London Calling

Greetings, O family and friends of ours!  Today Katie and I celebrated our first anniversary together.  At dinner, somebody told us the first year was supposed to be the hardest to get through.  If that's the case, we're in for a pretty easy life, because things have been great so far.  We've had some excellent adventures, with many more on the way, I'm sure.  What did we do to celebrate our anniversary, you ask?  Well, we kind of consider this whole two-month excursion to be one long anniversary trip... two birds with one stone, you know.  Anyway, thanks to all of you for being supportive of us, and thanks Katie for being the best wife ever.

This week was a lot of work and a lot of play.  Earlier on, either Monday or Tuesday, we had a chance to go visit Trinity college and see the Wren library there.  Now, first of all, Trinity is a beautiful college, and the second richest in the University next to St. John's.  The grounds are wonderful and very well kept.  It's actually nearby King's college (both of them sit just on the east of the river Cam).  They're in the middle of some renovations right now, so visiting within the college is somewhat limited.  Fortunately, the library is open for a few hours each day.  I'm not a big architectural history buff, but the library was designed by Christopher Wren, who designed the chapel at Pembroke college, where we live (his first work), and later, St. Paul's cathedral in London.  More on that later.  We had to wait outside the library for a few minutes before they let us in, and they didn't allow photography inside so you'll have to peruse the internet for your own images, but the inside was spectacular.  It was interesting for us to see the commonalities between all the Wren buildings--he seemed to like light, open spaces, so it wasn't like the typical dark wooden library at some of the other colleges, although those are great as well.  The books, though, were what stood out: we got to see a copy of the Pauline epistles from the 700's, the original handwritten manuscript of Winnie the Pooh (awesome), a speech about the implications of the atomic bomb by Bertrand Russell, and a bunch of other old stuff.  There were thousands of books in the library, and I don't think any of them were newer than 100 years old, at least in the main reading room where we were.  We also got to see a lock of Isaac Newton's hair, a few pages of his notebooks, and his walking stick!  Now, these are the types of things you could see in a museum somewhere, but what made this really special was the fact that all these people were intimately connected with Trinity College and Cambridge.  I mean, we were looking at Newton's notes, but we were also standing where he stood, right by the desk he studied at.  Very cool.  That's a feeling you get a lot here in Cambridge--the sense of history and intellectual heritage is overwhelming sometimes.

Speaking of intellectual heritage, the director of BYU's honor's program came to visit PKP (our program) last week, and we got to spend some time with him on Tuesday.  Katie and I, along with another student, walked with him across the river to a small village called Grandchester, where there is an orchard and a tea room out among the trees.  The town is sort of a local legend--it was frequented by a good portion of the great poets a while back... I'm not much of a poetry expert myself, but it was a charming little place.  Actually, it's said to contain the highest concentration of living Nobel laureates anywhere in the world.  Do I believe it?  Yup.  At any rate, Katie and I walked over with Dr. Scanlon (the BYU honors director) and had a very nice conversation.  His background was in theatre, so he was off the next day to see some shows and do some research in London.  "Research".

While Katie and I continued to wade through material for our respective supervisions, the rest of the program was busy cramming for finals for the first module of classes, which ended on Friday.  That means the program is halfway over already, which is hard for us to believe.  If we ever have the chance, we'd love to come back here.  There's just too much to learn and see for two measly months.  But we'll take what we can get.  To celebrate the end of the finals, the program held a huge costume party at a nightclub in Cambridge.  The theme was "cool britannia," so Katie dressed up as a Union Jack and I wore a shirt with George Washington... who was once British.  We decided we were the revolutionary war... or perhaps the War of American Aggression?

Yesterday we had a nice day in London.  It was my first time in the city, and I thought it was quite nice, if a little crowded.  We walked through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, and I couldn't help but think of all the missionaries who must've stood on soapboxes there.  We sauntered on over to Porto Bello road, which is sort of a local antique haven.  I've never seen so many old suitcases, telephones, clothes, and watches in my life.  And of course there were the books.  After being in England for two months, I think I'm going to be hard pressed to find a bookstore in the US that actually impresses me.  It seems that every street corner in this country houses a few Bibles from the 1700s.  Katie and I picked up a pamphlet somewhere for a company that specializes in custom-built libraries and lusted lusted over its pages for a few moments.

