is that person a genius?

One of the first changes that happened to my internal monologue after moving here is how I think about strangers. Walking, biking or eating around Cambridge one suspects the person next to them is a genius. The backstories you imagine for strangers from superficial clues are constructed on the assumption that the person beside you is likely among the world's best and brightest. This makes for fun imaginings and is kindled by confirmations here and there - overhearing a conversation in a cafe of how to structure a new multi-million dollar climate change institute, the man selling you your used bike being a Cambridge graduate who left the corporate world for a simpler life, a friendly gentleman with an incredible beard making a casual joke about the Victorian mindset that you don't understand at all. These were all nice confirmations that I am surrounded by geniuses, but my favorite happened while biking about a month ago.

Let me preface the image by saying that I have been working on my hands-free biking skills. Growing up on hilly, curvy gravel roads and never having an abundance of coordination, biking with no hands was not a skill I ever possessed. Couple that with not riding a bike for about a decade (and no I can't believe I'm old enough to make decade statements like that), learning to ride with no hands was an ambitious and risky undertaking. Since you are shirley wondering, I am now quite accomplished at riding with no hands when no one is watching. I've even been able to make a 90 degree turn once or twice. Back to the point, as I was biking to class I noticed someone biking the other way with no hands. As he came closer, I saw that although he wasn't using his hands to steer, his hands were occupied... by a rubik's cube.

From Untitled Album

the paula/jeff/paul visit: london edition

Tibits and snapshots from our adventures in London:








- Oddly we began our time in London with a very French theme. We stayed at a terrace house hotel which once housed escaped French Aristocrats during the French Revolution. We ate lunch at a French patisserie and ate dinner at a French Bistro in honor of the French show, Les Miserables that we went to our first night in town.




- My Dad's favorite part of the trip was seeing Les Miserables at the Queens Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. It was simply AMAZING and is the longest running show in London. After seeing that show Dad decided we needed to go to one every night! We agreed.





- One of the many luxuries of traveling with my Mom and Dad in the winter was that we took London taxis around quite a bit of the time. It was so quick and convenient but also charming and fun! One taxi driver told us that there are around 22,000 taxis in London! Those guys really knew their way around. The only challenge they had was understanding which street our hotel was on, as it took us the entire three days to master the proper English pronunciation for Gloucester Place. It is pronounced "Glouhstuh Plahce".




- Buckingham Palace. One of the taxi drivers told us that you can tell when the Queen is at home by the flag that is flying. When the Union Jack is up she is away, and when the Royal Coat of Arms is flying she is at home. She was not at home. We had wanted to see the changing of the guard but it was cancelled "because of the snow." Do you SEE how much snow is on the ground in this picture? What's that you say? You don't really see ANY snow? Exactly. We discovered that if you want to conquer England you just have to wait until there is a light snowy dusting and the whole country will be paralyzed.





- At Harry Potter's Platform 9 3/4, and Paul and I in the tube.





- Paul at the Tower of London, not to be confused with the Tower Bridge (second photo), not to be confused with the London Bridge. I was confused.

- Paul and I with a sentry from the Queen's Guard. Yes, their coats WERE almost exactly the same grey-purple color as mine. What are the chances!? I think it's because it's a royal hue. :)

- The British Museum was enormous and full of many of the world's most exquisite artifacts. We saw the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies and hieroglyphics from nearly 3,000 BC, sunken treasure, and one of the heads from Easter Island. We lost Brandon in the labyrinth, so we split up into 3 search parties and finally located him somewhere in ancient Italy, quite enjoying himself. Not sure he had even realized we were gone. :)




- St. Paul's Cathedral at night. Wedding venue of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Please note the bride and groom standing on the stairs. I think they hire them to stand there all the time because it's just so fitting. We went to Evensong which was said instead of sung because, again, "the choir couldn't make it because of the snow." We never saw this scary snow.

- Not surprisingly social-butterfly-Paul ran into a group of friends from Bethel University at St. Pauls Cathedral! He has been known for knowing someone everywhere we've gone since our family vacations as kids, so it was especially funny that it happened to him again! He knows everyone.

- Dad and I had lots of fun looking at sweet famous art together at the National Gallery.

- Westminster Abbey, where the kings and queens of England have been crowned since 1066. A ton of famous people are also buried inside and the whole place is covered and filled with effigies, monuments, memorials, and tombs. Some graves we saw were those of Sir Isaac Newton, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens (who was buried there against his will).





- Mom and I took it upon ourselves to christen the first European Anthropologie store, three times! It is three glorious levels of prettiness and visual over-stimulation!

- We went to WICKED at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. The costumes were all like intricate pieces of art-candy and I was visually overwhelmed yet again.

- Trafalgar Square from the National Gallery looking towards Big Ben.




- Market shopping.







