I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

   Contrary to what I had thought possible, it stopped raining enough the last few days to put a little frost on the ground / trees. I guess its good preparation for coming home on Friday and enduring my acquaintance with the Minnesota winter!

   I hope everyone has an absolutely wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!
 

Warwick 2012

        Cambridge University Dance Team (CUDT) had its first competition of the year, hosted by Warwick University at the Tower Ballroom in Birmingham. I have attached a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.
        We left Cambridge bright and early about 6:30 a.m. Approximately 15 teams were at the competition (including Oxford). For the team match, the Cambridge A team edged out the Oxford A team, winning Cambridge the competition. We left Birmingham around 11 p.m. arriving back in Cambridge around 12:30 a.m.

There were enough Cambridge dancers (CUDT, Squad (JV), and the Beginners team that we took two buses).

We stopped for coffee along the way.

The Rhythm Method (TRM) is the UDT's gossip mag/newsletter that keeps us amused on the long coach trips to competitions. I wrote a short article about being an American on this dance team.

In summary, there were a LOT of people at this thing.

Jodie and I in our ballroom outfits.

London: the British Museum Lunch

   After the War Rooms, we took a walk over to the British Museum where we had a luncheon (I sat next to Churchill's youngest daughter, Lady Soames)! Along the way, we saw some dudes in kilts!

London: the Churchill War Rooms

    So today the Churchill scholars took a two part trip to London. The first part was to the Churchill War Rooms, which is a WWII museum. We were lucky enough to be given a private tour by the curator, and some of the pictures from this adventure are below.

St. John's

   While waiting for the gears on my bike to be fixed, I took a few pictures down by St. Johns. I must say, this is about as classic Cambridge as it gets.

There aren't no ties in basketball!

    So its a gloomy Monday morning here in Cambridge (see pictures below). Yesterday the Churchill team had its first basketball game against St. John's and we ending up in a tie, 31-31. I am not quite sure how one actually ends a basketball game in a tie, but honestly the result was a fair bit better than I expected. As for dance, we have been working hard getting and learning our routines. For ballroom we have waltz and quickstep, and for latin we have cha cha and a bit of jive. So much to learn!

Societies!

    So I have joined a couple of societies now that I have been here. I made the Cambridge University Dance Team after a day of tryouts, and I have already had a number of practices... they take it serious here! Quite unlike this next group...
   I have joined Churchill's intramural basketball team. Games will be on Saturdays, likely starting in a few weeks. Its an interesting group of guys, most of whom have never played on a team before, and a few which had never touched a basketball before. Its an exciting time. I fear that we would make MIT and Caltech guys look pretty good...