250ml soda, but at the grocery store Sainsbury I was able to buy 2.50 litres for the same price!!) I also bought some apples (I'm trying to be healthy), a sandwich (tomorrow's lunch- trying to be cheap) and a Cadbury bar (ok, I couldn't resist). I dropped Khushi off at her flat before walking back through Kings' College to Selwyn. I don't think I can emphasize enough how incredibly gorgeous everything is here.

Now I'm back in my room unwinding a bit until dinner. Our USC group had a meeting with our program director, Kimberly, which was pretty straightforward. I'm now trying to plan a bit ahead with travelling and such- next weekend we are seeing King Lear at The Globe(!) in London, and some of us are arranging to either stay the night there, or even get to London two nights before (that's our 3-day weekend, so we might as well spend it in London, right?) Also, the next weekend is absolutely open for us, so Lindsay and I were talking about flying out to either Dublin or Stockholm (where my uncle lives, and it would be great to see him!) At this point, booking a flight would be kind of expensive, but hey, you're only young once right?

P.S. I was able to get my rail ticket from London to Paris at the original time and (cheaper) price, so that was exciting! Although I've been spending so much, it's probably nigh time to check the status of my bank account...

P.P.S. My internet randomly shut down in the middle of typing this post, which would have been devastating were it not for autosaved drafts. Thanks blogger!

P.P.P.S. It's come to my attention that more people are reading this than I realized, since only like 4 have commented on my posts. If you happen by this page, please leave a reply-- it's great motivation for me to keep documenting everything I'm doing over here! :)

first day of class

Hello hello! Updating from the Selwyn computer lab, since I was trying to print some documents, but I can't figure out how to use the printer, so until I figure that out I figured I'd update. (No pictures sorry, my camera battery died and it's recharging right now.)

Last night I finally found the USC contingent. I already knew Lindsay and Emilio, and met Corbin (who I'd talked with online prior to the trip) along with Kevin, Katherine, Rex, Jeff, Meredith, Ning, and Tammy. Luckily, I ran into them while with the Floridians, so they got to meet each other right away. We went to the bar before and after dinner and the assimilation of the two groups happened much more naturally than I could have hoped for, which makes me really happy- I didn't want to abandon the FL-ians, but didn't want to blow off the SCers either, so it really is the best of both worlds this way! A bunch of us from both groups went to a club last night in town called Revolution, as we figured it would be the best night to do it before we have any real class obligations. Needless to say, we stayed out rather late. I lost my jacket and it was raining when we left, so the walk/run back was rather unfortunate. Luckily (and randomly) some girls that my friend met at the bar called him last night and mentioned picking up the jacket offhand, so he'll be able to get that back for me, haha.

I didn't get much sleep last night, but still didn't have a problem getting up early and was ready for class! My A block, Imperialism in the Ancient World, is great, I really like the professor and I think the material's going to be fascinating. It really piqued my intellectual curiosity and makes me consider taking some Classics courses once I'm back at USC... it's probably to late for me to consider a double major, but possibly a minor? Anyway, I'm going to really enjoy that one. My B block, A History of the Scientific Revolution, is also interesting, but I think the professor slightly rubbed me the wrong way- he was a little bit condescending during lecture, but he doesn't seem too bad, I'm willing to give him another chance. Thankfully I also find the material interesting, so hopefully I will also like this class. I was able to meet people in each of my classes, and Tammy from USC is actually in A with me, which was a pleasant surprise because I'd looked at the roster earlier and thought I didn't share classes with anyone from SC. But some people I know have already started their research, or even writing their papers, which is kind of pushing me to get on top of that.

After class I had lunch at the Buttery (basically the Cambridge equivalent of Trojan Grounds) with John, Taylor and Jessica, and then went into town with USC kids, including Emilio and Lindsay, and Nick came along as well. I bought a replacement travel umbrella (for £5, i cringed but had to bite the bucket since I seriously could not locate the one i brought with me ANYWHERE!) and then due to some miscommunication, I and a couple others were separated from the main group, but we all found our way back to Selwyn and straightened it out then, haha. So now I'm just killing a little bit of time before we all meet up for dinner again, and afterwards we'll either go to the bar again or maybe attend the evening lecture (or perhaps both). One thing's for sure, it'll definitely be an earlier night for me- I need to catch up on sleep!

