The small one:
The big one:
An additional photo of the big keg added later:
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Heidelberg Schloss
The castle in Heidelberg had two kegs: the small one and the big one. Tourists were advised not to mistake the small one for the big one. Here's why.
The small one:
The big one:
The small one:
The big one:
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The Heidelberg Update
Let me just start by saying Germany is tiiiiiiiiight.
Anyway, updates. So the weekend started off with Thanksgiving Dinner for the CME-ers + Kings Fellows who got in for free. The dinner itself was supposed to be worth 30 pounds but we were subsidized and payed 5 or 15... I forget because we actually never paid anyway. They started by serving mulled wine and mamosas (at least, I think that's what they were) and then we sat down to eat. Let's see... the food was decent from what I remember. We had pumpkin scallion soup (delicious) and turkey with gravy along with stuffing and potatoes and red cabbage. Except... the stuffing was super disappointing. It looked like a veggie meat pattie, except crispier. Not good. It was my first time eating Thanksgiving with friends rather than family, which was both fun and sad. Thanksgiving here definitely lacks the oomph it has in the States.
After that, the night really started off. We ended up going to Revs, with a new addition! Since I'm not using names, let's just call him DADMF. The acronym I have in mind gives him away... so just ask me if you're curious. Just to give you a clue, one of the D's stands for drunken while the M stands for mother. Moving on, we head to revs and get a table near the speakers. It was a pretty normal night. Oh yeah, and an econ friend who is awesome came with us too. But then things started getting bad. DADMF was wasted off of his ass, and started redirecting people out of the lounge. And then he started hitting on these two girls with another dude, who then got him kicked out. So we had to leave to.
That's when shit really started going down. While we were walking back to Trinity to have more drinks, DADMF stumbles into an alleyway by a church, takes off his pants, spreads his arms, grabs the gate with his outstretched hands and back against the metal, and slouches. Here we are, DADMF taking the jesus pose with his pants off. Random girls kept walking by and freaking out because all of a sudden they see this dude with his pants off, "taking the pose." So we're like... shit it's time to take him home. The trooper that he is, CPG decides to take DADMF home in a cab (it's far far away) so we think crisis resolved. Time to go party. We were so so wrong.
About 20 minutes later, CPG calls and asks us to "please hurry and run down and catch up with him" (down one of the main streets). So we go and see a shirtless DADMF pushing CPG away and running down the street. Apparently, DADMF put CPG into a headlock, then the cab driver, then opened the door to jump out but before he could the cab stopped. And DADMF just kind of fell onto the ground. At this point, it's around 2 AM and we're leaving Cambridge for Germany at 4:15. So this needed some fast resolving. We walked around dragging DADMF, trying to keep him in our sights and to control his beligerant attitude. He ended up pissing on one of the nice lawns outside of Pembroke. Anyway, EVENTUALLY, we got his ass into a cab with one of the econ guys (who is awesome, btw) and he sends him home. DADMF wakes up the next morning in the bathroom with the toilet seat ripped off... and he doesn't remember a thing.
Okay, so that was the prelude to Germany. After the miserable commute from the airport to our hotel, we were FINALLY ready to get things started. So the first thing we do, of course, is to eat a bratwurst. In comparison to English food.... it was heaven. And then we walked down the main street with all of the shops and stuff and did some shopping. This went on a while until we hit the christmas markets.
The christmas markets are awesome. They're basically stands of potential gifts, neat artisanship and lots and lots of food/mulled wine. Germans know how to cook meat. After eating lamb, duck, ham, and once, pheasant, all the time in England, this food was incredible. The mulled wine was equally delicious - the best part was that you could buy the mugs for a euro extra. So we basically spent our time checking out the christmas markets for the first night and then we rested up before going out.
German beer blows English beer/ale out of the sky. I can't really describe the taste other than refreshing and a nice mix between carbonation and bitterness. They also have beers with fruit in them, and some other shit in there too. They were actually quite tasty and the girls loved that stuff. That's all they got. So we checked out a few of these bars and then went to a club. After dancing in Cambridge clubs, the clubs in Germany had major culture shock value. There was no such thing as a coat check. You just leave your stuff out there and expect no one to take it. People are infintely more friendly and more shameless when they dance. And people actually dance! When we got there, we had these beers called Desperados which are basically tequila/beer mixtures. No matter how that might sound, it actually wasn't bad. Nothing too crazy happened that night.
The next day, we checked out this awesome candy store where the owner basically gave free candy to all of his customers. He has these series of mini-games that you play at the counter, and even if you lose, he finds some way to make you win. So you always leave with free candy. This guy is fucking crazy too. He has one of those legit tattoos from the military for his badassness. And he has shrunken heads, dentist drills, mini air planes, and some other random shit all over his store. His store was appreciated more by the locals than by tourists, so it was a good time.
We also checked out Schloss, the castle. The castle was sweet but the wine cellar.... oh my god the wine cellar. So Schloss is host to the largest keg in the world. So here I am thinking, oh it's probably the size of a single in Baker. Nope, that's the small one. The big one is big enough to fit a three story house... it was ridiculous. The kings of old must have been crazy alcoholics, though they were also 300 lbs so that might explain it.
Anyway, pretty much same 'ol same 'ol after that. We ate more food. Did some more shopping. Went out to more bars. Etc. But it was an amazing time.
Anyway, updates. So the weekend started off with Thanksgiving Dinner for the CME-ers + Kings Fellows who got in for free. The dinner itself was supposed to be worth 30 pounds but we were subsidized and payed 5 or 15... I forget because we actually never paid anyway. They started by serving mulled wine and mamosas (at least, I think that's what they were) and then we sat down to eat. Let's see... the food was decent from what I remember. We had pumpkin scallion soup (delicious) and turkey with gravy along with stuffing and potatoes and red cabbage. Except... the stuffing was super disappointing. It looked like a veggie meat pattie, except crispier. Not good. It was my first time eating Thanksgiving with friends rather than family, which was both fun and sad. Thanksgiving here definitely lacks the oomph it has in the States.
After that, the night really started off. We ended up going to Revs, with a new addition! Since I'm not using names, let's just call him DADMF. The acronym I have in mind gives him away... so just ask me if you're curious. Just to give you a clue, one of the D's stands for drunken while the M stands for mother. Moving on, we head to revs and get a table near the speakers. It was a pretty normal night. Oh yeah, and an econ friend who is awesome came with us too. But then things started getting bad. DADMF was wasted off of his ass, and started redirecting people out of the lounge. And then he started hitting on these two girls with another dude, who then got him kicked out. So we had to leave to.
That's when shit really started going down. While we were walking back to Trinity to have more drinks, DADMF stumbles into an alleyway by a church, takes off his pants, spreads his arms, grabs the gate with his outstretched hands and back against the metal, and slouches. Here we are, DADMF taking the jesus pose with his pants off. Random girls kept walking by and freaking out because all of a sudden they see this dude with his pants off, "taking the pose." So we're like... shit it's time to take him home. The trooper that he is, CPG decides to take DADMF home in a cab (it's far far away) so we think crisis resolved. Time to go party. We were so so wrong.
About 20 minutes later, CPG calls and asks us to "please hurry and run down and catch up with him" (down one of the main streets). So we go and see a shirtless DADMF pushing CPG away and running down the street. Apparently, DADMF put CPG into a headlock, then the cab driver, then opened the door to jump out but before he could the cab stopped. And DADMF just kind of fell onto the ground. At this point, it's around 2 AM and we're leaving Cambridge for Germany at 4:15. So this needed some fast resolving. We walked around dragging DADMF, trying to keep him in our sights and to control his beligerant attitude. He ended up pissing on one of the nice lawns outside of Pembroke. Anyway, EVENTUALLY, we got his ass into a cab with one of the econ guys (who is awesome, btw) and he sends him home. DADMF wakes up the next morning in the bathroom with the toilet seat ripped off... and he doesn't remember a thing.
