Academic Update

So I am working on my first report for Rotary International but there are a few questions on the report I haven't answered in all my ramblings and I thought everyone would be interested to know the answers, so here they are.

1.Describe what steps you and your sponsor Rotarians took to prepare for your experience abroad. How this preparation help you to meet the challenges of living and studying in your host country?

My sponsor Rotarians made sure I had a superb presentation to give once I reached England. I presented my presentation (as if I were in England) at the Moline Rotary Club the week before I left. Besides saving me time when I got here because I didn't have to prepare a presentation, I find it much easier to take bits and pieces of my presentation to fulfill the speaking requirements that different clubs want. I also was confident enough with my presentation to speak by memory and engage the audience.


2.Provide information about your study program, including your adaptation and progress with your studies.


I mentioned what I was studying this term in an earlier blog post, but I do need to update you on my adaptation and progress. Well, adaptation has not been easy. Students learn in a completely different way here. At the Academy, we had constant assessments: quizzes every week, tests every two weeks, and finals at the end of the semester. At Cambridge, you are completely responsible for your own learning. Each class has one 2 hour lecture each week and then you are required to complete one or two papers during the term. This arrangement means that if you have assigned reading on a topic that has nothing to do with your paper it is solely your decision whether you are going to take the time to read it or not. I try to do the extra reading but it is difficult to find the time. I do feel like I'm learning, but just not as much as I did at the Academy.


I do not have a single test this term. So far, I have submitted two papers and I have five more to submit before next term. I have gotten one of them back and I did ok on it. Really, I just need to get above a 60 on everything to pass. It is very difficult in my program to get anything above a 75, so anything between 60 and 75 is pretty good, which is where I scored. The seven papers I have to submit this term are below.
1. EU 2020 Renewables Target - impacts on UK electricity system
2. Revenge of Gaia book review and sustainability framework assessment of an offshore windfarm
3. Opinions of Chief Executive of Wirral MBC on Mersey Tidal Power Study
4. Vulnerability Framework assessment of floodwall in Davenport, Iowa
5. Lessons learned in role play of Chief Executive of Wirral MBC
6. Socolow Wedges - policy and implementation (carbon dioxide reduction)
7. Technology management processes and open and closed innovation

Rotary Club of March

Dave, Eric, and I spoke spoke at the Rotary Club of March last night. We had a great time! We talked mainly about the Naval Academy and it was wonderful to see how interested the Rotarians were. Dave, Eric, and I keep mentioning to each other how wonderful of an opportunity this is for Rotary as well as the Navy. We think it makes a great combination. Who knows what representing the US Military in a positive light could mean 20 years from now for world peace and understanding. The Rotary Club of March has no female members, but it was about half and half last night because many of the men brought along their wives. After the presentation, I was approached by several Rotarians and their wives asking questions and telling me this was the best presentation they ever had from an ambassadorial scholar! They also said they learned a lot, which I think is the most important outcome!

Dave, Eric, and I presenting at Rotary Club of March

A picture with the club president after exchanging banners

Cambridge Rotaract

Last night, I attended my first meeting of the Cambridge Rotaract club. We discussed fundraising ideas for the upcoming holiday season. The club raises a large amount of money for charity, but gets very little publicity. With just a little publicity, they think they could raise even more money. I am going to help the club out by including a bit about them in my talks to Rotary clubs. This upcoming week is a big Rotary week for me, I am speaking at the Rotary Club of March on Monday and at the district's Rotary Foundation Seminar on Thursday.

Rotaract is an organisation for 18-30 year olds, with clubs throughout the world. It enables members to make great friends, try new activities, and make a difference in their local communities.

The Cambridge club's main focus is to raise money for different charities within the area while developing a fantastic social network. Rotaract is a unique and individual organisation that acts as a facilitator for raising money on behalf of charities.

The club organises and plans their own events and invites the public along to enjoy while staying focused on a cause. It's a great way to give something back and get involved with something new.

