Cambridge, England

Cheers from Cambridge,

We woke up this morning around 8:30, had breakfat, and checked out by 9:15. The group, Dr. Diller, and Mrs. Diller took our private bus to Cambridge. The ride took about 1 hour 45 minutes (without traffic), sorry to everyone I told about Cambridge being only 45 minutes away.

So all of Cambridge, as everyone probably knows, is very very old. Much has been restored, but a lot has also weathered the past 8 centuries and is still standing. A brief history lesson for you all. Cambridge was founded in 1209 because of fighting between the townspeople and students at Oxford over a dispute. Many of the Oxford students were fed up with the college and left to found their own college. The location they picked was a town near the river Cam (pronounced like the CAM in CAMera). There are many bridges over the river Cam, hence the clever name CAMbridge (this CAM not pronounced like the one in camera). Anyways so there is a deep seated rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge. The main competition between the schools is rowing. Now the campus is unlike that at UT or pretty much colleges in America. There are about 33 colleges all over the town, and they are all spread out. Each college is known for a specific area and field, however, all the colleges do teach pretty much everything.

Ok, history lesson done. So after reaching Cambridge, we met our representative there at a school called Studio Cambridge. Her name is Layla. She helped the group that went last year to Cambridge as well, and we are all quite fond of her. This is not the school where we will be learning, although they do teach foreign students how to speak English.

This is Layla

Dr. & Mrs. Diller

We dropped off our luggage, had lunch, and we assigned bikes. The only problem is the back tire brake is the left handle and not the right. So a few of us may be flipping off the front.

Travis and Clair gettin a bike. Clair apparently does not know how to ride one kind of.

So then Layla took us on a walking tour around Cambridge to see various colleges and give us a brief background on the town. We saw the river Cam and people punting alone the river. This is a famous activity to do while at Cambridge. The technique seems to be very difficult.

Here is a picture:

Group on tour.

Some of the colleges we saw like King's college, Trinity college, and Pembroke (brook) college dated to the 13th century, which was mind boggling. We only toured Pembroke college and saw old quarters, a cathedral, and dining halls. We returned later to this college to have dinner, but more on that later.

Interesting Cambridge fact: The grass is tediously cared after, and it is strictly forbidden to walk on UNLESS you are a senior or faculty. This rule is taken very seriously by students and faculty. Our guide says that people actually walk around and enforce this rule. That being said. This is Jennifer standing on the grass.

After walking back to Studio Cambridge, we debriefed for a bit and picked up our luggage. Cabs came and picked groups of us off to drop us at our homestays. Of the 17, 13 are living together in two's or three's. But Michael, Deepa, Diane, and myself are living on our own. From what I overheard at dinner, everyone seems to have a homestay that they like with no complaints. For myself, I consider myself lucky to have be placed with an amazing family.

They are the Betson's: Simon and Karen, two kids: Lauren (13) and Harry (10), two dogs: Buster (lab), Bess (border collie), and cat that I am not particularly fond of. (Pictures of them will come later) The father welcomed me in at first because no one was home. He is quite a character and a very kind man. We've become good friends already. They live in a small but very cozy 2 story house in a culdesac. All the kids know one another and travel from home to home playing. They all seem to love Simon and always try to get him to come out and play.

The host of the homestay for two of the other guys, Brian and Garrett, somehow were not there. So they were dropped off at our place. While we waited for their family to get home, Simon decided that we should play his Wii. Naturally we were all quite entertained by this. Supposedly he is a pro at tennis and bowling, but instead us three guys bowled. I found out that I suck. The Betson's only have a bed for me, so when his wife came home, Simon decided to trick his wife and say that they were sent 3 instead of 1. At first she flipped out, but eventually he told her. Anyways so Brian and Garrett eventualy left, and I got ready for my dinner.

So our dinner at Pembroke hall is supposed to be formal. When I was dressing into my suit, I noticed that I had not packed my tie. Before I started panicking, Simon offered me one of his. HOWEVER, there was a common theme to all his ties. Simon loves Disney, and owns only Disney ties. At first I had trouble picking one out, but eventually I found one that worked.

