Cambridge Days

I don't have internet access in my room so I haven't really been online at all. It's strange and wonderful to spend days and days without even checking my e-mail or facebook once. Rather liberating! My mind has been focused onto my studies and my tangent interests and not mindless internet surfing, chatting or snooping in the case of facebook. 

I've been reading Thomas Hobbs "The Leviathan" and a couple other books from the reading list. Also I've been enjoying not only my classes but the plenary lectures and evening lectures here at Cambridge. This is the most exciting academic environment I've ever been exposed to. The professors are brilliant and renowned, the talks are stimulating and eye opening. I'll go into more detail later, but it's been the most incredible experience to be here. 

I've made a lot of new friends who I'm dearly going to miss. I've connected with people here, I think more than I did in London. It's a very international bunch - with people from Switzerland, USA, Australia, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, France, Spain, Mexico, Hungary, Russia...I don't even remember them all but I know that I have good friends here and now all over the world.  I have just three more weeks of classes and while I am ready to come home...I'm not quite ready to come home, and almost wish I could just stay here in Cambridge forever. 

Cambridge

I have arrived and settled into Cambridge and I love it! I didn't get the classes that I had wanted or hoped for - I ended up with British Political Thought which so far has been a lecture on British history, Origins of Modern Science which so far has been an over view of Aristotle and Plato and is taking the perspective of purely historical, and Democracy and Dictatorships in the Third World (I think this was my third choice for my C group but it is interesting though not the literature class I had wanted). The second term starts at the end of July and I think I got a better selection of courses for that one - fewer people stay on for the second term. We have plenary lectures in the morning after A course lecture and evening lectures that all students in the summer programs are invited to which include a diverse breadth of the topics. The topics for the plenary lecture this morning and the evening seminar were about how the University of Cambridge works - the college system, some of the history and how it has become so prominent in the world. 

I am so excited to be here. You can feel how proud the faculty are of their university and rightly. The town is beautiful with all the old architecture, and cute little shops. I am staying in Newnham College in Sidgwick. My room overlooks this lovely little garden with a fountain and besides the weather Cambridge is just the most perfect place! The food is wonderful - full English breakfast and dinner was a lot of quality choices as well. None of the book stores have the required reading books which seems (I'm sorry to say) typical of professors everywhere. I'm afraid even a few I've had at UM request out-of-print textbooks written by their best friends or photocopied versions of a book that has yet to be published properly. Oh well... I'm going to the bookstore this afternoon to pick of a few of the supplementary reading - more common things like Hobbs and Locke (for British Political Thought) and Plato and Aristotle (for origins of modern science). The professors seems apathetic about whether we must complete the readings as long as we attend class and are attentive they are fine. The classes are lecture heavy and less participatory than the classes I've taken in the USA and even a bit less than Westminster, likely because of the time constraints. 

Classes are held every day which is a huge change. It's more like high school and I'm glad for the four hour block in the afternoon after C course before dinner and the evening seminars to unwind, read, study and socialize. It does feel more productive though and I wonder how much more we would be able to cover in University if we had class every day like high school. Probably not practical for scheduling though. Cambridge definitely FEELS more academic than Westminster, it's more like Michigan actually. I like being back in a rigorous environment, even though high standards are not burdening my learning (i.e. my degree isn't riding on my performance). Having the rigorous environment but no actual grades is ridiculously enjoyable. I feel like I am just soaking up knowledge and integrating in more readily into my world view and making it relevant - rather than worrying about which facts I need to memorize for the examination or what will be required for the essay. While perhaps not practical for regular school, it's perfect for the summer program and just the last few days I've been here - I've vowed to myself more than once that I simply must come back. Later in life I will come back - to London, to Cambridge. There are adults in the program as well doing continuing learning and I hope that I can come back and continue learning and studying through out my life. 

