A trip to Number 10

One of the biggest events during the two years as a Marshall Scholar is the trip to 10 Downing St., which is equivalent to the White House. However, unlike the White House, tours to the public are never offered and it is almost impossible to be allowed into 10 Downing. Fortunately for the Marshalls, the Relationship of our program to the British government means that during our two years we get one trip to 10 Downing, and my turn was this year (randomly decided). This meant that myself and around 30 other Marshalls from 2009-2011 were invited for the journey.

On January 12th the Cambridge Marshalls got together early in the morning at the train station for a trip to London, then the tube to Westminster. When we got out of the tube it was the first time I had seen Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye since the orientation, over three months ago.

As we waited outside the barrier to Downing St. we all joked about meeting David Cameron (we didn't meet him, and weren't planning to). 10 Downing itself was an elegant office space devoted to the hard working offices of the prime minister. There were no state rooms like the white house, but the decorations were amazing throughout Number 10. There were pieces of history placed throughout the office. As we walked the aides showing us around would say, on your left is a globe Margaret Thatcher was gifted, to the right is a desk where Churchill wrote many famous speeches, here is a gift from JFK, here is a gift from Clinton, etc. Photos were not allowed in 10 Downing, so I do not have any pictures from the inside, but you can imagine.

The entrance to Number 10.

When we went into the cabinet room, we got to see and sit in the chairs around the table where historical and current leaders of Britain have sat. We saw the gifts of past US and world leaders displayed around the room. We sat at the table Obama gave a speech during his most recent visit. The history was overwhelming.

Since tours are not given in any regular way at Number 10 we were shown around by aides who indulged us with stories about past presidents and world leaders. Most notably their strong affection for the United States and in particular Obama. They discussed how Obama helped cook food for them all or would play basketball with whoever wanted to play on his visits. The respect and strong relationship with the US was similar to what I heard in DC from US leaders about their respect and affection for the UK. It really emphasized the unique relationship between the two countries.

The Marshall group outside of 10 Downing after our visit.

Before our tour we were put in a conference room for tea and talked to foreign advisers on the U.K.'s foreign policy plans and positions going into 2012. They discussed everything from the position on the middle east and Iran, to China, to Scottish independence. It was very insightful, but cut short as our speakers had to go advise David Cameron in the next room.

Our trip to Number Ten ended after a couple hours and we had to rush out because the Irish Prime Minister was coming to meet with David Cameron. Afterwards we all left and went out to lunch and then to the British Museum. Having never been to the British Museum, I had no idea how overwhelming and huge it would be. Two hours in the museum and we only saw 10% of the displays.

The Rosetta Stone at the British Museum!

Completely free, I have little excuse for not taking a trip to the museum every time I go into London. Afterwards the Cambridge Marshalls hopped on a train and rode back to Cambridge, ready to get into the swing of things for the second term at university. 

A trip to Porto, Portugal

Katherine and I wanted to visit somewhere outside of Spain and the UK, so we booked tickets to Portugal. For those back in the States unaware of budget European airlines, they have made travel around Europe so much more affordable. A roundtrip ticket to Portugal was 28 euros, about $34! Portugal is definitely a country less commonly visited, but it is one of the few countries where you can stand on the Atlantic coast in Europe.

Our trip was to Porto, Portugal. Probably most famous for being the home of Port wine, a type of sweet fortified wine that is very popular around Europe and especially in the UK. Port seems to be a requirement at any big meal in Cambridge (I just had it at our formal last night).

Looking out into Porto on a foggy afternoon.

The first day in Porto we arrived early, checked into our hotel, and wandered around. We quickly came a cross a huge bridge and realized Porto had very unique topography, hard to describe even in photos. This bridge was several hundred feet off of the ground across the main river flowing through the middle of Porto. From the bridge we could see the entire city, the Port tasting area, and the ocean.

After the bridge walk we had lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, where I was confused for being Portuguese (it wouldn't be the only time). Apparently my hair had gotten a little long, and I decided that was a sign I should cut it as soon as I get home.

 

The center of Porto.

