A Year at Cambridge

Almost a Master

2007-06-23T22:44:00.001Z

With a good 10 full minutes to spare, I turned my 50-page master’s dissertation in to the Graduate Secretary of the Department of Land Economy on 4 June at 3:50 pm. Though it had been about nine months in the making, you probably received an invitation to fill out my survey only recently so you know that much of the work was done in the last eight weeks. (Also, for those of you who might be wondering, assuming I do not receive any failing marks, at the Senate House on 21 July 2007, a Master of Philosophy shall be conferred upon me).

After the final deadline for the dissertation passed, our class gathered at the Anchor pub, just a block away from the Department to celebrate the culmination of our long year together. After a few beers, I wanted to do nothing other than relax and catch up with all of my family and friends. I am finally getting around to the latter.

Pictures: Post dissertation drinks at the pub (top left and top right) and departmental garden party (bottom right).

Aside from work for the Union and the Gates Council, a few celebrations have also, thusfar, kept me from you (will post more on them soon)...

FORMALS
Before handing in our dissertations, one of my supervisors, Ekin Birol, invited her other supervisees and me to a formal hall at Homerton College (right), where she is a fellow. There, we sat at High Table along with the other fellows. I sat next to a fellow that I dubbed “the medieval fellow” because he studied medieval literature but also held deep beliefs in medieval philosophies of crime and punishment – mainly that anyone who tries to evade punishment for speeding on motorways should be thrown in jail (I will spare you his comments about America, our traffic laws, and the size of our vehicles)...

Also this term, I attended formal halls at Pembroke College, which was put on by the labour club (top left), Wolfson College, which was sponsored by the Gates Trust (top right), and Selwyn College (below).

I even made it to a few formal events at Girton (my own college, which is quite far from town):

And to Hughes Hall, where my friends, Joseph and Wale (who are also fellow supervisees, shown below with our supervisor, Ekin Birol), and I took our supervisor to a Hughes formal:

INVIGILATING
After finishing up my work, I offered to help Girton College with their examinations. Oxbridge is notorious for having extensive rules and regulations for everything, including examinations. At Oxford, students must wear full regalia to their exams. Here, students need not wear anything special, but as I’m sure is the case at Oxford, there is a complicated system of watchers-over of the examinees. There are “proctors,” “examinations officers,” “supervisors,” “invigilators,” and “attendants,” all with duties to ensure order and proper procedures are being kept throughout the examination period. For most students at Cambridge, an equivalent of their grade point average, is calculated almost solely from the results of their examinations during their third and final year in Cambridge.
Thus, as an invigilator (pictured here), at this very moment I am keeping order by dutifully watching over students. I am also violating a number of invigilation rules by writing this, but since the supervisor said it was okay, I will ignore any orders form the proctors to heed my writing…

OTHER EASTER EVENTS
In May, I organized a Cinco de Mayo fiesta for the Gates Scholars. About 70 people, representing every continent except Antarctica came for cerveza, BBQ, volleyball, and good company. Amazingly, we even had a couple of Gates Scholars from Puebla, Mexico – the place of battle, which Cinco de Mayo fiestas are meant to honour.

The weekend before my dissertation was due, I also joined the Gates Scholars on trip to Sheringham, England – a small town in Norfolk, right on the North Sea coast. There, about 40 Scholars and I played Frisbee and kickball on the beach (yes, it did take quite a bit of time to teach everyone the rules of kickball, but since the last time I played was in elementary school, it was well worth it). Following the fun in the sun on the beach, we made our way to dry land where we enjoyed a pig roast, featuring an 80 or so pound locally reared hog, then a couple pub visits, and finally a late night game of scrabble (for which I placed FIRST and second, in our respective games). Also worth noting, after a long day of fun in the sun I managed to make up a new word while playing scrabble: “J-U-R-E-S,” meaning a female juror, which, if it hadn’t been challenged, would have allowed me to win the second game of scrabble.

AN HONOURARY BROWN
Though I have been a Brown all of my life, I was only recently dubbed an honourary brown by my Gates Scholar friends of Indian (and Indian American) descent. On Sundays, we often get together for either brunch, lunch, or dinner. Recently, we lost one of our Sunday crew to Yale Medical School, but in the process we’ve enjoyed quite a few good potlucks, barbecues, and brunches in town… We’ll miss you James!

ROYAL VISIT

Pictures Above: The Senate House and the Prince's ride (a Rolls Royce).

I have to admit, the most perplexing part about living here has been the reverence paid to royalty. In the beginning of Easter term, Ramesh, my Girton friend, invited me to the 30th Anniversary of Prince Phillip’s Chancellorship of Cambridge University. It sounded interesting, so I said, “why not.” We were made to arrive a half-hour early at the Senate House and with 10 minutes before the Prince’s scheduled arrival, the Master of Trinity (who’s also the President of the Royal Society) arrived. With all of the big wigs in attendance (many in their full regalia), he was just another face in the crowd – forced to sit about 20 rows back, in the middle of the Senate House. When the Prince arrived, an official announcement was made, a man carrying a scepter led the Chancellor into the Senate House, and the entire audience kept completely silent. No one spoke, coughed, or breathed for almost two minutes before the Vice Chancellor (the actual leader of the University) finally got up to the lectern to give an introduction. Ironically, though the message of her speech was that the Chancellor was not just a figurehead of the university, her speech seemed to provide evidence to the contrary – leaving this audience member wondering why the hell all of the senior university officials bothered attending the event and moreover why they all seemed to have their tails between their legs when the Prince came...

Hope you are well! I hope to keep this updated more frequently now (once every couple weeks).

Meeting the President

2007-05-13T10:25:00.000Z

I wrote this entry on Friday after one of the most exciting days that the Cambridge Union Society has seen for quite some time. By 22:00 Thursday night, 30 police and security officers were getting ready to comb the Union’s grounds in preparation for the Head of State Conference the next day. As I walked to the Union at noon on Friday, high atop St. John’s Chapel were snipers – presumably part of the security detail provided by Scotland Yard. At the Union entrance I was met with a sea of neon yellow -- an easily identifiable colour for police and emergency service people here in Europe. After making my way through the metal detectors and security guards (by which, funnily enough, I was able to sneak my Swiss army knife), I joined the fellow VIP guests in the Union Chamber where we prepared to meet and take photographs with the President of Iraq.

