Cambridge Day One and Two (June 30/July 1 and July 2)

Well, I'm here in Cambridge! It has been quite a wonderful adventure so far. Yes, I'm counting June 30 and July 1 as one day because it felt like one day and I lost five hours from one of the days. So there.

I woke up Saturday morning and had to say goodbye to Abby who was very upset with my leaving. We got to the airport around 11:30 to pick up Liz and then had to drive to the domestic part of the airport because my flight had a layover in New York. I checked my suitcase in and then we ate lunch together and then I had to say goodbye. I didn't get to see Liz long! But it was good to see her for a bit. Security didn't take long, and so I waited at my gate for about an hour I think. I just read my Kindle though (I still have some reading left for this trip - only two more books though). Two-hour flight to JFK in New York, during which I continued to read. JFK seemed out in the middle of nowhere; I couldn't see any tall buildings or anything like that. The gate I exited happened to be the gate I needed to be at for my next flight and that was when I realized I would be on the exact same plane, sitting in the seat directly behind the one I had just been sitting in (which wasn't a window seat but was next to the window seat). It took forever for us to actually take off (probably about 40 minutes), but then the flight itself was only six hours. My allergies were acting up at this point; I was sneezing a lot (good thing I brought Kleenex with me!) and my eyes were itchy. I watched Argo, hoping they would serve dinner while I was watching and then I could sleep after I ate, but they served dinner right as the movie was ending. So I started another movie (Safe Haven) so I could eat and watch. The in-flight dinner was a lot nicer than I expected (chicken over rice with bread/butter, cheese/crackers, a small salad, and a small brownie). After the movie ended, I slept for a little while and then woke up about an hour later and couldn't get back to sleep. But the flight was almost done, and they served breakfast, too (muffin, banana, and orange juice). I couldn't really get glimpses of London from the plane because it was really cloudy outside and I wasn't directly by the window. But we did have to circle around a few times until they cleared us to land (the pilot even said on the loud speaker that the London airport often made them wait a while). Then it was landing time and I was officially in England! It was about 8 a.m.

 Heather and I looking a bit tired at the bus transit station in Heathrow Airport.

Heather and I had determined to meet at a Costa coffee shop which we thought was before immigration and customs, but we actually had to go through that first. So I got in the line and next thing I know Heather is walking towards me! I was super excited to see her and thankfully that we found each other but she did not look so happy. She had already gone through the line once and apparently the lady at one of the booths had asked her for an itinerary or some kind of proof that she was studying in Cambridge, and Heather freaked out because she didn't have anything! She had sat in a bench by the end of the line to wait for me. We went through the line together, and it took about 45 minutes. And of course, once we get to the front of the line, we get the same cranky, rude lady that Heather had already had! The first thing she does when she sees Heather is ask if she found her papers. Thankfully, I had printed out all of the papers that had been emailed to us about the trip, so I just handed the lady my whole folder and let her look through them for what she needed. She was satisfied with them and had me verbally verify that Heather was really with me and on the same trip before she would let her through. It was kind of scary because she really didn't sound like she wanted to let her through! So we were relieved when we made it haha. We found baggage claim next, and my suitcase was already there. We finally found the Costa coffee shop, but we didn't see Nathan there (whom we were either meeting there or at the bus transit station), so we went to the "toilet" to freshen up before asking for directions to the bus station. The lady we asked was very helpful and gave us very clear directions. We had to take an airport train (like the one in the Atlanta airport) to a different terminal and then a "lift" up to the bus transit station. We didn't see Nathan anywhere, but by this point I was sweating from my backpack and pulling my suitcase so we just found two empty seats and rested for a bit. We tried to connect to wifi but the Internet still wouldn't work and then my computer died. By this point, it was close to 10am, and I knew Mom would be worried that she hadn't heard from me yet. So I wandered around the station, found a pamphlet with the bus schedule, and then happened to see two computers that advertised the Internet for 1 pound for 10 minutes. That didn't sound too bad, so I went to get on. What it failed to advertise was that it required a minimum of 30 minutes! So I paid the 3 pounds and had an email from Nathan saying not to wait for him because he had already left. We didn't have to worry about that anymore, but now I had paid for 30 minutes of Internet time! I emailed Mom and Dad, checked Facebook, and let Heather do the same, and the 30 minutes went by pretty quickly. Next, we had to buy a bus ticket. We used a self-serve kiosk, but unfortunately, the the earliest bus to Cambridge that wasn't full didn't leave for another hour. We bought the tickets, then I let Heather sleep while I watched our stuff. Our bus was supposed to leave at noon, but of course it was late (about 15 minutes) and had us worried for awhile. But it was a nice coach bus with its own toilet and everything. I didn't even notice at first, but the steering wheel is on the right side of the vehicle. It was also really strange to be driving on the left side of the road. This bus took us to the London Victoria Station where we catch a connecting bus to Cambridge, so I got my first glimpses of London! It was a surprisingly beautiful day outside - sunny and hot and perfect for pictures. I saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Thames River (so dirty!). There's a lot of traffic and construction, pedestrians and bikers, and narrow streets. The buses are huge and plentiful; I don't know how anyone learns how to drive them. It took about an hour to get to the Victoria Station, then we had to find the departure terminal and find the gate our next bus would be at. We made it to the gate with five minutes to spare! It took us about two hours to get to Cambridge, and I told myself to stay awake to take pictures, but the starting and stopping of the bus from the traffic kind of lulled me to sleep, and the next thing I knew we were in the country side!

