Day 18 – Sunday July 22

England has finally achieved something wonderful. Yesterday we made it through an entire day without needing umbrellas!!! Yes, you read that right, I was here for 17 days before there was a single one where it didn’t rain at all. I have never used my umbrella so often.

In other news… I finished and handed in my assignment on Coleridge, a week early! I’m pretty happy with what I wrote, so let’s hope my teacher likes it!

On Friday afternoon before dinner I went to the St Cat’s Chapel and listened to the St Catharine’s Girl’s Choir summer concert. About 25 girls all between 8 or 9 and about 17. They were really lovely to listen to. I recorded a song or two, so I’ll try and put the sound clip up one day.

Final night dinner was nice, kind of the same as every other dinner, but we were dressed up. Afterwards we went out partying, which I’m sure some of you have seen photos of! It was a fun night, followed by a very short sleep because we all promised we’d make it to breakfast at 8am! I had my laundry on well before that, and went for one last walk around my little bit of Cambridge. Cambridge is best first thing in the morning – it’s empty. All the students are still sleeping and the tourists haven’t arrived yet. The only thing open is Caffe Nero (aka coffee nerd). I think I’d get bored if I lived in Cambridge too long, but I loved every minute of being there! And I have a certificate that says I attended Cambridge University.

Saturday was the trip back to London. Gen and I decided we would catch the bus as it was slightly cheaper and we were in no rush (it takes more than twice as long as the train). When we were almost back to London, we got stopped by traffic in front of us going no-where… there were crowds all along the road so it was obvious there was some kind of gathering or demonstration going on… after about 5 mins a big truck came past making sure we were all excited about seeing the Olympic Flame in a few mins time! What a bonus to a bus trip – we pretty much had front row seats to see the torch! Then we turned the corner and followed the relay for about half an hour… it was a slow trip, but, what an opportunity! After a day wandering around Oxford St (and going to Lillywhites – a 6 story sports store) I met up with a few of the girls I’d been hanging out with in Cambridge (but who were in a different college) for one last get together. There is one person, Sarah, who will be in London all this week as well, so we’ll catch up a few times.

Today is Sunday, the sun is shining, London is bursting at the seams with people, and I am off to Greenwich Peninsula to see a bouncy castle life sized Stone Henge. I’m going to see the real deal on Tuesday!