Christmases

AMERICAN CHRISTMAS

On Sunday, a Gates Scholar from Colorado, Chris Bohn, invited me to a Christmas Eve dinner with his family who was in town visiting. A Gates Scholar from Girton College (Kara) and I joined Chris, his two sisters, and his parents for what I would consider a traditional American Christmas dinner. It was basically a Thanksgiving meal with holiday cheer – salad, mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, brussel sprouts, bread, wine, and some nice Belgian beer that I brought along.

We were able to pack nine people into Chris’ apartment at Christ’s College (which kind of makes me want to live there next year if I end up sticking around), and despite the tiny size of the kitchen, Chris’ mom was able to whip up quite a delicious meal including four different kinds of deserts – Christmas pudding, (which, as you might recall from a previous entry, looks like chocolate cake, but tastes like fruitcake), minced pies, pumpkin pie with whole wheat crust (of which it was noted after desert that I ate half), and one other dessert for which all I can picture in my head is another pumpkin pie.

After dinner, we sat in a circle and listened to Chris’ father read the Christmas story from the bible. The younger folks then wandered the deserted streets of Cambridge, which were quite nice with decorative holiday lights. Chris’ sisters had never been night punting, so we tried to find a punt – a boat for which one can use a pole to “punt” up and down the Cambridge River. We didn’t find one (at least not one that wasn’t chained up), but we did enjoy a nice brisk midnight walk through the city and some of the Cambridge’s many greenspaces.


ENGLISH CHRISTMAS

On Christmas Day, I joined my Girton friend, Laura, and her family in their town of Girton, which is just outside of Cambridge and which is where my college is located. Although Laura was born and lived most of her life in England, she, her stepmother, and her father spent many years in South Africa. Additionally, both Laura and her father are part of the English Department here, which made for some interesting conversations about British, South African, and American lexicons. In their quaint little home, we sat around a nice little Christmas tree, listened to Irish, South African, and Christmas Choral music, drank sherry and wine, and enjoyed an afternoon feast and a largely secular English Christmas.

The highlight of the afternoon, aside from all the incredibly delicious food (Laura’s a great cook) and drink, was going through a stack of cards of English idioms and their American translations. I learned that a “dog’s bullocks” is actually a good thing, and also learned the origin of a few obscure American idioms.


I spent the evening at my friend Justin Bang’s place at St. Catherine’s college. We ate a VERY modest Christmas dinner, but enjoyed some good laughs. The picture above is of Justin’s friend (our cook), me, and Justin.

Gentlemen and Hooligans

I saw my first full rugby match on Tuesday. I have in fact seen bits and pieces of other rugby matches (mainly at Girton since many of my friends here at Wolfson Court play on Girton’s team), but as of last week I had yet to sit down and watch a whole match. In November I learned that there are two big rivalrous sports events between Oxford and Cambridge every year. One, is the annual Boat Race, which takes place in April. The other is the annual Varsity Rugby Match.

PAYING THE PRICE FOR WAITING
Every year, the Varsity Match is played at Twickenham Stadium – an 80,000 person capacity Stadium on the outskirts of London. In November, I neglected to pay the £8 ticket price when I heard about the match because I had heard there were some special seats offered to students for only £1. Well, the weekend before the match tickets were being sold online for £18. I asked around and asked around and finally found someone with tickets – the local sports shop. I found a buddy (Evan) to accompany me to the match and then bought two tickets on Monday morning (the day before the match). The £10 per ticket fee got ME a seat on one side of the stadium and Evan a seat on the other – D’oh! It reminded me of an old Colombian adage that I learned from my European traveling companion, Alejandro: “Un pajaro en el mano es mejor que cien volando” (translation: “A bird in the hand is better than a hundred flying.”) Needless to say, I should have bought the tickets when they were £8!!!


A NIGHT IN LONDON

Later that afternoon, Evan texted me on my phone to see if I wanted to go to London that night instead of the next day. Our Wolfson Court friend, Diego (a half Spanish half French fellow) has an apartment there and had apparently offered it up to us. So a few hours later I grabbed a peanut butter and banana sandwich (the meal which I consume thrice daily when the dining hall is closed), some warm clothes, and a couple of Tetley’s to share with Evan on the train into London (it’s perfectly acceptable in Europe to drink in public).

