Soccer in Watford and Mexican Night!

The football outing was again organised by the international office at the university. It was just a small group, so small they took several cars rather than a bus this time. Nicole, Doug and Tony were in my car and we were driven by… Emily. I think that’s what her name was. She didn’t talk much… and happened to get us lost. Game kicked off at 7:45 and we were still driving around trying to find the stadium at 7:30. At one point she asked the car (all internationals that had never been into Watford) “What’s the name of this stadium?” Eventually we just got dropped off and walked toward the stadium, through a creepy side ally which prob wasn’t a great idea. Although, we missed the kickoff we tried to quickly get into the game. Danny Drinkwater, #32 was the star of the match! Once he came on the field it was on… actually even by that point Watford was losing by enough to have lost hope. We cheered them on never the less. With a (in the Family guy ‘butt scratcher’ tune) “Watford… Watford…Watford”. The final score was 1-3 Watford lost. :( Lucky we were driven home by another guy, whose name I can’t recall… but we were excited that he knew the way home and actually joint in to conversation.

Watford in Yellow, Bristol in Red

Internationals at the Soccer!

 Mexican Night - Feb 23rd
Nicole Hosted A Mexican Night on De (Hav) Stab. Why? Because we can! Party on a Wednesday night when I have a class at 9 the following day – again, why not! My Mexican Name for the night was Myra Gonzales and Gemma was Leandra Lopez . These were authentic names that we were personally allocated from an Online Mexican Names generator. It was customary that everyone be allocated one as they walked in the door. Nachos all round! Tequila shots ♥. Flip Cup (Totally the Champ Team there!), Beer Pong (again.. Winners), and that traditional Mexican Garlic Bread was to die for.Gemma went around tagging people with our gang symbol, Jafaris model <3 We had a visit from an election candidate who had a mega phone. He was just dropping into houses to campaign but luckily found a house full of about 25+ people. Prob not what he was expecting. Matt and Jason attempted to Trade Gemma and I for the Mega phone. That was almost a solid sale. Personal Shout out to Matt Frank – long time reader first time caller! Basically our #1 Fan. We Love you Matt Frank! (Note we value all our readers). I missed the shuttle home and walked back to Collage Lane with Shannon, Mitch and Kieran :) which surprisingly didn’t take that long and wasn’t that cold.
Mexican nights seem to be a reoccurring theme which is lucky for us… because it gives us a chance to put Gemma’s hand made moustaches to use.

Moustaches at the ready!

Matt Frank!

Gang symbol

Celebrating a win in beer pong

Just having fun :)

Claire xx

Our visit to Cambridge!



Graduates



Our bus left at 10 that morning. Our latest departure for a day trip yet! (Meaning sleep in J ) Suzie (another student from UWS) met us at our place and we all walked down to the bus together. She lives in London, commuting in everyday and had never been on the collage lane campus before. She had had to catch a coach out from London just to get the coach into Cambridge! At home Suzie is based on the Bankstown campus. Like most of us UWS students we hadn’t met before we got here, but we’re all very friendly J. Cambridge isn’t far from Hatfield; I believe the bus trip was only about 45 minutes. This trip was organised as just a drop off pick up, do your own thing during the day kind of thing.  We had previously downloaded an audio tour of the area thanks to Shannon for looking it up. Gemma was particularly interested in on titled “the death and disease of Cambridge”... We gave it a go for a little while but found we were easily puzzled by which end of the street we were meant to be at or which building we were looking at. So we got distracted by a fudge kitchen and we were able to watch fudge be made… with a few samples as well! We would have been there for a about half a hour just watching them stir and layer the fudge, and the classic double chocolate fudge was to die for!!

Gemma and I officially have a weak Australian Accent. We were talking to the fudge maker man, first I asked a question, then Gemma had a little convo with him. He was nice answered our questions enthusiastically… then Shannon asked a question and straight away his excitement took off and asked Shannon if she was Australian. Gemma and I were like “What”, what about us! Lol it appears we are letting the Aussies down.



Gemma on Queens Road



After lunch in the pub – Gemma and I decided that we defiantly wanted to see Clare college and Burrell walk! Yeah you heard me! Clare and a Burrell in Cambridge - - you can imagine my excitement. We parted with the group, inviting anyone who wanted to join… I don’t think others were quite as excited as I was to see Burrell walk!

