Tales from Cambridge

activities both excellent and diverse

2006-06-18T17:08:00.000+01:00

Again, it's been a while...

Much has happened since our last two "Spring has sprung" posts. Lewis has been "officially recommended" for his MPhil degree, for instance (that means he got it). Exams went very well (distinction level!), and even better -- they're over! Likewise, Laurie's big envelope-addressing project is completed. They came out beautifully and have been receiving rave reviews from their recipients. Now what will Lewis and Laurie do with all their free time???

One day after handing in exams, L&L met up with Artie (aka Dad Lawyer) for a road trip up to Knaresborough in Yorkshire. Here are some of the things they saw along the way:

First stop: Grantham in Lincolnshire. Artie takes a rest in the central market at Grantham, a town apparently famous for being where Isaac Newton went to grammar school. He was also born in nearby Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth (Isaac, not Artie).

Artie and Laurie in front of the pub we ate at in Beverly. They're admiring the architecture of the burger joint across the street, which resembles the pub in the photograph. We spent the first night of the trip in Beverly, which appeared to be a small, quiet town when we arrived shortly before dinner time. We left the city centre to have dinner at a pub, and when we returned the whole city was crawling with highschool- and college-aged party people. At this point we somewhat regretted our choice of accommodation at an inn / bar, and continued to regret until a bit after two in the morning. Lovely city, nevertheless. It has city gates dating from the 14th century:

Then on to Castle Howard (large architecturally-significant buildings, peacocks, huge and immaculate gardens, visiting Finnish men's choir) and thence to Helmsley, which has an excellent castle ruins:

The ruins are set up so you can run all over them wherever ye may please. This picture is taken from the old bread oven, looking out at the big tower.

Yorkshire is absurdly beautiful. This is the castle at Helmsley again.

We nearly stayed the second night in Helmsley, but when we got to the city centre it had been inundated by a very large number of bikers. American-style noisy choppers, too, not the European scooter things we see around Cambridge. Right on. Still, perhaps not the quietest place to catch up on sleep. Thus we moved on to Kirkbymoorside for the night.

Here's Lewis and Laurie by a very large and pointy tomb someone erected for themselves near Castle Howard.

After our day of castles, we had a day of abbeys. This is a phenomenon that Laurie and Lewis were unaware of until we visited them. Vast decaying Cistercian monasteries, unused (except for raw materials or tourism) since they were dismantled by Henry VIII in the 16th century. They are absolutely gorgeous.

Here's looking through the main door of the old cathedral at Fountains Abbey, near Ripon. That must have been a very impressive window at the end there in its day, though it's hard to imagine it could be more beautiful than it is now. There is something very majestic and peaceful about a cathedral reduced to bare stone and full of bird's nests and flora.

An old aspersorium overgrown with flowers, also at Fountains Abbey.

Laurie and Artie learn about the Abbey at Rievaulx.

Lewis climbs around like a mountain goat on the Abbey at Rievaulx.

And here is Knaresborough, Artie's main stop on the trip. It's a small town with a very high picturesqueness-per-square-inch. Unclear why that should be measured in inches. It's very precise, apparently.

Then Artie started his booooooring meetings in Knaresborough, so Laurie and Lewis took off for a day wandering around York. Here Laurie is standing in the Shambles, which is a famous medieval meat market (in the literal sense). There is no longer any meat being sold there, only tea and assorted tourist fodder. We had the tea.

York has two large rivers, and this is the larger of the two -- the River Ouse. York also has a fairly high geese-per-square-nanometer rating. Laurie and Lewis had an excellent Indian meal in a restaurant just outside the left margin of this picture.

This is Ignignot the robot door.

After a few days in Knaresborough it was time for Artie to head back to the States (albeit slower than expected), and Lewis and Laurie headed off into the northern reaches of England. We took a big train loop up through the Peaks District to Carlisle, and then along Hadrian's Wall to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Then down through York and over to Scarborough on the North Sea, where we spent the next three nights. Scarborough is a lovely old Victorian coastal resort town, now morphed into a more proletarian collection of seaside amusements. It also has a large castle ruins on a hill, from which the above picture is taken.

And here's the beach on which we witnessed an excellent drunken football match of people in various stages of undress but all sporting England flags. The World Cup started while we were staying in Scarborough, arousing much patriotic fervor amongst the populous. There is an unbelievable amount of England shwag on the market right now, including inflatable chairs and poofy wigs. England hasn't actually been playing stunningly, but this doesn't seem to bother the fans. We will say no more, for fear of upsetting all you hardcore America soccer fans over there.

