the sunset smells of dinner

if you happened to look at the photos of edinburgh i recently posted, you may have noticed that waverly station, the more prominent of the city's two train stations, was quite featured as a photographic subject. i have developed a childlike love for the train station, to the point that i even go out of my way coming home from the city centre so that i can walk through there. it is sort of a sterile place, but in a comforting way: no matter how much activity is happening inside the station, the air feels calm, there is a soothing and constant woman loudspeaker voice, and everything seems removed from life. people are in transit, in liminality, yet with purpose and direction.
and so i suppose i also like being one of those people, wandering the station with a train to catch. i've just returned from a trip to cambridge, england and in two days time will head back down south to norwich. sort of silly of me, as the train distance between them is about 45 minutes, but i guess i am getting the most out of the travel experience this way, and hopefully forcing myself to do exam preparations during the many hours of my journeys.

in cambridge i was visiting chris, who now attends christ's college there for a post-grad degree. it was a very pleasant few days, full of practically perfect weather, lots of catching up and conversation, and a requisite bit of sight-seeing (resulting in pictures). the university seemed extremely labyrithine and multi-faceted, so we only took the time to explore a few of the individual colleges, but they were all quite beautiful and had much individual character. the town otherwise was unsurprising in a way; i was expecting, from the sense of "otherness" the sometimes-seething scottish nationalism gives, the british culture to appear markedly different, but it honestly didn't. it was still sort of urban and full of posh shops and restaurants and pubs, only lacking the extensive clubbing scene and historic sight-seeing opportunties (aside, of course, from cambridge university) of edinburgh. i will say, i did notice more fashionably-dressed british men; we only seem to get the women here for some reason - boy do i love u of edinburgh's 70/30 girl/guy ratio. also for some reason nightlife in edinburgh seems more obvious (maybe people are louder here? that actually seems very plausible). i suppose in cambridge there are either students who are quite social mainly within their colleges as chris is, or posh brits who get all dressed up in boots and sparkles and black and button-downs and go to nice pubs and have a laugh with their fellow rahs (rahs is a term at my school for a specific kind of posh brit). chris and his housemate jake were telling me that some of the frequent nightlife violence (boy do i looove pent-up testosterone) i've noticed in edinburgh happens there, but more latently and it often brews out of a towns vs. gowns rivalry (indeed, there were some punks as well). in cambridge anyway i did feel more aware of missing the opportunities i am quite used to at home of just going over to someone's house to watch a movie or hang out. this whole "hanging out" thing seems difficult in the spatially tiny uk; i suppose you could go over to someone's flat but mostly people seem to go out.
chris and i spent one long evening of catching up in a really nice big open bar at the crown royale hotel, with coffees and a hip young serenading jazz band - a tireless atmosphere; there it was quite comfortable and it seems to be a haven of sorts for chris and his friends. i don't really have anything like that here...i suppose i just go out on the town or i don't because i am working/studying? sometimes i forget what it is that i actually do on a regular basis here. time does quite fly, and yet somehow i rarely sleep for much of it.

something i can always count on during this train ride down south, i've realized, is a scenic coastline view, complete with the looming, bridge-filled excitement of newcastle, which seems like quite a happening place, an amazing train station in york, and a fishing village called berwick-upon-tweed that i mentioned in here when i first took a train trip down to london that i continue to adore. today the view of the north sea was utterly monochromatic between the skyline and the sea view, save for some adorning clouds. it is strange how easy it is to love such gray-coloured environs. i am glad i am taking the time to revel in it when possible.

but, revelling over for the moment, i do have an exam on saturday and to work a double tomorrow before heading off to norwich the next morning. expect not to hear from me possibly until after my exam. boy will i be glad to wipe my hands of this anthropology class. for now, however, let's think about kinship, and let the grayscale wash over all the rest.