Winter Solstice

Anyone with one good ear or one good eye is probably sick of me griping about the short days here in Cambridge. Good news for you! Today is the Winter Solstice and therefore the shortest day of the year so the days will be getting noticeably longer soon and you can start answering the phone again when I call :) But, to prove my point, I did some research. Here are a few stats for you:

Los Angeles: 34° 05' North Latitude Sunrise: 6:55am Sunset: 4:48pm
New York: 40° 44' North Latitude Sunrise: 7:17am Sunset: 4:32pm
Cambridge: 51° 53° North Latitude Sunrise: 8:03am Sunset: 3:48pm

So that means that people near LA in latitude had more than two more hours of daylight than we had today and people near New York had an extra hour and a half! We were lucky that the sun was out today so we did get out and enjoy it with a bike ride along the Cam and a walk through Angelsey Abbey. The first picture was taken on our street at 8:20am and the second was taken in the winter gardens at Angelsey Abbey at about 3:30pm...crazy, huh!?!

Tree Trimming Party

Last night, we hosted a tree trimming party for Molly and George's first Christmas tree. We had about 20 people, representing at least 7 nationalities...even a couple of Britons! We got to sample Christmas foods from all over the world. We had some rocking' homemade eggnog (American), delicious Panettone (Italian), sausage (Serbian), and even tried our hand at mulled wine. Everyone helped decorate the tree with whatever materials they wanted including these cute gingerbread men! For the time being, Buddy seems to be tolerating their existence. My friend Regina and I even discovered an excellent vegan gingerbread cookie recipe. Thanks to everyone who came and helped get the house ready for Christmas!

Weather Forecast

I'm not sure if this weather forecast is funny to anyone else but watching this video makes me want to simultaneously roll on the floor laughing and pull all of my hair out!  Thanks, Meg, for sharing this video.

St. John's College Advent Carol Service

Last Saturday evening we got to hear the St. John's College Advent Carol service in the St. John's Chapel.  Let me just say "Wow!"  The service is similar to the renowned King's College Lessons and Carols Christmas Eve service but we didn't have to stand out in the cold and rain starting at 7am to get in!  The service is available to hear for three more days through the BBC or through St. John's.  Just click on one of the links and put it on in the background while you work or play and get into the Christmas spirit!  If you hear a particularly melodious soprano or bass voice singing the hymns...well, it's not us.  The service you will hear was recorded on Sunday morning!

Hen Night

A "Hen Night" is the British equivalent of a bachelorette party in the U.S. My new friend, Katie, is getting married in a few weeks so a couple of the ladies associated with the Astronomy department, Regina and Shayna, and I decided to throw her a Hen Night. Unfortunately, we can't really "hang" with the traditional Hen Night being too old and too sensible for such things, if you know what I mean. So, instead we dressed up silly-like and headed to a club where we were the oldest patrons by at least ten years! We had a great time dancing to such modern hits as "Push It" by Salt 'n Pepa (England hasn't really moved past the 80's music-wise) and worrying about the impending bouts of pneumonia sure to be experienced by the scantily-clad teenagers, who are inadvertently wearing the same clothes worn by the teenagers who first danced to the 80's music. We may be old, but we can still dance!

Homemade Chocolate Cake

I promise, I really am applying for jobs, but since I'm currently unemployed, there what harm is there in learning a few domestic arts? Here is my very first attempt at a completely homemade chocolate layer cake. It wasn't bad, but as George pointed out, could get better with practice...

Buddy for Obama

We all do what we can for change...some of us campaign, others of us make biscuits disappear.

The Roman Baths in Bath

I still can't get over how old things are here. In a fantastic example of how the Romans co-opted local religions, they took the temple the Celts built (836 B.C.) at the hot springs to the Goddess Sulis, and built a much bigger temple to Sulis Minerva (60 A.D.). Here are a few photos from our brief trip to Bath. You can walk as the Romans walked but not bathe as the Romans bathed! My favorite pictures are the one of the live statue and the one of George sampling the hot spring water. Clearly it is for bathing, not drinking!

Mute Swans Ring for Supper

This week, George and I were fortunate to be guests of George's Dad and Diana in her hometown of Wells, the smallest city in England. It is a very quaint town centered around the beautiful and unique Wells Cathedral (which claims to have the world's oldest working clock) and the Bishop's Palace. The City was once walled and also contains a street called Vicar's close which claims to be the world's oldest complete medieval street. It was truly a beautiful place!

My favorite part was seeing the famous bell-ringing swans! Long ago someone trained a swan to ring a bell for its supper in the moat that surrounds the palace. That swan apparently taught its cygnets and so on through the generations. Now-a-days, crowds gather for the 3:00 feeding of the swans. If you don't believe me, just watch the video. If you want to see more pictures of Wells and our visit with Jeb, Diana, and her parents, Mary and Bill, check out the album to the right called "Wells".

Chronophage, devourer of hours

If you haven't heard about the Time-eating Clock in Cambridge, let me tell you about it. It is weird and amazing! The clock was developed by John Taylor, an inventor and alumnus of Cambridge. He wanted to create a tribute to John Harrison, the world's greatest clockmaker who "solved the problem of longitude in the 18th century." (There was a problem with it?) Stephen Hawking dedicated this clock in a ceremony just a few days before we arrived in Cambridge.

