Caltech

#1

It was a farewell dinner today. The beginning of the end. Crazy to think in less than a week I’ll be back in Denver and this entire country hopping adventure will be completely over. Justin and I went to the Balmoral Hotel. As a birthday gift I’d received a gift certificate for their restaurant, and there really wouldn’t have been any better way to use it than taking my best lad out for dinner. The Balmoral’s restaurant is legitimately called... Read more →

Drizzles in Durham

There, and back again. A Caltech student’s tale. I went back to the land of my enemy, my mortal nemesis. Or at least, the nemesis of our school. Durham, the only team currently ranked above us on the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) point list. Only, this time, I went with open arms. I believe I mentioned somewhere deep buried in this land of blogs that my dad had studied abroad in Durham, 40 years ago precisely. And on... Read more →

It’s Studying Time

Well, the week before finals week is finally here. And I spent that studying, but also, doing the ever-important finishing of reports, and honestly, taking a couple of much-needed naps to catch up on everything else. Studying is a bit different here in Edinburgh. The biggest difference is that every single lecture is usually recorded. This means it’s very easy to have a lazy day of staying in bed and re-watching the lectures you missed or that you zoned out... Read more →

From Cold into Colder

It is COLD here. I know I’ve said that before but hOh my goodness I almost froze to death on Saturday. Of course, this wasn’t helped by how I almost froze to death Friday night as well. But that was by personal choice. So, Friday, night before a fencing tournament (as it always is) I decided to do something rather bone-headed and so I found myself at the ice-skating rink for disco night. Ice-skating has long been a tradition of... Read more →

Thankful for Singapore Society

I killed today. Yes, I killed Thanksgiving dinner, but more than that, this was the first time that I’d ever prepared live seafood. But wait. You’re probably asking, “Andrew, why would you be preparing seafood for thanksgiving?” Easy to say, I don’t have the equipment or free will necessary to prepare a turkey instead. Of course, little did I know the adventure I was getting myself into by choosing to prepare Singaporean chilli crab instead. Crab was remarkably cheap here;... Read more →

Cold, Wet, And Happy

Well uh, good evening from a cold and rainy Scotland. I spent the whole of today in beautiful St. Andrew’s Scotland. Funny, I know. I’m Andrew. In St. Andrew’s. And even funnier, it was my mother who told me I had to go to check the place out. So, I suppose in some sense it was destiny that I woke up bright and early on a Saturday to take the two-hour bus out to St. Andrew’s. It was actually a... Read more →

Christmas In… November?

*Cue bells, jolly music, and large men in red tracksuits* It’s Christmas in Edinburgh! Take that with a grain of salt; I personally don’t believe that the holiday season starts until after Thanksgiving, regardless of what holiday (if you celebrate a holiday) in December. But the Edinburgh Christmas market did start last week, and so I had to go and visit. I joined along on a Singapore society trip but split off from them a bit early because my and... Read more →

A Fusillade of Question Marks (Belfast Part 2)

One of my favorite Northern Irish poets, Ciaran Carson, passed away last month, and this second part of the trip, this post title, and my Belfast exploration was completely inspired by him. Prior to taking Irish literature last year, I’d never really considered going to Ireland at all, much less that in the span of a month and a half I would be in both Belfast and in Dublin. And now, a full year later, I’ve been to both and... Read more →

I Lava Northern Ireland (Belfast Part 1)

Well good morning there! Today I’m writing about what I did last weekend (as per usual). And what I did… was go to Ireland! Again! Except this was a little different than the last trip as we went to Northern island, specifically Belfast and the surrounding area. Our main reason for doing this was to go and visit the Giant’s Causeway (or, at least my main reason), an exceedingly unique geological feature North of Belfast, where cooling lava bends cracked,... Read more →

A Scone, on a Stone, in Scone

G’day mates! Today I am writing from Edinburgh, but I just go back from Perth! Yep, that’s right: flights to Australia were reaaaally cheap this weekend so we just couldn’t resist a trip down under! It was great! We saw a koala, had a Tim Tam Slam, and… yeah… just kidding. We went to Perth, Scotland, haha. Which, I have to say, was actually a lot more fun than we expected. Perth is about an hour and a half northeast... Read more →