Basement Mafia and Oleg Gordievsky

I began my day running through Cambridge and stopping by the farmer's market to pick up a chicken salad baguette, box of strawberries, grapes, and pineapples, and a small plant for my room. After relaxing and preparing for the day, I hit the books and managed to have lunch by the River Cam. In the afternoon, I went to a guest lecture by Oleg Gordievsky, who was the highest ranked KGB officer to come over to the Western side. He really exposed us to the current state of Russia, and how it still resembles the past Soviet Union (perhaps even the same). It was a very informative session, and very interesting to hear first-hand about the secret intelligence community.
For dinner, a group of us walked to Teri-Aki, to eat some Asian food. It was pretty good, but expensive as always. (basically everything is double here)
Starting at 10 pm, people started showing up at my house's basement for some Mafia. With 14 people, we played until 1am and had a blast.
Alright, time to sleep...good night!

Hancock

I just came back from my first movie trip in the UK. Hancock. My only reaction would have to be...wow. Just, wow. If you've seen it, you would understand my reaction.

Anyways, tomorrow I'm going to a supplementary lecture by the highest KGB operative to cross borders...should be an interesting evening along with basement mafia at night.

I will update with more soon, take care!

Brithday in Cambridge

The past two days have been excellent in that I was given the opportunity to slow down and just breathe the English air surrounding me. I went to Sainsbury's and purchased my groceries for the week (string cheese tastes like crap here) which was pretty exciting. Attempting to do my laundry, I learned that the drying machines here are very weak (I did 2 cycles, but my clothes were still wet). Moving on to better things.

I went on a historical tour through the Cambridge colleges, and was surprised to hear many things like public posting of grades, assembly of a mini cooper on top of the chapel, jumping from one building to another, haunted bookstore, night climber club (they climb medieval buildings at night), school prejudices, and much more.

During the evening I went to King's Chapel to attend a service in which the world acclaimed King's Chorale performed (they were quite splendid). Afterwards, a group of us went to the Cow for happy hour where I drank Long Island Ice Tea (basically 5 shots plus some lemonade) and ate an amazing Hawaiian pizza. My friends surprised me with a delicious birthday cake. So, two decades have passed since my birth. Good stuff.

O yeah, I went to H&M today to get a sweatshirt and wow...I was very impressed. That's all for now.

Edinburgh

Classes ended Wednesday, and I went to Edinburgh, Scotland for a 4 day trip.

On Thursday morning I set off on an eight hour bus ride to Scotland. After arriving at the University of Edinburgh's Polluck Halls, I settled down before going out to dinner. Walking through Edinburgh, I could feel myself walking through the years of the bubonic plague, William Wallace, and more. A group of friends and I ended up grabbing some fish and chips with a bottle of beer. With our tummies filled, we headed over to the local tavern for some drinks (after passing the statue of David Hume and Adam Smith). Exhausted and satisfied, we walked half an hour back to our rooms. Once back, played 3 hours of Mafia in one of our rooms.

After a filling breakfast Friday morning, we headed out to Edinburgh to explore the city. After stops by the Parliament House, Edinburgh Castle, an awesome sandwich shop near the Castle, and Rosyln Chapel (of Da Vinci Code fame), we rested and waited for the 4th of July part the teaching assistants were going to host. When it was time, we went back into town and enjoyed a buffet given by the hosts and a plethora of drinks from the bar (screw drivers, rum and coke, shots of bacardi, etc), and hit the dance floor. After an exciting evening on the dance floor, we treaded back to our rooms exhausted.

Saturday was another packed day, starting with a 2 hour bus ride to the Trossachs. Hiking through mud, trees, and rocks, we made our way up the Trossachs and through the Valley of the Goblins. It really felt like we were the fellowship of the ring with the sole purpose of reaching Mordor at the top. After hours of hiking, we reached the top to witness one of the most beautiful sights in the world (in my opinion). Of course we were in Scotland, so it started to rain once we reached the top. A couple of hours later, we reached the bus and headed back for our last night in Edinburgh. After eating in the grassmarket for some Italian food, we visited the Elephant House (where J.K. Rowling wrote some parts of Harry Potter), the Frankenstein club, a crazy Irish pub, and ended up at the Espionage club. The last club was 4 floors of constant dancing and hundreds of people trying to make way through the club. Instead of a calm night in the town, I danced the night away in my sweat-drenched sweater. Seriously, Edinburgh looked like Gotham city with the old-fashioned cars, misty buildings, and people in costumes (some locals said it was sexy theme night). I somehow made it back to the room at a reasonable hour and fell asleep.

Our last day was spent in the bus back to Cambridge, with a stop at Fountains Abbey. I forgot to take my sd card, but I will put some pictures up later from the trip (by using some of my friends' photos).

