Second Day in Cambridge and a Near-Death Experience

As it turns out, I've been scheduled to have one "non-work" day a week while I'm at BT. Ok, to be fair, it's not like I'm not working, but I have one a day a week where I go talk with academics (at places like Cambridge) or meet people in other parts of the company (in such dull places as London), etc. instead of hanging around in Martlesham being productive (although I'd like to believe that I've gotten some good ideas for my project via my academic socializations).

That was the motive behind Cambridge trip 1. Cambridge trip 2 was equally as amazing, if not more so. I met with someone from the Engineering Design Center (EDC) who does inclusive design (user-focused design), and it seems as though Cambridge has a really fantastic program in that area (grad school...?). I met with a social anthropologist, and we talked about online social networking, which was fascinating (I also got an unofficial tour of some of the colleges at Cambridge, which was great). The MIT CME (Cambridge-MIT Exchange) students are still in Cambridge, so I ended up meeting with two of my friends for lunch at The Cow (a pizza restaurant in central Cambridge). It was so great to see MIT people and discuss the differences b/w Cambridge and MIT with people who have gone to school at both. I took a few more pictures that I'll upload soon. I think I'm going back next week to talk to YET MORE cool people. Tragic, I know.

In other news:

I've almost gotten myself killed here several times because I look the wrong way before I cross the street. I just can't get used to driving on the left half of the road, so of course I was petrified to try driving myself. Yesterday, Jude and I took his (nice) car out to run errands, during which he was making fun of me for not being able to drive manual transmission because "I'm American" (I'm also "the crazy Yank" and "the colonial"). I explained that I had learned to drive on a manual and could drive one just fine, thanks. Well, he didn't believe me, which leads us 10 minutes later to a parking lot where I demonstrate that I can, indeed, drive stick. However, at one point I accidentally got onto a semi-public road where I did not demonstrate my ability to drive on the left side of the road...or shift at all well with my left hand (it's really hard, as it turns out). Anyway, no one is hurt or dead but I don't think I'm going to try driving again any time soon (of course I've been officially banned from so much as looking at the driver's side of Jude's car but that's to be expected).

This weekend I'm going to Norwich to go boating!! It's supposed to be a GORGEOUS weekend (today is warm but not hot and not a cloud in the sky, which bodes either well or horribly depending on how optimistic you are). I'm so excited! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures for everyone! 

Weekend in London (aka Hooray for Bank Holidays!)

After a weekend of little-to-no internet access, I'm back online to (hopefully) scintillating recount my adventures in London.

Falling (coincidentally?) on the same day as Memorial Day, the UK also had a long weekend (called "Bank Holiday" here). That means I got to spend two full days in London without having to worry about getting back to Ipswich for work on Monday, which was very  nice.

My friend David (see my very first entry) invited me up for the weekend to stay at his house, which is in Hitchen (about a 20-30 minute train ride from London). I got to Hitchen on Friday night, where, having acquired a cold via my rather irresponsible all-hours-of-the-night galavants last week, I proceeded to fall asleep more or less instantly. 

Point 1: I love trains. David is, understandably, rather bored by trains at this point, but having spent at least 5-6 hours this weekend on trains, I have to say I've grown rather fond of them. There's something really relaxing about sitting in a (very comfortable!) train seat while the British countryside passes you by out the window.

Anyway, I woke up on Saturday feeling slightly congested but not incapacitated, so we head into London around 10AM or so. We first stopped at UCL to check email and schedules (pronounced "shejules"). David asked me what I wanted to do, and I insisted the only thing I was really set on doing was riding the London Eye (the giant ferris wheel where you can get some of the best views of London). Upon further investigation, turns out the Eye costs 17 quid, so that was out. 

After that, the day consisted mostly of walking up and down the Thames doing various touristy things while I tried to look as non-touristy as possible (hint: one cannot do this while carrying a camera and taking pictures of absolutely everything). There are pictures up on facebook documenting the exactly locations of the trip, so I won't go into too much detail here. 

We ended up near the end of the day at the British Museum, which is unequivocally one of the greatest museums in the world and, like all museums in London, free. This is great for several reasons, the first of course being that I would rather not pay money for things. The second, though, is that I actually enjoyed the whole experience of going more when I didn't feel like I had to get my money's-worth out of the place. I could go into a room, and if it didn't interest me I could leave without feeling like I had wasted my money at all. We spent most of our time in the Egypt and Greek wings, which were really fantastic. One of the highlights was seeing the Rosetta Stone...a really incredible experience. There was also an ancient instrument that was a relative of the violin (it had the four strings and a bridge except it was laid on the ground and plucked). Really neat!

