Dancing in the Square

On the way back we stopped by the grocery store and walked through the main square.  There was a very talented musician playing an instrument from West Africa, and to add to the entertainment was little girl that was having a blast dancing to the music.

There have been some awesome buskers on the main shopping pedestrian street, including some modern dancers, a violin cello duo, Iron Man, and an artist that makes huge, intricate collages.  One of my favorites was a group of old hard rock dudes with Rolling Stones bowl cuts and a friend who can best be described as a "back-up dancer."  My guess is that he was a horrible musician and they convinced him his skills were better spent dancing and generating hype.  He was a horribly awesome dancer.

Institute of Science and Industry and the John Rylands Library

Today we wandered around the city with the goal of checking out the Museum of Science and Industry.  It's a massive museum complex housed in historic warehouses in the old manufacturing district of the city.  Along the way we also stopped at the imposing Gothic John Rylands Library.  It was incredible, and had a very tasteful modern addition that housed a cafe and bookstore.

Apartments and restaurants along the canal

A boat using the lock system to move through the city

An old Roman gate and an iconic Manchester skyscraper

New additions at the Museum of Science and Industry

Automated loom

A cool entrance to an underground structure

This display had a hilarious sign explaining it: "Do you like your fingers? This machine has heavy parts, please do not touch"

New meets old

Main stairwell at the library

The reading room

There was an installation featuring mirrors with exerts from famous women authors 

Getting to Know the City

The following is a collection of pictures from the first couple days of wandering around. It's been a blast exploring, and the friendliness of Northern England is a refreshing change from London.  One thing that always catches me off guard: when a customer service agent sees you are looking for something, instead of saying "Can I help you?", they ask "Are you alright?"  For some reason it gives me the impression that I don't look like I'm alright and I wonder if I've been walking funny or if I look ill.  My habit is to respond with something like "Yes, I feel fine," which often is returned with a confused look as they wonder why I'm explaining how I feel.

The Deaf Institute, a famous music venue and bar near campus

The organ in the Cathedral on campus

The Catholic Church

A view of campus

Looking the other way

An awesome cafe in one of the more historic buildings on campus

Views from the "wheel" (Ferris wheel) 

Manchester: First Impressions

Manchester has a really great vibe.  The best way I can describe it is a British, industrial version of Austin.  It has all of the benefits of a large city--a great music scene, tons of art, museums, restaurants, parks, and bars--but it has a much smaller, more accessible size.  London felt like NYC (albeit with much more quaint and historic architecture intermixed) in that it was busy, loud, and fast-paced.

A view of the river passing through the city

We arrived in the afternoon and went straight to our dorm.  The dorm, unfortunately, is in a pretty sorry state.  Apparently it was rented out as a hostel to make money over the summer, and it looks as such.  I'm not sure how or what happened, but my best guess is that someone was cooking with a pot on the stove and decided to set it down in various locations on the kitchen carpet.  The round burn marks are intermixed with grease stains, missing carpet, and general grime.  We've issued a complaint, but it will take some persistence to get it taken care of.

We spent the first few days wandering around and shopping to settle into the place.  I also hibernated in order to overcome my cough, and luckily I felt better by the first day of class on Tuesday.

Campus

Fellow Scholar and flatmate, Rebecca

Canal street, also know as the Gay Village

Art in the gayborhood

Swimming center for the university

Fancy Parties: London

Unfortunately, I got no sleep on the flight to London, and my cough set in for good.  We arrived in London tired and jet-lagged, but started right away with orientation and a trip to the London Eye. The views from the top were incredible.

Afterward we met up with some current scholars who took us out to different restaurants for dinner.  The were all really friendly and helpful, and it was incredible to walk through London.  The most fascinating thing for me was turning a corner and seeing a street that looks as if it's still in the 19th century.  We stopped by a pub with other scholars for a bit, but I left fairly quickly to go home and attempt to sleep.  Coughing kept me up for most of the night, but eventually I was able to drift off.

The next day we went to Parliament and met a Member of Parliament and had a tour of the houses. The building is a marvel of Gothic architecture with intricate patterns and carvings that give the building a rich texture.  The arrangement of the houses is also interesting--it seems that the politicians sit in a inward facing square and shot and holler during all of the speeches.  It was also fascinating to imagine all of the history and people that have worked there.

