What global warming?

Quickly, a few snapshot moments from last night and today:

1. We had a hailstorm yesterday. I was "trapped" in a coffee shop, and had to have a scone to kill the time. Then it "brightened up" (in British that means "became less cloudy but was still pretty cloudy"), just in time for me to make it to a meeting across town. AWESOME.
2. I broke ice off my bike seat this morning. Ice. Then I rode my bike. Welcome to Cambridge.
3. As I pedaled down an incredibly beautiful street beneath an archway of trees full of enormous bright yellow leaves, a rogue leaf broke free just in time to SMACK ME IN THE FACE. I screamed a little and then had to pull over and laugh. It was just such a huge leaf (face-sized, really) and so yellow and so unexpected... my fellow bike commuters looked sympathetically shocked.

And it's only going to get better, right? Bring it on, winter! :)

England is a great place to be sick

Illness is highly respected here. It is a legit excuse for getting out of anything, and people are genuinely concerned for you when you're sick. At first I took offense that people were constantly asking me "Are you all right?"- what, do I look that bad? But I realize now that being tired or sick or generally "out of sorts" is a big deal here. I'm used to the Univ of Chicago culture of ALWAYS being tired and being slightly sick from November to May (ah, the joys of frequent all-nighters and ever-present dormitory contagions). So health issues are not an excuse in Chicago- deadlines are deadlines and commitments are commitments.
But here, if you admit to being tired or not feeling well, you are instantly encouraged to "go rest", "go have some tea", "go home", "nick out early", etc. It's shockingly easy. Generally people justify this approach because it will shorten your time of sickness if you take care of yourself early on. Maybe the British focus on preventative healthcare because they have national health insurance? They can go to the doctor whenever they want, so why would they mess around feeling crappy if they could just go home and get drugs from the doc? for free? with the blessing of their boss? Amazing country, this.
So yeah, I've finally succumbed to "Freshers' Flu" ("fresher" = freshman/first year), that mysterious disease that everyone gets when they go back to school. I am incurably cold, and someone in class yesterday actually commented on my goosebumps. (How embarrassing!) My nose is running like Paula Radcliffe (i.e. very fast for a long time), and my head is pounding. But still, I am showered with sympathy by everyone I know, and I'm urged to stay in bed. Sweet. :)
I was a little delirious when I stumbled into the pharmacy yesterday desperate for drugs and the store was about to close, so I grabbed (the cheapest) two boxes that said "Cold and flu relief", assuming they were Nyquil equivalents. But they turned out to be little packets of powder that you dissolve in hot water and drink. I was ticked, like maybe they were just Vitamin C powder or something. But no, they are drugs and they are THE BEST. The British really do think tea can solve every problem, so they even make their cold medicine imitate tea! I got blackcurrant flavor (the British don't do grape-flavored anything, go figure.) and it's like drinking hot Kool-Aid and it's DELICIOUS. And somehow there are miracle drugs inside the special powder, so you actually feel so much better afterwards. Why do we stupid Americans put up with disgusting grape Dimetapp, and force our kids to choke down cherry DayQuil?
That said, it's the weekend, and I'm in England, and I feel so crappy that plugging in my computer is a challenge. DAMN. So to make myself feel better (emotionally), I'm having a good "whinge" (whine) on the Internet. Can you guys beat the English with your outpouring of sympathy?? :)
P.S. If anyone is stumped on what to get me for Christmas (or Halloween?), you can sponsor me for a flu "jab" (a scarier and more violent word for "shot")... :)

New knowledge...

My friends and I were walking home from a dance club like an hour ago- pretty late, deserted street, beautiful night- and a little creature sort of waddled out of a bush and wandered around the sidewalk a bit and then turned around and ran away when we got closer.
I was convinced it was a rat, though it didn't have a tail and was moving pretty slowly. Everyone else was completely calm and said that it was just a hedgehog.
A HEDGEHOG? REALLY?!?!
I somehow didn't think that hedgehogs were real... didn't Beatrix Potter make them up as a cute friend to bunnies and field mice? Go figure, but apparently they're totally common in England and in Germany. COOL.
I also learn new things in class... but not very often. :)


(courtesy of Google image! My hedgehog was cuter.)

