Cambridge 2010: Three Months On The Trot

I meant to get up at 6:45am this morning so I could take a shower, but my alarm did NOT go off until 7:30am. I got my stuff together and went down to breakfast around 7:50am. I had porridge and a hardboiled egg again for breakfast, but this time I actually finished it all…and a piece of toast. You know how people say, “All that and a bag of chips.” I just had the thought, what if it was, “All that and a piece of toast.” Haha!

After breakfast, I loaded my stuff onto the bus. Guys, sit down for this. The bus is the TEAM bus for the Newcastle United football (soccer) team. I was sitting in the same seats that the players from the team sit in. The bus is crazy awesome. There are LED blue track lights, a huge dome window at the front, both table seats and forward facing seats, a cappuccino/tea/coffee/hot chocolate maker, an oven, fridge and freezer, and bathroom (of course). Let us put it this way, when we were driving down the street, people were scrambling to pull out their cameras to take a picture of this bus. I cannot tell you how excited we all were to get to ride on that bus. Wow.

We made a pit stop in the city of York in England. I went to the York Cathedral and quietly looked around during the 12:30pm communion service. The York Cathedral is the largest gothic cathedral in England. After the service, I went to the city centre to have a look around “the shambles” and grab a bite of lunch. I stopped off in a couple of shops to browse as well. I went to this one trendy café type place called Dusk. I had a chicken, mozzarella, and pesto panini. I stopped in there mainly to get an internet connection and see if I had any replies to the billion e-mails I sent out yesterday and the day before. I thought that Dusk had a funny internet password for the day; “the fun powder plot”. I left there and walked around more shops. I went into Lush to smell and see stuff. I only had a few minutes until I had to get back to the bus. I got back and we were off to Hexham.

So, we arrived in Hexham at the abbey to meet up with our host families. Me, Matt, Lauren, and Katie all have Andy. We rode in Andy’s BMW to the house, which was literally a 5 minute walk from the abbey. We go down the private, wooded drive, over the creek on the little bridge, and up the driveway to park. His house is 4 stories. Everything in the house was absolutely and wonderfully decorated, but in a nice home sense and not a “do not touch anything” sense.

Andy took us out to the “pub” (nicely repurposed 2-car garage) where we laughed and talked until Cath said that dinner was ready. We all went into the dining room and ate the most wonderful meal. Cath had fixed 2 types of chicken (plain or chicken breast with mushroom and a creamy sauce), garlic roasted potatoes, a salad, and a apple crumble or cheesecake for dessert. The dinner was so good. After dinner, we all went into the living room to sit by the fire while Cath (who would not let us help her) cleaned the kitchen.

Sam (their three year old, black and white cocker spaniel) came to see us and absolutely LOVED me. I joked with Andy that I might have stolen his best friend from him. It was hilarious. We watched 70s & 80s music videos until we were ready for bed.