England is Full of Wonderful People

To pick up where my last entry left off, the siblings who I sat next to and I said our goodbyes once the plane touched down and rushed off in our separate directions (though not before they pointed me in the right direction). I made it through customs and stuff rather quickly, though, when I reached the train station, it turned out that the train I rushed for didn’t exist and the next one would leave in 20 minutes. Oh well. So I called Zena and boarded the train. When I arrived at Victoria station, Zena didn’t recognize me at first though, when I came back around after her call, she picked me out by my “American face.” So I can’t pass for British, oh well! I’ve definitely been mistaken for a native in other places in Europe!

We then took a cab back and chatted the entire way. When we arrived at her house, we continued to chat for a bit, and then we set up my bed couch, and I went to bed. I managed to sleep very well (mostly because the couch was extremely comfy), and, when I woke up, I had a really nice shower and breakfast (bran corn flakes and strawberries! Yum!). I then packed up my bags, Zena’s directions to Kings Cross in hand, and headed out the door.

I made it to the bus okay and nearly boarded when I realized that I had only euros, and no pounds, in my wallet! I then made a desperate and mostly fruitless search for an atm (the first place I tried had one but it wouldn’t take American cards) and finally found one a few blocks away. Whew! I then boarded the bus, freaked out when I realized I didn’t know which stop “Station Stop” was, got useful directions from the nice British lady sitting behind me, and got off without a problem. I then got on the tube to Victoria and then changed for the one to Kings Cross (though I worried the entire time that I had possibly forgotten to validate something). So my journey didn’t start off so smoothly.

It then turned out that I had reached Kings Cross very early and had a few hours to spare. So I headed into the McDonalds next door to relax and have lunch in (it had free wifi and real ketchup! Don’t judge!). It was during this time that I discovered that the prices for tickets to Manchester had gone very far up since I last checked so I sent a message to Julia saying that I wouldn’t be able to visit her after all. Which wasn’t so fun, but would at least give me a more relaxing trip back to London on Wednesday. After I finished eating and my computer died, I then went back to the station to wait and read an awful book for homework (it’s called Nights at the Circus and it’s by Angela Carter. Non mi piace). Eventually the train came, and I boarded and continued to read my book.

I continued to read the book for the entire train journey (first time I’ve been able to read on a moving vehicle ever. EVER!) and then in the Cambridge station while I waited for Sunoo. At last she arrived with a friend, and they saved me from its evil clutches! We then all headed back to Cambridge on the bus and chatted the entire way.

Sunoo and I then hung out in her rooms (which are amazing! They have two separate bedrooms on two separate floors a living room area, a kitchen, and a bathroom!), and I got to meet her roommate and some of her friends. Everyone was extremely nice and fun to hang out with. Though I must admit that my presence there definitely messed with quite a few people’s accents—even the ones who hadn’t lived in America for a bit! MWUAHAHAHA! :D

Eventually Sunoo had to go to a society (aka: club) meeting because elections were being held and she had a group that was trying to take over the club. Unfortunately, they didn’t win, but she is head of a different society as well so it looks like their plans aren’t finished quite yet. On a side note, everyone in this computer science based club looked very much the stereotypical computer nerd (with a few exceptions, granted): white male with a buttoned up shirt tucked into khaki pants and glasses. It was quite amusing.

The club then went out for curry (YES! THANK GOODNESS FOR NON-ITALIAN FOOD!), and I had very spicy chicken vindaloo with rice and garlic naan.

After that, Sunoo and I headed back to her rooms (which was a normal walk except it was very spooky for some of the walk since her dorms are surrounded by a massive garden that doesn’t have any night lights) where we chatted for a bit and then went to bed.

In the morning, I got up and ate breakfast and chilled on my computer for a bit since Sunoo was still sleeping. She wasn’t feeling wonderful due to a bug she caught from her parents. Unfortunately, it made her feel off enough to sleep in past her lecture times, but she still felt okay enough to hang out with me so we got extra time together because of it! (Also, yes, I did wash my hands religiously while I was there. I have traveling and then long days filled with dance when I get back! I can’t get sick!)

