Not Like Other Cities

I’ve been here about a week and have come to the conclusion that four months is simultaneously a very long and very short span of time to spend here. England and I got off to a bit of a rocky (okay, boulder-y) start. Admittedly, by the time we had landed I was running on about .2 seconds of sleep, and the line for customs had us slowly serpentining through the room. An hour later, we were sitting on our luggage, waiting for our director Matt, who was stuck in traffic. I was ready to deem the arrival gate as my new bed when Bryn walked into the airport. Bryn, who has been gracing this site with her insightful blogs since last semester, is one of my closest friends at Valpo and Julia (my best friend who is studying abroad with me) and I almost tackled her with hugs. After our reunion, Bryn stayed to greet her cousin also studying abroad, while we hopped on a bus to Cambridge.

I’ve had the privilege of going overseas before, and most of the bigger European cities that I have encountered have become overwhelmingly modernized. Most would imagine Europe to possess a purely historical atmosphere, or at least that’s what I had always expected. Many of them though, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, have been taken over by modernity. Obviously they still have certain marks of their history: Rome still has the Colosseum and the Ruins, Paris has Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. But they also have smoggy, clogged streets, a McDonald’s on every other corner, and huge steel buildings. I knew Europe was a victim of time like the rest of us, but it still disappointed me slightly every time I saw a poster advertising the McMuffin.

Downtown Cambridge

Cambridge is not like these cities. The sidewalks are cobblestone or a jagged puzzle of small cement rectangles. The buildings, connected and rising a few stories on either side of the narrow streets, are centuries old. Spires and towers poke through the town, marking the countless churches and colleges. I felt as though I had been transported back in time, if I turned a blind eye to the H&M. It was beautiful, surprisingly sunny, and unmistakably British.

Our house, too, is not without its English idiosyncrasies. For example, the pipes run outside the walls. Some run next to my bed, so I always know when someone is taking a late-night shower. Also, the bathroom on my side of the house (the house is actually two houses that the Valpo people connected. I live on the “Alpha side”) is located on floor 1.5. Halfway up the stairs to Julia’s and my room, which is on the second floor, the stairs fork, one heading upstairs, the other jutting off to the bathroom and showers. So, if I want to use the bathroom, I have to go down the stairs and back up in a little arc. I’m just saying, the architect may have had one too many beers at the pub before designing this beauty. There are also no screens on the windows because apparently there are not any bugs here, though Julia and I disagree since we saw a huge (okay, relatively small) spider dangling from the knob of our room’s radiator our first day here.

All in all, though, this place is amazing. Julia and I love our cozy room (number 9 ¾) and the monster-size movie collection in the living room. It’s a short walk to downtown, just down the hill and over the bridge (I feel like I’m in a nursery rhyme sometimes when I give directions). Thankfully, fortunately, luckily, we have Bryn. She has already been here for four months, so she knows everything about Cambridge, the house, traveling, etc. She was even incredibly helpful when I, exhausted and already homesick, had a mini breakdown after not being able to properly cover my duvet.

Bridge over the river Cam

This past week has been a great learning experience in multiple ways. We took a tour of Cambridge as a group and found out about the vast history behind Cambridge and the 31 colleges that make up Cambridge University. Fun Fact: former kings of England used to dub themselves kings of France as well, even though they weren’t, and even put the French flower fleur-de-lis on the national flag. Talk about massive egos. Bryn took Julia and me around her favorite parts of Cambridge and helped us navigate through the town. I learned when I went to the pub Baron of Beef that I sadly fall into the feminine stereotype of liking fruity drinks. We all grew up and went to

view of Cambridge from Castle Hill at sunset

Aldi’s to buy groceries sans parental guidance. On the plus side, I can buy whatever I want here, which means chocolate bars and mini pizzas. I figured out when we went to a pantomime of Robin Hood, mainly for kids, that British humor can be pretty raunchy even with a 10 and younger crowd. We also discovered how to plan our own travels, which was slightly liberating but mostly terrifying. Finally, I learned that Julia talks in her sleep in a high-pitched voice, which is really scary at 3:30 in the morning.

This weekend we are going to London, which should be a lot of fun. Julia keeps randomly going, “Ahhh, we are going to London, wooooo!” Which is fine when she’s not doing it in the adjacent bathroom stall. Just a quick aside, my computer is currently not connecting to the internet, which is why I haven’t been posting (I’m on Julia’s laptop). Hopefully that will be fixed soon, so I can post more frequently and won’t have to cram a week’s worth of events into one blog.

So, pip pip, cheerio,

Danielle

PS: I forgot to mention we also started classes this week. My theology professor used to be a punk rocker and my history professor firmly believes that the British “let the American colonies go” during the Revolutionary War because they were “too much of a nuisance.” Decent start.