Just before President Talabani entered the Union's chamber, a hush fell over the 25 or so special guests and stewards. Followed by his entourage of about 15 staff and personal security guards, Talabani entered the chamber and walked up and down the row of guests shaking hands, taking photographs, and receiving an introduction to each of us from the President of the Union Society. Following our handshake and photograph with President Talabani, we each met the Ambassador to the UK, the President’s National Security Adviser, the President’s Chief of Staff, and various other members of his entourage.

Next, the President, and his advisers joined the chairman of the Union’s board of trustees (former Head of MI-6 and Master of Pembroke College, Sir Richard Dearlove) and a select handful of Union officers (including me) in the Union’s dining room (pictured below).
There, just a seat away from the Ambassador to Iraq (and a few seats away from Talabani) I enjoyed my first Presidential dining experience. The meal purportedly cost £100 a head and as added entertainment featured the President’s easily excitable security personnel on either side of the room who would get visibly nervous every time a young member of the society would walk behind President Talabani to whisper something to the President of the Union Society. In the end I'm still not sure what was more exciting, eating a $50 appetizer or listening to “mam Jalal” (Uncle Jalal) tell jokes about Sadam Hussein.

Before I knew it, lunch was over and it was time for the President’s speech and a subsequent session of Q&A. Union members had waited up to four hours to see the speech, but after the generous standing ovation with which the President was welcomed, it appeared most of the audience felt the wait was worthwhile. The President began by reading a prepared speech about his early political and military life and some of the history of Iraq, especially his native Kurdistan. While the content was interesting, the reading of the speech was rather lackluster. Instead, the highlight came during the Q&A session. For about an hour, with a full table of microphones in front of him and flashbulbs snapping in chorus, the President entertained a diverse audience's questions on everything from his days of youth working with the KGB to the current situation in Iraq to “anecdotes” from his two years as President.

Finally, before leaving the President called for his staffers to haul in a huge Indiana Jones style crate of treasure. To the Union Society, the President gave a solid silver and gold palm tree and a tablet of the first law ever written – both encased in a glass for protection and public viewing. After the BBC got some footage of the gifts, which can be seen on the video linked at the bottom of this entry, the Union President and Vice President and I hauled the crated gifts outside to a taxi which was to take us to the vaults at Christ's College. Unfortunately, because the crate was too large, we had to find an alternative place to store our new treasure. "I know... why don't we ask Sir Richard," I thought alound. If anybody would know where to find a secure place for our treasurer it would probably be the former head of MI-6. Indeed he did.

When we arrived at Pembroke's Master's Lodge with our huge wooden crate, a lady who was presumably Sir Richard's wife came outside to ask us what we were doing. It probably didn't help that the Vice President was wearing a top hat, tail coat, and walking around with a cane when we arrived. Suffice it to say, Sir Richard's wife was convinced that this was all part of some prank that we were trying to pull on Sir Richard. Fortunately Sir Richard arrived just as we did and showed us in. The house had just the type of MI-6 standards one would imagine but out of respect for Sir Richard and his wife I should probably leave it at that. In addition to posting these two photos I will also say though, that the brief visit was very cool and was not something I will soon forget.

I have much more to post about the past few months but this will likely be my last entry until 4 June -- the deadline for my dissertation. I hope everyone is well and I look forward to catching up after the 4th!

Link to two BBC videos: http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/
results.pl?tab=av&q=talabani&recipe=all&scope=all&edition=d -- Click on “Iraqi President in Cambridge.” Or try this direct link to one of the videos:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_6640000/
newsid_6648700?redirect=6648713.stm&news=1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;
nbwm=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&bbram=1

Select Highlights from Lent Term

2007-04-22T22:16:00.000Z

I have spent most of this term soliciting sponsors for the Union Society, attending Union Society and Gates events, designing and editing my survey for my dissertation, and going to class. Aside from that, I have capitalized on a few opportunities to attend formal halls and to make my way into London…

FORMALS
Magdalene
Way back in January, I attended a formal hall at Magdalene College (pronounced “mawd-lin”) – considered one of the most conservative of Cambridge’s 32 colleges in part because it was the last college to allow women to matriculate*. Magdalene’s formals are noteworthy because it’s one of the oldest colleges in Cambridge (established in 1428) and because their formal halls are lit entirely by candlelight:

*See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh8Tf4H3XEA to watch Borat discuss women in academia with a notable Cambridge academic.

Trinity
In February I dined with the Gates Scholars at Trinity College (the wealthiest college in Oxbridge) at their graduate formal hall. Trinity usually has a nice reception with sherry in their Old Combination Room (where I am shown below), followed by a delicious meal in their grand hall, some famous “Trinity College ice cream", and finally a port reception back in the Old Combination Room.

Many might wonder how one can stay sober through it all – a fair question indeed. In these instances, sobriety may be attributed to a number of possibilities such as teetotalism, banter (for Wikipedia's definition of banter see the *), or a tolerance that builds up after so many of these “sherry-wine-port” events. I often go with the sherry-water-wine-water-port-water technique, but many are not so adept (as the blurred photo below clearly indicates...). Sitting up straight and refraining from unprovoked smiling can become harder and harder as nights like these drone on…
*“Banter is the art of jovial and frivolous conversation and behavior, which can be taken to several different levels, and can be liable to involve crude, offensive sexual joking which may offend some. It is also liable to be very personal, being directed at particular people and may develop into direct offense and 'mickey' taking of a person. The saying 'If you can't take the banter, canter' means that if you take offense to another's comments/actions when they were intended only to amuse, then you should leave.”

