My mom is now gone. She left for London this afternoon so that she can get to the airport easily in the morning. I left her and instantly felt less safe and a little lost. I think that when she was with me I could just walk around aimlessly, knowing that she would stop me before I got run over, ran into a pole, or got mugged. Now, I was on my own. So far, none of those things have happened.
Before she left we had quite a day. We woke up, had breakfast at the hotel (cause seriously where else were we suppose to go to eat in the middle of no where), and then got packed up. We made the mistake of reading the bus schedule wrong, plus we only had a Monday – Saturday schedule with us. But we got to the station (after 20 minutes of walking down a sorry road, dragging our stuitcases through gravel and dead bunnies) only to realize that the bus should get there an hour later than the time we thought. So at that point there was no reason to head back to the hotel, so we sat, and sat, and waited for some sign of a bus. In short, the bus never came. So I saw a nice man drive up to his house across the street and I went to ask him – “do busses run on Sundays?” And he said that he thought so but he would call his wife and ask her. She claimed that they should come once an hour. So then he checked the bus schedule and said he saw what we saw. So an angel that he was, he offered to take us into Cambridge! Seriously, I don’t know what we would have done without him! So he was very nice and took us to town. From that point we had to drag our bags for a couple more minutes and we then made it to Cambridge. By this time it was 1 or so, but they let me check in and drop off my bags. My mom was able to see my room and take a few pictures to send home. After all of this, we went to find food. We ended up at The Eagle. Its one of the oldest pubs in Cambridge (from the 1500’s) and is known as being the place that Watson and Crick announced their discovery of the double helix DNA. From there we went and toured King’s College. They have a beautiful chapel. Then, she had to leave, so I took her over the bus stop and said bye to her there : (. At that point I was fighting the tears so I walked into the first thing I recognized – an H&M. haha. I found a dress for 7 pounds! Then I walked back to Pembroke and unloaded my suitcase and got my dirty clothes together to do laundry. On my way to laundry I met someone name Eleanor and she came with me, and then we walked around town to try to find her some shampoo and conditioner. Unfortunately, everything is closed on a Sunday evening.
I went to the group dinner at 7. There is about 60 of us from the states here with this program, most of whom are from UCI. It was nice because they didn't overwhelm us with information, they just let us eat. They are leaving that for tomorrow... I got to talk to some very nice individuals at dinner at that made me feel even more at home here. They announced that the program assistants were hosting a pub night tonight and at first I was like... ehhh... But, I WENT! And it went well. Four of us bought a pitcher of Caribbean Punch or something so it was only like 2 pounds each. It was fun and I actually enjoyed myself. Tomorrow is a full day of orientation, class, safety sessions, and then a formal dinner in the evening.
King's College Chapel
The grounds at King's College
Bye Mom
My home for the next 5 weeks!
The view from the pub.
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