Final Hurrah.
Following post dates for Thursday, June 28th.
Last real day in Cambridge, England. Sigh. So much has happened in the last 24 hours and I couldn’t have asked for a better last day.
So I stayed up last night studying and was supposed to wake up early to look over some stuff, but that failed. I had a light breakfast this morning because today was the today of the great race. Against what I’m not sure, I guess a race against time. So normally I leave around 8:07 to meet up with Clair and Rebecca at 8:10 to go to DAMTP. But Since Garrett and I would be going a little faster, we left around 8:26ish. He used his stopwatch to time it. Here we go.
So he met me at my house before we started the clock. That means that he had his heart rate and blood pumping by the time he got to my house. We ‘sprinted’ the first like 5 minutes of the ride. I was so winded. We took the bunny trail as a shortcut. This was highly dangerous. 1) Going around turns you can’t see if anyone is coming, so basically if there’s someone else, it’s 100% guaranteed collision. 2) the path is ridiculously narrow, barely big enough for two bikes to pass one another. 3) the road is so bumpy, especially at high speeds. My cheeks were jiggling.
By the time we reached the end of the bunny trail, I had caught my second wind, and I was good. The fear of death factor didn’t really seem to slow us down at all today. I mean we were really cruising. We ran red lights, went through round-abouts out of turn, weaved in and out of cars. Highly dangerous stuff, Lance style. But we did hit a couple lights that killed us. I felt bad making Garrett take point the entire way. It was because he knew the way, and I wasn’t as sure. But I know that it is hard to take point because it’s hard to set and maintain a fast pace. It’s far easier to follow someone. We should have switched, but I wasn’t thinking. I am dumb. I thought about drafting off him and then pulling to the front like they do in pro-cycling teams. Slingshot Engaged.
So we made it to DAMTP in one piece. More importantly, we made it there a lot faster than I thought we would. The official time: 16 minutes 40 seconds. If you are reading this, you had better be amazed. It normally takes 30-35 minutes at a moderate pace. We nearly cut that time in half. My goal was 18 minutes. Shattered that. My only regret was the ridiculous stop lights. We lost a couple of minutes on those alone. We could have done 15 minutes, I’m sure of it. Goal accomplished.
The aftermath however was not pretty. We had about 20 minutes before the test, and I definitely needed every single one of those minutes to recover. It was bad. Towards the beginning of the exam, I could not breathe in deeply without gasping or wheezing. And my ears hurt real bad form the cold. Other than that I was good.
The exam went very well. I say that now that I already know my grade. But I mean it was hard, but fair. After the exam we all went to lunch very happy and relaxed people.
Afterwards, we had a difficult time trying to decide what to do. The possibilities were literally endless. It was a gorgeous day. Punting, playing Frisbee, going to a pub, going shopping, taking a nap, whatever we wanted, we could do. We were done with class. So we debated what to do for a while, and ended up in the Churchill field with the Frisbee. So first we threw the Frisbee around for a while, but couldn’t get a game of ultimate going. Then we had the brilliant idea of making a human pyramid. I forget whose idea it was actually. So this was tricky because we wanted a photo of it really badly. So first go around, we built it and I set my camera on 30 second timer. Since Kacie and Laura were on top, we would build it, then she would push the button and run up. 30 seconds is a long time, we were dwindling. But then we tried the 10 second timer, that worked better.
After the pyramid came a conglomeration of every childhood game we’ve ever played. Chinese freeze tag, cat and mouse, duck duck goose, the hand pushing game, leg wrestling, and Garrett’s random game. It was the most fun I have had in a while and I don’t think I have laughed that hard for a long time. We played for over an hour and it was amazing.
Then we broke off to do a little shopping before heading over to Studio Cambridge to return our things. I needed something to give to my host family, and I had remembered them saying that they wished they had a journal for their guest students to write notes to them while studying abroad. So I went to Waterstone’s and bought one. Nice.
Then returning my bike. This was hard for me. Over time, we have become one and now we are apart. I really would like to try and calculate the mileage we have accumulated over the past month. I wager over 200 miles. Pretty ridiculous, maybe its wrong. Eventually I will find the time to figure it out.
