Cambridge

Today we took a day trip out to Cambridge. Even though it's during exam time, since we have connections to some really cool people at the university, we got to have a small tour of some of the colleges. They also told us about how the system works over there. I was shocked that they don't take any exams that matter until after three years of studying at which point they take a whole slew of tests in a week that mean everything. It seemed like a totally different world, a totally different mentality. It's hard for me to even imagine what that would be like...and makes me sort of wish I'd been able to go to a school like that. But, I think I chose well for me and who knows? Maybe some day I will get to experience something different. There's a lot more out there than I ever imagined...

After touring a college, I split off with a group that went to see an Anglo-Saxon church - one that had been built before and survived the Norman invasion in 1066. There's actually only a tower left of the original building and the rest had been rebuilt gothic style at one point or another in history. It was interesting. Very thick walls, tiny windows, rounded arch. My group also went to the Whipple science museum which was small and somewhat interesting. I think after that is when we saw another college which was very different from the first one we'd seen. Next we went to King's College church. It was sooo huge - cathedral size and architecture for just a chapel. It was very pretty. Had lots of stained glass and intricate decoration on the ceiling. I wanted to come back later to hear the choir sing, but didn't end up making it back in time which was a shame. Next we went punting on the river. It's where you stick a long pole in the water and push off from the ground to get the boat to go. It was kind of cool, but I almost tipped my boat over (which had 5 other people in it) which was not so cool. Then I ate at Pizza Hut...which was a sit down restaurant with good quality pizza. Very different from Pizza Hut back home. Missed the choir singing, so caught the train back to London instead. Oh! That's the other thing. To get to Cambridge, we took the train from King's Cross station in London. Sound familiar? We went and found Platform 9 3/4 while we were there. There's a random thing set up for tourists there which is somewhat funny. Yeah Harry Potter! And that's about all I have for today.