The club holds regular social events for making new friends and having a good time, volunteering activities within the community, and great opportunities to try new activities and fulfill personal goals.

Sports Update

I am officially a member of 3 teams and unofficially a member of one other team. Officially, I am a member of Churchill Crew, Churchill Football (soccer), and University Football. Unofficially, I sometimes train with the University Crew team. I have already played in two football games for the University at goalie. We lost both games, but both were tough teams and we are expected to win our match next Wednesday. I participated in a fours race with my college which we also lost, but not by much and our time beat two other colleges. I have yet to play in a Churchill football game since I was in Athens last Saturday and am going to London this Saturday (tomorrow) to see Lion King - I won a free ticket. I don't have much free time, but I'm really enjoying the sports and meeting all the girls on the teams. My weekly practice schedule is below.

Monday
6:45am Churchill Crew Practice
8am University Football Practice (lifting) - I usually can't go because of crew

Tuesday
Free!

Wednesday
University Football Game

Thursday
6:45am Churchill Crew Practice
1pm University Football Practice

Friday
3pm Churchill Football Practice

Saturday
1pm Churchill Crew Practice or Race
3pm Churchill Football Game

Sunday
10:30-12 University Football Practice

Athens

In my sleep deprived state I met Eric, Dave, and Leland Thursday morning to hop on a bus to London Luton airport. At the airport, we grabbed a bite to eat and met up with Kristen and Dan, two Academy grads studying at Oxford. It was good to see them again!

We arrived in Athens mid-afternoon and made our way quite easily to our hotel located near Syntagma Square. Part of the race registration fee included a free public transportation pass for the time we would be staying, so we took the tube to within a 5 minute walk from our hotel (Hotel Achilleas). We were all impressed with the hotel, it was very nice, with complimentary breakfast. Dave made the reservations and it only cost each of us 15 pounds a night.

Kristin and I

After dropping our bags, we immediately made our way toward the Acropolis to find a place for dinner and later meet up with Dave's Greek friend, Greg, who he met at Northwestern. We found a great place to eat! Located outside with traditional food. We ordered wine with dinner and it was still pretty cheap. Street performers would pass by your table looking for tips and many others came by our table trying to get us to buy anything from a rose to a flashlight.

The site of our first dinner

After dinner we met up with Greg. He said he was very excited to show us around Athens at night. He said it's his favorite time to see the city - the dark hides all it's ugliness and just the monuments are lit up. We climbed a steep hill next to the Acropolis to get a better view of it and the entire city. It was breathtaking and beautiful!

The Acropolis at night

We stayed out late and visited a local bar. I was brave enough to order Ouzo and I really enjoyed it - I was the only one who liked it! Greg gave us advice for where to visit the next day.

When we rolled out of bed the next morning around 10am, we decided to first register for the race and pick up our race packets before letting loose on the city. It was a good idea. The registration center was only about a 10 minute walk away. Registration was crazy! You pick up your race packet, then activate your timer chip, and then you walk through the booths for all the sponsors of the race. I came out with lots of free food, a hat, and powerade.

After registration, we made our way back to the hotel to drop of our stuff off and then headed towards the Acropolis once more. Our first stop was the Roman Marketplace.

A view of the Acropolis from the Roman Marketplace

Me in the Roman Marketplace

Eric, Dan, and Dave in the Roman Marketplace on a return trip (before they got yelled at)

After, we made our way back up to the hill we stood the night before and took in the beautiful views of the city and the Acropolis in daylight.

The Ancient Agora (the best preserved Greek monument)

Our next stop was the Acropolis. I really did feel like I was closer to the Gods up there. It's amazing how this massive rock formation just rises out of nowhere!

Dave, Leland, Me, Kristen, Dan, and Eric in front of the Parthenon

On the Acropolis, in front of the Erectheion

A view of the Monument of Filopappos from the Acropolis

Leland, me, and Kristen on the Acropolis

The Theatre of Dionysos next to the Acropolis

For lunch we found a place called IceGrill. Leland and I split a 2 grilled turkey patties with grilled vegetables. It was delicious. After the meal we had gellato! I think we returned 4 times to the IceGrill over the net four days just for the gellato.

