• I AM HERE.

Hello everyone!

The past few days have been CRAZY. Like really. I still can't believe I'm here!!
I actually didn't get internet in my room until yesterday, so I haven't had the chance to blog. BUT. I've been jotting down notes and typing out posts everyday offline on MS word, just because I don't want to miss ANYTHING. So for this post, it'll be like four different posts from four different days. As you probably guessed, there are a lot of details... but as you can see, my blogs start getting shorter by the day hahaha. Facebook is also being dumb, but pictures will be up soon. I'll also try typing things UK-style here :)
So here is my first England post!

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○ 27 June 2010: ARRIVAL DAY

I left SFO at around 7:00pm PST.

SPOTTED: One Cal athlete boarding my plane with a Cal Athletics backpack. I was super excited, because I was almost sure he would be going on my program. But then he never got on my train. I was disappointed.

The Flight:
Was surprisingly smooth, but I never fell asleep. I was dumb, too, because I was too lazy to get my solution to take out my contacts. By the time we got done with our welcome activities today, I had worn my HARD contact lenses for over 24 hours. I feel like someone peeled off a layer of my eyes. It’s okay though, my blood-shot eyes and frantic sleep-deprived chatter made me seem like a drug-addict. Makes for easy friend-making.
Anyway, this was my first flight that was over 5 hours long. It wasn't too bad at all! I sat next to this Asian girl with a heavy British accent from London. She made a comment about how I was ABC and she was BBC, which I thought was cute. She was such a sweetheart, and kept giving me advice on traveling, shopping, and where to get the best phone deals. She also let me read all her UK magazines on the plane! Such a cutie.

Getting to Cambridge from London... well.. that was not so smooth.

WHOEVER TOLD ME IT WOULD TAKE 2 HOURS TO GET FROM HEATHROW TO CAMBRIDGE IS A LIAR. My flight landed at 1:30pm, and I didn’t get into my Pembroke room until 5:30pm. After getting off the plane, I realized that it was really effing HOT in London. It was like 85 degrees 30 °C, and it was HUMID, so the air seemed hotter and heavier everywhere. I knew I had packed too much when my check-in weighed in at close to 45 lbs. After waiting forever in border control, I got my luggage, and then went underground to the tube station. I bought my ticket (using up my first few pounds for the first time!!) and took the Picadilly line to King's Cross in Central London. The entire plane ride, I took naps, but I don't think I ever fell asleep completely. I think I was really antsy and excited the whole time. Well, it was 4:30am in the US when I landed, and by the time I was on the Picadilly line, I felt really sick, and the tiredness started to hit me. It was hot, I was tired, but the car was pretty full so I had to stand for the majority of 45 minutes. I was also really paranoid about losing my bags/luggage and student visa documents, so I put all my stuff on the ground and just stared at it all intensely, fighting not to close my eyes.
The scenery outside the metro wasn't too impressive. Maybe it's because I wanted to die of heat, heavy luggage, and no sleep, but all the rural areas we passed through seemed kind of weird and plain. By the time I got to King's Cross, I was ready to pass out. After dragging my luggage to get a ticket (which cost effing 20 POUNDS), I found the right platform and then sat, swimming in my own sweat for another hour. Again, the scenery was mostly farmland and grass, and I sat listening to a bunch of locals swearing about the Germany game. After getting off at the Cambridge station, I took a taxi to King's College! I was sweaty, gross, but ALIVE and I didn't lose anything!! Success.

I am confused though. I don’t understand how it is SO expensive and time-consuming to get to London. I never waited more than 5-10 minutes for any tube/train/taxi, and I didn't wait at all for my luggage. I also only got lost once, when I did not understand where the train tickets were (I know everything is in English.. but... okay whatever). I have some friends that took 6 hours because the bus service was so slow and broke down twice. WHAT.

It was hot and just humid enough for the rest of the day that everyone always felt sticky and unclean. Oh well! At least it wasn't raining :)

Check-In:
The first time I stepped through the gate to King's my jaw dropped. This place is just. INSANE. I met with one of my Programme Assistants (PA), and she was just adorable. Let’s call her Mini Emma Watson. She signed me in at King's College, and then told me that I would be staying at Pembroke, a few blocks down the road. I was already really tired, but Mini Emma was super nice, and helped me lug my heavy 45-pound suitcase all the way to my building, AND up three flights of stairs. Who needs Wingardium Leviosa when you have effing Mini Emma Watson.

