At 60.0 lat, 19.8 lon on a cruise ship and heading to bed... Up to see more sea ice and Helsinki tomorrow!
:)
Friday, March 11, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Tuesday, March 8:
Went to the Natural History Museum today.
Swedish Photos
Helsinki on Saturday, combined with 16 hour cruises both ways!!! =)
Kontaktperson: Andrew Kositsky
Produkt: Kryssning Stockholm-Helsingfors-Stockholm
Kryssning
Stockholm 11/3 2011 kl 16.45 - Helsingfors 12/3 2011 kl 11.30, Mariella
Helsingfors 12/3 2011 kl 17.30 - Stockholm 13/3 2011 kl 10.00, Mariella
Antal personer 2 Vuxna
Hytter 1 B2P innerhytt
Totalpris 420,00 SEK (Moms: 0,00 SEK) Betald
Swedish Photos
Helsinki on Saturday, combined with 16 hour cruises both ways!!! =)
Kontaktperson: Andrew Kositsky
Produkt: Kryssning Stockholm-Helsingfors-Stockholm
Kryssning
Stockholm 11/3 2011 kl 16.45 - Helsingfors 12/3 2011 kl 11.30, Mariella
Helsingfors 12/3 2011 kl 17.30 - Stockholm 13/3 2011 kl 10.00, Mariella
Antal personer 2 Vuxna
Hytter 1 B2P innerhytt
Totalpris 420,00 SEK (Moms: 0,00 SEK) Betald
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Day 7 (Feb 17): London Calling
Here's where I went.
Here are some pictures (still uploading as of this posting), though the London ones not all bunched together since I downloaded Friday's and today's pictures from my phone and camera at the same time.
Highlight: I visited The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and sat in on a case for about 10 minutes.
I'm going to bed. Detailed descriptions of the various happenings later.
Here are some pictures (still uploading as of this posting), though the London ones not all bunched together since I downloaded Friday's and today's pictures from my phone and camera at the same time.
Highlight: I visited The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and sat in on a case for about 10 minutes.
I'm going to bed. Detailed descriptions of the various happenings later.
Day 6: Uninformed Cambridge Tour
Up at ~11:20am to a plumber.
Realized at 12:45pm I had no idea where I was supposed to meet Saurabh at 1pm... I had a name "Centre for Mathematical Sciences," which gave an address. However, at least in the United States, mailing addresses on campuses are notoriously different from where the buildings actually are. E-mailed and called Saurabh with where I was intending to go
"
Isaac Newton
Contact Details:
Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences
20 Clarkson Road, Cambridge, CB3 0EH, U.K.
Telephone: +44 (0)1223 335999 Fax: +44 (0)1223 330508
E-mail: info@newton.ac.uk
"
and a backup location "The model of Cambridge outside of Great Saint Mary's Church".
To the Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
Missed Saurabh because I was late by about 15-20 minutes.
To Saint Mary's! Only 8 or so minutes late. Luckily, I think Saurabh was even later than I. (I had the advantage of having picked the backup location and time, and I didn't tell him until right before 1pm.)
Then we took off and wandered all over Cambridge. See here for details and here for pictures.
Home, relaxation, planning.
I tried for about 2-3 hours to find someone to walk across Southern Corsica with me, without any success. Anyone know anyone else who might want to do this from April 1-8?
Realized at 12:45pm I had no idea where I was supposed to meet Saurabh at 1pm... I had a name "Centre for Mathematical Sciences," which gave an address. However, at least in the United States, mailing addresses on campuses are notoriously different from where the buildings actually are. E-mailed and called Saurabh with where I was intending to go
"
Isaac Newton
Contact Details:
Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences
20 Clarkson Road, Cambridge, CB3 0EH, U.K.
Telephone: +44 (0)1223 335999 Fax: +44 (0)1223 330508
E-mail: info@newton.ac.uk
"
and a backup location "The model of Cambridge outside of Great Saint Mary's Church".
To the Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
Missed Saurabh because I was late by about 15-20 minutes.
To Saint Mary's! Only 8 or so minutes late. Luckily, I think Saurabh was even later than I. (I had the advantage of having picked the backup location and time, and I didn't tell him until right before 1pm.)
