Cambridge Oct. '09, by Katherine Albis

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Stonehenge and Bath Oct. '09 (158 photos), by Katherine Albis

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Paris Sept. '09 (165 photos), by Katherine Albis

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Correction!

Cambridge is NOT where Alice had her adventures in Wonderland (a.k.a., where Lewis Carroll wrote). It was Oxford. I was sorely mistaken.

Nevertheless, I had a good time in Cambridge. First of all, Cambridge is OLD. Some of the buildings date back to the 1300s. Plus, there were lots of allusions to Henry VIII during our tour, so I was pleased since I am obsessed with the show "The Tudors." At some points when I was there I wished I had gone to a school like Cambridge...but then I remembered how much I love my city life. Cambridge was nice for a day but I don't know if I could live there for my entire college career. Not that they would accept my lowly American self, anyway.

It was a beautiful, crisp fall day in Cambridge. Not cold enough for people to stop punting, however. "Punting" is the uppity British form of gondola-steering, basically. Mom and Dad, you might remember seeing people do that at Oxford in the movie "Brideshead Revisited."

On our tour we visited the King's College chapel. It's famous for its fan-vaulted ceiling and a painting by Rubens that hangs near the altar of the chapel. The photo I took of the painting is kind of blurry (just imagine it: baby Jesus, Mary, wise men, etc.), but to the left is a photo of the vaulted ceiling.

Tonight I'm cooking risotto for some friends, tomorrow I'll be studying, then a few days of classes, then off to Scotland for the weekend! I should be adding a link to all of my pictures from Paris, Bath and Stonehenge, and Cambridge a bit later. Cheers, mates!

Snow is falling steadily in my little Stonehenge snowglobe, and I am content.

My nose has been firmly fixed to the grindstone lately, (luckily) with a few reprieves. Last Sunday I traveled southward with NYUL to Stonehenge and Bath. If only the number of souvenirs I purchased could begin to convey my enthusiasm for the two historical sites.

Stonehenge was impressive, I don't care what anybody says otherwise. The surrounding sheep, rolling hills, and...freeway... really completed the scene. And Bath was a quaint little town; I was thrilled to see the Roman baths there! The water in the baths was a murky green--so murky that it was beautiful--and the stone the baths were composed of was stunning, especially in the grey light coming from the sky. I also had the opportunity to visit the Jane Austen tea room, which was just darling.

To further my week of English heritage experiences, I went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see "Love's Labour's Lost. " It was light and funny, but lasted three hours and it was very cold in the open-air theatre. We stuck it out though and had a great time. My favorite part of the play was a Latin joke which I shall relate for all those Latinists out there reading this: "Hercules defeated the three headed canus and strangled a snake in his...manus." The scenery was beautiful and the stage reminded me of what the ancient Roman stage would have looked like.

I've just booked my trains and planes for fall break. My friends and I are going to Madrid, Barcelona, Florence, and Rome. It should be a busy but fun trip. I've also just booked a flight to Scotland for the end of October to visit some friends there. AND I ordered an air mattress for the people who will be staying with me in November. All this planning has made me realize how little time I really have left here. I'm so excited to be here, but I also can't wait to be home for the holidays.

Well, for now it's back to the routine of classes. I just handed in my first set of papers and have more deadlines coming in the next few weeks. I also finally started my SOAS classes. I've made SOAS friends too! I even went shopping with some SOAS girls last week. So I'm well on my way to a full experience of London university life. Right now I'm reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe for my Contemporary African Literature class. In my other SOAS class, I'm learning about language in Africa. It's hard to count, but it seems that there are almost 2000 languages in Africa! These range from spoken languages to sign languages to click languages. Neat, right? Pictured at right is my Intro to Pan-Africanism classroom, with my friends Monet and Sylvia looking studious.

Saturday I'm spending the day in Cambridge, the land of Alice and her adventures. More to come after that.

J'adore Paris (To a Degree)

Now that I've been "home" in London for several days, I can properly reflect on the whirlwind that was our trip to Paris.

I ate some great food and some not so great food, saw some great art and some not so great art, and had some great experiences and some not so great experiences.

My friend Brenda and I traveled to Paris together and arrived there at about 8:30 AM last Thursday morning. After our relatively smooth metro ride to the arrondissement of our hostel, we happened upon what would become our favorite bakery in the world. I bought a baguette to eat throughout the day. Then we met up with our friend Sylvia who had arrived in Paris the day before. We went with her to see the Champs-Elysees (not that impressive, unless you think Louis Vuitton is a god) and the Arc de Triomphe (very impressive, especially in comparison with the Washington Square arch). Later we ventured to a couple of different areas within Paris and grabbed lunch at a quaint little restaurant. I ordered the cassoulet avec canard, which was by far the best meal I had in Paris (aside from the baked goods). Upon returning to our hostel, Brenda and I both took much-needed naps, as we had been awake since about 3:00 in the morning to catch our train. We woke up and decided to go to the restaurant which was adjacent to our hostel for dinner.

And then I made one of the biggest gastronomical mistakes of my life by ordering veal kidney. Our French waitress told us it was "very special but very good." So I took the plunge and ordered it, thinking that if I like haggis then I must like veal kidney. I was quite wrong. However, I ate most of it anyway and washed it down with some delicious French wine. As we were eating dinner, the rest of our crew arrived at the hostel and stumbled upon us eating outside at the restaurant. They sat down to join us and, being sane, ordered much more mild dishes than I did.

And then I made one of the biggest general mistakes of my life, which was to go out barhopping in Paris without knowing how to get back to the hostel, and without knowing how to speak French. We got lost, were accosted by an angry Frenchman who thought we were prostitutes, and if it weren't for a lovely Francophone British girl named Helen who directed us back to the hostel, we would have been in deep doo doo, to put it most eloquently.
Luckily we redeemed ourselves the next day by going to the Louvre and touring around central Paris. Perhaps the best moment of the trip was when I saw my favorite piece of artwork ever created--the Winged Nike of Samothrake (pictured at left). I also saw the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, to name a few. I hate the Mona Lisa so I didn't take a picture of it. Sorry to disappoint you.

Anyway, I'm going to stop there even though I could go on and on about how much I despise that painting. After the Louvre, we ate lunch by the Seine and enjoyed the lovely weather. Then I went to le Tour Eiffel to meet Sylvia while the other girls took a boat ride along the Seine. It was a beautiful evening to be near the tower. The next day was relaxing and fun. We spent a big chunk of our day sleeping in a park next to the Notre Dame, and then ate some less than satisfactory French food in the Latin Quarter.

Overall, it was a good trip. I think it could have been much better if I knew French. Good thing that's the next modern language I plan to "master."

So now we're back to reality in London--back to classes, papers, grad school applications, thesis writing, and pints, of course. Stay tuned for a link to all of my Paris photos.