- We finished off our time together and our Piccadilly show tour at Her Majesty's Theatre with the classic Phantom of the Opera! Of course, it was AMAZING! But not as amazing as our time with my family. Thanks for coming to visit! We miss you already.

If it's possible that anyone could be interested in MORE pictures from my family's visit there are bazillion here. Thanks for tuning in!

the paula/jeff/paul visit: cambridge edition

We had an AWESOME time with my parents Paula and Jeff and my youngest brother Paul when they spent 8(ish) days with us at the beginning of January! They certainly quenched my homesickness (and made it worse when they left) and made our English winter warmer! We did so much that it's hard to know where to begin telling about it. I think I will use less words and more images (since they're worth thousands, of course).

Here are some of the highlights of our time in Cambridge:




- We wasted no time ringing in the New Year English-style by going to a pub the first night and having a pint with fish and chips! My mom loved them so much she ordered them at nearly every meal thereafter and regretted it whenever she did not.




- Mom's favorite Cambridge event was punting on the River Cam! We had a tour guide named Leaf who imparted on us much Cambridge wisdom as we floated along. They wouldn't let us take our own punt out because of liability issues with the COLD water. Here we are in front of the Bridge of Sighs at St. John's College.



- We explored around Cambridge visiting many of the historic colleges, churches and sites:


- Mom and Dad at Trinity College in front of a Sir Isaac Newton's dorm window and a descendant of his apple tree.




- On the Bridge of Sighs at St. John's College.





- We visited King's College Chapel, where even my Dad and Paul felt short. Why it's called a "chapel" I do not understand.




- Actually even at 6' 5" my dad felt short quite often over here.




- Paul made friends with a grey swan and named him Peter, Peter Swanson (hehe ya know because he's a swan?!) not remembering that Peter Swanson is the name of one of the few friends who live here with us in Cambridge. :)





- After passing the exquisite men's clothing store, Ede and Ravenscroft, many times and seeing a dapper jacket in the window, my dad decided to try it on. After about 3 minutes, and because it was on sale, he decided to buy it! Owning a jacket from one of the oldest shops (London's oldest tailor and robe maker, est. 1689) and robe maker to the Queen was really the perfect Dad-souvenir! Now isn't that a smart jacket?




- Paul attempted to get back to our Scottish "Fordice" roots by becoming the owner of a kilt and bagpipes. They didn't have the Fordyce tartan in Cambridge, however, and we could only locate one set of of bagpipes which were rather obnoxious looking, even for Paul. We decided he will just have to come back and we will trek to Scotland to fulfill his dream in the homeland. We might as well buy the Fordyce Castle while we're at it, it's a real steal at £800,000, and well worth it as I just discovered that the castle comes with a barony title, entitling the owner to call himself the Baron of Fordyce! (photo: flickr)




- We practiced our bravery by trying BLOOD PUDDING! I promised myself I would try all the food once, and this has been looming. My dad was the brave soul who ordered it. We all partook in unison and no one went back for seconds. The flavor wasn't as disgusting as I thought it would be but just knowing that it was a curdled blood cake made it almost impossible to swallow. (My mom observed the insanity at a safe distance).




- We split up for guys/girls fun day. My mom and I went shopping, out for pastys, and to 4 o'clock tea, Brandon studied (really, he does think that is fun but he also had to), and my Dad and Paul hopped a bus to Duxford to visit the Imperial War Museum (the largest collection of historic aircraft in Europe).

- While we were at the market my mom had to stop walking suddenly to avoid kicking a pigeon. I found it quite humorous.

- We attended Sunday High Mass at our church Little St. Mary's, one of the oldest churches in Cambridge and chapel to the first college Peterhouse. Everyone loved the liturgy, bells and whistles.

- We got to have our own little FAMILY Christmas celebration, the perfect way to finish off the holiday season.

- My Mom and Dad brought over TONS of AMERICAN goodies for us from Brandon's mom, Caryn, and from them. It is wonderful to have some of the treats we missed like mac 'n cheese, cornbread, oreos, sour patch kids, CHOCOLATE CHIPS and RANCH DRESSING! THANK YOU!!! It may or may not almost be gone already.

Is there a limit to how long posts can be? If there is I must be nearing it, so I will end this Cambridge edition and start preparing a post about our adventures in London! Don't worry that one should be shorter, but no promises.

status update

We are now a week into our second term, and I thought a quick status report would be helpful. As you know, we are reading Aquinas's Summa Theologiae cover-to-cover over the course of this year. The edition I am reading is split into five volumes, and we are just about to finish the second. Well, to be precise, we are scheduled to finish the second volume next week, but I'm a bit behind. I'll explain why in a bit. The first volume discusses the nature of God, the Trinity, creation, man and angels. The second volume covers human acts in general - the nature of happiness, right and wrong, virtue and vice, decision making and emotions, and law and grace. All that in the first two volumes!

