Too much to say!
The month long disappearances really don't do much for blogging continuity, I suppose.
The past month was filled to the brim with good memories. I'm now in Tokyo, happily separated from my laptop which I left at school, so I will forego uploading photos at the moment, but I'll give some links to albums of a couple of European stints: Americans in Paris! Nazareth meets Barcelona! (Note: I just uploaded some from my camera, so here is a little preview of Barcelona)
The rowing season ended with a disappointing finish for us but a really good party! My guys' eight did not quality for the Lent Bumps race, which is the week-long Cambridge boating extravaganza. The River Cam is a narrow, windy pain in the arse (particularly for coxes), so there is not much room for traditional-type races. Instead, we have Bumps. In each section there are about 12 boats, each takes off one after another, and the object is to catch up to the boat in front of you, and literally "bump" it. Likewise, you are trying not to get bumped by the boat behind you. If you succeed in "bumping," you take that boat's place in the next day's race, and continue trying to move up one by one over the seasons/years of Bumps racing at Cambridge. Like the thousands of other oddities of Cambridge, boating, too, has its traditions. My friend H is lucky-- no, huge and skillful-- enough to row for Caius college's first men, which is the "head of the river." No one has caught them in (I think) 3 consecutive years, so they will get a clocktower on the roof of their boathouse this year for their prize. Something every man should strive for!
During "Bumps week," uni friends A and L came to visit, so actually I wasn't as disappointed about losing the "getting on" race as I should have been. Instead I went to Paris, a small consolation ;-) . And then we came back to London/Cambridge and partied like rock stars, as our undergrad experience taught us so well to do. The remaining brain cells at the end of the week pondered how we actually made it though undergrad, and with near-perfect GPAs to boot, while living together and partying like that! Maybe I'm just getting old...
And well, I am. My birthday was March 11th, and for that I had the company of another visiting friend, this one from high school, and we took a 3 day trip to Barcelona. Late nights, blue skies, and sangria. That's what I'll remember from this one.
It's been one week after my return and I'm here in Tokyo for a 2 week break to see S. Yup, despite some rough patches, we're still going strong :-)
So that's the basic outline of the past month... of course there has been some studying going on in between-- paper writing in particular, and some simulations of the six party talks on North Korea, in which I was blessed with the role of representing the big bad USA. I not only had to worry about my negotiating position, but also had to refrain from using "aggressive rhetoric" a la Bush, and therefore couldn't even partake in the enjoyment of calling my colleague the "axis of evil." I guess that's the price of diplomacy...
Now that I'm on break, I should be updating more often, in theory :-)
The past month was filled to the brim with good memories. I'm now in Tokyo, happily separated from my laptop which I left at school, so I will forego uploading photos at the moment, but I'll give some links to albums of a couple of European stints: Americans in Paris! Nazareth meets Barcelona! (Note: I just uploaded some from my camera, so here is a little preview of Barcelona)
The rowing season ended with a disappointing finish for us but a really good party! My guys' eight did not quality for the Lent Bumps race, which is the week-long Cambridge boating extravaganza. The River Cam is a narrow, windy pain in the arse (particularly for coxes), so there is not much room for traditional-type races. Instead, we have Bumps. In each section there are about 12 boats, each takes off one after another, and the object is to catch up to the boat in front of you, and literally "bump" it. Likewise, you are trying not to get bumped by the boat behind you. If you succeed in "bumping," you take that boat's place in the next day's race, and continue trying to move up one by one over the seasons/years of Bumps racing at Cambridge. Like the thousands of other oddities of Cambridge, boating, too, has its traditions. My friend H is lucky-- no, huge and skillful-- enough to row for Caius college's first men, which is the "head of the river." No one has caught them in (I think) 3 consecutive years, so they will get a clocktower on the roof of their boathouse this year for their prize. Something every man should strive for!
During "Bumps week," uni friends A and L came to visit, so actually I wasn't as disappointed about losing the "getting on" race as I should have been. Instead I went to Paris, a small consolation ;-) . And then we came back to London/Cambridge and partied like rock stars, as our undergrad experience taught us so well to do. The remaining brain cells at the end of the week pondered how we actually made it though undergrad, and with near-perfect GPAs to boot, while living together and partying like that! Maybe I'm just getting old...
And well, I am. My birthday was March 11th, and for that I had the company of another visiting friend, this one from high school, and we took a 3 day trip to Barcelona. Late nights, blue skies, and sangria. That's what I'll remember from this one.
It's been one week after my return and I'm here in Tokyo for a 2 week break to see S. Yup, despite some rough patches, we're still going strong :-)
So that's the basic outline of the past month... of course there has been some studying going on in between-- paper writing in particular, and some simulations of the six party talks on North Korea, in which I was blessed with the role of representing the big bad USA. I not only had to worry about my negotiating position, but also had to refrain from using "aggressive rhetoric" a la Bush, and therefore couldn't even partake in the enjoyment of calling my colleague the "axis of evil." I guess that's the price of diplomacy...
Now that I'm on break, I should be updating more often, in theory :-)
posted by JoLo in Tokyo @ 8:46 AM
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