7/23/09 -- Spending some time at Cambridge University

So today began with yet another very early morning. We met at the metro station and ended up waiting for about 10-15 minutes for everyone to get there! It was kind of bad because we were way close to missing our train. We finally did make it though and we were on the train for about an hour or so. I slept the entire time, as usual. When we got off the train we walked through the town of Cambridge to get to our meeting place. It is just the cutest little town! There was so much to do in the town itself and we hadn't even gotten to the University yet. Darrin gave us an hour to explore the town before we had to meet up again. Julia and I headed straight for all of the cute little boutique shops. We tried on all sorts of fun clothes, I didn't find anything I wanted to buy though which was kind of a bummer.
We met up after shopping and headed toward the university. We were split into two groups once we got there because we had two different tour guides. I got put in the group with Sally as our tour guide. She was the greatest lady I have ever met! She just had the cutest accent and I just wanted to take her home with me. Actually I think everyone with a british accent I want to take home with me. It is just too cute! Anyway she was so fun and told us some really awesome stories. One of my favorites was the one she told us about what happens on May week. May week is a two week celebration after Cambridge's finals are over. The title of the celebration doesn't make much sense, but that's what they call it. Anyway, that week is just relaxed and there are parties and activities everyday. She said that about 30+ years or so ago there was this boy that would climb the side of King's College and put a silver bowl on top of the steeple. It took Professors a couple of days to get it down, and then he would put it right back up. One time they even tried to shoot it down, but he placed a small British flag in front of the pot so they couldn't shoot it down. Finally they came up with an idea to stop him. They placed this stone on all four corners of the chapel. I don't remember what it's called, but she said no experienced climber would be able to get up and over the stone. She tried to point it out to use and we could barely see it, they camouflaged it pretty well. It was a funny story.
She gave us a tour of King's College Chapel, and told us how it had to be finished by King Henry VIII. She showed us all of the places in the chapel where he had left his mark. There are these beautiful stain glass windows in the chapel and at the very top of all of them is a picture of Christ. Henry VIII had gone and put one more picture above christ. It's of him. He always viewed himself above God and Christ. It's crazy what a power hungry man that he was. He was extremely evil.
After we left King's College we walked toward the place that we were suppossed to have lunch. She stopped and showed us the senators of Cambridge house. She told us another delightful story about a group of boys, during May week, that were able to stick a car on the roof of the Senator's house! It was so funny. She was so animated when she told us this story. She even had a picture of the car on top of the roof. It was pretty crazy. She said they had no idea who put it on the roof until 20 years later the boys that put the car on the roof came out and said it was them. They had all been engineers in the war and knew how to use levers and pulleys. They had built pulleys to lift the car all the way on top of the roof. They were able to get the car up there in an hour or so, but it took the authorities a week! It was such a funny story.
She dropped us off at the place that we were eating lunch as a group. It was called The Eagle and it is extremely old. Shakespeare had put on plays at the restaurant. American soldiers had also gone to the restuarant during WWII for drinks. In the farthest room of the restuarant there are signatures and dates of a group of soldiers written in candle wax on the ceiling. It is really cool. The Eagle is also known for their Fish and Chips. So Julia and I got ourselves some Fish and Chips to share. They were surprisingly very tasty. I really enjoyed them. We had a hour break after lunch before we had to meet up again so Julia and I went to H&M and a couple of other stores. She got two shirts at H&M, but I didn't find anything that I really liked. I've gotten pretty picky about my shopping lately.
We met up again around 2 and headed towards the Cambridge University museum. I was with Sally once again. She told some really great stories inside the museum, but I managed to miss a lot of them because I kept falling asleep! I am totally sleep deprived ha ha. I fell asleep standing up and almost fell over. Everyone in my group was laughing so hard. It was pretty embarrassing actually.
After the museum we went punting! Punting is like a Gondolier in Venice. It was so fun. We all got to climb in a boat and had a Cambridge student take us around the Cam River. Our Punting Chauffeur's name was Orlando. Ha ha. He was really funny and gave us a tour of campus from the boat. He also showed us some Harry Potter sites. It's so fun to see all of that because I LOVE Harry Potter.
We finished the punting ride and then slowly walked back to the train station. We stopped in a very yummy chocolate shop. It's suppossed to have some of the best chocolate in all of England. I bought a few candy bars to take home and share. So family be excited! It is all very delicious. We jumped on the train and headed home after that. We stopped at King's Cross Station to visit Platform 9 3/4. It was so exciting! After we got home we had to get together as a group and finish our pattern assignment. I was up pretty late with my group getting it all done. But they turned out really cool I think!