MPhil Graduation

After about 9 months the MPhil at Cambridge came to an end. A very formal and traditional end I might say.

Cambridge has a very old tradition to award the degrees. It dates from the early days of the University probably. We were dressed up in gowns and hoods (see some photos on Facebook), each one wearing the colours of the degree to be conferred. Each college has an allocated time in the ceremony, when all the students about to graduate enter the Senate House (a large building in the city center). From there some of the officials say Latin phrases after which we have a kind of blessing.

Once the formal part is over each college makes a party for its graduands. We were received with a great banquet, which they called High Tea.

Scotland

A while ago we decided that it would be nice to visit the north part of the UK island (aka Scotland). So we rented a car and for about 7 days we made a tour, starting from Edinburgh, then through Iverness and Loch Ness, and finally through Glasgow.

Probably many things to see in less than a week, but I can tell that most of the things we've seen were beautiful.

Edinburgh was probably the nicest city among all those visited. They have a nice castle/museum where you can easily spend an entire day if you want to read about all the Scottish history and achievements (much more than I initially thought).

On the landscape side, I would say Loch Ness was the most impressive place. Not only because Nessie is hiding somewhere there, but all the area around the lake is very nice. Another very nice place to visit is Oban. A small city within a bay, with many islands around and one of the oldest Scottish distilleries (from 1794).

I could say much more but I will stop here. Go to Scotland if you want to find more, and check our website for some photos:

http://danasiomar.shutterfly.com/

(also available on Facebook for friends)

Google Felloship (aka scholarship) for PhD

So many news to tell after being free from the MPhil pressure. Well, I'll start with the best. Recently I have received one of the European Google Felloships for my PhD. This means that Google will finance my studies for the next years, so thanks a lot Google. For more details please see the official blog:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/google-phd-fellowships-go-international.html

Also thanks to all the people supporting me including those at my current lab in Cambridge but also my old friends from IRIT (Toulouse, France).