Last Night Abroad

I travel home in the morning. CRAZY, indeed! My travels will last for almost 24 hours straight! I'll leave King's College gates around 9 AM by taxi, take the train and the tube to the airport, and then catch a flight at 2:30. I travel to DC (via Dallas—gross that i have to fly over my house to get to my transfer!) where I arrive at 12:15 AM and then we'll drive home, probably arriving around 1:30 AM on Monday morning. Factoring in the time change (1:30AM Eastern is 6:30 AM London) makes it seem even longer...the joys of international travel!

This last week has gone well despite being very busy.

Monday and Tuesday were consumed by writing my last paper for Cambridge. I wrote my Spooks and Spies paper on the VENONA project. Quite an interesting topic—check it out! (On wikipedia, if you don't have very much time.)

Wednesday was filled with frantic completion of the paper and then switching over to exam study mode for Thursday's Spooks and Spies exam. I ended up answering questions on 21st-century US intelligence/terrorism and 1983's nuclear scare. The 1983 scare is very fascinating. (Go ahead and check out wikipedia's articles on Operation Ryan and Able Archer, but the best resource is "1983: The Brink of Apocalypse" on youtube. It is 1 hour, 15 minutes long, but well worth it!)

After the exam on Thursday, I relaxed, got my hair cut, and went to the final formal hall. The food was amazing, but it was sad to look around and realize that it was coming to a conclusion. That very night, people began heading to the airport.

Friday and Saturday have been spent throughout Cambridge. I've seen some fun things and relaxed. I love this place and am very sad to go. But I will be back. As long as I can last another two years...alright, I can survive just fine.

Not too many new pictures for this last week...sorry!

Less than One Week Left in the UK...Sad Day!

This past week has been fairly basic. Some great things happened, but just in the doing of my normal routine.

Monday-We had a general lecture on memory and the effects of modern technology (including social networking/facebook/etc) on memory. It raised some interesting ideas. I didn't agree with all the conclusions about facebook being the sole cause of memory loss (that I'm not even sure is happening). But some very healthy conversation happened.

Friday-I met with Dr. Ennis for the last time. We talked over the entire project (30 pages) and then talked about grad school details. I feel like I have more direction as I figure out applications over the next year and handle acceptance letters the year following. I also went with a few friends to a Spanish Renaissance concert in Cambridge. It was too long, but the music was fun.

Saturday-London day trip. We visited the Victoria and Albert Museum to see this interesting exhibit on small space construction. The neatest construction was a two-story wooden "tower" that was a spiral staircase with bookcases on all sides of it. Fun idea. We went to the Proms organ concert in the evening and then made our way (despite train cancellations and station jumping) home to Cambridge. Long day, but good day!

Sunday-Church. Last Sunday in Cambridge, at least for this summer. I taught in Priesthood, played the organ in Sacrament Meeting and sang as part of a special musical number. Tonight I am in charge of FHE. It should be fun.

In one week I will be in transit from the UK to the US...how quickly time flies!

P.S. Enjoy the new pictures. I've done some pictures of life in and around Cambridge, with more to come.

2 weeks...

The weather here has actually been different over the last week. The summer had been very dry in the southwest of England, and the rain has increased drastically in the last little bit. On Saturday, we had a rainstorm that lasted for about an hour, I think. It was great fun to watch the rain as I sat in the library. And the lawns being green is a nice perk, as well.

This last week has gone well for me. Nothing too exciting, but productive. I finished a paper for Spooks and Spies and have done major editing on my final supervision paper, which is due this week. In Spooks and Spies, a lot of the week was focused on the Enigma codes of WWII. And then we went to Bletchley Park, 1 1/2-2 hours away from here by coach, where the WWII codebreakers were based and where they broke the Enigma codes. A fun trip. Probably the biggest excitement of the week was with church, yesterday. Elder Kenneth Johnson of the Seventy was visiting our ward, because his son is the bishop. He sat in on my Sunday School lesson! And then he came to King's College to give a fireside for us BYU students and the single adults in the area. I learned and was reminded about a lot of things.

This next week is looking to be lots of work, but it should be enjoyable, at least! I'm also planning on going to London on Saturday for some exploring and probably two Prom concerts at Royal Albert Hall. I'm pretty excited about that!

