Hebron Children's Home

Matt and I have mentioned that we are going to India (in a week actually) for my uncle's wedding and to meet some family. And we have also mentioned that we are going to teach English at an orphanage afterward for six weeks. The orphanage is called Hebron Chidlren's Home and it is located about an hour's drive away from the east coast of Andhra Pradesh (a state in India). I was reading their website today and under the section for "what you can do" the first thing they suggested was posting a link on your blog.

Hebron Children's Home

So give it a look.

There are 340 children in their facilities, which were meant to house only 70. Many of them are orphans from the tsunami. They clearly need help. If you have any inclination, please think about giving a donation. There are no administrative fees, because two of the major funders Richard and Mandy Swanell (of Australia) handle all administration themselves. All the donations go straight to Hebron House.

Photos of the Guys' Trip

The Guard is not Amused
Originally uploaded by msclan.

We, and especially Grace, have been showing the guys around Cambridge and London-town for the past few days. We've put some pictures up, hope you like them.

Click here for the pictures.

Update, Spencer and Clancy

Here's a brief update on what we've been doing with Spencer and Clancy the last few days.

The day after they arrived, Spencer, Clancy and I went down to take in the sights of London. Matt stayed in Cambridge to study. We took the train down to King's Cross and picked up a theatre guide. Looking through it the guys wanted to try and see Stomp! the percussion extravaganza extraordinaire. So we went to the theatre to see if we could get tickets. We got three of the cheapest tickets and they were for the very back row of the very highest section. Then we went to the British Museum, which has all sorts of artifacts and things from around the world. Basically, it's stuff that the British have pillaged from different nations through all their colonialism. The British Museum is the largest enclosed open space in Europe and holds the Rosetta Stone.

Then we were famished and had a Pizza Express lunch. Then we went to the Natural History Museum and the guys saw dinosaurs and animals. In the gift shop we saw an awesome collection of stationary called Poo Poo Paper, it was paper maade out of recycled elephant dung because apparently they don't digest fibrous grasses very well and it can be sterilized and turned into paper. Afterwards because were were nearby, we went to the Victoria and Albert museum to try to see an exhibit called "Kylie, the Exhibition" which is basically a collection of Kylie Minogue's craziest get-ups from music videos and concerts. Last time Matt and I tried to see this exhibit, you had to get timed tickets. We went on a Saturday morning to try and see it and they didn't have any tickets until Monday afternoon. This time we didn't have to get tickets, we just walked in and I can honestly say it was amazing. I only recognized a few outfits but they were in person even crazier than they are on TV. We saw the white space suit from the "Can't get you outta my head" video" and we saw her crazy Vegas showgirl outfit from her "comeback" concert. It was crazy. Then we went to the room in the V&A that has plaster casts of various existing monuments from around the world. There was the cast of Trajan's column, only cut in half and stacked beside each other because it was so big. There was a cast of the front of Santiago de Compostella from Spain. And of David, which is a lot bigger than you think it is.

After that we did a little walking tour around St James's Park, Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, Westminster and the Eye. By then it was time to grab dinner and head to the theatre. Stomp! was cool, but I thought the best bits were not when it was loud but when it was quiet and they had little funny skits. After Stomp! we went back to King's Cross and then back to Cambridge. We got home after midnight and we all went sleep pretty exhausted because it had been a long day.

On the next day, we didn't make it into London until 2PM so we just went to Piccadilly Circus so the guys could see the jumbo trons and the flashing lights and then walked down to the National Gallery to look at paintings. The National Gallery is one of the best art museums in the world, but it is actually pretty small. It's definately smaller than the US National Gallery ha ha. But we hung out there for about an hour, then walked up (getting lost along the way) through Soho to a conveyer belt sushi place and had some sushi for lunch. It was awesome! Then we went to Oxford Street to see one of the major shopping areas and hung out in Borders for a while because it was raining. After that we went home and Matt had cooked us a lovely dinner. We watched episodes of the Office (American) and exchanged funny YouTube clips.

The next day was rainy and we stayed in Cambridge. We biked into town and Matt took a break from studying to show the guys into the various colleges. They took lots of pictures. The guys bought a magnet for their mom and we looked into some shops in town. We stopped for lunch. Then we saw St John's College and Trinity College. Then we picked up some groceries and biked home in the rain. We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the dryness of our flat, watching the Office. Then we ate dinner and watched Pirates of the Caribbean II. That way we can watch P of the C III in theatres today.

