tidbits

- I was looking over our British coins the other day to familiarize myself, and I noticed that the one pence coin says "one penny" on it; then I GOT IT! That is why we call our one cent a penny - one PENce! I have not verified this, but it seems true. Everyone else probably already knew this, but I did not.

- One Pound coins sound different than quarters when they fall. Ironically they sound lighter.

- I am almost CERTAIN that the announcer voice in our lift is Julie Andrews. No, I do not think that every female british voice I hear is Julie Andrews. Does anyone know where I can get a sample of her saying "please select your floor," so I can compare? I can see her becoming the voice of British lifts as an alternative to singing.

- The sinks here have two faucets. The left dispenses scalding hot water, and the right dispenses very cold water. It makes washing your face interesting.

- A few days ago while I was walking down a quiet side street I suddenly realized I had forgotten what side of the road we drive on in the US and what side the Brits drive on! Cars were parked on both sides of the street in both directions, and the only way I could remember was by thinking "right on red, right on red."

to market, to market...

Brandon and I are feeling much more settled in now, having purchased most of the everyday items we need to survive, gotten the internet and cell phones, and opened our British bank account. We also received a box of goodies from Jesse Torgerson and his wife Kelly who studied here last year. They were kind enough to leave us a bunch of towels and hangers and pillows, &c!

So, this is sort of our first week of normal life at Cambridge, and we haven't quite figured out how everything will flow just yet.

I walked to town to get groceries yesterday and before I knew it I had picked out 3 meals-worth of food along with basic items like milk, cheese, butter - oh and a can opener. I didn't think anything of it until I was about 100 yards in to my walk home with a ridiculously heavy shopping-bag sized bag on each arm. I slowly made my way back, frequently stopping to readjust the heavy load, and kick myself. A bike wouldn't have helped unless it had had deluxe saddle bags. I am still feeling it today. From now on I am going do what I had originally planned when I saw our mini-fridge, and go for groceries more frequently buying much less.

From this day forward it will be "To market, to market to buy a fat pig. Home again, home again jiggity jig."

little saint mary's bishop walk

From blog photos

On Sunday we visited the church Little St Mary's (Anglican) for a second time. Little St Mary's is a mediæval parish church which was built in the late nineteenth century. We attended their High Mass which is a very formal "liturgical and sacramental witness in the Catholic tradition of the Church of England." (www.lsm.org.uk/) The mass is very beautiful and reverent.

The church building is gorgeous and each Sunday there has been sunlight pouring through the stained glass windows making amazing sun beams in the smoke from the incense. There was even a butterfly fluttering around in the sunlight! So magical.

I got to take some pictures this time while we stayed afterwards for coffee (no wine like last week). See more.

LSM is in The Diocese of Ely (another city in Cambridgeshire) and it is celebrating its 900th Anniversary this year.

In honor of their 900th Anniversary and the 800th Anniversary of the University of Cambridge Bishop Anthony of Ely walked from Ely to Cambridge (abt. 17 miles) and then took a punt to the shore near the church. People were invited to welcome him on the shore and then accompany him as he walked to Peterhouse (the oldest and smallest of the Cambridge Colleges). So we (Brandon and I, Peter and Jill, and Kevin) went along to observe the ceremony. It was an interesting event to see and we ended up comprising a large portion of the welcomers.

From blog photos

From blog photos

From blog photos

For more pictures of the church and the event see our flickr set here.

to bike or not to bike?

Cambridge is a walking and biking city. Everyone bikes. From 2 year olds to old grannies. When we first arrived here in our rental car from the airport one of the first things I noticed was how SKINNY the roads are, how much traffic there is, and how the bikers ride right on the edge of the road with all the fast-moving traffic. It scared me to be in a CAR in that situation, and I was far more afraid to be one of the bikes. There were many close calls and cringes as we passed through narrow corridors with a bike and a bus at the same time.

From blog photos

This photo summarizes all my fears. Yes, that says "bus and bike lane." The bus will win every time, right?

After much thought and deliberation we have decided that we do need to join the bike crowd, however. The city centre of Cambridge is only a few miles across but when you're carrying groceries it feels much farther, and it would be very nice to be able to zip over to visit friends or grab something from the market. We have been advised that drivers in this city are very used to bikes and bikers are used to, well buses. So, we will need your prayers as we attempt to "get back on the bike," and learn to ride under these circumstances. Hey, if those grannies can do it and survive this long, I should be able to do it too right?

greetings blog-world!

Well, hello everyone. Welcome to the first blog post in my entire life! Ok, so I'm a bit behind the times. I felt like I had to make my first post very special or something, but since so much has been happening I didn't even know where to start. Then I decided a hello is a proper place to begin! Does this mean I'm a blogger now? Doubtfully. Well, I will give this a go and hope it is enjoyable for some.

