hey tony

Happy Memorial Day! It's been getting hot around here, although I'm sure the june gloom will be starting up any day now (love!) and I've been craving cooling refreshments. I may or may not have had mango sorbet for breakfast. What I'm really craving though is some Tony's Ices. In the above photo of Cambridge, behind the man on the bicycle at the far left is a little ice cream cart. A cone of butter pecan with a stick of chocolate flake. mmmm.

Uni

oh my goodness you guys!
I've discovered the most amazing thing ever (well at least it is to me)...

My major in college has been on the intensive side. My curriculum was pretty much decided from my very first quarter. Out of my 18 required general ed classes, I got to choose 6 of them (3 philosophy, UK film studies, creative writing, and history of jazz music). That's only 24 units of free choice out of the roughly 220 units I will have completed when I graduate in June.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't hated all my classes (...maybe a few...). I wouldn't be spending the time to pursue engineering if it didn't fascinate and challenge me. Though one of my required classes that I took winter of my junior year (environmental policy) inspired me to no end. If I had discovered it earlier, I honestly may have changed my whole major. It was also too late to start a minor, so I had to find ways to learn on my own. I'm currently taking a sustainability class for my own satisfaction and will take the 2nd part next quarter. I've been seeking out university extension/online programs for a certificate.

Okay sorry for the long intro, here's the point. I remembered hearing about "iTunesU". Where some universities upload lectures onto iTunes for students to access free. It would be a great way to learn more on my own right? And then...then I realized that Cambridge University uses it. Oh happy day! They have VIDEO! and british lecturers. I immediately began downloading as many as I could. Even their Admissions video for prospective students. Anything to immerse myself in Cambridge and pretend I'm there. So glorious. So since my bank account remains a sad state of affairs, I can download iTunesU lectures and whisk myself away to foreign locales.

cream of the crop

My cousin posted a link to Forbe's most beautiful cities in the world. They admitted that beauty is subjective and so took a perspective that was really interesting to me, in that it directly correlated to my own career path. Forbes asked "city specialists from a range of fields, including urban planning, architecture and sustainable development." People who really understand how cities are pieced together and surrounding buildings interact.

The list:
Cambridge, England
Tokyo, Japan
Vancouver, Canada
Sydney, Australia
Florence, Italy
Venice, Italy
Cape Town, South Africa
London, England
San Francisco, CA
Chicago, IL
New York City, NY

I've been to six of the cities, and posted about seven of them. I must be on the right track!

a place i dearly miss

just around the corner from pembroke college was a darling little boutique called ARK.

right next door to auntie tea's restaurant, it is so quintessentially english. i'm usually not one for pink and girliness galore, but this place had a wonderful subdued vintage vibe and made me feel like a little kid in a toy store. i visited a couple times a week. i spent hours wandering that tiny 2 story shop with the spiral staircase.


one of the things my writing professor at cambridge said to us was to keep a small notebook on you at all times to record various sources of inspiration. whether it was a snippet of overheard conversation or a really delicious meal, anything that peaked your interest could be used later on as part of a story. additionally, if we saw something inspiring, she urged us to photograph it or purchase it (within reason).

i wanted to buy all of ARK. so many little trinkets and treasures that one doesn't quite need, but would definitely make life a bit more enjoyable.




one lovely find was the work of designer Cath Kidston. She designs vintage inspired fabric/textile patterns and uses it for various clothing and household items. i had to savor the adorable-ness with a vinyl coated passport cover. there were tote bags, umbrellas, backpacks, rainboots and loads more all decked out in her precious little patterns.




there was this postcard. such a lovely artistic montage in both color and style that i am not normally attracted to. i snapped a photo and visited it many times and now i kick myself for not buying it.

storytime!

well, when you miss a place so much your heart hurts, but you can't go back...the next best thing to do is spend time with the people you were there with.

cambridge girls reunion!


it almost felt like we were in a foreign country.
a)we spent more time together overseas, so it's weird being together in america
b)we ate at Javier's, a nice mexican restaurant. where the food was good and the waitstaff hardly spoke english.
we pretended we were taking a side trip to spain and that we'd be returning to cambridge. :) plenty of storytime and catching up on the past 3 months (and reminiscing of course). and delicious ensalada de asada followed by flan.
we were still missing our uc davis girls, but another reunion is in order in january.