Once I was in my room, I went through my Welcome Packet. Here are some AWESOME things.

ID card, keys, college access card, meal card.

ZOMG it's like I'm a REAL student!

A pamphlet about LIBRARY ACCESS!!

I am IN LOVE. These cards get me into King's library 24-HOURS A DAY!!

My class schedule

WHAT THE EFF. It's color-coded and AMAZING... but all my classes are at different times and in different rooms depending on the day. This will be interesting.

Dinner:
We had our welcome dinner at King's College in the Great Hall. The food looked better than it tasted, but the dining hall was AMAZING. It was weird because we had these “servers” that served us food in uniform, and they served us all wine.

I sat with a couple of Berkeley kids that I had met on campus before. After dinner, we all decided that we all REALLY, really wanted to shower, and that we would meet up after situating ourselves in our rooms.

My. Room.
My room is effing HUGE.

My dorm/flat is the best thing ever. It’s almost as big at the room I had at Clark Kerr (minus the closet space) but I get it all to MYSELF! I have endless shelf and mantel space (but nothing to do with it) and a mini-closet, coffee table, study lamp, bookshelf, and even a small sink/counter area all to myself. I have two huge windows that face the Bowling Green lawn and you can see part of the Croquet Lawn courtyard. And the windows have silky blue curtains!

FREE SOAPS?! This is so excitingggg!!

Cambridge University is made of many smaller "colleges". I’m living in Pembroke College, which at first I was a little upset about, but now I think it is pretty awesome. Sure, I have friends who live in King’s College right next to the River Cam and have THIS view:

And one of my friends has a fireplace, a living room, another separate room, and a walk-in closet – all to herself. CRAZY! Pembroke is about a 10-minute walk to King’s, but I’m starting to really like it. To get to my building, I walk past three gorgeous courtyards/lawns, and our library has stained glass windows and looks like a church. There are flowers EVERYWHERE.

I live here!!

My building is pretty cool because it’s a three-story building that has only four residents on each floor (one per corner). There is one kitchen and one bathroom per floor – so sharing between four people won’t be bad at all, especially since we all have our own sinks. BUT WAIT. IT GETS BETTER.

I am in shower HEAVEN.
On the bottom floor, there is a huge, newly remodeled shower room.

The showers here are. I can’t even explain. Okay no but I will. The walls are newly-painted and are a clean, baby blue. The showers are really clean, have new glass, and the stalls are HUGE because they also have a separate dressing area. This is the very first time in my entire life that I actually don’t feel like I have to wear shower slippers in a public area (even though I still do). It’s SO CLEAN.

But THAT’S NOT ALL.

The shower head is one of those flat/panning massage nozzles, and it has TWO rotating circular dials for water pressure and temperature.
I AM IN HEAVEN.

Cambridge Exploring on a Sunday Night:
I’m meeting lots of new people! I’ve met the most people from Berkeley, UCSB, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. I also know there are a lot of people from BYU and just the UCs in general. I also met someone who goes to AMHERST and KNOWS Ben! And he lives across from me… weird right? So far I’m hanging out with mostly Berkeley and UCSB kids. A good group :) We went exploring around King’s, the River Cam, and walked between the two different colleges to see everyone’s rooms.

Oh note: all the colleges have gates like these:

The big gates lock at night, but you can still go through the smaller door with a student access card. I feel so badass when I step out from a college. IT'S LIKE I'M A FUCKING HOBBIT.

We ended up wandering around the streets of Cambridge. A few observations, at a first glance:

1. This place is GORGEOUS. It’s interesting because the college buildings are scattered around the city, instead of in one, centralized location like I’m used to. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish what is Cambridge (the school) and what is the town. You have to walk through cute and narrow alley ways to reach the next college. All these streets have shops, grocery stores, coffee shops and pubs.

2. SHIT though. I didn’t realize I was going to have to effing WALK so much. The building where I take all my classes is in the Cambridge Union Society building - about 10 minutes from King’s College. My feet are dying after walking back and forth so much today.

3. It actually feels weird because the streets are all pretty much empty right now, except for us students. Probably because it was a Sunday night, and most of the bars were closed because they were “mourning” the loss of the World Cup. I was told that most shops close at 5pm, and pubs usually close at 11pm. It almost feels like this town is so intimate and so perfect, that it’s "fake" – with its cute little shops, Christmas lights, cobble-stone streets, and high-rised/neatly arranged buildings. My friend commented on how it feels like all the buildings are movie sets, or a facade for a Disneyland ride. I seriously feel like all of us are in a closed-off part of Disneyland Main Street. It’s hard to describe. It’s just really nice. It’s really cool to be in a place like England and feel like you and your friends are the only ones there, and the territory is empty and for you to explore.

