Cambridge once again

After spending 2 weeks at home and then 2 weeks at MIT, I'm back at Cambridge. One of the other CME people told me that when she thinks about her dorm room at MIT, she sees a bright happy picture of her and her friends who live next door. And then when she pictures her Cambridge room, she sees this dark little hole in the wall. I had to agree. I mean, I've taken steps to make my Cambridge room more homey but it's not the same. And when I came back from grocery shopping earlier tonight, I discovered that my living room light is out. So right now I'm actually sitting in a dark room, typing this up. I think my Ethernet cable will extend into my bedroom though so I might be over later on. I can't stand sitting in the dark. It's too depressing.

Anyhow, the whole journey was pretty uneventful. It took like half an hour to get through security because there was a huge bunch of British kids, probably just finished touring Bosnywash on spring break. They took their time going through security and spend a lot of time just standing there, not going through the metal detector. There was a group of kids on the plane I was on. Not sure if it was the same bunch. But luckily, I wasn't in the same compartment as them. The plane wasn't very full. I had a window seat and there was no one in the middle seat. Food took forever to get to me. Whenever I sit in the back, they would decide to serve from the front and vice versa.

The only movie I watched was The Golden Compass. I think those shots of Jordan College were taken in Oxbridge. Looks exactly like Cambridge (haven't been to Oxford yet). And now that I've been to Cambridge, the terms "fellows" and "scholars" make a lot more sense. It was a pretty good movie as well as pretty good representation of what happened in the book. I haven't read the book in a long time though. I hope they'll make the sequels. The little girl who played Lyria was really good.

I didn't managed to watch any other movies but watched some sitcoms and cartoons. I fell asleep to Jay Chou's November's Chopin. It was part of Virgin's music collection. I had my big headphones on instead of Skype ear buds and they were great at keeping the airplane noise out. I couldn't believe how noisy it was in the cabin. But it was tricky to sleep with the headphones on. I managed to sleep more on the bus. When I got to customs, there was a huge line. There was another flight into Heathrow from Boston that arrived a little before we did. So it took forever to get through the long line. By the time I finally got to baggage claim (they call it reclaim here), everyone else on my flight was gone. Luckily, both of my bags were still there, sitting to the side of the conveyor. I got to the bus station and saw the bus to Cambridge pulling out from its stop. So I had to wait 40 minutes for the next one.

When I got to Cambridge, I met a lady on vacation from Malaysia. She asked me where the uni was. Cambridge seriously does not have a campus so I didn't really know what to do other than have her follow me to the city center and pointing out Kings College and Trinity Street to her. She also wanted to see the Economic School. I gave some vague directions. I hope she found it. It's really not very exciting. She thought about taking one of those bus tours but I told her that those buses just go around the town and you don't really get to see the insides of the colleges. I really don't know what you would see if you take one of those tours. I can't imagine it being exciting.

I also pointed out Market Square to her as we passed it. She asked if the stuff there is cheap and I said no, it's really for tourists. And she answered that she wanted to see where the locals go. Somehow I found that comment really... strange for a place like Cambridge. I had to keep myself from laughing out loud. I guess the Market Square is not really for tourists. A lot of "locals" go there too. But they sell really expensive stuff there and I realized that the students and residents here are all pretty well off and can afford to spend that kind of money. They want a place like the Market Square where it looks like a haymarket type place but actually sells not-so-cheap things.

I've always wondered at the "go/do/eat where the locals go/do/eat" comments. Is it an attempt to understand the local culture? I always wonder why people always try to understand the local culture when they're only staying at the place for a few days. How can they pretend to understand the local culture just by eating where they supposedly eat? Or try to fit in when they're only staying for a few days and are doing nothing to contribute to the community? I think you really need to live in a place and call it a home for a period of time before you can even pretend to understand it. Don't know how I really feel about all this. I just know that I actually like hanging out in the touristy areas whenever I'm in a new city. It's usually the busiest part of town and I like being around people. Not talking to them or interacting with them or anything like that. Just walking in areas with lots of people.