So now we're back in Cambridge. Today we made sure we could fit all our stuff in the suitcases (barely!) and rested up for our impending travels around the south of England. Any suggestions welcome! The only major event which has happened in Cambridge since our return is the RCEAL end-of-the-year party, at which there was much eating, socializing and music-making, in no particular order. Below is a picture of a rare Dudelsacbut concert -- Bettina on dudelsack and Lewis on trombone, surrounded by their fans (2). The male fan is possibly from Belgium.

So all is well with your friendly Camtales duo. Wish us well with our various travels, and soon we will be returning to the States! Pictures of southern England to come...

Spring! (a belated but exciting post)

2006-04-12T00:47:00.000+01:00

The blossoms are blossoming, the weather is warming, and the moorhens are getting feisty. Yes, Spring has come to Cambridge! Our days are even getting long! Here are some exciting pictures:

Remember King's walk?

It's covered in flowers!

And all the colors seem brighter.

Here is an inexplicable gap between fences. Lewis walked all the way down it...

...only to find that it terminated in an impassable mass of bramble...

...and a fantastic view!

There has also been much in the way of fauna making appearances lately...

Gus the cat belongs to the Master of Selwyn College, apparently, but he likes to spend time at Elmside. He's taken to jumping in to Jim and Natasha's window at 2 in the morning.

Here is one of the squirrels that hangs out around Elmside. Note the characteristic red face -- this is a genetic remnant of the red squirrels that used to be all over England until American grey squirrels chased them out!

This one is our personal favo(u)rite -- we call her green woodpecker friend. Jim got this fantastic picture of her in mid-nervous-glance.

And last but certainly not least:

Don't worry -- she's not ours! But our friends Yong and Su are now the proud parents of a healthy baby girl. Welcome to the world, Phoebe!

Spring has been treating Laurie and Lewis very well. We've been walking around without big jackets on and enjoying the fragrent scent of flowers everywhere. Well to be honest, Lewis has been rather busy lately. He's working on a large project on Eipo, a language spoken in the remote central highlands of New Guinea. He's putting together a paper about how Eipo uses intonation to indicate givenness. It's going to be almost as exciting as his new Harris tweed hat:

...works better with a coat perhaps...

Meanwhile, Laurie is perfecting her calligraphy skillz. Think happy thoughts for her wrist as she tackles the wedding invitations! (It's the right wrist. Thanks.) Laurie got a nice new sweater in Scotland. It is warm as well as fuzzy. Laurie is also continuing to perfect her culinary skills, having lately manifested themselves in the form of a delicious ginger-lemon cake. Yowza.

Cambridge is lovely, but Lewis and Laurie are also looking forward to coming back to the States soon! It'll be great to see everyone and to have this big party thing everyone seems to be on about... Life is good.

Spring is in the (very cold) air!

2006-03-01T17:21:00.000Z

The days are getting longer here in Cambridge, and the first signs of Spring are starting to poke through the soil. Though clearly we're not done with winter, as a few snow flurries bore witness to yesterday, it's certainly on the decline!

Today we took a long walk through the fields behind Clare Hall and found Spring bursting out all over the place. I hope you enjoy our photos are much as we enjoyed our perambulation.

Our sky was a magnificent blue today...

Here's a cute house which seems to actually be the club house for some college's sports field!

A beautiful pond behind Robinson College's sports grounds. We scared some birds away before we could get them in the picture, unfortunately.

A pretty (and tiny) blue flower growing on the edge of our path. Not sure what they are, but there sure were lots of them!

One thing that continually impresses us about England is how many kinds of sky they have. And on days like today, it seems to stretch on forever!

The track we followed through the field behind the Rugby field on our home stretch.

A small stream or irrigation ditch we crossed. There were some deer tracks not far from here! Laurie also lost to Lewis playing Pooh Sticks here. Better luck next time!

Some tiny purple flowers growing outside the main entrance to our College.

Snow Drops underneath a tree across the lawn from our house. These were the first flowers to come up and have been opening ever wider each day!

Finally, the Irises growing in the garden behind our house. They're much smaller than any we've ever seen before, but they are still beautiful!

Hopefully all these blooming flowers and the budding trees are an indication of full-blown Spring soon to come. It's sure to be glorious when it arrives!

