First Week in Cambridge

I have survived my first week in Cambridge! The city is beautiful, with everything you could ever want and need within walking distance (if your in shape). Everyone either walks or bikes everywhere, which makes sense because the average gallon of gas cost over $10.

This past weekend Rotary District 1060 hosted LINK 2008, an orientation for all incoming rotary ambassadorial scholars and peace fellows in Great Britain and Ireland. The orientation events allowed me to meet a number of other students, mainly international students with the majority of them coming from the US, Asia, or Africa. I will write a separate entry about the entire weekend later.

My master’s program courses have not started yet. On Monday the 6th of October, registration begins. Registration will be followed by a short introduction to the Engineering Department's Center for Sustainable Development staff and then we will join new graduate students from the rest of the Engineering Department for a series of introductory talks. On Tueday, we will take a required course on safety followed by a careers talk and an introduction to the double module in Management of Technology and Innovation. On Wednesday, the course director, Dr. Fenner (my advisor), will give an introduction to the various aspects of the MPhil program. On Thursday, lectures will begin. However, when I went to find out when I needed to show up for registration I was given a stack of reading materials to go through before then (I have a lot of reading to do before next Thursday). On Friday and Saturday, a one-night residential field course to Stonehenge to explore the relationships between roads and landscape is being arranged. Can you believe it? I'll have only been in England two weeks and I'll already have been to Stonehenge!

I’m staying in university-affiliated housing, in what they refer to as a hostile on Churchill grounds. I live in a very old house which has 9 single rooms, 4 shared bathrooms, and 1 shared kitchen. The building is beautiful from the outside (it looks like something out of Pride and Prejudice) and there is a greenhouse in the backyard. However, the Navy is willing to pay for my housing so I'm trying to see if I can get a place with its own kitchen and bathroom. I haven't met many of the other students living in the hostile yet because most of them haven't moved in yet, but today I did meet Carlos from Portugal who was very nice. So far, I have been eating breakfast and lunch in my room from things I was able to buy at the grocery store and I usually go out to one of the local pubs for dinner. Everything is so expensive though so I still need to check out Churchill's dining hall.

I will be meeting my host Rotarian, Paul, and his wife on Friday night. They just got home from a trip and are leaving again for France next week. So it will be awhile before I attend a rotary meeting, but said he would take me to one as soon as he gets back. He is very nice and made sure I got to Cambridge OK even though he wouldn't be able to help. I look forward to getting to know Paul and his wife over the coming year.

One last thing I should mention, I am trying out for the University of Cambridge Women's Crew Team. It will be several weeks before I know if I have made the team or not. It is very challenging with two practices a day and the girls on the team are very good. My hands are rubbed raw because they do not have enough time to heal between practices, but one of the girls on the team was nice enough to tell me where I could buy some tape to tape them up so the didn't hurt nearly as bad this afternoon. I am enjoying getting to know the girls on team. Most of the team is British and I am enjoying getting to know each and every one of them. One of the girls' names is Hermione, which I only though existed in Harry Potter! Some times they have trouble understanding me when I talk so I am learning to talk slower.

One more little tid bit, I am at Cambridge with 4 other Naval Academy graduates, Will, Eric, Dave, and Leland. Dave, Eric, and I have been spending a lot of time together. They helped me get settled and even cooked dinner for me last night! They are great guys and I am looking forward to getting to know them better over the next year. Last night, Dave and Eric convinced me to help them commandeer a punt (a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole). They are convinced they are going to refurbish it and paint it blue and gold and pass it down to the next Academy graduates who attend Cambridge.

A picture of what punting looks like

Dave with his newly acquired (somewhat illegally) acquisition.