P is for Pembroke

i miss waking up and discovering this outside my window:




Dorm AA39
Pembroke College,
Cambridge University
Cambridge, England

for 5 weeks of my life, this was my home, and it felt just exactly that. we had only been at cambridge for 3 days before we left for scotland for 5 days. by the end of our trip we couldn't wait to get back to our cambridge "home". It was quaint and cozy and beautiful beyond description.

i miss

i'm back in the states
it's nice to be back in familiarity
but it's weird

i miss british accents
i miss eating pasta and pizza twice a day
i miss eating gelato every day
i miss eating crepes under the eiffel tower
i miss walking through the gardens at Versailles
i miss hiking through 200 year old graves to find jim morrison and oscar wilde
i miss realizing that we took the long way with the most stairs to the sacre cour
i miss whining all the up the 700 steps to the top of the eiffel
i miss the view of paris at night
i miss the champs elysees
i miss scoffing at the fact that mcdonald's has managed to take over europe
i miss wondering what is missing/what isn't working in every public restroom
i miss the joys of A/C in a bed and breakfast in rome
i miss watching the sun rise over rome from a roof top terrace
i miss the rocking sensation long after i've stepped off the metro
i miss watching italian men read newspapers in their boats on the canals in venice
i miss sydney's inability to lock or unlock any door in europe
i miss the piazzas in florence
i miss riding the train in italy
i miss the 2 am thunderstorm that shut off the power and made me pray for my life
i miss dublin's quaint little pubs
i miss Bath and the inexplicable awe it brought to me
i miss scotland's green hills and perfect cloudy skies
i miss the london underground
i miss the wonderful people of london
i miss london

and i miss every single thing about cambridge. all of it.
my friends
our TAs
Gregg
formal dinners
the cafe
auntie tea's
the river cam
punting
dojo's noodle house
grocery shopping for dinner because everything closes at 6
wetherspoon's
casey reading the declaration of independence on the 4th of july
faisel falling asleep in every single film studies class
consistent disappointment with the food choices in the servery
the outdoor market booths
my giant dorm room
rain
my creative writing professor
the floral archway to the headmaster's lodge
the gardens at school
walking the streets of town

i could probably continue this list for 3 days and not be finished.
i'll probably add to it.

i'm not as jetlagged as i was when i got to england, i actually slept last night
i don't think it's really hit me yet that i'm not in europe anymore
it's going to be rough

pictures coming soon i promise.

everything good must come to an end

this week went by SOOO fast
so did the past five
i can't believe cambridge is over
this place has become like a home to me
and i've become so incredibly close to some of these people
we're all from california so we will see each other again
but it's not the same.
not in this context, in this place
:(

finished my finals, turned in the final draft of my creative writing story
last night was the last formal dinner
then we went dancing
today was...an adventure
we went punting:
there's a little river that runs through cambridge
they have these boats, they're long and pretty flat
you stand at the back end and steer with a long pole
they're similar to gondolas
well it was a mass punting trip and basically everyone on the program went
we were going to gloucester to have a picnic
this was my first time and we didn't have guides
so we had to punt ourselves and it's HARD
it took us THREE hours to get there
and today was the only hot day this whole time we've been here
we didn't realize how involved it was going to be
(we had some issues with the trees and shrubbery
and we got attacked by swans
i was on the phone with sydney at the time too
she can testify)
we managed to find people to take the punts back for us
and we walked back, took like 45 minutes
ridiculous

tonight we went to a delicious portugese chicken place for dinner
we're celebrating Chanel's birthday today too
so we'll have some cake later

i have to catch a 5:21 AM train tomorrow, yikes!
i'm meeting up with stacy and sydney and we're flying to ireland!

i won't have my computer with me so i don't know when i'll be on again
but i'll update when i can!

