Celebrating Independence Day in the Land of the Opressors

So I got on the plane from Paris to London and was sooo tired that I slept pretty much the whole time. It was a bit disconcerting how deeply I conked out. The plane landed on time and I got off all ready to catch my bus in about an hour to Cambridge when...Horror! I saw the UK immigration line. I kid you not it was literally about a mile long. So I had to stand in that for an hour maybe an hour in a half, bored out of my mind, incredibly tired and hauling a HUGE backpack and purse. There was a couple from the Congo in front of me (I spoke a few words to her in french) and then another Afircan family behind me. The little four year old son was soooo adorable. He reminded me why I want to go to Africa eventually.

Anyway, I FINALLY got through customs but by this time had missed my bus. Not to mention that my luggage had long since come onto the carousels. Apparently it is common practice at Heathrow to just remove old luggage from the carousel and put if wherever they want it on the floor with no indication because this has happened to me I think three times now. After finally locating my bag, I headed over to the information desk. As a side note, AirFrance broke the lever used to slide my suitcase on its wheels when my bag was lost in the system. In the airport, right before checking in Bene "a fait du bricolage." This was extremely exciting since I have never in my life had a legitimate reason to use the verb bricolage which is translated as "to putter" in English but I don't think its a very good translation because I don't really know what puttering is. Any Bene used the word herself to describe the rope of string she tied around the handle into a leash for me to lead my bag along with. It wasn't extremely practical but it was so much better than if she hadn't done anything.

I found the couch station that was supposed to take me, caught a public bus to a different terminal, changed my ticket to 11:45 and sat around eating lunch until the coach came. On the bus I slept some more and generally just felt confused and displaced. When I got off the bus in Cambridge I had no idea where to go. I saw one of my fellow passangers greeting someone at the busstop and overheard that they were going to Kings College so I approached them and they led me. It was super awkward though because they were obviously friends who hadn't seen each other in awhile and I was just tagging along with my ridiculous bag, backpack and purse. It was exhausting pulling the bag with the string.

I got myself checked in and finally had the opportunity to see my new room. It is GORGEOUS!!! Here are some stats:
-it is located within the gates of the collage (which means that I have to show my ID to the Porters-security men- every time I come in.
-I live in Bodely's Court right next to the river. It is an old four story tall stone building divided not by hallways but by staircases. I live in V staircase which is at the corner so we have a spiral stone staircase. I live at the top and feel kind of like Rapunzel.
-I have two rooms each of them much bigger than my space at BYU. My six person apartment in Provo is probably only twice the size of my rooms here
-I have two fireplaces (one in each room), two great views of the river, a sink and lots of storage space.

Here are some pictures:

View from the door of the sitting room

Window from the sitting room. The view I see from my desk.

My bedroom

View from my bedroom window. There are always tourists punting on the river.

View of the spiral staircase from the landing beneath mine.

Another view of my sitting room from the other corner

Mostly I've just been meeting people, acting obnoxiously perky and exploring the city. Most people have already started classes, but my first isn't until tomorrow. Here are some examples of the beautiful things around me:

All white cows not 3 minutes away from my room.

Back gate of Kings Collage where I live. The front gate is much more grand.

Is that Dr. Who?

Believe it or not this really was a restaurant right on the street of Cambridge

New friends at Queens Collage before the formal hall

On the 4th of July we had our first Formal Hall which is when the students of the programme meet for "drinks on the lawn" (which is a big deal because its usually forbidden to walk on the grass) and then a fancy four or five course meal.

I sat next to one of the Programme Assistants (so actualy Cambridge students) and we had a really interesting conversation. The girl across from us was from UPenn and she was a bit overthetop. She had the Ivy League accent (which is exactly like a vally girl's but replace the words "ugh, this lotion is like sooooo bad for my complextion" with "I really think the Weimar republic was like THE perfect democracy.") Honestly that's what we talked about. The Weimar Republic. The death sentance, romantic languages, travel. It was quite intellectual and really organic and just really interesting. That was last night.

Today I woke up and walked to class only to find out that I had read my schedule wrong- my first class wasn't till tomorrow. So I went back to my room to take a nap and was awakened by housekeeping coming in to ask if they could "take out the rubbish?" Tonight I went with some people I've met to buy midnight tickets to the Harry Potter film. After that we walked around the city to see each other's rooms. It was really fun.

Basically I'm really loving my life right now. :)