I alternatively never want to leave and cannot wait to get back to the States. More accurately I want to transport Cambridge across the pond and go to grad school. I am anxious to start my own studies listening to the faculty discussing so passionately their own work. I am also anxious to move into my own place! I'm getting excited about that for sure! For example the wifi here is only in the Buttery (which at the moment is pretty cold) and the showers are on a timer and you have to push the button ever minute and a half to keep it going. On the flip side the food is great and prepared for me and they give us fresh towels every day, sheets once a week and coffee and tea to make in the room with milk and sugar (it's like an academic hotel). Anyway I am off to explore - I am going to look for this science museum the plenary lecturer spoke of the Whipple I think it's called. 

Traveling with Mom

So on 13 June I moved out of my Old Street flat, dropped my bags off at the self storage by Paddington and hit the road with my mom. We flew to Heraklion Crete where we stayed with George, a friend of the family who was the most excellent host. Beyond providing us a place to stay on his beautiful island he drove us all over - we got to see the Samaria Gorge and walked about 4km up to the narrowest, most picturesque point. We took a ferry and we spent some time in the village where George and his family live when they are not in Heraklion. He took us out to eat at all the best restaurants and I was very impressed with our time there. In my opinion it was much too short. The beaches were fantastic!

From Crete we flew to Rome and spent a quick and disappointing day there before traveling by train to Innsbruck Austria. Innsbruck was as fantastic as Rome was disappointing. Our hotel was lovely - I had booked on hostel world and didn't expect much for the price. The room was three times the size of our pension in Rome for the same price and the restaurant served a proper breakfast included (the breakfast in Rome was only sugary croissants!). One benefit of traveling with my mother is her willingness to pay for things and her sudden whims - like deciding I needed some jewelry from the Swarovsky Crystal Gallery. I got a necklace and a pair of earings and feel like a princess in them. They are special because the Swarovsky Crystal Factory, were all Swarovsky crystals are produced in Austria was just 15 km down the road from the shop. If we had had more time I would have wanted to visit it! We DID visit the Grassmayer Bell Foundry and Museum however which was very interesting! I got bells for my friends as souvenirs and read all about the different kinds of bells that were made in Europe and all over the world during the last thousand years. Very intersting from a materials perspective and gave me an increased appreciation for metallurgy which I've always been somewhat uninterested in compared to most topics in my field. In Innsbruck we also took the Funicular up to the top of the largest mountain and had a hearty lunch. I would love to come back to ski here in the winter sometime.

Next we went to Interlaken, Switzerland which was equally stunning for the natural beauty, though the cold and the rain were less than welcome on my 20km hike up the mountain. Along my hike I passed a brewery and a small castle, as well as some cute farm animals and of all things a few fascinating snails. After about 15 minutes of taking pictures of the snails and staring at them I began to wonder if I should have been a naturalist instead of an engineer!

From Interlaken we took the train to Paris and again I was impressed by the quality of the hotel for the cost. We paid the same for the hotel in Paris (pristinely clean, with AC, wifi, CNN world and an en suite toilet/shower) for our postage stamp sized, sharded bathrood, dirty hostel in London. After a few snapshots of the Tower and the Arch we had a nice little dinner and the following day we spent in the Louvre before catching the train to London (where we got the sad little over priced hostel).

This morning from London we caught an EasyJet flight to Edinburg for a few quid and have checked into a nice room at the Argyle Hostel. Not as standardly hotel-y, more hostelish, it is overwhelmingly friendly and comfortable feeling. The room is large enough to move around and light is streaming in through the windows. It's a relief to be here today after the stress of the airport. I forgot to take my laptop out of my backpack and checked it onto the flight. The entire flight the image of my lovely MacBook with huge ugly cracks zig-zagging the LCD display and clunking noised coming from the HDD circled like bees in my head. Thankfully, no damage done. We also almost missed the flight because my mom had gotten a letter opener in the vatican in Rome for my uncle and forgot to check it in here bag. Obviously security would not let her leave it in her carry on though my mom looks very motherly and hardly a terror suspect. She tried to check her carry on but was running out of time so she ended up giving away the letter opener - we'll find a gift for her brother in Scotland she cheerfully said as my heart is racing looking at the red "Final Call" on the departures board next to our flight which is scheduled to take off in 15 minutes. Oi!