sorryyyyy

i'm a little slow on the photo posting and i apologize
but cambridge's network is very strict
we only are allocated 1 GB of usage per day
and they have this system that calculates your usage per hour
if you go over 100 MB in an hour, they send you a warning email
if you go over 500 MB in 12 hours then they cut your usage to 500 MB per day
until you drop your usage over the following 12 hour period

so basically uploading pictures uses a lot of MB
and i don't want to be kicked off when i'm in the middle of working on legit schoolwork
so unfortunately school comes before play out of necessity
lame :(

one more week of cambridge...

i'll be in Dublin in a week
weird!
I can't believe this part of my journey is almost over
i've become so close to all the girls here
lately all we've been talking about is how much we're going to miss each other
not all of them go to UCI
but we're going to try to get together like once a month

i've been sooooo tired
we realized we're all just really burnt out
I went straight from finals to london to starting school in cambridge in a week
and we've been on the go all the time exploring england
there just really hasn't been time to rest
so this weekend is supposed to be for studying for next week's finals
but it's really hard to get motivated because i just want to sleep
i've been really sore lately too, i don't know what that's all about

we had another formal on thursday

afterward the TA's organized a "P Bop"
basically a costume party with the letter "P" as the theme
so I was Parisian (as in from Paris)

(don't worry the cigarette is made of a rolled up piece of paper and makeup :) )
it was really fun
they had good music and everyone dressed up
Jenny was plaid (she wore a bunch of plaid articles of clothing)
Laurie was a paparazzi
Kira and Sam were pen pals
Breesa was a player (as in european football aka soccer)
Corey and Chanel were a pair of peculiar people (they just wore random ridiculous things)

Friday we went to Stratford-upon-Avon. It's where Shakespeare was born and lived. We didn't really have any time though, or it was a weird timing. We got there at 4:30. I would have preferred to either spend a whole day there and actually see all the tourist-y locations or just arrive in time for dinner and the play. Instead we got there, had tea. About half of the group who are taking shakespeare classes at cambridge had a Q&A with the director of the royal shakespeare company from 5-5:30, so we waited for our friends who were in that, then we went to dinner. The place we went to dinner was a bad experience. The food wasn't very good and it took FOREVER to get it. like 45 minutes for a baked potato. Breesa had to get a refund because her food still wasn't ready when we had to leave for the play, so she didn't even get dinner. On top of that the service was HORRIBLE, every single person on staff including the manager was rude and clueless. lame. then we went to see the royal shakespeare company perform "The Taming of the Shrew". Honestly I didn't like it. They took some contemporary liberties with the telling of it, and for the most part it was really confusing as to who was who and what was going on. They also had a wide array of costumes that confused me, ranging from historic shakespearean costumes to 40s-era, to modern, which confused me even more. even after going online and reading the synopsis of the play, i was still confused. the play itself has this message of male dominance over women which angered a few of us girls. This version was also extremely sexualized and very crude, not for me. The only thing i can say is that the actors were very very good. The city itself wasn't too appealing, the river Avon is beautiful but a lot of the city is extremely contemporary with just a couple historic buildings thrown in, at least from what i saw of it. overall my trip to stratford was a bit disappointing though unfortunately.

yikes!

for some reason i assumed my final draft for my creative story was due next week with finals. i was reminded this morning that it is actually due tomorrow, so we can do one more peer review session before turning in a final final draft next week. ahhhh! i've spent my day shut in my room typing away. I've got 2817 words...I'm hoping it's done. A bit overwhelming but it worked out.

p.s. Cambridge shuts down at like 6 pm. all the restaurants, markets, shops, malls, etc. close at 6 or earlier. only one of the supermarkets and the bars/clubs stay open. we don't get out of class until 7 pm on Mondays because we watch a movie in my film studies class on Mondays, and dinner is only served on campus between 6 and 6:45 (lame!). but last night we discovered an awesome noodle restaurant called Dojo's that actually stays open until 8:30 pm. It had Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and other asian styles of noodle dishes. I got a basic chow mein type noodle, chicken skewers and edamame. it was delicious and filling and they were super fast in serving it! Typically a decent sit-down dinner costs about 10 pounds (expensive i know!). At dojo's our bill was only 17 pounds for 3 people! definitely a keeper.

