I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See...

The best combination Cambridge could offer me:

Sunshine and Snow! What a surprise. I took a brief break from my work to walk through town and immortalize this very treasured moment.

Enjoy!

King's College Chapel

Clare College

King's Backs from Clare Bridge

King's and Clare

Queens' College

On the way to Parker's Piece

The View from My Window

Address to Haggis (the poem to be read as part of Robert Burns Dinner ritual)

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o the puddin'-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy of a grace As lang's my arm. The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill, Your pin wad help to mend a mill In time o need, While thro your pores the dews distil Like amber bead. His knife see rustic Labour dight, An cut you up wi ready slight, Trenching your gushing entrails bright, Like onie ditch; And then, O what a glorious sight, Warm-reekin, rich! Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive: Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive, Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve Are bent like drums; The auld Guidman, maist like to rive, 'Bethankit' hums. Is there that owre his French ragout, Or olio that wad staw a sow, Or fricassee wad mak her spew Wi perfect sconner, Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view On sic a dinner? Poor devil! see him owre his trash, As feckless as a wither'd rash, His spindle shank a guid whip-lash, His nieve a nit: Thro bloody flood or field to dash, O how unfit! But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread, Clap in his walie nieve a blade, He'll make it whissle; An legs an arms, an heads will sned, Like taps o thrissle. Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care, And dish them out their bill o fare, Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware That jaups in luggies: But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer, Gie her a Haggis!

Just Another Week in the 'Bridge

This past week has been packed full with work and more exposure to British (or in this case.. Scottish) customs.

Before I get there, however, I must first talk about the wonderful treat I had to be visited by Christina for 2 days! Christina is a fellow Truman Scholar who I lived with this past summer, and she is spending this year as a Mitchell Scholar in Ireland. She is an incredible individual who is full of passion for our environment, and practices 100% of what she preaches. Most importantly, however, she is a dear friend full of warmth, love and an incredible calming effect. Just being around her for two days made me feel calmer about the exams rapidly getting closer and closer.

The first day we spent making dinner (Zucchini pancakes!!) and just catching up from the past few months. Then the next day we woke up and took a "running tour" of Cambridge. We had decided to go on a run together because Christina is training for a marathon, and so we decided to incorporate seeing the sights of Cambridge on the way. We ran through Jesus Green, across Magdalene Bridge, down The Backs, past Queens', and back through town past Kings, St. John's and Trinity. It was a beautiful run and when we got back we were shocked at how fast the time flew as we kept each other company and looked at the sights throughout the entire run. Definitely recommend that approach if any of you are looking for motivation to run. Find a friend to keep you company, or run along a beautiful stretch that provides new and interesting sights to see (Or, best, a combination of the both!)

We also had a chance to meet up with Dan, another fellow Truman studying here in Cambridge, and the three of us had a nice time talking about all the shinanagans of this past summer. I had forgotten just how much fun we really had during our two month Summer Institute in Washington DC..

Truman Reunion!

Finally, Christina and I did the walk to Grantchester... it seems to be the token activity if you come to visit me. So, if you want tea at The Orchard, stop on in! I am always game for the walk through the fields (and if in springtime, cows included), to get there.

Christina on the walk to Grantchester

Friday night I participated in the Robert Burns Dinner. Iain made haggis (brought directly from Edinburgh, Scotland), and Ian read the poem in his best Scottish Accent as part of the tradition of this very special Scottish Tradition. Robert Burns is a widely respected Scottish Poet who gets his own celebration every year in Scotland. He famously wrote a poem To Haggis that must be read... and at a certain line the preparer of the food stabs the Haggis with a knife.

Well, the ritual went off without a hitch, and I have pictures to prove.

It was.... this will shock you all... surprisingly tasty (it is, after all, spiced mutton), but at the same time, incredibly fatty! So, be warned all ye who may want to try Haggis... don't eat breakfast or lunch the day you are attempting to also eat this for dinner. Just take my word for it...

Ian reads the poem while Iain pierces the Haggis with the "sword"

The effects of Haggis, and perhaps a culmination of the political news of the week..

I couldn't stand up.

Finally, this Sunday was quite lovely as I had a day off from hitting the books (I wrote a law essay yesterday on the legal mechanisms available for prosecuting genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes... if anybody wants to talk to me about the U.S. and the ICC, feel free. I could talk endlessly about this topic). I spent the afternoon with Sister Missionaries teaching and then had the wonderful treat of going to Rob and Christa's home for dinner. Another couple, Verlin and Katherine, were there as well as a couple of other church friends. We had a delicious dinner and then played a few rounds of "Buzzword". Incredible Game. Go buy it and play it, you will never turn back.

