Snow in Cambridge!

Well, I can't believe it, but we actually had snow in Cambridge TWICE in the last week! Of course, those of you living anywhere vaguely north will scoff at the 'snow' we received here, but I still found it very exciting to wake up to see white stuff on the ground :-). Last year the only snow we saw was at Easter! So this is an improvement. However, I still don't know where they get all those gorgeous photographs of Cambridge in the snow! These two not-so-gorgeous photos are taken from right outside our front door and from our back window.

There were a couple nice views on the way to work this morning. The one on the left is of Parker's Piece. On the right is a view from the huge window wall in my new computer lab.

Of course, the flip side of having snow that I can actually photograph is that it is very cold and cold enough to keep the snow on the ground. So cycling has been ... well, cold! This is a picture of a bike parked at the Engineering department (not mine fortunately...our bikes are stored in a nice dry shed overnight!). Below that is the frozen water on the fountain in the cycle park at the Engineering department.

So that's the latest excitement here - SNOW!

British Hospitality at its Best

Last week I went to Hungerford, in southern England, to collect water samples for my research. While there I stayed at two Bed and Breakfasts, as they were SO much cheaper than the local hotels (£35/night at a B&B vs. MINIMUM £95/night at a local hotel), and I like Bed and Breakfasts better anyway.

I had to stay in two different Bed and Breakfasts because I made my reservations at the last minute, and this being a popular tourist destination for cyclers on the Kennet and Avon Canal, and it being the end of summer, most locations were all booked up. So I stayed at one B&B the first night and another the next two nights.

The second Bed and Breakfast I stayed at was truly remarkable. It was Berries B&B, where the hosts are Mick and Lynda Berry. As I mentioned, I had to stay at a different B&B the first night, but couldn't check in until 5 even though I arrived in Hungerford at 2 (this was outside my control). I stopped by Berries B&B when I first came into town as they had agreed to lend me their bike to cycle up and down the canal (where I was taking water samples). Here the remarkable nature of the Berrys started to become evident. That they allowed me to use their bike was remarkable in and of itself - bikes aren't all that cheap, after all, if I happened to take an unintentional dive into the canal. But then they offered to let me store my luggage at their B&B while I went back out for the afternoon to start my sample collection. They were tremendously friendly, and I talked to them about an hour before heading out. That evening, once I was checked into the other B&B, Mick DROVE MY LUGGAGE over to the B&B so I wouldn't have to carry it myself. Amazing! The next day, the Berrys invited me to have lunch with an angling friend of Mick's who was coming into town to fish for the day. It just so happened this gentleman knew a bit about the canal and the river that I was studying. It was so kind of them to allow me to intrude upon their lunch for the benefit of my research! Later that evening, when I checked into Berries B&B, Mick drove me over to the old B&B to retrieve my luggage, and then drove me to a takeout restaurant to pick up some dinner. Unlike many bed and breakfasts, where they seem to shoo you off to your room and don't want to see any more of you until breakfast the next morning, Mick invited me to eat in the kitchen and we chatted a bit while I ate. The next day, Mick drove over to the train station to pick up Aaron, who came in for a day to help me. That evening, he drove us out to a local pill box - the canal was considered a possible point of defense in WWII and was lined with them. I had told him Aaron was interested in WWII history, and so Mick drove us out to see one just outside town. Then he dropped us off at a local restaurant, and we called him once we were done and he came into down to drive us back to the B&B. The next day he drove us to the train station at the appropriate time, and waited to make sure we set off ok. We exchanged hugs all around when we left!

It turns out that Mick and Lynda spent a year in a motor home in the US, and have so many stories to share. They run a bed and breakfast because they want to meet people and hear new stories. Lynda is a great cook, and served some of the best scrambled eggs I've ever had. They have three wonderful dogs - which are kept outside the main living areas, but are close by if you want to seek them out. The bedrooms are beautifully decorated.

These pictures were taken the morning we left - the rooms look much more stylish when you arrive. It was just absolutely wonderful, Aaron and I both agree this is the best Bed and Breakfast we've ever stayed at. We really felt like guests of our hosts, not like customers. If you ever have a need to be in this part of England (and they are centrally located for things like Stonehenge, the Avebury Standing Stones, Windsor Castle, Stratford-on-Avon, etc if you have a car), you should definitely check them out!!

