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!