Living it up in London

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since I arrived in London. Time has completely flown by, but I'll do the best I can to recount all the highlights.

On Dec. 4 I woke up early to catch a train from Stirling to London. As I've complained before, there was a wee bit of snow in Stirling, causing everything to close. Well, not everything, but many buses stopped and most trains were cancelled. Instead of a five hour train ride direct from Stirling to London, I had to hop on a train from Stirling to Croy, transfer onto an Edinburgh-bound train, and finally catch a train to London. This added nearly two hours of waiting for my transfers with my massive luggage. Not fun.

On the train, I sat and watched the landscape fly by. There's something so relaxing about sitting on a train and zooming through towns, passing loads of sheep on the way.

I'm not sure where this was. Maybe York?

Interestingly, the first person I chatted with in England was the woman sitting beside me on the train. In Scotland, the English are the enemy, especially in my Scottish history studies. When I mentioned I was coming from Scotland, this woman explained that Scottish people are a bit strange and very different.

I kept thinking to myself that it felt like I could have been on a train from Toronto to Ottawa. Not only did a lot of the trip involved passing through indistinctive areas and snow-filled fields, so it could have been anywhere, but also, the conductor announced we were stopping in Scarborough, Peterborough, etc. I guess we just stole all of their cities' names.

I believe this was Newcastle, but again, that could be completely wrong... That's what I get for waiting a week and a half to write about it.

It wasn't for many more hours that I would arrive in London. My five hour journey became almost nine hours. I had stayed up late the night before thinking it would help me sleep on the train, but I ended up seated near a group of girls heading to London for a party weekend. Again, not fun.

However, I finally arrived at the Victoria League student house just in time for their Christmas party. It was a nice welcome, since it drew everybody together, and I got to meet all the residents at once.

I met two other women named Cara! I have never met anybody in my life who shared my name, and here were two more. I've discovered the difficulty that comes with getting used to calling someone else by your own name. And if it isn't obvious from the photo, I wasn't aware it was a semi-formal party...

The house is full of decorations!

I introduced myself to everybody, joined them in singing Christmas carols, and then I settled into my room, trying to remember everybody's names.

The next day, I joined a group of residents who were visiting Cambridge.

From left to right, Simon from New Zealand, Michael from Australia, me, and the other Cara from Canada.

Cambridge was filled with many beautiful buildings, and it was amazing to think that so much of it actually belonged to the university.

In addition to the buildings, there were a ton of shops. Lots of big malls and arcades with big chains, so nothing too exciting. However, there were Christmas lights and bands playing for donations.

We arrived in Cambridge around 3:00, so it didn't take long for the sun to set.

The city became completely deserted once the sun disappeared. I thought there would be students roaming around the streets, but there were very few, perhaps because it was a Sunday night and possibly during the exam period.

From left, Douglas from Malaysia, Simon, Michael, me, Christine from Canada, Sabah from Canada, and Cara.

We went for a bite to eat in a nice little restaurant, so we'd have the energy to wander the city for a few hours.

I apologize for the bad photographs. The lack of light made it quite difficult to get good shots.

There were lots of cute little cafes around the city, and the Christmas decorations made them even nicer.

We walked through some of the university grounds, looking at the beautiful residences and lecture halls.

Along the lawn in front of one of the buildings was a line of pillers made up of books.

That's all for now. I have a lot to tell about my internship, but that will come in the next post!