Another week quickly approaches, and this one will again be mostly spent in the books and putting together a seminar presentation. Glad I have the West Wing to treat myself at the end of the day, and also to take me to an idealized political world as the real political world as it stands right now in the US is pretty disappointing. I have, as a result, blocked this past week's election in Massachusetts and the Supreme Court Ruling on campaign finance out of my mind, and am just hoping that somehow, President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) and his cabinet's brilliance can somehow morph into benefitting our real political system. We need it. And Fast.

Here Comes the Sun

Tomorrow it will have been a week since I returned to Cambridge, and today was the first time I have seen the sun since that time. It has been a bit gray and cloudy.. to say the least.

This morning was incredibly beautiful, however, as I walked from my house, through Christ's pieces to the bus station to catch the bus to church. The sky was bright blue, the sun was shining, there was not a cloud in the sky.. and it was not even bitterly cold! It was certainly a bright welcome and hopefully a sign of things to come in the week ahead, as this past week was, although manageable, a bit of a challenge.

Reasons for this include the following:

1) Jetlag. It makes everything worse

2) No sun = no vitamin D = enough said.

3) Exams are in approximately 7 weeks, and that pre-exam feeling of stress/tension/time to buckle down has gone viral. Its a funny thing, since I am pretty confident we all will be fine... except maybe the random "Joe six pack" from "Real America" who has been traveling the whole time and never went to class. hm.

To counter these challenges, I took some measures to make the week better, and they were actually actions that I think will help my mental state for the remainder of my time here.

1) I rearranged my room. Better feng shui = better sleep (even when I am jetlagged)

2) My week is basically structured like a work week; class/reading from about 8 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m., and then evenings free for making dinner, and engaging in my new found interest which leads me to number...

3) My relationship with "The West Wing" has commenced after several, and I mean several, years of resisting. A friend offered to lend me Season 1 on DVD, and needless to say, I am hooked on the clever political dialogue, the dramatic political situations the WH seems to find itself in daily, and Rob Lowe playing deputy speech writer. In fact, I am almost positive hearing that Rob Lowe was on the West Wing was the final selling point. Sold. Hooked. And now I have my evening activities (if I am not, of course, reading or doing pilates or something else constructive with my evening life..)

The pressure is on, but in all honestly there is a part of me that really revels in the "stress" of intense studying and learning. I am learning so much and being forced to think in new ways (particularly in my law class) that really makes the experience academically stimulating and always interesting.

Finally, I added several new books to my "book list" (on the right hand), check them out.

If I am to recommend just 1 book out of all of them, it would most likely be "A Peace to End All Peace" --- its a phenomenal, comprehensive history of the making of the Middle East post-World War I. It is a good mix of historical anecdotes of Churchill and his Cabinet and of course the deep and intense politics behind the colonialist moves that changed that region of the world, most likely forever. (Also #2 -- check out Edward Said. He's a legend..)

Out with the Old, In with the New

A bluebird powder day at Alta

Friends and Family,

I realize it has been a substantial amount of time since I last posted, but instead of thinking about it as me becoming lazy with my blog I would prefer to look at it as my "vacation mode" manifested in the blogosphere.

After a wonderful and long "break" here at home (I use quotation marks because I actually did some serious and substantial reading, thank you Marriott Library), I am heading back to Cambridge on Sunday.

The next seven weeks leading up to exams I anticipate to be pretty stressful and intense, but at the same time after diving more into reading the past few weeks, I am looking forward to the time to focus even more on the subjects I have been studying in preparation for the exams. The 3 invigilated exams that I have are literally my one and only shot at passing the course part of my Masters program. So, needless to say, studying is a must!

Spending time at home with family and friends has been absolutely lovely, however, and I look forward to maybe posting some more about my Utah adventures at a later point.

Suffice it to say, I got a little taste of winter sport with skiing and snowmobiling, took in my fair share of movies, did some major Christmas baking (the day we were snowed in from church...), and also took my first punch at kickboxing. *No pun intended.

To all of you I hope that the holidays were well and wish you all the best in the New Year!

PostScript: I failed to post about my time with Katie in England because she did it so well. If you would like to get a glimpse into what a visit is like, click here.

Also, thought it was a bit fun that Queens' Mathematical Bridge reached BBC. Check it out

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here we are. With Tobias and Louis.

Thursday was, as all of you know, Thanksgiving. On this side of the pond the holiday is just the beginning of another academic week (yes, they start on thursdays here instead of mondays), and Thursdays are one of my busier days so there was not too much of that "kick off to the holiday season" feeling on the very day.