Diego’s 14th floor apartment was a cozy place with huge picture windows on opposite sides of the apartment offering quite a view of downtown London. Since Diego lives in Cambridge, his apartment was more of a getaway and thus had many of the expected bachelor pad amenities, including a three liter bottle of Vodka – a birthday present from his friends, purchased in the United Arab Emirates of all places! After we arrived, we helped Diego whittle away at his present by drinking one of his special spiced cocktails. After a few drinks, we wandered around Soho looking for a suitable restaurant for dinner. Since we had two vegetarians in our party, we ended up eating at one of what appeared to be a handful of vegetarian restaurants in Soho. For £5 it was an all you can eat Chinese buffet, complete with mock duck, mock chicken, and mock shrimp. Two plates later, I was stuffed.

Next we headed to some bar/club where Diego’s friend was celebrating his birthday. At the party Diego spilled the beans about a purchase he had made the other day. After doing a bit of research and giving in to a passion that clearly could not be quashed, Diego bought the last old-style double decker bus in London. After a few laughs and inquiries about what the hell he was going to do with his new double decker bus, we headed home so Diego could make it up to Cambridge early in the morning and so Evan and I could enjoy some of London before the big match.


AN ESSENTIAL MODE OF TRANSPORT

What we enjoyed before the game was something we all wish we could do more of – sliding. Like me, German installation artist Carsten Holler sees slides as “an essential mode of transport.” Unfortunately, he beat me to the punch by creating a massive slide exhibition at the Tate Modern Museum – Britain's national museum of international modern art. On our way to the match Evan and I decided to stop by the Tate to do some sliding.

Although the slides were impressive, a burlap sack for sliders to sit on meant the slides were also really fast. Thus, the the exhilarating slide only lasted a few seconds.

To our surprise, as we waited in line to do some more sliding, we learned from a fellow slider that Twickenham stadium was in fact not very close by. Rather, the stadium required that we take the tube [subway] to Waterloo Station and then a 30 minute train ride to Twickenham, a town outside of London.

“So we should probably leave pretty soon if we want to make the 2:00 pm start of the match,” Evan asked.

“You’re probably going to want to leave right this minute if you want to make the match,” informed the Englishmen.

As we rushed to the stadium we realized we had yet to acquire any beer or food with which we were planning to uphold an American Football tradition by sneaking it into the stadium and avoiding the exorbitantly priced provisions sold at the stadium. So on our way we picked up some tall cans of English brew and a falafel or two and made our way to Twickenham.


*For more info on the slide exhibition, check out this link:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/article-23370134-details/The+Tate's+30mph+twisters/article.do

THE MATCH


Although the match was well attended (about 40,000 people) for the 125th annual Match between Oxford and Cambridge, Evan and I were both a little disappointed with the civility displayed by the crowd. Sure there was some singing and cheering but overall there were few if any die-hard fans in the crowd. We did see some die hard players, including some that got in a bit of a brawl shortly after the match commenced, but overall, we still were a little disappointed. The actual match was quite interesting and I did appreciate the game itself, but Evan, on the other hand, was not impressed.

The crowd (at least where I was sitting) came to their feet by the end of the match when Cambridge won, but amazingly, there was hardly any celebration in the stands or on the field. Most everyone just filed out of the stadium and back towards the pubs and trains (which presumably took the fans to other pubs throughout London).

On the train ride home that night, I was reminded of something an Englishmen once told me,

“Football (soccer) is a game for gentlemen played by hooligans. Rugby is a game for hooligans played by gentlemen.”

I think Evan, who plays for Girton’s football team, would disagree. But nevertheless we could both agree that, aside from at least two Americans in the stands, there were not enough hooligans in the stands at the 125th Varsity Match.

Eating the Days Away

Some of you may have already received my survey solicitation (part of my dissertation) this week, so you know that I've been hard at work on that. Additionally I've been putting together a budget proposal for the Gates Council and doing some preparation for the Union. In the evenings I’ve been spending quite a bit of time eating – I’m enjoying a week of indulgence before I go back to eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches and muesli (the quintessential healthy European breakfast) for the next five weeks while my dining hall is closed.


CHURCHILL FORMAL

On Monday I attended the Churchill Christmas Formal. We dined in Cambridge’s largest dining hall where the meal included a delicious tomato salad for an appetizer and a very unique main course. The vegetarian option was yellow rice, potatoes and cheese, and salad, which was mostly made up of raw onions. Aside from the unusual combination, the three dishes were served together in a bowl – turning the three dishes into one very special dish.

Following the meal, we were given £500 to gamble in the Churchill faux casino. After loosing my money, my host for the night, Laura, and I put our funds together (i.e. she gave me some of her funds) and I turned our £1,000 pounds into £10,000 – enough to make us the first at the party to make it into the winners circle (giving us an entry into a drawing for May Ball tickets).