Many adventures in the coming weeks -- tomorrow is Whisky Tasting Night which Lewis will be attending (Laurie was scared away!), there's another Elmside party on Saturday, and the Lent Bumps are on (some silly Cantabrigian boat competition). Laurie's parents are coming in 11 days, and there's an end of term RCEAL party which will be sure to entertain! We promise to be better about updating the blog. We mean it this time. Really!

The "Whoops, did we forget to post last month?" post

2006-03-01T16:43:00.000Z

It's been a while since last post, but it has been a busy couple of months! Lewis started school again and has been much busy keeping up with papers, readings, and even his first presentation. It looks to be a very intense last three weeks of class, but amazingly when March 16th rolls around, that will be the end of it! It's so strange to think that the days of Cambridge class are nearly over (which means the rest of our times here is exams, exams, exams..)!

Yet in the midst of all this work, we managed to do a few things, some of which we will now provide photographic evidence of.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

A few friends from Lewis's program took us to London with them to celebrate Chinese New Year. It was a ton of fun, if perhaps more crowded than imaginable. Dragons snapped up lettuce over doorways. Parades happened simultaneously. And perhaps most importantly, delicious Chinese food was had!

Chinese New Year in Trafalger Square. Look at all these folks!

Another view of the mob at Trafalger Square

The packed streets of London's Chinatown while everyone is trying to find a Chinese restaurant with less than a two hour wait...

We love rugby!

Despite living next door to the rugby field all year, we had yet to attend a game. So we made a point of going over there one afternoon to see what all the yelling and screaming was about. And we were impressed! For a mere pound each we had the joys of watching a game we didn't understand, and listening to cheering, booing, silly English rugby fans. They also served delicious chicken sandwiches at half-time for a decent price as well. All in all, a very enjoyable day watching a very amusing game! We hope to attend another match or two before the season ends in the middle of March.

Rugby seems to involve some kicking...

some pushing...

and some running.

Perhaps next game we'll understand a little more of the rules of the game. Or not.

Foundation Feast

No pictures here, sorry kids. But we did attend the Clare Hall 40th Anniversary Foundation Feast, which was a riot. A bunch of folks from Elmside booked a table together so we were a large, noisy, difficult-to-serve table (we had three vegetarians.. very confusing to the wait staff). But we all had a marvelous time together, aided in some part by the aforementioned Elmsiders managing to comandeer twice our table's allotment of Port. Good times!

International Food Festival

We lamely also forgot to take pictures of this event! Lots of people throughout the college got together and made dishes from their native lands for all us other, more lazy, folk to eat. It was another fabulous night in Cambridge as we got to try all sorts of interesting concoctions and hang out with some of our favorite people. We even got a cook book from the event, safe in the knowledge that the whole night's proceeds were going to Action Against Hunger UK. Charity and good food -- what more could you ask for?

We've Gone Organic!

Not so much an event as a lifestyle change. But during one fateful and random Google search for "vegetables" we came across a local company (River Nene Organic Vegetables) which grows organic vegetables and delivers them right to your door! It's a cute idea - they only offer different sizes of boxes, so you order appropriately and what you get is what you get! We've eaten all sorts of things that we (or perhaps just Laurie) usually wouldn't eat. Right now since the UK isn't in its growing season a lot of the vegetables and all the fruits are imported, but they make sure they're from organic places and are never shipped in cold storage. This should start to change however as they start harvesting the first crops here soon. We've become thoroughly addicted to this scheme and hope to find something similar where ever we end up back in the US. Green is good!

That's all for now, but another update is soon to follow. This time with more flowers and less people shoving into each other!

Wonderful Wint'ry Days...

2006-01-18T17:34:00.000Z

Let's begin where we left off. On the second of December there was a raucous, music-filled linguistics fiesta grande at RCEAL (the Research Centre for Eating and Applied Liveliness). Much in the way of caroling, jamming, and squawking like hens. And needless to say the mulled wine and the mince pies both flowed like water. The pies were especially bizarre in this respect. Please see below for rare pictures of linguists carrying on in a moderately outrageous manner.

Fig. 1: The gathering of the herd

Fig. 2: The linguists are clearly enjoying themselves

Fig. 3: The Laurie raises her cup in ritual greeting

Fig. 4: Linguists indulging in alternate forms of phonic expression

Fig. 5: Jam en Español

After recovering from this enjoyable extravaganza, Lewis began work on his largest linguistics project to date: collecting as much information on Papuan languages as possible, and assembling it into some sort of readable form. In spite of going a bit crazy in the course of this project (see below), Lewis is happy with his first large project at Cambridge. He just submitted it for assessment two days ago. Wish him luck!