 Some of the colleges are not open to visitors but we trekked on and came across Clare collage, it was rather pretty and today was partly open to the public. A magnificently detailed aged building gathered in a quadrangle. Gemma and I had noticed that there was a door open in the corner that a lady had just exited from and we thought it would be fun to walk around inside.  We’d agreed upon being silent… because we weren’t sure if we should be there and if anyone heard us speak they would know we weren’t meant to be there. Just inside the door was a small foyer, a door leading to an office, and a stairwell. Ofcourse we headed up the stairwell and it was difficult to hold back the laughter. Gems heart was beating out of her chest as we continued past several other offices; one which had the door slightly ajar. We got to the top of the staircase which had narrowed even more... there was nowhere to go. Just a window… which had a handle! :D Gemma opened it and we giggled and whispered as we agreed that we needed to get out there on that roof. First Gem and then I, thinking ‘this is crazy!’ The two of us were kneeling on the side of the roof in a college at Cambridge. We all know the rules, “pics or it didn’t happen”. In an attempt to take the evidence photos we would count to 3 and pop up above the balustrade then pop back down and giggle. We had to do this 2 or 3 times to ensure a quality shot. You can only imagine seeing two girls (one in red I might add- not exactly an inconspicuous colour) pop up take a picture and pop down. Thrill of the day for sure! J.

Looking at the Map in front of Clare Collge

The Gates to Clare Collge

The Offices we walked past up the stair well

Gem and I on the Roof of Clare Collge - See the excitement

View from the Top

We were up the Top there, infront of that White 'dome'

As we headed to Burrell walk, not far from Clare collage we kept an eye out for signage. Because basically a photo with the sign was all that was really required. Half way down what we thought was Burrell walk (there was no sign to confirm just our interpretation of the map) was the Cambridge University Library.  As we’d gotten a thrill out of being places we weren’t allowed we tried to get into the core of the library which was restricted to students. So we followed a guy in through the front door again following the ‘don’t speak rule’ and just did exactly which this guy did in front of us. Inside was a large desk with turnstiles that were manned for checking student ID’s; our man went right, and down some stairs. Excited we followed... we then noted that the sign said locker room. Instantly nervous, my thought was that we should have followed a girl and that we were going to end up in the men’s bathroom but we didn’t; Once in there we’d realised that this room was just row after row of lockers for students to leave their stuff  in so they didn’t have to take it into the library, only problem, you needed a student card to operate them. Our undoing was near so feeling slightly foolish we kept going. Found a row of lockers which had no one in it, stood there for a bit, pretending to use them. Then after a few moments (of not talking because we’d be found out as soon as we spoke) we were ready to laugh. So in a hurry to get out of there without looking like idiots I said the first British phrase I could think of: “you’re right?” Gemma nodded and we walked out with foolish grins on our face heading across the entrance into the exhibition room to view the exhibition of old Bibles. That was cool! Funny miss print in one that had “thou shall commit adultery”. Whoops on missing the ‘not’.

Continuing all the way along Burrell walk, still unable to find a sign, I noticed a group of boys in uniform. I’m  going to make the call that they were fresh off the field from soccer/football (depends where you are from) training. So the plan was to walk back, but slow-ish and look lost-ish so they would catch up and I could ask for directions. (Basically I just wanted to chat to Cambridge students). It worked. A group of about 5 stopped to help once I asked where Burrell Walk was. They were very helpful even though I probably looked like an idiot asking where a sign is so I could get a photo (I explained that it was my surname) they were also fun to look at all pretty in those Cambridge uniforms! ;) Erin you would have loved them! They pointed us to a sign for Burrell field... even better than Burrell walk J

Add caption

BURRELL FIELD! - Thats My Name!

We ventured in to St John’s College, ignoring the visitors are not permitted sign, following at a distance (we sound stalker-ish don’t we) a man in a graduation robe. He looked important so we knew we wanted to go where he went. Following the path we almost entered residential halls, avoiding running into people and risk getting kicked out we detoured and walked through the courtyards of the collage and came across the Bridge of Sighs which Gemma had hoped to find all day. Even better than finding it was that we were on in, ‘illegally’. It is a replica of the one in Venice, Oxford also have their own replica.

Finally finding our way out of the colleges we ran into other members from our group and together we headed towards the Fitzwilliam Museum, but got sidetracked and decided to go to Evensong inside the Kings college cathedral instead. Evensong is a service in the church that includes the boys choir and a short message and hymns! Gemma was able to get some photos of the architecture on the roof, even though photography was prohibited. The Fitzwilliam museum was closed anyway and we would have missed it. Something to add to that ‘next time’ list.

We finished up the day by meeting others in an Italian pizzeria before heading home on the bus. It was a huge day, and we perhaps left heaps undiscovered, but enjoyed all that we did get to.

Gemma On the Bridge

Kings Collge

The Fudge Guy

Claire xx

Castle-y thing in the distance

The walk to the supermarket

Crocus'

Crocus'

Snowdrops

The only bit of bird I could capture...

Vine covered tree

The wood

Snowdrop

Fungied wood

Plants waiting to flower...