St. Catharine's May Ball

There are a few fancy events in Cambridge which seem to be integral parts of the University and College culture. The common ones are punting events on the Cam, College formal dinners, and Evensongs. These all pale in comparison to the uncommon ones, the May Balls. These are extravagent affairs which last all night long and have live entertainment, games, food and drink.

The St. Catharine's May Ball was no exception. The theme was Narnia this year and there were people in character to greet guests as they arrived. There were 5 main stages on the Catz grounds with live music running on all of them for much of the evening. Some of the other notable things included: belly dancing, ice skating, fresh donuts, fire juggling, mechanical bull riding, unlimited drinks, lots of music and dancing, and a huge variety of foods from pizza to pig roasts to ice cream.

Some of the highlights for me included the tarot card reading (not that I believe in that, but I wanted to try it, I got a princess of swords card which means I need to cut out something, possibly obeying laws, I forget), the acapella band from Oxford (great show), the chocolate fountain (yummy), and the juggling where I got to participate and had a bread stick knocked out of mouth (and I was not even hurt). We whimped out and left around 3:30 am but the ball continued until 6ish at which point the survivors picture was taken (or so I hear). I was sad to miss that but Becky was not feeling well so we will have to catch that next time. It was certainly a night to remember and one of the many bonuses for students at Cambridge University.

Wicked in the West End

We watched 2 fairly big West End (this is the London equivalent of Broadway in New York) shows recently. Phantom of the Opera and Wicked. Of the 2 I have to say that Wicked was my personal favorite. It was a bit of a tough choice though since Phantom has fantastic production values and better music. I liked the story for Wicked better. It was actually an improvement over the original Wizard of Oz story in many ways.

Seeing a major West End show is something that anyone visiting London and the UK should strongly consider. I have not yet seen Les Miserables or Mousetrap but these are on my short list. The shows will probably run you around 50-60 GBP for decent seats and skimping on good seats when you are visiting is probably a mistake.

We grabbed a bite to eat in the nearby station so if you are watching Wicked or whatever show is playing in the Apollo Theatre there are plenty of nearby food options in Victoria Station. This is also a major underground station so transport is not a problem either. I recommend seats in the center of the forward half of the stalls or the forward half of the circle. They cost more but are worth it.

Z is for Zed

So, as many of you may be aware, in England 'zees' are 'zeds'. Now, I think in general this is actually a perfectly sensible way to pronounce the letter Z. I can't tell you how many times I've spelled my name for someone at a reception desk and they immediately start searching their files under 'C'... So then you have to spell your name 'Zee as in zebra, ee, cee, kay,...' And being able to just say 'Zed ee cee kay' certainly speeds things up and avoids lots of confusion. On the flip side, if I slip up and say 'Zee as in zebra' here I get a very confused look for a second before they think to themselves 'silly American' and move on. So I am all in favor of moving to the 'zed' system.

However, the Brits are weird about their zeds in other ways. They seem extremely averse to using them. Stabilize becomes stabilise, analyze becomes analyse, fertilize becomes fertilise, etc. In fact, unless the z is an integral component of the word (for example, as in zebra), there's a good chance the Brits use an s instead. So what got me thinking about this (again) is that I have just completed a 25-page homework assignment (hooray! thus ends my homework requirement FOREVER!!), and the word processor on my computer in the engineering department will convert things like labor to labour but for some reason doesn't convert fertilize to fertilise. So I just did a search of my document for 'z', and in most cases replaced it with 's'. I was just going to leave it as is, proud of my American heritage and all that, but since the word processor had already changed all the o's to ou's, and I remembered reading for professional journals you are typically allowed to use either American OR British usage, but you may not use BOTH, I thought it would look better if I made everything British. This of course assumes that there aren't other hidden usages I don't know about and completely missed...

Sleeping in!

Today the UK went on Daylight Saving Time. I am very excited that the sun will now be rising at 6ish instead of 5ish. Since my body seems determined to rise with the sun, this means an extra hour of sleep for me! Of course, by the middle of June, the sun will be rising at 4:00am and going down at nearly 10pm...but we're just not thinking about that right now.

Street signs

We hired a car to drive around East Anglia a bit yesteday. It was a lot of fun but we got lost 3 times and mostly because of the lack of street signs! It seems like the english are not big fans of labelling their streets and we often found ourselves at an intersection with no idea what road we were on or what the other road was. Not sure why the street signs seem to be so scarce here in the UK but I would recommend getting a GPS map thing if you plan to do any serious driving.