Queens and St. John's
I made it to a few other formals during Lent term. Below is a picture of Queens College’s Old Hall, which is smaller than the Queens Hall in which we dined but nonetheless seemed like a nice photo to include. Also, I’ve included a different picture of St. John’s Hall, which happens to be the hall I attend most frequently. In March, when I attended at the last minute with some friends, I narrowly escaped getting kicked out of hall when I tried to switch seats with someone in the middle of dinner. Apparently NO ONE is allowed to stand up until the fellows finish eating, the gong has been rung, and the fellows have left the hall.

UNION SOCIETY ACTIVITIES
Aside from the typical union indulgences – wine tastings, fudge tastings – I decided to take the opportunity to utilize what is apparently one of the only places in Cambridge that has full-sized snooker tables. Consequently, my mates from Girton -- Peter, Khalid, Evan and Matthew -- and I spent about two hours learning to play snooker, which it turns out is actually a pretty fun game. Since the snooker table is about three times the size of an American pool table, “putting” (pronounced like a golfer would) the balls in the pockets takes much more time than American pool. Thus, I’ve found Snooker offers a great opportunity to shoot the shit with someone for about an hour and half…

As Treasurer-Elect of the Union this term, it was my responsibility to sit next to the President-Elect and preside over the student debates at the Union every Thursday night. Subsequently, I would almost always stick around for the main debates, which covered topics such as the United Nations, Israel and Palestine, women in the armed forces, national security, and others. Debaters included David Trimble (Nobel Peace Prize Winner), a couple of former Chancellors of the Exchequer (the equivalent in the US would be the Secretary of the Treasury), the former Foreign Minister, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a couple of ambassadors (including the current Syrian Ambassador to the UK), the UK’s #1 and #2 playboys (pictured with some friends and my mother), and a couple of World Debating Champions.

ACADEMICS
On the academic front, I FINALLY received my marks from last term: a couple of marks in the 70s and a couple in the 60s. “Oh no,” you might be thinking, “Tristan’s just barely passing.” Actually, a mark of 70 or above is considered a “first,” which is very good. A mark of 55 or below is failure, but scores in the upper 50s to low 60s are about average. Most recently I completed two, two-hour, hand written exams, which consisted of writing two essays for each exam. After living here for a few months and experiencing the many ancient practices of this 800 year old university, I’m a bit surprised they didn’t provide us with a quill and papyrus to write our exams. As far as my dissertation goes, expect an email from me shortly. If you are an American citizen I will be soliciting you for 10-15 minutes of your time to fill out my survey and I will also be asking for you to provide me with any email addresses of friends of family that might be willing to fill out my survey. Speaking of which, in February I was excited to learn that my Program Director has taken interest in my research and has decided to become my second adviser. If we receive some good data we will likely spend some of June and/or July working on a paper that we can submit for publication.

Cambridge Rush Hour

2007-03-15T10:56:00.000Z

I admit, I'm getting way behind on these posts. This is probably the busiest time of the year for me, so I appreciate your patience.

There should be some exciting stuff added here soon. In the mean time, I thought you might enjoy this one minute video of "rush-hour" in Cambridge, the city with the highest per capita bicycle use in the UK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA_Crc67SAM&NR
*Note this is a time-lapsed video

Origins of the Universe, Gentlemen’s Clubs, Parliament – Lent Term

2007-02-13T00:54:00.000Z

After my last post (almost a month ago), I got bogged down with exams, my dissertation, work in my new Treasurer roles, and the myriad everyday Cambridge events that were not to be missed. This entry’s a bit verbose, so hopefully the subtitles will give you an inkling of the goings on around here.

THE APOTHEOSIS OF HUMANITY
On 24 January, Professor Stephen Hawking gave a special lecture (he usually only gives one lecture per year at Cambridge University) as part of the Gates Scholars Distinguished Lecture Series. The event sold out a day or two after tickets were offered. The day of the event we received 600 e-mail requests to attend the event for which there were only 300 spaces available.

The packed house immediately broke out in applause when Professor Hawking was wheeled in by one of his caretakers. Then everyone shut up and waited to hear one of the world’s most recognizable voices. For about an hour, Professor Hawking presented a slide show of his life and work as a physicist. The presentation was pre-constructed so as to run smoothly (Hawking only types about 15 words a minute) and though difficult to follow for anyone who wasn’t a physicist, was quite hilarious. As a special treat Hawking agreed to field questions at the end. Because Prof. Hawking composes his words by blinking his eye, he only had time to field a couple questions from the audience.

After the talk, the Gates Scholars Council took Professor Hawking and his two assistants to one of his favorite restaurants in Cambridge, Chez Gerard. Arriving a bit late, I had the privilege to sit next to Professor Hawking and his nurse during dinner. I was amazed to learn that he doesn’t really have a strict diet – he dined on steak and red wine for dinner and a Cambridge classic, crème brulee, for desert – though he does take quite a few vitamin supplements.

One scholar, studying astronomy, asked Professor Hawking a question at the beginning of dinner but it took Prof. Hawking about 10 minutes to compose an answer. As he composed his answer, the rest of the table went on chatting, which for some of us seemed a bit awkward and impolite. Hoping we weren’t offending Prof. Hawking, I asked his nurse if this was normal, or if it bothered him.

“It frustrates him that he can’t respond more quickly” she said, “but he’s certainly used to it.”

For much of the dinner, and many days before and afterward, I marveled at how Hawking embodies some of the things that as humans, we are most proud of -- our intellectual capacity, our determination, our optimism, our foresight, our sense of humor, our appreciation for life and things which we have yet to discover…

During the first course, knowing that it would take him forever to answer any of my questions, I decided to let the table know about where Hawking’s real stardom originates – his guest appearances on the Simpsons. Hawking’s face lit up when I told the table of scholars about how in one episode Hawking’s wheelchair produced helicopter blades and flew him away from danger. Later it produced a boxing glove, which then punched Homer Simpson in the face when he tried to stick Professor Hawking with a hefty beer tab.

