England is so...Englandy.
Jul. 4th, 2011 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardI have arrived in Cambridge! England is...there are just bits of history. Lying around. It's all "Oh, here's a Roman-era temple, here's St. Paul's Cathedral, that's where DON'T STEP INTO THE ROAD PEDESTRIANS DON'T HAVE RIGHT OF WAY the Gunpowder Plot was betrayed." gmh and aellairene took me to the British Museum, and it is a special kind of mindbreaking to see objects you have studied in class sitting there. Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, hi! Lots of other Etruscan and Roman and Greek stuff, hi! HOLY SHIT THAT'S SERIOUSLY THE ROSETTA STONE? (Seen in passing. ROSETTA STONE GUYS. That was the really brain-breaking part.)
And then I was delivered unto Cambridge bygmh, where I arrived late and threw my stuff into my room and grabbed the first skirt that came to hand in order to make to the drinks reception, which, well, I got outside Newnham House after everyone had left and was left trying to find my way to Corpus Christi College with only a map that didn't show terribly much. I walked in circles for about ten minutes, then finally accidentally turned in the right direction and got there. Good news: "I go to Tulane University in New Orleans" is a great conversation starter, because someone will always ask how New Orleans is recovering from Hurricane Katrina. So far I'm the only classicist I've met, though I've only talked to about half the people in the program. (It's not a terribly large program.) There are a lot of archaeology majors, or some variant thereof. Gee, go figure. It seems like the majority of the staff and graduate students do the Neolithic, with some Bronze Age shown in for variance, but there's also a Roman historian and a medievalist thrown in for flavor. (The Roman guy came to talk to us, and he kept saying, "Oh, I'm sure you're not interested in the Romans, BUT," and I couldn't get a word in to say, "I'm a classics major! ASK ME HOW I LOVE THE ROMANS."
And then we were fed, Bruff is better, which is terrifying, but holy shit the HALL. THE ROOF. Some of us went to go buy things at Sainsbury's (why does everything close early, England? what's wrong with you?), where there WERE MORE BUILDINGS HOLY SHIT HOW DOES THAT EXIST IN REAL LIFE on the way, and then had some culture clash at the store over things like, "Why aren't the eggs in the refrigerated section?" and "What the hell does squash mean when it's on a bottle of what otherwise appears to be juice?"
The rooms in the house are...kind of amazing. I think it's twice the size of my room back at Tulane, and features such lovely things as a nightstand, a wardrobe, cabinets and drawers, a sink (in a cabinet! or with doors, anyway), a window, bookshelves, two lounge chairs (of the cheap college sort) and a coffee table. Along with a desk and a desk chair and lamps and a garbage can. I am pretty sure no American university dorm offers anything remotely close. And it's a single room. *boggles*
Other bits of culture shock:
no pedestrian right of way
people putting on their seatbelts in taxis. willingly.
I'm starting to get used to the accents, though.
What the hell do you have against street signs, England? What did street signs ever do to you?
Brief schedule, to tell you my days off: Sunday the 9th of July (although there's something about Shelford Village Feast in the afternoon on the schedule), Saturday the 16th, Saturday the 23rd, and Saturday the 30th, along with some study days and some days with afternoons off. ALSO LATER WE GET TO GO TO SUTTON HOO. VIKINGSisweedan VIKINGS. And then there's the Wessex trip, where we get to see a hill fort and STONEHENGE OH MY GOD and the Roman Baths in Bath.
Later I shall have to go round and scout out used bookshops and a yarn shop. It seems like -- well, okay, it seems like the consummate college town. But it seems really nice. (It helps that it was a nice day, too.) Other things: figure out what to do to make the phoneclanwilliam gave me functional. Can we drink the tap water in the dorms? In the bathroom it says "do not drink" but does that also hold for the sinks in the rooms? *muses*
gmh and aellairene took me to the British Museum, and it is a special kind of mindbreaking to see objects you have studied in class sitting there. Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, hi! Lots of other Etruscan and Roman and Greek stuff, hi! HOLY SHIT THAT'S SERIOUSLY THE ROSETTA STONE? (Seen in passing. ROSETTA STONE GUYS. That was the really brain-breaking part.)And then I was delivered unto Cambridge by
gmh, where I arrived late and threw my stuff into my room and grabbed the first skirt that came to hand in order to make to the drinks reception, which, well, I got outside Newnham House after everyone had left and was left trying to find my way to Corpus Christi College with only a map that didn't show terribly much. I walked in circles for about ten minutes, then finally accidentally turned in the right direction and got there. Good news: "I go to Tulane University in New Orleans" is a great conversation starter, because someone will always ask how New Orleans is recovering from Hurricane Katrina. So far I'm the only classicist I've met, though I've only talked to about half the people in the program. (It's not a terribly large program.) There are a lot of archaeology majors, or some variant thereof. Gee, go figure. It seems like the majority of the staff and graduate students do the Neolithic, with some Bronze Age shown in for variance, but there's also a Roman historian and a medievalist thrown in for flavor. (The Roman guy came to talk to us, and he kept saying, "Oh, I'm sure you're not interested in the Romans, BUT," and I couldn't get a word in to say, "I'm a classics major! ASK ME HOW I LOVE THE ROMANS."And then we were fed, Bruff is better, which is terrifying, but holy shit the HALL. THE ROOF. Some of us went to go buy things at Sainsbury's (why does everything close early, England? what's wrong with you?), where there WERE MORE BUILDINGS HOLY SHIT HOW DOES THAT EXIST IN REAL LIFE on the way, and then had some culture clash at the store over things like, "Why aren't the eggs in the refrigerated section?" and "What the hell does squash mean when it's on a bottle of what otherwise appears to be juice?"
