23!

23 years old, wow, I can remember being a little kid and thinking about being this age... although I'm not sure that I ever really imagined I'd be in Cambridge this year. Apart from an early start to the birthday by waking up at 2 in the morning realizing that I didn't have the neck tab I need for my dress blues, and not getting back to sleep until 5ish after securing a promise from Mom to pop it in the mail the next day. Rita came down for the day since she doesn't stay in her room at Queens over long holidays, and we met up with Tharini for a celebratory dinner at Nando's, a chicken place which I'd never been to. (I realize that I'm never going to know everything good that's here before I leave.) It was one of the few places I've been to here that when they say something is hot and spicy, it really was hot and spicy! And aside from getting laughed at when filling out the feedback card which required the date of the visit, and I looked at my watch to see what the date was (apparently I should have known since it was my birthday ;-P), it was a great meal and I think I've found a new place to add to my list of places to go. Then we stopped at Sainsbury's on the way back to pick up something for a dessert but it turned into an escapade as Rita's a vegetarian and can't have anything with eggs in it, so all of the birthday cakes and chocolate cakes were a no-go, and in fact 95% of the dessert selection didn't meet the criteria. Although I didn't end up having a birthday cake, at least I did have a great evening with friends, and I was able to talk to my parents and grandparents on the phone, so I guess a girl couldn't ask for too much more. Although the 23 e-cards my mom decided to send (one for each year) were definitely a unique touch.

Headaches, Disappointments, Taxes, and Worries

Not a very positive weekend I'm afraid - I spent almost all day Easter in bed with a splitting headache (odd how many of those I've had in the past year since making a 1 point landing on my head from the top of the Ranger Wall in Sandhurst), and didn't even leave my room except to go to the bathroom and get a bite to eat. Cambridge is really lonely right now since its the term break, and I've decided that I never want to be a hermit since I have definitely been feeling lonely and bummed with everyone gone. It's nice having my own room and everything, but it gets depressing when the only time I see people is when I head to the grocery store or the library.
My work is progressing in fits and spurts of extreme productivity and extreme doing nothingness, I can only hope that if I continue to plug away at things they'll come together, because the alternative doesn't bear thinking about - although it has definitely kept me up late nights when I should be sleeping and instead feel the heavy weight of panic. I don't think I'm cut out to be an academic, these long library hours are not fun and there's so much I'd rather be doing than work. In a way, I miss the pressure cooker that West Point was because I think it kept me in line and the challenge kept me going. I'd almost say I'm disappointed to have spent the year here, but I know I'd have regretted passing up the opportunity. However, I think more and more I realize that I've done some things because they're the things I'm supposed to have wanted to do, and indeed, I wanted them, but I find out afterwards that they're not quite as fulfilling as I would have expected. Two prime examples of this are going to Navy on exchange and winning the Gates and the year at Cambridge. Now, if Rebecca or Mrs. Allen read this, you are the reasons I don't regret going to Navy because you made it worthwhile, but I always felt coming back that it put a speed bump in my progression at West Point and I missed out on getting to know people when I should have, but it's too late to have regrets and I try to focus on the good things. The Cambridge academic experience has not lived up to my expectations either, and I think in large part this is because the program I'm in doesn't seem quite sure what to do with all of the MPhils, and without a clear end state, how can things ever really get where they're supposed to go? I don't know the answer and I don't think they do either. I miss the focus and willingness to spend time with cadets that the instructors had at West Point; I always played up that aspect to my friends at civilian schools as they told me of lecture halls with a hundred people, but now I realize just how true it was. While we don't have huge lecture halls here, the majority of the lecturers here seemed to view us as an imposition on their time to complete their research, and I can't ever really remember feeling like a burden simply because I showed up asking to be taught. Oh well, c'est la vie I suppose, and disillisionment is always hard to take.
On a positive note, I should be getting my federal tax return in a few weeks since I finally managed to file after tracing down an errant W-2 from my DITY move. Things were definitely more complicated this year than it has been in years past, but I guess that's the way things are going to be from now on and I should just accept it. Still, it's awful realizing just how much I pay in taxes now that I'm actually making money. I think it's funny though, that taxes help to pay the budget for the military, and the budget for the military includes my salary, and I pay taxes on my salary.... seems rather circular, but that's life again, I suppose. Things don't necessarily make any sense.
Time has a way of speeding up or slowing down just when you want it to do the opposite, and I suddenly find myself at the end of March, staring at my dissertation deadline of 6 June, and I am so terrified that I won't be able to finish on time. If the deadline weren't until August or the end of July like many of the other courses, I'd be golden for sure, but I'm just hoping to be able to wrap up research in sufficient time to allow me to write up the results. May is going to be one crazy month - I'm not looking forward to it at all - and April hasn't even started yet. I wish I were clairvoyant and could look forward and know that everything is going to turn out A-OK, but I'm not and so there's a little cloud of worry that's been hanging over my head and refuses to leave, and come to think of it, probably won't leave until sometime this summer when I know everything is completed.

