This past weekend in Cambridge felt particularly autumnal. The crisp air and colourful leaves made it one of the first real fall weekends we have had this season -and potentially one of the last. Fall in England is not as long or dramatic a season as in Virginia or other parts of the Eastern US. The temperature slowly begins to sink closer to the 30s & 40s where it will most likely remain until March...possibly even longer (the 40s). The leaves turning is also a rather subtle occurrence. It seems like the leaves on half the trees turn pale shades of yellow before falling while the rest go straight from green to brown. There is very little orange and red. So while the fall foliage may be colourful, it is not colorful as we know it.
Saturday was a working day for both of us. Will, who starts supervising this week, spent most of the day going over the material he will be teaching, while Jackie took a timed practice LSAT. She also registered for the December test, making it official: she is looking at going to law school. In order to relax after such a mentally exhausting day, we opted to watch the UVA-UNC football game on ESPN360. For those of you familiar with Virginia football (can we really call it that?), you will know watching UVA play is never relaxing. The UVA-UNC game was every bit as tense as we expected, but it was definitely worth the stress (and loss of sleep) to watch the Wahoos come from behind with 90 seconds left in the 4th quarter to beat the #18 Tar Heels in overtime. Oh yes, victory was sweet.
Sunday, however, was even sweeter. After church, we met up with some new friends - C & M from Texas - and ventured out to The Orchard Tea Garden in Grantchester. The Orchard is one of our favorite places in Cambridge and a must-visit for anyone who comes to see us. Sorry, no photos of the scones to entice any of you into coming to Cambridge (do check back through the blog and photo albums for past photos), but we promise that if you come visit us, we will go. Given the lovely fall weather, it was a perfect day for a cream tea beneath the apple trees. :o)
Monday, October 20, 2008
Fall Weekend Update
Thursday, October 16, 2008
London Calling
This week, I (Jackie) have been going through the photos from our Summer 2006 visit to London as part of an overall "digital reorganization project." It has been interesting to see what captured my attention during that trip and to reflect on the experience (as well as see how bad some of the photos turned out; my camera at the time was much slower and heavier than the one I have now. Thank you, Mom + Dad for my Coolpix). Although the primary purpose of the trip was for Will to visit Cambridge and decide whether or not it was for him, we spent the majority of our time in London sightseeing. Neither of us had been to London (or the UK) before, so from the start it promised to be an exciting visit (in fact, for one of us -whom shall remain nameless- this trip was the fulfillment of a childhood desire born out of the particularly painful experience of being left at home in [West] Germany one weekend to play Barbies and GI Joes while her parents and infant brother traveled to London without her*). Here are a few photos from Summer 2006. 
Thanks to some fantastic planning by Will's stepmom, our hotel was in a very nice part of central London. This was evident by the plethora of Ferraris, Porsches, BMWs, Aston Martins, and Bentleys we saw parked on the street. Will, needless to say, was in car-watching heaven. 10% of the photos taken during our trip were of cars. For serious. 
£15 is a bit pricey for a ride on a glorified ferris wheel. Even if the ferris wheel was used in a BBMak video. Nonetheless, I like the character that the London Eye adds to the city's skyline. And yes, I am somewhat proud of this semi-decent picture. 
Piccadilly Circus with the statue of Eros. At the time, there was a Virgin Megastore near the conglomo screens that Will insisted we had to visit because it was "one of the last Virgin Megastores on the planet." I think it's gone now. Queen Elizabeth's grocer, Fortnum + Mason, is a little ways down the street. Definitely a store worth visiting for lovely, unique food souvenirs and/or pretending you live during the Victorian era...
The Tower of London. Well, one of the Tower's towers anyway. Once a palace, fortress, and prison, today the Tower is famous for being the keeper of the crown jewels and other assorted gems. It's also known for being home to disgustingly huge ravens.
Will hanging out with Pericles at the British Museum. The BM was/is quite possibly our favorite London museum. It houses the Rosette Stone, Myron's Discus Thrower, and several other antiquities we recognized from our school textbooks. One of the great things about museums in London (aside from the fact that the British Empire conquered half the globe and stole many fantastic things from other civilizations), is that admission to most is free (unlike, say, in Paris). 
Patisserie Valerie (Pat Val for short) is a London café/bakery chain that sells incredible ice cream sundaes. I think we visited the one in Sloane Square twice in 5 days (we shared!). This was our last day in London celebratory sundae (before heading out to Cambridge).
*The following is a paraphrase of conversation that Jackie often had with her parents growing up. It was usually prompted by watching home movies/slides or looking through photo albums:
Jackie: Mooooooom, Daaaaaad, why didn't I get to go to London, England? Why did you take Little George?
Parents: We couldn't leave your brother, sweetie, he was only a baby. Besides, we could carry him on our backs. You were too big to be carried, but too small to walk so much.
Jackie: But Mooooooom, Daaaaaad, I wanna go to Loooooondooooon.
Parents: Well, when you're grown up you can go. Find a rich husband and he can take you.
And now I'm stuck here...
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Back to School
The students are back and Michaelmas term has begun. For the graduate student, whose work never ends, life in Cambridge continues as usual. The longer queues at Sainsburys and slightly more crowded sidewalks are really the only noticeable signs that classes are in session.
There is one major difference, however, between this year and last year: we have no neighbors. Literally, none. Our floor is empty, save for us. In fact, while people do live on the other two floors of our building, at least half the flats this year are unoccupied. This situation results from several factors, including the college's ineptitude in allocating flats; the dissatisfaction by newly arrived couples with the state of their flat (which, having seen several flats in our building and realizing we got the best/cleanest/least moldiest one, is totally understandable) and promptly moving out; and the opening of the recently renovated W. House with flats for Fellows. Between those flats and the New [in 2007] Buildings, no one wants to live in H. House. I can't I blame them, though I must say that our flat is not terrible. It is sufficient and the rent is much cheaper than the other flats which at present is a good thing. We do have a lovely window seat, but the bar fridge and potentially-sketchy bathroom leave much to be desired. We are not complaining, but we will miss having neighbors this year and moving out of H. House is becoming ever more attractive. We'll see how many times we lose heat this winter. ;)
Friday, October 3, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
One Year!
As we said in our last E-mail, it's been one year since we moved to England. We're commemorating the event by eating a ready meal from Sainsbury's with plastic dishes since that's how we spent our first two weeks over here. At the time, we didn't have any of our stuff over here because UK Customs law forbade the shipping of goods ahead of the person who would receive them. Yeah, we're pretty lame sometimes. But this way whenever our kids ask us why we always do this on September 28th, we can tell them it's to remember the time when we were strangers in a strange land. Kind of a nice way to illustrate something Biblical? Yeah, or just lame. Either way, it's been a heck of a year and we're looking forward to this year and all that it may hold.