STUDY abroad? oh yeah

so the whole school and homework part of this journey is kicking in. i guess it had to at some point, which means me spending my days cooped up in my room or in the library. but we're going to Stonehenge (yeah!!!) and the city of Bath this weekend so that will be a nice little break.

Midterms are over!

Let me start with the 4th of July. They threw us a BBQ with delicious burgers, kebabs, corn on the cob, watermelon, etc. There was lots of red white and blue decorations, though our silly TAs threw in some hats with the british flag on them! Then one of the TAs got up and read the Declaration of Independence! It was pretty funny. Then a couple of us went to movie night hosted by the TAs. We watched Independence Day...which isn't the best "4th of july" movie, but hey it's will smith, makes you feel like america right? about halfway through the movie(maybe 11:30 pm-ish), we started hearing really loud noises and even flashes of light. We thought we were imagining things. One girl ran outside to see what was going on. She ran back up and yelled that there were fireworks. fireworks! none of us were expecting that here! we got so excited we ran downstairs, outside, across pembroke's campus...without shoes on. we caught the very top of one of the explosions so we kept running, outside the gates and practically across town (still barefoot) before we ran into a bunch of other people from our program. apparently the fireworks were set off from a barge on the river. but we had basically only caught the very last one. so we got fireworks. and very black dirty feet!

Finally, pictures from my London Day Trip!

Saturday morning we left for London bright and early. I went with a group to the Imperial War Museum, it was pretty cool but we only had two hours which was not enough time to go through all the exhibits. There was one really interesting spy exhibit in particular. They had actual spy equipment dating back to the first world war. a lot of the information was released for the first time for this exhibit! Then we were dropped off in front of big ben, we grabbed a quick lunch and then got on a boat for a river cruise on the Thames. we sat on the top and had great views, but it was ridiculously windy. then we planned to go to Westminster Abbey but it was closed to visitors early on Saturday. I was bummed. so we went off in search of dinner. we ended up at a great italian chain restaurant called "pizza express". it was fancier than the name implies! (why is all the best food i've had in the UK italian???) After that we got to see a live performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Shakespeare's Globe Theater. That was really really cool. We had cheap seats, behind a pole, practically behind the stage, but it was still fun. the best place to be is actually standing, but we were so tired from walking around all day i don't think i would have made it. the play was hilarious, the actors were fantastic.

I added some more to my album ofCambridge Photos too.

I turned in my film midterm and my creative writing midterm today. i've been pretty much locked in my room for the past three days working on them though. tonight is another formal dinner which will be fun!

it's been raining here for the past two days. but it's a very lovely rain, quiet and sparse.

my classes are going well. i'm more creative than i thought i was, not in the arrogant sense. after taking 2 years of essentially math and science classes, a creative writing class and film class are a definite change of pace. but i haven't been drawing complete blanks, i've been coming up with ideas and stories. the midterm/final for both my classes is basically a creative project. for writing it'll be a 3000 word story and for film we have to come up with a 5 minute sequence of a larger migrant story in the form of a storyboard or screenplay. it's going to be hard. but not impossible.

everything is so expensive here. even after considering the exchange rate. it's just ridiculous. and the school isn't providing all of our meals. there's a few comforts of america right here in cambridge: mcdonalds, starbucks, borders and gap (and the disney store...?). i went into borders yesterday and no longer felt like i was in england. the mcdonalds is a different story. they have different menu items, like onion rings and the "arizona grande" burger thing. i'm afraid to eat there, the mayonnaise in britain is odd. it's like a mix of miracle whip and dijon and they put mayo on EVERYTHING. they don't really have salad dressing here, they use mayo instead. it's gross. i don't know how they stay so skinny.

tomorrow is the 4th of july. it'll funny to celebrate it in the country that we (america) defeated. they organized a capture the flag game, america vs england. should be interesting!

Back from Scotland!