For the rest of the dinner I joked with Hawking and the Scholars about Hawking’s appearances in the media and television and managed to ask three or four pressing questions about space exploration, life, and the prospects of luring him to the states…

As we left the one other person who had actually read some of Hawking’s books offered to snap a quick photo of us -- a great memento after meeting one of the most amazing individuals to ever live:

THE OTHER FAMOUS CAMBRIDGE SCIENTIST
The Monday before Prof. Hawking’s lecture, Sir Martin Rees, Lord of Ludlow and President of the Royal Society (the British counterpart of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences), gave a speech on “The Role of Scientists in a Dangerous World.”

Speaking with two of the most famous scientists in the world in the same week was a great privilege, but it was also awesome because both Prof. Hawking and Sir Martin Rees had recently held a press conference to move the doomsday clock closer to the doomsday hour of midnight (the doomsday clock has only moved closer to midnight 11 times since its creation in 1947).

In his talk, Lord Rees spoke eloquently about the need for scientists to consider the ethics involved in their work. The next day he e-mailed me an answer to my question about the requirements for Cambridge undergraduate scientists – currently there are no specific requirements for students to undertake coursework in ethics. As the Master of the largest and most influential college at Cambridge, it was good to hear Lord Rees identify a need for some sort of new ethics requirement.

EXAMS AND DISSERTATION
I finished my exams the second week in January, but I won’t find out the results until the end of February. I wrote one of my exam essays on the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity and why the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee should ratify the treaty. My other exams covered economic valuation methods and economic tools used by policy makers. In my research, I came across a very interesting fact about how America is not alone in its obstinance on international environmental issues. The Europeans – the heirs of the environmental movement of yesterday -- actually accused America of being “scaremongerers” when in the 1980s Ronald Reagan (of all people) wanted to ban the use of CFCs because they were depleting the ozone. So as America tried to weasel out of obligations to address climate change in the 1990s (and the 2000s), so too did the Europeans try to weasel out of stopping the depletion of our ozone layer in the 1980s. In another comical twist, in the 1980s, America said she’d “go it alone” and phase out CFCs by herself if she had to. How bout that – using our stubbornness for good!

My dissertation is coming along. Thanks to all of those who helped with my pilot survey. My sample of Americans from across the country provided almost a perfect cross section of our diverse population. This weekend I’m constructing the main survey, which will be available online for your survey taking pleasure. For those of you who saw the last survey, have no fear, this one has pictures and is thus, less boring! Consequently, you can expect me to hit you up for a survey response in the next few weeks!

BURNS NIGHT CEILIDH
In honor of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, the British enjoy a night of haggis, whiskey, and dancing on 25 January called a Burns Night Ceilidh. Various colleges around Cambridge hosted Burns nights so I actually had a chance to go to a couple of them. The dancing is surprisingly similar to square dancing back home, and the whiskey seemed quite similar as well.

A Lesson from the Porter:
Porters are not always the friendliest lot, but they’re also not heartless.

When I arrived at the Emmanuel College Burns night I was told, “It’s full. You can’t come in!”

After standing around for a minute, I said, “I thought I’d wait until people left so that I can take their place.” The porter replied,

“You’re not getting in, why don’t you get out of here?”

So I just stood there for a minute and didn’t say a word. “What a jerk,” I thought. Then I started some small talk with him.

“Sure is cold out here, eh? ...Wow, I can’t believe those women haven’t frozen to death walking around here in those dresses... So when did it fill up?”

Finally after about 10 minutes of small talk the porter said, “Why don’t you just go in there? One more person won’t hurt.”

At a different Burns night about a week later, I was a slightly better dancer, but it really didn’t matter since the Scottish dancing involves dancing with one, three, five, or even as many as seven other people. My friend Katie proved to be a good dancer, despite having a few too many Scottish whiskeys…

AN AMERICAN HOLIDAY
Though I no longer spend eight hours every Sunday watching football (I stopped that when I went to college), I do still enjoy playing the game when I can. So in honor of the American holiday that is Super Bowl Sunday, I organized a game of pick-up football. With the Facebook (a new fangled technology that under 25ers use), it was easy to recruit a nice seven-on-seven game at Jesus Green.

After a few hours of football, we made our way to the Baron of Beef for our post-game trip to the pub. Later that night (11:18 GMT) in the Wolfson Court graduate commons room, we gathered to watch the single biggest sporting event in the world.

A good lot of about 30 Americans and a few Germans, Koreans, end English (who had never watched American football before) gathered to watch the game on the big screen. Though the satellite feed came in okay, we didn’t get the infamous American Super Bowl commercials during the game. Instead we tuned in for some crappy British commercials and an even crappier group of commentators. For those of you who are sports fans (or even those of you who aren’t), you most certainly would have been amazed to learn that one of the hosts of their Super Bowl commentator team was none other than Miami Vice star, Don Johnson -- that about sums up the British coverage.

BLUE BLOODED BOXING
At the Union on Tuesday, 6 February, Stevan Riley gave a special presentation of his critically acclaimed film, “Blue Blood,” which highlights the Oxbridge sports rivalry and the lives of Oxford amateur boxers. The film* was quite funny and provided an interesting perspective into the lives of young Oxbridge students. After his special screening I joined Stevan in the bar for a pint. A nice fellow; I couldn’t help but volunteer my services to help get the word out about a great film. A few days later I felt like I was helping launch a Hollywood blockbuster as Stevan and I plotted our strategy for the debut of the film in Cambridge. A few weeks later the film is doing pretty well and will hopefully make its way across the pond…

The following week, the Union hosted the Cambridge Amateur Boxing Club for a “town vs. gown” night of boxing. Though I do not consider myself a boxing fan I have to say I appreciated the skill and dedication of the boxers – they were top-notch (for amateurs).
*For more info on Blue Blood: http://www.myspace.com/bluebloodthemovie

TEA AT WESTMINSTER
When I found out there was still a space on the trip to Westminster Palace (the parliament building of the United Kingdom), I knew that skipping a couple classes would be worth it. The conservative student association was taking a group of students to meet with conservative members of parliament at Westminster and then on to a posh gentlemen’s club (more like a country club than a strip club). I was amazed that many of the British students in attendance were seeing their parliament building for the first time.
Meeting members of parliament was a hoot since the other American and I were proudly sporting our Anglo-American lapel pins and most of the members quickly identified our American roots. One asked if we were Republicans and after saying, “no” he said, “well you’re not going to vote for that cow, Hillary Clinton, are you?” He was obviously joking, and obviously a bit obnoxious, but like most of the MPs we met, they were generally very friendly.

