No Crunch

As I was riding to lectures today (past the cows), the wind was blowing and the leaves were falling off the trees. I miss the American fall though - the English trees are pretty, but their leaves give no crunch, and what good is a leaf without the crunch? Especially when I have two big bike wheels on which to seek them out? 

The cows were especially close to the bike path yesterday, and luckily, they didn't mind me riding through. There were also lots of people in the park, making cardboard structures that were still up today. I was interested and intrigued, but not enough to stop my bike.

My bike, by the way, is a lot like my car. The brakes are SO LOUD! I've taken to dropping my feet (a'la age 5) on the ground to stop when I'm around other cyclists. I want to fit in with them, and not draw attention to my loud, squeaky bike. There are so many cyclists here, riding around the city centre during the day, the streets are full of them, and sometimes, we're all riding very closely, and I imagine "This is what being part of a bike gang would be like."

I'm in a bit of a silly mood.

Sadly, one of my bike's pedals has a crack in it. I need to call the Bike Shop and have them repair it, but I'm worried they will make me pay for it. I'm pretty sick of spending money.

Cambridge students, technically, are not allowed to hold jobs during term. There was a fascinating article in one of the independent university newspapers about the strange things some students do for money (mainly - prostitution, stripping and essay writing). The other two aren't my style, but I was interested enough to look into the essay writing - which, to no surprise, is blocked by the university's internet service. However, I have enough of a problem compelling myself to write my own essays, so I imagine that's not the best career choice for me here.

Luckily, Cambridge is full of smart scientists who need subjects. I've signed up for some research studies (all non invasive, don't worry Mom), which pay surprisingly well and require no skill. One starts next week.

In good news, 2 klennex boxes later, I'm almost over my cold (or "Fresher's Flu). You'd be interested to know that England has two Kleenex sizes - normal, and "Mansize" which resemble thinner, softer paper towels. You get more "Mansize" tissues for a cheaper price too, the economics of which are beyond me.

Lastly, there are a lot of things that I miss about home, but one thing I love is the Cambridge Union. I attended the "This House Believes God is Dead" debate last night, which was so entertaining (although I learned that I have to pay more attention to where I sit - I was on the wrong side of the debate, and was behind Simon Blackburn, pronounced atheist. Whoops . . . ).

Much love.

rain rain go away . . .

The rain returned, but I still decided to bike to my lectures. Surprisingly, it wasn't terrible at all on the way to Sedwich (but my ears were a bit chilly!). After lectures though, I was scheduled to go down to the boat house and check out rowing. So . . .

rain + my sense of direction + traffic = me, terribly lost.

Ok, really, my sense of direction is the one to blame, but the other factors didn't help!

Thankfully, the rowing girls were able to get me straightened out after around 10 phone calls (3 cheers to my decision to get a cell phone!).

I learned how to row on the machines, and then they put me in a "tub." I wasn't very good (read: horrid, terrible, and bad) but it WAS my first day.

By the time I made it back to Homerton, though, I was soaked through and through. Those clothes are still sitting in my sink, in fact.

Above: Scavenging for Food.

Lesson Learned: "Open 24 Hours" does not necessarily equal to "Open on Weekends". John and I wasted a bus ticket trying to go grocery shopping on a Sunday, only to find that the Tesco was already closed. To add to our annoyance, we were then heckled by British preteens who were playing in the parking lot. Boo. Thankfully though, Tesco Express WAS still open, and so we still got to eat.

I attended a wonderful lecture today on Rushdie's Midnight's Children. Definitely the best academic hour I've had so far here in England - it was really engaging. Even though I'm not taking a related comp, I think I might continue on with the lecture. I think it would be a nice, politically-charged-literary beam of sunshine in between the versification theories and lit crit lectures and depressive modernist books I'm involved in. (you know . . .)

Lastly, I found Harry Potter cupcake mix in the grocery store today. Neat.

school starts . . . finally

I have to say, it's really nice to be back in classes. We started lectures yesterday and those have been surprisingly crowded, and I learned that if you get there too late, that means you're sitting on the floor. And there are always people sitting on the floor. So far, they have been fairly interesting. The Cambridge system means that we can attend any lectures we like, no matter our major, but I've also discovered that they tend to be relatively spread out across the city. With 5-10 minutes separating one lecture from the next one, it can be near impossible to get to the next one on time. The English only study one topic, so they don't have to travel very far between lecture halls, and don't see this as a problem. I am not yet a speed cycler, so I still do. Lame.

Last night we were introduced to the Homerton Horn - a huge communal cup, full of wine, that everyone is supposed to drink out from to signal the start of the year. And when I say cup, I mean hollowed out bull horn, and when I say wine, I actually mean a delicate mixture of wine and the germs of 300 freshmen and billions of students prior to that. Don't tell the college, but I passed.

Even better than the Horn was our visitor! Brandon made us his last real stop before heading back to Kansas City, and it was really refreshing to see a new, familiar face. Unfortunately, he walked on the grass at King's, and will probably never be allowed back into Cambridge again. The English are odd about their foliage.

Miss you all!! And you should download Gizmo, and talk to me, because I'm getting a tad bit homesick for some more familiar voices. Do you feel guilty yet? Good. Love!

Gizmo

More more more -

Free phoning on the internet:

Download Gizmo (Gizmoproject.com) and create a profile, and then I can talk to you. My name on it is KathleenAdams. Easy, right?

and some more . . .

Homerton - our college. We're a bit out of the city center, but it's a beautiful campus.





Our dorm is the one further on the left.

Courtney was so nice to offer me her bike, but I was told that repairs to it would be almost as much as a newer, second hand bike would be, which lead me to buy this one! It's called a Hawk Margarita - doesn't that make me seem tough? :)

photos

John learned that British plastic still burns in the microwave.



The rest of these are from the city center of Cambridge, and of the other colleges in the University.