Well I promised I would have an attitude change from the weekend, and so I have! Today I got up bright and early and went for some coffee to start the week off right. The only problem was, it decided it wanted to rain today and I guess I left my umbrella at home! I had to first stop and by an umbrella! I REALLY needed to go out and find a new watch since I wore mine in the shower and it isn't waterproof so I killed it! I hate not knowing what time it was so finding a watch was first on my agenda before we headed off the Cambridge. I'm sorry to say that I was NOT successful and will have to continue looking for a watch! I did score with the fact we have a starbucks only a block from our flatt and I got my iced coffee drink I like from there. I really wish the McDonalds over here had my iced coffee because my mother got me addicted to those and I haven't had one in like 3 weeks!!! Sad I know! :)
So we boarded our coach bus for our day at Cambridge. We learned a lot about the city and the colleges that exist within it. I never knew that a town of 130,000 could have 30 some colleges in it! That fact was crazy. I guess I never asked but should have if the 30 colleges were buildings, degrees, or actual individual colleges. I guess I also learned that Cambridge University is one of the top three ranked colleges in the world. It yearly competes with Harvard and MIT in the United States for the top rank. It was a beautiful area with a lot of shops. People rode their bikes around EVERYWHERE and did not care about the pedestrians! Jenna almost got ran over by one, how she didn’t see is beyond me but it was scary to watch! One thing that really baffled me was that in Cambridge they took their lawns very seriously! A lot of the lawns/courtyards had signs posted that said you could not walk on the lawn! Honestly, they were not anything great, half of them were in poor shape, but I guess to each their own?! King’s college is the college that we mainly focused on. This was very pretty to see. The students of these colleges were in examinations so we couldn’t really go anywhere in the buildings.
After visiting the town of Cambridge we went to the Cambridge American Cemetery. This was my favorite part of the day! It is the memorial sight for those who lost their lives, were missing in action, or were unknown. They all were a part of the World War II fight on the British Isles. It was very moving to see all of the grave markers/headstones and view all of the names on the wall. They had four statues to show the four divisions of the guard, a soldier, an airman, a sailor, and a coast guardsman. I have never been to a memorial before like this, and I am truly glad we were able to stop! Grandpa I took lots of pictures for you and will take a lot more when mom and I hit the beaches of Normandy and the American Cemetery there!!!!
After returning from Cambridge I wasn't feel real well. I believe it was the sandwich I had for lunch or just the stress/worries from the weekend. At any rate I wasn't feeling the best and decided to just lay low because tomorrow is going to be a big adventure! I decided that I needed to get out and go for a walk at least. It had quit raining and felt like it was warming up a bit. Warming up here today was maybe 55 degrees, where I know back home you guys are suffering in the almost 90 degree weather! I must say I wish I had some of that here, my pale norwegian skin is getting old! Anyways, I trotted down the street with really nothing in mind besides maybe finding myself some food that would help my stomach. About 15 blocks into it I find a clothing store and decide why not walk in an have a look around. When I walk in much to my delight I find a grocery store in the clothing store and decide I should pick up some random food items. Let me tell you this was quite the experience! Everything was laid out differently than what we expect in America and the food was really different as well! I did have to get some Apples and cheese, a comfort snack I eat with my g-baby! I ended up having to get cheese I'm not familiar with because I guess here in London they haven't heard of just plain mild cheddar cheese made by Kraft! No, all they have is a bunch of wrappers I am very unfamiliar with! Mom, Grandma and Grandpa, you would be proud to know I bought two different kinds of cheese and I tried one and LOVED it! It was a white cheddar with chives and onions in it! It was super good! As I continued my adventure around the grocery store I realized that a lot of the food was pre-made. A lot of salads already made, fruit cut up, and meals made to pop in the microwave or oven. This surprised me, I'm not really sure why but it really did! It was like having a ton of lean cuisines in about 1/2 of the grocery store refridgeration isles but they weren't lean and from what I tried (lasagna) they aren't cuisines! :P Anyways I bought a few things and trucked my way back. Let me tell you, I'm glad I don't live in this city!!! I walked 15-20 blocks back to my apartment carrying very few groceries. I ended up beating a bus back because traffic in London is ridiculous! End of story I would not like to grocery shop in the city for a family!!!!! The rest of my evening has been spend working on homework, since I am on a school course! Tomorrow brings about a tour of Parliament and then a day of freedom to explore! I believe we are going to try the London Eye, the largest farris wheel in the world!!! Hope I don't die and look forward to writing about my ride tomorrow!!! :)
<3 E