So sad...I'm not ready to leave Cambridge, or England for that matter. I'll make the most of the next two weeks and then spend lots of time dreaming about coming back...

not too many, but a few new pictures...

Is it really the start of week 6?

So, this past week went well. New class, new adventures. I'm back into the mindset of coming here for all 4 years of post-BYU study now, but there are two more years before any of that would be starting. Only time will tell.

Spooks and Spies is great! This week we got from the beginnings (1909) until the interwar years (about 1938?). The US didn't have a peacetime espionage/counterespionage/spy anything until after WWII! They dismantled all military stuff post-WWI. The Brits reduced stuff, but didn't disappear it...Interesting to think how different things could be if such things had happened differently. I saw the movie Thirteen Days this last week, about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Most interesting...

This week's BYU movie party was a modern Sherlock Holmes that BBC has produced. It is in 3 episodes and one was released a week ago, one yesterday, and one in a week. The first one was great! The plot was a little thin, but the acting and mannerisms, the things one would most fear in a modernization of Sherlock Holmes, were spot on! I'm excited to meet up this week for round 2!

This last Saturday's London trip included a tour of the Houses of Parliament, Stomp!, and Henry VIII. Parliament-great! Stomp!-quite fun! Henry VIII-nice to see it in the Globe, tired feet (next time buy a real seat), and not in my top 5 Shakespeare plays. But it must've been hard to write a play about the current monarch's immediate family...

Not too many new pictures, just a few from the Houses of Parliament.

A Week of Adventures

All is well here. This past week has had some adventures. These include:

-seeing Love's Labor's Lost. very well done and very witty play. have you ever seen it? you would like it. "ahh, now we are even." "yes, we are four..."

-taking my final for Gothic architecture. an hour straight of writing. my hand muscles were unhappy. however, i think i did quite well.

-taking the King's College Chapel roof tour. way cool to see the other side of the vaulting and then to go out on the real roof!

-watching Stranger Than Fiction. lots of people in the group hadn't seen it. i still don't know how that was possible...but it made for a most enjoyable evening! everyone does such a good job in that film

-going to London for the day. saw Wicked again. went to the Tower again. wandered Westminster. ate at my favorite Indian place in London. was the general tour guide.

-church. sang in a special musical number and got asked to teach gospel doctrine (my favorite Sunday calling) and got hinted at another special musical number. we shall see.

This week I start a new class: Spooks and Spies. It is on the 20th century espionage of the US and UK. I'm pretty excited. Also, I got a little behind on my supervision this last week, so I have much to do today and in the next few days!

As far as further schooling goes, I think I've decided to come to Cambridge for my MPhil and then go back to the States to get my PhD. I hope that will happen at Harvard, but only time will tell. The unfortunate thing is that I now must take the GRE...and here I thought I was done with standardized testing. Oh well!

Be sure to check out the new pictures!

Cambridge...the first 2 weeks

Suffice it to say, life is great in Cambridge! I arrived two weeks ago and things have gone forward at breakneck pace! Classes here are good, but very different from the US. Lots of lectures and small group seminars (involving field studies and document studies). My gothic architecture class is AMAZING! Look at the pictures to see some of the buildings we've investigated. My supervision is going well. Martin (Dr. Ennis) has a wealth of knowledge about all sorts of things and is a grammarian extraordinaire! I have lots and lots of work to do, but it is fun to have some direction and a clear goal. And the more work and analysis I do of my notes, the more I realize that the doctoral dissertation that was recently done on this subject was VERY poorly done. Blatant errors all over the transcriptions!

The interesting bits of the last two weeks:

-formal hall. a little long and loud, but a good experience with a multiple-course meal. however, having floating candles above the tables would've made the experience more like hogwarts... but at least we got to walk on the grass at king's!

-a trip to Scotland over the first weekend. long drive up and back, with visits to richmond castle and fountains abbey on the drives. while in edinburgh, we traveled to the trossachs for a great hike! and I also bought...a KILT! fun apparel for fun times, especially for the scottish dancing and hiking arthur's seat.

-visiting ely cathedral as part of architecture. the crossing tower and the northwest tower both have fallen in the history of the building...crazy.