Kristen and I very excited about gellato!

After lunch, we just started walking, kind of got lost, and ended up at Hadrian's Arch.

Dan, Dave, me, and Kristen in front of Hadrian's Arch

For the rest of the day we rested our legs, ate, and waited for more people to arrive. Vicki, an Academy grad, was arriving from Ireland with 3 other Mitchell Scholars, Matt was arriving from Oxford, and Dan's friend's Alicia from Oxford and Paige from Italy.

All twelve of us at dinner

On Saturday, a group of us decided to try and make our way to the beach and we did! We ended up in Edem. The trip got even more exciting when Dan and Eric decided to go for a swim!

Paige, me, Dan, Alicia,Leland, Kristen, and Eric at the beach

Dan and Eric returning from their swim

On Sunday, everyone got up early for the marathon (5:30am). Since I was the only one running the 10K, I was able to stay in bed a little longer. I eventually made my way to the start around 8am. It was slightly chilly, but I knew it would be perfect conditions once I started running. The race started and finished in the same place, the Panathinaikon Stadium. The course went five kilometers uphill on Vas Konstantinou Avenue and then turned around and made its way back downhill to the stadium. The race went well. Since I haven't been training my goal was to finish under an hour and I finished in 53 minutes. With that time, I finished in the top quarter of my age group. If I had run my personal best (42 min), I would have placed 6th in my age group.

The inside of the stadium

The finish line

Me just before crossing the finish line of the Athens 10K

The Academy grads posed for a picture after the race with our medals. Me, Kristen, Leland, Matt, Dan, Eric, and Dave.

After the race, we all quickly had to pack and say our goodbyes to catch our flights back in order to make class on Monday. Before we did though, we were able to take one last shot of the group in front of Parliament.

Election Night!

All of the Naval Academy grads were invited to the Embassy in London for election night. Will and I left early on the train on Tuesday morning to make the most of our day in London. Originally, we had planned to meet up with 3 others when we arrived, but one called in sick and one wimped out so we ended up just meeting Sarah - an Academy grad studying at Oxford.

My first train ride!

When we arrived we took "the tube" (subway) to the location of where we would be staying for the night. I had no idea what I was doing, but thank goodness Will was with me because he is an old pro. He instructed me to buy an oyster card (prepaid card) and it made the tube trip really easy. We ended up having two 2 bedroom apartments, which were both really nice - living room, kitchen, stereo, tv, 2 bathrooms. Will made the arrangements through the Embassy so it was pretty cheap too. After we were settled, Will and I spent the day walking around London and enjoying the wonderful ethnic food. We had Pakistani for Lunch and Kurdish for dinner. Both were delicious! Will is very experienced with Middle Eastern cuisine and knew just what to order.

At 9pm we reported to the Embassy. Security was pretty tight and our names weren't on the list so it took us awhile to get through security.

The Embassy all lit up for election night!

For our job for the evening, we found out we would be herding the visitors through the security checkpoints. It was a pretty easy, but exciting job. We were the first people everyone saw when they arrived. After about two hours, we were released from our duties to go join the party. I knew it was going to be a long night at that point because it was 11pm and no results were in yet.

The Embassy was packed! There was an entrance hall with cocktails and places to pick up McCain or Obama pins, a media room (reporters, tv screens, cardboard cutouts of the candidates), and a downstairs party room complete with a band and free food catered by Subway and Burger King and more drinks of course.

The entrance hall

The media room

Will, Obama, Sarah, Sarah P., and I

Will giving Sarah a big kiss!

