Off to Ireland

Cambridge, England

I took a long weekend to Ireland last week with the help of my classmate Adam and Sarah. We had a great time. We spent the first two days in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The highlight of the trip was definitely a "black cab tour" that we took that highlighted the sights of the conflict in Northern Ireland. We learned a lot of history and saw some amazing wall murals. Next stop was in Dublin for three days and included a visit with my Irish friend, James "Old Jim" Lane. I met James at a conference in Geneva, and he came through big for us. Not only did he show us around the city, but he also let us shack up at his huge frat-style house. Nice.

One of the highlights of the trip: the Guinness. Before the trip I didn't even like Guinness. I'm a changed man. Wow, that stuff was good. Another highlight: leaving the Irish pub at 1 a.m. and checking the Auburn score. What a big win over Georgia! After spending a few days in the city, we took a one-day tour to the Irish countryside. Although our tourguide was a little obnoxious with his dramatic patriotism, we saw some splendid green hills and even spotted a rainbow. As people say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Check out the weekend travels here.

Snow!

It snowed nearly an inch last night in Cambridge, which was of course a big deal for this southern boy! The first of many here in England, I suppose. Click on the picture for a full-size version of the picture.

It's like a Smiley Anders column

Cambridge, England

I've been in England for six weeks and it's time for me to officially admit it: I've been a total slacker when it comes to maintaining this blog. From now on, there will be a Sunday update.

But to catch up on the past comical episodes, I'll write a rather long entry that resembles a Smiley Anders column: lots of tid-bits here and there. Fun stuff.

Jumping through hoops at the library
How is it that I just got a bank account and ATM card last week? What in the world took so long? On first observation, navigating through various English bureaucracies can be a major headache. Let's just take my most recent experiences at the library as an example. I'm at one of the leading universities in the world, and yet I still haven't been able to check a book out from the library. I had heard rumours from friends that the library closed early, so I checked online before making the long trek. Confident that the building closed at 7 PM (are you kidding me? 7 PM!), I showed up a few weeks ago with my list of books to check out at 6:30 PM. I whisped through the revolving door out of the cold weather into the historic building where many bright minds have studied before me.

At this point, I want you to think of a stereotype for a librarian. Then add an English twist to that stereotype. That's what confronted me.

"The library is closed," in a rather snooty English manner.

"Closed? The Web site says that it closes at 7 PM and it's only 6:30," in a rather arrogant American manner.

Admitting to the error, "Ahh...yes, you are right," she said. I smiled and stepped forward like I had slashed her armor off in a dueling fashion. She battled back. "You are welcome to come in and stand here in the foyer. But the stacks close at 6:45 and you must be at the stacks by 6:30 to request books." My armor fell off and she could see my pink boxers. I was there on time, in fact 30 minutes before the library closed. But I needed a book fetcher to get my books. Unbelievable!

I returned a week later, this time in the middle of the afternoon so I could get my books. It's like I was trying to break into Ft. Knox. How could it be so difficult to check out a book? This time I needed a note from my college saying that I'm a full-time student. "But I have this student ID here that says that I'm a full-time student." I stamored, already retreating because I wasn't even wearing boxers this time. The librarian spoke again. This time she sounded like the Queen from the Alice in Wonderland cartoon, "No letter?! Off with his head!!"

That marvelous class photo
The other day was a typical day in Cambridge, or at least how I envisioned it before coming here. It was time for my class picture and I walked up to the Judge Institute in time to catch an older professor getting onto his old-school cycle. He had an English-looking cap and a tweed jacket covered his brown wool sweater. The guy was probably near to using a walker, yet he hopped on the cycle and winded his way down the street. Did I mention that he was smoking a pipe? Then it started to rain.

Altogether, pretty typical. It does rain a lot, and it's already colder here than it is during the cold winter days in Louisiana. Not that I'm complaining. I have my first warm jacket and am rather enjoying the change of seasons. Witness the photo above of the colorful autumn leaves on Trumpington Street. Don't see that kind of season change on the bayou! So when I compain about the cold weather, or the wet weather, or the sunshine going away at 4 PM, just shrug it off. That's what I do!

Election
I've never been abroad during a presidential election, so I can't compare my experiences over the past few weeks to a past election. But it seems that the election was on everyone's mind. It's all that people wanted to talk about, especially once they found out that I'm American. Day in and day out, I was truly amazed at how closely the English and especially other international students were following the US election. Many followed it more closely than me!

This of course was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed discussing with my Arab housemates. They all had a unique perspective, in part because they have lived in the war-torn areas that many Americans only read about in the newspaper. But more importantly, they know all too well how their countrymen's attitude toward the US has shifted over the past few years. You all have seen the polls so I won't bore you. But many of you probably haven't talked with someone that was in the Middle East only a few weeks ago. It brings home the anti-American sentiment that you read about in the newspaper.

Those that know me well (or at all), of course realize that I wasn't pleased about the results of the election. But those that know me also realize that I'm patriotic and will support the US even if I don't agree with the president's foreign policy. I stayed up to watch the election results with friends from my college. Again, I was amazed at the number of students that stayed up to watch the results. Walking home around 4:30 in the morning, I noticed lots of lights still on and saw countless windows framing students huddled around TVs. Pretty neat.

Floating candles
My dad and Adam Newcomer have been good at asking about the floating candles at formal dining hall ala Harry Potter style. I've yet to see them, although I have had some great formal hall experiences thus far. In my first weeks here, I have had three formal halls at my college, Fitzwilliam, and also another one for my department at Kings College.

Even without the floating candles, the experiences have been great. The dinners start with sherry beforehand. Then we enter the dining hall for a three- or four-course meal. The food has been mediocre, but the company has been great. One interesting note though: each meal we've toasted the Queen. That's something that I didn't really expect, but have already grown accustomed to.

Punting
One of Cambridge's traditions is to go "punting" on the River Cam. While Adam and Jodie were in town a few weeks ago, we took a punt out from Darwin College and had a great time. You can see some pictures (see previous blog entry), but I just wanted to mention the first five minutes of the trip.

The punts (boats) are quite narrow and wobble quite a bit, especially when the passengers shift around. We all hopped into the punt at Darwin's boathouse, and immediately Adam said that we were going to fall in. He looked so nervous, as did the rest of the boat. Gianluca took the reins at the official punter though, and after about 15 minutes I think everyone was comfortable that we weren't going to fall in. Except maybe Adam.

Road trips
Friday night was perhaps the scariest moment of my life. The reason is simple: I rented a car in England. Wow, it took quite a bit of concentration to drive on the left side of the road and on the right side of the car. I was a nervous wreck, but made it from Enterprise rental to my house. Needless to say, I was more than happy the next morning to let Gianluca do the driving on our road trip to Manchester. Manchester was nice. So was the trip that I took to Norwich a few weeks ago. This weekend I'm off to Belfast and Dublin. I'll keep you posted.

Next week: What in the world am I studying over here?

Cambridge Pictures

Cambridge, England

Look here for some great pictures from the past month in Cambridge!

Descriptions under the pictures will be up soon.