Back in Cambridge
Wow, back again...! It's already May!!! And - believe it or not: it's spring in Cambridge!!! We have sunshine and temperatures close to 20 degrees!!!! :) I'm so happy about that, it was amazing this morning when the sun woke me up...!
But let me stick to "chronological order": After posting my last news here I went home to get myself ready for our dinner out - but as it is, everything always turns out different from what you'd expect: Olga texted me, saying she didn't feel well at all and that she couldn't come out for dinner - after another few text messages in all directions, Pascal and I decided to go for a curry nevertheless. We had such a nice evening, all very relaxed just talking about anything (yes, we're bad, in swiss German...), went to an Indian restaurant first (until they literally kicked us out - they put the check on our table without being asked for!!!) and ended up in a Caffe Nero until that closed - then we walked home (that is, he walked me home :)) and talked for another at least 45 minutes in front of my host mother's house...
You can imagine how tired I was on Friday morning when we had our video shooting - first we went to school where our teachers showed us a video ("The Rainmaker" with Matt Damon, hoorray! :)) before the taxi came at 9.50 for Jelmer, Pascal, Olga and me. On our arrival at the University of Cambridge Building, we got a lot of information about the exam and our "interlocutor" prepared us for our exam and after more than half an hour of preparation we went into the video room. it was very professional with camera men, microphones everywhere - weeeeird! Jelmer and I had to speak about some rather easy topics so it wasn't that bad and consequently the feedback they gave us afterwards was very positive - the one expert even called all four of us "superstars" and was convinced that we're going to pass the exam! That was quite an ego-boost! :)
After this, we were taken back to school where we wished everybody a nice weekend and took our bikes. I had to go home as soon as possible because I had to pack my suitcase... At 3 o'clock my neverending journey began: the taxi company had advised me to order the taxi half an hour prior to departure because of Friday afternoon traffic so they picked me up at3 - too bad we were already at the station 5 minutes later and my bus would not come until 3.45... Luckily, Olga and her boyfriend were in the city centre and they came to the bus stop for a little chat! :) When the bus finally arrived, it was already 15 minutes delayed and then it got stuck in traffic jams - to put it short: it took me a good 3 hours to get to Victoria station where I had to find my way to the right subway line to Richmond and it was 7.50pm when I finally arrived at our friend's house in Richmond... Although I was exhausted, I enjoyed a lovely evening with Sandra and her little daughter Anna (3 years old and just soooo cute! :)). On Saturday, another friend of Sandra's joined us and in the evening my mum arrived - it was so cool to see her although very weird in a way since it was neither home nor my "home" here, some kind of neutral territory in between... but in a way I'm glad that no one is visiting me in Cambridge, that way I can keep all the memories from here separated from my life at home and that gives it a speciel kind of magic (sounds stupid I know but how else could I describe that....)!
Without writing all the details I can say that the next days were extremely nice, very lazy with a lot of talking (and even more chocolate! :)), catching up with my mum, playing with Anna, simply enjoying the company of people who talk during meals... ;) The time passed very fast and yesterday I already had to leave again - they came to Victoria station with me and fortunately the coach journey yesterday was only 2 hours! :)
At 5 o'clock I was back in Cambridge and there was already full programme for the evening: we went to a pub with one of our teachers for a pub quiz! I met Olga and Pascal at 8 and together we found our way to "the Green Dragon" which is a very oldfashioned traditional pub near the river a little outside Cambridge. When we arrived there, our teacher wasn't there and neither were any of our classmates - but in the end they all turned up and the whole quiz thing was good fun. We had - to use Olga's favourite expression - "not the foggiest" about any of the questions but it was nice to be there and spend some time with all these people; I realised that I had really missed them over the weekend (I can't think how terrible it is going to be in June...)!
The pub closed at 11 but Olga, Pascal and me still had the way home and it was sooo funny, we were all rather tired and this was not a good combination - we almost fell off our bikes laughing...
This morning, the other teacher surprised us with another test at 9 o'clock (are they working together or against each other??? ;)) so now I'm quite tired again! At least we don't have any homework for tomorrow which gives me some time to reorganise my folder (it's full...) again!