Okay, so that was the prelude to Germany. After the miserable commute from the airport to our hotel, we were FINALLY ready to get things started. So the first thing we do, of course, is to eat a bratwurst. In comparison to English food.... it was heaven. And then we walked down the main street with all of the shops and stuff and did some shopping. This went on a while until we hit the christmas markets.
The christmas markets are awesome. They're basically stands of potential gifts, neat artisanship and lots and lots of food/mulled wine. Germans know how to cook meat. After eating lamb, duck, ham, and once, pheasant, all the time in England, this food was incredible. The mulled wine was equally delicious - the best part was that you could buy the mugs for a euro extra. So we basically spent our time checking out the christmas markets for the first night and then we rested up before going out.
German beer blows English beer/ale out of the sky. I can't really describe the taste other than refreshing and a nice mix between carbonation and bitterness. They also have beers with fruit in them, and some other shit in there too. They were actually quite tasty and the girls loved that stuff. That's all they got. So we checked out a few of these bars and then went to a club. After dancing in Cambridge clubs, the clubs in Germany had major culture shock value. There was no such thing as a coat check. You just leave your stuff out there and expect no one to take it. People are infintely more friendly and more shameless when they dance. And people actually dance! When we got there, we had these beers called Desperados which are basically tequila/beer mixtures. No matter how that might sound, it actually wasn't bad. Nothing too crazy happened that night.
The next day, we checked out this awesome candy store where the owner basically gave free candy to all of his customers. He has these series of mini-games that you play at the counter, and even if you lose, he finds some way to make you win. So you always leave with free candy. This guy is fucking crazy too. He has one of those legit tattoos from the military for his badassness. And he has shrunken heads, dentist drills, mini air planes, and some other random shit all over his store. His store was appreciated more by the locals than by tourists, so it was a good time.
We also checked out Schloss, the castle. The castle was sweet but the wine cellar.... oh my god the wine cellar. So Schloss is host to the largest keg in the world. So here I am thinking, oh it's probably the size of a single in Baker. Nope, that's the small one. The big one is big enough to fit a three story house... it was ridiculous. The kings of old must have been crazy alcoholics, though they were also 300 lbs so that might explain it.
Anyway, pretty much same 'ol same 'ol after that. We ate more food. Did some more shopping. Went out to more bars. Etc. But it was an amazing time.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Gummy bear extravaganza
Yesterday was a looong day. It started off at 8:30 AM, when I got up to finish my lab report so I could finish my paper and pset at night. Well, I was hoping to finish the lab by 12 so I could start my reading before dance practice. That did not happen. I severely underestimated the tedium of error analysis which took 4 hours by itself. Anyway, so I barely finished my error analysis by 2:30, which was when I had dance rehearsal. So then I went to that.
I don't know what it is but people just don't dance here. At least, not in Cambridge. I was teaching someone how to do a body roll and they just could not figure out how to pop out their chest. That aside, dance practice was ridiculously long (from 2:30 to 9) and I had to travel to Robinson in between sessions, so I didn't get a chance to buy dinner.
After that, I had to go home to work. And at this point, Sainsbury is way closed. So my mouse runs out of batteries and I'm looking for the bag of goodies from Poundland - there were AA batteries there. I finally find the bag underneath a pile of clothes only to find 3 packs of gummies!!! This is the best part of the night, because I know I'm going to finish those packs by the end of it.
I finished the first two packs in 20 minutes... so I decided to savor the last one. At this point, I was working on my pset, so for every question I answered I told myself I could eat 5 gummies. Two things happened. 1) I got extremely sick and 2) Only got through 2 questions. And still haven't finished the paper or pset.
The moral of the story is that gummy bears are evil, evil things.
I don't know what it is but people just don't dance here. At least, not in Cambridge. I was teaching someone how to do a body roll and they just could not figure out how to pop out their chest. That aside, dance practice was ridiculously long (from 2:30 to 9) and I had to travel to Robinson in between sessions, so I didn't get a chance to buy dinner.
After that, I had to go home to work. And at this point, Sainsbury is way closed. So my mouse runs out of batteries and I'm looking for the bag of goodies from Poundland - there were AA batteries there. I finally find the bag underneath a pile of clothes only to find 3 packs of gummies!!! This is the best part of the night, because I know I'm going to finish those packs by the end of it.
I finished the first two packs in 20 minutes... so I decided to savor the last one. At this point, I was working on my pset, so for every question I answered I told myself I could eat 5 gummies. Two things happened. 1) I got extremely sick and 2) Only got through 2 questions. And still haven't finished the paper or pset.
The moral of the story is that gummy bears are evil, evil things.
Monday, November 17, 2008
The Brits suck at city planning
I know Cambridge has a deep history, rich with tradition, yadda yadda yadda, but their technological skills suck. And it's not only the internet thing. That I can deal with... to some extent. It's these streets. They have zero city planning skills. The sidewalk is literally the width of two people, except half of the time there's a line of bikes against the wall, leaving space for only one person. This doesn't work on two way streets. Not to mention the fact that it's normal for double decker buses to drive down these streets (which barely fit the width of the bus) shoulder to shoulder with students and cyclists. And there's fucking cobblestone everywhere. And zero drainage. Every morning when you wake up, you can expect to see huge puddles of water on the pavement.
But that aside, Cambridge is still pretty fun. They have funny jargon like knackered which means tired. Apparently, the word was commonly used to mean "exhausted after lots of sex" but now it just means tired. Go figure.
Halloween was a lot of fun. We went as the Village People, although almost no one knew who they were. I was the construction worker, and there was also a biker chick, police woman, indian (CPG), cowboy, cowgirl, and gay naval/boat captain. We ended up going to McDonalds to get some "American" food because apparently, no one really dresses up for Halloween in the UK. Instead, people's ideas of Halloween consist of werewolves, zombies and vampires. It makes sense, I guess, but no one really slutted up for Halloween. The Brits were pretty traditional about it.
Back to McDonalds, random guys came up to CPG and told him that they liked his legs. Because all he was wearing were his speedo and loincloth. And some other random dudes wanted the policewoman to "handcuff his friend because he was being a bad boy." Ooooh boy. Afterwards, we went to a friend's room, started drinking and listened to random village people songs. CPG got really into it.... REALLY into it... just recall back to Halloween two years ago. And then he went a little overboard and had to go home. Though, we blame it on this other kid who was sipping shots of Baileys (which Cai had bought him) instead of taking them like a real man.
Anyway, after that we hit up Vodka Revs which is one of the lounge/clubs in the area. And I think we met up with some Americans in the Air Force, who then proceeded to buy us drinks. It's been a while, so I don't really remember all of the details. But I do remember my wife beater getting ripped in two... and then the bouncer yelled at me for showing too much skin. Which was basically my arms and chest (I was wearing a vest). But it was to commemorate my passage into non-teenage years. So all in all, good time.
But that aside, Cambridge is still pretty fun. They have funny jargon like knackered which means tired. Apparently, the word was commonly used to mean "exhausted after lots of sex" but now it just means tired. Go figure.
