Okay, so most of the time there are little nuances of American vs British culture that can catch me off-guard. For example, learning that pants is not the appropriate word to use for trousers or jeans, because the British connotation of pants refer to underwear. So an innocuous statement about getting the leg of my pants caught in the gears of my bike definitely caused some raised eyebrows.
Anyways... on Saturday night I went to join the Cambridge Union (think debating club with a parlimentary debate chamber that a bunch of old, dead, rich, white guys would feel very at home in, but not exclusive nowadays). The membership gets access to everything that happens there over the course of the coming year... debates, ents (entertainments), bobs (parties), a fairly cheap bar, etc. Well Saturday's ent just happened to be Ben & Jerry's night. Talk about a way to bring people in, gallons of ice cream. And, the precursor to one of the funniest cultural misunderstandings I've seen thus far in my time here. So there was a group of 4 of us grad students sitting eating our ice cream in one of the side rooms. Two of us were Americans, one guy was from Singapore and one was from Australia. So the other American had decided that he was done with eating ice cream for the evening and had moved onto a pint of beer. When he came back with the beer, the Australian asked if he wanted any more ice cream. Ugh, you're probably thinking, not a good combination. Well that's what the American told him, that it didn't sound very good. So the Aussie says, "But I thought that was an American treat, like apple pie, putting ice cream in beer. I swear I've heard of that being big over there." Just imagining this concoction turned my stomach. As he kept describing this supposed American tradition, it finally dawned on me, that he was talking about a root beer float. Not ice cream in beer.
Apparently, root beer is not prevalent at all in the UK (haven't found it anyplace in the month I've been here), nor is it found in Australia. So reading about root beer floats, this guy just decided that was a particular type of beer, like a lager or pilsner or something. So at least, there is now one less Aussie out there who now knows what a root beer float is.
Monday, October 25, 2004
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Grad Hall
So after 4 years of having mandatory dinner on Thursdays, I now have mandatory dinner on Wednesdays. Okay, so its not really mandatory, but Grad Hall is quite a good time. For a fiver (£5), okay, £5.93 or something like that, on Wednesday night the graduate students at Jesus College get to all get together, and have a three course meal. For me, it's a great break from having microwave meals almost every night, and the best part is catching up with everyone you haven't seen for the past week since the last grad hall. It's really nice and informal, not like formal hall where you have to wear the gowns (see the matriculation photo below - yeah, try eating in one of those).
So take tonight, we had a chicken/pasta salad for appetizer, then pork with broccoli, carrots and mashed potatoes, with a burnt honey and star anise cream for dessert (um, think kind of nasty licorice tasting custard- not the best dessert I've had). And to top it all of, there's cheese and crackers and port along with tea and coffee. There is no way I could cook for myself like this. The one thing though, is I have never seen people go through so much wine, its BYO, and half the people literally bring their own 75cl bottle of wine and go through the thing all by themself. And of course once this is over we all head to the college bar, which, regretabably closes by 11:30 (reminscent of the firstie club I suppose - or it would be if I had spent more time there). Tonight unfortunately, there was some sort of drinking, um, dining society that a bunch of the undergrads had gone out with, and so we were greated at the entrance to the bar by a guy half passed out, with his pants down, throwing up in the doorway. I almost lost it then, and of course someone else threw up inside later. It's definitely strange knowing that there are 18 year olds in there throwing up legally, again, still not used to this lower drinking age. But aside from this unpleasantness, it was a great way to spend Wednesday night, especially since I have no lectures tomorrow to look forward to!
So take tonight, we had a chicken/pasta salad for appetizer, then pork with broccoli, carrots and mashed potatoes, with a burnt honey and star anise cream for dessert (um, think kind of nasty licorice tasting custard- not the best dessert I've had). And to top it all of, there's cheese and crackers and port along with tea and coffee. There is no way I could cook for myself like this. The one thing though, is I have never seen people go through so much wine, its BYO, and half the people literally bring their own 75cl bottle of wine and go through the thing all by themself. And of course once this is over we all head to the college bar, which, regretabably closes by 11:30 (reminscent of the firstie club I suppose - or it would be if I had spent more time there). Tonight unfortunately, there was some sort of drinking, um, dining society that a bunch of the undergrads had gone out with, and so we were greated at the entrance to the bar by a guy half passed out, with his pants down, throwing up in the doorway. I almost lost it then, and of course someone else threw up inside later. It's definitely strange knowing that there are 18 year olds in there throwing up legally, again, still not used to this lower drinking age. But aside from this unpleasantness, it was a great way to spend Wednesday night, especially since I have no lectures tomorrow to look forward to!