Cheers!

A

more pictures

Since Andrea is hesitant to begin her blogging career, I wanted to let you know we have a bunch more pictures up on flickr. We are still trying to figure out the best way to organize them, but two new sets have appeared. The first is a general Cambridge set, this will have all the pictures from Cambridge in it. The second is the beginning of our Cambridge Naturalist set. There are enough pictures there for you to get the idea.

I have my second seminar tonight. The readings have gone fairly well, although I will be relieved to be done getting things like phone and internet figured out so I can focus on studying and leisurely walks around the countryside and city.

internet, how we have missed you.

We just got the internet in our flat. I am busy studying today, but Andrea should be able to post an update and do some serious picture uploading. Hopefully we can get some skyping in this weekend.

still waiting on internet...

Our router did not come on Tuesday as promised, so hopefully it comes today.  Until we get it, posting and emailing will still be minimal. Don't forget us! we'll be online soon.

Also, if you comment anonymously sign who you are so we know who you are, otherwise you designate yourself as a creeper.

reason #1 brandon should not be allowed in public.

Although it was inevitable, it sure didn't take long. I have done something awkward and embarrassing. We were on our walk back the other day and noticed people picking the berries we had been wondering about.

From Untitled Album

Are they poisonous or edible? Are they blackberries, raspberries or some unknown berry goodness? So, I asked them a simple question: Are those raspberries? Perfectly normal question to ask, except it came out in a British accent. I don't know why it happened, I certainly wasn't trying to do it. Instantly, I became an observer to my own act - "WHAT AM I DOING?!" My overcompensation to completely plain American English probably didn't help much. Thankfully they seemed a bit startled by my question, as though they had been caught doing something wrong. So maybe they didn't notice.

Thus went my first faux pas.

saturday at fourteen hundred

It is early Saturday afternoon and we found a cool upstairs section to where we have been using the internet. Just discovered that the update I wrote yesterday didn't post, so I'm rewriting it now.

The bad: we won't have internet until Tues, so no skyping or massive picture uploading until then. Expect a lot of pictures starting Wed. 

Everything else is good. We have been slowly accumulating apartment goods. Today we finally found an alarm clock and a watch. This is very important since we need to be somewhere for church at 8:30am tomorrow. We are visiting two churches tomorrow. Both are Anglican, but one is high church and the other is lower from what we hear. For lunch we are going to a food and garden festival at one of the colleges.

We have managed to upload some pictures from our journey and first walk. They are each in a set on our flickr page, but check back to the journey page since we have many more to add once we get online.

Our apartment is not exactly old English style, but it is nice and clean and ours, which has been very nice after long days of walking. We are very happy with it and it is starting to feel like home. Pictures in due time.

Speaking of walking, there is a lot of it here. We are probably going to get bikes, but are trying to check our options before we do. Thursday, our biggest walking day, involved 7 hours and probably 15 miles. The addition of carrying a lot has caused sore feet and backs, but we should get used to it soon.

I started my serious study of Aquinas yesterday. I think I have something of a method of study now, but it takes a lot of time. The pace should pick up a bit, but right now it is at about 30min/ article. For Tuesday afternoon I need to ready something like 45 articles. Yikes. A wise 90+ year old Princeton Professor's advice is now looking very wise - get ready to stay up late. Don't worry, a coffee maker was one of our first purchases.

We also visited our first pub the other night. It was nice, the beer was delicious. The tap beer is different here. It is hand pumped instead of pressurized. This means it is less fizzy than US tap beer, which I much prefer. Andrea even finished her pint.

The other students and I went to the college to tell them we have arrived and were given a brief tour. Our ID cards are one the way - cool. In case you are interested, we are at Wolfson college.

That is all for now. Please comment here and on our pictures, it will be a great way for all us to stay in regular contact. Cheers.

we are here

We made it safely, but slept little and are heading home to crash pretty soon. Hopefully we have internet up in a day or two so we can give some more details.

off we go...

It is late Sunday night. We are packed and getting our computers ready for the trip. Our going away parties have been a blast, and it was great to see so many of you before we head out. Please keep up with our blog and comment on what is going on, it will be a great way to keep in touch.

Our itinerary: We fly out of MN tomorrow night at 7:20 and get to London the next morning at 11:30. We are then renting cars and driving to Cambridge. Our fist seminar for the study will be a week from Tuesday. So if you want to follow along, be sure to pick up one of the books I recommended (Tour of the Summa if just one).

At my mom's house we celebrated each of the holidays we will be missing. I thought this July 4th picture was fitting for our last day in the States. Enjoy.

From man found alive with two legs.