OKAY. So right now I haven’t slept for a good 29 hours, so I think I should go sleep. I STILL can't believe that I am HERE! First day of classes tomorrow. So weird. PEACE.  

Love,
Katherine

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○ 28 June 2010: DAY 1
First day of classes!

We started off the day at 9:00am (oh god) with a bunch of orientations. There are about 300 of us on this programme. We started off things at the Cambridge Union Society, which is where we'll be having most of our classes. One of the programme coordinators gave a bit of history overview. The Union was formed in the 1800's and the building is a place that has housed many famous debates and guest-speakers, including US presidents like Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. We sat in the very room that held these debates!

The current vice president of The Union gave us a brief overview of Cambridge. The university is just over 800 years old (whhhhhaaattttttt), and of course this means that there many buildings throughout town that are older than the United States. Actually, the Round Church next to The Union was built crazy long ago; something like 1070 AD. CRAZY OLD. Cambridge is made up of 32 different colleges, and each college is actually really self-contained. Each college is closed-off, has its own library, chapel, main offices, dorms, and parlour/bar. He also encouraged us to take advantage of getting to know the city. Cambridge is a "domestic university", so like a college town, everything is more intimate and unique to this town.
After that, most of the programme directors introduced themselves, including the programme coordinator that runs the bar. It's feels a little weird that adults here will actually encourage you to have a drink with them (especially when it's your professor), but it's also nice haha. The guy who runs The Union bar has lived in Cambridge his entire life, so he knows all the ins and outs of the town and the school. He also said he would be organizing a cocktail/bartending workshop one night, so that is going to be SICK.

Pembroke College

After that, we split into the two colleges on our program - King's and Pembroke - for our separate college orientations. About a third of the students are staying in King's College, and the rest of us are staying in Pembroke College and the university apartments around it. I'm glad I actually get to stay IN the college, because it's so pretty.

We took a tour of Pembroke with two of our PA's - let's call them Blonde Bill Weasley and Less-Jewish John Moghtader. Blonde Bill Weasley is a grad student, and Less-Jewish John Matador is like the cutest thing ever, but he's stationed at the apartments. Darn. Although Pembroke is a lot smaller and grander than King's, it's still a lot bigger than I thought. I was here for a whole day, and I didn't realize that we had a GORGEOUS library courtyard, a nurse's office, stained-glass library, chapel, and an orchard.

I live right next to the IT offices and across from the Junior Parlour building, where the café/bar is. Also, I apparently don't have to worry about safety issues, because our college Master (chancellor) is Sir Richard Dearlove, who was once head of the MI6, or British Secret Intelligence. SICK. I don't know what he looks like, but I live a few feet away from his college house. I was told that if I saw a balding man that looked like he wanted kill me, that would be Dearlove. AWESOME.

When Blonde Bill Weasley was taking us around the college, he talked about all these 14th, 15th, 16th century buildings. When he said stuff like “this was built in like 1320-something" I was like WHAT. Which brings us to:

BRITISH OBSERVATION #1: THINGS ARE OLD.
The people here definitely (and obviously) have a much, MUCH wider vocabulary for dates and history. They'll say things like, this building was remodeled fairly recently, like in the late 1700's.
... LATE 1700's?! That's like... when our COUNTRY was born. When someone tells me that a Berkeley building has been here since 1910, I get really impressed. Like, for the 1920's, and then 1940's - 2000's, I can clearly picture the era in my head, but other than that... I have no clue. I've seen buildings that were built BEFORE 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That's like the only year I can really associate anything with, pre-1900's. Fuck. I effing suck at history.

OBSERVATION #2: YOU DO NOT WALK ON THE GRASS.
I don't know if it's just Cambridge, but walking on the grass is FORBIDDEN. Like... eating in the library forbidden. After walking around Pembroke, Less-Jewish John Matador didn't point out a single patch of grass we were allowed on. Apparently, only Fellows (high-ranking professors) are allowed on grass. Sometimes there are lawns that graduate students can walk on, or just seniors, but other than that, the grass is FORBIDDEN. Which is a shame, because grass here is gorgeous and looks like this:

The only place we can walk on the grass is on the sloping edges of the Bowling Green... but only where it is slanted and not where it is flat. Yay.