Fig. 6: Lewis demonstrates why you need to wish him luck

At some point in the middle of this project, some delightful distractions occurred. It began to look a lot like Christmas...

And then there was the Christmas Feast...

(I think we managed to use all of these glasses...)

(Laurie & Forrest de la West Virginia)

(Lewis inflicted with the paper-crown disease of '05)

And Christmas day occurred...

And simultanesouly a herd of additional Lawyers migrated through the region...

(seen here with Richard Wagner, with outrageous hat)

And in addition to the exploration of London...

(seen here with Admiral Nelson on a stick)

New Year's was celebrated with abandon:

And here we are in ought six. Laurie has submitted grad school applications and Lewis has started Lent Term ("class"). Plans for the wedding are well underway, with the plans for food progressing nicely. But now it's time to sign off, so that Laurie and Lewis' attentions can be devoted to the apple juice and cheese they just purchased.

Happy new year, everyone!

Odds and Ends

2005-12-02T11:41:00.000Z

Many things happening lately which mean we've been taking a few photos of everything and forgetting to post anything! So here's a long post of a collection of things.

Elmside Dinner II

The house got together for another dinner party, and this time we wowed them with making fajitas. It was a lot of fun making everything from scratch - dont think anyone had had homemade tortillas before! We thought we had made far too much food but it was completely devoured before we knew it.

The table before the demolition started.

Laurie about to demonstrate what to do with these flat "pitas".

Elmside dinners always degernate into jenga matches.

Stacey pulling off a risky move.

Linda building a masterpeice, as jenga degenerates into engineering feets.

It snows in Cambridge!

We were anticipating a blizzard as forcasted by The Met, a few days before Thanksgiving. Instead we got really cold and dry weather, with just a tiny smattering of snow in Cambridge. (Speaking of snow, it's actually sleeting and sunny simultaneously while I'm writing this. Cambridge has weird weather).

It never stuck, but we were excited to see it!

Thanksgiving Dinner (the second)

We had our first Thanksgiving dinner at the college Formal Hall a day before Thanksgiving. It was very good, but definitely an English take on American food.

So, an American girl in Christ's College also hosts Thanksgiving dinners every year for Americans in Cambridge for the holidays. We were invited by a friend of ours this year. It was a potluck, so we made delicious cranberry yummymuffins, and tasty crustless pumpkin pies. They were both a hit!

Here's Laurie and Lewis with some new friends, including Patrick (in the chair), a PhD student in Lewis's department and his girlfriend Michelle (in the grey sweater).

We visit Ely + Ely Cathedral!

Laurie's sister stopped by for a few days to see her friend Becky who lives in Ely. It was a surprise for her, but Laurie and Lewis were intending on visiting her that same weekend anyway, so the whole party got together and had a great time in Ely! We visited their famous cathedral while we were in town and took a few pictures. They dont do the building justice, but it would be impossible to capture its grandure in any photograph.

The main bit. You can see the choir gathering (dressed in red). They practiced while we were walking around -- it was beautiful to hear!

The ceiling with a magnificent paintjob. All the cathedrals were painted this ornately before the Reformation, but luckily some bits of the Ely cathedral escaped the paint scraping.

That's all for now! We have a few Christmas parties to attend this week. The term ended yesterday and that means all the departments and colleges are throwing little bashes before the students go home for the holidays. I'm sure more pictures will follow. Hope everyone at home is staying warm and healthy!

Fall II

2005-11-19T11:30:00.000Z

As forshadowed (if you will) by the autumnal sunset earlier this week, Autumn has indubitably arrived in Cambridge. The air is cold and crisp, and the frost is establishing itself further and further into the daylight hours. If that made no sense, then just look at these pictures:

Pretty pretty Autumn Cam

Garret Hostel Lane avec leaves coloured d'Autumn

Frosty field and bundled Cantabrigians behind Queens' College...

...and our very own Scholars Garden, completely frosted over.

Laurie's shadow at noon!

Meet the newest member of our little family: a 16-pound pumpkin
Incidentally, (don't tell Pumpkin) we're making tasty pumpkin treats next week.
Send any tasty pumpkin recipes our way!