Spring Has Sprung!... Punting on the Cam

Me & Rita sporting the Coke cans

We finally had some good weather last weekend, so everyone was outside soaking it up while it lasted. We decided that we'd go punting and have a little picnic during our time out on the Cam. It was a ton of fun, and it definitely helped that Tharini's boyfriend Ram had done his undergrad at Oxford, so he's been punting at various times over the past 6 years. I doubt the rest of us could have kept us going in a straight line. Of course, with the weather turning nicer, it's going to be a lot harder to convince myself to stay inside the library and do any work. But at least its finally not winter weather here!

Meeting Dr. Goodall

Me, Kayla, and Dr. Jane Goodall

During the little bit of time back in Cambridge between going to Naples and Paris, Kayla invited me to be her guest at a dinner at St. Catherine's College in honor of Dr. Jane Goodall. A once in a lifetime opportunity to be sure, to meet someone like that. So for the umpteen millionth time here in Cambridge, I found myself in a fancy dress headed to a big dinner. Jane started off her talk during dinner by doing a chimp call, and wow, talk about a great imitation! Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse (in my opinion) later, when she said that if she could have one wish, it would be for a new US presidential election with a different result - I hate it when things get political, everything gets weird. But aside from that, the dinner was lovely, and it was fascinating hearing about the work she's doing.

Paris... and our experience with the Paris Hilton

Paris, the city of love, was relatively empty of the stereotypical lovers sitting outside sipping coffee and eating croissants, or strolling around the city, but I suppose the fact that the temperature hovered right around zero the entire weekend could have been a contributing factor. From the moment we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport, I could just tell there was a much different attitude in France than what we had experienced in Italy. If the Italians were exuberant, loud, boisterous, and totally displaying that everything in life was to be done to the fullest (I'm stereotyping here I know, forgive the literary license), then the French attitude was one of a sense of quiet, smug superiority, and the air that there was something there that you just couldn't quite hope to achieve (of course, this opinion could be flavored by our relatively disastrous hotel experience which I'll describe in due course). The airport reminded me of something out of an Austin Powers movie, with a weirdly undulating moving walkway leading us from our gate to the main terminal, and crazy rounded shapes everywhere. I suppose it had been chic and avant guarde or something when it was built, but it just made me want to giggle and hire an interior decorator since it was in need of an update quite badly.
Again, we relied on the public transport system, and I must say, that honestly that is one of the things I will miss going back to the states, because public transportation here is so much more efficient and a much more comprehensive network than you find most places in the US. We were staying at the Paris Hilton Arc de Triomphe for the weekend (and yes, it struck me as odd to say we were staying at the Paris Hilton), since Dad and I had traded in a bunch of our American Airlines frequent flier miles and Hilton Honors points to get the 3 nights free. Since we had stayed at a relatively low-end hotel in Naples (although it was still a nice place), this was supposed to be our weekend of luxury. However, it turned into a disaster. After checking in, we went back out to see Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, since we didn't want to repeat the Naples experience of sleeping away the first day. We went all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and although the visibility was limited, it was a sweet view of the city, although being up that high, the winds were miserably cold and cut right through you. When we got back to the hotel that evening, our room was pretty cold, so we turned the thermostat up, and rested a bit before going out to dinner. Well, even after having it on for an hour or two, the room still resembled an ice box, so on the way out to dinner, we told the reception desk that there was a problem. When we got back from dinner, all they had done was to turn the thermostat all the way up, and the room was still freezing, so I had to go back down and ask for something to be done. The person at the desk told me someone would be up in 10-15 minutes, so when I had to go back down to the desk 45 minutes later, I was not a happy camper. Of course, when they saw me come out of the elevator for the third time, there was miraculously a bell boy being dispatched just at that moment to come move us to a different (smaller) room. I asked to speak to the manager or guest relations, and was told, that no, I didn't want to do that! The audacity of these people, grrrrr. I was upset that they had just been ignoring me, and treating me like a child, I understand that there are sometimes problems with things like heating, but none of them seemed to understand that. It turned into a whole fiasco and definitely left me with a less than positive impression of the Paris Hilton. I don't think I'd ever stay there again.
At least, despite the difficulties with the hotel, the rest of the stay was enjoyable, and we made it to Versailles (although the Hall of Mirrors was undergoing renovation, so it was less impressive than it should have been), and to the Louvre, where we saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus of Milo, Winged Victory, Michaelangelo's Dying Slave, the Code of Hammurabi, and all of the other main attractions, that I'm used to seeing from the glossy pages of art books, and not looking at in person. I wished I had someone (like my grandpa) who knows more about art with us to explain everything, because I'm sure there were things we missed since we didn't have the art background. Still, it was fun to see it all, and it was inside and warm, so that was a big plus.
Paris was an experience, and I'm glad I got to see everything that was there, but I don't think it's going to top my list of favorite European cities anytime soon. I think London and Rome were much more to my style and budget, because everything in Paris was so expensive. We even ate at McDonalds twice just to be able to afford other meals, and that was my first McDonalds meal since I left NY in September. Maybe it would have been different if the weather had been warm and we could have enjoyed just taking in the sites outside more leisurely and less frigidly, but I really just found Italy a warmer reception. Although, after the incident with the released hostage journalist, the attitude towards us as Americans might be quite different now than it was the 2 weeks ago when we were there. Well, now that my European travels are over, its time to get cracking since the course ends the first week in June! (And I still don't know where I'm posting)


