Lake District

I went walking in the Lake District (Northwest England) last weekend with the Oxford University Walking Club. We climbed a couple of little hills called Scafell and Old Man Coniston. Only when I got home and checked wikipedia did I realize that they're basically the tallest hills in all of England.

The weather on Saturday was gorgeous, but Sunday was a little more characteristically English. In the future I think I may have to be a little more serious about taking the advice to put on full waterproof gear.

Housewarming BBQ

I've been pretty delinquent about posting updates. Here are some photos from the housewarming BBQ Clara and I threw back when Oxford was still sunny.

The door to the rooftop patio

Deals!!!

Over the last week or so I've scored a few awesome deals. My new place is next door to the grocery store, so I can poke my head in at the end of the day and buy the spoiling food for dirt cheap. Usually it just means a loaf of bread for 10 or 15 pence, but one night I hit the jackpot.

80 pence for all of this

Though I've snagged some impressive deals in my time, nothing comes close to the most recent addition to my room. The other day Clara shot me an email ordering me to check out her department's dumpster. I reluctantly investigated, expecting to find a pile of rocks or a toilet brush. Instead I was met by this beauty:

She had to spend a few days in a garage at Rhodes House then in the hallway of a friend's place before I finally managed to get her down the Cowley Road. A surprising number of people stopped to stare as three of my friends and I passed by with her on our shoulders. The three of us from nerd schools (MIT and Caltech) didn't see what was so special about the sight, but apparently Oxonians aren't used to resourcefulness.

Around Oxford

Last weekend was "Open Doors Oxford." Most colleges and historic buildings are open to the public. I was excited that All Souls College was open, so I took a little tour of the grounds. I've become conditioned to Oxford's beauty so I actually found the college to be anticlimactic.

The Natural History Museum's hands-on insect exhibit proved more exciting.

Yes, I realize spiders are arachnids.

Just in case the tarantula doesn't make you jealous, my banana pancakes should do the trick.

Internet!

After nearly a month without it, I finally have internet in my apartment. Goodbye productivity.

Romania and Switzerland

My vacation was quite nice (photos here), but I returned to an apartment that still lacks internet. I blame Clara. Even now that I've taken charge of the problem it's still taking a remarkably long time to sort out. Without internet at home I've been slow updating this blog, instead using the time to read a few non-technical leisure books. It had been quite some time since I'd sat down with anything that wasn't math or science.

Romania was quite interesting and beautiful. I was particularly intrigued to see the bizarre mixture of classical beauty, modern developments, and derelict neighborhoods. Many Bucharest buildings once had grand facades, on par with anything you would have found in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. Today most of those facades are dilapidated. Some of the buildings have been fixed up, and there is ongoing work to improve other sections of the city. Unfortunately there is still a long way to go. Stray dogs roam city streets, and there are stretches of road lined with run-down communist block apartment buildings. My friend from Caltech, Alex, lives near the (in)famous People's Palace. Her parents are artists, and have been beautifully renovating their home. Let's hope some more people follow their lead.

Alex's Home

After a day and a half in Bucharest, we went to the town of Sinaia to the Royal Castle called Peleş. Peleş was gorgeous and is arguably the prettiest castle I've ever seen.

Peleş (the ş makes an "sh" sound)

That night I caught a ride with Dan, one of Alex's friends (and a current Caltech grad student), to the town of Sibiu in the heart of Transylvania. Romania notoriously has difficulties developing their roads, so I was surprised and impressed when we hit stretches of modern highway lined with the occasional glowing gas station. It was virtually indistinguishable from roads through the middle of Missouri. Other roads matched the reputation a little better, especially the ones with horse-drawn wooden carriages (complete with wooden spokeless wheels). I did some sightseeing in Sibiu then train hopped to the town of Braşov. Not far from Braşov is a town called Bran, which boasts an old castle on a mountain. This castle was commandeered by Hollywood, making it "Dracula's Castle" despite virtually no link to the historical dracula (Vlad Ţepeş). While nowhere near as impressive as Peleş, I felt compelled to pay the castle a visit.

After a little more Romanian sightseeing I caught a flight to Geneva, where I rendezvoused with an Oxford friend, Jessica, and her undergrad friend, Doug. Doug's now a physics grad student working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. My couple of days in Switzerland were great fun, but quite a bit pricier than my Eastern European adventure. Doug hooked us up with a tour of the accelerator, an outing to Gruyère, and a hike in the Jura Mountains.

A chamois in the Juras

I'm back, briefly

After dropping off the face of the internet for a month, I decided to finally update things. My parents, grandparents and I went on a great Mediterranean vacation a few weeks ago. I decided to cram one more little vacation in this summer since I still want to see a few more things in Europe. I head to Romania tomorrow, followed by two days in Geneva (to see the LHC!). Additionally, I just moved into a new place in Oxford that I'm sharing with three buddies. It's pretty nice, though the moving process is always a bit of a hassle. I spent the morning on the phone with utilities, praising the great 0845 and 0870 phone numbers. These prefixes are about as costly as a 900 number, but not quite as exhilarating (so I'm told).

The New Place