So that is what we are reading. When we meet in seminar - Tuesday, Friday and sometimes Wednesday - we are moving at a slightly slower pace. The Summa is divided into questions (topical sections). We have read through about 200 questions, and in seminar we are still working on the fifth question. Of course we all knew we wouldn't get to cover everything in discussion, there is just too much. The quality of the seminars (the more important aspect) has been outstanding. The professor leading the seminar lectures and leads the discussion. He has forced us to really grapple with Aquinas's claims, not only to understand what it is Aquinas says, but to make it our own. This has been a challenging and rewarding process.

Finally, last term I decided to apply to a Masters in theology program here at Cambridge. Putting the application together required a lot of work (which is why I got behind in reading over break), the most painful part being the GRE (Graduate Record Exam). This is a standardized test that operates for graduate students the way the ACT or SAT do for undergraduates. I took the exam on Dec 30th and did fine, so now we are just waiting to hear back from Cambridge. The program I applied to is an MPhil in Theology and Religious Studies. I would be taking the philosophy of religion course. Hopefully we know something in the next month or so.

our rucksack got nicked whilst in london

While visiting London with my parents and brother Paul (more about their visit in the next post) we stopped for lunch at a pub near the Tower of London (read: tourist area). We had a large group (including an Aussie we met on the tube who spent the day with us), and as we were distracted with our feasting and pleasantries some guys walked by and swiped our bag as it was sitting at the end of the table. No one noticed a thing until we got up to leave and the bag was nowhere to be found. I was frozen in complete shock that it could be gone. Frustratingly, there were signs all over the pub saying such helpful things as: "Is your bag safe?" or "Where are your belongings?" and so on. I had even read them and thought about how they were a good idea and how I knew where my belongings were.

The scene of the crime! Please note the sign on the pole to the right. (click to enlarge)

I guess living in safe quaint little Cambridge has made me more relaxed than I once was walking through the streets of Paris with a money belt under my shirt and my backpack on the front. We had to laugh at ourselves as we felt like little country folk in the BIG CITY. "oooo this city be real purty and gots real bigs buildins!" It turns out ours was the 92nd crime committed in London in 2010, only one week into the year.

The backpack contained my nice digital SLR camera, wallet, credit cards, cash, check book and our external hard drive with all our files and pictures backed up on it. If it weren't for Flickr all my England photos would be gone! I love Flickr.

We spent nearly the entire afternoon cleaning up the mess, reporting it to the Police, calling and canceling my cards &c. It turns out that both of my credit cards were used to buy train tickets about half an hour after they were stolen. Luckily, the whole scene was captured on the pub's security camera!

This weekend we got a call from P.C. Whicby (awesomely English name, right?), the officer working our case. He told us that they had ARRESTED the guy who stole our bag, and he has been in jail since Saturday!! They had suspected him of other thefts and got his fingerprints from a beer mug at another pub. With the circulation of the video footage from our case and the fingerprints they were able to find and arrest him! None of our belongings were recovered. They also discovered that he is an illegal alien and have served him deportation papers. It's bittersweet because if he is deported they won't be able to try him for the crimes he committed in the UK.

We are just happy that he is off the streets and hope he will get his
just deserts.

a cambridge christmas

We had a nice Cambridge Christmas this year, but hope it will be our first and last Christmas away from home.

We started out the festivities with a Summa Group Christmas feast and game night. It was a really fun and relaxing evening with friends.

Christmas Eve we went to a candlelight service at church and met our friend Dave's family (who were visiting from New York). They invited us out for dinner and we went along. They were so fun and it was really nice to spend time with a family, Christmas really isn't the same without it! We went back for a midnight mass after dinner and drinks. At about 2:45 am we skyped with my family because that was the only time we could see them all together.

Christmas Day we skyped with Brandon's dad and family and got to watch them open presents for a while which was really nice. Afterwards we went over to the home of a woman named Joy, who has grown up in England and lived here her whole life. She takes in international students and shows them a traditional English Christmas. The food was very similar to ours but included things like bread sauce, parsnips, and lots of desserts containing fruit soaked in brandy and covered in brandy creme sauce. The English have about 4 desserts made from this - christmas pudding (which can either be a cake or just the fruit in a bowl), christmas cake (baked several different ways), and mince pies to name a few. After a big Christmas lunch the tradition is to watch the Queen who gives a yearly Christmas address on the tele. After a few hours of relaxing and watching movies we had a cold supper with salmon sent from Scotland. We didn't get home until about 9:30 at night so it was a really long but enjoyable day. When we got home we skyped with Brandon's mom and family.

We found that family Christmas isn't quite the same when attended via satellite, but we were thankful to be able to see everyone and for the friends and families we were able to spend our English holiday with.