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

Sustainable Development Field Trip

On Friday we left on our one and only field trip for this term for my program (Engineering for Sustainable Development). The theme of the trip was roads and their effects on landscapes. By 930am we were at Beaufort Court, RES (Renewable Enegry Systems) to take a tour of the site. The site is the headquaters for RES and was refurbished from the old Ovaltine Egg Farm. The site has many on-site renewable energy sources to help make the building a zero emisions building. I was surprised at how attractive the building was, the renewable technologies did not detract from the overall appearance of the site.

The first thing you notice when you pull up to the site is the giant wind turbine. However, it is very quiet and provides all of the building's electoral power.

The group listening intently to our tour guide

The side of the RES building. The trees were planted to prevent the building from overheating in the summer. The green panels on the upper part of the windows prevent glare because sunlight is used during the day for lighting and heating.

The biomass crop: used for heating

The solar panel array: used for heating

The underground heat store: used for heating in the winter

A view of the front of the building: the well leads to an underground aqueduct which is used as ground water cooling in the summer

By 2pm we were at Stonehenge. I must say - it is smaller in person, but it is still impressive if you consider those stones were placed there around 4,000 years ago with some of the stones coming from as far as 240 miles away. Unfortunately, the site is surrounded by busy roads on both sides which detracts from people's enjoyment of the site and which is why we were studying it. Over the last decade, a plan has been in the works to dig a tunnel under the site and return the surface to its original beauty. However, in 2006 the plans were permanently shelved due to cost. Our job for the day was to work in groups to come up with a better design for Stonehenge. My group decided to keep the road in the location it is, but to do a combination of cut-and-cover, which is a shallow tunnel, and a sunken road once the cars were well past the site. Unfortunately, my group didn't win. Another group who built a whole new road entirely to the south won. Another exciting part of our visit was meeting 2 real Druids! King Arthur Pendragon explained to us the history of the site and his connection with it - it was very interesting! We also signed a petition for him asking the government to get rid of the roads surrounding the site.

A view of Stonehenge from inside the bus on the road: can you believe how close the road is?

How close the other road is to the site: Stonehenge is on the left

There was a caravan of Wickens visiting the site: these are some of their bumper stickers!

On Saturday, we visited two more sites. The first one, Twyford Down, was an example of a poor road design and the second one, Hindhead, was a terrific example of a sustainable road. It was a long weekend, but I enjoyed visiting the sites and getting to know my classmates a little better! The following are some photos of Twyford Down.

Where a major highway used to be has now been returned to its natural state

We walked up a beautiful path to get to the top of St. Catherine's Hill: an Iron Age fort

This ditch is a crucial part of the Iron Age fort. From high ground you could defend your territory.

The top of St. Catherine's Hill

The top of St. Catherine's from a distance


Overlooking the city of Winchester

Registration Week!

On Monday, registration began. In the morning, I met with the other students in my program for the first time! There are 29 of us from 12 different countries, including: Uganda, Pakistan, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Barbados, Egypt, South Africa, Cyprus, France, Ireland, and China. I am one of the youngest of course. Most of my classmates have several years work experience, but I am excited to learn from them!

After we were welcomed by the professors for Engineering for Sustainable Development (there are three of them), we met up with all the engineering graduate students for a welcome talk from the Engineering Department. Then we headed upstairs to complete are computer registration. Monday night was also Curry Night at my college. All the graduate students met up in the MCR (middle common room) to enjoy some curry which was delivered by a local restaurant. The curry was delicious, cheap (2 pounds), and the conversation was even better!

On Tuesday, all graduate students had a 2 hour long safety talk from the University (boring, but useful and necessary). Tuesday afternoon we had more talks about computing and then were introduced to one of the courses in our program (MoTI, Management of Technology and Innovation). MoTI is taught by the Judge Business School and is basically like getting a mini MBA within our program. We have to choose 4 of the 7 classes to take. I will be taking Microeconomics, Decision Theory, Accounting and Finance, and Marketing. Tuesday was also the day of the University Society Fair: it was crazy! Imagine hundreds of societies, clubs, and teams on everything you can imagine crammed into two gyms. Plus, everyone was trying to convince you to join their club with free stuff. I joined a wine tasting club, Engineers without Borders, Scuba Diving, Caving, a drama society, an Arabic club, fencing, and tennis. Some of those I wanted to sign up for and some I got tricked into. I came away with a 1GB flash drive, a T-shirt, 3 bags, a can of baked beans, a deck of cards, a lot of candy, and a bunch of other junk.

So, now would be a good time to update you on rowing and my other sportscapades. Well, I definitely am no longer rowing for the University (I was actually able to tell them no!), but I am still pursuing rowing for my college. We had our first practice this morning and it went better than I expected. It looks like I will be stroking! The level is nowhere near the University level, but we have all year to improve. However, I will still be competing on a University team! I signed up for University Tennis (I haven't played in 4 years, but I took it pretty seriously in high school), but then realized I wouldn't be able to make the tryouts so I contacted the Captain. She set up for me to have a private tryout yesterday with the best player on the team, Victoria. Victoria just got back from playing in a tour of famous tennis clubs in the US! Needless to say she was very good, but I held my own. At the end of the session, she said she was shocked at how good I was for not having played in 4 years and said I might have a chance at making the first team (8 girls) or I would be at the top of the second team. So that's where things stand at the moment: on to the rest of the week.

On Wednesday, we had another introductory talk about my program, Engineering for Sustainable Development. That's when we learned what classes we will be taking. This term, in addition to the 4 MoTI courses I already mentioned, I will be taking Sustainable Development Contexts, Environment Economic and Community Perspectives, Electricity and Environment, Management of Technology, a Discussion Seminar, and a Research Skills course. I know, that's a lot of courses (10), I'm a little worried to say the least.

Tomorrow my program is headed off for a field course in Stonehenge! On the trip we will visit four sites to study roads and their effects on landscapes (a major highway is located just 200m from Stonehenge). Besides Stonehenge, I am very excited about our first stop, Beaufort Court (the old Ovaltine Egg Farm). The building has been fully converted to a Zero Emissions Building, which produces all its energy on-site from renewable sources. The site includes a wind turbine, solar panel array, biomass crop, ground water cooling, and an underground heat store.

So that's it for registration week. I can't wait to upload photos of Stonehenge and tell you about my first week of classes!

Photos of Downtown Cambridge

These are some pictures I took when I walked to the grocery store last Sunday. Yes, it was raining. Yes, I was soaked by the time I made it home, but I stopped to take these pictures anyway in hopes that you all would enjoy them.

The Round Church: enough said

Some shops downtown

St. John's College, just slightly more traditional than Churchill

A typical street view, biker included

The Baron of Beef: a local pub. Good food, but we waited for about 90 minutes.

Another very old chuch: Anglican of course

A view of the River Cam from the Magdalene Bridge. In the foreground, you can see several punts and the furthest building back on the right is where my friend Dave has an awesome apartment overlooking the river.