Triumph and beauty

Cambridge is a place of triumph- the discovery of DNA structure happened here (it was discussed over pints at the Eagle, which is also my department's local pub. Here I'm pointing at James Watson's signature! Notice that somehow this photo has caught me with books on the table and not beer...)


They also built incredible Gothic buildings in the time before cranes and bulldozers. This is the door to the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, believe it or not. The Physical Chemistry letters were just too beautiful to change, I guess.

A more personal triumph- today I rose above the enormous grocery store line, the electric "hob" (stove) with two ON switches, the limited cookware in my college's kitchen, and my own aversion to scary things like foreign stoves... and I made dinner (and only a small mess). Now I am ready for my masters degree! :)

This is the dinner I made... JUST KIDDING. This lunch I shared with my friend Nicola at a local apple orchard- tea and scones and triangle sandwiches! For real! Some stereotypes are just not made up.

This is a field across the river from Kings College, one of the oldest and most famous colleges. Stories vary, but I heard that when Kings bought this land in 1772 the city stipulated that it had to be used for grazing at least 4 cows- some sort of early zoning requirement, I guess. The Kings website says that the cows are there to mow the lawn. Either way, it's hilarious to see these 4 cows munching away with the most beautiful view in the world.

Reclaiming my mother tongue

Today was a day of firsts.

I heard someone swear for the first time since I've been here. So... I immediately lifted my unconsciously-self-imposed swearing ban. And it felt GREAT.
I hadn't realize how carefully I've been talking, but honestly everyone speaks such beautiful British (even the European international students!) that I've been trying really hard to sound like them. So yeah, I've been saying "knackered" for "tired" and "skip" for dumpster and "loads" for "lots of" and "SOR-ry" with that inescapable British intonation, and I was pretty psyched about it. When in Rome, right?
Wrong. I sound like a moron and a fake, and though my cussing at dinner today raised some eyebrows it sure liberated my speech. I am proud of my swearing skill and my ability to speak slang with the best of American high-school students, and I've had enough of this uber-polite Pride-and-Prejudice language bullshit. I'm American and I'm going to talk like it! What a relief... though I will try to reserve my swearing for the proper occasions...

Another first- I talked in class! We had a fantastic lecture about the evolution of wonder as an emotion, and there were questions afterward, and after seriously about 10 minutes of sweating and shaking and racing heartbeats, I asked my question about whether wonder is contagious, so can it be a social phenomenon like fear or anxiety. It wasn't very articulate, but people talked after I did so that seemed like a good sign. Unfortunately, my body was too busy being in fight-or-flight mode for me to hear what they said... sigh. Maybe next week.

Another first- a professor said something HILARIOUS during another class. Sure, that happens all the time, especially in the History & Philosophy of Science when we're studying things like the historical significance of ancient collections of pickled alligator feet or whatever. But this time no one laughed and I don't think it was meant to be a joke, but I almost died of half-suppressed giggling...
So the prof was talking about the change in medical education during the French Revolution, from doctors studying Latin and reading books about medicine to actually doing dissections and practicing clinical treatments. He said that the motto of this reform was "Read little, see much, do much." To clarify this complex motto, he said "It's like the opposite of what you'll be doing this year."
?!?!?!?!
Is a professor supposed to admit that? that we'll be "seeing little and doing little"?! What a downer!
And how can he say it with a straight face? and how can NO ONE laugh? They just accepted this sentencing to a year's hard labor in the library! Time for a revolution, I say. :)

Wishing you a day of firsts and pride in your mother tongue!!

I am a library snob. Thank you, Univ of Chicago.

The Cambridge University Library (the UL) has a copy of every book published in the UK. Ever. That's pretty impressive, right?

