Journeys for Knowledge

I like to build things. Most of my family is well aware of this given how much I used to play with Legos when I was younger, and how I traveled to Australia to race a solar powered car I helped build in college. In both cases it was not the final product that appealed to me, but the process of creating and continuously improving something of my own design. This desire to build is so simple yet fundamental to my being, it’s even the reason I study physics. Unfortunately, I am not building much at the moment in the lab, so to make up for it I’ve brought my K’nex set from home. I’ve been tinkering with K’nex since high school, building models and costumes props for the last six years now. It lends itself more readily to large scale designs, which is why I’ve preferred it to Legos. Which brings me to today, when I finished my latest creation, a crown and sword for a costume based on the Witchking of Angmar (shown below).

Witchking of Angmar

Some of you may remember him as a villain from Return of the King, who was poked by Eowyn and Merry only to implode like a dramatic hot air balloon. I had wanted to try to make this costume because I already had a grim reaper cloak, so I just needed the sword and crown. As it turns out,  the sword was quite easy since I’ve made many swords before. The crown was a different story. This was the first time I’ve tried to replicate something as intricate as a crown, and while it certainly does sit well on my head, it could always be better. Luckily, I have two months before the end of term costume party, so by that time I will have refined this into some awesome. For now, I will leave you with this preview.

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Normally, January is a slow month for me. Winter break ends and school slowly gets back up to speed, but nothing much really happens until the final week. Not so this year. Immediately after returning home I was busy meeting one friend or another, watching plays and movies with my family, and even traveling to Los Angeles for a few days. I had been home almost 3 weeks and barely had time to just sit and do nothing, but by the end of it I was recharged and ready to head back for 7 more months.

Thankfully I did spend one week just at home, and ultimately I would say my time was well spent with everyone. Even if I didn’t spend a lot of time in any one place, I made the most of each little meeting. We often take this sort of thing for granted, especially when we’re used to being around certain people for so long and seeing them everyday. Yet, life has a habit of whisking them away from us when we least expect it, and unless one is wholly invested in the moment they’re sharing with another, it will already be behind you.

Now it’s the end of the month, which is typical a very exciting time for me. Not only is my birthday close approaching, but are the birthdays of my cousin, my uncle, and my dad. Of course there’s also the Super Bowl in the middle there, which should be quite interesting to experience here in England. It may be the closest thing to being back in America I will experience until July. I apologize for posting so infrequently. I know I said I would not post every day, but I can do better than once a month, so I will.

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Christmas is a time to gather with close friends and family and celebrate the past year. While I was unable to fly back to California in time for Christmas, I did have a wonderful time up in Newcastle.  It was a nice way to prepare to return to my family back in the Bay Area. After three months of adjusting, exploring, and connecting with England, I have finally come home for a few weeks of respite. However, I’ve also left a home behind, filled with a new family and new friends, who are eagerly awaiting my return.

Many people seem to think that home is where you are born, or where you are living, or in the abstract extreme where you feel your heart belongs. A good discussion on this topic that I watched a month ago can be found here. All of these can be true, for home is not a singular place, it can exist anywhere and everywhere. For me, home is where I feel myself, where do not need to adjust or act for the sake of fitting in. I started my time in England feeling that pressure to reinvent myself, but in the end I went in the other direction and brought more of real self out, without fear of judgment or perception. In the end, I was rewarded with a loving family and trusting friends. If I mean to travel the world for my studies, then why can’t my home travel with me as well? My parents and roots will always reside in California, but my branches will extend everywhere else.

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Due to my prices of flights around Christmas, I booked my flight home for two days after Christmas. In the meantime I went up to Newcastle with Miranda to visit my uncle. We decided since we were already further north, we should take advantage of this opportunity to explore some cities in Scotland. Thus we made short day trips into Edinburgh, Durham, and Newcastle. This will be quite a long post, so apologies in advance.