It was interesting to learn that the despite their efforts to court more minorities, conservatives only have one black MP – a man who also happens to be the wealthiest MP in parliament.

Before leaving, we were offered a quick glimpse of the House of Commons where there was currently a debate underway. A few years ago a spectator from the gallery doused Prime Minister Blair with a bag of flour, so when we went, there was a large bulletproof piece of glass separating the area where MPs debate and the gallery where we were. During the debate a friend pointed out meaning of the two lines on each side of the chamber -- one in front of each of the opposing benches. The lines are exactly two arm lengths and two sword lengths apart. In the olden days, when debate began to get heated in the eyes of the Speaker of the House, the members were asked to “toe the line” – i.e. keep their feet behind the lines. My friend also informed me that the phrase “it’s in the bag” originated from the green bag that sits behind the Speaker’s chair. MPs may place petitions pertaining to any matter in the Speaker’s bag.

On the way out we also got a chance to see Westminster Hall, one of the largest unsupported roofs in Europe where, every once in a long while, deceased dignitaries have lied-in-state as part of their funeral.

A VISIT TO THE GENTLEMEN’S CLUBS
After Westminster we headed to the Carlton Club – “the oldest, most elite, and most important of all conservative clubs.” With portraits of William Pitt, Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, and John Major, on the walls, drunk and affable men chuckling, sipping drinks, and schmoozing, I received a genuine introduction to the British aristocracy. After a few recruitment plugs by the Carlton members, I ducked out for a tour of the club.

Before I could be convinced to join the “old boys network,” we headed to another elite gentlemen’s club, the East India Club, for dinner. Aside from good food, I especially enjoyed discussing the merits of “the global warming hoax.” I couldn’t convince my dinner mates that global climate change is not a hoax but I did learn that global warming is in fact a hoax. We have all been fooled! D’oh!

New Year’s, Norwich, and a New Term

2007-01-13T15:33:00.000Z

NEW YEAR’S EVE
Scotland is supposed to throw a pretty good party for New Year’s Eve and everyone who’s been has said it’s a tremendously beautiful place. I thought it would be a nice chance to see some of the UK during my break but, in the end, I knew I had to make sure I got a lot of work done over the holidays so that I could enjoy this coming term as much as I did the last term. My back-up plan was to go to London for New Year’s. Ultimately, I decided it’d be just as good to watch the fireworks with friends from a pub here in Cambridge. When we saw the London fireworks on TV, I knew I made a mistake. They were really the most amazing display I’d ever seen!* It’s interesting to compare different city’s fireworks to see how they try and outdo each other. This year, I think London outdid all of the rest when they ended their grand finale with what looked like a mini nuclear weapon – check it out for yourself below:

The first picture shows the impressive fireworks, the next shows a mini sun-like explosion on the Thames!

*To see the whole display, click on this link:
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1150217790642063936

NORWICH
Aside from working and relaxing here in Cambridge, the only traveling I did was to visit an English buddy, Ark, in his hometown of Norwich. According to Ark, at one time it used to be the largest manufacturing city in England.

It’s a nice walking city and is home to the second tallest cathedral in England, a noteworthy castle, and a damn good Waffle House.

After visiting the cathedral, pictured above, I realized that every time I visit one in Europe, it’s more impressive than the last. I suppose this streak will probably end sometime soon, or since they’re all impressive in their own way, perhaps it will not.

Norwich Castle was a little 'boxier' than I would have expected an English castle to be (you'll see what I mean in the picture below) but, on the inside, it was pretty cool. We came at just the right time to get a free tour. Our tour guide spoke to us (among other things) about the garderobes – medieval toilets, often found in large buildings and castles, where people would sit across from each other doing their business, which then dropped down into a cess pit or moat around the castle. We also learned that people used to store their clothes ("robes") in the garderobes because the stench from the rooms would keep moths from eating through people’s clothing. Sounded like a tough call – walking around smelling like shit all of the time, or walking around with holes in your clothes…

THE WAFFLE HOUSE IN ENGLAND?
For lunch, we ate at the Waffle House. Have no fear; there was no big yellow 300-foot tall sign outside. Nope, this baby was started by a South African family who now own just three Waffle Houses worldwide (two in England and one in South Africa). Unlike the Waffle Houses back home where everything you order is full of grease, at this waffle house everything you order just comes on a waffle. All the sandwiches -- from the ham and cheese, to the tuna salad, to the hummus and avocado -- come on big ol' waffles. Because this Waffle House prided itself in using local ingredients (and whole meal waffles), including locally reared pigs, I decided to eat two meals so I could support the locally raised pigs (by eating one of course). If I die before I eat there again, you should all feel sad.

FAT CAT HONEY CAT
Before we concluded our day in Norwich, we headed to the Fat Cat Free House (pictures below) – the only pub in England to have been voted Pub of the Year, twice! Sadly, I had an exam on Monday so I only tried two of their beers including the Fat Cat Honey Cat. As one would expect, the beers were fantastic! Additionally, they sell beer in a reusable jug that comes with a one pound deposit so people can get beer to go and can keep reusing the same jug – a pretty sweet system, I’ll tellya hwat.

After having their sign knocked down numerous times by careless drivers, the Fat Cat upgraded to a cast iron sign -- that'll show em!

Given the Fat Cat's selection of top-notch locally made beers, their close proximity to the Waffle House, and the one pound deposit for which I’ll have to keep returning, I’m definitely planning a trip back to Norwich soon!

PROFESSOR HAWKING
The Gates Council is trying to keep it on the down-low, but Professor Hawking is kicking off the Gates Lecture Series this term. He’ll be speaking to us next week, but we’re afraid if there’s too much publicity, it might turn into a circus, so please don’t alert the media.

