Moo.

Greetings from Cambridge!

Yes, I am in the illustrious town of Cambridge, having mostly recovered from the jet lag. The flight over was fairly uneventful and also fairly sleepless, and after arriving in London and traveling by train to Cambridge (I went through Paddington Station! The one Paddington Bear was named after!), I was immediately taken to the Cambridge Beer Festival for copious consumption. Actually, I was very thankful for the inebriation as it helped dull the sting of how expensive this place is. I suppose if I were earning my wages in English pounds that would be one thing, but as an example, the 15-minute train ride from Heathrow to London was 18£ or about $37. Add that on top of the 4£ Underground ride, the 19£ train ride to Cambridge and the 15£ cab ride, and that’s about $115 in the first hour of touching ground. Thankfully the beer and cheese were much cheaper and came in quantity!

Today yielded another trip to the Beer Festival, followed by a lovely walk through St. John’s College to laugh at the punters (a punt is a silly English water craft that is propelled by a long shaft that you push into the bottom of the river, with absolutely no keel or rudder to make it go straight. I swear it is just to make tourists look ridiculous). Then, during a bike ride through town I got to mingle with a small group of cows (they said they knew I was a vegetarian by the way I walked up to them, offering them buttercups to munch). Then, after a dinner of raclette (think reverse fondue), we went for a lovely walk through the countryside, looking at wild orchids and an ancient Roman dike. I also got to hold two slugs, for my second wildlife close-n-personal of the day. They reminded me of the Branston’s Pickle I had eaten earlier at the Beer Festival, a British condiment that goes surprisingly well with the right bread and cheese. Yes, take a spoonful of Branston’s Pickle and bestow it with the gift of self-propulsion and you’ve got yourself and English fen slug.

Tomorrow should be fairly chill, although I am promised the treat of vegetarian bangers and smashers, and a trip to an authentic English Pub. More inebriation! Woo-hoo! But until then, it is off to study more French in preparation for my test on Monday.

Over and out,

-c

ps- French phrase of the day: “Salut frangine!”, which, if I’m not mistaken, is roughly translated as, “‘Zup girlfrenn?”