I chose this.

It is Grumpy of the seven dwarfs. This worked because the jacket hid him. But I didn't hide him very well because in the cab, Clair saw it right away. Eventually so did everyone else.

The tie turned out to be a success, and Dr. Diller loved it.

Group with Diller before Dinner

This is a shot of Susannah that I thought was cool. It only highlights the red.
Dinner is very formal and occurs daily at Pembroke. All the students must wear their dress robes as well as the professors. When the professors (called fellows) come in, the head of the college gives a welcome in Latin. We sit and are served after the fellows. No pictures are allowed when the fellows are in the room. Apparently the fellows travel from room to room for various parts of their dinners: main course, dessert, etc. Not much family life.
Dr. Diller with Clair, Rebecca, and my jacket (on the right. pinstripes, very nice).

After dinner, everyone went back to their homestays. I stayed and talked to my host family for a while about Texas and Cambridge. I got the kids some t-shirts from the Co-op and the parents some salsa, which they loved. They started eating it right away... except they used Doritos. I didn't say anything.

Tomorow is the first day of class, should be an adventure. Especially because most of us don't know how to get back to the Studio from our homes. Sorry this post wasn't very funny, I'm kinda tired. Goodnight.

-James

South Kensington, London Day 2

Hi,

So today was fairly eventful. It began with breakfast at 8:00 am, and then we left from our hotel to go on a bus tour of London. The tour itself was interesting. We saw famous cathedrals, statues, London bridge, London tower, Buckingham palace again, St. James's Park again, and other various buildings. And we saw the changing of the uard at buckingham palace. Nice.

This is St Paul's cathedral

Front row Diane, Jennifer, Laura, Rebecca, Clair, Michelle, Deepa, Kacie, Travis

Second Row: Garrett, Leslie, Me, Brian, Michael, Natalie, Susannah, and Ani.

Our guide Karen

This is London Bridge

These girls Susannah (spelling?) and Natalie made him laugh. Very unprofessional.

However, the interaction between the tour guide and our driver was much more entertaining. To begin, our guide was somewhat of an older man named Terry. Terry hates pretty much everything and is always angry. He would make funny comments all throughout the tour guide's presentation. As well, whenever the tour guide would ask Terry to slow down while we passed an important building, he would just keep going the same speed. So we saw a lot of London in a glance. He also had a lot of opinions abotu other drivers that were less than friendly. At one point when he was cut off by another bus driver at a light, (stop light) he just stopped the bus, opened the door and goes "I'm going to have a chat with him." Our tour guide didn't know what to do. So he strolled over to the other bus driver, and pretty much just yelled at him. Then he came back to the bus. I managed to make a video of the entire thing. We were all fairly entertained. At another point he told a traffic guard to "piss off," and our tour guide freaked out for his bad language.

This is Terry

The tour ended at about 1:00 and we headed to a sandwich shop that seems to be all over London called Pret a Manger. Apparently they have really good sandwiches. Anywyas so we ate there. They were ok.

Then we went into a museum called The Museums of the Royal College of Surgeons. First we saw the Museum of Anatomy and pathology. It was founded by this guy named John Hunter who apparently did everything associated with surgery in the 1700's. Anyways so he collected specimens of everythign imaginable and preserved them in containers. It ranged from unborn fetuses (feti?) to kangaroo skeletons, to a skeleton of a 7'7" man from the 1700's that was only like 22 years old.

Then we were allowed to go upstairs and see his anatomy collection. He collected specimens of basically everything that could be wrong with a human and preserved them too. We saw some pretty graphic things. Needless to say this guy was very passionate about surgery.

From the museum we went and bought discounted tickets to tonight's showing of Les Miserables. It was 22 pounds, which is fairly cheap. It's tonight at 7:30, so we have to go now to get ready.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

P.S. Tim if you are reading this, can you find out if I can return this memory card. This is ridiculous and I am really pissed. Thanks

-James

South Kensington, London

Hello again,

Today we woke up at around 8:00 am because one of the girls, who wishes to remain nameless.. Laura woke up and thought it was 9:00 am. Also I tried to close the curtain this morning to get rid of the sunlight and instead ripped it off the wall.