After the British Museum we went to one of David's favorite cinemas in London to watch a new British film (biting yet hilarious political comedy) that just came out called "In the Loop." If this movie ever comes out in America, SEE IT! Really fantastic movie, in my opinion.

When were at UCL, David noticed that the Brahms violin concerto was playing at the Barbican (concert hall: home of the London Symphony). Of course we immediately bought tickets for Sunday night (more on that later). We ended up heading home shortly after the movie finished up.

Day 2 started much the same way. After a trip to UCL for email-checking we went to Hampstead, which very quickly worked it's way into my heart as place-I-want-to-live-except-will-never-be-able-to-afford-to-do-so-without-selling-soul. Ah well, perhaps property values will do another nosedive and I'll win the lottery. You never know. Anyway, Hampstead is a really, really trendy neighborhood in London bounded by Camden (another neighboorhood in a trendy area of London with a slightly different feel) and Camden Market (a very youth-centric counter-culture outdoor market) and Hampstead Heath, which is essentially I giant park in the middle (ok, not the middle, sort of the periphery) of London. Except it's not groomed or manicured at all (with the exception of Kenwood House, more later). It's like one second you're in London and the next you're walking on trails through the woods. It's AMAZING! A few highlights:

1) Kenwood House: an old mansion that was converted into a museum and picture gallery. It has paintings by many famous artists, but of note is one of Rembrandt's last self-portraits

2) Parliament Hill: you climb a hill and all of a sudden you have a view of all of London. It's hard to describe just how breathtaking it is.

On the way to the Heath, we stopped for tea at one of David's favorite tea shops in the Camden/Hampstead area. We had traditional British Tea and cakes (so delicious), after which I could not even think of eating for about 5 hours. I really want to visit that particular shop again before I leave. It was so charming.

We head back from the Heath through Camden Market, where I tortured David by looking at all the trendy clothes and then deciding I couldn't afford them (although cheaper than the rest of London, even Camden Market is pretty expensive). We ended up at the Barbican, where we had an hour and a half for me to go around and take pictures of the absolutely amazing building to my heart's content (and slide down the banister!). 

Funny story:

There are a lot of stairs and at the Barbican, and the banister's basically scream "slide down me!" Of course, I wasn't going to, until David confessed that he did it all the time. After convincing myself that no one was going to notice (or at least pretend not to), I finally got up the courage to slide down. It was really fun! At the bottom, though, I was stopped by an elderly gentleman, who I was convinced was going to yell at me. Then this incredibly formal, cultured, British man says "you know, I've always wanted to do that." Unfortunately, my "well, you should, it's never too late you know" arguments went unheeded, but I'm pretty sure seeing a 70 year old upper-class Englishman slide down a banister would have made the entire trip to the UK worthwhile in and of itself.

Anyway, back to the concert. 

It.

Was.

Incredible.

Really. The acoustics were wonderful. The orchestra was unbelievable. The soloist was amazing (I love Brahms, I loved his interpretation of Brahms...really, the soloists are better in Europe). That, and the huge concert hall was packed on a Sunday night. It was just a great experience all around. I can't wait to go back for more concerts.

We went back to Hitchin after the concert, and then in the morning I head back to Ipswich (where I am now) after a brief sight-seeing tour of Hitchin itself.

In other news, my coworker lent me a copy of this book called "Watching the English," which is an English social anthropologist's dissection of English culture. I read a decent amount on the train back, and I am horrified at how many gaffes I have already made. Apparently you're not supposed to introduce yourself outright and shake hands (oops) or disagree with someone's assessment of the weather (double oops), accept a compliment (good thing I already suck at this), share any personal information about yourself (triple oops)...etc etc. Must rectify behavior immediately (become more awkwardly polite, I suppose). I really should have read this book a month ago...

That does it for now! Looking forward to the four-day week!

Going to London...

Item of business 1:

Pictures are up on facebook. If you don't have a facebook, you should obviously go get one so you can see my Cambridge pictures.

Item of business 2:

I am spending the long weekend in London! I'll be staying with David, but probably meeting up for drinks with my BT buddy Jia-Yan, who will be in London on Saturday. I am so excited!

Last night, I didn't go out and do anything, and it was fantastic. I did take a 3 hour nap, though, which was absolutely wonderful (followed shortly thereafter by going to bed for real). I also have a bit of a sore throat, which I attribute to going-out-two-nights-in-a-row-instead-of-sleeping-itis (not swine flu). Hopefully it will go away by tonight.

Will update blog more next time something interesting happens!

