Sunday, June 12, 2016

Hello, Cambridge!

Okay, so let this be my declaration that I'm going to try and make Sunday night when I post my new blogs. But I think we all know, that's not going to be the case. I promise to do my best. What was the motto for Sparks? I promise to do my best and be a friend? There, I'll just be a five year old in a pink t shirt.
So. Update time I guess. Quick version to bring you to this moment: June 1, Ian and I flew to Toronto and spent a few days with family and enjoyed a great family wedding. June 6/7 travel to London, England. Our flight was set to leave at 9:00 PM with an arrival at Gatwick airport 9:00 AM. But alas, we were delayed nearly three hours. That really sucked. My dad's cousin, Charles, picked us up and we stayed down in Surrey for a few days. We had a nice visit and were able to visit Hampton Court Palace which obviously I knew nothing about and obviously Ian did know about. It was where King Henry VIII lived and beheaded his wives etc. We joked about bringing our Dustin Byfuglien (Winnipeg Jets...) bobble head with us - you know how people bring like a little thing and then take pictures with it all around - so we joked about doing that but then my boss was like "do it" so we did. But in Toronto his head broke off.. Point of me telling you this is that it would have been fitting if we had remembered to bring him to King Henry VIII's palace with a chopped off head..... You can laugh now. And June 9 we trained up to Cambridge!
First impression? It's much bigger and busier than either of us had imagined it would be.. Overwhelming is one way to put it. We had an AirBnB booked for Thursday til Sunday which was perfect. It was in a nice neighbourhood and we had bikes to use. Not sure why we thought we could just walk everywhere, but we did. I have over 130,000 steps on my last 7 days steps on my Fit Bit right now. So once I got past the blisters and sun burns (Yes, a sunburn in the UK! And yes, I wore sunscreen) I was okay. We had been keeping an eye out on flats to rent before we left Canada and we figured with our budget, we would have to do a house share. Which was fine. But the first one we looked at was awful with stained carpet and mattresses and just all around did not feel clean or homey. Not to mention we immediately felt like we should not be walking down the street. Next place was an hour and a half away. So we walked. And then waited 45 minutes for no one to be home. Excellent. Only solution was to get a pint at the first pub we came to and then cab home. Cabs here are way different, I'll talk about them another time :) Luckily, Cambridge is beautiful. Tons of gardens and green space. It seems like there are always people out and about. It's pretty awesome! So all of that kind of made up for the bad luck while searching for a home. Okay, maybe not.
On Friday, we travelled by train outside Cambridge to a tiny town called Foxton. We felt more at ease and loved the house and the town. Luckily, Emma, who showed us the place liked us too and Saturday morning she called to offer us a place in her home with her fiancé, Alex. Huge weight off! So we went to rent bikes for the next six months (it's going to be a 45 minute bike ride to work. Pretty long, but worth the comfort of being somewhere a little more our pace) and then found a pub to have a bite and watch the England vs Russia Euro match. It was quite the experience - people were singing God Save the Queen and cheering and clapping right there in the bar! It was awesome when England scored... Not so awesome when Russia scored in extra time. Then we had a long walk home and it started to rain. Welcome to England.
So this morning, we woke up and packed up AGAIN (so tired of packing), called a cab and went off to the train station - which we are pros at by now. Emma offered to give us a lift in Foxton cause it started to rain there, so it was nice not to have to walk in the rain. We met Alex, and then headed back to Cambridge to get our bikes. We wanted to bike from our place of work to see how it would go. Our 45 minute commute took us well over an hour!!! We had to stop a lot to double check where we were going so I think it will shorten down in no time once we are used to it. We go through a field where there are cows, so that's pretty cool!!
I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of details for you guys, but I guess this is a blog and not my diary. So. Yeah. Which reminds me, I said I would post about our butter chicken grilled cheese!!! Maybe later this week I will do that - if not, definitely next Sunday. And on the topic of food, don't judge but we have eaten at Subway AND Pizza Hut since we've been here. Subway because it was on the way to a house we were looking at and we were starving and Pizza Hut because our Airbnb was literally above one and it was 9:00 pm and we hadn't eaten supper yet or bought groceries. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
We start work tomorrow. Should be interesting seeing as I have ZERO agriculture experience except that I'm engaged to an Aggie. So stay tuned on that one
Until next time! Dream big dreams, be reckless
-L

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