In the afternoon we went to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (essentially the State Department of the UK) and heard from policy makers and current members of the Marshall Commission.  It was followed by a swanky soiree where we got to mingle with current and former scholars and commission members.  By this point I think I had a fever and was coughing up a storm. Somehow I managed to hold it together and look relatively healthy, but as soon as it ended I went straight for the hotel and tried to sleep.

That is, until this last photo I took, when I was drenched in sweat and had sore abs from coughing...

The next morning we went for a tea and talk in the beautiful residence of the US Deputy Ambassador before heading to the bank to square away our accounts.  After that, Rebecca and I caught the train and headed for Manchester. And so begins my first days as a scholar in Manchester...

Fancy Parties: DC

There is a downside to attending the pre-orientation trip: I arrived exhausted, with a sore throat, and with my brain fried from constant intellectually demanding conversations. What I didn't anticipate was the intensity that would ensue for the next week.  While the orientation was packed with interesting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities (like hearing a hilarious and insightful talk from David Rennie, editor of the Lexington Column in the Economist), I was totally and completely drained by the end.

The first day involved hearing several talks from people involved in the Association of Marshall Scholars about their experience and their advice to us.  Later we had a quiz night about British history.  Unfortunately I am absolutely terrible at trivia.  For whatever reason, random recall is not my strong suit.  When the question about architecture came up, the whole room turned to me.  I pretended I knew the answer but quietly explained to my team that I had no idea what the answer was. My team was in last place until the end when we tied with about 4 others after wagering everything on the final question: What was the original name of the Marshall Plan? Embarrassingly, almost no one got it right.  I guess we're lucky we had already gone through interviews!

The next day we went to the State Department and had talks with different Marshall Scholars that were working there, including the acting legal adviser for the entire State Department.  The conversations were a little constrained and formal because of confidentiality and the sensitivity of some of the topics we were probing (such as the crises in Ukraine and Syria) and because we were all wearing suits.  By this point I had a slight cough but I was still able to hold it together.  Soon this would not be the case.

In the afternoon we heard David Rennie, an Embassy Counselor, and a panel of Marshall Scholars that directed a policy-making workshop.  My group covered what goals the US and UK should have as leaders in development.  Our answer was basically that the US should try to distance itself from judging political organizational structures in order to collaborate and prevent redundancy in international development actors (China, for example, is very active but gives aid to governments that the US considers corrupt).  We also said we should promote using specific instead of rigid models to make more effective policy and that we should strive to make long term goals that aren't dependent on election cycles (the majority of aid projects have 3 year timelines because politicians want to be able to use the results).

In the late afternoon, we walked over to the Embassy and attended a swanky reception in a gorgeous mansion. We were then taken out to dinner in small groups.  Our host was very friendly and fun and we spent the evening getting advice and chatting.

The hall leading to the reception

Paintings in the fancy house

Later in the evening I met up with Alex Jacobsen, who happened to live near to the hotel where we were staying.  By this point, I was fully sick.  My hacking cough had developed, and soon it would define the rest of orientation.  I felt bad for my roommate, Shama, because I seriously doubt if he could sleep through my coughing bouts and wheezy gasps for air through the night.

The next morning we toured the White House and had a brief meeting at the Ambassador's residence before heading to the airport.  My favorite part was walking by the window that looks toward the Jefferson Monument and knowing that it was Abraham Lincoln's favorite place to reflect during his Presidency. At the airport, fatigue and sleep deprivation were setting in...I bought a pack of cough drops and got ready for a rough night.

Oh Shenandoah

We arrived in Shenandoah valley around 9pm after a long drive through heavy traffic. The other scholars had arrived earlier in the day and had ordered pizza for dinner.  We ate, drank, chatted late into the night.  The conversations were incredible; we covered the most diverse range of topics you could imagine.  One conversation I had went from the merits of abstract art to determinism vs free will to the double slit experiment illustrating quantum mechanics.  The Marshall Scholars are all extremely intelligent, open-minded, and curious--a combination that makes for extremely interesting and balanced conversations, even about contentious topics.

Unfortunately, my sleep deprivation and late nights talking loudly over the enthusiastic conversations going on around me gave me a sore throat.  Unbeknownst to me, the soreness would develop into a full-fledged chest cold during the orientation.