Cambridge and a Pub

I spent yesterday in Cambridge...the UK version. It was amazing. In the US, "really old" buildings are 200 or maybe 300 years old. In Cambridge, those are considered modern. There is so much history packed into a little area, and the architecture in particular is absolutely stunning. Pictures will be posted on facebook soon.

 I woke up at 5:30AM to catch the 6:50 train to Cambridge (the station is a decent walk from my house), and then spent 1.5 hours munching on an almond scone (so delicious) and enjoying the English countryside. Cambridge the university is an experience. Since I spent most of the day meeting with faculty, I got quite a different view than a typical visitor might get. We spent much of the day in a private meeting room with really classy catered food (fruit and cheese platters, shrimp, roast turkey and ham, etc). There was unlimited coffee, tea, and biscuits (except "biscuits" actually means cookies, but I have yet to turn my British friends round to this). Although people don't actually walk around in black robes or anything, there's a really strong sense of tradition, ritual, and hierarchy at Cambridge that you don't get at MIT. It was fascinating. During lunch, I have never been so petrified to eat food (although I'm relatively well-mannered by American standards I had no idea what I was doing when it came to polite consumption of food at mealtimes in the UK). I can only hope I didn't offend anyone.

I got to go around near the end of the day and take pictures, which was fantastic. I'm going back next week and will hopefully have lots of stories!

Feeling like a college (sorry, "university") student again, I got home around 7PM and decided to eat cereal for dinner. That and I had my very first crumpet! Delicious! I highly recommend them.

After that, my half-housemate Jude decided to take me to a real British pub (since I insisted we had to go to one). It was far less seedy than I expected, but I have never seen so many kegs in my life (they had to keep a bunch out back because they wouldn't all fit in the bar proper). I will not go into details about the rest of the pub trip except to say that it was perhaps not the best idea to have my first pub-going experience with an ex-navy Brit...whoops. Interesting observation: I can stand on one foot while rubbing my stomach with one hand and patting my head with the other while being unable to do other things, like, say, walk in a totally straight line. I have witnesses.

Pictures up soon, like I said. Cheers.

I sound all wrong

I was raised exclusively in America. The standard mid-western-ish American accent is all I've ever known to be normal. I always wondered what it was like to hear a different accent as "normal."

Well, now I know. And the answer, at least for me, is "uncomfortable."

Not necessarily uncomfortable in the way you might expect. I've always found foreign accents intriguing, charming, fascinating, or some combination thereof. But now that I'm the one with the foreign accent, I realize how alienating it can be to have your voice come out of your mouth and have it sound all wrong.

I can speak half-British at this point. I've picked up a large number of common phrases that make me both a) more intelligible and b) less likely to stare at someone blankly when they say something. I've even started thinking in a British accent, but I somehow can't make it come out right quite yet (although under the influence of some relatively strong cider tonight I did give it another not-entirely-unsuccessful go). The unfortunate truth is that I can't say "I'm going to pop to the loo" in an American accent without sounding like the world's biggest moron. I dare you to say it out loud, and you'll see what I'm talking about. But hear a British person say it and you'll think it's the most natural thing in the world.

The other problem is that I've gradually begun to distinguish between regional UK accents. Granted, I can't tell which are which, but I can tell the difference when they are spoken (as in, that is not the same accent). I realize that my quest to come back to the US with a bona-fide British accent might be in vain. The only thing I'll ever come close to is a posh Londoner's accent, which, as I'm realizing, is kind of not the most desirable accent to have anyway. Ah well, I won't give up yet.

Words I cannot say:

pants (must instead say "trousers"...pants means underwear here)

spunky (will not go into details of what this means, but it's not good)

In other news, I love BT, and I love my job. I met loads of new people today, and they were all fantastic. My housemates and I went out with some other BT employees who are all recent college grads, and they are all wonderful people as well. I'm so looking forward to getting to know everyone this summer. We went to a restaurant called "Pizza Express" and spent about 2.5 hours there (apparently "express" refers to the speed at which you receive your menus and not a whole lot else). 

I love being here. I don't think I'll ever want to leave.

More later. Toodles!

I'm alright

It turns out that the slang term for something like "what's up?" or "how are you?" over here is "you alright?" That would be fine, if it weren't the American way of expressing concern for someone who looked hurt or upset. After congenially being asked five or six times if I was alright yesterday, I thought I must have huge bags under my eyes or look like I was about to cry, but after I took a quick look in the mirror I couldn't figure out why everyone seemed so worried. Finally, I asked someone today what exactly they meant by it, which is when I was told what it actually meant. Case closed (must incorporate phrase "you alright?" into new vocab).