Halloween was a lot of fun. We went as the Village People, although almost no one knew who they were. I was the construction worker, and there was also a biker chick, police woman, indian (CPG), cowboy, cowgirl, and gay naval/boat captain. We ended up going to McDonalds to get some "American" food because apparently, no one really dresses up for Halloween in the UK. Instead, people's ideas of Halloween consist of werewolves, zombies and vampires. It makes sense, I guess, but no one really slutted up for Halloween. The Brits were pretty traditional about it.
Back to McDonalds, random guys came up to CPG and told him that they liked his legs. Because all he was wearing were his speedo and loincloth. And some other random dudes wanted the policewoman to "handcuff his friend because he was being a bad boy." Ooooh boy. Afterwards, we went to a friend's room, started drinking and listened to random village people songs. CPG got really into it.... REALLY into it... just recall back to Halloween two years ago. And then he went a little overboard and had to go home. Though, we blame it on this other kid who was sipping shots of Baileys (which Cai had bought him) instead of taking them like a real man.
Anyway, after that we hit up Vodka Revs which is one of the lounge/clubs in the area. And I think we met up with some Americans in the Air Force, who then proceeded to buy us drinks. It's been a while, so I don't really remember all of the details. But I do remember my wife beater getting ripped in two... and then the bouncer yelled at me for showing too much skin. Which was basically my arms and chest (I was wearing a vest). But it was to commemorate my passage into non-teenage years. So all in all, good time.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Rules of Pennying
Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. I'll have a more complete update in about 2 days after I finish a big project I've been working on. But I wanted to compile a set of rules for pennying, a classic past time in Britain.
So pennying is all about dropping pennies into another person's drink, meaning they have to finish their drink.
So rule 1) A penny in a glass or drink means you have to down it. Unless it conflicts with another rule.
2) An empty glass that's pennied needs to be filled then downed.
Now, there are a bunch of exceptions that you have to keep in mind, which make the game more interesting.
3) You can't penny a glass that hasn't been sipped at yet. Now, people can be real lame and just not drink from the glass... ever... but peer pressure usually takes care of that one.
4) If a person is double pennied, the second pennier has to drink his or her glass. Now this should NEVER happen since if you're pennied, you better drink it on the spot. But the rule's there.
5) If you are pennied and catch the penny with your teeth after downing the glass, the pennier has to finish his or her glass as well.
6) If you miss when you try to penny someone, you must down your glass.
Those are all of the rules I can think of right now. But when we go to formal every week, everyone brings their own bottle of wine. Fun times. To the PKT guys, you should try it for semi-formal =)
So pennying is all about dropping pennies into another person's drink, meaning they have to finish their drink.
So rule 1) A penny in a glass or drink means you have to down it. Unless it conflicts with another rule.
2) An empty glass that's pennied needs to be filled then downed.
Now, there are a bunch of exceptions that you have to keep in mind, which make the game more interesting.
3) You can't penny a glass that hasn't been sipped at yet. Now, people can be real lame and just not drink from the glass... ever... but peer pressure usually takes care of that one.
4) If a person is double pennied, the second pennier has to drink his or her glass. Now this should NEVER happen since if you're pennied, you better drink it on the spot. But the rule's there.
5) If you are pennied and catch the penny with your teeth after downing the glass, the pennier has to finish his or her glass as well.
6) If you miss when you try to penny someone, you must down your glass.
Those are all of the rules I can think of right now. But when we go to formal every week, everyone brings their own bottle of wine. Fun times. To the PKT guys, you should try it for semi-formal =)
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
This is the worst...
The following is an excerpt of an email I received from the IT department in my college. They really have nothing to do there :
You have been transferring large amounts of traffic. . Excessively large volumes of traffic may result in your disconnection from the network if not justified. Large network transfers put a strain on your network link. This occurs when students saturate the link e.g. by offering to the world their PC as providing some form of service this is usually done by sharing files. Running peer to peer software to share files( I player, Limewire, BitTorrent, Skype etc) throughout the network/internet contravenes CUDN policy (again usually sharing mp3 or video). Should this happen the offending PC will be disconnected from the network. With the appropriate tutor being informed of the action and reason. This may result in a reconnection fee and repeat offenders will be referred to the dean for disciplinary action. This contravenes College and University policy. Please review network policy for the college at: http://www.sid.cam.ac.uk/life/
and University policy
http://www.cam.ac.uk/CS/
this could have resulted in your disconnection from the network.
Details:
Date IP Number In (MB) Out (MB) Total MB
17/10/2008 131.111.254.210 675.89 455.352 1131.242
13/10/2008 131.111.254.210 545.33 1626.653 2171.983
10/10/2008 131.111.254.210 1113.297 246.125 1359.423
09/10/2008 131.111.254.210 1743.593 308.76 2052.352
07/10/2008 131.111.254.210 570.391 413.102 983.493
05/10/2008 131.111.254.210 1269.257 46.37 1315.626
Please explain
Just FYI, I can't exceed 200MB a day and 2GB a week...
Monday, October 20, 2008
A Seedy Time in Amsterdam
So I went to amsterdam this weekend with 7 other people. Though 1 person left early. And two were supposed to go but didn't. They know who they are -cough cough- Cai -cough cough-. Yeah, those two people owe me money. But before I get into amsterdam, one note. I am no longer going to use names since some people worry about employers looking, blah blah blah. So other than the previous slip up, no more names!
Okay, back to amsterdam. So I went with 5 CME-ers, one boyfriend, and one friend of boyfriend. Let's call him Bob. No one knew Bob and Bob didn't know us. Which was fine, since he turned out to be pretty chill when we met him. But he was strangely passive aggressive and left early, not even spending 24 hours in amsterdam. But we'll get to that as the story goes on.
So first, checked into the airport no problem. Bob mistakenly booked an eariler flight without even realizing it, so he had to pay an extra 50 pounds to get a new flight. We took a Ryanair flight to Eindhoven, which is a small airport 2 hours away from Amsterdam Central. Once we finally got there, we stayed at this place called Stayokay - Stadsdoelen. It wasn't too bad... except for this poor old guy who was living in our dorm room. He had all of his stuff packed into one hiking bag, and would just sit on his bed - coughing and spitting out grossness into a cup. He had virtually no teeth and couldn't talk. The first night there, we were terrified that we would wake up with his toothless grin staring back into our faces. But that didn't happen. And he was fine. I don't think he was homeless because the next day, he had some decent clothes on. So maybe he was just an old guy with no where to go and decided to travel. Like one last hurrah, kind of thing.
The first night we didn't do anything too special. Went out to a few pubs. Oh yeah, but the standard size for beer was around a half pint, apparently. And pints were "larges" there. And people looked at us funny when we were lounging around drinking pints. But the fresh Heineken was delicious. And every single pub had it on tap. So that was a good time. We also got a bucket of Coronas (6) for the price of 5. And we also walked through the Redlight District. I don't know what it is, but it seems like all the moderately attractive girls during the day are all replaced by the... more plus size ones at night. And it was not a pretty sight. I felt violated walking through those sketchy (or seedy, in English terms) alley ways. Though I did see plenty of people negotiating for a 15 minute quickie, so at least I know they get business. The worst part was I saw this couple walking along the RLD with TWO SMALL KIDS in hand. Wtf? Is that even legal? Their either going to grow up to be raging perverts or asexual. We'll see.