The Eiffel Tower at Night - we froze to get the picture, but the view was incredible

Me and the Mona Lisa

Me in front of Notre Dame

Me at Versailles

Disneyland... with 3 layers, hat, scarf, gloves...

One of the reasons Mom was keen on going to Paris was to have the opportunity to go to Disneyland. Since we were able to see so much during the first day and a half we were in Paris, we decided that we would spend Monday at Disney. I must say though, there just seemed something bizarre about getting dressed for a day at a Disney park by putting on several layers, my coat, scarf, gloves, hat, etc. I don't think it got much above freezing the whole day, but it did mean that the park was relatively uncrowded (except that we found out later that the time we were there was the mid-term break for Paris schools, so it was more crowded than it would have been a week before or after). There are actually two parks, and we had read that if you bought a ticket for the Studios park, you could go into the actual Disneyland park at 1730. Luckily though, the girl at the ticket window said that we could get a park-hopper ticket to allow entry to both parks for only 9 Euro more a person. I say luckily, because there was only 1 ride open in the Studios park that morning, and it would have been the biggest waste to have spent all day there. So, we saw a show and rode the Aerosmith rollercoaster before heading over to the Disneyland park itself. We waited longer in the line to ride Peter Pan's flight than we did to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, but we didn't have very long waits for most rides.
When Mom had come to visit me in California last summer and we went to Disneyland in California, we had had lunch at the Blue Bayou restaurant in the park that overlooks part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, so I decided that we should do lunch at the Blue Lagoon restaurant at Disney Paris to continue the tradition. Great food, but I think we were both waddling around the park the rest of the day having eaten so much. We got on just about everything that was open, and I suppose for that I must be grateful to the cold weather, because we would probably only have gotten on a fraction of the rides during the summer. For dinner, we decided to be a bit goofy and go and see the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and so our biggest dinner in Paris was Chili, Cornbread (some of the best I've ever had), Barbeque, and Apple Cobbler, not very epicurean I'm sure, but the food was great, we got to hollar and yell like a couple of little kids, and generally had a great time, even though our cowboys didn't win the competition.
I have to say, I wasn't especially thrilled with the idea of going to Disneyland, thinking that I'd rather see all the cultural stuff, but Mom hit the nail on the head when she said that this made it seem more like a real vacation, because it was just a day to relax and have a good time. So now, at some point, I have to try and get to Tokyo Disney, and then I'll be able to say that I've been to all the Disney parks, but I don't know that that's going to happen any time soon.

