There’s only two more weeks left in the program and it hit me as I was walking into the King’s College Gatehouse late at night. Looking up at the intricate gatehouse…I sorta teared up (wow so emotional). I’m going to miss this place. Week 6 was full of touristy fun with my dad and also struggling to stay awake in class.
Classes:
I was doing okay for the first two weeks of class with staying awake (okay not really), but this past week was just terrible. I blame it on myself because:
1. I’m a light sleeper and sleeping in a room right next to the Cam is just asking for it
2. I just love sleeping really late even if I’m not doing anything (ahem, bad family habit)
3. You know when you close your eyes and the impending sense of doom arrives and you wonder what you’re really doing with your life and then you remember you have to check in to your flight to Copenhagen and also sign up for classes soon and you wonder if you have too many UC units before you can complete all your major courses and min-
Yeah, so falling asleep in class is a really bad habit of mine. No matter how interesting the subject or lecturer is (the professor for Development of the City is A+++++, love him), I end up hitting my head on the desk. Not fun when there’s only twelve people in class and you’re sitting around a dining table like King Arthur and his knights.
Two weeks is not a lot of time and with me falling asleep in every single class, I am quite literally falling behind (you know…getting out of the classroom late because you just woke up). BUT IT’S OKAY! I still gotta enjoy my time here, and remember kids, always pace yourself! There’s time for everything and anything.
Also, since our class is in the Department of Architecture rather than the Department of Engineering like the rest of the courses in the program, I just got my card verified so now I can be a cool kid and beep myself into the department!
**Still playing the guessing game with which classroom we are supposed to be in in each class because we are totally off the given schedule but at least its in the same building HAHA.
Jesus College:
I went on a rainy walk to Jesus College (actually called The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund) with a PKP PA. I don’t know if I talked about it before but for PKP, we have student coordinators-usually graduate students- who organize a whole ton of events for us each week throughout the program and they’re amazing. Each of the PAs offer different kinds of knowledge and expertise and the events range from the BBC proms to sunset hikes and afternoon teas. Definitely sign up and participate in as many of the events as you can because they’re created to let you experience the multifaceted English culture while in the short program!
Anyways, back to Jesus College. It’s a little bit hidden down a long corridor which deters a lot of tourists even though its free to access-but all the better because the grounds were so peaceful. Jesus College is one of the richer colleges in Cambridge (like Trinity, whereas King’s is kind of broke from what I’ve heard) and they have a whole bunch of modern dorms. It was a nunnery at first, but apparently (according to my PA – there are many versions of the story), a dude came to the nunnery to discover that there were only two nuns left on the grounds – who were both also pregnant omg – and decided to convert it into a college. Jesus College has a lot of statues around their campus, the most popular being the horse which everyone wants to ride, but aren’t supposed to (you can get kicked out of the college if you’re caught) and its mascot is the cockerell so there’s a lot of Jesus and cockerell *winkwink* jokes around campus.
Family visit:
My dad came in on Saturday with his friend and his friend’s daughter to get a tour of Cambridge and I’m pretty proud of my first tour guide experience. The day before, I went with my friend Ashley to punt for the first time in our lives which is pretty sad because it’s almost the end of the program. We were pretty good for first timers: no one fell off the boat and we were pretty straight. Of course we went after 6pm which meant the river had way less people than during the daytime. We kept on hollering at the our friends living in Bodley’s Court which must have been so annoying to everyone else haha.
Next morning, my dad and his party arrived at around 9:30AM at King’s and I took them around the college, and obviously the Xu Zhimo (an extremely influential poet in modern Chinese literature who attended King’s College) rock memorial because that’s basically what my nerdy dad came for. There’s always a lot of Chinese tourists around the rock and there were some grumpy British old men who were making remarks about the tourists and “visiting a stupid rock.” Maybe the significance of the rock can be lost to some due to cultural disparities (I, for one, do not fully understand it either) but it’s good to try to learn and understand, and most importantly, stay open minded.
Anyways so we managed to get everyone on the boat and I started punting towards Trinity College today, and using my limited knowledge, I spurted random facts about the colleges I had overheard over the course of the program from the punt tours passing by – pretty darn good if I do say so myself! My dad and his friend tried to punt…but they just got my jacket all muddy so I basically punted the whole time. I don’t think I’ve done so much physical activity since I quit all my sports (swim and ice skating) way back when so my shoulders hurt like hell now. Also didn’t stretch so haha, I am living in the consequences of my mistakes right now. Some tour guide punter guy passing by said “You know that 99% who can’t punt, I’m talking about them” when my dad’s friend was attempting to punt. Woops dad and friend, I guess you have to try harder.
After punting, I took my little tour group around to Clare College and they were overjoyed by the garden there (I’m crying, their happy faces). Trinity was closed so we couldn’t go in there but I took them back around to King’s Chapel, then to Pembroke. We also went to the Fitzwilliam Museum where my dad was about to go out of his mind trying to decipher the head from the body from A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Seurat. I swear he was having an existential crisis on the bench in the museum right then.
We went into London for dinner at Hakkasan Hanway Place (you know when you don’t have to pay so you try to make the most out of it…). Super cool place but it was very dark so we were all fighting for the light to look at the menu. Pretty good stuff. I really liked the wagyu beef because #beefislife. We asked for rice, but I guess even though they’re a Cantonese restaurant they don’t really understand the Asian rice to food portion so when I asked for four portions of rice, the server told me that usually two is enough for four people. But when they brought it out literally…each of the bowls had half of our normal portion of rice HAHAHA. Fun experience- we ended up ordering three more bowls of rice.
Sunday, I went out with my friend Ellie to the Cambridge Thai Festival and got our Thai food fix. We both got curry (I got the Chicken with Green Curry and two Chicken Satay sticks and she got the Red Curry). Also really funny was if anyone knows the Hong Kong cartoon McDull with the little piggy and that one part where he went to the restaurant and was asking for all these noodles that were either sold out or nonexistent, that’s what happened to me.
Me: Can I get beef balls?
Vendor: Sorry, these are pork. We ran out of beef.
Me: Okay, then can I get the squid ones?
Vendor: Not available.
Me: Okay, then can I get the fish balls?
Vendor: Sorry, we are still making them.
Me: Okay…the I’ll get the chicken satay 🙁
It happened again when I was getting drinks…my luck must be horrible. The food was really good so yay for us for managing to get out of bed and out of our rooms on a lazy Sunday.