CHEZ GERRARD

On Tuesday, the outgoing Gates Scholar Council joined the incoming council and Provost of the Gates Trust, Gordon Johnson, for a splendid meal at one of Cambridge’s fine French restaurants, Chez Gerrard. I sat next to Provost Johnson (who is also the deputy vice chancellor of the university) and my friend Gian Paulo (whose supervisor is Stephen Hawking). It was interesting to hear stories about the Cambridge Union from Dr. Johnson, who joined back in the 1960s. Similarly, Gian Paulo had loads of stories about Prof. Hawking. One of my favorites that he tells is how when he and Prof. Hawking were at Caltech for a couple months, students slept outside on the sidewalk so they could get tickets to one of Prof. Hawking’s big lectures.

After dinner I made my way to Sidney Sussex College to hear more celebrity gossip from a friend who went to school with Barbara Bush (the younger) at Yale. Apparently the naked parties there got even wilder than their name would suggest!

Left: Anne and me at Sidney Sussex.













THE MARATHON

I was all set to go see the new James Bond movie on Wednesday until I got a text message on my phone, “We’re having a dinner party and thought it would be appropriate to invite you and to celebrate your victory at the Union. It’s a 9 course meal with seven different wines.” Well I can tell you full well that my decision to postpone the movie plans was easier than actually finishing what would end up being a 10 course meal with 11 different wines.

We began eating around 7:30 pm. I missed the first bottle of wine but I was quickly caught up with the help of my generous host. The rest of the meal, which lasted until almost 1:00 am, is outlined in this menu that they created for the four other dinner guests.

While many of the foods were new to me, I did find the Gravadlax (smoked salmon marinated in sugar, salt, and dill) to be quite delicious. Of course the wines were good and it was really neat to taste different wines with different dishes. Without a doubt, the most exciting wine was the 1983 Riesling – it may be as close as I ever get to tasting a wine that’s as old as I am.


ST CATHERINE’S FORMAL

To help celebrate Christmas (again), I joined in the festivities at St. Catherine’s College. Another unusual Christmas dinner among other things taught me that in England, “Christmas pudding” refers to a bland cake that resembles devils food cake. To my host, Justin Bangs, the dessert that looked like chocolate cake did not taste AT ALL like chocolate cake.

Although the meal was ho-hum, the pre-dinner mulled wine was delicious and I especially enjoyed the hired carolers who serenaded us as we mingled in our black ties and warmed up with our mulled wine. The post dinner ‘bop’ was also quite nice and included a noteworthy funk band that managed to play old as well as new tunes that struck a chord with my predominantly American musical palate.

Despite the delicious food and entertainment, the highlight of the formal was actually neither. No, that honor went to Santa who shared a strange resemblance to Justin, and who managed to collect a large bag of non-perishable food items for a local charity:










Above: Justin as Santa (left) and Justin and me at the post-dinner bop (right).

My First Michaelmas

The end of my first Michaelmas term at Cambridge actually coincided with the beginning of a six week vacation full of work. My first term officially ended during the last week of November. As a going away present I received assignments of two 4,000 word term papers due in the beginning of January. That is of course in addition to work that is required for my dissertation, which is due in six months. So for those of you wondering back home, what I will be doing over my vacation here, there is much to keep me busy over the holidays.

Since the term ended, there has been some time for fun of course. Our Environmental Policy class did congregate for an end of term trip to the pub after our last class met last Wednesday:

Above (from left to right): Brittany (West Virginia/Massachusetts), Hiroe (Japan), Liz (England), Sudeep (England/India), Yana (Brazil), me, Yanglu Ding (China), Wale (Nigeria), Yan-Zhou (China), Kaoru (Japan), Federico (Italy), Elena (Moscow, Russia)


WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS

Additionally, I did make it to a number of Christmas Parties and other holiday related events. On Sunday I attended a traditional English Christmas party hosted by a PhD student who has been active in the Union this term. His cozy downtown Cambridge apartment was adorned with holiday lights, mistletoe, and of course a fully decorated Christmas tree. We dined on oak smoked Scottish salmon, various cheeses, and of course mulled wine. We sang all of the traditional Christmas carols, which I am still learning, and for which the English demonstrated impressive vocal harmony.