On the carousel at Disney

Mom and I, in goofy cowboy hats at the Buffalo Bill Show at Disneyland Paris

Mom, super happy to be at Disneyland Paris

President's Day Weekend - Italy - Rome and Beyond

So throwing the coin over my shoulder into the Trevi Fountain did work, since Mom and I ended up spending Tuesday in Rome before we caught our flight home. Although, come to think of it, most of time in Rome was actually in the Vatican City, but it was still a great day, and we had a chance to get a taste of gelato before we left.

St. Peter's Statue - With full ceremonial dress, quite different from last time, guess I was lucky to have the opportunity to rub his foot then, since noone was allowed to touch the statue while it was dressed this way.

Me and Mom on the top of St. Peter's - I knew I'd get her up to the top!

Napoli Napoli!

Since I was able to see so much of what there was in Rome over MLK weekend with Jayme and company, I decided that when Mom came over to visit, we'd go somewhere else within Italy. I've always wanted to see Pompeii - I guess maybe as a factor of all the Roman myths and such that I read growing up - and so I decided that we could take the train from Rome to Naples, and then spend time in Naples and see Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were relatively close by.
Of course, the whole journey started off interestingly, when Mom took a bump on her flight over to London, meaning that by the time she got here on the bus from Heathrow (at 0155) we had a whole hour and a half to go back to my room before catching the 0345 bus to Stansted airport, and embarking on the adventure that a Ryan Air flight is (although boarding is worse in Italy, at least they queue in an orderly fashion in the UK). So we were definitely both tired, since she'd been up for the flight, and I'd been up waiting and worrying, but we made it to Rome okay, and even managed to navigate the bus and metro system to get to the train station with only minor inconvenience. There was a train leaving for Naples relatively soon, and being the spendthrift travellers, we chose to take the not so fast train that was cheaper. Big Mistake! At one stop, we ended up with a group of about 15-20 schoolboys and a few of their girlfriends boarding the car we were in, and for the duration of the trip to the Naples train station, they proceeded to shout loudly out the windows at each other, throw wadded up newspapers, smoke when they weren't supposed to, sing along with the mobile's ring tones, and just be a huge nuisance in general. The extra $10 a person for the fast train on the way back, with semi-private compartments was definitely a relief after the trip down to Naples.
As we're pulling into the Napoli Centrale station, I realized that the confirmation I had printed out for our hotel reservation didn't have the address of where the hotel was, but we knew it was supposed to be just off the Piazza Garibaldi. So, in the rain, we got to wander around and ask about 4 different directions before we finally got there. The initial travel forecast had said rain only the last day we were there, but it was cold and rainy the entire time. We didn't do much that evening since we both fell asleep until dinner time. But luckily the desk guy was able to give us directions to a pizzeria/restaurant he said was pretty good, so armed with our map and like 2 phrases of Italian, we set out to brave the bus system and an on foot navigation of the streets of Naples. I had thought Rome was a fairly dirty city, but Naples definitely takes the cake! But oh my gosh, the food! We had an entire Margherita brick oven cooked pizza for only 3 Euros, and then I had a bowl of baked gnocchi that was simply divine. So dinner and the super long train ride were pretty much all we did the day we got there.
The next morning, we went back over to the train station, and headed to Herculaneum. We couldn't see out the windows through all the graffiti and ended up going one stop too far, but managed to get turned around with only wasting about 20 minutes although it seemed longer due to the rain and wind. Seeing Hurculaneum was incredible though, to see this huge excavation pit in the ground, and realize that the sea used to come up that far, and knowing that so much was still buried under the modern city. I couldn't believe how bright the colors in all the houses still were, and despite the miserable weather, I just kept thinking "Wow" to myself. I think we managed to see almost everything. After we left just before the site closed (frozen solid and soaked), Mom decided that we'd take the train to Sorrento, just to see it, so reluctantly, I agreed. Sorrento was mostly closed up when we got there since it was a Sunday, so again, on a whim, we ended up on the bus out to Amalfi. The view on the drive was spectacular, since it was right along the coast the entire time, but I still to this day don't understand how the bus made if safely with how sharp some of the switchbacks were, I was definitely glad not to be the one riding. By the time we got to Amalfi, it was dark, and we weren't sure what time the last bus went back, so it was a bit tense as we wondered if we had gotten ourselves stranded in Amalfi for the night, but we somehow made it back, and I suppose it was worthwhile just for the view on the ride out.
Pompeii was our destination the next day, but since we had gotten back pretty late the night before, we decided to sleep in a bit, and not try to get there for the 0830 opening time. When we got there around 11, and they weren't open yet, we were thanking our lucky stars for deciding to rest. The weather was much the same, although we enjoyed a little bit of time without rain. I'm glad we did Pompeii second, because it was a much larger site, and I think Herculaneum would have seemed insignificant by comparison if we'd done it second, although both sites were incredible and well worth the time to visit. Several of the houses were undergoing more work, or were closed off to the public, and I'm glad I got to go now, because who knows if it will even be open to the public in twenty years at this rate. I kept trying to imagine what it must have been like, because things were basically suspended the way they had been in 79 A.D. I suppose that's about as close to time-travel as we'll ever get, walking through the streets there, and it was an incredible experience. After walking through the vast majority of the excavation site, we left, planning on going to the Acheological Museum of Naples the next day, so we didn't buy any postcards or souveniers at Pompeii.
But (of course there was a but coming), when we got back to the hotel that night, we found out that the Archeological Museum - which has almost all the smaller artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum - was closed on Tuesdays. Since there was nothing else we particularly wanted to see in Naples, we took the (fast) train to Rome, and I decided that somehow I had to convince Mom to go to the top of the cupola on St. Peter's. So I told her we could just go the level where the elevator took us, and see the inside of the dome up close. But, I figured that once I got her up there, it would simply be a matter of pride and the money spent to convince her to go all the way. She may have been ready to kill me for forcing her to climb all the way to the top, but I also think she agreed with me that it was worthwhile. When we finally left the rooftop and headed down, there was a special mass ongoing for the main chapel part, and so the statue of St. Peter was elaborately decorated in robes and jewels, quite a change from how he looked the last time I saw him. It was a disappointment to have missed the museum in Naples, but the visit to St. Peter's (and it was my 3rd visit... as a non-Catholic!) was incredible.
After surviving the cattle call that was boarding the Ryanair flight out of Rome, we finally made it back to my room in Cambridge, and I had a short 3 day week worth of classes and reading before we prepared to see off for Paris... but that is another story.