In conclusion, Autumn in Cambridge is pretty and chilly. Pretty chilly. Soon to be very chilly, we've been told. Join us next post for an exciting update on Lewis' too-ambitious research project and for a comical picture of said Lewis demonstrating his new technique for unwinding during times of mental stress.

Fall hath befallen Cambridge

2005-11-14T16:50:00.000Z

We had our first frost this morning. The leaves have been falling for some time, aided by the wind which Cambridge is rarely lacking, and winter is marching steadily forward.

Not much to update these days. Class and research essays eat away at most of Lewis's time. Laurie spends her hours reading, filling out graduate applications, and trying to whip the wedding guest list into shape. But even in these busy times, Cambridge manages to impress upon us it's beauty.

Here are a few photos from tonight's beautiful sunset:

Good night, Clare Hall...

Happy Anniversary!

2005-11-01T11:36:00.000Z

It was our one-year anniversary yesterday!

Lewis took Laurie out for a nice dinner, and bought her these beautiful flowers:

And Laurie bought Lewis the Clare Hall scarf he wanted.
Now his neck will be nice and warm!
(Though he borrowed the glasses because Laurie thinks they're cute):

Yay! Congradulations Lewis and Laurie!

Elmside Dinner Party

2005-10-22T10:43:00.000+01:00

The residents of Elmside decided to get together and meet all the people in the house they never see. Everyone keeps different schedules, and people on the second floor rarely run across the people on the first floor, let alone those in the flat above! So each room made a dish or two, and we got together to have a grand party. Here is the photographic evidence that said party was a success:

Here are a few Elmsiders now, getting ready for the big event. Let me introduce you to a them! On the left is Amir, a German lad studying finance here. He's also Persian and made us delicious Persian chicken! Next to him are Natasha and her partner Jim. They're both English and have been living in Edinburgh for a while. Natasha is getting a PhD is pathology. Yaa is standing up in the middle, and she is from Ghana, and our next-door neighbor! Yaa is getting a degree in chemical engineering, and has the most infectious laugh. Lewis is standing in the back holding a box of tissues because he was sick. But you already know Lewis! Finally on the end is Peta, from Australia. She also speaks Chinese!

After having arrived at dinner the table was assulted a photographer. So there's lots of pictures of everyone looking rather silly! In this one, we have Yaa, Natasha, and Simonette trying to look prepared. Simonette, who you haven't met yet, is married to our house rep, JP. She's also a student at Cambridge getting a second undergrad in Law. Though she's not in Clare Hall, we let her hang around anyway! Plus she lives here.

Here's JP now, trying to get Stephanie and Boyd to notice the camera! JP takes care of things around Elmside and makes sure we're staying out of trouble. He's the only one in our house who isn't a first year here. He's studying Economics. Next to him are Stephanie and her husband Boyd. Steph is getting a PhD in English Lit. Boyd, like Laurie, is hanging out for the year, though he is working on a degree in Library Science back in Australia, where they're both from. They live in scary flat number 13 on the top of our building (rather, the attic)!

Here are some familiar faces! That's Laurie and Lewis, sitting with the other L: Linda! Linda is a native Brit getting a degree in nanotechnology. She's also on the Clare Hall rowing team! Linda made apple crisp from scratch for our dinner, out of the apples that grow in our very lawn.It was delicious, and we were very impressed!

Finally we've made it back to the other end of the table. Here's Peta again, sitting with Peter and Stacey, our faithful camerawoman. Peter is also a Brit, as well as a linguist! Though he is just beginning his graduate school, he also went to Cambridge as an undergrad at Jesus college. Stacey is a lawyer from Canada, here studying international law.

So here we all are, busy eating and making a big mess.
What a happy little house we have!
I sure hope someone is going to do all those dishes....

Or better yet, everyone can do the dishes!
Look at what mature, responsible graduate students we are.
We all must have had good parents who raised us right... ;)

Laurie really does do things all day!

2005-10-21T11:16:00.000+01:00

So while Lewis is frittering his time away learning useless facts about linguistics, Laurie is busy getting many things done. Important things, too!

Laurie has finished not one, but two whole books already in her time at Cambridge. Here's a picture of her reading her favorite, Van Loon's Lives. Van Loon is a pretty cool guy, who wrote history for the layman in the early 1900s. Laurie is devising a way to read the rest of Van Loon's books which are tucked away in odd corners of the University Library. (Also, Tedso just seems to sleep all day. Lazy ol' bear!)

