Author: Emma Hecht
Location: London, England
I arrived here in Cambridge on August 23rd and even though I’ve been here for a little over a month, I still haven’t acquired a British accent, which has been on the top of my to-do list since I started reading Harry Potter in the 5th grade. Despite this, my 33 days in Europe has been extremely productive, eye-opening, and full of wonder in different ways.
One of the first nights I was here, my friend Claire and I went to a pub down the road, The Mitre. We walked in and stood by the door for a good thirty seconds, wondering if someone would come and take us to a table. Around the thirty-first second, it became increasingly apparent that we were on our own. To confirm this, we approached the bartender and asked, “Do we seat ourselves?” She replied with a turn of phrase odd to the American ear, “Oh yes you absolutely can do so.” So, we found a corner table and sat and sat, waiting for our waitress. She came up to us after a good bit of waiting and took our drink and food order, both of which were out in record time. We scarfed it all up, talked for a bit, and then sat and sat and sat, waiting for our bill. After an hour and a half of sitting and not seeing our waitress anywhere, I got up and walked around, trying to spot her. After determining that she forgot about us and went home, I went back to the bartender and asked if we could pay her at her register. We could, so we did. And left a 20% tip to which she responded with a surprised, “Oh wow, that’s so kind of you!”
Rules for eating in a pub (which we learned the following day):
- You seat yourself.
- You go to the bartender to order.
- You go to the bartender to pay.
- You don’t have to tip your waitress.
Pictured here: the traditional English meal I ordered at The Mitre after I told myself I couldn’t get macaroni and cheese because I can’t eat the same things I eat in the United States when I’m in England.
In Cambridge, classes don’t begin until late September/early October (excluding our British Life and Culture class, which is taken through Valpo and began when we arrived), so I’ve had quite a lot of time to wander around the city. Boots serves as the UK Walgreen’s, and I do most of my grocery shopping at Sainsbury’s or Aldi. The architecture is incredible, every piece of every building carefully formed, uniting to make magnificent buildings. One day I took a book and read for a few hours (well, read for an hour, napped for a couple more) in front of St. John’s college on the River Cam (pictured below).
We’ve also gone over to London a couple times, visiting the Churchill War Rooms, Piccadilly Circus (not a circus as I thought it would be, rather an English Time’s Square that for some reason hosts a three-story M&M’s store), the Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe (to see a three hour performance of Othello, for which we were in the standing court—a great performance that also greatly tired my legs), Borough Market, Westminster Abbey (where we got to see Stephen Hawking’s stone, just put in two-three weeks previous to our visit), Kensington Palace, and Buckingham Palace (a portion of it pictured below—and no, I didn’t meet the Queen).
While I enjoyed London, at times it feels just like any other metropolitan city, like being in Chicago or NYC. However, I love being in Cambridge (so far—we’ll see how I’m doing later when the stress of classes sets in). The town, while it is big, just feels friendly and welcoming, a perfect home for four months abroad.