This first thing that struck me about Edinburgh was how hilly it was. You must understand Cambridge and London for the most part are quite flat. As someone who grew up with hills by my house and went to college at a campus that was on a slope, it was quite a refreshing sight. We noticed another Christmas market that seemed eerily similar to the Southbank Market in London, with many of the same German foods and Christmas gifts for sale.

Next to it was the Scottish National Gallery, which an interesting assortment of 18th and 19th century art. All this recent exposure to art has taught me that it is not enough to simply form an opinion based on a piece, a small bit of knowledge regarding the artist or the technique can go a long way into discovering the deeper meaning behind a painting. This is why I find myself appreciating a sculpture by Rodin more than an average painting, because I took that time to learn more about him while viewing the extensive collection of his work at Stanford.

However, what I am drawn to far more is history and architecture, which is why our next stop about a quick lunch was Edinburgh Castle. The view was simply amazing from up there, and though entering the castle itself was too expensive, it was enough just to pass through its gates. We made a second pass at browsing art in the National Museum of Scotland, this time Japanese wood block paintings regarding kabuki theater. I actually recognized several scenes being portrayed from “Shui Hu Zhuan”, a Chinese classical novel I read back in college. After a quick walk through Edinburgh University, and a little meander through the streets, we made our way back to Newcastle for some hard earned rest.

The next day was a brief visit to Durham, which is famous for its cathedral. In fact the view of the cathedral from the train is considered one of the best in the world, and truly it did not disappoint. The weather was a little less forgiving this day, but once we were inside it no longer mattered. The building dates back to the 11th century, and while it certainly isn’t the largest church in the world (that honor goes to St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City), it is still awe inspiring.

We decided to sit in for a short service that was starting just as we were about to leave, which consisted of singing several hymns and listening to a children choir sing. Neither Miranda or I knew the words or tune to any hymns, so we simply listened silently. Regardless, it was an immensely calming experience to sit in such a grand house of God and take part in another faith’s prayers. It was a comforting reminder that faith and good will can transcends all boundaries between people, even the ones it puts up itself.

The final outing to the Newcastle coast was a nice way to end our travels in Scotland. There was no major point of interest to see or pilgrimage to make, simply a windy coast to the North Sea and the river Tyne feeding into it. We spent the morning taking in the whole experience, along with a fair bit of sand kicked up by the wind. Just as we sought shelter in a small cafe, the rain hit and continued until we finished our tea. After a late lunch in the city we returned early to rest and spend some time with the family. Art, culture, and history are all fascinating subjects to explore, but juxtaposing it with nature results in a simply beautiful journey.

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As an official start to my winter holiday, my friend Miranda and I decided to go to London for the day and explore the Christmas markets. I had a play to attend in the evening so I decided I might as well explore London beforehand. First stop was the Borough market again, where we had an early lunch and enjoyed the many smells and sounds. We walked along the Thames appreciating the cool weather, clear skies, and tranquil river. In London you are never very far from the action, but along the river everything just calms down.

Eventually, we happened upon the Southbank Christmas market, which consisted of various gift shops and food stalls, and a rather interesting skate park. After walking through all this food finally our appetites were stirred again, but after making the long trek to Miranda’s favorite Japanese restaurant in London, we realized it wouldn’t be open for another hour, by which point I would be late to my play. We weaved through the crowded Oxford street and underground and found another decent Japanese place near Tate Modern. Realizing I was running out of time, I rushed off to my play while Miranda returned home.

This play I was about to attend, Richard II, was a plan 6 months in the making. Richard was being played by David Tennant, one of my favorite actors, with the support of the Royal Shakespeare Company. This play was the sole reason my break started today, it was the reason my flight home is so late, and it was absolutely worth it. I purposely avoided reading the play beforehand so my reactions would be fresh and unbiased. The play started off light and exciting as many Shakespeare plays do, but quickly in the second act things became difficult for Richard.