Christmases

2006-12-31T21:55:00.000Z

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

2006-12-17T13:34:00.000Z

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

2006-12-09T14:53:00.000Z

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

2006-12-05T15:14:00.000Z

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

2006-12-05T15:08:00.000Z

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.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-25T01:52:00.000Z

My Thanksgiving this year was superb. Some Americans decided to get a game of football together at 8:00 am Thanksgiving morning, which meant waking up shortly after 7:00 am. When I got up it was cold and rainy outside. "No one in their right mind is going to go meet at Jesus Green in this weather," I thought to myself. Wait a minute, it's always rainy and chilly, and who in the right mind would stay in bed when the first annual Cambridge Turkey Bowl was about to commence with a bunch of crazy Americans. Three hours later, 10 guys and two gals were caked in mud, sore in parts of their body they didn't know could get soar, and happy to be celebrating Thanksgiving with old and brand new friends.

For lunch, some of us went to the University sponsored Thanksgiving formal lunch for Americans, and some of us (who didn't get tickets before the deadline) went to Pizza Hut for the all you can eat lunch buffet. I missed the deadline to get tickets but I was able to pin one down just in the nick of time.

The Thanksgiving lunch had to be the most unusual Thanksgiving food I've ever eaten (and remember I haven't had Thanksgiving turkey in years). The vegetarian meal was a spinach pie slice covered in marinara sauce with a side of sauteed leeks. For desert, three pieces of pie -- pumpkin, pecan, and cherry. The three deserts more than made up for the weirdness of the main entree.

After my last environmental economics class of the term finished, I got ready for another fine Thanksgiving meal (without the American theme) at Girton's formal hall. Since graduate students get free formal meals every thursday at Girton, I decided to skip one of the Union debates, and take my friend to formal hall. It was a wise choice. The dinner included a pre-dinner sherry social with other graduate students, and a post dinner hour (or half hour) of port.

All in all, it was a great day, and while I missed the family and friends back home I was thankful for the new friends and family that I have here.

Extracurricular Activities

2006-11-15T13:40:00.000Z

GATES SCHOLAR COUNCIL ELECTIONS

Last week the 250 Gates Scholars that are in Cambridge had an opportunity to elect new representatives to the Gates Scholar Council. Yesterday, they elected me to the office of Treasurer, for which I will serve a one-year term. I have high aspirations for my year of service. I plan to focus on making some improvements to the experience the incoming Gates Scholars have when they arrive in Cambridge, which in turn will hopefully only encourage scholars to recommend the scholarship to others – enhancing the pool of future global leaders and global agents of change who will apply for the Gates Scholarship. The responsibilities of my officership will not be too time consuming, but as always, I do plan to put my opportunity to good use by making some positive changes here.

AT THE UNION...

Last night the Cambridge Union (CU) welcomed Her Royal Majesty Princess Michael of Kent to speak about her books (I think) -- The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King Elizabeth Stuart: Summer Princess, Winter Queen, a biography of Charles I’s sister, as well as her first historical novel on the life of Agnes Sorel: a 15th century murder mystery. She seemed like a good story teller, but because the topics of her stories just didn’t interest me, I didn’t stick around very long to listen to her.

On Thursday the CU will debate the proposed motion, "This House blames U.S. foreign policy for the terrorist threat." Immediately preceding the main debate, I will be debating (my first ever formal debate) in the student debate. The motion is titled, “This House would rather be at Oxford than St. John’s*.” A friend of mine was asked to fill-in for someone else, but he didn’t want to do the debate so I agreed to do it. It should be quite fun, since my entire argument centers around why Oxford sucks.

Next week, the German Ambassador to England will be speaking at the Union and I will be joining in for a drinks reception before hand.

In just two weeks, elections will be held at the CU. I am strongly considering running for Treasurer. The election process is quite fixed in favor of people who can get their friends to go vote for them, but I figure at the very least it might be fun to have an American shake things up a bit…

*St. John’s is one of the wealthiest and most prestigious colleges at Cambridge

PICTURES

This one’s of me with some other land economists at the Land Economy Society’s formal at Robinson College last week:

This picture shows a packed house at the Union for Jeremy Paxman -- an acclaimed interviewer for the BBC:

Staying busy...

2006-11-09T14:44:00.000Z

A lot has happened since my last entry…

HALLOWEEN

I spent a few nights of Halloween weekend attending costume parties at various Cambridge colleges.* Since I thought the “Halloween formal” flyer meant that people were dressing in formal wear, I wore a tux. Well I soon learned that I was mistaken. The Halloween formals were full of good old fashioned gory get-ups -- including weapons, fake blood, murderers and the like. It was refreshing to see the true Halloween spirit of ghosts, ghouls and gore, but I must say, the lack of pumpkin beer was a definite disappointment.

*Each of Cambridge’s 31 colleges offers its members a venue and social atmosphere for things such as parties, pub nights, and other social activities.

FORMAL HALLS

I’ve attended a few ‘formal halls’ over the past few weeks. The formal halls offer students an opportunity to get dressed up (complete with their gowns) and enjoy a fine three or four course meal. At Trinity College, I enjoyed pre-dinner sherry, a delicious three-course meal in the quintessential 16th century dining hall, and after-dinner port. At St. John’s College, I enjoyed an equally delicious meal with an equally impressive dining hall (with four story-tall ceilings and huge paintings of revered academics who were St. John’s alumni).

BAR TENDING

As part of my duty as a member of the Cambridge Union’s (CU) House Committee I have taken up bar-tending on Friday nights. Halloween weekend I spent Friday serving drinks at the CU’s friday night ‘bop.’ Despite the fact that the bar was incredibly busy, I found the duty to be quite enjoyable – a great chance to meet and chat with people and of course a great chance to perfect my bar-tending skills.

NO CONFIDENCE IN HER MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT

Last week at the CU I enjoyed a great debate between the UK’s political parties. The CU narrowly voted down the proposition’s argument that “This House has No Confidence in Her Majesty’s Government.” Surprisingly, despite the strong disillusionment with the Blair government, many students showed their allegiance to the more progressive of the two major political parties.