After returning our bikes, we went back to our respective homestays via the bus. I hate the bus. I literally waited over 40 minutes and the bus ever came. I was pissed. I missed my bike greatly. It was so much faster.
I got ready for dinner and took a group photo with the Betson’s for my own personal log.
Dinner was at the Soriento hotel, near Jack’s fish and chips. It was great, great job Layla. Dr Diller commenced the night with a farewell speech and Mrs. Diller handed out the grades. No I am not going to tell you what I got exactly. Let’s just say that I am content.
After dinner, we walked over to the Rock pub and said our goodbyes to Susannah, Natalie, and Garrett. They will be greatly missed. As well, we had to say goodbye to Layla as well, which was sad.
A group of us decided to go to a bar near the cineworld just for fun around 11:30 pm. Turns out they close at 12. Bu they recommended an international club in the city centre called Ballare. Hm. We gave it some thought and decided we were going to go. But first, I had to go back to Cherry Hinton and get my shoes since I was wearing sandals and violated dress code. We took a cab. I haven’t been in a car for over a month. Oh my God, it went so fast. I thought I was going fast on my bike. No. I can’t wait to go back to the states so I can drive.
So the club scene was pretty interesting. I never knew that there was this side of Cambridge. There were so many people there: mostly international students but other people to like random old men. I almost didn’t go, but Clair talked me into it. Turns out it was so much fun and I’m really glad I went. There were a lot of random weird dudes in there that would come up to us and just stare at the girls while they danced. So we devised a good system. The girl would come into the middle of us and we would form like a shield around her until the dude left. At some point, Clair was sitting down and this guy came over and grabbed her arm and started pulling her. She was like uhhh. I had to push the guy away. Don’t worry though, everything was fine. We stayed till it closed at 3 am. Towards the end, we were all covered in sweat and reeked of smoke. Nice. I just wanted to say that Deepa loves to dance more than anyone I know. Ask her about details.
So we called a cab and went back home. I crawled into bed around 4ish and I haven’t packed yet. I figure I’ll just do it tomorrow.
Our one final ride in Cambridge was over. Goodnight Cambridge.
-James
Following post dates for Thursday, June 28th.
Last real day in Cambridge, England. Sigh. So much has happened in the last 24 hours and I couldn’t have asked for a better last day.
So I stayed up last night studying and was supposed to wake up early to look over some stuff, but that failed. I had a light breakfast this morning because today was the today of the great race. Against what I’m not sure, I guess a race against time. So normally I leave around 8:07 to meet up with Clair and Rebecca at 8:10 to go to DAMTP. But Since Garrett and I would be going a little faster, we left around 8:26ish. He used his stopwatch to time it. Here we go.
So he met me at my house before we started the clock. That means that he had his heart rate and blood pumping by the time he got to my house. We ‘sprinted’ the first like 5 minutes of the ride. I was so winded. We took the bunny trail as a shortcut. This was highly dangerous. 1) Going around turns you can’t see if anyone is coming, so basically if there’s someone else, it’s 100% guaranteed collision. 2) the path is ridiculously narrow, barely big enough for two bikes to pass one another. 3) the road is so bumpy, especially at high speeds. My cheeks were jiggling.
By the time we reached the end of the bunny trail, I had caught my second wind, and I was good. The fear of death factor didn’t really seem to slow us down at all today. I mean we were really cruising. We ran red lights, went through round-abouts out of turn, weaved in and out of cars. Highly dangerous stuff, Lance style. But we did hit a couple lights that killed us. I felt bad making Garrett take point the entire way. It was because he knew the way, and I wasn’t as sure. But I know that it is hard to take point because it’s hard to set and maintain a fast pace. It’s far easier to follow someone. We should have switched, but I wasn’t thinking. I am dumb. I thought about drafting off him and then pulling to the front like they do in pro-cycling teams. Slingshot Engaged.
So we made it to DAMTP in one piece. More importantly, we made it there a lot faster than I thought we would. The official time: 16 minutes 40 seconds. If you are reading this, you had better be amazed. It normally takes 30-35 minutes at a moderate pace. We nearly cut that time in half. My goal was 18 minutes. Shattered that. My only regret was the ridiculous stop lights. We lost a couple of minutes on those alone. We could have done 15 minutes, I’m sure of it. Goal accomplished.
