Week One, Done

So today marks the end of our first week here. As cliché as it may sound, this week has gone by so fast, and I'm kinda sad that I'll be done in a few weeks.

This post will be kinda boring. Sorry

Anyways, so this morning a group of us decided to go check out an Anglican church service at King's College Chapel. I woke up around 9:00 and had some cereal. We met up and took a long ride into town. Rebecca is now the official point person of all our rides. I would follow her to the ends of the Earth. She always knows where she's going and never gets lost. So if she were to be looking for the ends of the earth, Pirates of the Caribbean style, she would find them. Plus she fast as hell.

Rebecca chilling.

So she got us there with about 30 minutes to spare. Kings
College.

Me, Garrett, Rebecca, Clair, Kacie, and Ani

When we got there, we asked the attendant to take a picture of our group in front of the college and he was very obliging. So after he took our picture, we tried to walk in for service, and he was like sorry the grounds are closed to observation. Since he had just been so nice, I thought this was a joke. So I laughed and kept walking past him. Big mistake. He stuck out an arm bar and hes like NO, the grounds really are closed. He was kinda scary. Apparently he didn't get that we wanted to go to service, but eventually let us in.

The chapel itself was amazing. I couldn't take any photos, but the stained glass windows were amazing. The ornate ceilings were so high and there was a huge organ in the middle. So, the service was a lot like a catholic service, which I've never been too. I didn't really know what was going on, but it was really interesting. The choir was really good and the acoustics in the chapel made them sound amazing.

After service, we walked around Cambridge for a while. We visited Trinity College, which is the wealthiest and largest of all the colleges in Cambridge or Oxford. Trinity college owns much of Cambridge. It was gorgeous inside the grounds.

Trinity College

Me, Kacie, Garrett

After a while we rode back home. For lunch Simon made me two sandwiches. They were pretty good. After lunch I met Clair and Rebecca to finish up our homework. I got to meet their family. I forgot all their names, but their kid Ollie was a funny kid.

Then I went home and had dinner. Now this is definitely a point to highlight. Simon put together another masterpiece of a meal. We had roasted lamb. It was amazing.

An English roasted dinner.

Along with it we had two kinds of potatoes, roasted and boiled. We also had steamed vegetables, and Yorkshire pudding. Now for those of you who don't knwo what Yorkshire pudding is, it's not pudding at all. Its more like a light fluffy biscuit. Traditionally it goes with a roasted dinner. Also we had a gravy for the lamb and this mint sauce with a vinegar base. This I put on everything.

Carnivore

I just want to say how fortunate I am to have my host family. Talking to other people about their homestays, I realize how lucky I got with my homestay. Some host families don't make their students lunch, don't allow them into the rest of the house, don't let them use their computers, don't let them use their wireless or charge them for it, limit their loads of laundry, turn on the hot water for only 2 hours a day, and in one funny case, don't have a shower curtain (Leslie and Michelle). But for the most part, all the homestays are good.

Here is a picture from my homestay backyard of Harry playing in his pool with his friends.

After dinner, Laura, Kacie, and I walked to the local Tesco to get Jennifer some cold medicine. Afterwards we walked to a shopping plaza and had some dessert. Expensive but delicious.

Tomorrow we have class. Time for some REM cycle sleep.

Cheers,

James