Monday, October 18, 2004
Going Native
Okay, so I'm starting to get the whole swing of things being over here. So besides the fact that I'm going to absolutely die at OBC next year, I can really get to like this Cambridge lifestyle. I don't usually wake up until 9ish, and so far haven't had any lectures earlier than 10, a far cry from 6:50 breakfast formations and 7:35 A hour classes. I'm even getting the hang of riding my bike on the left side of the road, and haven't had any more scary encounters with playing chicken.
But, the best thing I have discovered, and will sorely miss when I go back at the end of the year... is crumpets! Yes, tea and crumpets have found their way almost daily onto my plate. They're like english muffins, but oh so much better. I always laughed when people said I'd be eating tea and crumpets, but as I sit here with a plate and mug before me as I'm typing this, I'm definitely eating my words, err crumpets!
But, the best thing I have discovered, and will sorely miss when I go back at the end of the year... is crumpets! Yes, tea and crumpets have found their way almost daily onto my plate. They're like english muffins, but oh so much better. I always laughed when people said I'd be eating tea and crumpets, but as I sit here with a plate and mug before me as I'm typing this, I'm definitely eating my words, err crumpets!
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
My New Set of Wheels
Well, now that my car is on blocks in my parents' garage, I find myself without a car for the first time in over a year. Its a bit of a shock, and I'm going to be so happy to be able to drive - no matter how much gas costs - when I'm home next year. I've been walking everywhere for the past two weeks, which while an easy way to get around, sure takes up a lot of time. And since my department is about a twenty minute walk away from where I live, gets to be very inconvenient if I have more than one lecture a day. Luckily I shipped over a bicycle with my stuff... but its been sitting in my room for the past week. Riding in traffic is a bit daunting, especially on the left side of the road with unfamiliar traffic signs and rules.
However, today I decided that I had had enough, and the bike was going to make its first appearance on the Cambridge streets. And so, with my heart firmly lodged in my throat, I made my first cross-Cambridge bike trip. I had to go a different route than the one I normally walk because its a pedestrian only area from 10-4, and I was headed to a 2 o'clock lecture. Everything seemed like a piece of cake until I was detouring around some construction, only to find myself in a game of chicken... with a double-decker bus! This was particularly alarming because I had a wall on my left, and the bus had already cut off any escape to the right. I think I managed to squeak through with about 3 inches of spare room on either side, but didn't even have a chance to breathe a sigh of relief because there was a second bus right behind the first. This time I think there ended up being about two inches to spare, but miraculously I emerged unscathed, although a bit trembly.
Suffice it to say that I made it successfully to my department building (and back!) but I think its definitely going to take a bit of time for me to get used to being in the flow of traffic on a bike.
However, today I decided that I had had enough, and the bike was going to make its first appearance on the Cambridge streets. And so, with my heart firmly lodged in my throat, I made my first cross-Cambridge bike trip. I had to go a different route than the one I normally walk because its a pedestrian only area from 10-4, and I was headed to a 2 o'clock lecture. Everything seemed like a piece of cake until I was detouring around some construction, only to find myself in a game of chicken... with a double-decker bus! This was particularly alarming because I had a wall on my left, and the bus had already cut off any escape to the right. I think I managed to squeak through with about 3 inches of spare room on either side, but didn't even have a chance to breathe a sigh of relief because there was a second bus right behind the first. This time I think there ended up being about two inches to spare, but miraculously I emerged unscathed, although a bit trembly.
Suffice it to say that I made it successfully to my department building (and back!) but I think its definitely going to take a bit of time for me to get used to being in the flow of traffic on a bike.
Monday, October 11, 2004
It's the little things
Okay, so I figured this would happen sooner or later, but it seems that I've gotten a touch of homesickness. Nothing major, I'm not ready to buy a ticket or anything, but just sitting in my room feeling just the littlest bit sorry for myself. So what set this off, you might ask? Well, it's all the silly little things... like going to the grocery store and looking for the baby carrots I like, only to find that they're super expensive because they're in the special "international" section, and so I come home with a bag of full-sized carrots. I can't remember the last time I ate actual real size carrots (except when they've been cooked in something), but I felt very much like a rabbit as I sat here and munched on a real carrot. So that was one of the little things. Next, again at the grocery store, was looking to buy hot chocolate mix with the mini-marshmallows. Again, no luck. So getting past the grocery store, is the whole time difference thing, and feeling so far away from pretty much everyone I know, and the phone's been goofy (and again, expensive) so calling home is a bit more of an ordeal. And I tried to order print cartridges for my printer, but couldnt because my credit card billing address is overseas, and there just isn't an Office Max or Best Buy to run out to an get things. I suppose thats the crux of it, is I'm just missing the hustle and bustle and immediate convenience that is America (to include my car). Cambridge is lovely, but its definitely a different world.
