Oxford rendezvous

Thanks to the incredible internet connections at both the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, posts with pictures from London and Cambridge have been delayed until I return to Paris (a country with both a universal right to healthcare and a universal right to wifi).

But a quick post with news from Oxford....

I arrived from Cambridge with a minimum amount of annoyance (thank you, closed Circle Line), and met a nice woman from the NSF while I was checking in. We found our way to our dorm building together and I invited her to dinner! She scoped out the town and found us a nice bistro. On the walk back to our dorm building, I ran into my labmate Thomas, who currently lives in Oxford! Small town, small world. :-)

A Day in London

Ah, internet! I'm back in Paris, so now its time to update you all on my adventures in the UK.

Tanya had to go down to London for work, so we made a day of it. There was Chihuly-viewing at the V&A:


Also, we checked out the temporary exhibit "Textile Fields", also at the V&A:


I loved this exhibit. The colors were modern and the soft texture invited way more lingering than the Medieval artwork would otherwise encourage. Plus, you had to take off your shoes to walk on it, which somehow also made it feel more otherworldly. It was like going on a huge carpet ride through an art museum. Really, when else have you had to take your shoes off in a museum and be encouraged to walk on the art? I loved it.

I also managed to get up to Loop while I was there and picked out a lovely skein of British yarn.

And to end the evening, I met up with Tanya near Big Ben! A perfect London day trip!

Cambridge Botanical Gardens

A beautiful place to spend a sunny afternoon!

Cambridge - the fun continues

The gastronomic tour of Cambridge UK continues with dinner at YoSushi!, dinner at The Vault, and lunch at the Fellows table at Pembroke (no pictures, sadly).

YoSushi! has a belt that circulates little alien-saucer style dishes filled with sushi favorites. We went for the Blue Monday Special, which was fun but not amazing food. The crispy duck was disappointing and the gyoza were too oily.



The Vault was a surprise success! Tanya had snagged a Groupon to get us a discount. We ordered from the small courses menu, which is sort of like tapas. They were all delicious! We had pork-apple sausages, herb-stuffed mushrooms, crispy garlic bread, crispy duck pancakes (wayyyyy better duck than YoSushi!), and daphonoise potatoes. YUM!!!!!

Cambridge UK

Well, after arriving in Paris I packed my bags again and headed up to the UK to visit my friend Tanya!



She graduated from MIT a year ago and is now doing a PhD at the Engineering Design Center at Cambridge University.



We're having fun shopping, catching up, and watching American TV!

Mon appartement

My apartment is so cute! Its small (SMALL) but nicely decorated and even though it only has one window on one edge, its quite light because everything is white. Here are a series of pictures, from the entryway, slowly rotating from right to left.

In the last image, behind the kitchen, that's the entry doorway and the bathroom. The bathroom has a skylight so it also gets good light! And the bathroom is nice and modern, thank goodness, although its so small that its impossible to get a decent picture of it. The nicest part is definitely the table and window benches near the window. The bottle of wine was a housewarming gift from my landlady! How sweet!

Je reviens

Well, I am back. Not permanently, there is still the tiny visa issue that will send me back to the States in October, but I am here. I arrived yesterday, had a friend help me get to my apartment and settle in, and unpack. This morning I woke up in my apartment, the place I will be living for at least the next 9 months. I ate this for breakfast (sorry Diego!)

while sitting here

Actually, I didn't take that picture myself (as you can probably guess). I met some tourists who were taking pictures and speaking English, so I asked if they wanted a picture all together in return for taking one of me. They were from Boston too!