Cambridge Chronicles: my knight by the gutter

Chatting with mother, trying not to explode under the pressure of finals here, attempting to balance backpack, laptop in hand, dinner (and by dinner, i mean a cheap nutella pastry. mmmm) and the phone---when it suddenly slides out of my hands, and gets thrown by my knee, and ultimately kicked by my own foot, straight through the little holes in this devilish contraption on the side of the road.

can someone explain why they make the holes JUST big enough for a cell phone to fall straight through?!

Here I am, squatting by the side of the road, starring at my poor little phone through the stupid slits in this grate. There it is--i can see it clearly--four feet down, sitting in a pile of dirt, surrounded by candy wrappers and old cigarettes.

Very nice english lady, stopped and joined me in my awkward squat and said in her lovely thick british accent, "do you need some help?"

I feel smart.

There are a few differences between the United Kingdom higher education system and that of the United States. The major difference that I've noticed, is that most of the actual learning is done on your own. We got  a three-hundred page reading packet for the next two lectures. I thought they'd cover the reading in the lectures, like most of the classes I've ever had, ever.

So yesterday, I arrived in my lecture, happy and ready to absorb the knowledge that the Cambridge PH.D student was ready to impart on our class.

I literally thought the man was teaching a bio-mechanical engineering class. I don't know if it was the accent, or the complete mono-tone, or my lack-of history knowledge, but I've never felt so stupid in my life. Every once in a while, he’ll throw in a few words I recognize, but it felt like Spanish--without all the surrounding words to give it context they mean next to nothing.

“Growing communist insurgency sldhg was;vhe cmonwh …South Vietnam…a;seh23uwhe aosifu woeyq sdjlkj number of prostitutes…. alse0b e Failed coup in Indonesia asoeh  w0fu4 lkvbm, British.” YES British! I understood that one! “1950…ssfwy lsdkvw US had put a lot of pressure on the dutch...” Why? How?  “...Conflicted policy.. asld uweon xclbw this began to shape the new political systems in independent countries” what did? “he and Eisenhower” who is “he”? “someone tried to poison castro’s shampoo. Obviously that didn’t work.” was he trying to crack a joke?! I can't read British sarcasm... Do we have to know that someone tried to hijack shampoo from castro?  “given what had happened in 1961, neither were willing to compromise” what the heck happened in 1961?! Who’s not willing to compromise??

Someone told me that Albert Einstein had trouble in school... I must just be the next Einstein. 

I gave up trying to follow him, and typed that paragraph.

I did get a little reassurance that i wasn't a COMPLETE idiot, when the girl sitting next to me in class read over my shoulder what i was typing and she said, "brilliant. that is exactly how i feel right now."

dear goodness, wish me luck. 

Cambridge Chronicles #2: Scotland

Taking a trip to Scotland!

We loaded onto a very long bus where we then braced ourselves for an all-day ride. Two of my good friends sat with me at the very back of the bus, next to two boys who are students at Yale. They were very entertaining. We enjoyed stimulating conversation about nearly everything: Politics, Religion, Movies, education systems, retractable body parts, cuddling habits, self-discovery, and then we still had 6 more hours.

We three girls started a Summer of Self-Improvement program, and decided the first week we’d go without chocolate. Naturally, I panicked at the thought. This whole scheme was concocted by my brilliant friend, Ellie, who’s studying behavioral economics and had the research and rhetoric to convince me that I had the will power. She thinks these methods will help me get over the habit—I definitely don’t believe her.

When we finally crossed the border, a fog—literally immediately after the sign saying we were in Scotland—enveloped the bus. We saw the “First Public House in Scotland” (ie A “Pub”—who knew?!), and we saw gorgeous rolling green hills (for as far as the fog would allow) and we saw lots of rain, and sheep.

every street basically looked like this. (minus the trollies) 

When we finally got to the University of Edinburgh, we walked around the town, and I fell in LOVE. Beautiful, old castle-esque buildings lined the streets of little pubs and shops (including an Auld Hoose—sound it out), and in the light of dusk, which lasted until 10:30 pm(!) and the fantastical fog, I felt like I had been picked out of time and placed into a 17^th century romance novel. Future husband, take note: This could very well be our honeymoon spot.

The Cambridge Chronicles #1: upon arrival

I had a colossal bag with 49.5 pounds of essential living materials. Lugging through hot, sticky, sweaty, grimy new york city. Bus trips and transfers, ticket lines and security lines. So many lines. Then a 6 hour, 9 minute flight to London, Hethrow airport. Where we arrived at 6:00 am local time—which means 2:00 am Averill time. 3-hour bus ride, attempting to sleep in the most awkward bus-sitting positions everrrr. I felt like a rag-doll filled with sand, dipped in water. My fingers were heavy.

Finally we arrive! It’s about 50 degrees outside. Not Celsius. It hasn’t been 50 degrees in the states since… February? So it’s a good thing I planned for a hot humid summer, tons of light t-shirts and skirts, and literally DID NOT PACK ONE SINGLE SWEATER.

Freezing and exhausted I tried to keep myself awake until a reasonable bedtime. We checked in, mingled with the college elite—although I have yet to meet any Harvard/Stanford/Yale people yet. Had a great conversation with some Penn students. And saw girl, who I haven’t seen since sophomore year in high school. Crazy random.

The bar opened, and everyone got really excited! Us BYU kids stared at each other pleasantly much preferring to get excited about the upcoming food. An incredible buffet was set before us, and we chit-chatted and asked questions like, “where are our classes?” “how do we do laundry?” “when are we going to scotland as a group?” “wait, we’re going to Scotland as a group?” “anyone know anything about anything that’s happening at this program?” the general answer to that last one was no.

We took a walking tour.

Some fun facts about my stay here:

• Charles Darwin lived here: in the dorm room right next to me. No big deal.
• Oliver cromwell’s head is buried in a garden on campus
• Newton’s famous apple tree was uprooted and replanted right outside of trinity college. So that was cool.
• The creator of Winnie the Pooh drafted this masterpiece on campus.
• There are incredibly low ceilings leading my room. (I didn’t learn that from the walking tour, I learned it from hitting my head several times on my way)
• It stays light here really long. Last night it was10:00pm, and it’s finally dim enough to use the light from the street lamps. 
• It is stunningly beautiful here. The buildings are older than my country by about 300 years, and  the light just seeps into your soul. I've caught the motherland bug. (pictures soon to follow!)

We had FHE tonight: BYU students are seriously a force to be reckoned with. Harvard, Yale, Penn, Berkeley, Brown, Princeton kids: Watch out.