Now that I've got that aired out, I think its time to get back thinking about how lovely things are here and how much more relaxed life in general is. But first, I'm going to listen to my Patriotic Country CD, get my little dose of Americana, and then celebrate that I'm here and not there.
Now that I've got that aired out, I think its time to get back thinking about how lovely things are here and how much more relaxed life in general is. But first, I'm going to listen to my Patriotic Country CD, get my little dose of Americana, and then celebrate that I'm here and not there.
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Safari Night
Okay, the first time I saw Safari Night on the list of activities for Freshers Week, I had no idea what to even begin to expect. But it really turned out to be a lot of fun. Essentially, returning grad students volunteered to cook dinner (with starter, main course and dessert), and each round of the meal they would host a different group of 2-3 freshers. Of course ,this means that each fresher got to go to a different house for each course. It was a nice opportunity to see what the other graduate accomodations owned by the college were like, but also provided an opportunity to interact with some new people. And not to mention, that there were about 30 freshers wandering around between different houses with half-filled bottles of wine (since we carried our wine to each course) - I swear it must have looked like we were all a bunch of drunks or somethign wandering through the streets since it was rather difficult to see most of the house numbers once it got dark outside.
Once the actual Safari Night activities were over, it was the grand opening of the new Jesus College Bar, which had just undergone extensive remodeling and been moved from the first floor (2nd to us Americans), to the ground floor (again, for Americans the first floor). It seemed pretty nice, but I'm still not used to walking into bars and seeing 18 year olds, but of course, the drinking age isn't 21 over here, but I'm still not quite used to that. The Jesus Bar is nicer that the town bars/pubs, because it stays open til 11:30 rather than just 11 - yeah things really seem to close super early around here and open rather late. So after the bar closed, a group of us went back to one of the guys houses and over a bottle of cheap Sainsburys port, spent time comparing the merits of various American and Australian musicians.
To me, though, the best part of the evening was coming home at 2 in the morning to find out that Army had actually managed to win a football game!! Go Black Knights, no more 19 game losing streaks!
Once the actual Safari Night activities were over, it was the grand opening of the new Jesus College Bar, which had just undergone extensive remodeling and been moved from the first floor (2nd to us Americans), to the ground floor (again, for Americans the first floor). It seemed pretty nice, but I'm still not used to walking into bars and seeing 18 year olds, but of course, the drinking age isn't 21 over here, but I'm still not quite used to that. The Jesus Bar is nicer that the town bars/pubs, because it stays open til 11:30 rather than just 11 - yeah things really seem to close super early around here and open rather late. So after the bar closed, a group of us went back to one of the guys houses and over a bottle of cheap Sainsburys port, spent time comparing the merits of various American and Australian musicians.
To me, though, the best part of the evening was coming home at 2 in the morning to find out that Army had actually managed to win a football game!! Go Black Knights, no more 19 game losing streaks!
Saturday, October 09, 2004
Buying Wine
So being here seems to be just chock full of new things. So tonight we're having "Safari Night" where a bunch of the returning grad students are preparing dinner for the freshers, who get to poke our noses into 3 different houses for appetizers, dinner and dessert to see how everyone else lives. However, we're all expected to bring our own bottle of wine. So like the good little fresher I'm trying to be, I headed off down to Sainsburys, and headed into the wine section. Holy Cow! I had no idea there were so many different varieties of wine to choose from, it took me almost 20 minutes to get out with a bottle of Shiraz Grenache, not that I have any real clue what that is, but it came at the recommendation of one of the other people browsing the shelves. I guess we'll see how it turns out, but I can see the next wine purchasing event will require a bit of background research just to figure out what I should get.
Friday, October 08, 2004
Pub Crawling, and the Van of Life
What better way to get familiarized with Cambridge than a tour de force of the local pubs? So on Thursday night (with many, if not most of us having Friday lectures), a group of Jesus freshers headed out to 4 different pubs to experience the best of Cambridge. 45 minutes per pub sounds like an awful long time, but the nature of bringing a group of upwards of twenty students into a pub at one time means that queuing takes up a majority of the time you are actually in the pub. So it very much becomes a matter of waiting in line with other members of the college - which does provide an opportunity for conversation - and then downing your drink in relatively rapid fashion to move onto the next pub. By the end of the evening, it was nice to finally end up someplace where we could actually grab a table and sit down for a period of time. And once the pubbing was over, a portion of the group headed to a club, but the faint of heart among us (myself included) decided to head home and get a bit of sleep to awake in the morning to the mounds of reading yet to be done in preparation for lectures.
