Living London: Buses, Punting and, of course, the Tube

Hello Everyone!

I'm currently sitting on the third floor of the Birkbeck Library. The title of this blog summarizes my weekend very nicely. Since I blogged last on Friday there's not a great deal to cover...and yet there is....

Saturday: I woke up around 10 and went with Marisa, Laura, Jake, Kyle, and Phil to Portobello. We walked the entire length of the market. All the smells and sights were so tempting. It's hard to go there every weekend and not go crazy. I did buy myself a nice headband that will serve as a great replacement to the one I watched fall into the abyss of people of Friday night.
Portobello Market is so long that we actually took the Tube back home. I still wasn't feeling well from a few days before so when we got home I took a long nap. After waking up refreshed Marisa and I decided to go to Starbucks to use their Internet. We relaxed and drank coffee. I did some searches on trips, etc. AND I found this place called the The London Irish Center and plan to call their this afternoon to inquiry about Irish Dancing classes every Monday for three pounds (can't beat that).
After Starbucks Marisa and I went to Tesco's and I finished my food shopping for the next few weeks haha.
We then went home and ate dinner. The group of us decided to keep it local Saturday night so we went to this pub right around the corner from us called The Old Swan. We had a few drinks and had a few laughs. We were very upset though that they weren't exactly "customer friendly." We saw a sign that said they server food until 10 pm. When we got there at 9 we asked about placing an ordered and they said they weren't serving food because they were short of staff....okay then. This lack of food FORCED us and I mean FORCED us to have to go to McDonald's because we were so hungry. After getting some McDonald's we headed home and played Pictionary and Charades. My team was totally scammed out of a win in Pictionary and I held my own during Charades --- it was a lot of fun. After a few more laughs I headed to bed knowing I had to get up early for the day trip to Cambridge!

Sunday: I got up nice and early yesterday morning ready to get on the Tube to go catch a bus with Kali, Beth, and Liz P. to Cambridge. In addition to the four of us there were other American students studying at Birkbeck and participating in internships varying from Parliament to the London Ballet. While I won't have the experience of working in London or meeting many British people I do not regret not during an internship. I feel I would have been VERY stressed and would not have had the same opportunities to travel and experience England as I have already.
On our way out of London we saw the Olympic complex which was SO cool! I can't wait to see it up close (hopefully) before I leave. Over the next hour I listened to my ipod and caught up on some sleep, before we knew it we were in Cambridge. We met our tour guide at a bus station and were given a tour of Cambridge via bus. Our tour guide (I sadly forget her name) had a great deal of knowledge to share with us. She told us the history of Cambridge including how the area got it's name and how Cambridge gained popularity from the time of the Normans, Anglo-Saxons, Romans, Danes, all the way until the present. The famous, Cambridge University/University of Cambridge, began as a "safe haven" for students who use to attend (the place our tour guide called, "that other place") Oxford. A student at Oxford was practicing archery or something of the sort and accidentally killed a towns person. The student was tried and convicted of murder and hung. The other Oxford students fled to Cambridge for free of their lives. Cambridge today is a thriving market, agricultural area, that is also home to the 33 colleges that make up the University of Cambridge. There are a few all female colleges and the rest are co-ed. The oldest college dates back to the 1300's.
The one walking stop of our bus tour was at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial honoring all those in the American Armed Forces that were stationed, fought, and died, in and around Cambridge and around England. It was a very touching place.
After the Memorial we were taken to Gonville & Caius College for lunch. We were all very hungry so we ate up before heading off to go punting. Punting is basically boating but instead of paddling by yourself you are "chauffeured" along by a punter. But it is NOT the Gondola (a girl in our punting boat kept making the mistake of calling the experience a Gondola and our punter threaten to kick her off the boat - he was serious). Our tour guide, on the punting boat, "Vanessa" was a man named, Jimbo. He was very funny.
Punting along the River Cam we got to see many of the colleges in Cambridge including King's College, Trinity College (where Prince Charles attended) and St. John's College. St. John's College celebrated it's 500th anniversary last year. The trip lasted about an hour. After that we were given an hour and a half to explore Cambridge. Kali and I checked out the market and then walked along the "The backs" (Queen's Road) back towards the center of town. We got to see more of the colleges up close and went on the grounds of Trinity College before going back to bus to head home.

When I got home I skyped my parents and Eddie and they informed me of great news. We're going to Paris for the night when they visited!!! I AM BEYOND EXCITED! Sadly, they'll miss Portobello Market but it's okay...we'll be in Paris, No Big Deal. :) I finally had dinner at 8 pm last night. When I was done eating I met up with everyone to book our trip to SCOTLAND this coming weekend:)
I actually had to call and confirm my train tickets this morning because my payment was not going through online - everything worked out!
I am so excited to be going to Scotland!!!! We are figuring out all the places we want to go this week. My blog next Monday should be very exciting indeed.

Monday: This morning I slept in a little but today had proved not to be my day in the kitchen thus far....slipped milk in the fridge, broken peanut butter jar, and slipped cereal...but I took care of it all.
Marisa and I arrived at Birkbeck a little while ago. Maybe we'll be going Irish dancing tonight - who knows?!

I hope everyone is enjoying my blog.

Cheers,
MK