The first week here I was desperate every day to see something new. Now I feel like I’m settling in a bit. I still go on adventures and have grand plans, but I’m having a slightly easier time focusing on work. The first week I was resentful of every minute spent in the dungeon that is the computer lab. There was so much to see and there I was in a dungeon! I think the clock counting down made me realize a) we’ll be here a long time – I have time to see the sights and b) there isn’t much time left and I have to get on that 25 page paper. Yesterday was largely spent in scholarly pursuits. On Tuesday we went on the Library tour to learn how to find the books we need. Though I learned the librarian is super cute, the main lesson I took away from that experience was that although the library is gorgeous it isn’t going to be particularly helpful to me. All the college libraries are separate here so although Cambridge collectively has plenty of books on my subject, I do not have access to those books. The Gonville and Caius library literally only has one book that would be helpful to me. So yesterday I found the public library (it’s in the middle of the mall…this place is weird) and looked for books there. Also not that helpful, though they at least have 2 books that look helpful and I can take them home. The G0nville and Caius library wont let us check out any of the books :(. The public library does let us check out books, but only 2 at a time. I was feeling discouraged but then I spent the afternoon in the dungeon printing out helpful looking articles from Jstor. I got quite the stack, so I am feeling better about my topic. I want to write about spying in WWI. My original intention was to write about how Britain’s official spy organization was created (they didn’t have one before 1914 because spying was seen as ungentlemanly). Based on the articles I’ve found that might still be my topic, but I also found stuff on German spies within England that sounded interesting so I might tweak my subject a bit. I was afraid I would have to switch my topic entirely to the Easter Rising but I think I found enough I won’t need to.
Now just because I’m rambling about academic stuff that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped having fun. The other day I found the crepe truck the other girls have been raving about and it was indeed very good and reasonably priced with very friendly staff. The only issue I have with the crepe truck is they only take cash and I don’t really want to spend all my cash there. I do appreciate their loyalty cards, however. get 5 stamps and the 6th crepe is free. 🙂 After getting crepes with friends we all went to Jesus Green and studied on a park bench. That was quite lovely, though I was a bit unprepared. I was in class and my friends swooped me up to go on this study adventure but I didn’t have future readings on me, so I just used the time as a photo shoot.
Last night was my high table night so I got all dressed up. I have had to hold my dress for high table in reserve so it would seem nice and not like any other of my clothes I wear to keep it special. After dinner my friends and I went in search of a hill Amelia had heard of that gives you a great view of Cambridge from above. It was once the site of Cambridge Castle which was built by William the Conqueror in 1068. The castle is gone now but the hill it was on remains. the view is indeed spectacular. You can see quite a ways from up there.
I think that having already gone to grad school is making this transition easier for me. I am already used to going to school miles and miles away from my family and not being able to see them. A lot of the others in the program grew up in New Hampshire so while they have gone to college they were still pretty close to home and family. Amelia (the other grad student) and I have both already gone to school in far away states and have gone through the separation anxiety and have gotten used to it. We’ve been trying to make it homier. We were complaining about how we wanted to vacuum so Amelia found one that the cleaning staff (who don’t seem to do as much as I would like them to) had left out somewhere in the building and we were all very excited to be able to vacuum our rooms. I finally found a laundry basket yesterday which I’m very excited about. Sorry to leave you on a boring note like vacuuming and laundry but I have to get ready for class now 🙂