October 18, 2011 - A Shorter Post

I'm going to change up the post a little and keep it substantially shorter than normal. I only had one class today so I didn't actually accomplish very much. It's getting so much colder (and therefore a lot harder to wake up for class). After class, I skyped with Nadia! That was probably the highlight of my day :) I secretly took a picture of her while she wasn't looking...

I spent the rest of my day working and reading papers, nothing too exciting. I did attend a talk given by Dr. David Bainbridge, a professor at Cambridge, about "Teenager - Why have them?" This was the description for the talk:

We hear so much about teenagers in the media, mostly bad, but is this the whole story? Why are humans the only species to have teenagers? Why did we evolve them? What are they for? And why don't they always see eye-to-eye with adults?

The talk was interesting, but not quite what I was expecting nor as exciting as I had hoped for it to be. His response to this question was simply that the brain is restructuring itself during this period. In addition, the professor was so critical of Americans that it was slightly frustrating. He seemed to harp on the fact that they wouldn't let his book be published in America, and he went on to analyze precisely why he thought it was so. It would have still be okay if he wasn't so spiteful and partial in his analysis.

After the talk, I had a reception with my Director of Studies, Dr. Jiggins, which was pleasant, but I'm starting to get exhausted by meeting new people. I actually met one girl who lived in Pasadena and Seattle, but moved to Hong Kong before coming to Cambridge. To say the least, she was probably worse than all of the British people combined, in terms of their perspective of America. It was almost as if she was trying too hard to fit in with the British so she would criticize America for things that aren't even true, but justify it by saying she's American. It was really quite frustrating, which is why I much prefer spending time with the international students. I think normally I could have handled it, but after the talk, it was just too much

Regardless, I'VE BEEN HERE FOR THREE WEEKS. I find that pretty unbelievable since it sounds like a LONG time, but it feels like its been here for almost forever! I will probably be home before I even know it as much as I love it here :)