After we walked around for the day in Porto, we had dinner in a local restaurant, where no one spoke English. As my Portuguese skills were non existing, We made use of very effective hand motions to have a successful meal without a problem. Who needs words to communicate anyway?

Building from the 12th century on our first night in Porto.

Our second day started with a trip to the beach! We took the metro about a half hour out to the northern ocean, with plans to walk back to downtown Porto throughout the day. What a beautiful beach, very similar to how the Atlantic looks from North Carolina, not nearly as windy and intense as the Oregon coast.

Big wave on the beach!

Katherine on the beach!

Katherine and I on the boardwalk outside of Porto on the Atlantic coast.

Several pictures with Katherine and I later, we took a brief walk around the sand and in the water before heading to a cafe to get a beer. Wow what an amazing site it was. As underwhelming as Porto as city was the beach was fantastic and definitely worth the entire trip.

 

Me at the cafe on the coast.

Katherine enjoying the Ocean.

Seven miles later.... Wait what? Takin the metro thirty minutes out of a city might be farther than you think? Needless to say we loved the beach, but the walk back was a little longer than expected. We did make it back in time for a couple Port tastings and a tour. We couldn't visit Porto without it!

Our walk back to the center of Porto... you can see the bridge in the far end several miles away.

Walking bridge in Porto

Very old Port wine from 1904! Very expensive.

The Port tasting tour was at Sandeman

We left early the next morning back to Madrid, where I stayed for a few more days before heading back to the UK. In that time Katherine and I relaxed and hung out with her Georgian roommate Natia. Natia took us to a great jazz club in Madrid one night, which has some very funny holiday themed jazz from an American/Spanish group.

After a great holiday break I finally had to pack and head back to the UK, but to be honest I was missing England by the time it was time to go back... Not to mention speaking English and being able to communicate! But... being back in the UK didn't mean things would slow down too much. I'll be posting soon about my trip to perhaps the most iconic street address in Europe, 10 Downing St.

The New Year in Madrid

My travels did not slow down after Katherine’s mom and brother left Spain, as on the same day they left several more friends arrived. We had a visit from Kate (our friend from Oregon) and her friends, coming to Madrid for New Year’s Eve.

For reasons that seem unclear, but perhaps because Spanish people really like to party and really like to practice, we went to “Practice” New Year’s Eve in downtown Madrid. Let me say though, this was no small event, but instead completely full of people as early as 10pm. It occurred the day before and we were to celebrate with a ball drop at midnight. Unfortunately, the ball dropped 2 minutes before midnight; I guess it is a good thing Spain has a practice run.

Kate, Becky, Keely, myself, and Bryson in Sol in Madrid.

For the real New Year’s Eve we celebrated with Kate and her friends as well as Katherine’s roommates, Natia and Alvaro. We had a Spanish style dinner party, starting at 10pm, and watched the New Year celebration on the television. Another strange Spanish tradition is eating grapes at midnight. Not just one grape, and not casually. Instead, you eat one grape every five seconds during the chimes of the midnight hour, a total of 12 grapes in 60 seconds. Oh, and these are seeded grapes. Needless to say, we were lucky to make it out without the need of the Heimlich maneuver. After recovering from the grape incident we all set out to the streets of Madrid and enjoyed a night out on New Year’s Eve in one of the most fun cities in the world, almost as good as London and the UK!

The New Year's Eve Party in Katherine's apartment.

Kate and her friends left a couple days after New Year’s Eve and Katherine and I finally had a chance to relax, Katherine especially, after several days of entertaining visitors. On the 2^nd of January there was a very, very important American College Football game I had to watch, the Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl facing Wisconsin. The game started at 11:30pm in Spain, and Katherine and I made it just in time to an Irish pub in the center of the city that was showing the game. There we watched with other fans from Oregon, many former students, as the Ducks won in exciting fashion. I had such a great time watching the Ducks win the Rose Bowl that I could have been mugged on the walk home and still had one of the best nights since I have been in Europe. There was certainly something strange about watching the Duck game so far from home, but a once in a lifetime experience to watch it in Spain, surrounded by great Duck fans and very confused Spanish people.

 

Go Ducks! Katherine and I with our new Duck friends in Madrid.

