Getting to Cambridge

Note: Originally posted in personal blog, July 7.


I LOVE IT! Enough said. :-D

...Well, I suppose I'll go into a bit more detail, although it is 3 a.m. and I have to get up early to visit Oxford tomorrow.

Here's the skinny version of my trip thus far:

Saturday, July 4th. Left the U.S. on my first transatlantic flight, first time leaving the country. Very exciting. Good accommodations on the plane, decent food, not much rough air, nothing too noteworthy, aside from the fact that I didn't sleep much. I didn't want to recline my chair back too far because the guy behind me had long legs, so I was in a bit of an awkward position while trying to sleep. Eventually gave up and started playing video games on the little flight TV.

Sunday, July 5th. I arrived at Gatwick Airport at 7 a.m., and it was surprisingly empty for London's second busiest airport (even though it's technically outside of London). Construction is ongoing and there were at least a dozen long empty hallways to walk through before getting to border control. I felt like a mouse in a lab maze (although no one offered me cheese, lol). Got my little passport stamped, nothing eventful happened in customs. Confirmed my coach (bus) reservation. Have an hour to kill before the bus arrives, and I hear an announcement that Anglican services will be held in the chapel shortly, so I decided, hey, why not? It was a very lovely service. About ten people attended, including the priest (or whatever his proper title is), a divinity student who delivered a lovely sermon, four travelers and a few airport employees. A very diverse group ethnically as well. I enjoyed the service, although I was last to take communion and was a bit hesitant since everyone else had already drank out of the (same) cup. Sanitation issues aside, I had a great experience, and service ended just in time for me to make the coach.

Bus ride not too eventful, took about three hours to get to Cambridge since we made several stops. Mostly listened to my iPod and dozed.

We arrive in Cambridge, and it is absolutely gorgeous, like a quintessential "English" town. Beautiful houses, big green park-like lawns, little stone and brick streets, specialty shops, cafes, pubs, and of course the colleges with their amazing and varied architectural styles. And several churches that are absolutely beautiful. My exploration of Cambridge inadvertently began as soon as I stepped off the bus because I got lost and it took me 45+ minutes to find Trinity Hall!!! Lugging a 47 pound suitcase, laptop, and carry-on around downtown Cambridge for nearly an hour on one of their hottest days of the year was NOT fun! Lol. I blame it on the map, which I still maintain was ambiguous. I never really knew when to turn, so when I started feeling tired, I'd just assume I'd gone far enough and would make a turn then, but I was usually about 3 blocks too soon and would always end up in some obscure location. But I survived. :)

I'm residing in Trinity Hall, which is very beautiful. Old-style architecture, a courtyard square, pictures of old guys with white wigs in the classrooms...the whole nine yards. We heard a rumor that you're not allowed to walk on the grass unless you're a Fellow. The grass is so beautiful that I don't know why anyone would desecrate, although someone or something left an Oklahoma-shaped dry patch of dead grass near our building. Shame on them.

Met my first new peer as I was desperately trying to shove my suitcase up the second flight of stairs to my room, and she graciously offered her assistance. I invited her into my room for a short chat and apologized for smelling less than savory and sweating profusely, although she didn't seem to mind. Perhaps her suitcase was 47 pounds as well, although she wisely took a cab to the dorm and didn't have quite the experience that I had.

Took a shower then lay down went out for a late lunch with Carody (the girl who helped with my suitcase) and Katie, my new next door neighbor who had just arrived as we were leaving for lunch. We went to an interesting place that specialized in potatoes. I was boring and simply had a ham and cheese sandwich, in part because of the insanely high prices! The pound is nearly twice as strong as the dollar (esp. w/ the terrible exchange rate I got at the airport), yet everything costs nearly the same as in America...so everything is twice as much! For example, a coke at home might be $1.25 and here it's 1.25 pounds, which is nearly $2.50. A reasonably priced lunch here is about 6.50, which is about $13, and I have to buy lunch every day and all my meals on the weekends. Yikes.

