Punting and Sunflower Seeds

Since everyone else was going exciting places over the bank holidays, I decided to have a really fun and relaxing weekend here in the UK.  

On Saturday, a bunch of Gates people took punts out from Trinity and went punting on the Cam. This is the third time I've been punting, the first when the weather was really nice, and that totally make the experience (although it also means the river is ridiculously busy). Afterwards, we had a picnic on the green along the Trinity backs.  It was lovely to just hang out with people, enjoy the weather, and sip Pimms along the backs!

Today, I went in to London to catch the last day of an exhibit at the Tate Modern that I've been wanting to see for a while.  Before that though, I met up with a friend and went to lunch near the Spitalfield's market.  On Sunday there are a ridiculous number of stalls set up selling any kind of food you can imagine (literally from every country).  And it's all ridiculously cheap.  I had amazing ethiopian food for lunch, yum!  Then we went to get bagels, which was a huge highlight as you basically can't find real bagels in Cambridge! double yum!

Then I went to the museum.  The Tate used to be a factory, and there is still a big open space in it called the "Turbine Hall."  Every year, they get an artist to design an installation to go in the hall, and this year that artist was Ai Weiwei.  He made an installation that is composed of millions of "sunflower seeds."  They're not actually seeds, but oblongs of porcelain, shaped and painted to look like sunflower seeds.  It really is an amazing piece.  The seeds were not industrially manufactured, but they were individually painted by artisans.  It's a really breathtaking work, and really thought-provoking as well.  

It used to be that you could go in and interact with the piece, walk around and play in the seeds.  But then the museum got worried about the dust being thrown up by everyone walking on it, so they roped it off.  I was really sad about this and was just thinking out it, when a few people jumped the barrier and started running around in the exhibit!  A minute later, half the people there had been enticed to break the rules and enter the big square of seeds.  It was hilarious.  It literally felt like a jail-break!  Eventually, though, the guards came over and asked everyone to get off.  I also decided that there is something to be said for keeping it free of people.  I found it a lot more tranquil and meditative without all the people in it.

On a serious note, Ai Weiwei, the artist, was recently arrested in China and his whereabouts remain unknown.  A lot of the museums, both in here in the UK and the US, are calling for his release.  If you want to sign a petition to push for him to be freed, one is available here.

11. Clare College

So I was pretty excited about this one, for obvious, and perhaps silly, reasons.  Besides the fact that it has an awesome name (spelled the correct way!), Clare is one of my favorite colleges.  It has beautiful gardens in the back, and the college is very chill and the people there really friendly.  I'd never been in the hall until Friday night though, so I was super happy that this was the first Gates swap of the term!

Clare's the second oldest college, founded in 1338, by the Lady Elizabeth de Clare.  She was the granddaughter of Edward I and, says my book, a "wealthy woman with modern ideas."  One of these "modern ideas" apparently was to provide free housing and education for 10 poor boys (in addition to the Master and 19 Fellows).  The Clare crest has a black band around the outside with little gold tear drops.  This is a mourning band, as Lady Elizabeth had three husband and each of them died before she was 28 (on punting tours they suggest she had something to do with it and call her the "black widow" but I think that's kind of mean).

Another cool thing about Clare is that it has the oldest bridge over the Cam (not the first one built, although the first one built in the classical style, but the oldest one that survives).  Apparently, the designer, Thomas Grumbold, was paid 3 shillings (i.e., not much) for the drawings.  The bridge has 14 stone balls, and part of one of them is missing - Grumbold's revenge for poor payment.

Some famous Clare men:

Hugh Latimer (there's a portrait of him in hall): Protestant reformer burned at the stake by Mary Tudor
Charles Townshend: Chancellor of the Exchequer who imposed the taxes that sparked the American Revolution
General Lord Cornwallis: lost the battle of Yorktown, surrendering to the Americans and giving us our own country!

Some photos from Clare:

Congrats to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

So, in case you didn't hear, on Friday Prince William married his long-time girlfriend Kate Middleton.  Upon their wedding, they were also named Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, which means that they may even come visit! (if you're interested about Cambridge and it's ties to the royal family, here's a great article from the Guardian!)

The preparations for the wedding though, have been going on for months.  Not only has the speculation been non-stop since December about who would make the dress and what kind of wine they'd serve, but we also did a Royal Wedding themed happy hour a lab a few weeks ago.  To be honest, I was kind of ready for everything to be over.

I debated going to London for the wedding, but then decided not to, mostly because I knew I wanted to go into London again this weekend, and I thought it would be silly to go twice, also a little because it was supposed to rain.  But I did watch the wedding on TV!

Kate Middleton barbie dress cake with cut out Wills (at our happy hour!)

10. Corpus Christi College

The formal hall circuit is usually pretty intense, but it does quiet down a little when the undergrads are gone.  However, that doesn't stop the grads from having their own "Grad Halls" which are usually a lot more fun because there are no wasted undergrads wandering around.

I went to such a Grad Hall at Corpus Christi a few weeks ago.  Corpus, despite being really near where I work, is one of the colleges that I had never been to until hall.  Interestingly, it was founded by the townspeople (not by some wealthy individual) which makes it unique among the Oxbridge colleges.  It was founded by members of the guilds of Corpus Christi and of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was granted it's license in 1352.  It's also one of the oldest colleges and was the first one to have a "court" (a quad basically).

Corpus has a very well-endowed library, owing mostly to Matthew Parker, the master from 1544-53 (later Archbishop of Canterbury under Elizabeth I), who donated many of the books.  He saved books and documents during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and bequeathed them to the college.  These books were very precious (among them is a sixth century Gospel believed to have been given to St. Augustine by Pope Gregory), and were kept under lock and key (three keys were held by the Master, two by the Fellows).  They were inspected each year by the Masters of Gonville and Caius and Trinity Hall.  If any of the manuscripts were missing, the whole college would move to Caius.  If any books went missing from Caius, the collection would move to Trinity Hall, and if they lost anything, it would all go back to Corpus and start the cycle over again.  Apparently this process has been discontinued.

Corpus also has the best collection of pre-Reformation silver in Cambridge, mostly because instead of giving it all back tot he King or Parliament during the Civil War, it distributed the loot among the fellos, who hid it until the Restoration.

Some Corpus men include:

Thomas Cavendish: the second man to sail around the world

Christopher Marlowe: English dramatist and rival of Shakespeare

The hall at Corpus is quite unique.  I love all of the colors.  The food was also amazing, as this was a special hall and there were therefore five courses.  All in all a great night at a fun hall!

Spring has Sprung

So, I've fallen so behind on the updates that I think it's probably not worth it at this point to go back and recap all of the events in the last few months.  Some highlights have included going to formal at King's College (a pretty hard ticket to come by!), some great lectures (even one by an Amherst alum!), advising British school children on careers in science (despite knowing basically nothing about the British education system), a visit by a lovely Amherst friend, trips to London for museums and the Cambridge-Oxford boat race (we lost), the Cambridge science festival, and running around Queen's green with friends throwing colored powder around (Holi is my new favorite holiday).  The end of last term was, as you can likely imagine, pretty eventful, and everything is made all the more fun by the fact that the weather is starting to get nice and warm and all of the flowers are starting to bloom.  The daffodils along the backs are already starting to fade, but the tulips are in full bloom.  A few weekends ago, Trinity opened up their private gardens, which gave me even more of an excuse to frolic in the flowers!  Here are some pictures: