Beginnings

So far things in Cambridge have been great!  They didn't start off quite so well though.  I arrived in Cambridge by bus on Sunday, July 8 and proceeded to walk around lost with all my luggage for about 1 hour and 15 minutes until I finally found Clare College.  In retrospect, the walk ahould have taken me no more that 20 minutes.  Once I was settled, however, the trip went much better.  I began classes the next Monday.  My first classes are Jane Austen I and the Novel Today.  I am enjoying them both a lot.  The lectures are interesting, although these hasn't been much actual discussion yet.  I'm really enjoying listening to the professors.  One quote that stands out from a plenary lecture on Fiction and Reality is, "In Realism, the need for ideals is as necessary as the need for food."  Every now and then I hear things that just sound right and make sense.  I'm starting to think about which topics I'm going to write my papers on as well.  I'm hoping to start these soon.  Apart from the academic side of life here at Cambridge, everything else has been nice too.  I've met people from different parts of the US and the world, and it's nice to just talk about differences and similarities in life.  The food has been wonderful... three course meals every night.  Eating dinner takes longer than I would like, but the food is usually worth it.  The town is very nice.  It's not too big and getting lost isn't easy once you get to know it.  There's a really nice market every day and the shops are nice, but expensive, especially for clothes.  the weather is colder than I thought it was going to be, and I was going to buy a sweater so I could have some more warmer clothes, but it just wasn't worth putting out the money.  The scenary and the buildings are quite beautiful.  I think I could get used to being at school here.  I'm planning a fish and chips and Harry Potter night with some of the people I met here.  It'll fun to see the new Harry Potter in England!

Well, that's all for my first few days here in Cambridge.  Bye!

"In Realism, the need for ideals is as necessary as the need for food."