Anyway, we had a lovely lunch at the potato place, walked around for a bit, and then I came back to the dorm and took a nap before our group dinner. Met my two professors and the other 13 participants just prior to the dinner. The professors are very personable and the other kids are a lot of fun. Excluding one girl who will be leaving the program, we now have a total of 12 students: 8 boys, 4 girls; 10 KU students, 1 Mizzou student, and 1 Vandy (me); 11 whites and 1 black (me); 1 Jewish student (who has promised to take me to synagogue to meet the rabbi that he's already had extensive conversations with), 1 guy allergic to nuts, 1 guy that giggles excessively while drunk. Although being a non-KU student, non-white, or even a non-guy are sufficient reasons that one could feel a bit different, I seem to fit right in, which is awesome. I'm still learning the guys' names, but I hang out with the girls constantly, and the entire group is together quite a bit as well. Everyone is very intelligent and fun loving and generally pleasant to be around. I'm definitely looking forward to spending the month with them.

Our law professor gave us our homework reading assignment at 10 p.m. after dinner, so we students briefly visiting a quaint, nearly empty pub (I had water- jet lag and beer don't mix) and then retired for the evening.

Monday, July 5th. First day of classes. Jessica mistakenly woke me up at 6 a.m. for breakfast because she thought it was 8. :) I was (mostly) awake anyway, so I took a shower and arranged my room. There's lots of shelf, drawer and closet space, and they were nice enough to supply hangers. Breakfast at 8. A carb fiesta, with toast, croissants and cereal. Also milk, orange juice, water, tea and coffee. Very pleasant. Classes begin at 8:45 but the professor had to take care of some type of emergency, so we didn't begin until nearly 9:15.
Class one-8:45-10:15 History of International Law. History class
Class two- 10:30-12:15 Topics in American Legal System. Law class
Both seem highly interesting, at least according to today's discussions and the syllabi.
After class, our entire group had lunch at a Thai place (delicious, but 6.5 pounds! grr, lol) then I ran a few errands with Katie. She got fruit and some rock art from the market, and I got a pay-go cell phone from a place called Orange (6 pence a min calls to the U.S., not bad at all) and a plug adapter from the market. Then back to the dorm for a nap. I slept through dinner, but went to the pub with everyone later in the evening and got dinner there. Got a beer, didn't really like it (first time trying beer). Had a great time though. We got back to the dorms at a decent hour, but I've seemed to waste away the past three hours and will now get only approximately three hours of sleep.

We have a field trip to Cambridge tomorrow to visit Oxfam, which is an NGO that provides assistance to people in developing countries. We should get to talk to some 'international lawyers' and see firsthand what that field (or at least a small subset of it) is like, and that should be interesting. Then we'll visit Oxford (the college), wander around for a bit, and then head back to Cambridge. No classes, but we're responsible for quite a bit of reading on Wed., which I'll probably do on the bus.

Other notables:
Restrooms here are "Toilets." Very straightforward, lol. It's funny to see signs that say "toilet" everywhere.
Cars are smaller. Haven't seen any Yukon’s, Suburban’s, Tahoe’s, Hummers, etc. Little cars like Hyundai’s, VWs, Hondas, etc. I saw someone driving a Mercedes sedan, which is a reasonably-sized car by U.S. standards, but it looked so huge and obnoxious trying to maneuver the little Cambridge streets.
I can understand people! I thought the accents would drive me up the wall (not a Bond fan) but I don't think about it much and can understand most people.
No air conditioning in dorms. It almost never gets hot enough to need one! :-)
Travel weekends. We get one long weekend, and I really want to go to Ireland (if I have any money left). Other weekends- no definite plans, but I want to see Stonehenge and visit Scotland. We have two class trips to London already planned.

Now I absolutely MUST go to bed.