Amusing Observation:

People here actually stop at crosswalks (which, incidentally, are called "zebra crossings"). I was informed that they did this because "it's the law." I couldn't quite explain to anyone why I found that explanation amusing (I mean, it's the law in Boston too, right?).

More later.

Oops (?)

It has been brought to my attention by my lovely Irish friend John that many people in England actually take their tea with milk no sugar, making the URL slightly incorrect. Apparently this distinction is quite important (?). So I apologize in advance to anyone I have offended.

A (not really) Brief Introduction

I know I'm against personal blogging. Well, in theory. However, I'm (finally) overseas, and therefore cannot update all my friends on my goings-on on the regular basis to which I (and they) am (are) accustomed. That, and my good friend Jen suggested I keep a travel journal, which seemed like a great idea except for the laborious hand-written part.

Hence: blog.

So, welcome to my (hopefully often-updated) chronicle of my life whilst abroad.

For those of you who don't know, I'm spending 8 weeks this summer working at British Telecomm doing some stuff with user interface design. Today was my first day, and I have to say I absolutely loved it. I work with fantastic people and my project is really great.

But more on that later.

First, to explain the URL, it is how most people in England take their tea. They drink a lot of tea, as do I. I'm in heaven (except for the no sugar part, of course).

Life in the UK thus far:

I arrived in the UK around 8PM on Saturday, May 16. Having not slept the night before (hint: don't start packing for 8 weeks in a foreign country at 10PM the night before departure) and having slept maybe 3 or 4 hours on the plane, I was sufficiently disoriented when I arrived. After a nail-biting trip through immigration, I was met at the terminal by my good friend David (a post-doc in my lab back at MIT who happens to be in the UK renewing his visa, as he is conveniently for me and inconveniently for him a UK citizen). We proceeded to galavant around London for about four hours before spending the night at his brother's house.

Observations during London galavant:

-The subway in London is called the tube. Similar to Boston, the final destination of the "tube" is announced after every stop. On the ride back from the airport, the final destination was Cockfosters. I laughed every, single time it was announced, therefore earning much-deserved glares from fellow passengers (and eye-rolling from David).

-Everyone really does drive on the left side of the road. This almost got me killed a few times because I (out of habit) look left and then right before crossing the street. This is not the correct order in the UK, it turns out.

-London is an amazing city. More on this later.

-Everyone has British accents! Those of you familiar with my feelings about British accents are no doubt smiling right now.

-The Thames is absolutely stunning at night.

-London has a GIANT ferris wheel. Plans to ride said ferris wheel are in the works.

-The buses are all double decker. Like a true tourist, I insisted to David that we ride on the top level at the very front ("right, we can pretend like we're driving the bus," David said sarcastically, not wanting to also be mistaken for a tourist by association). Fun fact: sharp turns feel a lot sharper while sitting on the top floor of a double-decker bus, but it's amusing for everyone else when you dramatically get flung into the aisle.

-It is not necessarily the best idea to, in a jetlag-induced haze, scream "oooooo! Americans!" when you hear fellow tourists with American accents.

-It is very convenient to have a tour guide who is 6'5'' in Picadilly Circus, which is, incidentally, a wonderful way to wake oneself up whilst jetlagged.

Because of my inclination to talk like whomever I'm spending the most time with, I attempted to have a British accent a few hours into being in London. David bluntly told me that if I continued to talk like that people would think I was making fun of them. Ah well. Perhaps I'll try again in a few weeks.

Words that I cannot say:

"College" (must instead say "university")

"Truck" (must instead say "lorry")

"Shopping cart" (must instead say "trolley")

"Subway" (must instead say "tube")

"Umbrella" (must instead say "brolley")

Still cannot bring myself to refer to bathroom as "loo." Working on it.

After spending the night at David's brother's house, we woke up and galavanted about a bit more the next day. I got on the train to Ipswich (my base of operations for the next 8 weeks). My host here, John (who works for BT) picked me up at the station. I've got a very small but very comfy room here and there's free wireless, so I can blog whenever (awesome). John cooked a FANTASTIC dinner last night (Sunday) for me, our other housemate Lee, and an ex-Cambridge-MIT exchange student working at BT named Jia-Yan (of course we got on famously, as we traded MIT banter). If you ever have a chance to try toad-in-the-hole, I highly recommend it.

Like I said, I started work today and loved it. Jeff (my indirect supervisor) is taking me up to Cambridge on Wednesday to meet some people and experience the place in general. I'm quite excited.

Amusing observation of the day:

News stand called "Cockram."

Over and out.