Once we arrived in Cambridge, the bus dropped us off at a bus stop near a park and we had no idea where we were! The park was a big grassy field and lots of people were out enjoying the warm weather. We decided to just walk around for a bit because we had about three hours before we needed to be anywhere (it was around 4pm). I found a map in front of a police station, and from that we were able to find where we needed to go (Downing College) and then where we were. Thankfully, we weren't that far, because it was still really hot and we were pulling around our suitcases. Needlessly to say, I was sweating again when we reached the college. A nice sign in front directed Biola students to the porter's lodge, and there we checked in and received our room keys (we each have our own dorm room). The nice man gave us a map of the college and told us how to get to our rooms. We found them no problem, but then had to lug our suitcases up two flights of stairs. My room is so big! There's a bed, wardrobe, dresser, desk, 2 cushioned chairs, one chair with wheels, a bookcase, and a table. My window looks out on the street, and my room is right next to the kitchen. There are three "bathrooms" on my floor - one has a toilet, sink, and shower; one has just a toilet; and the third is the literal bathroom with a toilet, sink, and bathtub. It's kind of funny.

 The entrance to my flat.

 My bedroom window.

In my room, I tried to get online to let Mom know I had arrived (I knew she'd still be worried), but I needed a password and login information for the Internet. So I unpacked and then fortunately ran into some friends who told Heather and I to go to Dr. Sanders' flat because they had some food there. Considering I'd only had Chex Mix since that muffin on the plane, food sounded wonderful! They had crackers, cheese, French bread, salami, chocolate, fruit, and drinks. We sat and talked for awhile and other students stopped by too. I got the Internet info; so I went back and skyped Mom for a little bit. We had a meeting at 7pm, where we did introductions and went over general information. Afterwards, I was exhausted, and my allergies were still bothering me some, so I just took a shower and went to bed. Also, the bath towel they provided is not a rinky dink hotel towel - it's even bigger than my normal towel! I'm pretty sure it was made for a very tall person.

The next morning, we had to meet at 9am for our first session. We spent the first hour just going over the schedule for the week and some other random things. Then we split into two groups (my group name is Latimer) and had session on Galatians, the Bible book these three weeks sort of revolve around. Class finished at noon, and then I walked with some friends to eat lunch at the West Cornwall Pasty restaurant. I ate a traditional Cornish pasty (which is sort of like a calzone with meat and potatoes inside bread) with chips (aka wedge fries). There's a big market nearby that we walked around. There were a lot of people around and some people play instruments on the side of the road (one guy was playing "Wagon Wheel" on his guitar - I got excited!). The weather was not as nice as on Sunday; it was more of the typical England weather - a bit cloudy with a cool breeze. Back at Downing, I was feeling really tired so I laid down for a bit. Then the group met up in front of Dr. Sanders' flat to go get our bikes. The bike place was next to another park, and they had bikes for women (which were white) and bikes for men (which were black). The guy explained to us how to use the bike (the brakes on the handlebars are opposite from American bikes - why do we do everything backwards??) and then how to use the bike lock. I practiced riding around in the park; it's been a while since I was on a bike. Then it was street time! The streets here are really narrow, and the bike lane is literally just two yellow lines right next to each other on the edge of the road. We bike so close to the cars - it was slightly terrifying! But there are so many bikers here, the cars are used to it. We biked back to the college, and fortunately I made it successfully, but I am afraid I'm going to have a bike wreck before these three weeks are over!

 The West Cornwall Pasty.

At this point, we had about an hour to get ready for our fancy welcome dinner at Christ's College. We walked over and got to look around a bit before the dinner. This is the college that Darwin graduated from, and his statue sits on a bench in a garden. Everything is so old and beautiful here! I took so many pictures! The dinner itself was in an upstairs "Old Combination Room," and it was a very fancy four-course meal. It was all delicious! We started with a Ricotta cheese salad (more cheese than lettuce!), then the main course (bloody roast beef, vegetables, and Yorkshire pudding, aka bread), dessert (white chocolate mousse with "fruits of the forest" - blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries), then finally coffee and chocolate mints. My favorite was the dessert, of course! On the way home, I picked up some groceries at the store, and then was able to skype Cat before I went to bed exhausted.

They yummy dessert at the fancy dinner.

These are just some of the many pictures I have taken; they will all be on Facebook at some point, but that takes so long, I might wait until I'm home to do it. I am thoroughly enjoying myself here. :)