But apparently a night out in Cambridge is not complete with a stop at "The Van of Life." What might this be? Well, it must not be, on pain of stomach distress, be confused with "The Van of Death," as both of these are vans marketing a delightfully greasy late night snack of chips (french fries), snacks and crisps (chips), to the inebriated student population. Initially I laughed, but there is something about chips fresh from the fryer that tops off a night at the pubs. So the next time I go out, I know where my final stop before home will be, and a small chips is just about perfect to keep my hands warm while I walk, errr, stumble, my way back to my house. The important things in life!
But apparently a night out in Cambridge is not complete with a stop at "The Van of Life." What might this be? Well, it must not be, on pain of stomach distress, be confused with "The Van of Death," as both of these are vans marketing a delightfully greasy late night snack of chips (french fries), snacks and crisps (chips), to the inebriated student population. Initially I laughed, but there is something about chips fresh from the fryer that tops off a night at the pubs. So the next time I go out, I know where my final stop before home will be, and a small chips is just about perfect to keep my hands warm while I walk, errr, stumble, my way back to my house. The important things in life!
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Trying to simplify things...
Okay, I decided that rather than try to email everyone all the time with the info on what's happening with me during my year at Cambridge that I would just create an online journal. I'll try to post periodically with anything exciting thats happening, and if nothing exciting has happened, it'll be filled with the mundania of being an American in London.
So I've been in England for a whole whopping 10 days now, and things are finally getting settled in. We started lectures today, and it was kind of a shock dealing with a classroom with over 50 people in it... until the guy sitting next to me commented on how surprised he was by how small it was. Everyone comes from so many different backgrounds, and things constantly remind me of that. I'm one of 2 Americans in the program, so no worries about being able to fall into the trap of only talking to Americans... that wouldn't leave many options. I have to come up with a concrete research question by December, so now I'm "supervisor shopping" to find a member of the faculty to supervise me.
Cambridge itself has been lovely, although I'm beginning to realize that my umbrella needs to be a constant companion, even if I just pop out for a quick run to the grocery store, because sun can disappear into rain clouds in about two seconds. My rooms slopes and tilts at weird angles, because the house was built sometime in the 1700's I believe, but I suppose that just gives it character. Of course that seems young in comparison to the college chapel that dates from a 12th century Benedictine nunnery... makes me realize how young America is in comparison as a country since the college has a library opened in 1996 to celebrate its quincentennary... after all, only another 272 years and America can celebrate its quincentennary.
I'm still amazed by the opportunity that I have to be over here, and even sitting in lecture today it seemed rather surreal, but the past week has definitely hit home that I'm not in the US. From staring at rows of different laundry detergents that didn't include Tide or anything I was remotely familiar with, to being almost run over by a double decker bus after looking left, right, left to cross the street, to realizing that my money goes about half as far here thanks to the awful exchange rate (almost 2 to 1), to all the different accents I hear every conversation.... Luckily everyone seems very friendly. Well, more to follow....
So I've been in England for a whole whopping 10 days now, and things are finally getting settled in. We started lectures today, and it was kind of a shock dealing with a classroom with over 50 people in it... until the guy sitting next to me commented on how surprised he was by how small it was. Everyone comes from so many different backgrounds, and things constantly remind me of that. I'm one of 2 Americans in the program, so no worries about being able to fall into the trap of only talking to Americans... that wouldn't leave many options. I have to come up with a concrete research question by December, so now I'm "supervisor shopping" to find a member of the faculty to supervise me.
Cambridge itself has been lovely, although I'm beginning to realize that my umbrella needs to be a constant companion, even if I just pop out for a quick run to the grocery store, because sun can disappear into rain clouds in about two seconds. My rooms slopes and tilts at weird angles, because the house was built sometime in the 1700's I believe, but I suppose that just gives it character. Of course that seems young in comparison to the college chapel that dates from a 12th century Benedictine nunnery... makes me realize how young America is in comparison as a country since the college has a library opened in 1996 to celebrate its quincentennary... after all, only another 272 years and America can celebrate its quincentennary.
I'm still amazed by the opportunity that I have to be over here, and even sitting in lecture today it seemed rather surreal, but the past week has definitely hit home that I'm not in the US. From staring at rows of different laundry detergents that didn't include Tide or anything I was remotely familiar with, to being almost run over by a double decker bus after looking left, right, left to cross the street, to realizing that my money goes about half as far here thanks to the awful exchange rate (almost 2 to 1), to all the different accents I hear every conversation.... Luckily everyone seems very friendly. Well, more to follow....
Saturday, October 02, 2004
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