Hi Everyone!
I guess I haven't written for quite some time, since almost immediately after I arrived here in Cambridge I left to go on orientation with the other Gates Scholars. We went up to the Lake District which is a beautiful part of northern England that has been inspiring writers and artists for years. We were super lucky, as the weather held pretty well (no rain until we left!) and outdoor activities were therefore really enjoyable. We went on nature walks, hiking, and some people even went rock climbing and kayaking. We also tried to do some more cultural events, like visiting Beatrix Potter's house (remember Peter Rabbit?) and the Wordsworth cottage, but those were less successful, mostly because of the difficulty of navigating a huge coach bus around tiny English roads.
The most exciting part of the weekend though, had basically nothing to do with what we were doing and everything to do with who we were meeting. I was pretty apprehensive about the whole meeting new people thing, especially since I haven't done it on this scale since the beginning of college, and since, as I recall, it was pretty miserable then. This was completely different. It actually felt like a huge version of RC training, without the training part, just the hanging out part. The other scholars are absolutely amazing. I dont know what I expected, but I definitely did not expect everyone to be so wonderful and down-to-earth. Everyone here is pretty brilliant, and many people are already well-established in careers, but they are so excited about what they do and so interested in learning about new ideas and subjects outside their area of expertise. I've had conversations with people this weekend about everything from the history of science, to archeology, to geology, to how EEGs work, to literature and people aren't even being pretentious, they really are just interested in these things! And yes, we did do traditional "fun stuff" too, like going to the local pub (a lot).
I think one thing that surprised me the most is how many scholars are a little bit farther along in their lives than I am. While there are a fair number of students straight out of college, a lot of people have been spending the past few years working at exciting jobs or getting degrees in the States. Many people are married or engaged, and some even have kids (adorable kids!!). It is fun, and really interesting to get the perspective of these people, especially when we have conversations about things like gender roles in different countries (Saturday night) and how to balance a career as a woman in science with wanting to raise a family (yesterday afternoon).
Another thing I've been learning about, that I'll probably go into more detail on later, is the college system here. People from places like Yale (there are a bunch of yalies here), are familiar with this type of system already, but since Amherst was so tiny, it's completely new to me. Each college has its own personality, and each has traditions and stereotypes and odd quirks and fun historical facts. I feel a little sad that I didn't pick my college more carefully. Everything I've heard about Churchill is that it is a great place to be a graduate student, but I feel like being at such a new college does have its disadvantages in terms of all of the great historical stuff. It does have it's upsides though, especially in housing, which is apparently much better here than elsewhere, and from what I saw tonight, the food is pretty good. It is a little far away, but I'll be getting a bike soon hopefully, and the one big advantage is that it is a really international college. There are also tons of Gates people here, so that has already been nice. And I just met one of my house-mates for the year. She is from Berlin and seems super sweet as well, so socially thing are looking promising. Also, apparently we have really good parties here at Churchill. That's scientists for you...
Sadly, I dont actually haven any pictures from the weekend because in the anxiety of packing 6 pairs of socks to make sure I had enough if some got wet, I forgot my camera. But I will hopefully be getting pictures from other people and I'll post them as soon as I get them!
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