Hi friends,
Welcome to the 50th edition of Leo’s Lemonade. In this issue, I will write a mini-travel guide for Cambridge & share some facts & photos.
My Postcard Schedule:
👉 Aug 3: England (A Day in Cambridge) 👈
Aug 10: Central Europe (Austria, Slovakia, Hungary)
Aug 17: Boston (My First Home)
Aug 24: Cincinnati (My Second Home)
Aug 31: Year of Travel (Recap)
Cambridge is the 3rd oldest university in the world & the STEM nucleus of the UK. Notable alumni include: Mathematicians from Trinity College (eg. Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton), Charles Darwin, and Robert Oppenheimer. Cambridge has 32 colleges, ranked by prestige, age, and location. Geographically, Cambridge is a short 1h 15m ride from London.
Here are some photos from my visit:
Some Interesting Observations
Terminology: Porters’ Lodge = Security guard / admin office. Pigeonhole = mail room. Buttery = dining hall.
The grass is so well-kept that only tenured professors are allowed to step foot on it. Then May Ball (end-of-year celebration) happens, the grass is destroyed and must be repaired for the next year.
Students like to joke around by passing along false information to tour guides, which’ll then be passed on to unsuspecting tourists.
My Recommendations
Market Square
King’s College, John’s College, The Backs, Bridge of Sighs
Punting along the River Cam
Shoutout to Laura for the tour guide, and to Daniel, Yorrick, and Sasha for the punting experience.
What I Read This Week
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. The title caught my eye as it’s about video games. Zevin is a talented writer who does a decent job contrasting the 4 major characters (Sam, Sadie, Marx, Dov). One chapter is written from the POV of a video game NPC character, which I thought was creative & well done. Her insistence on social issues was not my cup of tea. The ending was a bit hollow. 7/10.
The Power of Strangers. Joe participates in a “talking to strangers” class in London. Two things I learned: (1) People tend to overestimate the negatives of talking to strangers. Whereas most people feel more connected afterward. (2) “Triangulation” in urban design refers to putting a shared object (eg. public piano) in front of two people, so they can reciprocally converse without breaking social norms. 7/10.
Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. According to Sowell, “Economics is the study of the use of (1) scarce resources which have (2) alternative uses.” Economics refers to the problem of allocating scarce resources (eg. How much milk should go into butter vs cheese vs ice cream). I especially loved the discussion of the Soviet system & why it led to massive inefficiencies. 8/10.
Have a great week!
Leo A
Ah, you made it to my home for three years when I did my law degree.
St John's is the best college, right?!!! 😉
Leo, I’ve enjoyed reading about and seeing images of your year of travel. I’ve been inspired by your quest to explore new worlds and experience different cultures. I can’t wait to hear about your next adventure. Thank you for sharing!