After the excitement of the Rose Bowl Katherine and I took a day trip to El Escorial, the royal monastery of Spain. This is historically the residence of the King of Spain, and many of the Spanish royals are buried at El Escorial. However, the strangest part of El Escorial was not the royal burial grounds at the Monastery, but instead the center of town a short walk away.

El Escorial from a distance

Sunset from El Escorial.

El Escorial

In the center of town Katherine and I walked into what was a life-sized nativity scene… unlike any I have ever seen before.

Fake sheep figures at El Escorial.

More "nativity" scenes.

Life size does not do justice to the number of statues around the city, at every corner we were confronted with a strange human-like statue – much like the beginning of a horror movie.

 

Yes, that is a statue cow giving birth with the help of a statue old woman.

Another statue, pretty impressive.

This is when it began to look like a scary movie.

Luckily we were able to make it out safe and back to Madrid. We had to get to sleep early, because we were leaving the next morning for three days in Porto, Portugal.

A trip to Segovia, Spain

I left Cambridge after Christmas and traveling to Madrid, arriving a few days before Katherine’s mom and brother, whom were visiting for Christmas, left to go back to Oregon. In these few days we set off to travel to the small city of Segovia, which is about an hour outside of Madrid by train.

Segovia is a beautiful city that was decorated beautifully for Christmas! Katherine, her mom, her brother, and myself stayed in a hotel that was right in the center of Segovia next to the massive Cathedral.

Large Cathedral next to our hotel in the center of Segovia.

Our awesome hotel, thanks to Katherine's booking ability.

On our first day in Segovia we enjoyed Spanish meals and a trip to the Aqueduct of Segovia. The aqueduct dates back to the first century, when built by the Romans. An unbelievable sight to see, it was used up until the 1900’s when it finally was set aside as a historic world heritage piece.

Aqueduct of Segovia!

After the aqueduct we visited the Castle of Segovia, or the Alcazar of Segovia, which is an amazing castle that was famously used as the inspiration for the castle in Disney’s Cinderella. As soon as we got to the castle we ran up to the top of the watch tower and looked over Segovia. 

Katherine and her brother Michael atop the tower on the Castle of Segovia.

View from the tower in the Castle of Segovia, notice the cathedral in the center.

Katherine and I on top the tower with Segovia in the background.

After the tower we went through the castle, and by the time we got outside it was dark, but beautiful.

The shield of arms for Segovia.

Castle of Segovia.

Back at our hotel, we had a fairly nice view from the entrance, but even better was the view from our hotel room. Off our balcony you can see the church where Queen Isabella of Spain was crowned in the 1400’s. Queen Isabella was the wife of Fernando II, both of which are famous for sending Christopher Columbus on that voyage in 1492. 

Cathedral at night.

Katherine with the church in the background (on the right) that Isabella was crowned in.

Aqueduct at night.

The next day we enjoyed a tour of the Cathedral, which was an amazingly large church, similar to the Alumudena Cathedral in Madrid.  Afterwards we jumped on our train back to Madrid and enjoyed a relaxing evening in the city, as Katherine’s mom and brother prepared for their long flights back to Oregon early the next morning.

Inside the inner courtyard of the Cathedral.

Christmas time in Cambridge

Several weeks have passed since my last blog post. I have been very busy with lab work, Christmas break, traveling, lab work, and the start of a new term here at Cambridge. After my trip to Edinburgh in the beginning of December I stayed in Cambridge through Christmas. We had our first snow in Cambridge since my arrival (and so far the only snow), just a light dusting early in the morning.

Light dusting of snow one morning outside of my room in our garden.

The first two weeks in December were full of great Christmas parties for my lab and college. We had our graduate formal, where only graduates are allowed and there are only four a year. The theme was a "Tim Burton Christmas" and everyone dressed as characters from Tim Burton movies. A great way to end my first term at King's. For our lab we had Christmas dinner out at a nice restaurant and exchanged secret Santa gifts, which was great fun. I received a home-made "Welcome pack" to the UK, complete with comical instructions and warnings. Such as "Americans coming to Britain be ready for: Irony, thin people, warm beer, bendy roads, free health care, and the Queen."