Anyway, after eating in Pembroke's dining hall for the first time, I headed off to class at around 2:00pm.

Well I can't really say much about class, because I was EXHAUSTED. I guess this is what people call being jet-lagged, because I couldn't stay awake... which is bad because each class has only like 20 people.
For the first four weeks, I'm taking an Arts Journalism class and a Gothic Architecture class. It's funny though... because I feel no need or want to study at all. I have classes at different times everyday... in different buildings.. so it's very confusing sometimes. But as a general range, my classes will start at 10 and end latest at 3 or 4pm, and each class 1.5 hours. I don’t even remember what any of my professors look like because my head was down so much today. So bad. I will redeem myself tomorrow!

The guys and I went to the grocery store to buy some cereal, milk, and fruit. It still blows my mind how many little shops and stores are here.

Also remember what I said about Cambridge being empty? I was TOTALLY wrong. During the day this place is bustling with tourists - which is definitely not what I expected. It's still nice though because it's never too crowded. More on this later, but it's definitely lively here during the day!

After that, Ash and I went on LIBRARY TOURS for King's and Pembroke. King's is really cute and classic on the inside. And it has great views.

OH HAI.

Pembroke's is more remodeled, and has gorgeous windows and reading spaces. I can definitely see myself loving it here. Not like I'm not smitten already.

After dinner, I went out with some friends to The Eagle, which is the pub that Watson and Crick ran into when they discovered DNA. It's weird being the legal drinking age here!

PIMM'S. It's like a summer lemon iced tea with fruit liquor. SO GOOD.
My professor recommended it to us.. is that weird?

I don't drink really at all at home, but it's nice here and relaxing. The environment is a lot more social and classy, instead of partyparty. It's especially weird though... because you only need to be 14 to enter a pub, and 16 to drink alcohol if you consume it with food. It's weird being in a pub with 14-year-olds... haha but funny too I guess.


After pub crawling, we went back to King's College and went to the back to go PUNTING!!

For those of you who don't know, punting is basically riding in a flat-bottom wooden boat and pushing the boat along with a giant wooden stick. It's AWESOME.. but harder than it looks. The River Cam runs all around the university, and there are gorgeous lawns, colleges, chapels, and cows/sheep grazing green along the way.

I think Tony was scared.

And now I'm back in my room now and I realized that it's late and I have homework to start. I feel like I've seriously been here for a WEEK already. It's probably because the days are so long and we do SO much every day. The sun doesn’t fully set until like 10pm here, and then it rises at 4am. WHAT.

Okay anyway, I better go work. See my posts are getting shorter already!

Until tomorrow,
Katherine

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○ 29 June 2010: DAY 2

My blogs will be getting shorter from here on haha. Just some major things:


1. MY ARCHITECTURE CLASS IS AMAZING.
My professor is the shit. He came into class on the first day of class and was like, "WHY IS IT SO HOT. I mean WHAT THE FUCK. This room has NO FUCKING WINDOWS. FUCK."
It was awesome. This guy is an elder, semi-crazy and quirky British guy who swears like nobody's business. But the best part of this class is the material. Every class is about 30 people, and in our seminars (or discussion sections) there are only 10-15 people. During our seminars, we get to travel to other colleges and visit chapels and cathedrals. It's AWESOME. It's really hands-on and we just spend the whole class analyzing stained glass, ground plans, and learning new terms.

2. ARTS JOURNALISM IS HARD.
There is a lot of writing. And reading. And my teacher, while awesome, scares me a bit. It's not that he's mean, it's that he was a freelance writer for like 30 years, and has worked for the best UK and American presses in the world. Yeah. So it's intimidating! This guy has actually interviewed a lot of real-life celebrities (he told us today that Aaron's Eckhart's home number is in his phone), so it's definitely a rare opportunity to be working with him. The only thing is that... the class is surprisingly boring...and unengaging... which is weird because it's entertainment and arts news! How could it be boring?! FOR SOMEONE LIKE ME? But I don't know... Mr. Rosenthal has a lot of amazing first-hand experience, but I think he directs the class too much towards people that are actively pursuing a career in journalism RIGHT now. He gives us tips on what publicists to contact, and goes into more detail of the film/theatre/advertising industry than he does about the writing. I know that he understands the business through, and through, but so far this class isn't what I want it to be. I need Natasha Desai to take this class or something.