We wandered around London for most of the day and saw St. Paul's cathedral that night.  Again, it was designed by Christopher Wren, who, as it turns out, wasn't half bad.  I'm sure he's glad we approve.  We arrived at the cathedral right in time for evensong, which was beautiful.  We crossed over the river and explored the Tate modern art gallery, which was amusing... if only I'd thought of gluing an octagonal piece of white paper to a wall!  I could've retired by now.  After the museum, we headed over to the Globe and saw a production of All's Well that Ends Well.  We had standing tickets so we felt very authentic.  It was the first time either of us had ever seen that play, and we thought the acting was great, but the main character (Bertram) remains a complete idiot, right to the end.  We'll have to see another version sometime.  

Well, we hope all of you are getting along alright.  We're having a splendid time over here, and it's going by much faster than we'd like.  

Oh, I almost forgot what we did today!  After church we carpooled over with a few other people from church to see the American memorial cemetery here.  It's a cemetery and memorial for Americans who died during World War II, and the only American military cemetery in the British Isles.  The land was donated by the University; there are about 3,500 graves and around 5,000 names inscribed on a large wall.  It was peaceful.

Anyway, hope you're all doing well!  We'd love to hear from you, thanks for reading,

Jordan and Katie

At the Big Party

A phone box, Big Ben, and a double-decker bus.  What more can you ask of London?

The Arch de Triumph.  Seriously.

The Peter Pan statue at Kensington

The streets were all this crowded.

Well, it was a statue of cupid.  That's all I remember.

Countdown to the olympics!

The United States Capitol is behind us.  

One of the more labor-intensive works at the modern art gallery.

Katie got us kicked out for playing on the kiddy slide. 

Inside the old Globe!

At the Memorial Cemetery this afternoon

Happy First Year!

Tofu? What's that?

Well, well, well... it's been a relaxing Sunday for Katie and I.  We had a great week this week, punctuated by trips to gardens, formal dinners, Chinese food, a graduation, and street musicians.  We send our greetings to the family, and hope you are all doing well.  It sounds like the reunion was a lot of fun, and I'm sure Mom and Dad are going to have a great time planning next year's reunion... right?  Our vote is the UK!  As long as we're doing these every year, we might as well go all the way.

Every once in a while in Cambridge your college will hold a "formal hall".  Just imagine a Harry Potter-esque dinner; that's what they're like.  Usually all the students and professors wear robes, but the summer students aren't quite up to robe-wearing status yet.  Maybe next time.  Anyway, it's a fancy affair with candles and delicious food and all kinds of wine... not that we drank any.  Even the silverware says "Pembroke College", which I thought was rather awesome.  During our last formal hall, Katie and I sat next to Dr. Martland, who will be teaching "100 Years of Spooks and Spies" when it starts in a few weeks.  He's a thoroughly British chap and an utter delight to have dinner with.  Through some sort of cosmic oversight, the server brought him out a plate of smoked tofu (the vegetarian option for the night) instead of the pork the rest of us were eating.

"What's this?" he asked.

"It's tofu," replied the server.

"Tofu?  What the hell is tofu?" said Dr. Martland

"..." said the server.

It was an entertaining evening.  After dinner came dessert:

Chocolatey....

Needless to say, Katie was in heaven.

The rest of the week was somewhat of a blur as Katie and I shuffled off to various libraries in search of research material.  I've been trudging through the postcolonialist canon, which has been both fascinating and frustrating.  I'm happy to say I've got a fabulous supervisor in Ms. Nivi Manchanda, who has been both flexible and wise in her choice of assignments.  The more I study, the more I realize that I've just scratched the surface of the things I'd intended to study while in Cambridge.  I may end up continuing this line of research as a Master's student, but I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get there.  In the meantime, if any of you are interested in why schemes to better the human condition have tended to fail miserably, check out James Scott's book, Seeing Like a State.  It's one of the best books I've read in a while, and Scott is one of the few academics I've read who can actually, you know, write.