Then we took off and wandered all over Cambridge. See here for details and here for pictures.
Home, relaxation, planning.
I tried for about 2-3 hours to find someone to walk across Southern Corsica with me, without any success. Anyone know anyone else who might want to do this from April 1-8?
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Day 5: Work work zug zug
I tried to get some work done today for my Caltech research mentor, and it went decently. An hour of conference, about an hour of manual/code. The rest of the day was spent similarly to my previous week. Lots of relaxing and games, lots of walking throughout Cambridge (this time to the East, Jesus Park?), and about 2 hours trying to find a hiking buddy for Mare a Mare Sud (http://corsica.forhikers.com/mare-mare-sud). While unsuccessful thus far, the message and offer are out there, and hopefully I'll find someone to go with me. Otherwise, I'll just have to had Final Countdown playing in my ears the entire journey with nothing to break the epic tune!
Relaxing is amazing.
Saur invited me to come to class with him tomorrow, poke around the city together, then head to a late dinner in town. I'll also be going with him and possibly some other Caltech folks to London on Saturday, and I'm likely to head out on my own on Thursday to somewhere in the UK on my rail pass.
Relaxing is amazing.
Saur invited me to come to class with him tomorrow, poke around the city together, then head to a late dinner in town. I'll also be going with him and possibly some other Caltech folks to London on Saturday, and I'm likely to head out on my own on Thursday to somewhere in the UK on my rail pass.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Day 4: Plane Tickets and Dancing
10am: Wake up, puts around for a while.
10:30am: Walk to grocery store, buy food, eat food, store food in fridge. I'm not going to go into too great detail right now, but unprepared food prices are fairly different in the UK compared to the US, generally lower it seems. However, restaurants seem to be more expensive in Cambridge than in the US. High rent? High wages? High-quality ingredients? High profit? Different business model/staffing? Food is yummy, though. =)
11:45am: Try to start organizing to-do's with the eventual goal of finishing up work for JPA. Unsuccessful as I transitioned into buying airplane tickets.
1pm-6pm: Buying 6 one-way tickets with Ryan Air to hop around Europe, planning the rest of my trip in broad swaths.
0.) Cambridge base camp at least till the end of the week.
1.) 15-Day UK rail pass active from Feb 16 - March 2.
2.) Edinburgh base camp from ~Feb 20 - March 2
3.) ~$18 flight to Sweden, then staying March 2 - March 15
4.) ~$50 flight to Eindhoven, then staying in Netherlands/Belgium March 15 - March 22
5.) ~$16 flight to Bologna from Brussels, then staying in Italy March 22-29
6.) ~$16 return flight to Brussels, then doing something from March 29 - April 1
7.) ~$64 round-trip flight to Corsica, staying April 1 - April 8; hiking Mare a Mare Sud during April 2-7 (inclusive)
8.) ??? April 8 - April 12. Zurich? Poland? Paris? Barcelona? Turkey? Germany?
9.) ??? flight to Bulgaria, staying approximately April 12 - April 18
10.) Return to the US, April 19.
6:30 pm: Shower and Shave.
7:00 pm: Pub Fish and Chips. Yummy.
7:35pm - 10:30pm: (With Saur and Cindy) Valentine's Day Ceilidh @ Emmanuel URC
(N.B.: For those of you who don't know what a Ceilidh is, think "square dance with Scottish music"(Thanks to Cindy for the description). Heal-toe-heal-toe slide two three four...)
Ceilidh Sessions
Monday 14th February, 8pm-10.30pm
Emmanuel United Reform Church, Trumpington Street (opposite Pembroke College)
A Special Ceilidh for Valentine's Day.
Featuring the Red Rock Ceilidh Band, with renowned local caller Bob Ridout.
[PLEASE NOTE: This event is on a "first come first served" basis. We have a limit of 120 people - so get there early. 7.45pm recommended.]
The band will include members of the Cambridge University Ceilidh Band and the SOAS Ceilidh Band [London].
There will be tunes, songs and dances.
Admission is £6, £3 for students and unwaged.
Open to all members of the Public and the University.
Families are welcome. Under-12s free.
We start at 8.00pm
Type of event: Music event
Open to: Event is open to all students
Cost: £6 / £3 concessions
10:30pm-12:30am : Hang out a little with Cindy and Saur, mostly with Saur.
12:30am onward: Walk home. E-mail. Bang out rough blog post. Consider adding photos, but decide to do it later <-- (procrastination is a great tool for helping with sleep!).
10:30am: Walk to grocery store, buy food, eat food, store food in fridge. I'm not going to go into too great detail right now, but unprepared food prices are fairly different in the UK compared to the US, generally lower it seems. However, restaurants seem to be more expensive in Cambridge than in the US. High rent? High wages? High-quality ingredients? High profit? Different business model/staffing? Food is yummy, though. =)
11:45am: Try to start organizing to-do's with the eventual goal of finishing up work for JPA. Unsuccessful as I transitioned into buying airplane tickets.
1pm-6pm: Buying 6 one-way tickets with Ryan Air to hop around Europe, planning the rest of my trip in broad swaths.
0.) Cambridge base camp at least till the end of the week.
1.) 15-Day UK rail pass active from Feb 16 - March 2.
2.) Edinburgh base camp from ~Feb 20 - March 2
3.) ~$18 flight to Sweden, then staying March 2 - March 15
4.) ~$50 flight to Eindhoven, then staying in Netherlands/Belgium March 15 - March 22
5.) ~$16 flight to Bologna from Brussels, then staying in Italy March 22-29
6.) ~$16 return flight to Brussels, then doing something from March 29 - April 1
7.) ~$64 round-trip flight to Corsica, staying April 1 - April 8; hiking Mare a Mare Sud during April 2-7 (inclusive)
8.) ??? April 8 - April 12. Zurich? Poland? Paris? Barcelona? Turkey? Germany?
9.) ??? flight to Bulgaria, staying approximately April 12 - April 18
10.) Return to the US, April 19.
6:30 pm: Shower and Shave.
7:00 pm: Pub Fish and Chips. Yummy.
7:35pm - 10:30pm: (With Saur and Cindy) Valentine's Day Ceilidh @ Emmanuel URC
(N.B.: For those of you who don't know what a Ceilidh is, think "square dance with Scottish music"(Thanks to Cindy for the description). Heal-toe-heal-toe slide two three four...)
Ceilidh Sessions
Monday 14th February, 8pm-10.30pm
Emmanuel United Reform Church, Trumpington Street (opposite Pembroke College)
A Special Ceilidh for Valentine's Day.
Featuring the Red Rock Ceilidh Band, with renowned local caller Bob Ridout.
[PLEASE NOTE: This event is on a "first come first served" basis. We have a limit of 120 people - so get there early. 7.45pm recommended.]
The band will include members of the Cambridge University Ceilidh Band and the SOAS Ceilidh Band [London].
There will be tunes, songs and dances.
Admission is £6, £3 for students and unwaged.
Open to all members of the Public and the University.
Families are welcome. Under-12s free.
We start at 8.00pm
Type of event: Music event
Open to: Event is open to all students
Cost: £6 / £3 concessions
10:30pm-12:30am : Hang out a little with Cindy and Saur, mostly with Saur.
12:30am onward: Walk home. E-mail. Bang out rough blog post. Consider adding photos, but decide to do it later <-- (procrastination is a great tool for helping with sleep!).
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Day 3: Catch up on sleep and relax (part 2)
Another lazy-ish day today...
Watched a lot of voyager with Aidan and Matt last night, had great pizza for dinner then. Woke up absurdly early (~7-8am?) and poked around at my archived photos on my computer, being careful not to make enough noise to wake up Aidan (again). I made myself pasta and put some really good sweet chili sauce on it... yummy!
Around 11:40, Aidan and Matt emerged from their lair to head off to a social lunch for the afternoon, giving me time to shower and go for a long ~4 mile walk. The suburbs of Cambridge (at least to the north of the city center) seem very much like American suburbs to me, with a few exceptions: bike paths, decent sidewalks, railing near crosswalk corners (like in Hong Kong), and more multi-unit buildings (or buildings that are literally touching... not sure if these two are definitions different or not).
I poked photos more, uploaded my recent photos from Aidan's Friday tour, started laundry, and am now updating my blog...
N.B.: While this isn't necessarily the most exciting vacation yet, it is certainly very relaxing and satisfying!
Watched a lot of voyager with Aidan and Matt last night, had great pizza for dinner then. Woke up absurdly early (~7-8am?) and poked around at my archived photos on my computer, being careful not to make enough noise to wake up Aidan (again). I made myself pasta and put some really good sweet chili sauce on it... yummy!
Around 11:40, Aidan and Matt emerged from their lair to head off to a social lunch for the afternoon, giving me time to shower and go for a long ~4 mile walk. The suburbs of Cambridge (at least to the north of the city center) seem very much like American suburbs to me, with a few exceptions: bike paths, decent sidewalks, railing near crosswalk corners (like in Hong Kong), and more multi-unit buildings (or buildings that are literally touching... not sure if these two are definitions different or not).
I poked photos more, uploaded my recent photos from Aidan's Friday tour, started laundry, and am now updating my blog...
N.B.: While this isn't necessarily the most exciting vacation yet, it is certainly very relaxing and satisfying!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Day 2: Catch up on sleep and relax
Up at 4:45am, poke around on the computer, then out at 6:00 to walk around Cambridge.
Absolutely nothing is open this early in the morning! However, I got a good 4 mile walk and I'm much more well-acquainted with the city
Got a salami/mozzarella/pesto baguette at around 8:00am (when things are finally starting to open)
Got back into bed by 8:30 or so to take a couple hour nap before Aidan and Matt arose. Of course, I then woke up at 3:30pm realizing I'd slept through nearly the whole of the day's daylight hours. I joined Aidan and Matt downstairs for some Voyager, as well as dinner. =)
Absolutely nothing is open this early in the morning! However, I got a good 4 mile walk and I'm much more well-acquainted with the city
Got a salami/mozzarella/pesto baguette at around 8:00am (when things are finally starting to open)
Got back into bed by 8:30 or so to take a couple hour nap before Aidan and Matt arose. Of course, I then woke up at 3:30pm realizing I'd slept through nearly the whole of the day's daylight hours. I joined Aidan and Matt downstairs for some Voyager, as well as dinner. =)
Day 1: Cambridge Tour and Pints at The Eagle
Up at ~8:30am after a good night's sleep, I spent the morning poking around on my computer (writing the previous post, e-mail, games, etc.) until Aidan was ready to assume the role of tour guide and show me the sites of Cambridge.
Aidan's college.
Round Church.
St. John's.
King's.
Queen's.
Marks and Spencer is not just a clothing store!
I met Aidan's sister (Helen) and aunt (Sam).
Got to catch up with David Patrick (WWU Professor of Chemistry) from 4:15 - 5:30. He's working on the problem of decreasing the cost of solar panels by using high-transparency plastic combined with dye layers.
After returning to Aidan's house, we went for some great Indian food at a restaurant near her house.
Should upload lots of pictures for this day... >.>
(Update: https://picasaweb.google.com/apk314/ , specifically, https://picasaweb.google.com/apk314/Europe2011Cambridge )
Sleep hard at 10pm! WOOO
Aidan's college.
Round Church.
St. John's.
King's.
Queen's.
Marks and Spencer is not just a clothing store!
I met Aidan's sister (Helen) and aunt (Sam).
Got to catch up with David Patrick (WWU Professor of Chemistry) from 4:15 - 5:30. He's working on the problem of decreasing the cost of solar panels by using high-transparency plastic combined with dye layers.
After returning to Aidan's house, we went for some great Indian food at a restaurant near her house.
Should upload lots of pictures for this day... >.>
(Update: https://picasaweb.google.com/apk314/ , specifically, https://picasaweb.google.com/apk314/Europe2011Cambridge )
Sleep hard at 10pm! WOOO
Friday, February 11, 2011
Day 0, The Flight
After finally making it to bed at 5am, I slept until around 9:45am. Yangyang helped make sure I was up in time before taking off for work. I made sure everything was in my recently purchased backpack, put on my fleece, raincoat, weird hat thing from REI, Polar Girl and semi-isolating water proof ear buds, and left CU Boulder's Newton Court housing for the Broadway/Baseline stop of the RTD AB Boulder airport bus.
Playing starcraft on free airport Wifi is dodgy at best, but it certainly helps pass the time. After boarding the on time plane for the Denver-Chicago leg, I almost immediately fell asleep and caught up on the previous next for a good 2 hours. Wake up. Gather belongings before disembarking. Wander through the psychedelic B-to-C terminal passage. Eat bad Chinese food. Board plane.
On the Chicago-London leg of the flight I listened to the first 3.5 books of the Amber Chronicles while playing Tap Quest. Oddly enough, the 7.5 hours of flight seemed relatively short compared to the 10-14 hour flights to/from Hong Kong that I've taken over the last 4 years. I slept fitfully for the last hour or so of the flight itself, though I blearily spent the 25-30 minutes taxiing to the gate.
My first picture in Britain, is, of course, of a Polar Bear:
Shortly after passing through Customs, Aidan Ross picked me up and led me to her beautiful car in the light rain so reminiscent of Northwest Washington for me. And at 8-10C, the weather felt absolutely wonderful (especially after the -20C in Boulder on the previous night). We gossiped all the way back to her flat in Cambridge and continuing chatting until around 3pm when I showered, brushed my teeth, and made the mistake of trying to take a 45 minute nap.
The 45 minute aspect of the nap was a success, I did indeed rise out of bed after the allotted time, but I was so absolutely foggy and incoherent that I'm surprised Aidan and Matt didn't take me to an asylum me somewhere on the walk to Christ's College. However, they didn't... at least as far as I recall.
The first thing that struck me as we walked through the city was how old everything appears. The streets appear very haphazard, corners of building aren't square, a great variety of architectural styles are crammed together, and the wear on occasional structures is often extreme.
Formal dinner at Christ's College Cambridge with Qiaochu was fun, got to meet a whole bunch of his friends/housemates (none of whom were native Cambridge students... apparently Cambridge doesn't want their pure stock mixing with those MIT mongrels.) I think I was the least well-dressed person there with black jeans, belt, button up (but short-sleeve) shirt. Drinks at the bar afterward (though, as usual, I didn't drink), then I headed back to Aidan's with her and Matt and crashed.
Long but fun first day!
Playing starcraft on free airport Wifi is dodgy at best, but it certainly helps pass the time. After boarding the on time plane for the Denver-Chicago leg, I almost immediately fell asleep and caught up on the previous next for a good 2 hours. Wake up. Gather belongings before disembarking. Wander through the psychedelic B-to-C terminal passage. Eat bad Chinese food. Board plane.
On the Chicago-London leg of the flight I listened to the first 3.5 books of the Amber Chronicles while playing Tap Quest. Oddly enough, the 7.5 hours of flight seemed relatively short compared to the 10-14 hour flights to/from Hong Kong that I've taken over the last 4 years. I slept fitfully for the last hour or so of the flight itself, though I blearily spent the 25-30 minutes taxiing to the gate.
My first picture in Britain, is, of course, of a Polar Bear:
Shortly after passing through Customs, Aidan Ross picked me up and led me to her beautiful car in the light rain so reminiscent of Northwest Washington for me. And at 8-10C, the weather felt absolutely wonderful (especially after the -20C in Boulder on the previous night). We gossiped all the way back to her flat in Cambridge and continuing chatting until around 3pm when I showered, brushed my teeth, and made the mistake of trying to take a 45 minute nap.
The 45 minute aspect of the nap was a success, I did indeed rise out of bed after the allotted time, but I was so absolutely foggy and incoherent that I'm surprised Aidan and Matt didn't take me to an asylum me somewhere on the walk to Christ's College. However, they didn't... at least as far as I recall.
The first thing that struck me as we walked through the city was how old everything appears. The streets appear very haphazard, corners of building aren't square, a great variety of architectural styles are crammed together, and the wear on occasional structures is often extreme.
Formal dinner at Christ's College Cambridge with Qiaochu was fun, got to meet a whole bunch of his friends/housemates (none of whom were native Cambridge students... apparently Cambridge doesn't want their pure stock mixing with those MIT mongrels.) I think I was the least well-dressed person there with black jeans, belt, button up (but short-sleeve) shirt. Drinks at the bar afterward (though, as usual, I didn't drink), then I headed back to Aidan's with her and Matt and crashed.
Long but fun first day!
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