Anyways so we woke up and got ready. The girls frantically got ready and Michael and myself just laid in bed. Then we had breakfast. Oatmeal and toast. Then we packed and checked out at 10:00 am.

From there we walked to our new Hotel, the Regency. It was about half a mile or so away and much nicer than our hostel. When got there we met with our London representative, Nicole. She debriefed us on the week's activities and the set us free at about 11:00 to wander the city. We first went to the South Kensington station and rode the Picadilly line to Covent Garden and walked around. There were some markets around us and shops. Pretty cool for a night time scene. I took a picture with this street performer pretending to be a statue, and he grabbed my head.. but MY CAMERA MEMORY BROKE. I AM SO PISSED. So I lost a lot of pictures. All the ones you see, I had to borrow Kacie's memory card to use. THis was ok because her camera battery died. We ate lunch at a pricey cafe, food was ok. From there we walked to Trafalgar square and saw a bunch of stuff that we knew nothing about. Basically that was the theme of today.. seeing things we knew nothing about.

From Trafalgar square we walked through this nice park with a large pond. There were all kinds of duck and geese. Also there was this huge pelican walking right behind us, I thought it was a person. From there we walked to see Buckingham Palace.

Here is a picture:

We watched the guards walk around and do their thing, however, they were not what i expected. Instead of the stoic guards we are used to seeing in movies and stuff, these guys would move around and turn their heads to talk to each other. One guy had a really lazy stance, which was quite unprofessional. The palace itself was rather impressive.

From Buckingham palace, we walked a long ways to the Parliament buildings, but got lost. It rained on and off all day. We found our way, but first went into Westminster Chapel and went inside. It was huge and rather nice. I also saw this guy doing a confessional which I have never seen before.

Then we finally got to the Parliament building and saw "Big Ben" the clock tower at the parliament building. This was cool too, but we also knew nothing about what we saw.

From here we caught the tube (subway) back to our hotel and then we walked to an internet cafe. So this is where I am, it is about 6:40 and this costs 4 pounds an hour, $8 dollars an hour, so I don't have time to upoload all the pictures because the internet is so incredibly slow. Therefore I will post the pictures when I can.

As for the rest of tonight, Dr. Diller (our BME chair and professor of our summer course) came from Cambridge to London to come eat dinner with us. From there I do not know what we will do. Tomorrow we are goign on some tours and plan to go to an musical, possible Les Miserables. It should be pretty interesting. Ok that is all for now. Thanks for visiting.

-James

Addendum

The shower is so cold. All the girls came in one at a time saying how cold it was. I thought I could handle it but I failed. I now know why European people don't shower very much. None of the guys showered. Props to the girls.

Gloucester, London

Hello friends, I finally made it to London. Right now I am sitting in my eight person hostel with the rest of my group. It's about 9 pm now, and we are just sitting trying to figure out something to do. Here's a recap of what has happened so far:

Caught flight to Dallas, then Dallas -> London. On the flight, the lady sitting next to me had no headphones so she made me share mine with her. It was uncomfortable. Also there were about 3 babies having a yelling contest with each other. Once I landed, I ran into a fellow BME student, Michael, and we went through customs. He had no problem getting through. But for some reason the lady I had decided to ask me every question imaginable for liek 20 minutes. It was a bad situation and went something like this:

Lady: What are you here for?

Me: Just traveling. (We aren't supposed to say studying abroad because then we would need a letter from the Cambridge university saying we had permission, and it would have been a big mess. So I tried to avoid saying this)

Lady: How long will you be here?

Me: About a month.

Lady: Where are you staying?

Me: Um, I am not sure. (this is where it got bad) I am traveling with a friend (her name is Kacie) and she has booked the hostel where we are staying.

now a series of questions that I had to answer:

Lady: What is her name, how do you spell it, how old is she, is she in college as well, what does she study, where is she from, how can you reach her, what is her phone number?

Me: (answered all the questions)

Lady: Ok, lets try to call her and see if we can find out where you are staying.

Me: Um, ok.