Spencer and Clancy

Spencer and Clancy have arrived! As you can see we took a detour at London King's Cross to see Platform 9 3/4, where Harry Potter and his best pals go to Hogwarts each year on the Hogwarts express. It was tons o' fun. But eventually we had to take the Cambridge express up to boring old Cambridge. When we got there the guys hung on for about 45 minutes before falling asleep for 5 hours straight. We woke them up at six for a night of punting. One of my Economics classmates, Adam, is a real expert on the art of Punting, having done his Undergraduate degree here and he got us a boat from his college which meant it was dirt cheap, £3 per hour! Anyway, we ended up taking the boat out for more than 3.5 hours. It was a real blast.

I took us up the river while Adam gave the guys the history of Cambridge. We made it from one end to the other and then let Spencer give it a shot. He had some. . . trouble. He was very good at making us go in circles and crash into willow trees. He gave up the pole before we got to a really crowded part of the river, where all the kids sit on the bank and watch the punters go by.

Clancy was hesitant to try it next, but when he did he was a natural. He manuevered us under bridges, around corners - he was really good, nothing more to say. I think he has a promising future in a very specific field of boatwork.
Grace did it as well and she was good although she did lose the pole at one point (not the only one to do so - keep reading). Anyway we had the river to ourselve most of the night since all the punting companies require the boats be in by 7 which is when we started. We could keep it out until 11 if we wanted to, since we were renting from a college. We found ourselves back where we started at nine with plenty of energy so we kept going.
This meant we had to drag the boat up a ramp with rollers to get it into the higher part of the river. With mighty muscles we did the job and went down the river cam up towards Grantchester. I was driving the boat again, and I was getting very cocky. I drank a beer with one hand while driving with the other. But, things went awry.

I lost the pole. Oops. This was the turning point. We headed back.
When we got to the rollers Adam told us the thing to do is ride the boat down the ramp, like a log flume ride. It's a tricky business that involves proper weight distribution or else the boat floods. Spencer, Clancy, Adam and I gave a mighty push and hopped in. We were headed down and into the water! A big wave washed over the front of the boat and worked it's way to the back, so everyone yelled as it came to them and soaked their feet.
We had to bail the boat out, since you get fined for returning a waterlogged boat. We pulled ashore and used a pint glass Grace brought to empty the boat (only 15 minutes work). We returned the boat a little before 11 and then biked into town for some late night chips.
The chipper guy must have liked Spencer and Clancy - I think they charm everyone with their politness and use of the word "sir" - anyway he gave us all free lollipops.

And that was day one.

-Written by Matt, not Grace

Cambridge Beer Festival

Honestly, who schedules a beer festival for a week so close to final exams?

Hundreds of beers on tap out on Jesus Green. Grace and I paid our £2.50 to enter and then proceeded to work our way through several half pints - Grace sticking to her favorite kind of beer, the Wheat Beer, and me wandering blindly around and getting random stuff. The plan was a pint or two then a night of work. And I did stick to my goal of two pints - OK, three - but somehow, perhaps not surprisingly the evening got away from me.

Well, now we have the commemorative pint glasses.

Also, my computer is finally back.

Tomorrow morning I rise bright and early to make the trip down to Gatwick airport. Cousins Spencer and Clancy are arriving in the early hours of morning and they're staying with us for the week.

Two weeks from tonight I will be done with my finals and Grace and I will be getting up early to go to Heathrow and from then, on to India.

More Updates

So, on Friday I took the early train down to London and went to India house to get my visa. I was prepared for a very long haul. Grace has had to get Visas for Paris twice now and each time she's been in lines for 6 hours out of the day. And that was after she booked an appointment a month in advance. There was no such opportunity with the Indian Embassy. I just had to show up between 8:30 and noon when they handed out numbers - up to 1500 in a day - and then wait my turn.

Ha ha, I showed up at 9:30 and I was done by 10:30! Life is a breeze for me. Also, when Grace applied she needed tons of documents, while I just needed a form. Also, when Grace applied they ignored her request for a six month visa and only issued her a two month one, which is why she had to go down twice. For me, I needed a two month one and they gave me a six month one. Ouch.

