Saturday, August 17, 2013

Cambridge.

July of 2013 I studied at Cambridge University for a month, along with 150 other teenagers from around the world. I flew over on my own, I lived in my own dorm room, I met amazing people, I did amazing things. Here are some pictures and a few various entries from my diary:






 As I boarded the plane a shiver ran down my spine...I wanted to be on my own... I wanted to walk down the isle by myself... I suppose that I really just wanted to feel like an adult. 








When I finally got back up to my room I showered and tried to scrub 36 hours worth of grime, and a lifetime's worth of home, from my skin. It was one of the best damn showers of my life. 



I walked to breakfast then in a groggy vagueness; I felt like, and resembled, a zombie. 










Everyone's been complaining about the spiral staircases of the dorm rooms...but I adore them








Canterbury was gorgeous, but then again, was anything else ever to be expected?





Another cappuccino and another day at Cafe Nero


The Anthropology and Archaeology Museum

She stood there for 5 minutes, and was then met by a cute old man with a cane

King's "Chapel" is so misnamed that it is ridiculous. 'Chapel' my ass.


I was given detention for missing a required meeting. Detention is in the library though, so it turns out that detention is actually a lot of fun. 






The Fitzwilliam museum is amazing...full of things, random things that try as they may, never seem to be organized


On my early morning walk today I noticed that the door to the shopping mall was open, so me being me I walked in. The escalators were running, and opera was blaring over the speakers, but no one was in the building at all. I walked around for a while...I think they forgot to lock the door.



I was biking through the solitary streets, with silence all around, with darkness fading slowly away, with street lamps and loneliness thick in the air. I paused for a moment by King's passage and began to play the opening soundtrack to Sylvia on my iPod, and then I sped quickly away. I went up and down the street a few times, rushing quickly, my hair billowing, my dress flapping. I took some pictures and a video, and at one point I was almost run over, but that's no matter.











It was so peaceful and silent this morning...I was the only person in sight.





For lunch today Lillie and I ate crepes in the rain









Our day trip to London was as vibrant and extravagant as ever.

I love that little church atop the hill...I love how silent it is, how peaceful, how perfectly resolute it is. 



We had scones at Grantchester today.

An old English dance




The cow fiasco

I wrote to Jenn under my little willow trees





Lillie and I went on a 9 mile walk through the rain tonight...we splashed through puddles and were blinded by car headlights...we also got hopelessly lost for a while, but that's okay. 










Lillie and I went to the Botanic Gardens today. It was magical.








I listened to mock trials today...the court room was fantastic. Voices echoes and the light was muted and the energy high. 






We stood in our punt and recited Chaucer in old English to the cows...Sylvia Plath would be proud



Breakfasts are full of murmurs. Some voices clash like thunder, others drown and sink below the surface. 

Our final day was full of laughter, yet it was a little forced, a little frantic, a little starving. 

Lillie tried to make the formal experience more fun with me...seeing as how I hate formal events.

I wore my white dress for the formal dinner...the one that makes me look like a vampire

My political science class took a photo together. We tried one serious, and one goofy....I don't think we know how to be goofy.

I stood on my balcony, looking down at all of the people I had grown to know, to love, wander below me...they, like me, trying frantically to squeeze every second and every instant out of our final hours together. 


There was no curfew that night. We never went to sleep. 

I helped Lillie with her bags...or well, I really just watched and laughed as the stumbled down the stairs



Tearful goodbyes



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