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