Lady: (Proceeds to call Kacie, Kacie answers. Lady comes running back) Oh! Kacie is in the "queue" (English for "line") Excuse me, is there a Kacie here?? Kacie! (But we can't find her, so the lady comes back and asks me more questions) So what are you studying, what are you plans when you graduate, what do your parents do, when were they born, how many siblings do you have, how old are they, what do they do.

Me: (I answer all these questions)

Lady: (Calls Kacie again, this time, Kacie says that we were traveling in a group of 9. Lady comes back to me) So, how many people did you say you were traveling with?

Me: Just one. (I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible)

Lady: But Kacie just said there were 9 of you. Why did you say one? How long are you staying in the hostel?

Me: Well.. I only really know her (lie). We are staying in the hostel for about a month (lie).

Lady: She said you are only staying in the hostel for one night.

Me: (Oh crap I'm going to get detained) I'm sorry, that's what I meant.

Lady: (Looks at me.. then stamps my passport and lets me go through)

Then the rest of the group made it through customs and we went to the baggage claim. BUT then a girl from our group, Jennifer, lost her luggage. Thankfully she kept her luggage checkin receipt. At the baggage claim service, Jennifer found out that what had actually happened was the lady checking her accidentally checked her bag under the person before her. A fellow by the name of Kabad. Jennifer was like, my last name is not Kabad... it's Voss. Pretty funny stuff. So we waited for them to find her luggage, almost an hour, until Jennifer decided to look at some extra luggage sitting there and some how found hers.

Michelle, Kacie, Jennifer

MyselfThen we went to buy train tickets and made our way to Victoria.

Kacie and Travis asking for directions

These are the guys: Michael, Ani, and Travis

These are the girls: Kacie, Laura, Jennifer, and Michelle (picture of natalie will come later)

OH MY GOD IT'S SO COLD OUTSIDE. I'm mad at everyone who told me that this summer is supposed to be a record breaking hot summer, supposedly in the 100's fahrenheit. It's actually about low 40's with wind and rain. I forgot my jacket.

Walking to the hostel

This is the Astor Kensington Hostel

From Victoria, we caught a subway to Gloucester, London. From there, we walked around the streets for some time with our luggage before finding our hostel. Michelle has the heaviest luggage ever. I had to carry it up stairs. Next I would say is Jennifers, followed by Ani, then Laura, then Kacie. Good job Ani. Almost died because I didn't realize that cars come from the opposite direction in London. Oops. We are staying at the Astor Kensington Hostel. It's next to this pizza place, we may eat there for dinner. We had to split into a group of 7 and one of 2. 7 of us are in one room that fits 8 people. The other person should come later. I am in the 7 person room. Its pretty small and sketchy and the roof leaks. I put a plant to collect the leaking water. The water isn't warm and the girls are freaking out because they cannot wash their faces. Also we have to take cold showers.

This is our room:

Michael, Laura, Jennifer

Michelle and Kacie

Room again: Natalie and Michelle


This is the plant that stopped the leaking:

At around 3 we walked to this chicken resturant called Nando's. They have pretty good chicken, and some of the spicest wings I have ever tried. One of the guys Michael ordered the spicy, then he started crying. I tried too, it was pretty painful.

This is Michael choking, and Travis:

This is me:

We walked back to our hostel and sat around. Then our other roommate came in later today and it was pretty awkward. But now, he is our new friend. His name is Shreenivasan, he gave us these sweets called jaggery.

This is him:

This is Ani eating the jaggery:

He is telling us cool stories about where he is from. Nice guy actually. Apparently he is from the UK and always stays in the hostel, in this room everytime he passes through for business. We decided to go to the local market for some frozen pizzas and water with Shreenivasan. The hostel has a kitchen, so we can cook them. And now it is dinner time, 10:15 pm. Nice. Tomorrow, we will move into our hotel. The girls will be so happy.

Side notes:

1.This is only about half the entire group, they have arrived or will arrive at various times.
2. All the credit goes to Kacie for booking the hostel, and basically finding out where we needed to go.

That is all. Goodbye

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this is my fist blog entry. yay