Speaking of reading, I've stumbled across a wonderful tool: Evernote.  I've actually had an Evernote account for some time, but I never used it.  Basically, it's an extension of your brain; I've started using it to organize not only my research, but also my study journal, dream journal, gift list, and every other segment of information that I usually forget.  It syncs across platforms (phone, laptop, web), and it's free. Evernote--try it out.

I really should be getting paid for spreading all this publicity...  Moving on.  Yesterday was graduation in Cambridge!  It's a pretty grand affair, actually.  There are robes, top hats, ceremonies, latin, and processions through the street.  Katie and I (along with a few other couples) dressed up and went over to King's college hoping to get in to see the festivities (solemnities?) but we didn't have tickets.  We did get to see some people walking through the street in furry robes, though.  Afterward, we checked out a few old churches here in Cambridge: Great St. Mary's, and King's chapel.  It's actually kind of embarrassing that we hadn't been inside King's chapel before yesterday, seeing as it's in the college we study in every day and we can get in anytime we want for free.  But we finally went, and it's spectacular!  It's very large, it's got great acoustics, and lots of stained glass.  What more can you ask of an old church?  Sadly, no music was being performed while we were inside, but every once in a while we can hear the choir resonating from the chapel over the lawn at King's... it's beautiful.

Katie had an exciting trip over to the conservation library on Friday.  Some of you know that she took a bookbinding class at BYU last semester and fell in love.  Now she's thinking of pursuing a master's degree in bookbinding/conservation.  Naturally, Cambridge has one of the best conservation libraries in the world, and it was a treat for her to be able to go and mingle with the curators there.  She got some tips and school suggestions, one of which is down nearby Sussex.  We may go down and see the campus in a few weeks (it's in a castle--go figure).

Speaking of things that Katie loves, we took a walk in the University Botanical Gardens the other day.  It was, well, a garden.  Not much else to say.  She also attended a Mosque earlier in the week with a few other people from our program.  She got some free food and a free copy of the Koran.  Speaking of books, we narrowly avoided buying a beautiful  21 volume set of Charles Dickens' collected works.  Now, I know what you're thinking.  Do we have a place to stay when we get back home?  No.  Do we have any space in our luggage for a gigantic book collection?  No.  You'd think those would be pretty good reasons not to add to our already 600-volume-strong library, but the real reason we didn't buy them was that the inner binding wasn't high-quality enough.  It's a good think I keep Katie with me, because I never would've noticed.  Instead, we bought a slim volume containing a J.M. Barrie play neither of us had ever heard of.  Let me just say to the bibliophiles of the family: never visit Cambridge.  There's a bookshop on every corner, and before you know what happened you'll have no money and a suitcase full of first-editions.

Well, that's some of the day-to-day stuff; let me share some thoughts so far on Cambridge as a whole.  First of all, it's mysterious.  After living here for a month, I'm still not sure if I understand what this place is all about.  Nobody explains anything, and it's all fascinating.  At BYU, courses are very clearly laid out with syllabi and mostly straightforward, but it's not just that.  Things seem, for the most part, open.  Cambridge is a different story, and I don't mean for that to sound like a bad thing.  Take a look at the university website to get a feel for what I mean--it's quite stark.  In Cambridge, it's all about who you know, and the system is comprised of layer upon layer of tradition and exclusivity.  Some of these colleges have been around continuously for 800 years; that's a lot of time to cultivate traditions and mysteries.  It's an oddly alienating, yet comforting feeling.  I've never been anywhere quite like it.

Academically, Cambridge is sink or swim.  The students here are brilliant, as you are expected to be.  Again, there's an element of non-explanation.  The feeling I get is that if you need to be told, you probably shouldn't be here anyway.  That's not to say questions aren't encouraged; just certain kinds of questions.

Well, I hope that left you thoroughly confused!  Anyway, Katie and I are alive and well.  Next Sunday we'll have been married for one year!  Hooray for us!

Have a great week,

Love

Jordan and Katie.

