Happy Easter, everyone

After a week of wonderfully sunny, warmish weather, England remembered that it was England, and the rain rolled in for Easter Sunday.  I sampled what an Easter eucharist is like in King's College chapel, returning home for the remains of an MCR brunch and then a quiet afternoon and evening enjoying the cozy gray day.  Here's what it sounded like outside my window:

A short spring run-around

Have you ever had someone casually ask you a question that pulled you up short and made you think?  Well, about a month ago, someone asked me what I will take away when I leave Cambridge, and I was so spoiled for choice that I had to think carefully about how to answer succinctly.  I reviewed the last 3.5 years: moving abroad, learning to row, the captaining year, being on the MCR committee, becoming a college personality known as "Sweaver", discovering what I'm like when I drink, presenting at conferences in front of eminent people, spending candle-lit evenings with a small but talented chapel choir, making friends with the porters, consuming far too much tea, becoming addicted to the lunchtime crossword, and talking about Tennyson to anyone who will sit still long enough.  If I had to summarize it, I'd say I've learned just how much I can do and thus gained the confidence to plunge into new endeavors knowing that my initial ignorance won't stop me succeeding.

My most recent endeavor was to show my buddy Martin the wonders of northern California.  Consequently, I spent the first week of spring break re-acquainting myself with the beauties of my state, in between rain showers that seemed determined to belie our reputation for golden weather.  It was a tiring week, to be sure, but I certainly enjoyed putting my own stamp on things.  A tour book could direct you to the Golden Gate Bridge (check) or Yosemite (check), but it won't take you past La Maison Française at Stanford, insist that you ride the Giant Dipper in Santa Cruz no matter the weather, or suggest you stop for pie at Duarte's Tavern in Pescadero after pausing at the iconic Pigeon Point Lighthouse.  And let's not forget the hospitality at the childhood home of one Sarah A. Weaver, future PhD (cantab).

Only a few days after that adventure calmed down, I was off to Disney World "on the way" to the conference of the Northeast Victorian Studies Association in Stony Brook, NY.  I told you about proposing the topic in an old post, and the time had finally come to deliver it.  The conference paper was a major source of stress right up until I gave it on the last morning.  It was highly fragmentary only nine hours before my panel, and goodness knows how I managed to rearrange and glue it together in time, along with accompanying slideshow.  The rush made me very nervous, but it was very well received, and because I performed a few tongue twister examples -- without flubbing them -- I got a round of applause in the middle of the paper!  That was amazing!  Something to think of when I need a boost in future.