Anyway, I was going to stay in London all day because one of our friends, Erica, was coming in on the train from Paris that night and I figured I would meet her. She's currently slaving away in Paris directing the cultural education of a bunch of small town Iowa kids with little to no international experience. Quite a job. I had no idea there were so many things to see there - she's scheduled something for them to do every afternoon for a month (mostly museums I hear)! She doesn't have a computer in her Paris flat, so we caught her up on all the hot videos (mostly Eurovision - see below).

I spend the rest of the day in the British Library which is a massive library with every book ever published in the UK. You can't bring pens or scissors or highlighters into the books area (so they don't damage the books). They make you check everything and they give you a transparent plastic bag to carry your notebooks and pencils around in. After awhile I left the book area and hung out in the lobby which was much nicer. Big leather chairs and personal desks, plus I could use pens.

After the library closed Grace came down and we went to one of the conveyer belt sushi restaraunts for a quick bite before we met Erica at London Waterloo. Another reason we both decided to go to London that night was because one of our friends was having a birthday party there, so Grace bought her a dozen Krispe Kreme donuts (a rare delicacy in the UK - only available in some twenty locations across the country, including the London Waterloo station).

We stayed in town till late and took a train into Cambridge, arriving past midnight.

Over the weekend we showed Erica around Cambridge at a very relaxed pace, just one or two things per day. The weather was really nice and it was great to have a visitor. We went punting today and, for the first time, I managed the job without any trouble (fourth time's a charm!). It was very nice to be able to make the boat go where I wanted it. There weren't any drunk crazy kids this time either, which added to the relaxing charm of it all.

While we were near the Bridge of Sighs we saw a family trying to get through and the kid punting in the back fell off the boat. They lost the pole and the kid was splashing around in the water. They paddled back and he climbed in and someone else got the pole. The Dad from the family was not sympathetic. All he had to say was "Well, now we have to go under the bridge again."

Grace even gave it a shot and she did a-ok, especially considering my absolutely terrible advice about how to manage the boat. It's all sort of gone into muscle memory now, so I would say completely unhelpful things like, "You sort of have to push and pull the stick towards you."

And then I would demonstrate with my arms, which was not helpful. But she wants to give it another go, so that's good.

Our friend has to leave tomorrow morning at 5:30 am from London so she has an epic midnight journey ahead of her. I pity her.

Nothing but crazy amounts of studying for me from here on out. Grace finishes work in two days, just in time for the arrival of our American cousins. They've never left the country, so this is going to be a pretty big trip for them. After they leave we have about a week to tie up our loose ends in Cambridge. Busy times lie ahead!

The British and their Food Complex

I think the British have an inferiority complex about British food. Cooking is a sensation here. There are dozens of hardback British celebrity chef cookbooks on sale in the front of all the bookstores. They all prominently hint at the glory of British cuisine.

And there's this TV show - "Great British Menu." In the show chefs from around Britain compete by cooking the best British menu they can. They get judged by food critics until a winner is selected. The master menu of British food goes down to the French Embassy where they have a cook-off with the French. The opening slogan of the show? "We'll prove we can cook just as well as them!" Note, not better - "Just as good."

Throughout the show the chefs always bicker about whether the opponent's meal is truly "British" to which the retort is always that "my mom used to cook it for me." The chefs all talk about how their dish is classic British updated for the modern age - as if they admit that the old way of cooking was inferior, but at it's core it's really good and deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world's cuisine. A good portion of the show is devoted to following the Chefs to distant farms where the care and devotion shown to British produce is showcased.

It's a lie. Give me traditional Indian, Thai, Irish, French, or Mexican food. Sorry guys. Anyway, the best British food institutions - Tea, Brown Sauce and Chicken Tikka Masala - are imports. Again, apologies.

Danzing!

OK, so this is Ukraine's performance at the Eurovision finale. The one below is from their national semi-finals. I can't get enough of these guys. Two other things - Enya was never on Eurovision (but Celine Dion was), and Ireland does not always get beat. In fact, Ireland has historically won more than any other nation.

Danzing!

Eurovision 2007

I'm in a state of shock and bewilderment.

Last night Grace and I went over to a Eurovision party. Eurovision is this massive song contest, sort of like American Idol only much older (it's been going on for decades), and all of Europe participates. Abba won Eurovision way back when and Enya and Tatu also made it big from the contest.