We also went to the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank House. They were all pretty sweet. Normally, I don't like going through museums, but I really liked the Van Gogh and Anne Frank house. The Van Gogh separating the floors to tell a story. The bottom floor showed works preceding Van Gogh which supposedly inspired him. And then the main floor (which in Europe is floor 1) had all of his works ordered chronologically. So you could see how those paintings influenced him at first. A lot of his early stuff was very dark and dreary. But then he started experimenting in different styles - like using brighter colors and experimenting with curly lines. And by the end of this floor, you could see the evolution of his distinct style. And the top floors showed works that were influenced by his paintings. It was all really neat. And the Anne Frank house was awesome too. You got to go through all of the rooms of the Secret Annex and their tour did a good job of showing you what it was like, through diagrams and models and videos.
So after all of the cultural stuff, we went to get food and then headed over to a coffeeshop. The first place we went to, we got chocolate space cakes and split it so everyone got a half. It definitely wasn't enough. We had two hours to kill before it hit so we went to the Sex Museum. That was interesting. It wasn't sexy, it was just either really funny or really weird. One example is that they had this electric powered mannequin that was covered in a trenchcoat. Except every now and then he would appear from the wall, open his trenchcoat, and then his fake penis would get erect. And then he would cover himself and go back into the wall. That was strange. And they also had photos from as far back as 1860, showing various couples in various positions. Apparently, guys loved getting rim jobs back in the day. So 2 hours pass, and nothing happens. So we go back to another coffee shop and this guy is pro. He checks each of the slices to find the ones that are more moist and gives that to us. And two hours later people start getting fucked up. Except, sadly I was just really tired =( So it converted into a need for sleep for me. But other people were having messed up trips.
Oh yeah, and Bob. We went to get lunch at this small cafe. Except before that, we were waiting for people to finish up at the museum. So Bob goes through the entire thing in like 30 minutes. The rest of us take around 1 to 1.5 hours. And then we wait for some other people for like 40 more minutes. So Bob has been waiting a while. And we're hungry. So after we sit down at the cafe, Bob just leaves and gets food elsewhere. Then comes back and realizes that his stool is gone so he leaves again and just waits for us outside. And eventually he decides he's "feeling really sick" and needs to go home. So he leaves Amsterdam, goes to Schipol, gets a new flight to Heathrow and probably spent another 100 pounds (or more) to go home early. It was really strange.
Oh, and I bought 2 awesome souveniers. But I can just show them to you when I get back. Which will be December 8th, BTW.
Okay, back to amsterdam. So I went with 5 CME-ers, one boyfriend, and one friend of boyfriend. Let's call him Bob. No one knew Bob and Bob didn't know us. Which was fine, since he turned out to be pretty chill when we met him. But he was strangely passive aggressive and left early, not even spending 24 hours in amsterdam. But we'll get to that as the story goes on.
So first, checked into the airport no problem. Bob mistakenly booked an eariler flight without even realizing it, so he had to pay an extra 50 pounds to get a new flight. We took a Ryanair flight to Eindhoven, which is a small airport 2 hours away from Amsterdam Central. Once we finally got there, we stayed at this place called Stayokay - Stadsdoelen. It wasn't too bad... except for this poor old guy who was living in our dorm room. He had all of his stuff packed into one hiking bag, and would just sit on his bed - coughing and spitting out grossness into a cup. He had virtually no teeth and couldn't talk. The first night there, we were terrified that we would wake up with his toothless grin staring back into our faces. But that didn't happen. And he was fine. I don't think he was homeless because the next day, he had some decent clothes on. So maybe he was just an old guy with no where to go and decided to travel. Like one last hurrah, kind of thing.
The first night we didn't do anything too special. Went out to a few pubs. Oh yeah, but the standard size for beer was around a half pint, apparently. And pints were "larges" there. And people looked at us funny when we were lounging around drinking pints. But the fresh Heineken was delicious. And every single pub had it on tap. So that was a good time. We also got a bucket of Coronas (6) for the price of 5. And we also walked through the Redlight District. I don't know what it is, but it seems like all the moderately attractive girls during the day are all replaced by the... more plus size ones at night. And it was not a pretty sight. I felt violated walking through those sketchy (or seedy, in English terms) alley ways. Though I did see plenty of people negotiating for a 15 minute quickie, so at least I know they get business. The worst part was I saw this couple walking along the RLD with TWO SMALL KIDS in hand. Wtf? Is that even legal? Their either going to grow up to be raging perverts or asexual. We'll see.
We also went to the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank House. They were all pretty sweet. Normally, I don't like going through museums, but I really liked the Van Gogh and Anne Frank house. The Van Gogh separating the floors to tell a story. The bottom floor showed works preceding Van Gogh which supposedly inspired him. And then the main floor (which in Europe is floor 1) had all of his works ordered chronologically. So you could see how those paintings influenced him at first. A lot of his early stuff was very dark and dreary. But then he started experimenting in different styles - like using brighter colors and experimenting with curly lines. And by the end of this floor, you could see the evolution of his distinct style. And the top floors showed works that were influenced by his paintings. It was all really neat. And the Anne Frank house was awesome too. You got to go through all of the rooms of the Secret Annex and their tour did a good job of showing you what it was like, through diagrams and models and videos.
So after all of the cultural stuff, we went to get food and then headed over to a coffeeshop. The first place we went to, we got chocolate space cakes and split it so everyone got a half. It definitely wasn't enough. We had two hours to kill before it hit so we went to the Sex Museum. That was interesting. It wasn't sexy, it was just either really funny or really weird. One example is that they had this electric powered mannequin that was covered in a trenchcoat. Except every now and then he would appear from the wall, open his trenchcoat, and then his fake penis would get erect. And then he would cover himself and go back into the wall. That was strange. And they also had photos from as far back as 1860, showing various couples in various positions. Apparently, guys loved getting rim jobs back in the day. So 2 hours pass, and nothing happens. So we go back to another coffee shop and this guy is pro. He checks each of the slices to find the ones that are more moist and gives that to us. And two hours later people start getting fucked up. Except, sadly I was just really tired =( So it converted into a need for sleep for me. But other people were having messed up trips.
Oh yeah, and Bob. We went to get lunch at this small cafe. Except before that, we were waiting for people to finish up at the museum. So Bob goes through the entire thing in like 30 minutes. The rest of us take around 1 to 1.5 hours. And then we wait for some other people for like 40 more minutes. So Bob has been waiting a while. And we're hungry. So after we sit down at the cafe, Bob just leaves and gets food elsewhere. Then comes back and realizes that his stool is gone so he leaves again and just waits for us outside. And eventually he decides he's "feeling really sick" and needs to go home. So he leaves Amsterdam, goes to Schipol, gets a new flight to Heathrow and probably spent another 100 pounds (or more) to go home early. It was really strange.
Oh, and I bought 2 awesome souveniers. But I can just show them to you when I get back. Which will be December 8th, BTW.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Formal hall
I love formal hall. It' basically 5 pounds to go to a college's hall in full out suits and robes for a 3 to 5 course meal with formal wear and wine. Except, you bring your own wine. And then you subsequently penny everyone else. I've had lots of wine tonight. And then we chilled at Emmanuel college, drinking some more and smoking hookah. Though they call it shisha. And I didn't smoke because I don't really smoke. But anyway, shit, that wine was 5 pounds for a bottle. To myself. And I drank it all within like 20 minutes. That was bad. And then we had some more as this random dude's room. That was worse. Mixed in with the exciting scent of peaches and raspberries from the hookah, I had a pretty good night. And we topped it off with a burger for 2.4 pounds. It was delicious. So here I am, in my room, with the window open, the heater to a mininum, bare naked and I'm slightly cold. But I know I'll be hot when I sleep so I deal with it. There's really no point to this post. Except for one point - tomorrow I'm going to amsterdam!!!!
