Student Life.

Here's the thing. I suck at taking pictures in Cambridge. In the four weeks I've been here, I've taken less photos than I did in two days in southern France. I just feel so legit walking down the street feeling like a Cambridge student...and taking a camera out would instantly brand me as a tourist and I would be swarmed by people wanting me to sign up for their punting tour. It's a pride issue. But pretty soon, trust me, I'll be swallowing my pride, and taking some darn pictures. So help me if I get back to the States without as many pictures from Cambridge as my little heart desires. I will once again take up the honored badge of tourist sometime...soon.

Anyways, here's a couple highlights from the past three weeks...just living the good student life.

1) Harry Potter. Midnight showing.  Did you know, I missed class the next morning? I was so upset. I couldn't believe that I hadn't woken up to my alarm. Everything turned out okay though. And the night...it was epic.  I <3 England.

With the fearsome Bellatrix.

2) Running. I've been getting back into running regularly. And it feels great. I ran around 7-8 miles last week sometime...I was exhausted, but it was a good exhausted. I'm still not very fast though. Bummer. Hopefully I improve! Cambridge is a great place to run. There's this route I take...it follows the River Cam for the most part and takes me through the not-so-touristy part of town...and then the country. Little houseboats on the river. Big, open fields. Trees. Horses. Cows. Literally, there are cows grazing ten feet from where I run--no fences. Just a dog. I just watch out for cow patties and run and they just mind their own business. It just takes my breath away sometimes--how beautiful it all is.

Part of the path I run on..
still before the country-ish part.

3) Shakespeare Festival. Cambridge has a Shakespeare Festival every summer! They usually have three or four plays going on every night for about two months. What an awesome opportunity, no? I just saw A Midsummer's Night Dream tonight (FANTASTIC, btw), and I saw Antony and Cleopatra last week. I'll be watching A Winter's Tale probably tomorrow--and I will probably continue seeing plays all the way up until I leave. I'm LOVING this chance to get my fill of the wonderfulness that is Shakespeare. This + my Reading Shakespeare class = awesome.

Set of A Midsummer's Night Dream.
At Saint John's College Gardens.
Simple, no?

4) Studying. Yes, I have been studying. And paper-writing. And reading. And researching. And studying some more. I mean, I stayed up until 5:00 in the morning last night writing a paper for my Shakespeare class. You know what's the best thing? That paper doesn't even count towards my final grade. Hardly any of the work you do (even midterms) counts toward your final grade. Your final grade is mostly based on your final exam and your final essay. Intimidating. Anyways, I've never before worked so hard on a paper that isn't even going to be graded. With so much studying, I've been getting creative with my study spots. I study in my room, in Pembroke library, in  Kings library, and in the Snug (pub right next to my house). I must say, the Snug is probably my favorite, although I'm usually the most productive at Kings.

In the midst of researching for my Gothic Architecture
final essay in the Kings Library.

Reading Shakespeare in The Snug.

For some weird reason, I've been writing all of my
notes in cursive. Strange, huh. 

5) Punting. Yes, I've been punting. Not with the tourist-y groups--at Kings. Using Kings College's own punts. Chris (my favorite PA) taught us how to do it. And not to boast or anything, but...I did pretty darn good. Didn't hit a single punt, tree, bridge, or bank. It's pretty tiring work, but so. much. fun.

Sitting in the punt!

Being a hard-core punter.

6) Formal. I've been to two formals so far. Basically, it's just a very fancy dinner where everybody dresses up, socializes, and enjoys a good meal. Before every formal, there's always drinks on the lawn--and this is the one time that we dare set foot on the sacred turf (usually, nobody but the fellows can set foot on the lawn). The BYU students drink juice. Just about everybody else drinks wine. Fun stuff. I enjoy formals.

Katelyn and I with our drinks. It had rained earlier in the day, so
instead of having drinks on the lawn, we had it inside.

Picture 1: Me with Cate--we're both from BYU and in the same architecture class.
Picture 2: Formal Hall at Pembroke. The Dining Hall is being redone
so we had Formal in a big white tent.

We all found each other the very first day, and
we've been best of friends since then.
Sean and I are both from BYU,
Katelyn is from Hope College,
and Brendan is from Harvard.
Such great people to hang out with.

7) Katelyn's birthday. Katelyn turned 21, and so of course, we had to have a party. We all met up at The Snug for dinner, and then went to Jordan and Katie's place for cake and ice cream. We had all signed a poster and a card, and all of us contributed towards her gift. Memorable night.

P.S. I made the cake, and I have never been so proud of something in my life. I was so afraid that it wouldn't turn out (I had to bake it in some microwave looking oven contraption), but it turned out delicious. Although honestly, I don't know how a cake with raspberries, homemade butter cream chocolate frosting, nutella filling, and chocolate shavings could taste bad. Okay, I'm done talking about my great achievement in the kitchen now. Thanks for letting me have my moment.