All this traveling, while fantastic, is wearing me out. I really really just want to get to Cambridge and have a normal schedule and a routine and classes. Can it be that I actually REALLY miss classes!? Astonishing! I now know that it takes me two months of utter uselessness, two months of no class and no work, before I go absolutely bonkers with boredom. Even reading, wandering though parks and London and exploring got a little boring. I've finish Henry James (Daisy Miller and Other Stories) and "The Cannon" about basics in science (cute but nothing I didn't already know) and am now in the process of reading "Great Expectations" which I adore right now. Something about the writing style is easy to understand and the character is symapthetic and I just have to know what happens to him. Speaking of which - I am off to keep reading until mom feels like heading out to see Edinburg. In a few days we're off to Galway, Ireland.

Gloomy

It was a chill and gloomy day in England today and as I huddled in my dreary flat, watching the rain and drizzle weep from the dull gray clouds, I read Frankenstein. I was about one third of the way through when I found myself caught up in the rush of the story today. I finished the rest of it just now as it nears evening. The short stories of Henry James await me tonight.

Another Quiet Day

I had a headache the other day and just stayed in. What did I do just staying in? I read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo straight through. It was an easy read. More modern than the older novels we read during my literature class because of it's fast paced action, romantic themes and complex plot. Like many of the novels I've read it attempts to teach a lesson - redemption, forgiveness, good vs. evil. I liked all the twists and turns.

I've started on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, which promises to be a good read - it's very intriguing so far. In the mean time I'm trying to pack up my room for storage during my trip to Greece.

Another TED Talk

This one is one of my favorites! Not only is it very cute, it teaches a really good lesson. Let's just say my spending five years is graduate school is my equivalent of not eating the marshmallow yet.

Musing

I've been watching a lot of TED talks recently and having been thinking about how I can make a difference in the world. Today I watched a talk given by Liz Coleman, president of Bennington Collage. In her talk she discussed the need for a liberal education and I am once again grateful to be expanding my education beyond engineering. One quote struck me as particularly powerful:
"The is no such thing as a viable democracy made up of experts, zealots, politicians and spectators." Perhaps this is what I enjoy most about the area in which I have sought to become and "expert." Materials science is hugely multidisciplinary. It touches every field of engineering and cannot be confined within the borders of it's own discipline.

Coleman also said that we have made even literature arcane, a fact I can attest to in the various English and Literature classes I've taken both here and at University of Michigan. The idea of literary theory while a useful tool for approaching and understanding literature, in my opinion takes away from the awe and the beauty of great works. While it is helpful to understand the author's background in order to comprehend the setting and references within the book I think that it can be just as rewarding to read a book cold and get your own impression of it outside a theoretical framework. This is why I am relishing the time I have to digest great works outside of a formal classroom setting for these weeks between my programs.

I am also thinking about the ways I can expand my own "liberal arts" education. Which direction to I want to go? I want to learn and solidify my knowledge of a second language. My time traveling in Europe has fired my desire to improve my Spanish and learn German. I want to continue to read the classics, and I think I need to develop a better knowledge of ancient mythology. I would like to write more and improve my communication skill. I would also like to learn more about history, in particular the history of the last 300 years or so - the events that shape politics and policy today, throughout the world. I have basic knowledge from high school but that is all. When I return to Delaware I will be taking public policy, environmental and sustainable systems courses as a part of my IGERT award and this will also contribute to my fully well rounded education - I hope I can fit in a foreign language course or two. Recent events have also piqued my curiosity about economics. I also want to explore ways in which we can understand the validity of the information we recieve. Information is everywhere? How do you decide what is true? How do you know who is being neutral and who is biased and who is flat out lying? This is not a simple question and I don't believe anyone has a good answer to it, but I feel that it is incredibly important in this modern society.