On Saturday we took a little bus trip up to Cambridge. It's a really cute little town that I could definitely see myself living in. Perhaps I will apply to Cambridge for Grad school!
The "backs" of one of the 31 colleges that make up Cambridge University. I want to say this was King's College, but I'm not 100% sure
The river and a lovely bridge. They do this thing called punting there, where you go down the river on this skinny, flat boat. I kid you not, we were accosted at least a dozen times from students trying to make money taking people punting.
An entrance to St. John's College. The way its set up is a bit confusing, but basically, you apply to the university and individual colleges based on the subjects you want to study. The college is your home base and you live within its community.
The Round Church (or maybe it was called the Circle Church), but either way, its a great example of Norman architecture.
A lovely open area.
This is the church where the Reformation began. No big deal.
Grasshopper clock!
This creepy guy is actually only accurate once every 16 minutes. But its good for having a general sense of the time.
The Eagle! This is where all the super smart scientific students hang out. Its also where Watson and Crick "discovered" the double helix!
(Editor's Note: its not known whether they actually discovered it here, or whether they just came to this pub to celebrate, which is why "discovered" is in quotation marks.)
The best part! A definite must see!
Large tortoise.
I don't remember taking this photograph, but apparently its of some barnacles that Darwin collected!
Darwin's beetle collection. They have a whole cabinet dedicated to Darwin and his studies. Lots of really cool stuff there!
Honey badger don't give a shit.
Around the museum's lowest level are skeletons of various animals. This one is a polar bear!
Giraffe.
This is what Lauren wants for Christmas (Hippopotamus)
Porcupine! He reminds me of my Bear.
Elephant (and Lauren)
Lauren and/or Sarah: do you remember what this is?
Edit: This is a GIANT SLOTH! Thank you Sara!!
Killer whale
Narwhal!! I was surprised to see this one has two horns
Elephant seal
A collection of stuffed tropical birds
Cock of the Rock rockin' a mohawk.
Bird of Paradise #1
Bird of Paradise #2
Bird of Paradise #3
Yellow Spotted Lizard
Close up shot of the two-horned Narwhal.
Nasty salamander
While we were in town there were several street markets going on that had lots of awesome homemade goodies, food, crafts, clothes, jewelry, and anything else you could think of. I HIGHLY recommend a visit to Cambridge. Some of the colleges are open to the public (for a small fee) so you can look around inside. There's so much history here: Isaac Newton studied here (and the apple tree he was supposedly sitting under when he discovered gravity is on the campus), the atom was first split here, Watson and Crick, the list goes on and on.
Now, for two short anecdotes of disappointment.
Disappointment #1: Any sort of American food is crazy expensive here. I saw Lucky Charms for £10 ($15) and Poptarts for £6 ($8). Ben and Jerry's ice cream is no different. Its usually about £4-6 ($6-8) for a pint. I like to splurge on some Chocolate Fudge Brownie every now and then, but this last pint I purchased had previously melted and refroze (before I bought it, so I had no idea it was like this). Now, if you are an ice cream aficionado like myself, you will know how this completely RUINS the texture of the ice cream. To top it all off, there were ice crystals frozen throughout the entire thing that made it crunchy. I still ate the entire pint (not all in one sitting, mind you) but I did so with a look of contempt plastered across my face.
Disappointment #2: I locked myself out of my room for the first time today. We are allowed 3 free reopenings from the front desk before they start charging us (lame). So I went downstairs to ask to be let back in and I filled out the forms, ect. ect. and the guy came up with me to open my door. Now you must understand that the dorm rooms here are controlled by a key card, much like you would find in a hotel. AND THE FRONT DESK GUY'S KEY WOULDN'T WORK. He tried 3 different keys before giving up and calling for a master key or something. After 20 minutes of waiting around he finally came back up with a stack of keys, WHICH DIDN'T WORK EITHER. Finally one worked and I was let in. But by this time I was starving (as it was almost 6 p.m) and I get grumpy when I'm hungry. But I whipped up some chicken fajitas and all was right with the world.
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