A couple weeks into December a Marshall friend from London, Allie, came for a visit with those of us still at Cambridge. I am getting pretty good at being a Cambridge tour guide! Over the weekend we went through King’s College, the chapel, around several other colleges, and to Grantchester. It was a really great trip and nice chance to catch up with Allie and the other Marshalls at Cambridge that were still around, Temple and Jessie.

Temple, Jessie, and I in King's College Chapel showing Allie (who is taking the photo) around.

Emmanuel College inner greens and pond.

All of the undergraduates finished classes by 1 December, so Cambridge was relatively empty over December. Many taught-master students also left Cambridge early in December, but a lot remained around to enjoy the graduate formal. Around the final days before Christmas almost everyone else left, and I celebrated Christmas with the handful of graduates that remained in Cambridge. It was a great celebration with home cooked food thanks to our graduate society and movies and conversations into the night. I also made sure to come back so I could skype for a couple hours with mom and dad!

King's College entrance just before Christmas

So there is a long-delayed update on my first Christmas outside of the United States what what went on at Cambridge in the winter time. The day after Christmas I left fairly early in the afternoon to head to the airport to catch a flight to Spain. I had worked in the lab on my research project up until Christmas, and was excited to take a holiday break and spend a couple weeks in Spain with Katherine. More on that trip soon!

A trip to Edinburgh

This past weekend I had the chance to travel with Katherine up to Scotland to visit Edinburgh, one of the cities in the UK where I may live next year. Before heading up to Edinburgh, however, we first had a formal dinner at Queens College in Cambridge to attend.

Formal hall dinners are events that take place regularly at Cambridge and Oxford colleges. They typically involve dress from anywhere between black tie, full gown, or for the more casual... full suit. The meals are several courses in length and involved pre-dinner and post-dinner drinks, as well as a few interesting traditions throughout. Each college has a different formal hall and different rules. My college (King's) has relatively casual formals, where gowns are not required and students typically wear full suits (or men do, I have no idea what girls do for dressing up). For other colleges, gowns are required at all formal hall dinners.

Our formal at Queens was a swap with King's College, and Katherine was my guest. The meal began with pre-dinner drinks at the College Bar followed by a walk into the main dining hall where a ceremonial gong triggered everyone to simultaneously stand and await the fellows entering the dining hall. After the fellows are seated, the students then take their seats and the first of four courses was served. During the first course, a choir sung several Christmas songs from a balcony overhead. Before desert the gong sounded again and everyone stood as the fellows left the dining hall. After a great dinner we left for post-dinner drinks in the college bar. The formal hall style of dining is certainly something that is always awe-inspiring and leaves me in disbelief that multiple formal halls occur every night throughout the Colleges at Cambridge.

Katherine and I in formal hall at Queen's College

Leaving early Friday by train, Katherine and I arrived at Edinburgh in the afternoon (2pm) which quickly became dark (3:30pm) because Edinburgh is very far North, and similar to Alaska, gets dark very, very early. No matter, we really enjoyed going out to the Christmas market and seeing the Christmas decorations around Edinburgh.

Edinburgh at night

Me in Edinburgh Christmas market

Edinburgh looked like the most beautiful city in the world at night with the Castle and other historic, ancient buildings all with unique holiday lighting. After touring around the city Friday we watched a musical performance in a cafe/pub, as Edinburgh is known for its breadth of musical events.

Edinburgh Castle at night

Katherine and me in Edinburgh at night

On the second day at Edinburgh Katherine and I met up with another Marshall from my year studying at Edinburgh, Josie, and had a great time touring the University of Edinburgh where I may study next year for public health. We were able to tour the Christmas market again and the entire central area of Edinburgh.

Edinburgh from atop a small hill

Katherine and me standing in the castle with Edinburgh in background.

Katherine flew back to Spain Sunday and I returned by the long train ride to Cambridge, where I caught up on some lab work that I missed to prepare for a few busy weeks in the lab so I can get ready for a two week vacation towards the new year. More to come soon!

Katherine and me with the castle in the background