I'm also trying to be conservative about money, as I feel like I spent way too much yesterday (£6 for lunch, and probably about £8 combined at the bar and club). Today lunch + umbrella = £8, so I'm allotting myself £5 for drinks tonight (enough for a pint and one other drink should I choose to have another). I just made my hostel reservation for the place I'm staying in London with Thea, which will cost me £68 for three nights (which is actually super reasonable). However, the Chunnel prices have gone up since I've last looked at them, so I'll be spending at least $20 more than I'd anticipated on that. But I'm going grocery shopping with Lindsay tomorrow after class, and I figure that'll be cheaper than buying lunch everyday at the Buttery. Plus, I think I'll finally be able to meet up with Khushboo in town!!

dipping my toes...

While settling in I met a girl named Melissa and she helped me lug my ginormous suitcase of doom up two flights of stairs (I’m on the third floor), so we met up and went down for dinner together at the Selwyn Dining Hall. It was a buffet style since it was Sunday, but normally dinner is served formally. I met some other people who had also arrived early, mostly comprised of a large contingent from Florida (including Melissa, and some others: Nick, Taylor, Jessica, and John) and one girl, Stina, from Denmark. After dinner I would have been interested in exploring, but a lot of things around Cambridge are closed Sunday night, and the Floridians had a separate orientation by their program director, so I ended up back in my room, started unpacking and organizing my life. I meant to stay up a little later but ended up falling asleep around 10 pm last night accidentally, waking up at 1 am still in my jeans and t-shirt. (I guess I wasn’t as over the jet-lag as I’d thought…) I then changed and got a couple more hours sleep before awaking again at 7:15 am.

Went down to the Full English breakfast at 8 and found my same group. I was surprisingly adventurous, trying the marmalade (on my croissant) and tomatoes (with my egg, potatoes and sausage) and enjoying them considerably. Next steps for me are the beans and Marmite, haha- I wasn't that daring yet. Met the Resident Tutor for my and Melissa’s building, Mark, who is the same age as me and a student at Cambridge. After breakfast, I went to the Summer Schools library, which is a really misleading name- it’s one tiny room with maybe 6 or 7 bookshelves. But they had all of the books I needed for my classes, so I can’t complain too much.

Then I met up with the Florida group (as we were still pretty much the only ones to have arrived, most people were registering that day) and we went out to explore the city! One of the FL directors kind of gave us an immediate tour of the buildings where our classes would be, and then we ventured westward and decided that, despite the probability of rain, we were going to go punting! So we went on the tour and it was very informative. The river goes past many of the principal Cambridge colleges so we got to learn a lot about their history, and some amusing stories associated with each one. Since it was a tour, we didn’t actually get to punt, but I’m hoping to actually try it Saturday.

After that we grabbed lunch at a pub right next door, The Anchor. I had minestrone soup and my first pint, of Stronghold- a cider that’s kind of sweet. It was also the first legal drink I’ve purchased ;) yeah UK! We wandered about some more afterwards, went to a drugstore and I bought an English chocolate bar that is really good. I’m determined to sample every kind of British sweet possible while I’m here. It was sprinkling on and off, sometimes heavily, and of course I didn’t have my umbrella because I’ve lost it in my room somewhere and can’t find it, which is rather inconvenient, but luckily we tended to huddle anyway. I was wearing my khaki capris, but it turned out to be a good idea because it wasn’t that cold, and the bottoms couldn’t get soaked like when you wear jeans when it’s raining and have to walk through puddles. Also peeked into Kings College, which only students have access to, which was really neat. There are tons of gorgeous gardens and courtyards here, but Kings is one of the most spectacular. We looked around for good Cambridge name gear, but I couldn’t decide on any one item so I’m going to wait that one out a bit.

So I’m back in my dorm now, and our group is going to meet up in a bit before dinner tonight. My dorm has two rooms, one larger area with a desk, a chest of drawers, bookshelves and a huge closet- I definitely won’t need all that room! Then there’s the bedroom, with a twin bed, a sink and another larger chest of drawers. I also have like five chairs total in the dorm, which is good I guess if people are hanging out here. Melissa’s room is smaller and more like a studio, which is bizarre that they would have different room styles in the same building, but whatever, I’m happy with mine. My windows directly face the courtyard and is right across from the Selwyn chapel. Here's my view: pretty, no?

The showers are not en suite, there’s two to a floor , and only one has a shower (the other has a bathtub!?) which might be a little bit awkward, but oh well. On my way back from the shower I actually saw people moving into my hall, which is a promising start I suppose. Still haven’t run into any USC people yet, or Khushboo, which will hopefully happen later tonight! There is an orientation session at 8:30pm, so I expect I should run into those I have not yet encountered. But this first taste of Cambridge has already been tantalizingly good, I'm eagerly anticipating what comes next!