Last week was really hectic. Physically and mentally exhausted by the end of it. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the bulk of my surveying project happened. We were split up into 3 people teams and were each responsible for surveying and mapping out the Coe Fen behind the engineering department. It rained a lot the weekend before and we were wet as soon as we stepped out into the fens. The grasses are all as high as my knee, sometimes my waist. It was muddy so we were all wet from our knees downwards. It's really uncomfortable to be working when your feet are totally wet. By Thursday, my shoes smelled pretty bad with swamp water. I dumped everything that went outside into the washing machine.
Actually, I wasn't out in the fens for very long on Wednesday because of my Chinese exams. The listening exam was in the morning. We started a little late because one of the students showed up late. And then as soon as he got there, the power went out. This is very bad since this exam depends on us listening to things recorded on the computer. Luckily, the power came back pretty quickly. I think I did pretty okay on this part. In the afternoon, I had my oral exam. This did not go as well as I thought it would. The topic was money. This was the one topic that I didn't revise. So sad. I managed to make coherent sentences but I feel like I kept saying the same stuff over and over again. I think I improved a lot from last October but it could've been better. And I thought it would be more like a conversation but it was more like a scholarship interview instead. Anyhow, after the exam, I helped my group with surveying and then went to meet Yalu.
Yalu's flight came on Wednesday and one of our friends, Maria, went to the bus station to meet her. She let Yalu stay with her until I was done with my projects. I'm really glad since I don't know how I was supposed to be doing 3 things at once. Anyway, I had to meet up with my project groups the next day so I gave Yalu a map and sent her off to the Fitzwilliam museum. Mahalia also had some friends visiting so Mahalia gave all of them a tour of Cambridge in the afternoon. I also got really lucky here (Thursday). Not only was I able to find some company for Yalu, my surveying group had a really easy job that afternoon. Tuesday and Wednesday, it was wet and sprinkled a little. But on Thursday, it poured. It was raining so hard that the instructor felt sorry for us and got us all candy bars. It was that bad. My group had the easy job and was able to finish in 2 hours instead of 4 or 5 hours that was required for the other jobs.
On Friday, I worked with my group on some design stuff in the morning and then went off to London with Yalu. I feel kinda bad about this but we did get a lot of stuff done that Friday morning. And I did a lot of the calculations. Anyhow, we left at around 1pm along with another friend, Yaoyao, who had to go to the Japanese embassy to get a visa for working there this summer. Yalu and I walked along the Thames River and saw most of the touristy sights in about 3 hours. We met up with Yaoyao who spent the whole time sorting out her visa stuff and the three of us walked around some more, ate dinner in Chinatown, and got back to Cambridge at nearly midnight. This was one exhausting day.
On Saturday, Yalu and I went on a tour that took us to Avebury, Stonehenge, and Salisbury. This tour group operates from Cambridge and takes overseas tourists around sites in England. I didn't know it was meant for overseas tourists. But the price was pretty reasonable. Anyway, we saw a lot of stones in Avebury and Stonehenge. There were stone circles in Avebury that predates the Stonehenge. Everything was built to astronomical events. I found that pretty impressive. We always think that we're more advance than people who lived thousands of years ago but they figured out where to put the stones and moved these things without the help of machinery.
On Sunday, Yalu and I went to London again. We took the bus this time and walked around Buckingham Palace and attempted to watch the Changing of the Guard ceremony. There were so much people! I was more impressed by the amount of people who turned up to watch this than the ceremony itself. Granted, we didn't see much of the ceremony but still. After this, we just walked around some more and chatted until it was time for Yalu to go to Heathrow and catch her flight to Paris.
On the way back, I took the bus again. The driver didn't let anyone sit in the front seat behind him and was really rude about it. One lady tried to sit there and he yelled at her to find another seat. She was like, "I always sit in the front." and the driver just shouted "No!" She was too surprised to argue and just found another seat. Then a few stops later, a man tried to sit there and he and the driver got into an argument. The driver grabbed his ticket and tried to take his bag. Neither of them spoke English very well but the whole thing was pretty clear. The only explanation the driver gave was that he wanted the seat for his stuff. He even turned off the engine and just sat there, expecting the man to give up. The rest of the passengers shouted at the driver to keep driving. Another passenger walked up and tried to get the driver to keep driving and threatened to call the company. The driver seemed unconcerned and was like "No one is in the office today. Sunday." Anyhow, he drove on after a while. I filed a complaint against him on the National Express website. This is another reason why I prefer the trains over the bus. You have to deal with these bus drivers. Most of the time, they're really nice but sometimes they're just down right mean and rude.
No comments:
Post a Comment