Better Late Than Never
Well, this post is coming out later than expected due to the ridiculousness of trying to get back to Cambridge from Stansted airport...I could not get transportation back to Cam on Sunday night, so I ended up booking a hotel room by the airport and setting an alarm to take the 6:12am train back home. Naturally, that train was canceled so they put on a different train that would require a transfer to Cambridge. That transfer never came :) so I ended up making friends with three other stranded souls and we split a cab back to Cambridge. It's been an eventful 10 hours.
back to regularly scheduled programming
This was an odd week, after having spent the weekend at Judge learning how to code in Python, I didn’t have another class at Judge until Friday!
Monday started with a chat with a potential future Judge student who’s interested in pivoting into the space sector, always happy to chat with folks who are interested in space! Later in the day, we had a career event with a deep tech VC near Homerton College. It was really interesting to hear what they do and gain some insight into a sector I know absolutely nothing about. After that, I rushed back to Queens’ to be interviewed by an MPhil doing research in the space sector. He asked some really good questions and I enjoyed having a chance to reflect on the industry and share my thoughts on the past, present, and future of the space I love so much.
Tuesday was filled with essay writing. 4 of 6 complete. That evening had a chance to celebrate one of the dear friends to come out of this program as Brandon turned 30! We enjoyed some yummy Indian food in his honor!
On Wednesday I decided to take myself to London to see a musical. I started in Notting Hill and explored that area as I’d never walked around there before. Very cute and colorful area. After exploring, I headed to Covent Garden and found the cutest spot for some soft-serve ice cream. I was one happy gal, let me tell you. Finished my ice cream just in time to walk to the theater to see Frozen, yes, I am super cool. The set design on this was very impressive. The show was much like the movie, but tickets were cheap and it was a fun day for me to get out of Cambridge.
Thursday took me to London again, this time with a group of classmates! Dominique planned a lovely day of bubble tea, an art gallery, and a hot pot lunch. The Saatchi Gallery is running an exhibit on street art right now and it was really interesting. This exhibit delved deeper into the why behind this form of art and the statements it’s trying to make. I felt way too lame to be walking through the exhibit but found some items I liked. After the gallery, we headed to Picadilly for lunch. I’ve never experienced hot pot before and let me tell you it was life-changing. I’m no wizard when it comes to chopsticks, but these particular ones were very humbling. Poor Mario and Tenaya were sitting on either side of me and had to help me a few times. The food was amazing, and we were all stuffed at the end of it. A great end to a really lovely day!
It’s going to be a great evening!!! Then had my one lecture of the week, crazy that I'm almost done with classes for Lent Term!
After class, I headed to Stansted to fly to Madrid to meet up with two lovely gals from high school. I’ve been starting to feel a smidge homesick, so this trip arrived at the perfect time! It was practically midnight by the time I landed and another hour before I met up with Zeynep and Hillary, but you best believe Hillary and I stayed up until 3 catching up.
By some crazy happenstance, the three of us are all in MBA programs, in different countries. I’m obviously at Judge in Cambridge, UK, Hillary is at Ross in Michigan, USA, and Zeynep is at IE in Madrid, Spain. What are the chances of that?! While it was lovely to catch up it was really just nicer to get to talk to people who know you well and are also going through the same thing as you. I don’t know how to describe it well, but it’s comforting to be in the same place with people who get it and get you. We talked about future goals and I’ll be darned if not a one of us had a clear vision. It’s hard. (I know, someone please pull out the world’s smallest violin)
We crammed a lot of laughs as we explored Madrid for 24 hours. I have to say, I like Spain. The food is good, the sun is out, and the vibes are just vibing. Saturday started with a lovely brunch, y’all the OJ is too good and I’m a big fan of the Spanish tortilla. Afterward, we have a movie montage shopping hour, hilarious on an MBA student budget, but still fun. Then we headed to Madrid’s version of Central Park and went to the Crystal Palace. One day I want to rent that thing out and host a ball there, it’s giving me Sound of Music, and it would be a fantastic evening. From there we spent our siesta on a rooftop and accidentally found a very cool speakeasy on the ground floor. Dinner was at 9pm and worth waiting for. We consumed a lot of seafood, and perhaps one of the best desserts I’ve ever had in my life.
Sunday started with a quick bite (and some more freshly squeezed orange juice) at a cute lil cafe. From there we headed to the Reina Sofia museum - filled with some fantastic art. We somehow managed to skip the very long queue…
There was a whole floor dedicated to special exhibitions, all of which were quite provocative, and how cool are these old projectors?? We made sure to see some Gaudi and the Guernica. I found my favorite piece of art in there, “Rest”. Afterward, we may have gone back to the same lil cafe for some more sustenance. There was the grilled cheese with kimchi, an unexpectedly delicious combination, the pan con tomate, so fresh and delicious, and another cardamom pastry. (Rebecca introduced me to Chai in December and it is my gateway to caffeine- so I’ve become a big cardamom gal as of late).
My time with these dear friends ended with some tapas and some stitch-inducing laughs. Miss those gals already, we had too much fun. This was a fantastic first visit to Spain, and I plan to go back later this year.
As per usual, I’m sleepy, but I’m doing everything I can to squeeze every little bit of good I can out of this experience. Especially If that means an unexpected weekend trip to Europe! I May or may not be booking flights for a trip later this week - I have a problem.
This was a good week.
I was able to recharge and I think that’s good for the soul. This week was filled with almost too much goodness, but I am so grateful.
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