During the next three days we played games (Rummikub was a favorite), went on a hike, a wine tasting, and cooked meals together as a group.  It was a great time for bonding and definitely changed the tone for the rest of the orientation.  Instead of meeting in DC during the much more formal events, we already knew each other and went through as pals.

Be sure to check out the profiles of the scholars--they really are incredible.  We all have brief bios here: http://www.marshallscholarship.org/scholars/profiles/2014_scholars/scholar_names_ac

Hiking to a waterfall in the valley

View from our rental cabin

On the way to the hike

The waterfall

Landing and Getting to the Valley

I'm not sure if it's just my nature or everyone's experience, but the night before the trip involved packing into the wee hours of the night despite convincing myself that I was "95%" packed the day before. It's amazing how much stuff I ended up thinking I needed and perhaps more amazing that I managed to stuff it into two bags.  Or maybe it's embarrassing that I needed so much...either way, I was in no way aware of the public transit nightmare that would unfold the next day.  I slept for a few hours, said goodbye to mom and dad at the airport, and met the other New Mexican Scholar, Jake Wellman, in the seating waiting for the flight.

Jake and I hit it off from the start.  His masters is in Environmental Economics at LSE, and outside of being crazy smart (like all of the scholars I've met) he is down to earth and as enthusiastic about puns as I am.  The night before, we had both received the cryptic but suspiciously military-sounding text: "I am your driver.  This is not my number, you can reach me at 555-555-5555 tomorrow." The ambiguity made me think the organizers had arranged for us to have private drivers, but instead we met Brad Hackert, an Air Force officer who will be studying war studies at Kings College.  We hit it off as well, and before long the three of us were discussing the role of the military and civilians in the middle east.

We made our way to a bus with our bags (between us all we had 300+ pounds of luggage) and followed Jake to the train to DC.  I quickly realized what it's like to carry 100 pounds of luggage in muggy DC weather, and based on how sweaty my shirt was I think the people around us got a pretty good idea as well.  As we waited for the train to arrive, there were muffled explosions going on in my head as I thought through what it would be like for the three of us to get our six gigantic bags and six carry-on items onto the train between all of the business commuters getting on and off.

Somehow we managed, but the absurdity of it prompted an older couple to jokingly ask: "What's going on, are you guys moving somewhere for two years?"  We laughed and said they were exactly right.  They wished us luck and probably wished I could take a shower as we struggled onto the platform at Union Station.  Jake, in all of his wisdom, took us to get a cab instead of the subway, and we made the last leg of the trip to the rental station in an air conditioned van.  We met up with Patrick Donnan of Auburn University and David Jia from Stanford.  Again, both were really friendly and smart, and we had a great chat during lunch.  In fact I'll save some time and words...all the scholars are friendly, super smart and great to hang out with--it's been incredibly humbling and has made for awesome conversations covering every topic under the sun.  As I introduce more, assume that they are all excellent people.

When we got back to the rental place, Emmy, Raina, Kate, and Sam had arrived and were also getting their car. Unbelievably, the gals had managed to get eight bags to the rental place ENTIRELY ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.  I didn't think about it too much to avoid further aneurysms. We helped them pack into the cars and set off to the Shenandoah Valley. 

The First Post

When I left for Chile on my first solo international flight, the gravity of the situation set in as I flipped through my Spanish dictionary a few hours before landing and realized that I, despite the rigors of high school classes, had no idea how to speak Spanish.  On my second solo flight to Buenos Aires, it hit me when the cab driver dropping me off at my less-than-centrally-located hostel insisted that he wait to make sure I made it to the door without getting robbed.

Yet, despite being here for two weeks, I'm still not sure if I've fully comprehended the absurd and incredible luck I've had to become a Marshall Scholar. I'm in awe of my peers, getting used to the snappy British customer service, marveling at how old everything is, and coming to terms with the fact that I'm (still) a student.  I imagine it will set in eventually (probably after I start gathering books for my readings) but for now I'm still floating along with wide eyes and a cheerfully distant understanding of the work and adventure ahead of me.

My blogs always seem to start strong and then drop off completely about two months in, but Jourdan's hilarious and persistent stories from Germany are an inspiration. I'll do my best to keep track of funny, interesting, and important things that happen over the next two years.  Happy reading!