Hold the Bus.

(First of all, I'm sorry if this appears twice anywhere. Blogger has clearly been having some issues.)

The above expression was something my high school geometry teacher used to say. I always thought it was weird, and I still do actually. But it works sometimes. Like today.

Something happened today that I never expected. And in my last post I said nothing interesting would be happening in the next month - ha!

Anyway, I'm sure you are on the edge of your seat in anticipation. Allow me to set the stage. I dragged myself back to my room at 1 this afternoon after an hour of Arabic and two hours on the Sunni Revival of the 10th century. Hungry, braindrained already and dreading the two hours of anthropology ahead of me in the afternoon, I made myself a cup of coffee. One of my exam term presents to myself was a lovely little French Press coffee thingy, so I can caffeinate myself in style. Anyway, I have a designated tea mug and a designated coffee mug (the cafetiere doesn't make enough coffee to fill my giant Starbucks mug I use for tea). Today, however, the coffee mug was in the sink to be washed so I made do with another coffee cup. I filled it up and realised the mug was too small to fit my usual generous portion of milk.  I figured I would just man up and sip it down and then could top it up with milk. I took a sip. And. It wasn't awful. Actually (and this is where things get life changing) I enjoyed it! I'll say it again - I drank black coffee and it was good! What has happened to me?!

To top off this incredible experience, I did something even more radical. I put a marshmallow into my coffee. Why? I have no idea what possessed me. But it was a good decision. Yum. And on that note, back to the pious Shi'i women of Beirut. Joy of joys.

Sad Face

That title is a little dramatic. I'm sorry. I'm not actually sad, but this post is a little less upbeat that usual. This is simply because of the E word. Exams.

Cambridge exams are a beast unlike any other really. The entire degree structure is different, and exams occupy the central position. Throughout the year we do receive assessment, but it's all unofficial feedback to prepare us for, you guessed it, exams! What this means is the official academic result I will leave with is the product of five written and one oral exams over the course of a week in June.

I'm sure you can imagine how unpleasant this is. The entire year's material - three hours for each exams, three questions, one number, one result. That's it.

In the last three years I've been here I have pretty much come to terms with this system. It's not great, but that's how it is. So the sad face isn't really accurate. I'm working a lot, but finding it pretty satisfying to get the chance to consolidate everything I've learned. The only issue is we're still being taught new material, for the next three weeks. (This is a complain against my faculty, not the university. Most courses have already stopped teaching. Grr.)

Anyway, the point of this rant is to apologise for my blog absence. To be honest, there is nothing interesting happening in my life. I've decided not to row this term, as it just took up too much of my time at bad times of the day. I'm now in the groove of lectures, library, classes, eating, running, sleeping. That is pretty much all I do, but I don't really mind. I've been pretty much cooking for myself and living in my room, but I'm enjoying being completely independent and not being accountable to anyone except myself for how I spend my time.

So that is the situation. The 'sad face' in the title is not related to my work, but rather the holiday coming up tomorrow in the US, Mother's Day! We already celebrated 'Mothering Sunday' in the UK, and it happened to fall on the day I went home, so I did in theory get to spend a mother's day with my mom. However, that doesn't make me much less sad that I can't spend tomorrow with my most marvelous mummy, who I love very much. (I think she knows this, but just in case: Hi Mummy, I love you!)

And just on the subject of awesome women - I was lucky enough to have the two best grandmothers anyone could ask for.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wedding, Continued

So, we left off with the arrival of the Princes! (I can't believe I'm actually typing that. I saw Princes?! What?!)

The in-laws were next to arrive - a blurry Camilla.

 With Prince Charles (my co-Trinitarian)

 Absolute madness in the crowds.

 Various clergy waiting for the Queen!

 Refuse :(

 Still waiting..

 Aaaand... the glimpse of a yellow hat!!

 Her Majesty :)

 The news people are in full gear.

 The time is approaching!!

 Bridesmaids!

 Very, very cute.

Kate arrives...!

 Accursed auto-focus preferred the police officers..

 But managed to capture a blurry wave!

 During the ceremony we tried to watch it on the screen. They also broadcast it on speakers, but it was quite difficult to understand what was going on. Fortunately, Liz had a radio tuner on her phone so we kept up to date with everything. We could hear the music quite well on the speakers, and the crowds joined in for 'Jerusalem' and 'God Save the Queen.'

 As things were winding down, the procession gathered outside.

 And here they are! The new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. (This is immensely exciting - maybe they'll come visit!)

 This horrible blue arm is in way too many of my photos..

 Getting in the carriage..

We noticed the flag on the abbey changed, but couldn't figure out why. This flag was waving for most of the morning.

 But then.. it was this one during the service:

We realised it changed because the Queen was in! This was an exciting revelation indeed. :)

After everyone had left the Abbey, it descended into insanity. 

 We headed towards St. James's Park to attempt to find toilets/somewhere to sit down. Looks like this guy got a little lost..

 We found an American woman with a Phillip Tracey - watching in style.

 The one bridge across the massive lake that divides the park had been limited to one way traffic - the opposite way we were headed. So we walked rather a long way to get around it.

 But we did get a view of Buckingham Palace!

 Hordes.

 A surge of people heading towards the Palace.

 Finally we found refuge under a tree, and enjoyed some of the masses of food we carried with us.

 We managed to make it onto the Mall to see the flyover.

 Tourist!

At this point there wasn't much else to see, so we made our way back to the Park. We hung around there for a little while whilst trying to get up the energy to move again.. Finally we propelled ourselves back across the park, and walked past Clarence House where there was some kind of official something happening!

 Wandering in the streets of London!

 We took the Tube back to Liz's flat, and we were impressed at how quickly things had dispersed. There were still a lot of people in St James's Park, but the Tube was running smoothly and wasn't horrifically crammed. After snoozing our way back to the flat, we drank a lot of Coke to keep us going back to Cambridge. Highly caffeinated, we headed back to King's Cross on the Tube to get the train, and stocked up on souvenir newspapers. These kept us occupied all the way back to Cambridge, and once I made it back to my room, I crashed hard at around 9!

Overall, it was an amazing amazing day. The entire experience was seriously surreal. Standing outside Westminster Abbey for 7 hours? Seeing the entire royal family? Actually witnessing an essential moment of history? People have been standing outside in hordes to catch glimpses of the Royal Family exactly like we did for centuries. It was at times painful, uncomfortable, and boring, but it was worth every second. As Kate and Wills grow up and eventually become King and Queen, I'll have been present when it all began.