SICILIY AND ROME

With two days left on our EURail Pass, my European traveling companions from September (Alejandro and Amit), my new favorite roommate who actually lives across the hall (Nathan), and I caught a cheap flight to Sicily last weekend. We arrived on Friday night, wandered the city, ate a delicious, authentic Sicilian meal, and then stayed in a posh looking two-story apartment. Funnily enough a guy at the ristorante at which we were eating, “knew a guy” who had a cheap place for us to stay that night. With no other great prospects, we decided to check it out. After finding the address – a convenient store/pizza joint - we were taken by the owner(?) to an unmarked door that led into a run-down looking apartment building. But our initial aversion vanished when we saw the room -- a two story apartment with two full baths, a beautiful kitchen and two balconies. The guy gave us “an offer we couldn’t refuse” – 25 Euro each for the night.

We spent the next day eating, shopping, wandering the city, seeing a 500 year old basilica or two, and getting ready to take our train to Roma. Our night train actually included a ferry, which ferried our 8-car train across the straights of Messina and was actually a pretty exciting adventure.

In Roma, we arrived on Sunday morning in time to attend mass at the Vatican. St. Peter’s Cathedral was astonishing with its grandiose size, adornments, and statues of former pontiffs. After seeing the Vatican, I couldn't help but question the lavishness of the church, which I thought should be spending its money on more benevolent things. It did become apparent however, that the ‘lavishness’ was probably effective in glorifying and showcasing the awesome power of the Catholic faith. Nevertheless, I still stand by the notion that the church should have a big garage sale and get rid of some of the old pontiff statues.

After the Vatican, we stumbled across what ended up being the most incredible building that we encountered in the city – a memorial to King Emmanuel II. The memorial was actually a building that was about the size of the US Capitol building and with similar architecture. At the top of the building we enjoyed a beautiful panorama of the city. A great complement to the view we had as we wandered through some of the old ruins on the way to the Coliseum.

Our final day in Roma included a visit to the Vatican museum, where we saw some works by Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. The Sistine Chapel was cool too, but I thought it was not as impressive as some of the many other murals that we saw in the museum.

ACADEMICS

I’ve been enjoying my classes thus far, and have appreciated the flexible time schedule, which has allowed me to engage in so many other enriching activities. Last week however, I did secure an academic supervisor, Dr. Ekin Birol. I am delighted to be working with Ekin because not only is she brilliant, but she is incredibly efficient, and always on the ball. In only our second meeting we were able to hammer out a dissertation title, an outline for my research, and work plan.

THIS COUNTRY HAS NO CONFIDENCE IN DUBYA’S GOVERNMENT

After returning from Italy (at 3:00 am), I geared up for Election Day. Last week I sent 80 individual e-mails to the American Gates Scholars and the 10 or so Marshall Scholars at Cambridge inviting them to an election party. Thus, when I returned to Cambridge on Tuesday morning I had to get a case of champagne (I anticipated there would be lots to celebrate!), food, and get things ready for the big party.

Fortunately, the party went off without a hitch, and even though we didn’t have all of the results by 4:00 am, we were happy celebrating the early victories in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Michigan.

GATES SCHOLAR COUNCIL

The Sunday before Halloween I attended the annual Gates Scholar meeting where I decided to run for Treasurer of the Gates Scholar Council. Having learned how hard the previous Scholar Councils have worked to the make the Gates Scholarship what it is, I decided that I want to give back to a community that has given me so much. Thus, I am up for election this week (winners will be announced Monday, November 14th).

This House Believes

2006-10-25T10:40:00.000Z

I kept pretty busy last week. On Tuesday I wrote a manifesto. Wednesday I was elected to the Cambridge Union Society’s House Committee. Thursday I attended a debate at the Union Society titled, “This House Believes Religion is the Opiate of the Masses.” Friday I tasted chocolate until my stomach hurt and then bar-tended at the Union. Over the weekend, I hosted a visit from a friend, and on Sunday I went apple tasting at the Cambridge Botanical Gardens.

To clarify, the ‘manifesto’ was a one-page flyer (that was restricted to being black and white, devoid of curved lines – straight lines were okay, and to having a single black and white mug shot), which I was aloud to create for my campaign to get elected to the House Committee. I did get ‘elected’ to the House Committee, but it was a lot easier than it should have been since the election was canceled when someone resigned from the committee.

The debate on religion was pretty cool. A member of parliament debated for the opposition, and Prof. Simon Blackburn debated for the proposition. The debate got ugly, but it was nice that my friend PJ, who was in town, got to see the debate from the floor of the chamber.

The chocolate tasting was really cool. I got to taste cacao beans just after they were harvested, after they had been roasted, and in all kinds of chocolate bar concoctions. All of the chocolate was organic and mighty tasty.

The apple tasting was pretty cool on Sunday – people were waiting hours in line to do it. Fortunately, I ran into some friends toward the front of the line and was able to taste the apples without the long wait. The gardens themselves were probably even more amazing than the 50 or so apples that we tasted. Mom and Aunt Alison/Jan will certainly enjoy them when they visit in the spring…

This week I’ve been sick with a very soar/swollen throat.
Tonight, Achmed Chalabi (former President of Iraq) will be at the Union, and on Friday I am meeting with a Fellow (who happens to be a woman) who might serve as my thesis supervisor.

Lots of reading for today…

Hope all is well!

Cambridge Union Society Election

2006-10-18T09:51:00.000Z

Monday was a pretty exciting day. I spent most of Sunday reading and doing homework and Monday I found out the details on my election at the Cambridge Union Society. I threw my name in the ring last week when the President and Vice President suggested I do so.

On Monday I found out that as a candidate I would not be able to contact anybody electronically to let them know I would be a candidate for election. I also learned that I was barred from posting fliers anywhere that non-Union Society members might see them. In a sense, the campaigning was relegated to calling friends on the telephone. The Union Society had each candidate make a manifesto (a flier), and then printed 100 copies for each candidate -- with each copy having a unique barcode on it so that no duplications could be made. If any candidate were to use any other form of campaign literature, he or she would be disqualified. Needless to say, the restrictions were strict, but not with the aims to be exclusive (as I saw it), rather the society just wanted the campaign to be personal in nature – the rules were designed to force human to human contact.