PS - I finished my first of 8 papers this term. We have to write a paper each week for 20 weeks this year. That's going to suck. And half of it is on history.... which is the worst.
PS - I finished my first of 8 papers this term. We have to write a paper each week for 20 weeks this year. That's going to suck. And half of it is on history.... which is the worst.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Punting, costumes and Ne-Yo
Update number 1: I went punting for the first time, off of Trinity's bridge. For those of you who don't know, "A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole. A punt should not be confused with a gondola, which is propelled with an oar rather than poled" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punting). So basically, you take a humongous pole that's about 3 times your size, dig it into the ground, push really hard, and propel your boat forward from the force - all the while balancing on the flat part of it. It's extremely difficult, especially when other boats ram into yours (accidentally...). But it's really peaceful and it's awesome when you get to be the one chillin' in the boat when one of your friends is basically pushing a boat along the river for you.
Update number 2: Costumes. The Brits love costumes. They honestly have their own costume wardrobes. So basically every night I've been here, there has been a costume party. And all of the English get ridiculously into it. The other night, I was at a Ravin' 90's party and everyone was wearing bright colored shirts, tights, fishnets, glowsticks and blue glowing face paint. Everyone.... There was one night when there were two of these parties, the Pirates and the Army party, and the two groups of people would fight all around Cambridge. And I saw the TMNT last night, with green suits and shells! But the best was when there was a space theme in Peterhouse, I think? I someone decided to cover himself in tin foil. That was his costume. It looked pretty ridiculous.
Update number 3: I paid 20 pounds to go to a Ne-Yo concert. I thought it was going to be sketchy since it was at a club, but what actually happened was horrible and a total waste of time. So it was supposed to start at 9 and go to 3 am. So we thought, like in America, there would be opening acts and stuff. So we decided to pregame until 10:30 and head in at 11. When we finally got there, it was just a club. No opening acts, just music and people dancing. And we stayed there until 12 when they finally started clearing the stage. Thirty minutes after this they started playing some Ne-Yo music so we thought it was going to start soon. An hour of this hype went by. An hour. And no ne-yo. In the mean time, 5 girls freaking passed out from being crushed by people behind them or something, and had to be carried out. When we left later that night, they were just chilling outside. Some of them were passed out on the steps, looking completely gone. Anyway. So at 1:30 he finally comes and we have a pretty decent view. He's like 10 feet away from us and he's singing to the crowd. Except he sings 2 songs and he peaces. 2 songs for 20 pounds??? That was the worst transaction of money in my life. So we left after that very very disappointed. Grrr.
Update number 2: Costumes. The Brits love costumes. They honestly have their own costume wardrobes. So basically every night I've been here, there has been a costume party. And all of the English get ridiculously into it. The other night, I was at a Ravin' 90's party and everyone was wearing bright colored shirts, tights, fishnets, glowsticks and blue glowing face paint. Everyone.... There was one night when there were two of these parties, the Pirates and the Army party, and the two groups of people would fight all around Cambridge. And I saw the TMNT last night, with green suits and shells! But the best was when there was a space theme in Peterhouse, I think? I someone decided to cover himself in tin foil. That was his costume. It looked pretty ridiculous.
Update number 3: I paid 20 pounds to go to a Ne-Yo concert. I thought it was going to be sketchy since it was at a club, but what actually happened was horrible and a total waste of time. So it was supposed to start at 9 and go to 3 am. So we thought, like in America, there would be opening acts and stuff. So we decided to pregame until 10:30 and head in at 11. When we finally got there, it was just a club. No opening acts, just music and people dancing. And we stayed there until 12 when they finally started clearing the stage. Thirty minutes after this they started playing some Ne-Yo music so we thought it was going to start soon. An hour of this hype went by. An hour. And no ne-yo. In the mean time, 5 girls freaking passed out from being crushed by people behind them or something, and had to be carried out. When we left later that night, they were just chilling outside. Some of them were passed out on the steps, looking completely gone. Anyway. So at 1:30 he finally comes and we have a pretty decent view. He's like 10 feet away from us and he's singing to the crowd. Except he sings 2 songs and he peaces. 2 songs for 20 pounds??? That was the worst transaction of money in my life. So we left after that very very disappointed. Grrr.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Harmonics
I just discovered that I can excite the first three rotational harmonic modes of my shaver charger. By rotational I mean the first is just spinning, the second has a bend in it as it spins, and the third (which is very hard) has two bends in it.
Also, I'm co-principal of the university's symphony orchestra. I should mention that I've had two auditions (the last one this morning, early in the morning after a not-so-sober night). They went quite well.
Also, I'm co-principal of the university's symphony orchestra. I should mention that I've had two auditions (the last one this morning, early in the morning after a not-so-sober night). They went quite well.
A little bit of comfort
Friday night was a lot of fun. The night started in Alice's room. Alice's room has a pole. She also had some Southern Comfort, which I had never tried, and nothing to mix it with.
Much hilarity ensued.
Much hilarity ensued.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
got the munchies
Tonight's post is about food. Now, I'm sure you've all heard stories about how awful English food is. Sadly, it's pretty much true. The hall in my college isn't bad, but it's not great. And it's only open three times a day for an hour at a time. So the food situation is pretty bad. There's this great Pizza Hut that serves in buffet form! But it closes early, obviously. The supermarket closes at 5 and most places close by 9. So food after 9 is really hard to get, unless you're at a restaurant or pub. And pubs are basically double the price for any food.
So, to backtrack a little, I was at a Chem Eng intro dinner thing that was sponsored by Exxon and they treated us to free alcohol and pizza. And then they took us to a pub and bought the first round. So after a few hours of this, the munchies hit. And they hit hard. But - oh noes!! - there weren't any places open! Luckily, one of the British guys knew exactly where to go. And that was Gardi's, short for Gardenia's. Here's their website: click here. So here are a few great things about this place:
So, to backtrack a little, I was at a Chem Eng intro dinner thing that was sponsored by Exxon and they treated us to free alcohol and pizza. And then they took us to a pub and bought the first round. So after a few hours of this, the munchies hit. And they hit hard. But - oh noes!! - there weren't any places open! Luckily, one of the British guys knew exactly where to go. And that was Gardi's, short for Gardenia's. Here's their website: click here. So here are a few great things about this place:
- It's open until 4.
- It's cheap (2 pounds for a burger)
- It's takeout
- It's lightning fast. Like, seriously. About 45 seconds after I ordered, a delicious burger appeared in my hands, ready to be consumed.
Monday, October 6, 2008
hoooooooooooly shit my throat is killing me
omg i had a ridiculously stupid night. okay so it started with matriculation which was just a bottle fest of free wine. deliciously free wine. it started off with a reception with free glasses of wine. no pennying happened but i definitely downed three glasses before the wine ran out. and it tasted like peach flavored water - it was that smooth and delicious. For matriculation, we were wearing smart clothing, which means suit and tie, and a robe over it. And we had to sign our names in this book which basically means we join the college officially. After that little technicality, we had a post-signing reception with our tutors, who are basically in charge of our well being. Basically, Cambridge makes sure the students are happy with this one person who's in charge of keeping you happy. It's great. So he served us even more bottles of wine. And I was definitely pennied, so by the end of the reception, I was almost done with my second bottle of wine. FOR FREE!!!