Though Laurie doesn't spend all her time reading for fun. She's also learning about cognitive neuroscience! It seems like there's a lot of fun things happening in linguistics under the heading of neurolinguistics, and so Laurie thought she'd better prepare herself in the event that she decides to pursue this direction in graduate school. Neuroscience isn't very easy though!

Speaking of graduate school, Laurie also spends a lot of time filling in mundane applications! She's thinking about sending MIT this note in hopes of swaying their decision-making process. But instead, she'll probably send some of that stack of transcripts and a well-thought-out application. Ironically, of the 7 schools she's applying to, MIT is the only one that requires paper forms instead of an online application. What sort of "Institute of Technology" is this place, anyway?

Lest you think Laurie's days are spent solely in pursuit of leisure, here she is trying to get a job! There are lots of applications to be turned in. In Cambridge, though, they don't really do "rolling hiring" like back home. They accept their applications up to a certain date, start interviews on a certain date, and then.. well, that's as far as she has gotten. So most of the places Laurie is applying for haven't even stopped accepting applications yet! But most should start interviewing in early November. Fingers crossed!

Yet to be perfectly honest, all Laurie really does all day is drink tea. Lots and lots of tea. Out of this tea pot they just bought from Marks and Spencer which is entirely too large. You'd think, after all that caffeine, that Laurie would be doing a lot more than sitting around and reading books and filling out computer applications. But that's the way the biscuit must crumble...

[skul]

2005-10-21T10:03:00.000+01:00

For those of you who don't know, the above picture is one in a long line of photographs, stretching back to Lewis' kindergarten days. They are the traditional first-day-of-school pictures. This is the first one to feature a coat and tie, however, both of which were found in his grandfather's closet. Lewis is also sporting his grandfather's shoes and a fine to-go cup from Seattle filled with delicious Teacup tea. For the record this picture was actually taken on the first day of school. We are big dorks.

Hmm this is shaping up to be a big in-crowd post, but for those of you who don't know the title [skul] is the phonetic transcription of "school". Oh dear. The rest will be universally understandable, I promise.

So about school. Lewis has 7 required classes every week, and is foolishly electing to take two options in addition to these. He'll spend all year stuffing himself with information about phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, crosslinguistic variation, psycholinguistics, language acquisition, sociolinguistics, translation theory, and whatever projects he decides to do for his research papers. If he seems distant or confused when you talk to him (for the next decade), bear this in mind.

At the moment Lewis is trying to decide whether to research pre-Chomskyan linguistic theory, Wittgenstein, or Hungarian. He would eventually like to compile a huge tome which compares linguistic theories from different time periods and cultures. Everyone (including Lewis) seems to be oblivious of anything besides the last 50 years of European and American linguistics.

Ah forgive the rant, but Lewis' brain is already becoming addled. Hey, look at this!
This oddly fishy-colored building is the English Faculty Building, home of the Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics. We're on the top floor with the awesome views. I bet the Department of Anglo-Saxon Norse and Celtic wishes they were up there. But they ain't.

Summing up: classes are going well, the huge library is filling Lewis' brain with tasty goodies, and all is well. Stay tuned for a post of Laurie news!

VIRTUAL CAMBRIDGE SPECTACULAR!

2005-10-07T17:53:00.000+01:00

Ah, Cambridge in the Autumn... But what's that you say? You've never seen Cambridge in the Autumn? Well, my friends, the experience will soon be virtually yours.

Here's Laurie, beckoning us through the back gate of Kings College. Let's go!

Ah, the Kings Kows in their verdant pasture.

Hey, that looks like a bridge!

Hey, that looks like a Cam! And here we are standing on our first Cam bridge.
It's the Kings College bridge, and from here we can see...

Kings College! Breathtaking isn't it?
That's the big chapel on the left.

Kind of hard to imagine, non?

I still can't.

Ah, but there's the front gate of Kings. Let's pass through and see what we can see!

The City Centre!
Here's looking left (a.k.a. north;
and note Great St. Mary's in the middle -- we'll come back to that),

and here's looking right (south). Maybe we'll head this way

(after a little rest).

Onward! Past the Cambridge Wine Merchant (students get double or nothing discount on a trivial persuit question), and past St. Catherine's and Pembroke as well...

And here we are at the Anchor! It's one of the more famous pubs in Cambridge.
Established in the 18th century, it's right on the water.
May we suggest a ploughman's lunch with some tasty cheese?

