Big big update.

Back from a really busy sequence of events -

End of term, christmas party, aloysius's birthday, church and punting on sunday, houseparty, london, spain trip, and now i'm back!

A Roman bridge in Toledo,
still standing after 2 millenniums

Spain!
A country incredibly rich in history and architecture, many many magnificent and historically significant buildings and monuments. Got to learn a little more about spainish history, from the roman days dating 2000 years back, to the arab rule from 711 to 1492, catholic rule, other significant events like war with napoleon, the spanish civil war 1936-1939, dictatorship, followed by the current democratic government.

Visited many interesting cities,

Gibraltar:
- a British colony
- where the mediterranean meets the atlantic,
- which marks the edge of the Roman known world, gate of hercules,
- the gates through which the arabs conquered spain
- huge rock, huge cave, intelligent apes.

Seville:
- center for commerce between the americas and europe,
- city from which Magellan begun his quest to find an alternative route to the spice islands through the americas. He found the pacific ocean, and the Phillipines.

150m high cross marking the civil war dead
on valley of the fallen

Picasso's birthplace, and the valley of the fallen are two other remarkable places.

Not only did i learn spanish history, i also understand a little better the jewish perception of things, from a jew who was on the trip, as well as my own family history :p Kinda puts my current pursuits and struggles in perspective.


Houseparty! '06
Was a nice time... guess there's not very much to say (or maybe there's just too much, that i dont know how to start), except that it just adds to the experiences in Cambridge that I'll cherish when i leave...

Also have been pondering on the spain trip what I should do in summer, more specifically, whether I should go on a mission trip to china with the cf people. Guess I've kinda decided in its favour; on the grounds that it's an event that will certainly happen, and that promises to be really enriching, and the opportunity to work with the people I'm beginning to grow quite close to.


Christmas Party, Aloysius Birthday, Punting
Were the events immidiately following the end of term. Christmas party went really really well, unfortunately i was too busy with work to play a bigger part in it. Aloysius celebrated his 21st birthday that day too! his first overseas. As birthday present, we did his comsci maths example sheet questions til 3 am, reminising our maths society days at the same time. Slept over, went to church the day after, and punted with Simon and a few other malaysians.


K, think i've decently recorded the past week in the annals of my days. Coming up - a few days in cambridge, with parents, london for christmas, and back to cambridge to catch up with many many work.