BRITISH OBSERVATION #3: CALL ME BY MY FIRST NAME.
The teachers here are really friendly! The title "professor" is a really high title here, so mostly the professors or teachers want you to call them by their first names. Which is weird. But cool. My Arts Journalism teacher wants us to call him Daniel, and my Gothic Architecture teacher told us that if we don't call him "David" we'll have to buy him a drink. Daniel also gave us his CELL and HOME number in case we need him... but I think that's weird. It's also evident that the teachers here really make an effort to know your name. They all have lists with our pictures and names, and all my professors are constantly practicing and naming people in class. I mean, I know it's easier with 20 people in the class and not 500, but it's still really nice.

3. CAM, YOU ARE BIGGER THAN I THOUGHT.
Today after class, I explored the city to look for a place to buy a UK phone. I stumbled upon an outdoor market place:

AND a full on MALL.

WHAT.
I thought this place was tiny and small! But it keeps surprising me everyday and the more I wander around, the more I find. I have to spend a whole day just walking the streets here. It's a lot bigger and gets more amazing everyday :)

4. FIRST FORMAL HALL!
We had our first formal dinner today. It started out with a giant group picture in front of King's Chapel, and then we moved onto drinks on the back lawn. And YES. For the first and only time, we were allowed to stand on the GRASS.

They served white and red wine that was made right here at King's. Then we moved onto dinner in the Great Hall. It was a full 5-course dinner, and it was really nice!

 Candlelight!!


It was pretty long though. We started the festivities at 6:30pm, and didn't get out until 10:30pm. Then we went to The Bathhouse for another round of Pimm's and I got back to my dorm at around 11:30pm... again to realize that CRAP. I have HOMEWORK. Eff.

5. I CANNOT SLEEP.
Jet lag really sucks. I am still drowsy during all my classes, but come 3:00am here, I just CANNOT sleep. My body is not hungry when it's supposed to be hungry, and it's not tired when I need it to be. I hope this passes.

How is it only Wednesday tomorrow?? I feel like I've been here for a month. In a good way though!

Love,
Katherine

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○ 30 June 2010: DAY 3

Another regular day of classes went by. I am still sleeping in classes... but I'm getting used to my daily routine so far.

Today, I saw that the King's Chapel was offering their Evensong choral services at 5:30pm, so I called up some of my friends and a few of us went before dinner.

Being a student at Cambridge earns you a LOT of respect and special privileges here. Even if it's just for the summer. King's College is one of the most famous and popular campus grounds in Cambridge, but it's closed to the public most of the week. It kind of makes me feel bad when I see lines of angry tourists arguing with the gate guards about why they can't go into the college grounds, and all I have to do is flash my ID card and I'm in. I feel like I've been glared at so many times during the day haha. Even when King's is closed, people have to pay £2-5 JUST to get INTO some of the college grounds, for EACH college. As students, we also get to go into all 32 colleges for free. We also got to go into King's Chapel for free today, and this was a huge privilege. First of all, the church is GORGEOUS. And has an unthinkably high ceiling. And the stained glass is ridiculous. While the tourists sat on the ground floor in the standard benches, us students got to sit above them on the sides on these high-rised elaborate stalls with wooden carvings. After showing my ID card, the service leader told us to sit next to him, and we each got our own massive, ancient psalm book and service books. During the service, we sat right behind Cambridge's famous white-robed Boys' Choir Men's Voices and in between two service leaders (or priests? my church service terminology is lacking).
The service itself was really cool. I'm not religious at all, but it was nice to hear all the psalms, the choir, the organ, and to be in such an amazing, beautiful place. Breathtaking. At the end of the service, the Choir exited, followed by the service leader... followed by Cambridge students. That's US! AWESOME. It was crazy that we got to exit and walk through the church behind the leaders, and we had to exit before the public could move from their seats. I am definitely going to another service before the choral season ends.

I definitely set a good example for being a Cambridge student when I took multiple pictures against the no-camera rule. Oops.

Anyway, this is the first blog I've typed out online in a while. The programme is taking a group trip up to SCOTLAND from Thursday until Monday, and I've heard amazing things about it. I heard the sun doesn't set until 11:00pm there. So this should be interesting. I'm SO excited!

Sorry for the quadra-post. I'll be back to normal blogging soon! Love you all :)

Until we fight FOR FREEEEDOMMMMM,
Katherine