The giant insect on top rocks back and forth and turns the disc while the blue lights move to indicate the time. However, this clock is meant to keep time while symbolizing that time is relative, so it is only perfectly accurate every 5 minutes! Watch the pendulum in the daytime video and you'll see how the pendulum corrects itself. The overall effect is mesmorizing! It is hard to get a good video of this giant clock due to the reflection and the throngs of people surrounding it! If you listen in the nighttime video, you'll hear some of the Thursday night student merrymaking.

See this article for more information: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4783450.ece

City Boy in the Country

We drive on the left

One of George's American colleagues taught us a very helpful song.  It has no tune and is best sung in round repeatedly while driving.  The only lyrics are "We drive on the left, we drive on the left, we drive on the left..."  This is my new favorite song, especially since we are now the proud owners of Scratch, a '99 Honda Civic 'Estate'.  Actually, a station wagon (I can see you grimacing from here, Laurel!)  Fortunately, it has been well broken in by some other furry, slobbery dog, so we won't worry too much about it when Buddy arrives on Thursday.  But look out London, here we come!  If anyone has any mechanical advice about this car other than "don't buy one", here is your opportunity to shine :)

A Bike Ride Along the Cam

We've had 5 consecutive days of sunshine and we've been trying to enjoy every second!  Finally, it is overcast and so I'm taking time to share some more photos with you.  Last week I took a bike ride along the river Cam to get a feel for the countryside.  As soon as you leave the city limits, Cambridgeshire becomes very rural!  The first photo is our neighborhood.  This type of townhome is very typical for the area and we are lucky to be at the end of a row!  St. George's Church is just two doors down from us and has beautiful bells that chime on Sunday morning.   You probably know the reputation of Cambridge as a big rowing town and that is certainly true.  You see the men and women's teams out practicing in all kinds of weather.  The cows grazing along the Cam are a very common site (even in the greens within the city limits!) and most of the area outside of the city is agricultural.  The last photo was taken on a green within the city called Jesus Green.  When the sun comes out, people flock to these greens to picnic, read, or relax, including us.

Home Sweet Home

Man, is Buddy going to love it here!  Our new home is like a dog heaven: a muddy backyard filled with squirrels, hedgehogs(!?!), and cats and white carpets inside!  We weren't told until we had closed the deal that this house comes with one very persistent cat.  Meet Chester.  Or Fred, depending on who you ask.  He sits on the patio and looks into the dining room like this most of the day, rain or shine!

We are really enjoying our new home and are starting to learn how to use all the gadgets.  What we don't have yet are our boxes with decorations.  As you can see, our landlady, though very nice, is not aware of any colors outside of the white palette...ideas anyone?

The room with the white (!) bedspread is the guest room.  Yours when you want it!

The most exciting part for me is the garden.  It is more like a secret garden but I'm beginning to understand why.  Will it ever stop raining/hailing/winding enough for me to go outside and do anything???  

A Tour of St. John's College and the Backs

It was another beautiful day in Cambridge today and everyone and his uncle decided to try his hand at punting.  Except us.  We'd rather gawk for now and take mental notes while watching others attempt to punt.  What is punting, you say?  A punt is long, flat-bottomed, squarish,  boat propelled by means of a long pole by pushing against the bottom of the river.  George and I have a theory that the English simply take the ideas of others (say a boat shaped nicely for water like a canoe, propelled by a paddle) and make it less efficient (say a punt).  Needless to say, this is now purely a recreational activity enjoyed by everyone, especially those who sit on the banks of the Cam and applaud when people fall in or lose their poles!

The nicest place to be on a sunny day like today is in the park area along a section of the Cam called "the Backs".  The Backs line the river behind some of the most famous colleges like King's, Trinity, and St. John's Colleges.  George and I toured through St. John's a bit and took some of these pictures.  St. John's is one of the prettiest colleges in Cambridge and also one of the largest.  It spans both sides of the river and the two sides are joined by an intricate stone bridge called the Bridge of Sighs.  Whether this is named for its breathtaking beauty or for the thought that you may die when you cross it, is unknown to us.  All of these pictures were taken on the beautiful grounds of St. Johns or Trinity college.

First Impressions of Cambridge

Leaving beautiful, late summer, Pasadena was hard to do.  Especially since we arrived in rainy Cambridge after about 20 hours of travel with 300 pounds of luggage!  We are staying in a small apartment which we are borrowing from George's colleague so that we can get our bearings and try to find a place to live.  Getting our bearings has been made particularly difficult by the absence of the sun or any topography to speak of.

Today, the sun finally came out and we spent the day exploring the Cambridge City Centre (yes, that's how you spell it).  All of the students are returning to Cambridge for the start of term next week and the city is full of people: students, parents, and visitors of all nationalities.  No one even blinks when they hear our accents.  I'm not sure there is a language or culture not represented in Cambridge!

There is a market that takes place every day in the Market Square by St. Mary's Cathedral.  The market is packed with people who shop in little tea shops and shoe stores as well as in Borders and Starbucks.  Things are quite expensive but not quite as bad as I thought.  I had my first coffee today and, much to my relief, it was pretty tasty and cost about 2 pounds (~$4).  I'm glad we don't have a car yet though because gas is over $8 a gallon!

George is now a fellow at St. John's College, one of the many colleges that make up the University of Cambridge.  I'm still not quite sure how the colleges function except that they are residential areas for undergraduate students and that each seems to have its own church.  We will be dining at St. John's next week (if we can find enough tweed to wear before then) so we'll know more then.  This last picture is a picture of the King's College Chapel, famed for its choir (spurned by George out of loyalty)!