Sightseeing and such

So Thea and I had our first authentically tourist day in London! We woke up fairly early and were out of our hostel in time to get to the National Gallery when it opened at 10am. Thea and I took the highlights audio tour, so we got to see all of the most famed works like da Vinci, etc. The tour was really impressive, very informative and detailed, and we were there for an hour and a half.

Next, we were going to make our way to the south end of London, so we hopped on the tube, but the lines that would take us there were closed so we were a little bit thrown off. But we were able to find the corresponding bus route, so the two of us legitimately had a Londonesque double decker experience. It surprisingly didn't take that long, and we grabbed lunch at a pizza place in St. Catherine's docks before heading over to the Tower of London. It is a MASSIVE castle where many of the British kings and queens have lived, and where a lot of notorious people have been executed (Anne Boleyn, Jane Gray, etc.) We also got to see the crown jewels and they are fabulous, particularly the Imperial Crown of India. Additionally, we got some sweet views of the Tower Bridge.

After that we walked over to St. Paul's Cathedral, where we walked up a total of some 800-odd stairs to get to one of the highest points in London, and certainly one of the best views. You could see practically the entire city, it was pretty overwhelming. I got a little bit dizzy going up just from all the stairs! Afterwards we went to the Tate Modern, which was also a really cool museum, with an especially incredible urban photography exhibit that i loved. We were sort of museumed out by that point, not to mention tired from walking around the south end all day and those stairs, so we hustled back to the station at St. Paul's (the closest one whose lines would take us to Leicester Square) and met up with Corbin, Katherine and Kristen, all USC kids from Cambridge. It's been really good to see them the last two nights, sort of extending my Cambridge experience and making it easier that it's ended, haha. Now Thea and I are back at the hostel and my internet time is about to run out again, but I'll try to update again tomorrow- we're going to the British Museum and Library!

Cambridge: fin

the last several days of Cambridge post-essays were so much fun! Wednesday after class, I went back to Grant Chester with Ning, Jeff and his friend Shawn who flew out to visit him. We went swimming in the Granta, which feeds into the river Cam. It was chilly, muddy and kinda gross, but so much fun just to splash around and be silly. Since it's been really humid/warm all this week, it felt doubly nice. That night, a group of us went to a club called the Fez, and after we got back stayed up in the garden watching daylight come out and being generally ridiculous.

Thursday night was the last dinner at Selwyn Dining Hall, so it was a formal one. We all got dressed up fancy, the boys looked especially dapper in their suits and ties, and enjoyed our last meal all together. They served us wine which was very enjoyable :) To celebrate our final night in Cambridge, we didn't even go out anywhere but stayed in my room and had a low-key, chill night enjoying each other's company. I am so sad that the program is over, I've met such amazing people who I've become so close to in the last 4 weeks. When I left for Europe ago, I never imagined that I would form such close bonds with everyone, but the friendships i've forged have far surpassed my expecations. At least the USC kids I will be able to have semi-regular reunions, and everyone else is required to visit me in LA!! Here's a USC group shot:

So this morning I checked out of the room, Rex and I took a cab to the train station and I was off to London for the second time! I found the hostel and Thea, and we spent the day wandering around. We went to Westminster Abbey and the Churchill War Room/Museum, both of which were really interesting and engaging, and also large and slightly overwhelming, haha. This evening we met up with Corbin, Katherine and Kristen who are all still in London, and we got Indian food (my third round since I've been here, mmmm) before seeing Spamalot, which was excellent and hysterical. I liked it even more than Avenue Q.

Well, I'm writing this on the computer at the hostel and my internet time is about to run off. Sorry I won't have any more pictures for a while, but I'll try to keep updating regularly! To all my Cambridge crew: keep it debonair.

Freedom!!!

So I finished my papers this weekend, which is super exciting because it gives me the rest of this week to fully enjoy the remaining time I have left here at Cambridge! I leave Friday morning and will be taking the train back to London, where I will be meeting up with Thea and resuming my adventures there :) But until then, I am content to live it up here. I will be really sad when it ends, I've met some amazing people and while a lot of them I'll be able to see again at USC, some of them I won't and I'll miss them a lot.

Corbin's birthday was Sunday, so that morning we went to Kings' College and met up with his friend Tomoko there for brunch. It was the same full English breakfast but at a later time than 9am, so I preferred it, haha. This pic is of me, Tomoko, Corbin, Meredith and Nick. That night, we had an ambitious night planned out of clubbing and pubbing but we only made it to the Anchor before realizing that we were all too exhausted to continue. All of my running around on little sleep finally caught up to me that night and it was the first time since I've been here that I've slept for more than 8 hours at night (except the first night when I was seriously jetlagged).

Last night I met up with Khushboo at Revolution and we got to party together for the first time!! It was seriously fun, I got her to drink the Absolut Chambulls (our crew's staple drink there) and we danced together of course, we were a little bit ridiculous. Hopefully I'll get to see her a little bit more this week before I leave!