The rooms in the house are...kind of amazing. I think it's twice the size of my room back at Tulane, and features such lovely things as a nightstand, a wardrobe, cabinets and drawers, a sink (in a cabinet! or with doors, anyway), a window, bookshelves, two lounge chairs (of the cheap college sort) and a coffee table. Along with a desk and a desk chair and lamps and a garbage can. I am pretty sure no American university dorm offers anything remotely close. And it's a single room. *boggles*
Other bits of culture shock:
no pedestrian right of way
people putting on their seatbelts in taxis. willingly.
I'm starting to get used to the accents, though.
What the hell do you have against street signs, England? What did street signs ever do to you?
Brief schedule, to tell you my days off: Sunday the 9th of July (although there's something about Shelford Village Feast in the afternoon on the schedule), Saturday the 16th, Saturday the 23rd, and Saturday the 30th, along with some study days and some days with afternoons off. ALSO LATER WE GET TO GO TO SUTTON HOO. VIKINGS
isweedan VIKINGS. And then there's the Wessex trip, where we get to see a hill fort and STONEHENGE OH MY GOD and the Roman Baths in Bath.Later I shall have to go round and scout out used bookshops and a yarn shop. It seems like -- well, okay, it seems like the consummate college town. But it seems really nice. (It helps that it was a nice day, too.) Other things: figure out what to do to make the phone
clanwilliam gave me functional. Can we drink the tap water in the dorms? In the bathroom it says "do not drink" but does that also hold for the sinks in the rooms? *muses*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-04 10:39 pm (UTC)Did you manage to see the Rosetta Stone up close? There were mobs of people always around it taking pictures when I went years ago.
And squash is like a juice concentrate, I believe. Pour a small amount into a cup and then dilute it with water. I've seen orange squash and one or two other flavors in my local British grocery store though I haven't tried them myself (unless you count Ribena, which I love since I grew up on that stuff).
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-05 03:45 am (UTC)Hmm! Interesting. I think my first reaction was, "What, they put squash in their juice here?"
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-05 06:58 am (UTC)Well, it is, but... it's typically a sweetened concentrate containing a certain degree of juice ('high juice' squash can be around 50% juice).
I'd still recommend fruit juice over squash; there are some fruit squashes that are pretty decent (like Robinsons Barley Water), but they're not as good as genuine fruit juice in my opinion.
Which hill fort are you going to? - if you're going to Stonehenge, it's probably Badbury Rings or Maiden Castle (the vaguely dubiously shaped one I pointed out yesterday in the BM - it's a marvellous site) - though it could also be Little Solsbury Hill (which also has a great view over Bath).
You'll enjoy the Roman Baths, too (Bath is my home town!) - one of the things I remember from my childhood is the drains in the streets around the Baths emitting huge clouds of steam on cold winter days (obviously, natural hot springs and excess runoff meet cold air...)
Also: do you have any preference over weekend dates for having some sort of meetup? - for us, the 9th (Saturday!) is sort-of-free (pro-choice rally in London 13:00-15:00), the 16th is already fairly booked up (friends handfasting celebration and the Chap Olympiad), the 23rd I'll be in Reading (first birthday party for a friend's daughter), but I'm entirely free on the 30th.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-05 07:42 pm (UTC)According to the schedule...Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort. All the field trips should be exciting. :)
I was off by a day! We actually have Sunday the 10th off, which is strangely the only Sunday we have off; I'd expected to get Saturdays on and Sundays off, but it's actually the other way around. WEIRD. (On the same day the college chaplain entreated us to go to church, too, because apparently Americans are more observant than Brits? And then little things like OH MY GOD THAT CHURCH TOWER HAS BEEN HERE SINCE THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. I expect to be having these moments for a while.) Er, anyway, any day works for me, I think, though it looks like something may or may not be organized for the afternoon of the tenth. We've also got some "study days" where nothing is actually scheduled, so we're not sure if that means it's really a free day or what...
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-05 10:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-06 12:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-05 04:49 am (UTC)I'm so jealous. The ONE thing I wanted to see at the British Museum was the Sutton Hoo collection, and it was all out for curation. SO SAD.
Have loads of fun!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-05 07:06 pm (UTC)Thanks!
::uses beowulf icon::
Date: 2011-07-06 05:16 am (UTC)But YES, I totally know what you mean about the Rosetta stone. That was me too! I just never expected it to look like that in real life! And THERE IT WAS. EXISTING. Mindbreaking is right.
Your fieldtrip days sound pretty rad. I hope your body gets its sleep schedule sorted out soon so you can be appropriately awake and alert for them! <3 <3 <3 <3
Re: ::uses beowulf icon::
Date: 2011-07-06 07:19 pm (UTC)And today I found out that a guy who wrote one of my textbooks last year is at Cambridge. *fangirls*
God, I hope so too.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-06 06:28 pm (UTC)SUTTON HOO IS NOT VIKINGS YOU HEATHEN
You have pedestrian right of way? What, everywhere? *confuzzed*
Book me in for saturday the 16th!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-06 07:18 pm (UTC)In the U.S., yeah, technically pedestrians have right of way everywhere, though obviously we're not supposed to walk out in front of cars or on red lights or whatever. Different jaywalking laws in different cities (Seattle has pretty harsh ones and enforces them, while New Orleans doesn't have them), but we have it banged into our heads that we have pedestrian right of way, so we expect cars to stop for us, though we're not supposed to be stupid about it. This is...not true in England, which is just bizarre.
Saturday the sixteenth it is! Excellent.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-06 07:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-06 07:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-06 07:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-06 07:46 pm (UTC)