The view from a library desk.

Jordan is on the alert. 

At "drinks."  Katie is going undercover with the apple juice.

Jordan sustained a vicious punch in the jaw during a fight.

Katie, Jordan, and their new best friend Dr. Martland!

They upgraded our apartment.

Katie, lost in the bamboo.

Katie, looking stately.

A crowded day on King's Parade.

King's College, King's Chapel, The Sky.

"Do Not Step on the Grass."

"Bring me the head of a pig." 

Katie's latest stained-glass project.

And the Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down...

Well, we are in England, so I'm not sure what I expected.  Yes, it has been raining quite a bit this week, but not to worry--I picked out a beautiful pink polka-dotted umbrella.  We'll have to take a picture and send it off.  Anyway...

This week's been great!  I (somewhat on the spur of the moment) changed the topic of my supervision.  Here's the deal: I was focusing on the economic development of China and Chinese education, but that was never really my supervisor's specialty--instead, I was just doing research and using her to bounce ideas off of, which was nice, but not ideal.  I felt like I could have been doing the same thing back at BYU.  My supervisor (Nivi) did a masters degree here in Cambridge in international relations, and her research now focuses on postcolonialism in the Middle East and Central Asia.  International relations is something I'm interested in anyway, so I'm shifting slightly, and learning a lot about postcolonialist theory.  It's actually quite fascinating, because I'm coming face to face with a lot of ideas I don't particularly agree with, but which I feel are widely held and discussed.  It's giving me an opportunity to think more thoroughly about what I believe, why I believe it, and how to articulate those beliefs.  At the same time, I'm gaining insight into a whole different worldview.  Postcolonialism, by the by, is more a paradigm than anything else (at least in IR theory).  It's the idea that the colonial relationships in the past (between, say, Britain and India) continue to define reality today; it's a philosophy of empowerment for the non-western world.  Interesting stuff, and I read a lot of writers praising Mao, Che Guevara, and Marx, which should give you some sort of indication as to what it's all about.

Anyway, enough of my rambling about my studies.  Moving on to... well, all we seem to do here is study, actually.  Lots of time in the library.  We may take a bike/camping trip to the sea in a few weeks; we'll let you know.

I'm thinking that's about it for today.  Sorry for the short update this week; there are actually a lot of fun things I should be telling you about.  Perhaps I'll do a mid-week update in a few days.  I'm still a little sleepy from the midnight showing of Harry Potter the other day.  Until our next update, enjoy some photos of our lovely surroundings!

--Jordan

This would be the Pembroke library.  At night.

The path to our dorm.

The court at Corpus Christi College.  I think it's the oldest court in Cambridge, but I could be wrong...

St. John's College, and Katie's journal.  FYI, the saying in Cambridge is, "I'd rather be at Oxford than St. John's."

A bridge over the Cam.

This is also St. John's.

Flowers... at St. John's.  Katie hung out there a lot this week.  It's only disliked because it's rich--therefore, it has a very nice campus.

Cambridge is so old, some parts of the city are sepia.

A random kid.  I gave him some candy and he befriended me.  

You can always tell the time in Cambridge.

p.s. Katie is having a great time in her drawing/painting class as well as in her supervision.  She's studying portrayals of poverty and homelessness in the media.  Her words of wisdom for the week: "If we don't try, then we don't do.  And if we don't do, then why are we here?"

Love you all!

Life in a Castle

Seriously though, that's kind of what living in Cambridge feels like.  Every time we come back to our room, we have to pass through a large gate and pass by a bouncer in a robe.  It's entertaining.

This week has been lovely!  The first few days were confusing, but once the jet lag wore off we realized what an amazing place we happened to be studying.  So, the details: Katie and I are officially living in Pembroke college.  It's one of the older colleges, having been established in 1347.  The college system in Cambridge is different than, say, BYU.  There are 31 colleges in Cambridge, I believe, and each one operates almost completely independently.  An undergraduate would apply both to the University of Cambridge and the particular college he or she wished to attend, and would remain part of that college, both living and studying there, all throughout his undergraduate experience.  Each college has its own library, as well.  So, Katie and I are in Pembroke.  But as part of the PKP programme, we also have access to King's college, about a quarter mile or so up the road.  It's a beautiful college with a lovely library and a stunning chapel.  It's also right on the river Cam, where people pole themselves along in little boats.  It's called punting.  We have access to the King's library 24 hours a day and, although we've yet to use the privilege, there's something comforting about the knowledge you could have a 600 year old library all to yourself at 3 in the morning.