The band

Sarah and I downstairs with Burger King in the background

I met a lot of interesting people. I'd say the Embassy was mostly full of American military and high ranking officials, many important British people (politicians mostly), and Americans who have been living outside the US for at least a decade and have no intention of ever moving back. It was a long night because of the time difference, but there was a lot of cheering when the results came in. The Embassy didn't start to clear until 3am. Then Sarah, Will, and I headed back to the apartment.

Sarah and I posing in front of a department store all lit up for Xmas

I decided there was no point in trying to sleep. We wanted to watch the acceptance speech and then I was going to try to catch a train by myself to Cambridge at 8 am. The original plan was to make it back for class at 11am, but I found out I had a University soccer game (away) and we were meeting the bus at 11. I barely made it back in time and hopped on the soccer bus. We drove two hours to play a match, which we lost, but we played well. I didn't end up getting back to my room until 8 pm Wed night where I crashed. I couldn't sleep too long though because we were catching a plane to Athens Thursday morning.

Rotary Welcome Evening

Last night was the Rotary Welcome Evening for Scholars to District 1080 in Thetford. This year, there are five scholars in the district, myself, Eric Regnier, Dave Parker, Katie Creme, and Dhriti Pandhi. My host sponsors, Paul and his wife, drove myself, Dave, and Eric to Thetford. It is about a half hour away so impractical by bike!

When we first arrived Eric, Dave, and I were immediately impressed by this Rotary chair. It looked like a throne so we decided to take some pictures, but the ones with me in them didn't turn out so it's just the chair.

We arrived early which was nice because we were able to meet and greet all the Rotarians as they arrived. The evening began with an introduction by Nigel Neville, the Ambassadorial Scholars Sub-Committee Chairman for the district. He kept it short because he knew we all wanted to eat, but he made sure to hint to all of us scholars that we would be giving a short indroduction of ourselves after.

Nigel welcoming us

The food was served appetizer style so we could stand up and move around the room and chat with all the Rotarians. I was able to meet so many welcoming people! I was actually shocked at how many people came to welcome the five of us scholars to the district - the room was packed. It was also great to see Dhriti again since I hadn't really seen her since the Birmingham weekend.

After much food and coffee had been consumed, it was time for the five of us scholars to give our introduction speeches. I of course ended up having to go first. I tried to tell a little about my background, what I was studying, and what I hoped to get out of the year. Then the other four scholars gave their speeches as well. After, I couldn't help but think how impressive the other four scholars are and how lucky I am to be among such talented company. Two are studying development studies and the other two are studying technology policy and American studies.

Me giving my introduction speech. Notice how I am proudly wearing my Illinois Rotary pin - it actually comes in handy when I am describing where I am from.

The evening ended with the four of us scholars at Cambridge being tasked with the Cambridge Challenge which consists of volunteering at a Cambridge homeless shelter and getting involved with our local Rotaract, which is a Rotary organization for younger people my age. I am looking forward to getting involved with both projects!

My next Rotary event will be: speaking for the Rotary Club of March on November 24th.

From left to right: Dhriti, me, Eric, Dave, and Katie

1st Week of Class

I just finished my first week of classes! I have to say I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the term. On Monday morning, I had my first elective, Electricity and the Environment, it seems like it will be one of my tougher classes, seeing as my professor wrote the textbook, but it focuses on renewable energy sources which is what I am interested in. Monday afternoon I had my research skills class which has a different topic every week and this week was Getting the Best Out of Your Supervisor. It was kind of a pointless class for me because I have already done a year-long research project, but we did a role playing exercise which I guess was kind of fun. Monday night I had microeconomics. My Professor is from South Africa and truly seems like a great teacher so maybe it won't be over my head after all! The best part of the class was him stopping every half hour to ask someone in the class how his pace/accent was to make sure we were all understanding him. Once, when he stopped, the student's answer was "familiar" so they then had a nice talk about South Africa before we got back to the lesson.