As this was my first historical play, I had no idea what to expect from the ending. With the comedies you would expect most issues are resolved, and everyone is happy, whereas with the tragedies you know the exact opposite would be true. I found myself playing the optimist and hoping for Richard to bounce back from the cruel fate he had been dealt, but no such salvation came. Like Richard himself, I had to come to terms with his downfall and accept that however brief and grand, Richard’s time was over. Rarely does one live their entire life in one particular role. Fortunes rise and all as the tides flow in and out, but the sea that sustains the tides is ever constant.

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No grandiose sweeping themes for this post, simply a brief fun moment from last week I wanted to share. As this year marks my first autumn away from home, I became painfully aware of the absence of a hallmark of the season, pumpkin pie. I was distraught to learn that not only was pumpkin pie not easily obtained at the grocery store, but even the canned pumpkin my mother would use to make her own pie was impossible to find! Unwilling to be thwarted in my task, I bought a small pumpkin and brought it home, determined to find a recipe that would allow me to make it from scratch.

Sure enough I found a recipe that called for raw pumpkin, but it required a long process to turn the solid pumpkin into a useable paste. With the help of a friend I gathered all the supplies, while she collected the spices and cooking implements. Together we spent 2 hours just softening, mashing, and draining the pumpkin before we could even start baking. By midnight we had our first pie, which turned out amazingly well. The next two pies followed shortly after, which even more people enjoyed both that night and the next night when I brought one to the lab. We even had leftover batter to make pumpkin sponge cake, but at the end of the day, we both agreed this was too lengthy of a process to repeat any time soon. I suppose if I were to summarize this story succinctly, I had my pie and ate it too.

Growing up in California, my experiences with winter and cold have been mild at best. Now that winter has descended upon Cambridge I find myself responding to the climate in rather unusual ways. Every morning now starts with a game of “How will I Handle the Cold Today”. For example, I still try to wear T shirts every day, knowing full well that it’s far too cold outside for it, and to solve the problem of my ears getting cold, I now walk to lab with my large computer headphones on, which work fairly well as earmuffs.

Of course when I choose to, I have proper winter clothes such as a long coat and wool lined pants to keep me very warm. The special thing about these clothes is that they were all inherited from my grandfather, who unfortunately passed away this past June. Even in the last days of his illness, he remained proud that he had a grandson that was going to school at Cambridge. Even if he couldn’t remember that it was me, his connection to England from his past was so strong those memories stayed with him till the end. I am reminded of this everytime I wear his clothes, because only in his clothes do I look like I truly belong in England.

Of course I have inherited far more than just clothes my grandfather over the years, particularly his passion for science. Ironically despite studying zoology himself, he wanted his children and grandchildren to become doctors, and applied a strong amount of pressure on me to enter medicine. Luckily I was passionate enough about physics to convince him to see things my way, since either way I would become a doctor of some kind. As much as I would want him to still be alive, he passed away knowing all of his grandchildren were free to pursue their intellectual passions, whether that was medicine, computer science, statistics, or physics. My time at Cambridge is not just about bettering myself, it’s about carrying on his will to be the best doctor of physics I can be, so I can present the same opportunities to my children.

As I promised in my inaugural post on this blog, I won’t be updating on a regular schedule because sometimes there just isn’t enough to write about. After taking time to reflect on the last week and a half, I finally have something worth saying. It is quite common to see people complain about having too much work, but there is also a danger in having too little work as well. Without a goal for the mind to focus on, it can become lost and listless, and fall into a fit of apathy. This is precisely what happened to mine as I struggled to find research tasks to do. My supervisor did not intend to hold me back, but until I start working with actual devices in January there is no clear direction in where I should be focusing my efforts.

Thankfully on Friday we agreed I should go ahead with attempting some simulations of my own design, and with the right parameters from a fellow graduate student, it will be possible to simulate the devices I will be testing and extract useful results. The prospect of a real challenge again was quite uplifting, and reminded just how dangerous boredom can be for a mind as active as mine.