Okay, so post reception, we had a 5- course meal at Sidney Sussex's dining hall, with complementary wine. And once we got to the red wine, they just kept refilling. I'm not sure how much wine I had... but it was a lot. Anyway, after dinner, I headed over to the Emmanual bar with Alex Beyer and TJ Price. They were doing karaoke + drinking over there, except the English suck at singing. So all they did was choose songs like "In the Navy", start stripping and swung their shirts around. I'm sure Rob would have appreciated it. Okay, but people were being lame tonight and staying in. Cai was sick and Alex was getting sick, so they stayed in. And everyone else was staying in. And all of the freshers were doing college events. So I went to Wetherspoons to meet up with Alice Li, who I found out was Victor's ex. Anyway, many beers later (mainly Newcastle and Foster's), we were trying to decide who was the cutest british girl on the dance floor except they were all fucking so prude, so we just left. And I walked Alice back to Peterhouse while TJ went home. And that's when the crazy shit happened.
So after chilling at Peterhouse, another one of the colleges, I left to go home. This was around 1 am, about 5 hours since I started drinking. Except I leave and realize, I have no idea where the fuck I am. Grass is everywhere, there's a gate... slash multiple gates with keyholes and I don't have any keys. So I try calling Alice back to show me out but she doesn't pick up. And I try calling various other people but no go; I was on my own...
So the first thing I do is try to jump over the fence. And I'm wearing my new chucks, with almost no gripping tension, and as I'm about to hop over, a light comes on and I see I'm actually jumping over a fence into a bike rack area. But the sudden turning on of the light makes me fall as I'm swinging my leg over and one of the fence spikes cuts through my butt pocket, nearly missing the not so money spot. That was horrifying. So anyway, I'm licking my wounds and heading back to where I came from, to figure out how to get out. After like 10 minutes. this random group of freshman girls pops out the window and I call out to them and ask them to help me out. They're trashed out of their minds but they agree to help. So I go into their room and they have 6 bottles of absinthe ready to go. And then they tell me they'll only help me if I drink absinthe with them so I'm like... "okay.... if I can get home eventually." So we fucking BOAT race that shit. It's me versus the two of them. We each have to take 5 shots of absinthe, un-prepared, and whoever finished first wins. So I pour all of the shots into one cup and start chugging, and the other girls just sip at the absinthe. So that fucked up me.
But after that, they finally took me through the first two gates, but not the third. The third gate is the main gate and it's also locked from the inside. So I had to climb up the concrete wall, and try to balance myself on top of the gate before I jumped off. But then the porter came and starting yelling at me!!! So I jumped and bolted for like 5 minutes. And THEN I saw this woman (homeless looking) who was like "Do you speak English? Do you speak English?" And after a few of these, I scream, "Yes, I speak English. Better than you!" But after that she explained she was missing her coat and a homeless guy stole it. So I spent like 20 minutes tracking this guy down when we finally saw him in the street, cuddling a small cardigan. Apparently, that was the "coat." So I stepped over him, almost straddling him, and gently tugged the cardigan away from him. So the coat was saved! But the homeless man was still homeless =(
Anyway, I'm mo tired so I'm going to sleep now. But I skipped over a lot of minor details. Inquiries welcome.
EDIT: Okay, so this might have been a hallucination but between the 2nd and 3rd gates, there might have been a marble staircase that led me down to an underground tunnel system which led me across the street to a separate gate where I actually hopped out. Now, at the time it seemed reasonable since Emma has one of these things... but it also might have been a dream...
Okay, so post reception, we had a 5- course meal at Sidney Sussex's dining hall, with complementary wine. And once we got to the red wine, they just kept refilling. I'm not sure how much wine I had... but it was a lot. Anyway, after dinner, I headed over to the Emmanual bar with Alex Beyer and TJ Price. They were doing karaoke + drinking over there, except the English suck at singing. So all they did was choose songs like "In the Navy", start stripping and swung their shirts around. I'm sure Rob would have appreciated it. Okay, but people were being lame tonight and staying in. Cai was sick and Alex was getting sick, so they stayed in. And everyone else was staying in. And all of the freshers were doing college events. So I went to Wetherspoons to meet up with Alice Li, who I found out was Victor's ex. Anyway, many beers later (mainly Newcastle and Foster's), we were trying to decide who was the cutest british girl on the dance floor except they were all fucking so prude, so we just left. And I walked Alice back to Peterhouse while TJ went home. And that's when the crazy shit happened.
So after chilling at Peterhouse, another one of the colleges, I left to go home. This was around 1 am, about 5 hours since I started drinking. Except I leave and realize, I have no idea where the fuck I am. Grass is everywhere, there's a gate... slash multiple gates with keyholes and I don't have any keys. So I try calling Alice back to show me out but she doesn't pick up. And I try calling various other people but no go; I was on my own...
So the first thing I do is try to jump over the fence. And I'm wearing my new chucks, with almost no gripping tension, and as I'm about to hop over, a light comes on and I see I'm actually jumping over a fence into a bike rack area. But the sudden turning on of the light makes me fall as I'm swinging my leg over and one of the fence spikes cuts through my butt pocket, nearly missing the not so money spot. That was horrifying. So anyway, I'm licking my wounds and heading back to where I came from, to figure out how to get out. After like 10 minutes. this random group of freshman girls pops out the window and I call out to them and ask them to help me out. They're trashed out of their minds but they agree to help. So I go into their room and they have 6 bottles of absinthe ready to go. And then they tell me they'll only help me if I drink absinthe with them so I'm like... "okay.... if I can get home eventually." So we fucking BOAT race that shit. It's me versus the two of them. We each have to take 5 shots of absinthe, un-prepared, and whoever finished first wins. So I pour all of the shots into one cup and start chugging, and the other girls just sip at the absinthe. So that fucked up me.
But after that, they finally took me through the first two gates, but not the third. The third gate is the main gate and it's also locked from the inside. So I had to climb up the concrete wall, and try to balance myself on top of the gate before I jumped off. But then the porter came and starting yelling at me!!! So I jumped and bolted for like 5 minutes. And THEN I saw this woman (homeless looking) who was like "Do you speak English? Do you speak English?" And after a few of these, I scream, "Yes, I speak English. Better than you!" But after that she explained she was missing her coat and a homeless guy stole it. So I spent like 20 minutes tracking this guy down when we finally saw him in the street, cuddling a small cardigan. Apparently, that was the "coat." So I stepped over him, almost straddling him, and gently tugged the cardigan away from him. So the coat was saved! But the homeless man was still homeless =(
Anyway, I'm mo tired so I'm going to sleep now. But I skipped over a lot of minor details. Inquiries welcome.
EDIT: Okay, so this might have been a hallucination but between the 2nd and 3rd gates, there might have been a marble staircase that led me down to an underground tunnel system which led me across the street to a separate gate where I actually hopped out. Now, at the time it seemed reasonable since Emma has one of these things... but it also might have been a dream...
Sunday, October 5, 2008
"This is a fine"
With the British accent, Cai is convinced that fine is spelled "fyne," however, we all know he's wrong. So here's how the game works. You have a handle of whatever. In this case, we had this thing called Sambuca which is licorice flavored crap that burns your through. So you pass the handle to someone else and the following dialog occurs:
First: "This is a fine"
Second: "A what?"
First: "A fine"
Second: "Oooooh, a fine"
(Second turns to next player, Third, and passes a handle)
Second: This is a fine
Third: A what?
Second (to First): A what?
First (to Second): A fine
Second (to Third): A fine
Third: Ooooh a fine.
Etc. etc. So whoever messes up in this exchange has to take a shot from the handle. So continuing on with the dialog...
Third (to Qian Qian): This is a fine
QQ: A what?