Tuesday morning I made my first Rotary meeting. The club normally meets at lunch, but every four weeks they have a breakfast session. I sat at the head table next to the club president, Jim. He is an elderly gentlemen who has lived everywhere and done everything. The last 20 years he lived in the West Indies! We had a nice conversation about a talk he was giving later in the week entitled "Hiroshima and Nagasaki: I was there." He told me about how when he was in the military he was on a mission to do some of the effect studies after the destruction. I am looking forward to further meetings! Tuesday afternoon I had my Eng for Sustainable Development discussion seminar, which is also a different topic each week. This week was "The Story of Stuff" about our consumerism and how it is destroying the planet. Did you know that if everyone on the planet lived at the US standard of living we would need 5 planets to survive? After the discussion seminar, I had my other elective, Management of Technology. I am really glad I picked this class. My professor was describing the evolution of different technologies and actually brought examples of some of the first cell phones to class! He also gave us a description of exactly what kind of paper he expected at the end of the term - just what I like - structure!

On Wednesday morning, I had Environment Economic and Community Perspectives with Dr. Fenner. It was basically just an introduction to the class. On Wednesday night, I had Decision Analysis, which is boring, but I think will be useful. My professor is a visiting professor from Stanford and CEO of a company called Stratelygics. He gave 5o pounds ($100) to one of the students during the first class for making a good decision so if that continues I'm all for the class!

On Thursday morning, I had crew practice with the Churchill boat. We had a coach and everything! I stroked now that the boat is bow rigged. The practice went amazingly well, I think we actually have potential! We were able to row all 8 square blades for over 20 minutes, which is something we never would have done at Navy! After practice, I had to rush to my last class of the week Sustainable Development Contexts with Professor Guthrie. It was just another basic introduction, but he definitely encourages class participation so I better do my reading!

Yesterday, Friday, I didn't have class so I basically studied all day. I took a "break" to do a 30 minute erg test, which I did surprisingly well at. Last night I decided to go to the college bar at 10pm, but I got a phone call from the Cambridge crew captain at 9:30pm asking me to row Saturday morning as a sub, meaning I would have to get up at 6am. I decided to go out late anyway and am glad I did!

So this morning I practiced with the Cambridge University's 2nd eight. Practice went well and I told Harriet, the Captain, I would be willing to sub anytime as long as it wasn't everyday. Apparently, I impressed the coach because he asked me to come back this afternoon to be bow in their first eight for a race, so I'll let you know how that goes! I think they are just trying to trick me into coming back! Regardless, I can now officially say, "I have raced in Cambridge University Women's 1st Varsity Eight."

So that's my first week! Plans for the near future include: going to London for election night for some important American party (Nov 4) and going to Athens Greece for the marathon (I'm running a 10K) (Nov 6). Also, I have decided not to do University Tennis.

Chartwell: Churchill's Family Home

On Sunday the college arranged for a group of graduate students to visit Chartwell: Churchill's family home. It was magnificent! I do not have any pictures of the inside because it was not allowed, but the property is truly meant to be enjoyed outdoors anyway. I believe the house sits on something like 82 acres. Sir Winston purchased the estate in 1922 and, except during the WWII, spent as much time as he could here until his death in 1965. The family's happiest times were during the 30's and the decor of the rooms reflect that decade. The National Trust, who cares for the house, maintains several of the family's traditions. Throughout the house there are fresh flowers, daily newspapers, cigars, and a marmalade cat. Outside, there are magnificent views over the Weald of Kent, a kitchen garden, Lady Churchill's rose garden, a water garden, a croquet lawn, a swan pen, a swimming pool, and Sir Winston's studio where he did most of his painting. You come away from the house thinking it is absolutely incredible that he was not only a great statesman, but also an accomplished artist, writer (he won the Nobel prize in literature), brick layer, and loving father.

The rose garden

Golden Rose Avenue and the kitchen garden

The Studio which contains over 130 of Sir Winston's paintings!

Sir Winston and I having a chat

The lake - in the backyard!

The house is not looking its best because the roof is being replaced at the moment

The water garden with the chair where Sir Winston was known to sit and feed his fish whenever he was home

The swimming pool