American Football, British Education
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Random
Last night I ventured to Sports Cafe – the place in London where one can go to watch all sports, including American football. It’s also a great place to go if you’re interested in getting picked up by creepy British (or American) men. I was there for the football. The USC and Notre Dame alumni associations took over one of the bar areas for the game last night. It was excellent. Epic. Fabulous. Primarily because Notre Dame lost.
Today I’d hoped to go to Hampton Court Palace; however, due to work on the railroad my friend Dan and I decided to head up to Cambridge instead. There are actually many colleges that make up what we in the states think of as Cambridge; you can check them out here. What’s crazy is that the first of these colleges was started in 1209. No, that’s not a typo. That’s EIGHT HUNDRED years ago. We wandered through the adorable (and surprizingly large) town, stopping at a great market in the center of town. We also caught the King’s College Choir at the Evensong service at the chapel. The chapel was finished by King Henry VIII about ten years before he changed the nation’s religion. It’s pretty spectacular:
Last week I also joined Kate, Richard and Kate’s sister Lee for tea at the National Dining Rooms at the National Gallery (in Trafalgar Square). For a reasonable price you get a quite lovely spread. Ah, clotted cream. It’s like butter with a side of butter.
I’ll have pictures of the latest adventures up in a few days; now I have to go to bed so I can be up for my marathon Monday – four hours of class followed by a departmental lecture and then drinks. Yes, I’m managing to fit studying in amongst the travels and cultural outings. Luckily for me, I never have two days of school in a row, which means as soon as I make it through one day I can (in theory) sleep in the next.
And Cambridge just launched a $2 Billion dollar fundraising campaign to mark their 800th birthday! When you go to Oxford, make sure to check out St. Peter’s College. It is one of the smaller colleges but it is where I studied for a month in high school!