This year’s search for a Christmas market resulted in a spontaneous train journey to Cardiff, Wales. The market, while not overly exciting, did have some delicious German sausages and mulled wine. The real treat of the day was Cardiff Castle, built as a Victorian mansion over a Norman castle over a Roman fort. We had perfect castling weather — light rain and strong gusting winds — that made leaning out of tower windows all the more exciting.
|
|
|
This weekend, I went to visit a friend in Paris. I’d never been to the city before, and took the time to see quite a few obligatory tourist sites: the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, etc. Between visiting landmarks and exploring the Parisian streets, the weekend was one of sidewalk cafés and chance meetings of new friends.
Last week was the International Computer Vision Summer School in Sicily, Italy. Summer schools are relatively common in the UK/Europe postgrad world, where academic-year classroom work often isn’t part of the PhD course. Summer schools like the ICVSS serve as a combination review, survey, and conference, connecting the dots between basic principles and current research through lectures and workshops, as well as giving students the chance to compare notes on their own projects through posters and discussion.
Last weekend, a couple of Wolfson friends and I decided to head to the southwest of England to enjoy the stunning spring weather. We set out from Oxford on Friday morning, and took our first stop at Barnstaple, Devon to enjoy a bit of a walk around. We continued on to Clovelly, one of the cutest towns in the world. It’s an historic fishing village built into a seaside cliff and still automobile-free, with steep cobblestone streets. From there, we drove on to Bude, where we explored the beaches and pubs and stayed the night.
On Saturday, we ventured out to Tintagel Castle, a ruin claimed to be the birthplace of King Arthur. (If King Arthur did exist, he was born centuries before the castle was built, but there is an ages-old Cornish law mandating that all historic landmarks have Arthurian legend tie-ins.) After a cream tea by the castle, we visited Hartland Quay and its associated headlands before heading back to Bude for the night.
A bit of rain managed to find us Sunday morning, so we toured Castle Drogo, a stately home built of granite around the First World War. We then stopped by Bath to walk around, visit the abbey, and find dinner on the way back to Oxford.
Most of these pictures are courtesy Phill Brown, whose other talents include cross-country driving, instinctive knowledge of Cornish diversions, stand-up comedy, and ultrasound tendon analysis. Click for the rest!
Finally made it back to the USA briefly for the holidays. Spent New Years in Key West with a group of divers from Penn State and Maryland and then visited some friends in Pennsylvania and spent a bit of time with family. As with last year, took an aerobatic flight lesson with Fred Cabanas, this time adding Immelmanns, Cuban Eights, and four varieties of spin to the previous mix of loops and rolls.
To celebrate the end of full term (the study period for undergraduates), a couple of friends and I took a long weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark to see the sights, get a taste of real snow, and visit the Christmas markets. We visited Tivoli in all of its holiday splendor, took a tour of the Danish royal crown jewels, saw The Little Mermaid and a number of other icons, visited The Marble Church, ogled the Verdensur astronomical clock, and waged battle against the cold weather with warm tea and Gløgg.
I arrived safely in Oxford on Saturday October 2, a rare sunny day. The flight and bus ride were uneventful (though my poor airplane seat-mate had trouble with her in-seat entertainment system). After checking in to Wolfson College and unpacking, I spent most of the weekend exploring downtown Oxford and taking care of the paperwork and phone/internet setup that accompany the move. Adventures for the coming week include more exploration and hopefully finding a bicycle and bank!
One of the (many) joys of flying is the ability to escape to magical places that would be hard to reach any other way. For the Fourth of July, Andrea and I traveled to Ocracoke, North Carolina. This beautiful island is near the tip of the outer banks and has a lovely little airport. And our Ocracoke adventures were second to none. From gigantic ice cream cones to parasailing and jet skiing, with a little bit of “beach cruiser” biking in between, this really was an island paradise.
A group loosely affiliated through the Penn State Nittany Divers wind up in Key West every New Year enjoying some diving and festivities. New Year 2010 was no different, and in addition to fantastic diving and amazing company, this year had some new flying in store. Sadly only as a passenger in the open-air biplane (WACO UPF-7), but I did get to take an acrobatic lesson in the S2C Pitts with “General” Freddie Cabanas of the Conch Republic Air Force.
Yes, you caught me. This post is back-dated so as to get this blog started with some pretty pictures and appropriate stories. In June of 2008, I traveled to Oxford for the first time in my life, with a group of new classmates. We stayed in lovely accommodations in Magdalen College for a week-long mentor-selecting extravaganza. I was lucky to find Prof. Alison Noble my very first day, and though I interviewed with many others (11 researchers in total), none quite swayed me from working in the BioMedIA. I had a little bit of time to explore the town and take some pictures, and I certainly look forward to returning soon.
This trip was brief but productive, and was followed up by the end of the summer and beginning of the first (classroom) year at DukeMed.
