A sad goodbye

I am laying in bed anxiously trying to sleep and I couldn't help but think.  Over the past eight weeks there was always that part of me that has wanted to go home, so see the people I love and care about, to be comfortable and warm, to see the beach and everything else that home holds.  But no matter what, I think I always knew that when it came down to this last day, I was going to be sad about leaving.  I really loved being here.  In my suburban sprawl world, I have never been able to go days without riding in car.  In Cambridge, you can walk everywhere: to the movies, starbucks, school, the mall, the open market, to actually do fun things around town!  I was able to wake up and walk next door to knock on my friends door to go eat with me.  My professors knew my name and gave me feedback on my work, my questions, and my comments.  I participated in class each and every day.  I will miss the beautiful grounds at Cambridge, the church bells, the classes, my friends that I met here, Nandos, my room, the cafe, and that feeling that if I wanted to, I could just go outside the school walls and go do something for a few minutes.  I didn't spend hours driving each day, or worry about my cell phone, or what I was getting for lunch and dinner.  I also realize that this is not a realistic life.  But it was really a great experience for these last 5 weeks.  I think that it will take a little while to look back on the trip as a whole and see the ways I have grown.  If anything I have gotten to know myself a lot better- some of it good, some of bad.  I haven't liked finding out how much I worry and stress.  This blog itself is a testament to that anxiety.  I can't sleep because I am too worried about oversleeping, forgetting something, turning in my keys and then accidentally locking myself into Cambridge, getting harassed my the drunk men in the streets, walking the streets at 3 in the morning, not finding my bus, and missing the bus.  I will worry for the next few hours over an event that will take 15 minutes.  Worrying is one of my biggest problems.  I took a personality test and I scored as melancholic and neurotic.  Who wants to be friends with someone who is melancholic and neurotic?  Luckily, I found a few people who put up with it for 5 weeks.  5 hours until I begin walking to the bus stop, 8 until I get to Heathrow, and about 24 until I see Kevin at the LAX!

Only a few more hours....

Until In-N-Out!  Just kidding.

The Final Formal and Bop

Thursday was a busy day: two finals, shopping, documentaries, paintings, formal and a bop.  This was the last night to see many of the people on the trip because people left for home or for more travels this morning.  After the formal there was a bop, or a dance party, and you have to dress up in a costume according to the theme.  Last night's theme was "P" is for Pembroke so we had to dress up with as something that had to start with "P".  There were pimps, prostitutes, posh, pirates, postcards, pregnant party girls, purple, pink, presents, pajamas, and powerrangers.  It was a lot of fun but it was really sad saying goodbye to people.  My friend Jenesis left for Spain this morning so it was the last time that I was going to see her for a while.  Despite being sad that it was one of the last nights, it was one of my favorite nights of my entire eight weeks.  

P is for "Pirate"

P is for "Postcard", or Pitt's lover 

P is for "pregnant partier"

A BBQ in a Field

The school organized a bbq for us in a on the sports grounds.  It was out near Grantchester so it was quite a walk.  It was a really good meal, but it was freezing so no one really hung out for long.

Tea and Thai Food

I am finally finished with classes!  I took my finals yesterday and now I have time to update pictures.  These pictures are from a week today.  During the day there was a tea.  It was amazing.  As you can see, there was tea, scones, this whipped heavy creme thing, jam, cakes, tons of mini sandwiches.  At one time, the Thomas Grey Room was once someone's quarters and behind the wood on the wall there are old sketches that someone drew.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Hi Mom, hope that you had a great day today!  Happy Birthday.  See you in 6 days!

Notting Hill Carnival

It's so funny how much the the planned day differs from the actual day.  As of last night, Nicole, Linda, Jenesis and I planned on meeting at 9 walking to the train station, getting on the train around 9:45, making it to the Westminster Abbey service, and then going to The Notting Hill Carnival.  But as plans never really work out and how much better is life because of that.  So we missed the train, despite being there at the train station.  We watched it leave and didn't realize for another 5 minutes that, oh that was our train haha.  But another train was leaving within a twenty five minutes so it wasn't a big deal.  Oh! When we went to buy our tickets, we had a group of four so we knew that we would get a discount, but we had no idea how much it would actually come out to.  When we were buying the tickets, the cashier asked if we would like to buy the tube passes and we asked if they were cheaper there and he said yes.  In all we paid 11 pounds for a roundtrip ticket to London (or what they call a "return" ticket) and a day travel card!!!  When I traveled with my mom, she paid 30 pounds for a return ticket and over 6 pounds extra for a travelcard, so we got a steal somehow!

We realized at that point that we weren't going to make it to Westminster Abbey by 11:15.  The problem with that was that Jenesis' friend was meeting her there.  She will be studying in London until December and Jenesis was planning on meeting up with her before the service.  Since we do not have cell-phones, communication is a little difficult when things like missed trains occur.  But we got to Westminster and we waited for her friend to get out of the service.  Jenesis finally found her when we were going to leave so that was a lucky catch.  From Westminster we headed to the Notting Hill Carnival.

Notting Hill is a HUGE Carribean Carnival.  We knew that there would be costumes and dancing, but I don't think we expected what we found - Red Stripe, some crazy dirty dancing, portable speakers/stages, and tons of people.  The pictures don't do the festival justice (though I think my head started to hurt again by just looking at the photos).  Most of the stores in the area were shut down, and many of them even boarded up their windows and doors.  It is estimated that over one million people show up for this festival.

After a few hours, some of us were ready for a little peace and quiet so we left and tried to go back to Westminster.  Unfortunately, the Organ Recital was too full so we failed a second time to see inside the abbey : (.   Everyone was exhausted by that point so it was probably for the better that we started heading home.