-going to the duxford air show today. amazing airplanes and flying. so much fun!

I'm really loving just about everything. The buildings, the atmosphere, the library (24-hour access is incredible!), the king's cows across the river. so good. The only real annoyance: tourists! Somehow we will manage...

Well, it is late. And I can't think of too many more details at this point. Shoot me an e-mail if you have any specific questions or suggestions for my next post.

Cambridge, round 2

Today we returned to Cambridge. The only disappointing bit was how rushed it all was. But we were rushing to great things, that is for sure. We started with a visit with John Rutter. He was a lot funnier than I imagined him to be. We got a group photo, so when it comes to us via e-mail, I'll try to add it to the picture file. Then we went to the rehearsal and evensong performance for King's College Choir. It was amazing! And even more amazing to realize that I will be there as a student in less than three weeks!!! Afterward, we dashed over and attended evensong at St. John's College. All in all, a fulfilling day. I only took a few pictures, but they've been added.

my next home!

Yesterday was wonderful. In fact, very exciting! We took a trip out to Cambridge. But the getting there took a while. Someone had the bright idea of driving the coach through the heart of London at 10 AM. I’m still not sure why we didn’t head towards the outskirts of the city and then move towards Cambridge. At least we got to see the construction site for the 2012 Olympics. But I still can’t help but think how I could’ve gotten across town on the tube in half the time…

Anyway, I was able to sleep once the coach got rolling, which made the time pass quickly. When I woke up, we were in beautiful countryside. When we stopped, we were not in downtown Cambridge, but outside a cemetery. We were given 30 minutes to wander the American cemetery from WWII in Cambridge. Both the actual graves and memorials for those killed in the Atlantic, Battle of Britain, and North Africa are memorialized here. It was a very sacred place. I knew that there were memorial grounds on the Continent, but I was unaware of this one and the one south of London from WWI. (be sure to check out the new photos!)

I was sad to leave, but the drive into Cambridge was magical. To see the colleges from the Backs was a good first impression. Phil, Jake, and I grabbed a bite at a delightful place across from King’s and then explored the heart of town on foot. There were lots of interesting things, though the sight of a Disney Store was a little disappointing. The general consensus is that Cambridge is better than Oxford; we’ll see if I still feel that way after spending two months there. Hopefully I will.

After exploring for a bit, we wandered into the University Press Store. There were two books that I really wanted, but didn’t buy. But I’m fairly confident I’ll buy them when I go back to Cambridge. Especially since the store is right across from King’s. We also headed to a wonderful ice cream shop and enjoyed some very creamy ice cream.

After the fun day of exploring, we wandered over to Trinity College for the rehearsal and evensong. When we walked into the quadrangle, I jumped for joy; the sight was heavenly and it made me so happy to think that I would be in a similar place for so long. The most surprising thing about the chapel was the warm temperatures we found inside! Between that warmth and the generally warm (even hot?) day, I didn’t have much need for the jacket I hauled along. But such is life!

We attended both the rehearsal and performance of evensong at Trinity College, Cambridge. Overall, a wonderful experience. Their sound is much closer to the sound we are familiar with at BYU than anything else we have heard. It had a very similar feel to a BYU Singer’s rehearsal. Their sound was very free and full, but with only 30 singers. It was great to hear such a good balance along with female sopranos and altos.

The director was the same director from the Holst Singers. He is either very stand-offish or uncomfortable talking to strangers and groups. He didn’t acknowledge our presence at all, which made for an uncomfortable dynamic. I am much more appreciative of the time our directors at BYU take to acknowledge visitors at rehearsals; many barriers, mostly psychological, are overcome as a member of a choir when the simple identity of the previously “random” person is obtained.

I was also impressed with the amount of music the choir was covering in the term. It was not easy music and they were carrying stacks of it. The “bulletin’s” list of pieces in addition to standard service music was mind-boggling. Perhaps I’ll try to sing in their choir someday...here’s for hoping. From what Dr. Staheli and Sister Hall said, Trinity College Choir is the best mixed choir in Cambridge. It is a shame that they get upstaged by King’s Boys Choir. Though, I am excited to hear the boys choir in a few weeks.