I need to wash my shoes, so ciao!

Wednesday - Week 1

As promised, I have posted some more pictures.
The museum building marks where to turn left into my street and you can see me standing at my cute little apartment place. That's right, Charles Darwin lived in the apartment across from mine. Gnarly huh?

So, once again I went running in the morning and found a cool path that connects all of the University of Cambridge colleges....really awesome. I went on a Cambridge city tour with some friends and found a grocery store, stationary store, cafe, and post office I'm going to visit soon. During the afternoon before class, I went to go rowing with some friends down at a river 30 minutes away. Rowing is much harder than it looks. After 15 minutes of failing to row properly, I finally mastered the technique and plan on going back soon. Who knows, I may join UCLA's crew team next year :)
After a class discussing prevent value functions and interest rates, a group of classmates and I went to the Cow for happy hour. The pizza deal was 2 for 1, so we had crumbly duck pizza and BBQ chicken. To top it off we had some rasberry mohitos (which was pretty strong). Since we're going to Edinbergh, Scotland this weekend, I bought some cookies from Sansbury's to eat on the 10 hour bus ride.

I probably won't be updating this during my 4 day trip, so until then...ciao!

Cambridge Arrival

As I stepped out of the airport and saw cars driving on the left side of the street, it finally hit me. I'm in England. 4 hours later, I was dropped off at Cambridge with a few fellow King's students and proceeded to roll our luggage across the park.
It's been a couple of days so I'm going to fly through them quickly and I will try my best to keep a daily blog from now on.

So, arrival day. As I walked through the gateway of King's College I was met with an intimidating view of King's Chapel (picture on left). Then I received my Cambridge student I.D. card and packet of information with my class schedule, house keys, and computer codes. After walking to my cute cottage house (I will post pictures in my next blog), I went to eat dinner in the formal hall. Damn. It was so amazing. We entered a reception with drinks galore (I found that I prefer red wine to white), and a buffet of English food (I'll talk about that in another post...). A group of us went to The Bath House (a pub) to celebrate two students turning 21. After a few drinks, we went back to our respective housing and went to sleep.

First official day.
Went running in the morning around Cambridge. The city was amazing. With a farmer's market as the center of town, mom and pop shops are glittered every where. Traffic is a bit confusing because of the left side thing, but I got used to it. I haven't taken too many pictures, but they are coming...I promise. Purchased my cell phone at Car Phone Warehouse, shampoo at Boots, water at Marks and Spencer's, and food from the street vendors. Went on a tour of Pembroke College and then finally got to unpack my luggage during the afternoon. That night was a formal dining experience with the students all dressed up and sharing glasses of wine around the lawn. We then were guided to the formal hall to a 3 course menu of salmon, rib eye steak, and a series of desserts. After a good evening, we went to the Bath House again for some socializing.

Second Day.
Went running in the morning again. Had breakfast at Pembroke (not that good), and then went to the library to do some reading for my supervision. During class we were lectured on corporate bonds, stocks, and option trading. Went to McDonals to get a Bic Mac. Come on, I had to. It was around 4 pounds which is like 8 bucks. Then server didn't understand that I wanted a combo, until I finally realized that the combo was called a "meal." After enjoying my meal, I got lost in Cambridge and finally found Sainsbury, which will be my life line in the next couple months. I think of the store like the UK version of a Ralphs/Costco because it is huge and cheaper than that darn Mark and Spencers. Had dinner and then went to play soccer with some students. One of the students was a Phd candidate at Trinity, but was from Portland, Oregon. Totally fooled me because he had an accent. Who knows, I might come home with a little accent as well. So, I was able to do some reading on reciprocal relationships, and the paradox of give and take. Time to shower and maybe go out again, so I'll update you tomorrow with pictures of my new home. I'm going rowing tomorrow! yayy

ok so I just came back from another evening at a pub (the eagle's...this is where it's at..dont worry i just had a diet coke). met up with my buddy nikhil and 3 other guys (one from alabama, cal, and yale) and just had some good conversation with some kids from spain, lithuania, and some other place...hahah foreign perspectives on the united states are definitely entertaining.
so weve decided to go to paris at some point during this trip, stonehenge, and go punting (maybe tomorrow). i have to say it's pretty weird here because the sun comes out at 4am and sets at like 10 or 10:30.. :)
anyways,
i've got to sleep now in order to run in the morning. peace!

Back at home

As you can see from my room, I haven't taken the initiative to organize everything I brought back home.

I ate brunch with a couple of my old friends (one is now my roommate), and had the opportunity to catch up on what's going on in our lives.

And as you can see, Henry is still smiling.

Being home is relaxing. Too relaxing. I feel lethargic all the time, falling victim to DVDs and naps.