When we were both up, we then made cinnamon pancakes with frozen blueberries on the side for lunch/breakfast! It was extremely delicious and, by the end, my fingers and lips were stained black with berry juice. We then headed out to town to go check out the market (because apparently, all of the Cambridge students have bought funky hats there, and I love funky hats) and to just explore a bit. Unfortunately, the market was having an off day in terms of funky hats, but otherwise our explorations were so much fun! I saw many of the colleges that make up Cambridge, got free fudge, bought bagels and cream cheese, and saw the beautiful gardens blooming with flowers (it was so nice to see crocuses and Lenten roses blooming since I am missing them in Pittsburgh).

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 Random sights in Cambridge

Lenten Roses!

We then headed back through the scary night gardens (which were absolutely stunning in the day) to head back to her room. 

The pretty gardens around her housing area.

At her rooms, we ate some of the bagels and some cookies and relaxed until dinner. For dinner, we went out with one of her friends (the same one who met me at the train station) to a mixed aisan cuisine place. I ended up getting some sort of huge Malaysian bowl of chicken with noodles, and the whole table shared some dumplings. All of it was good, but the portions were so big that I probably only ate 2/3rds of what I got.

After that, Sunoo and her friend decided to take me to “do the roofs.” Basically, since so many of the Cambridge buildings have very flat roofs, many of the students have found entrances to the roofs through bathroom windows and such to go up and view the world. The roofs are all really big and flat  (similar to my roof in Pittsburgh) so its safe as long as you don’t go too near the edge.

We ended up getting to the roofs by going into a bathroom and then shimmying through the bars on the window (Sunoo assured me that not all of the entrances have bars blocking the way). Unfortunately, there were weird poking things on the bottom of the window that my jacket snagged on (and tore a bit at one of the button holes), but the views when we got out made it worth it.

Besides the flat roof area the window open to, there were also two square towers with ladders that we climbed to get a better view. And boy did we ever! Since it was so dark, I couldn’t take pictures, but I’ll tell you that I could see so much of Cambridge from my perches and the rush of being up high with a slight breeze made me feel positively giddy. Eventually, it got pretty cold and we had to head down and back through the window (I got stuck again though this time nothing ripped). After that, there was nothing more we could do and so Sunoo and I parted with her friend, went back to her room, and hung out until it was time to sleep.

The next morning was much the same as the previous except breakfast was BAGELS, Sunoo got up earlier, it was raining, and we actually attended one of her lectures. Unfortunately, I lost the idea of the subject very quickly (I understood the math behind what the professor was saying, but not what he was trying to do with it) so I went back to my wretched book for the hour. Sunoo and I then went into town and had lunch at a café (I had a BBQ chicken sandwich…though I wouldn’t call that sauce BBQ to save my life. It was okay despite that fact though) and desert at another café (I got an amazing chocolate muffin that had chocolate sauce inside). By this time, the drizzle turned downpour had gone back to a light drizzle, so we ran to the bank (Sunoo needed money) and then went to the bus stop. After saying goodbye and hugging multiple times, I got on the bus and went back to the train station. There, I waited for the train for a bit (though I found a one-euro coin! AWESOME!) and then eventually boarded. Again I read all the way, and, when I arrived at Kings Cross, I stopped by McDonalds again in order to check some things out on the internet (though this time I didn’t eat there). I then reversed everything I did to reach Kings Cross, which apparently had a magic effect and nothing went wrong (I even got to sit at the top first row on the double decker bus!). Since nothing went wrong, I reached Zena’s house about an hour before either her or Rob would be done with work. After some texting between Zena and I, we agreed to meet at the coffee shop nearby. Nearby ended up being a bit of a walk, and I got lost until a very nice British man helped me out, but when I got there I ended up having a nice quiet place to sit to keep reading my horrid awful book. Eventually Zena arrived, and we walked back to her house. There I finished my book (WOOOOOOOOOOO! DONE!), and then had a lovely dinner with Zena and Rob. After that, Zena and I chatted for a bit longer then we should (considering my early rising time the next day), and then I went to bed.

I slept okay for having to get up at 4:10am and made it downstairs dressed and packed without and mishaps. I then had a really quick breakfast (especially since the cab arrived ten minutes before the time Zena called him for) and took the cab to Victoria. From there, everything went smoothly from Victoria to Gatwick (except that one moment where I was in the wrong check in area, but that was solved quickly by taking the train to the other terminal) and from Gatwick to Barcelona (especially since I ended up in the front row for the first time).

Goodbye England, Buenos dias Espana!