In the end three people from the House Committee resigned, so I was elected by default (as Homer Simpson would say, “the two greatest words in the English Language. De-fault, De-fault”).

So tonight, I will be on duty at the Union during its busiest night – the all you can eat Ben and Jerry’s night of the year. Tomorrow at the Union, debaters will argue, is religion the “opiate of the masses?”

Meanwhile I will be hosting a friend who will be in town for a few days…

Some pictures

2006-10-15T16:44:00.000Z

The article, "Troops battle 10-foot marijuana plants," about soldiers in Afghanistan was amusing, but I thought it might be better to actually post some pictures instead. So I replaced that article with some pictures of me in Cambridge.

Some are taken during the annual race around Trinity College's great court -- where Chariots of Fire was filmed.

I had some friends running in the race and it was a good chance for me to stand on the lawn (normally only fellows of the college are allowed to do so).

This picture has King's Chapel in the background. The Chapel is really something from the inside (and as you can see from the outside as well!).

London

2006-10-15T09:16:00.000Z

London is quite a big city.

After arriving on Friday, I walked from Westminster to the British Museum (stopping in Chinatown for a $10 ramen noodle lunch!). From there, I headed on to the museum to see the Rosetta Stone and other ancient artifacts. For dinner I headed to the University College London to meet an old friend (who's studying the History of the Book at UCL). After a delicious Indian meal we headed to the Tower of London. Since it was Friday the 13th we joined the Jack the Ripper walking tour – a vivid story and tour full of graphic recounts of the first serial murderer in the western world.

On Saturday, my friend Andrea and I walked back to the Westminster area to check out the Churchill museum including the old underground cabinet war rooms. It was an impressive museum -- an astonishing look at the tiny mole hole in which Churchill and his top advisors lived and worked during the Second World War.

Following the museum visit, Andrea and I decided to walk all the way across the city to get to the pier where the Gates Scholars were meeting for an evening boat cruise on Thames. The long walk took us through markets, passed Shakespeare’s famous Globe Theatre, the London Eye (which should be called the London Bicycle Wheel), and across the London Bridge.

As for today, I’m reading, writing, and getting ready for the second full week of lectures.

first entry

2006-10-14T09:46:00.000Z

This post was written Friday, October 13:

I just got on a bus that’s going from Cambridge to Central London. It’s the first bus that I’ve been on that’s had free wireless internet -- a sign of the times I suppose. It’s my first trip into London and it so happens a friend of mine from elementary school is going to be there as well as a friend of mine from WMU, and a friend that I met while working in Washington, DC a few summers ago.

Tomorrow the Gates Scholars are meeting for our first semi formal event – a boat cruise down the Thames river. The Gates Trust is bringing the Scholars to and from London on a bus, so I decided to go a day or so early to see some of the sites and visit with friends in London and then hitch a ride back on the Gates bus after the dinner tomorrow.

This week has been busy. In fact the entire time I’ve been here (in England) I have been rather busy, but it has been a good mix of socializing, studying, and getting settled in my new home.

My new home is Wolfson Court, which offers predominantly graduate housing for members of Girton College. It is known for having some of the best food on campus and is not too far from most everything in Cambridge.

My department (Land Economy) is mostly housed in buildings that line the Cambridge River – a 5-10 minute ride from home. So far, the classes have been interesting – mostly focused on economics and law. One of my classes is in the impressive new Squires Law Building – a huge architectural marvel on the Sidgwick part of campus.

My classmates are a diverse, and friendly bunch. There is an even mix of male and female students, young and not so young, and there is a good representation from five continents (absent are representatives from Oceana and Antarctica). We have representatives from Nigeria, Brazil, Russia, Japan (2), China (4), Taiwan, the Netherlands, Italy, two other students from the United States (northeasterners), and a couple of students from the UK. I haven’t taken the opportunity to get to know all of my classmates yet, but my friend who completed the program last year said that she suspects we’ll become a close bunch (she’s doing a PhD at MIT now and says that although her new classmates are great, she can’t imagine having a better class than her Environmental Policy class at Cambridge).

My first week in Cambridge I became a lifetime member of the Cambridge Union Society – which claims to be the oldest and most prestigious debate society in the world. My membership provides me with free access to all of the events at the Union Society (including whiskey and wine tasting events, guest speakers, and of course the weekly Thursday night debates), as well as reciprocal rights to attend events at debate societies at Oxford, Harvard, Yale, and many others around the world. The Union is housed in an old building in the heart of town and runs one of the best bars in town, one of only a handful of full-size snooker tables in town (which members can use for free), and the Keynes Library which houses the largest private collection of fiction books in Cambridge.

This week at the Union I enjoyed a special guest lecture from Richard Dawkins (who discussed and read excerpts from his new book, “God Delusion”) and a delightful whiskey tasting event (hosted by a scotch whiskey expert from Glasgow who brought some of the Kingdom’s finest whiskies for a dozen or so Union members to enjoy). Last night, I attended my first debate. The proposition was, “The United Kingdom should scrap its trident missile program.” Six debaters including a British colonel and two members of parliament debated for an hour or so with intermingled comments and questions from audience members. Concluding the debate, the few hundred attendants (and the debaters) filed into the Union pub for a post debate drink and chat. There, a couple of other attendants and I debated the MPs (informally) and discussed the merits of the British nuclear weapons program.

Other highlights from the last few weeks include a pub visit to the Eagle (the oldest pub in Cambridge) where Watson and Crick chose to announce their discovery of the DNA double helix, a beer with another Gates Scholar and new friend who is one of only three PhD students working with Prof. Stephan Hawking, dining at my first ‘formal hall’ – a weekly [three to five course] formal meal open to all graduates, undergraduates, and fellows of each college and held at the college’s formal dining hall.

I still am not able to ride or walk through campus without being amazed by my surroundings – the architecture, landscape, and history that is omnipresent on Campus and around the city.

From the highways of England,

Tristan