Cambridge

I don't have any travel tips about Cambridge, it's been too long since I've been there. I just have a personal story.

In the summer of 2003, I was studying abroad in England. I spent 4 weeks living in a broom closet in London, sharing 2 shower stalls and 1 working toilet with 23 other girls on my floor.

My cabinet for a closet didn’t have any hangers. I asked someone on the street if they knew where I could buy hangers and she sent me to a fish and chips place. I guess she thought I said bangers. I still don’t know.

I was in a Criminal Justice program and we got to go on all these cool trips to Scotland Yard, The Peel House, Mi-6, and sit in on trials at Old Bailey – my god, the wigs!

On weekends, I took trips to Wales and Scotland.

Our last week of the program, we relocated from London to the University of Cambridge. It was so cool. It was like being at Hogwarts. Best of all we got dorm rooms with our own bathrooms! It was like a palace compared to our last place.

After we arrived, I went to explore and find something to eat but, I couldn’t find my way off campus. It was getting dark so, I just turned around and forwent dinner for the night.

The next day I found my way through an iron gate.

The Cam River cuts right through the campus. You can take these little boats called punts sightseeing. Going punting on the Cam is like a big tourist attraction.

Some of my classmates would dress up like pirates and go punting while making pirate noises the whole time. So, every time I went outside I would hear “Aargh” coming from all over town.

In one of our final classes, we were going to have a special guest speaker that I was looking forward to. The class was going to be held someplace different than usual.

That morning, I had planned to get up early and commandeer toilet paper from one of the other floors, then go find the classroom.

However, my plans were thwarted when I received a call from home informing me that my brother had had a party. I was pissed and immediately had to do an inventory check on all my cherished possessions back home to make sure they were still there, as his parties have resulted in my belongings being stolen in the past.

I completely lost track of time, because when I went to seize the toilet paper, I noticed that everyone was gone. Running out of toilet paper is my number one fear and being late is a close second. I was late.

The class had already started and, I didn’t know where I was going. I went into panic mode and took off wandering the campus. I saw my class through a window. I walked all around and couldn’t find how to get in the building. I was in such a panicked frenzy that I just went through the open window. I did that. WTF.

Punting on the Cam