But let me stick to "chronological order": After posting my last news here I went home to get myself ready for our dinner out - but as it is, everything always turns out different from what you'd expect: Olga texted me, saying she didn't feel well at all and that she couldn't come out for dinner - after another few text messages in all directions, Pascal and I decided to go for a curry nevertheless. We had such a nice evening, all very relaxed just talking about anything (yes, we're bad, in swiss German...), went to an Indian restaurant first (until they literally kicked us out - they put the check on our table without being asked for!!!) and ended up in a Caffe Nero until that closed - then we walked home (that is, he walked me home :)) and talked for another at least 45 minutes in front of my host mother's house...
You can imagine how tired I was on Friday morning when we had our video shooting - first we went to school where our teachers showed us a video ("The Rainmaker" with Matt Damon, hoorray! :)) before the taxi came at 9.50 for Jelmer, Pascal, Olga and me. On our arrival at the University of Cambridge Building, we got a lot of information about the exam and our "interlocutor" prepared us for our exam and after more than half an hour of preparation we went into the video room. it was very professional with camera men, microphones everywhere - weeeeird! Jelmer and I had to speak about some rather easy topics so it wasn't that bad and consequently the feedback they gave us afterwards was very positive - the one expert even called all four of us "superstars" and was convinced that we're going to pass the exam! That was quite an ego-boost! :)
After this, we were taken back to school where we wished everybody a nice weekend and took our bikes. I had to go home as soon as possible because I had to pack my suitcase... At 3 o'clock my neverending journey began: the taxi company had advised me to order the taxi half an hour prior to departure because of Friday afternoon traffic so they picked me up at3 - too bad we were already at the station 5 minutes later and my bus would not come until 3.45... Luckily, Olga and her boyfriend were in the city centre and they came to the bus stop for a little chat! :) When the bus finally arrived, it was already 15 minutes delayed and then it got stuck in traffic jams - to put it short: it took me a good 3 hours to get to Victoria station where I had to find my way to the right subway line to Richmond and it was 7.50pm when I finally arrived at our friend's house in Richmond... Although I was exhausted, I enjoyed a lovely evening with Sandra and her little daughter Anna (3 years old and just soooo cute! :)). On Saturday, another friend of Sandra's joined us and in the evening my mum arrived - it was so cool to see her although very weird in a way since it was neither home nor my "home" here, some kind of neutral territory in between... but in a way I'm glad that no one is visiting me in Cambridge, that way I can keep all the memories from here separated from my life at home and that gives it a speciel kind of magic (sounds stupid I know but how else could I describe that....)!
Without writing all the details I can say that the next days were extremely nice, very lazy with a lot of talking (and even more chocolate! :)), catching up with my mum, playing with Anna, simply enjoying the company of people who talk during meals... ;) The time passed very fast and yesterday I already had to leave again - they came to Victoria station with me and fortunately the coach journey yesterday was only 2 hours! :)
At 5 o'clock I was back in Cambridge and there was already full programme for the evening: we went to a pub with one of our teachers for a pub quiz! I met Olga and Pascal at 8 and together we found our way to "the Green Dragon" which is a very oldfashioned traditional pub near the river a little outside Cambridge. When we arrived there, our teacher wasn't there and neither were any of our classmates - but in the end they all turned up and the whole quiz thing was good fun. We had - to use Olga's favourite expression - "not the foggiest" about any of the questions but it was nice to be there and spend some time with all these people; I realised that I had really missed them over the weekend (I can't think how terrible it is going to be in June...)!
The pub closed at 11 but Olga, Pascal and me still had the way home and it was sooo funny, we were all rather tired and this was not a good combination - we almost fell off our bikes laughing...
This morning, the other teacher surprised us with another test at 9 o'clock (are they working together or against each other??? ;)) so now I'm quite tired again! At least we don't have any homework for tomorrow which gives me some time to reorganise my folder (it's full...) again!
posted by Sabin at 4:56 PM
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