At the Union we celebrated a term’s worth of hard work with a delicious meal and post debate Christmas party. As is traditional, the President of the Union invited all Union officers and committee members to the pre-debate dinner (which cost me £26, but given the size and tastiness of my meal, was well worth it). After the meal, the President of the Union passed the baton to his successor and made an impressive argument in favor the motion, “This House Would Take from the Rich and Give to the Poor” (the motion eventually passed). Following the debate, minced pies, mulled wine, and a merry time was had by all at the last Union event of the term – the Christmas Party.

On Saturday I gathered some friends to head over to Christ College (one of the 500 year old+ colleges) to attend a “Carols by Candlelight” event in the old chapel there. Like so many other buildings in Cambridge, Christ College and its chapel are in stunningly good shape and are quite the sight to see. For about an hour we stood in the candlelit chapel singing carols and then eating minced pies and mulled wine. All in all there were about fifty people who came, sang, and donated money for the charity event.



BROWN. TRISTAN BROWN


















With an ever-increasing workload, I tried to resist the James Bond themed party at Wolfson College on Friday night. But having become so accustomed to eating dinner in a tux, I thought it’d be worth it to see if I could win the best Bond character look a like contest...


OTHER EXCITING EVENTS

A few weeks ago I attended a reception with the Italian Ambassador who spoke about transatlantic relations. It was really interesting to hear about American-Italian relations over the years and the current issues facing Italy’s former ambassador to the United States.

The Saturday before the election I attended what was probably the nicest formal that I’ve been to here. It was sponsored by the Conservative Union and it was held in Gonville and Caius College (where Stephen Hawking is a Fellow). I did not take part in all of the pre-dinner champagne, post-dinner port and cheese, and the post-‘port and cheese’ gin and tonics, but I did have quite a nice time nonetheless. The following pictures are of the stained glass windows in Caius (pronounced “keyes”) dining hall. They are of John Venn’s famous “Venn Diagram,” Watson and Crick’s famous “DNA Double Helix,” and the not so famous (for us non-mathematicians) Green’s Theorem, which does look pretty cool on stained glass though.

My First Election

Written on Tuesday, 28 November 2006 – "Election Night"

The Cambridge Union Society has extremely strict rules about its elections. No one can mention the election (in any way) using an electronic method. Person to person calls or face-to-face chats are the only method by which members can campaign or speak of the election. Now that my election is finished however, I’m free to write and tell you about it.

It went very well. Active members in the union showed great support for my candidacy as did my fellow Gates Scholars, Wolfson Court friends, and other friends that I’ve made over the past few months. I disliked the fact that I was so focused on gathering votes over the past few weeks, but I’ve enjoyed meeting so many random people (by walking up to them and introducing myself in various venues and circumstances). Because I worked fairly hard on my first contested election, I think it was a success (though I won’t know if it was a victory for another few hours).

I ran against a friendly young woman who was part of a slate of candidates who all campaigned for each other (making it very difficult for an independent candidate like me to win). It was a clean campaign, but certainly an uphill battle for me.


A WIN FOR DEMOCRACY
(Below, a picture of me in front of my computer after 13 hours of campaigning on election day)

There weren’t many people in the room who though I was going to win. Or at least that’s the way it seemed when people lined up to shake my hand after the announcement was finally made by the Secretary and Vice President and the President of the Cambridge Union Society at approximately 1:00 am on Wednesday morning. While there were some contested elections, the one election that everybody thought would be a close one, was the election for Treasurer of the Union.

“For the position of Treasurer, Easter Term, candidate Tristan Brown is hereby duly elected.”

As I calmly shook the hands of a dozen or so people who quickly crowded around me, I was told that at least in recent history (and perhaps in all of Cambridge Union history) it was unprecedented for someone to run for Treasurer of the Union in their first term and win. And apparently my running as an independent candidate (against a slate of candidates) meant that such a feat was all the more likely to be the first of its kind.

The feeling as I left the Union around 2:00 am was a feeling of pride. Pride for my political and campaign skills but mostly pride for the democratic process. My campaign had not been about getting people to go vote for me. It had in large part been about getting people to elect the most qualified people when they went to vote (whoever the voters believed that person to be).

In the days following the election a number of people told me that my election actually gave them a renewed sense of hope for democracy. I wasn’t supposed to win and people knew that. A number of people told me that I was the first candidate that they voted for in any election that actually won, and in their minds actually deserved to win. Getting people to vote for the first time is a huge step in getting them to vote for a lifetime. If people come out to vote in two consecutive elections they are much more likely to vote in all future elections.

If just one person gained a deeper sense of the power of democracy because of my candidacy, the hard work that I spent campaigning will surely have been worth it.