Katie was visiting this week however (a whole post will be dedicated her visit at some point), so we had to make Thursday a little special after classes were over. Dan, one of my friends and fellow Trumans, invited us to Churchill College for a Thanksgiving Formal. So we met up with him and a couple of other American friends and had the full Thanksgiving Dinner meal, plus a new formal hall experience. In addition, since it was a special day, they not only toasted the Queen at this formal but also took to the opportunity to toast the President of the United States of America, which was very fitting and appropriate (and exciting for the Americans so used to toasting the Queen!)

At Churchill College Formal

Friday the real preparations began. Chloe and I had volunteered over a month ago to host a Thanksgiving Feast for the Maid's, but by the time the day rolled around we were up to about 25 guests, Maids and non-Maids, had two twelve pound turkeys and assigned a load of dishes to every participant. Katie and I baked Pecan and Pumpkin pie, and Chloe and I took good care of our two turkeys (Louis and Tobias) throughout the day by basting every 30 minutes and following closely to Martha Stewarts instructions on how not to dry out the turkey (which always tends to happen..)

Katie Preparing the Pecan Pie!


Everyone in the kitchen putting together their dishes..

By 7 p.m. the guests were seated, the table was set, the turkey was done and we had 2 sweet potato casseroles, 2 different stuffing options , 2 corn dishes, vegetables to feed an army, salad, 75 pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts, gravy, mashed potatoes and celeriac, and to top it off, 6 pies and "George Washington" who read for us the Thanksgiving proclamation.

It was a good way to introduce our British and French friends to a very special American holiday and tradition and everyone had an incredibly wonderful time. The food also turned out delicious!

Setting the table


Feasting!

So, in conclusion, I should say what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving and that includes all the wonderful friends that I have come to know since arriving in Cambridge and the opportunity I have to be here and study. I am also thankful for all my friends everywhere else who are so supportive, and many of whom I had a chance to talk to this month whether for my birthday or Thanksgiving! Also, of course my family. It was a bit strange to spend my first Thanksgiving without them, but the gmail video chat had to remain sufficient this year. And finally, I am so grateful for good health and that we were fortunate enough to have the luxury of taking the time to prepare and indulge in this Thanksgiving feast.

I hope everyone had a very very Happy Thanksgiving!!

A Calorific (yet amazing!) Day

The "I" Birthday Cake

Crepe Making is a very precise activity - not to be easily messed with.

First of all, thank you to all of you for the warm birthday wishes that you sent my way. My day started off before it even started with a late night phone call from Sean wishing me a happy birthday. It took off from there with phone calls from Norway and home, and emails from around the world. The world feels incredibly small these days, and it is so strange to think even when I am half-way around the world, I can still video chat with my parents, or get birthday messages from people currently in various corners of the world. I feel so lucky to have such incredible friends and friendships!

When away from home, special days (such as one's birthday) in theory can be difficult as there tends to be tradition, memories and certain people that you regularly spend the day with. Fortunately, (as demonstrated this past week when I was not..so..well), I have been lucky enough to make some new and phenomenal friends here in Cambridge as well who were more than eager to celebrate my birthday in ways that were about 99% focused on food consumption.

My first surprise was when I went to my security seminar. A dear friend presented me with a pink and white cupcake from what is considered the best bakery (or at least cupcake shop) in town. Not sure it holds a candle to Georgetown Cupcake (let's be honest, nothing does), but it was such a surprise, especially considering cupcakes are really not much of a British thing.
He simply said to me, "Its a cupcake! Americans like cupcakes, right?! Happy Birthday!"

Pink Cupcake!

About an hour and a half later a friend from church found me in the Graduate Union and demanded I accompany him for half an hour. He led me to Fitzbillies (the other best bakery in town), and bought me a Chelsea Bun. You can imagine at this point I was already feeling pretty overwhelmed with sugar (But how does one say no?!)

Immediately following the chelsea bun excursion, I met up with some of the housemates for the evening celebration. Iain made phenomenal risotto with smoked salmon and Emily and Rich worked hard during the day to make a double chocolate cake! We all had a nice time just sitting around and enjoying our meal and then we had some additional people over for cake.
It was a low-key day, yet still full of surprises... and some good laughs.

Iain 1 and Ian 2 (who planned my birthday celebration)

Rich and Emily - Epic Cake Bakers!!

The point at which I was required to give a speech.. standing on the chair.

The calorie count did not end there however! Yesterday, Chloe and I partook in part two of the "cookie/crepe echange" and I learned how to make real french crepes, including flipping them in professional french chef style. (Ok, admitted, they are about the same as Norwegian pancakes). We had them with chestnut preserve jam (Delicious), bananas, chocolate and yes.. let's just say the fasting has commenced today.

The Crepes!

Chloe got the flipping technique down!

All in all, credit goes to all of my friends who helped me celebrate the fact that I am now.. a little bit older.