The aftermath however was not pretty. We had about 20 minutes before the test, and I definitely needed every single one of those minutes to recover. It was bad. Towards the beginning of the exam, I could not breathe in deeply without gasping or wheezing. And my ears hurt real bad form the cold. Other than that I was good.
The exam went very well. I say that now that I already know my grade. But I mean it was hard, but fair. After the exam we all went to lunch very happy and relaxed people.
Afterwards, we had a difficult time trying to decide what to do. The possibilities were literally endless. It was a gorgeous day. Punting, playing Frisbee, going to a pub, going shopping, taking a nap, whatever we wanted, we could do. We were done with class. So we debated what to do for a while, and ended up in the Churchill field with the Frisbee. So first we threw the Frisbee around for a while, but couldn’t get a game of ultimate going. Then we had the brilliant idea of making a human pyramid. I forget whose idea it was actually. So this was tricky because we wanted a photo of it really badly. So first go around, we built it and I set my camera on 30 second timer. Since Kacie and Laura were on top, we would build it, then she would push the button and run up. 30 seconds is a long time, we were dwindling. But then we tried the 10 second timer, that worked better.
After the pyramid came a conglomeration of every childhood game we’ve ever played. Chinese freeze tag, cat and mouse, duck duck goose, the hand pushing game, leg wrestling, and Garrett’s random game. It was the most fun I have had in a while and I don’t think I have laughed that hard for a long time. We played for over an hour and it was amazing.
Then we broke off to do a little shopping before heading over to Studio Cambridge to return our things. I needed something to give to my host family, and I had remembered them saying that they wished they had a journal for their guest students to write notes to them while studying abroad. So I went to Waterstone’s and bought one. Nice.
Then returning my bike. This was hard for me. Over time, we have become one and now we are apart. I really would like to try and calculate the mileage we have accumulated over the past month. I wager over 200 miles. Pretty ridiculous, maybe its wrong. Eventually I will find the time to figure it out.
After returning our bikes, we went back to our respective homestays via the bus. I hate the bus. I literally waited over 40 minutes and the bus ever came. I was pissed. I missed my bike greatly. It was so much faster.
I got ready for dinner and took a group photo with the Betson’s for my own personal log.
Dinner was at the Soriento hotel, near Jack’s fish and chips. It was great, great job Layla. Dr Diller commenced the night with a farewell speech and Mrs. Diller handed out the grades. No I am not going to tell you what I got exactly. Let’s just say that I am content.
After dinner, we walked over to the Rock pub and said our goodbyes to Susannah, Natalie, and Garrett. They will be greatly missed. As well, we had to say goodbye to Layla as well, which was sad.
A group of us decided to go to a bar near the cineworld just for fun around 11:30 pm. Turns out they close at 12. Bu they recommended an international club in the city centre called Ballare. Hm. We gave it some thought and decided we were going to go. But first, I had to go back to Cherry Hinton and get my shoes since I was wearing sandals and violated dress code. We took a cab. I haven’t been in a car for over a month. Oh my God, it went so fast. I thought I was going fast on my bike. No. I can’t wait to go back to the states so I can drive.
So the club scene was pretty interesting. I never knew that there was this side of Cambridge. There were so many people there: mostly international students but other people to like random old men. I almost didn’t go, but Clair talked me into it. Turns out it was so much fun and I’m really glad I went. There were a lot of random weird dudes in there that would come up to us and just stare at the girls while they danced. So we devised a good system. The girl would come into the middle of us and we would form like a shield around her until the dude left. At some point, Clair was sitting down and this guy came over and grabbed her arm and started pulling her. She was like uhhh. I had to push the guy away. Don’t worry though, everything was fine. We stayed till it closed at 3 am. Towards the end, we were all covered in sweat and reeked of smoke. Nice. I just wanted to say that Deepa loves to dance more than anyone I know. Ask her about details.
So we called a cab and went back home. I crawled into bed around 4ish and I haven’t packed yet. I figure I’ll just do it tomorrow.
Our one final ride in Cambridge was over. Goodnight Cambridge.
-James
1 comment:
Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go Shorty
It's you're birthday
We gonna party like
It's you're birthday
We gonna sip Bacardi
Like It's you're birthday
And You know we don't give a f
It's not you're birthday
Post a Comment