Mom and I at Pompeii - during one of the few minutes it wasn't pouring down rain

Finally, an Update!

Time has certainly flown recently, and in the next few days I'll try to do my best to remedy the lack of entries for the past month. To begin briefly, the last two weekends in February were spent in Naples, Italy (and Pompeii and Herculaneum) and Paris, France. This whole mini-Euro trip was the end result of my misunderstanding which weekend Jayme and the others from West Point were coming to Rome. It's all about turning lemons into lemonade, and the two past weekends were great. However, as I sit here, and look at my calendar and see that it's already the end of the first week in March, I realize that this year is really beginning to fly by, and soon I should know where I'll be going next year.
Last night I went to karoake night at Queens College with Rita, and since it lasted til after midnight, I ended up spending the night crashed out on her floor. What with the nights between trips when Mom and I were in Cambridge, I seem to have been spending quite a bit of time sleeping on floors lately, but at least in truth I can say that it's better than many of the places that I've slept before.... since it wasn't the woods of Buckner on the ground with nothing but my kevlar as a pillow, and it wasn't the woods of Korea crammed between the gear in my Humvee, so all in all, a floor with proper blankets and a pillow is a decided improvement on some. That said, it wasn't the most restful night, since Rita lives in one of the college "staircases," meaning that it's an old room that dates from goodness only knows when, and her walls are even thinner and less soundproof than mine are, which was something I would have scarcely believed possible. So while she may be getting more of the atmosphere of the whole Cambridge experience, I'll take my larger room that's external to the actual college grounds, and not complain too much.