Scotland was amazing. We saw a ton for the few days we were there. Took the bus on Wednesday. Stopped at Hadrian's wall, which are old ruins of the wall built by the Romans separating England from Scotland. Really awesome. Then stopped at Dryburgh Abbey Hotel, very fancy and beautiful. Had a lovely buffet dinner. They did not serve enough strawberries and cream which was the best part :) After about 9 hours on the bus we finally ended up at the University of Edinburgh ("Ed-in-burr-uh"). We stayed in their dorms which were quite nice. We got complimentary breakfast. Avoid the black pudding, aka blood pudding. It looks like a burnt cookie, actually fried sheep's blood! Stayed away from the haggis as well, no sheep's innards for me.

Pictures 1!

Day 1 in Edinburgh.
took a tour with this rad guy in a kilt. learned the essentials. went to the National Gallery art museum then climbed the 287 steps to the top of the sir walter scott monument. it was tiny and cramped and a bit unnerving considering there's only one way up and down. but the views were awesome. then we visited edinburgh castle. saw the scottish crown jewels (no pictures allowed), the dungeons (which reminded us all of a disneyland ride actually) and a war memorial for scotsmen. For dinner we explored the city and found the most amazing, authentic italian restaurant. best meal i've eaten since i got to europe.

Pictures 2!

Day 2
Went for a hike in the trossachs (miniature highlands), half of us went friday, the other half on saturday. sooo amazing. i'm so glad I went. edinburgh is an awesome city, but it didn't wow me the way london did. I'm more of a fan of scotland's nature and countryside. the weather was nice on the hike up, it took about an hour. it got hard toward the end but the views were amazing. we were attacked by swarms of "midges". They're basically harmless, but just ridiculously annoying. the way down was much harder, especially as it had begun to drizzle so it was super muddy and everyone was slipping. it began to pour, but we were almost done. the beginning of the trail is a site for loggers and they decided to begin working, so they closed off the trail and provided a detour, or "diversion". it was a series of really steep uphill climbs and was probably at least an extra half an hour. it was totally raining at this point, we were a bit whiny at this point. our shoes and socks were soaked and muddy. we were late for dinner, so we couldn't take showers, just had to go straight there, only to find out it was just drinks and snacks. so then laurie, corey, aness and i left to find dinner. We ended up at the elephant house. it is famous because it's where J.K. Rowling began writing the harry potter books. It had a lot of familiar american type food which made us feel at home and we were starved.


Pictures 3!

Day 3
Went into town to do a little shopping. found some souvenirs and postcards and then walked around the old town. decided to do a little 3D loch ness experience (since we didn't actually get to go). it was a little cheesy but talked about the "scientific evidence" and sightings and such. very silly. then went an amazing place called Chocolate soup for a snack. had a chocolate banana smoothie, yummm. then we took the bus to Rosslyn Chapel outside the city. it's an old masonic chapel, the inside is entirely carved from stones. Really intricate and really beautiful. once again no pictures allowed inside. :( The chapel became extra popular after it was featured in the da vinci code. it was a bummer because the outside is undergoing major renovations so it's surrounded by scaffolding and a protective covering. went out searching for dinner again and landed in a great chinese restaurant.

Pictures 4!

Day 4=the bus ride back
long and uncomfortable again. stopped at fountain abbey, very beautiful. quite in ruins though.

it's nice to be back at cambridge though. everyone felt like this is our "home". Edinburgh was great, but it was almost too much time in that one place. we couldn't wait to get back "home" and get settled again and get into a routine of classes.

'ello!

how about some photos from Cambridge University!

I'm at Pembroke College, which is the 3rd oldest. there's about 30 colleges in the university and they are very separate from each other and have rivalries and such. is it weird that i'm in love with everyone's accents? It's ridiculously beautiful here. My dorm room is huge with a sink in it, and the bathroom is only 2 doors down. We had a formal dinner tonight with a 3 course meal. The town is really cute with tons of shops.

I had my creative writing class today, it sounds like it will be really fun. 5 weeks sounds so daunting but it's going by so fast. Everyone is getting along so well, it's wonderful. i can't believe i'm here. i keep forgetting that i'm in another country, on another continent. England has far surpassed my expectations.

My t-mobile situation pretty much doesn't work. I think i'm just going to rent a phone over here. I can get one for 5 pounds and pay 20 pence/minute or less for any calls.

We're going punting tomorrow, more on that later. And I leave for Scotland on Wednesday, which will be quite majestic.