Except for a few minor problems:

1. The UL has A copy of every book ever published in the UK. One. There are 21 people in my program, and we all need the same book for the same class. Huh. (Too bad I checked it out first... great way to make friends, right?)
2. The UL has wireless internet... in about 3 of its uncountable reading rooms. No more choosing a sunny spot and settling in with your laptop like at a certain beloved university research library in Chicago. Here you have to fight for a spot elbow-to-elbow with the next computer-toting scholar.
3. The UL does not allow you to bring in bags. So that scholar next to you is literally toting her computer, plus her papers, books, pens, wallet... but DEFINITELY not her water bottle (forbidden) or White-Out (SUPER forbidden). You basically juggle expensive, breakable things as you maneuver through a crowded space where any noise gets you glared at.
4. The UL does not allow undergrads to check out books. ?!?!
5. The UL DOES have an online catalogue... except for books published in years 1800-1977. ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? For that time span you have to sort through the card catalogue- handwritten in years 1800-1977.
6. The UL uses its own unique catalogue system. The millions of books in the UL are arranged primarily according to subject... and size. Yes, the small books about the history of paleontology in England are quite far away from the big books about the history of paleontology in England.

I'm struggling to adapt to the lack of academic luxury provided to me by the University of Chicago. Students are not customers here like we are in the U.S. (everyone in the UK and EU has the right to go to university for very little cost.) So it makes sense that Cambridge doesn't pour money into things that would make our lives easier and not necessarily more academically successful, like wireless or backpacks in the library.
That is true for a lot of things here, in that things move just a big slower and there's not the convenience and instant satisfaction that we Americans are so used to. The grocery "queue" (line!) is never shorter than 10 minutes and often as long as 30, and self-checkout lines are unheard of. I've been on a waiting list for 2 weeks to buy a bike. Tea takes at least 2 minutes to steep, and people laugh at you if you drink it 5 seconds after you dunk the tea bag (personal experience).
So being here is a good follow-up to my summer goal of Chilling The F*** Out. While U of C did treat me to library luxury and general efficiency of living, it also made me super uptight and incapable of waiting. After a summer of relatively relaxed jobs and a lot of strolling around Chicago doing nothing, I'm now able to relax and smile at the people next to me in the grocery queue instead of grinding my teeth at the delay.
That said, this is an ongoing process and I will probably continue to drink unsteeped tea rather than stare at it for 2 minutes.
Who said I was in Cambridge to learn the history of science?! :)

Home sweet home

I live in Clare Hall, a very modern, very not-Hogwarts-ish college. It was founded in 1966 and houses only graduate students and "fellows" (professors and visiting scholars). That means 1) no drunken 17-year-olds 2) tons of fellows' families and kids live in the college with us 3) everyone is really excited about their specific fields and there's not too much metaphysical who-am-I-and-what-is-my-academic-calling crap. It's great!
Clare Hall is also unusual in that it makes no distinctions between faculty and students. So instead of having the traditional High Table to separate professors from the lowly students, we all sit together at college functions and meals. That means that when I got into a polite argument with someone at dinner about the death of the traditional antisocial, family-less, monastic lifestyle of scholars (he supported that lifestyle, I did not), it just so happened that he turned out to be President of the college. Gulp. Luckily, that kind of open discussion is encouraged here, unlike at the more traditional and old-fashioned colleges.
This is my favorite sign in Cambridge, posted on the front door of my dorm. Translations, please? :)

I'm embarrassed to have this blog but here's my justification...

I'm here to learn to be a historian of science. What is a historian but a story-teller? The easiest stories to tell are the ones we know the best, which are most likely about OURSELVES. So... this blog is meant to teach me to tell my own stories in the hope that then I'll improve at telling other people's stories, a.k.a. "history"!

I hope blogging doesn't degenerate from noble story-telling practice into an ego-stroke as I post junk about my life on the internet. But if it does... let me know!! There's a reason this is a BLOG and not a BOOK- it's editable! Audience participation encouraged!!
Also, this is my link to you across an ocean. Don't be selfish and only read it without writing to me!! Please!

Here goes an academic adventure... starting with my first punt down the River Cam. (This is academic in the physics-of-water-and-boat-and-pole sense...) Note: I had just steered us both into and out of that willow behind us in the photo. Practice makes perfect, right? :)