Third: A what?
Second: A what?
First: A fine
Second: A fine
Third: A fine
QQ: Ooooh a fine. (Now to next person, Fifth) This is a what?
And so QQ drank. Over and over again. Messing up that one line each time.
So this really doesn't seem that fun on paper, but some other "drinking games" the British play are "Stand-around-in-a-circle-chugging-one-at-a-time-until-everyone-is-piss-drunk" and "Pennying." Pennying is this silly tradition that they have that's kind of like "save the man." If you drop a penny into someone else's drink, you have to chug the drink to save the penny. Or whatever it is. And if it's an empty glass, you fill it up and then you chug. And if you cover your drink, you chug. You're allowed to dodge with your glass though... I think.
Anyway, there's some British culture for you all.
First: "This is a fine"
Second: "A what?"
First: "A fine"
Second: "Oooooh, a fine"
(Second turns to next player, Third, and passes a handle)
Second: This is a fine
Third: A what?
Second (to First): A what?
First (to Second): A fine
Second (to Third): A fine
Third: Ooooh a fine.
Etc. etc. So whoever messes up in this exchange has to take a shot from the handle. So continuing on with the dialog...
Third (to Qian Qian): This is a fine
QQ: A what?
Third: A what?
Second: A what?
First: A fine
Second: A fine
Third: A fine
QQ: Ooooh a fine. (Now to next person, Fifth) This is a what?
And so QQ drank. Over and over again. Messing up that one line each time.
So this really doesn't seem that fun on paper, but some other "drinking games" the British play are "Stand-around-in-a-circle-chugging-one-at-a-time-until-everyone-is-piss-drunk" and "Pennying." Pennying is this silly tradition that they have that's kind of like "save the man." If you drop a penny into someone else's drink, you have to chug the drink to save the penny. Or whatever it is. And if it's an empty glass, you fill it up and then you chug. And if you cover your drink, you chug. You're allowed to dodge with your glass though... I think.
Anyway, there's some British culture for you all.
Schrodinger's Keys
So my room is actually outside of my college's walls. It's a building called "the Warehouse," which is not quite as bad as it sounds, especially by MIT standards. However, I was given a huge set of five keys because of the various locks. I've figured out the numbers on a lot of them, but there are two keys that look almost exactly the same. One of these opens the outside two doors, the other opens the door to my hall.
The interesting point is the process of selecting these keys. I have determined that they are different, because one doesn't open the outside door, and the other doesn't open the inside door. I'm also fairly (although this is where it gets foggy) certain that both keys are useful. When selecting the keys, though, I always select the correct key to the outside entrance immediately. I then walk up a flight of stairs and subsequently select the wrong key.
I assume this is quantum mechanics at work at a macroscopic level, because whenever I concentrate my full attention on it, it almost makes sense (although sometimes not even then). Most of the time, though, I cannot figure it out.
The interesting point is the process of selecting these keys. I have determined that they are different, because one doesn't open the outside door, and the other doesn't open the inside door. I'm also fairly (although this is where it gets foggy) certain that both keys are useful. When selecting the keys, though, I always select the correct key to the outside entrance immediately. I then walk up a flight of stairs and subsequently select the wrong key.
I assume this is quantum mechanics at work at a macroscopic level, because whenever I concentrate my full attention on it, it almost makes sense (although sometimes not even then). Most of the time, though, I cannot figure it out.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
lost in the underground tunnels
so last night, we went to the trinity college pub to chill with some peeps and drink. cai and i had this delicious IPA which took him like an hour to drink. He was sipping at it. Here and there, -sip-. All of the girls finished their drinks before Cai finished half of his. Okay but anyway, then the girls went over to hit on/gather info from the bartenders. We figured, why not make a few friends at the bar? It can only help. Two tequila shots and a double shot later, we were off to Fez, the hoppin' club in Cambridge everyone goes to on friday night.
Fez was... special. We got a handle of Absolute + unlimited cranberry juice for 60 dollars and finished that off pretty fast. It was me, cai, alex beyer, alice li, laura meyer and qian qian at the club. and they were playing indie rock... INDIE... at the club. That was so not fly. So Alex goes up to the DJ and makes them change it to some real music. Black music. Then the party really started.
Three hours later we finally bounced and chilled in my tiny ass room. Except, we didn't really chill because the heater is freaking ridiculous and continuously burning up my room, even when I turn it off!! And then we split up to walk the girls home. QQ was already back to her place, so cai took alice home and i took alex home.
So alex's college, Emmanuel, closes its doors at 2 am abouts. Maybe earlier. By this point, it was 3:15 ish so we were like... eeeeff. But alex luckily had this map of secret entrances into the college so we took one of those. it was this small door on the other side of the street that was opened with your library key. and it led us down this dark, marble staircase into these underground ruins. Next time I go back there, I'm going to need to check out those tunnels. So we finally emerge topside in the courtyard, successfully going underneath the street outside and through the locked gate. And then I check out Alex's room which is ridiculous. It's two rooms attached together and its HUGE. So anyway, I'm leaving and I get to the door we came to get in and it's locked! Its freaking locked from the INSIDE!!! So I tried kicking it a few times and I thought I heard someone scream, "Shut the bloody hell up!" Didn't know that was a phrase. So then I tried to find the other secret entrances but I didn't have the map. I ended up having to call alex back to open the door with her handy library card. and homeward bound i went (an hour after i got there).
good news, i finally found the shower and kitchen in my staircase. they're hidden behind doors that look like dorm doors. those tricky bastards. anyway, that's all for now. peace.
Fez was... special. We got a handle of Absolute + unlimited cranberry juice for 60 dollars and finished that off pretty fast. It was me, cai, alex beyer, alice li, laura meyer and qian qian at the club. and they were playing indie rock... INDIE... at the club. That was so not fly. So Alex goes up to the DJ and makes them change it to some real music. Black music. Then the party really started.
Three hours later we finally bounced and chilled in my tiny ass room. Except, we didn't really chill because the heater is freaking ridiculous and continuously burning up my room, even when I turn it off!! And then we split up to walk the girls home. QQ was already back to her place, so cai took alice home and i took alex home.
So alex's college, Emmanuel, closes its doors at 2 am abouts. Maybe earlier. By this point, it was 3:15 ish so we were like... eeeeff. But alex luckily had this map of secret entrances into the college so we took one of those. it was this small door on the other side of the street that was opened with your library key. and it led us down this dark, marble staircase into these underground ruins. Next time I go back there, I'm going to need to check out those tunnels. So we finally emerge topside in the courtyard, successfully going underneath the street outside and through the locked gate. And then I check out Alex's room which is ridiculous. It's two rooms attached together and its HUGE. So anyway, I'm leaving and I get to the door we came to get in and it's locked! Its freaking locked from the INSIDE!!! So I tried kicking it a few times and I thought I heard someone scream, "Shut the bloody hell up!" Didn't know that was a phrase. So then I tried to find the other secret entrances but I didn't have the map. I ended up having to call alex back to open the door with her handy library card. and homeward bound i went (an hour after i got there).
good news, i finally found the shower and kitchen in my staircase. they're hidden behind doors that look like dorm doors. those tricky bastards. anyway, that's all for now. peace.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
My first
Officially my first inebriated blog post. "Cheers," as they say, to many more.
Not to say I'm planning to get shit-faced every night. And obviously I am not truly gone, as evidenced by the post I'm writing (you can judge for yourself, as I will, when you read this next). However, tonight was a lot more fun than last night was. I'll start with last night.
