Today was a very eventful and fun day. I woke up around 5 this morning so I got to lounge about for a while till breakfast was ready. I usually have issues with breakfast foods but I did alright this morning. We were taught a strange back entrance to go in just for this morning because the Tour de France was going right by school so the road we would normally take was blocked off. In the actual dining hall there was a long table covered in cereals and pastries and such but I also saw people with other foods like sausages that I did not know the location of. I eventually found the back room where the hot foods were, but the end result was a strange combination of too many plates so tomorrow I will know better. I was actually the first person from our group to go to breakfast with the end result that I actually sat there for hours talking with people as they cycled through for breakfast so I got to meet a bunch of new people. I met the only other grad student in our group and she is extremely nice and her flat is just down the hall from mine.
After breakfast a group of us went out and got some necessities. There are still a few things on my list but we made good progress. We got laundry detergent, notebooks, and hand towels for the bathroom, for example. I also got my cheap phone for while I’m here. I walked in and said “I’m here for 6 weeks, I need your cheapest phone.” And the fellow said then this is the phone you want. Most pleasant and fastest phone buying experience of my life. In and out in 10-15 minutes without spending too much money. While we were out shopping there was a parade before the Tour went through where the cars threw small free things to the crowd. I didn’t catch anything and didn’t recognize any of the brands represented in the parade, but it was still fun.
The Tour started at 12:15 do we went out to find a spot along the route at 11:30. It was literally one street over from our apartment building going past Gonville and Caius (the Cambridge Campus I’m studying at) so it was really convenient. I think I may be the only one here who actually watches the tour so I was the source of knowledge for the group of us that went together. I thought it was really funny that I knew fancy biking words like “peloton” and was able to tell them that while we were waiting 45 minutes, the bikers would only be visible for a few seconds and was thus a font of knowledge. I think the starting point must have been really close to where we were because we saw them very soon after 12:15 and there were no breakaways yet. I was so annoyed though about my spot. I chose a spot where the person in front of me was sitting thinking “yay, better view!” Then a cop asked him to take his feet out of the road, he stood up, and it became apparent that he was a giant. I could still see over his should though, so I figured I was still ok as long as I got my camera up. Well, of course as soon as the peloton comes by he raises his arm and my window was completely blocked. I had to shove my camera between peoples’ bodies and under their arms to get pics with the result that you can see torsos and hairy arms just as much as bikers. But I magically happened to get a picture of the guy wearing the polka dot jersey and if the internet is correct, it was David Moncoutie today.
It was pretty funny because after the peloton goes through, then come the support cars and once an ambulance went by, everyone seemed to know that was the universal symbol of the tour having past and the whole crowd started to disperse. A group of is all went to lunch then. We wanted somewhere to sit down after standing and waiting so long, so we went to a pasty restaurant down the street. I got a cheese and onion pasty, but I wish I had ordered the chicken and bacon pasty, I just didn’t see it before ordering. It was a cute little restaurant. Our group was big enough with 5 people that we went upstairs and had a nice view of the square where the farmer’s market is. After lunch we walked about town a bit. We saw St. Mary’s church which is quite lovely and right across from Gonville and Caius. You can hear the bells from campus quite well. As soon as we stepped out of the church a large muscled Cambridge student name George stopped us and tried to get us to go punting which is like going on a gondola ride up and down the River Cam. I really wanted to go but the other girls wanted to gather a larger group of us so it would be cheaper, but of course that didn’t happen so no punting for me today :(. Fortunately we have 6 weeks so I WILL go punting! A good chunk of our group was tired so we went back to our apartments. A group of us gathered in one of the girls’ room and we talked for a good bit and decided to go out again.
We wandered about town in a direction I hadn’t been in yet and ended up going to Jesus Green which is a very pretty public park. We were excited to see grass we were allowed to walk on since only fellows are allowed to walk on the grass at Gonville and Caius. We walked along the board walk and such and had a great time.
After enjoying the afternoon it was dinner time which was much better than yesterday’s dinner. Once again there was a mystery soup, but this time I got spring rolls instead. No more mystery soup for me, thanks. These cooks are overly find of squash. The main course was chicken Marsala. Well, I’ve never had that dish before so all I knew was I really did not like the sauce, so I was a very uncouth American and made a sauce out of ketchup and mayo that made my chicken delicious. The dessert was creme brûlée with raspberries at the bottom, but I’m not a fan so I skipped it. After dinner I went to the computer lab to print the readings I have to do for tomorrow’s class, but I couldn’t figure out how to print so I was stuck in the computer lab for a long time. And that brings is about to me typing up this blog and it is now bed time, so good night or enjoy your afternoon depending on where you are 🙂