Here's the view from the Anchor -- note the punts. They're the funny-shaped little flat boats.
Every college has some punts on the river, and you can pay a little to go punting on the Cam.
You get a flat boat and a big stick. We haven't tried it yet, but it looks fun.
Looking closer, you might also see some cows on the island over there. We're not sure who they belong to. Possibly Darwin College, which is just to the right of our view.

And a half-block upstream (farther south) from the Anchor is the Student Union.
If you don't like the architecture you might still like the view from the 3rd floor.

Hey look, more punts!

Heading back north, we pass by Cambridge's second famous pub, the Eagle.
This is where Watson and Crick (co-discoverers of DNA) used to have pints and discuss their ideas in a less-formal and more-drunk environment. The back room of the Eagle is called the RAF room: It's ceiling is covered with graffiti from servicemen stationed there during World War II. The property was donated to Corpus Christi College in the 16th century.
May we recommend a juicy bowl of meat?

A bit farther north and we're at the central market. A lot of little vendors plying their wares.
A hardcore local merchant informs us that the goods at the market are industrial bilge, but we'll get to him later...

Speaking of industrial bilge (and cheap, tasty food), here we are in Sainsbury's!
It's the only supermarket in the City Centre, and it's pretty quality.
Lettuce is tiny here. But may we recommend the Kinder Eggs?

Yet farther north, and we've arrived at the Cambridge Cheese Company.
Wow.
This is the shop in which we found the aforementioned local merchant who disparaged the market. And he has every right to do so. He has the finest quality assortment of cheeses, honeys, ciders, and various other comestibles that one could imagine. He is also a veritable goldmine of information about other quality establishments (or the lack thereof) in Cambridge. Apparently there is only one pub that serves the best locally produced ale, and now we know where it is. Thank you cheese man, and thank you for the 3/4 kg of delicious cheese.

Heading back south, and speaking of quality local establishments, here we are at the Cambridge University Press bookshop. Need I say anything about the wealth of knowledge that is the CUP? Perhaps I should mention that students recieve a 20% discount...

And here we are, as promised, back at Great St. Mary's Church (just across the street from the bookshop). This is the central church of the University of Cambridge. University officials must live within a 20-mile radius of this church; otherwise its association with the University is historical.
Well, now we've made a nice circle and covered many of the sites in the Centre. Let's head back over the Cam back toward Clare Hall.

Here's an interesting gate which leads to Trinity College's courtyard.
More accurately, it leads out of said courtyard, as this gate is only used by graduating students on their way to the graduation ceremony. It's called the Gate of Honor. Note the cool sundials.

Back over the Cam. Hey look -- a punt! This is a view from a Trinity College bridge, looking toward the Clare College bridge and in the background is the Kings College bridge which we crossed over on our way into town. Remember the Kows? I bet they're at least on their third round of cud by now.

Our current path takes us right past the University Library, which is a massive and ever-expanding building. It contains every book published in England since 1912, and many others as well. It's also a half-block away from Laurie and Lewis' house!

Speaking of Laurie, here she is...

and here is her house!

We hope you've enjoyed your virtual tour spectacular of Cambridge. Join us next post for an exciting episode in which Lewis goes to class and Laurie executes countless exciting tasks.

Photo Journal: Elmside

2005-10-07T16:56:00.000+01:00

Today we finally got all the necessary things together (internet connection, camera, free time) to take a few pictures around town to show everyone at home. So here's our first Cambridge blog entry: a small tour of our house.

Here's the front gate to our building, Elmside.

This is our building as viewed from the back garden.
We're the middle set of windows on the top floor!

The common room is good for eating, watching TV,
and getting our house mates addicted to Set.

The kitchen is where the magic happens.
So long as the magic is salty.

Doggie and Tedso make sure no one uses our bed while we're gone.
Doggie is sporting a very fashionable Clare Hall scarf these days.

Bees like to fly in our windows, looking out over Scholars Garden.
Sometimes Clare Hall has barbeques here, with more salty food.
And beer.

The sunlight looks really cool coming in our festive curtains in the morning.

All-in-all, Elmside is a lovely place to live. It's more warm and toasty than I had expected from a Civil-War-Era home, and our house-mates are nice. Clare Hall (our College) loans out art from its collection to decorate rooms with, so we should be getting some art pieces soon. Also, it's very near by the site where Lewis has all his classes, and only across the lawn from the main College building + dining hall. We've done well.

A "virtual-tour" of Cambridge will follow!