Last night, we tried to go pub crawling (in the words of one of the CMErs dads, "don't take the crawling part literally) but ended up at the St. John's College (my college) bar. Their bars are actually very nice and subsidized for students. However, it was extremely crowded when we got there, and it took Pak and I almost half an hour to get drinks. And since I finished my interviews after Pak did, I bought the first round. Still, one beer later, we were a little disappointed.
Today, the main thing of note was finding out that Cavendish (the building for Physics students) is a half hour walk. Which sucks and necessitates me getting a bike).
However, tonight, we decided to go pub crawling (and then Pak decided to go to sleep before), and we ended up hanging out with these MIT students, one of which was studying at Cambridge, and the other two of which were visiting here (all '06 I think). It was really fun. They took us to a bunch of places. By really fun, I'm comparing it to the first night. But we had enough to drink that we had fun. Everything was closed by 1, though. And the dancing and music that we found at the Clare's College party we went to was about as lame as possible.
Time for me to get to bed, though. After quite a bit, and still being jet-lagged and all, I think it's probably best I skip international orientation and sleep in tomorrow. Especially resting up so that I can celebrate my CME buddy's birthday tomorrow.
Fun.
Not to say I'm planning to get shit-faced every night. And obviously I am not truly gone, as evidenced by the post I'm writing (you can judge for yourself, as I will, when you read this next). However, tonight was a lot more fun than last night was. I'll start with last night.
Last night, we tried to go pub crawling (in the words of one of the CMErs dads, "don't take the crawling part literally) but ended up at the St. John's College (my college) bar. Their bars are actually very nice and subsidized for students. However, it was extremely crowded when we got there, and it took Pak and I almost half an hour to get drinks. And since I finished my interviews after Pak did, I bought the first round. Still, one beer later, we were a little disappointed.
Today, the main thing of note was finding out that Cavendish (the building for Physics students) is a half hour walk. Which sucks and necessitates me getting a bike).
However, tonight, we decided to go pub crawling (and then Pak decided to go to sleep before), and we ended up hanging out with these MIT students, one of which was studying at Cambridge, and the other two of which were visiting here (all '06 I think). It was really fun. They took us to a bunch of places. By really fun, I'm comparing it to the first night. But we had enough to drink that we had fun. Everything was closed by 1, though. And the dancing and music that we found at the Clare's College party we went to was about as lame as possible.
Time for me to get to bed, though. After quite a bit, and still being jet-lagged and all, I think it's probably best I skip international orientation and sleep in tomorrow. Especially resting up so that I can celebrate my CME buddy's birthday tomorrow.
Fun.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Pub Crawling
Alright, Cambridge is like living in the dark ages. First of all, it takes DAYS to turn on the ethernet jack in my ROOM and you have to request for it specifically. Second, I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THE SHOWERS ARE!!! I'm in Sidney Sussex, this quaint, small college with nices trees and whatnot. And I'm in this small stairwell called M stairwell, with 4 rooms a floor. And each floor shares a washroom, which is different from a bathroom because the washroom has a sink and bathtub. But no shower head or toilets. So you have to go downstairs to a shared bathroom to use the toilet. And there still isn't a shower head!!! So... will have to go figure that out.
So we went pub crawling today. Or we were supposed to but missed the crowd by an hour. So we ended up stopping at the student pub in St. Johns College which was poppin' with people. And... it was kind of lame. We definitely got there way too late and we didn't have the exclusive freshman wristbands. If we had one of those, the upperclassmen would have flocked to us, but no, we didn't. So we ended up taking a small table in the corner while Cai and I tried to get beer, which took a good 20 minutes. We met equally confused and lost freshmen so that was comforting. Apparently, people start drinking at 6 and go to bed by 11 or 12. The pubs close at 11ish too.
Okay, here's the checklist for tomorrow:
1) Get a SIM card for my phone
2) Find a good place to eat
3) Get the INTERTUBES set up
4) Find those showers.
5) Do the other CME shit...
I can't wait for the awkwardness of orientation to end...
So we went pub crawling today. Or we were supposed to but missed the crowd by an hour. So we ended up stopping at the student pub in St. Johns College which was poppin' with people. And... it was kind of lame. We definitely got there way too late and we didn't have the exclusive freshman wristbands. If we had one of those, the upperclassmen would have flocked to us, but no, we didn't. So we ended up taking a small table in the corner while Cai and I tried to get beer, which took a good 20 minutes. We met equally confused and lost freshmen so that was comforting. Apparently, people start drinking at 6 and go to bed by 11 or 12. The pubs close at 11ish too.
Okay, here's the checklist for tomorrow:
1) Get a SIM card for my phone
2) Find a good place to eat
3) Get the INTERTUBES set up
4) Find those showers.
5) Do the other CME shit...
I can't wait for the awkwardness of orientation to end...
Welcome to Cambridge
I'm currently on a bus chartered to take most of the CME students from Heathrow Airport in London to Cambridge. The trip is supposed to be about an hour, and Pak's asleep, but I haven't been able to sleep for the past seven hours, so I see no reason why I should be able to do so now. Therefore, this is as good a time as any for me to begin a blog post.
I'm working off of a new laptop that I had to buy in a hurry since the laptop I intended to bring died a few days before I was due to leave. It passed my approval test (it works) and Pak only has minor qualms with it. As I said, though, it hasn't died on me, so I'm happy with it so far.
Traveling is always a pain, and to say that this flight went exceptionally well is only to say that it didn't feel like forever. That being said, there were some problems getting my cello on the flight. I had to buy an extra seat for it, and the agents at check-in were a little skeptical. After that minor incident, having the cello became a boon, though. I got a whole row to myself and my cello, and all the stewardesses were exceedingly nice to me. They did require an “engineer” to tie my cello to its seat. Not really sure why they required an engineer to do this, but that's what they kept saying, and sure enough he came. Eventually. And then he fiddled for a bit while I stood in the aisle looking awkward. And then the pilot announced that we were ready for takeoff and they were just clearing up an issue in the cabin. And everyone looked at me. But on the whole, traveling with so much space was worth the hassle.
Of the three movies I wanted to see on the in-flight entertainment system (“Prince Caspian,” “Zohan,” and “Speed Racer”), I selected what I imagine was the worst of them. I agree completely with BJP's opinion of “Speed Racer.” I can only hope that “Spemer Racer” turned out to be a better movie. The other two didn't get tremendously good ratings, but it's hard to conceive of them being any worse than a movie about a family with the last name of “Racer” and the guts to call their middle child “Speed.”
Before we landed we did what I dubbed the “Heathrow tailspin.” This is a result of the limited space on their runway and amounted to (in my case) five or six circles/figure-eights around south London slowly descending and eventually landing us in the middle of an airfield where they put us in buses and shipped us to the nearest terminal. Everything would have been just fine arriving at the terminal had I not had a backpack, a cello, a leather bag, and a suitcase. It didn't help that I had go to the terminal where all the other CME students had landed.
Which brings me to the present moment: sitting on a bus to Cambridge on the left side of the highway. The driver's a dick. After lugging my cello around and buying a seat for it on both the Fung Wah and the flight, it is now in the bottom of this bus because it's “too bulky.” Maybe there just wasn't enough space on this fifty person bus that's holding twenty of us. I hope he hates his job.
I'm not actually that spiteful. I'm just tired. Hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon. And maybe a map or two to help you guys figure out what we're talking about.
By the way this post was written on October 1st at 10.30, UK time. That's 5.30 in the morning for you guys. It may be a while before I actually have internet access can post this, though.
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