Our classes here are divided into two halves: the first month and the last month.  Some classes stretch over both months.  The two classes I'm taking (developmental economics and 100 years of spooks and spies) don't begin until next month, so I've been focusing solely on my supervision so far.  A supervision, by the way, is a method of teaching somewhat unique to Cambridge wherein a student proposes a topic of study and is given access to a member of the faculty with specialized knowledge of that subject.  They meet once or twice a week over a term and give individualized criticism and guidance.  (Incidentally, not all proposals are accepted--Katie had to try three times before they could find somebody with the knowledge she was looking for.  The student proposes, the college disposes.)  My supervision is on whether, and how, the economic development of China has affected the education of children.  I could go on, and I probably will once I've done a little more research.  If you're really interested, I'll have a rather long paper at the end of the month for you to read.  The libraries at King's and Pembroke, while impressive, are rather sparse when it comes to modern Chinese economic history, so I found the Asian Studies faculty library, and have been doing most of my research there.

Speaking of research, well, there hasn't been that much so far.  By the time we settled down here, it was time to leave.  We spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Edinburgh, the most beautiful city I think I've ever visited.  I really had no idea what to expect before we left, and Scotland had never been on my top ten travel list, but I would comfortably recommend a visit for anybody.  Walking the streets of Edinburgh is like walking through canyons made of 500 year old buildings, and since the city was built on steep hills and cliffs, there are beautiful layers of roads.  We would be walking along a street on what felt like ground level, only to look over the edge of a stony bridge and see that the building to the side of us extended another sixty feet down to the city below.  The nearby ocean means seagulls, and the extremely northernly location means the sun never quite sets.  When we walked back to our apartment at midnight it was still dusk.  In a way that's difficult to describe, Edinburgh feels to me like a city at the edge of the world.  That, combined with the feeling that the whole city is really a castle, made for a lovely little holiday to the north.

Along the road our bus stopped at a few castles and ruins, which were stunning.  I accidentally bought some alcoholic lemonade today at a castle in Richmond (don't worry, I gave it away!)  We returned home this evening, and we're ready for a week of good study.  

All in all, I've decided I love the UK.  So many of the other places I've traveled to have felt somehow less substantial than America, but England feels more so.  I can see reverse shadows of Australia everywhere, which is interesting to me.  Remember in the The Last Battle when the characters step out into reality and see the true forms of the places and things they thought they'd known all their life?  That's kind of what Great Britain feels like to me; like the rest of the world is an imitation.  There's a weightiness about this place, in everything from the architecture and the weather to the language and the money.  It's something to be experienced sometime in your life.  

We love you all, and hope all is well back home!  If you have questions you want answered, leave them in the comments or send us an email.  I'll throw some pictures on here as well, so you can see where we've been.  Have a great week!

By the way, Katie's thoughts on our experience so far: "So much chocolate, so little time."

This is us.  In front of a gate.  In Cambridge.  Somewhere.

At drinks on the lawn, before dinner.  Katie: "I like this picture of you."

Katie looking adorably British in front of Fountain's Abbey on the way to Scotland

"Be Prepared." I try to live by the scout motto at all times.  In Scotland, it even rains indoors.

Katie and I at Arthur's Seat base camp

Jordan has just finished flying.  His wings are still gently flapping.

Karate in Scotland.  Why not?

The first Mormon chapel in Edinburgh, built in 1377.

This is a street.

Dolly the sheep, and Jordan.  They're best friends.

A professional camera programmer took this picture for us, after messing around with all our camera settings.

The top of the Scott Monument.

The view from said monument.  To the left is Edinburgh Castle.

Katie in front of the Parthenon.