Each nation selects an act to compete. These national selections are like American Idol, except whole bands can compete, not just solo singers. Then they all fly to the home of last year's winners to show their stuff on the stage. And then Europe votes by texting and a winner is declared. The voting is sort of like the electoral college with each country (there are 42 participating!) delegating 12 points to the top picked song, 10 points to #2, 8 points #3, and then 7,6,5,4,3,2 and 1 points to #4,#5, #6, etc.

So, imagine being in a dark room with 50 screaming Europeans as you're watching this on a projection screen. It's madness. I shouldn't say anymore. Just watch. This is Ukraine.

Holy cow. They came in second with, like 240 points. Next up is Serbia, the winner. I voted for them by the way.

And now for the United Kingdom. Out of 24 countries that made it to the final round, the UK came in. . . 2nd to last with 19 points (7 from their neighbor Ireland and, inexplicably, 12 from Malta). Ireland got dead last. They always send some kind of traditional singer and they always get blown away by people like Ukraine. I should also add that this isn't the official Eurovision performance of this song. It's the semi-finals or something, but you get the idea.

I think they should broadcast this in America. I think jaws would drop.

Spiderman and other updates

We saw Spiderman 3 last night. What a laugh--that was a supremely forgettable movie.

In other news, yes, Matt and I are going to India this summer. My uncle is getting married, so there is a wedding to go to. Also, we heard through Cambridge that there was an orphanage in a village near where the wedding is to take place that wants english teachers for the summer and we volunteered. We have no idea what to expect and we have no idea how to teach english, especially since we don't speak their language. We're not even sure what language the kids will speak! The plan for the summer is this: Matt's final exams finish on the 6th of June. We fly to India on the 7th. The wedding is on the 9th. We will hang around with my family for a few weeks until my mom and sister head back to the states. Then we will spend 6-7 weeks teaching english at this orphanage. Then we fly back to London on the 3rd of August for a few days before flying into Boston, where my good friend Julia is getting married on the 11th. After that we'll head home home HOME! to Iowa City and spend one blissful month living in Matt's parent's basement, seeing all our friends and taking road trips to visit ones we won't see otherwise. Then on Labor Day weekend, we are going to Tom and Emily's wedding! And shortly after that we will return to Cambridge for Matt's start of term.

If and when we get back to Cambridge is still unknown because we won't know if Matt has achieved the necessary mark on his finals to proceed to master's level until July. Neither will we find out if he has gotten funding until later this summer. Even if he gets back into Cambridge and even if he gets full funding, for various other reasons, Matt is not certain he will want to stay at Cambridge. That is something we will have to decide later this summer.

So that is the sitch at this point. There is nothing really exciting to report other than this. Matt is studying continually for exams. I am still working for the financial services company, though I have been moved to another team. This team is basically responsible for fixing things that other parts of the company have screwed up (so you can imagine it's a big job.) We are staying in town weekends to save up money for the summer. We are getting very excited for Harry Potter fever this summer, though we are very worried we won't have access in India to an English bookstore! I have reread the whole series in preparation. Matt has given up though and is now working his way through a brick of a book called "A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth. It's about post-independence India and good luck to him.

Question: which bear is best? False! Black bear! Fact: bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

India Update

We're going to India this summer. Tickets are purchased and we leave in about a month. We'll be there for about two months. When we arrive we'll meet a bunch of family and attend a wedding. Late June we're saying goodbye and going to live with Hebron House orphanage were we're going to (try to) teach English until we leave in early August. In between our arrival and our teaching english maybe we'll go to Delhi. There's a scholarship to support Cambridge students who want to travel in India and I applied for it, but if we get it we have to go to Delhi (24 hour train ride!).

We went to the doctor this morning to figure out all our vaccines. Whoo! There will be a lot of needles in the next month. We got our first rabies shot this morning - we get another next week, and another later on. We've got to get anti-malarial medicine, bugs spray all sorts of good stuff. And here's the kicker - travel medicine like this is not covered under British National Health Service so we have to pay for our treatment (gasp!). They gave us a set of reading we have to do as well. And I still have to get a visa - that's one project for this weekend.

On top of all this the economics department has piled on an econometrics project that I have 10 days to complete (it's worth 40% of the class!). The question: how does health of the population affect economic growth? So my life is suddenly swimming with information about diseases and health. On top of that I have my final exams in four weeks! And Grace and I have to vacate the flat before we leave for India. So, it's looking like it will be a busy May.

Punting Traffic

 

Now that the sun is out everyone is out on the river.