That is not to say that I have been doing absolutely nothing with my time. There is still plenty of time to join other students in the evening for various activities, from playing foosball to eating fudge to watching fireworks and bonfires in celebration of a failed terrorist (Guy Fawkes). I have also officially joined my club in Cambridge (though they call them societies here), the Chinese Classics Society. Once every couple weeks we meet and read an except from Laozi’s Dao de ching, one of the definitive ancient texts on Daoism, before discussing its meaning. While I am truly interested in the material, the discussion also gives me a chance to exercise part of my brain that is often ignored in the lab, for which I am very grateful. I may always choose science for my chief profession, but the limits of science’s knowledge are the foundation of the humanities’s creativity.

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My apologies for the delay between posts, I have been quite occupied each evening and have continued to put off writing this post until I had a good amount of time. Starting from last Wednesday life has been rather hectic, with research during the day and events in the evening. I shall start with the matriculation formal, which was a special formal just for the entering graduate students.

The formal started as the last one did, with a gong summoning us to the dining hall. This time however we had assigned seating, with my seat being in a corner next to another physics student and a physics fellow. The meal was about the same, however additional courses of cheese with biscuits and chocolate were added after dessert. After all of this it came time to toast the Queen and Sir Winston, but I had run out of orange juice. The fellow suggested I use elderflower cordial, which I did not realize was concentrated juice. I did not realize how much was needed before dilution with water, and so I toasted with an exceedingly sweet sparkling elderflower concoction. After the formal I ended up chatting with friends for the rest of evening, only to realize it was midnight I needed to sleep before lab the next day.

Normally during the day I eat lunch in the lab, so I can work while I eat. Thursday and Friday last week I was lucky enough to eat lunch back at the college with some friends, which provided a good respite from the stress of lab. Soon after lunch on Friday, my dad arrived from London for a brief visit. We watched a movie in town and had a very filling meal while catching up. Saturday was spent exploring various shops in Cambridge, before a long drive down to London to have dinner with my cousin, and another long drive up. It was really good to see my dad again, the only real taste of home I will get until the winter. Physical comforts do not mean much anymore; it is a company of good friends and family that truly makes a difference.

Now that my back is finally healed, it seemed like a good day to have an outing in town. Of course the weather is a fickle mistress and has other plans, so I had to wait until 10:30 for a sunny gap within a rain storm to explore. Today’s destination was the Cambridge University Botanical Gardens, which were highly recommended online, even above the Royal Botanical Garden in London. It also doesn’t hurt that as a student of Cambridge I get free admission.

The walk to the garden took me by a familiar road, Queen’s Road which follows the backs of King’s and Queens College. Once in the garden the first tree that caught my eye was an apple tree descended from the tree Isaac Newton sat under as he formulated his theory of gravity. Sadly there were no apples today, but it also was not a good day to be sitting under trees right after heavy rain. The best thing about this garden, and the reason I will return again, is that you are permitted to a certain extent to walk on the grass and really interact with the plants, as opposed to simply looking at them. Instead of sticking to the paths I simply wandered around and explored about half of the garden, stumbling across one amazing plant after another.

The one tree that stood out the most, even above the apple tree, was the Japanese Maple (more specifically the Osakazuki variant). While many trees were turning red because of autumn, this tree was so radiant and striking compared to its neighbors it was hard to ignore. I later realized this tree was a highlight of the garden this time of year, and rightly so. After walking through a few more rows of flowers I decided to leave and get lunch before the rain returned.

Lunch was at a local noodle shop, which made Asian noodle dishes of all sorts. This time I ordered Thai food because I missed the Thai food that was always so easy to find to Berkeley. In fact I miss the ethnic food in general in Berkeley. I know Cambridge has some decent ethnic food, and London more so, but neither place is as easily accessible or reasonably priced as Berkeley was. I realize now I was spoiled for the rest of my life, and perhaps that’s why I feel so strongly that I need to return to the Bay Area after these years abroad.

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