A walk in the woods

Just the other week when walking past a patch of land that we walk past fairly often to get to the shopping centre Claire and I took our eyes off the ground, or stopped talking, or did something different and noticed a patch of wood. It is only a few houses down from us and yet we had not seen it before. What transfixed me was that in amongst all these houses it was still so classically wood like. Straight out of the animals of farthing wood (for anyone who watched that as a child...) with flowers coming poking up out from under the winter leaves that cover the ground.  As we passed it again this week I noticed that spring (which is springing up everywhere here) had reached the wood. I brought a camera down to capture some of the first blooms. So far we have Crocus’ and Snowdrops but I believe that there are supposed to be bluebells coming up as well and everywhere around us there are daffodils, but they are being slower to bloom and are only green shoots so far. Not only are there flowers in this wood but of course it also has wildlife, namely birds. I saw some robins on my photography trip and other small finch like birds whose names I don’t know. They are too fast for me to capture on camera though!

Spring here is really wonderful because unlike Australia where for the most part our vegetation stays green, everything here is dead and bare. But every day I am noticing the green buds on branches get larger and the shoots poking through the ground get taller. Outside our house there are fruit trees and their pink buds are just beginning to show. I can’t wait for everything to be wild and colourful but in the mean time I’m happy to watch it grow J

Gemma

Claire's Take on Week 1

Classes are… interesting. Very simular structure to back home. The classes I’m enrolled in are: Public Relations in Action, Hospitality service management, Economics for business and finally Human Resource Management in Practice. This is only week 2 but I’ll break them all down for you J

PR

It’s a 2^nd year subject. There lecturer only let students who had done a PR module in 1^st year, or exchange students do it… that’s why I’m allowed in. I’ve never done any PR work so I was a little worried at first that it would be difficult. But I now have an ‘into’ textbook and the first assignment is group. There are 3 other English in the group they are fun and seem to know what they are doing so that’s helpful. I’m trying to be carefree with the work load because I only need 40% to pass (and grades don’t transfer back home… whether I get 41% or 99% UWS love it).  Ill aim higher than the 40 because I like knowing I can do better… I told Gemma she ruins my standards and I can’t settle for a pass- but that’s not really a bad thing. The Assignment is on Binge drinking; we’re making a documentary - so that should be fun.

Hospo

This is the only class I have with Gemma. The subject itself doesn’t appear to be difficult at all. Our first assignment is a poster regarding trends. So we’re going to kill that!! – Poll would be disappointed with the standard of posters… will show the Brits how it’s done! Lol. We aim for full marks and if we get that 30% we’ll really only need another 10% from our final report. So I should just be able to write my name… a few heading with some key words in dot points – and ill be sweet.

Econ

At the moment I’m sitting in my Business Econ Class- it’s only a first year, so general basics… however, I’ve never really done any economics before so that’s hard. The Teacher is a little deaf (yes he told us that), I had a problem trying to answer a question and he said I was wrong but then explained exactly what I said. Even worse, when asking a question, he will answer something completely different and you won’t know if you were wrong or right at all. Feeling slightly nerdy as I plan to head to the library (or the LRC here *) to borrow a text book so I can just learn it all myself.

*The LRC stands for a Learning Research Centre… Gemma and I are a little disappointed… we don’t see what makes it a Learning resource centre as appose to a library… there isn’t anything there that exceeded our expectations and saying LRC is ever so slightly more effort. I am trying to resist calling it an LRC, but I feel the pressure to call it what the ‘locals’ call it.

Finally I have HR.

This was the unit I was most excited about. I decided to do a HR uni after a lady I worked with at the V8 supercars said she thought I’d be good at it. I was interested. It seems to be a lot of work. Not that im worried about that challenge. I know I can do it and I know ill learn a lot. At the moment we have just been given homework, which is a 10 min group presentation. My difficulty is now being in a group with people who don’t speak English as their first language. There are 2 French people and one guy from England. I find that I have to work harder to communicate and its difficult discussing legalities etc when there is only one group member familiar with the national procedures. We may also be getting a 3^rd French person… at which point should I just give up and just learn French? Lol. They are all lovely people and I’m excited about the times we’ll get to be social and talk about each other and the differences about us based on where we are from.

Im still getting use to the intranet system they have here… I’ve spend most of my first week tutes not having the worksheets because I didn’t know there were any cause I couldn’t find them. Gemma and I are hoping that the e-resources from UWS covers most of what we’ll need because we have no idea how to use this system.

WINDSOR CASTLE

This trip was organised by the University… It cost us around 20 pounds which included entry and the bus trip. I was soooo very excited! I was going to visit the Queen!!! For those who don’t know! I kind of adore the queen! Sarah (my best friend) and I usually celebrate The Queen’s birthday every year. The party generally stretches for three days… we drink, eat poms (like potato gems), have Birthday cake, wear tiaras and make shirts to wear all weekend. It’s Kind of Awesome. Anyway there was an audio tour which was highly educational. We were able to just roam around the selected areas as we listened. A few really cool things were seeing Queen Marys Dolls house and the Drawing gallery. Some of my favourites in the drawing gallery were photos of the royal family while they were young etc. such as Queen Elizabeth with King George Vl and the rest of the family. There was also a china room which contained various editions of royal china or gifts of china given to the monarchy. I think Mum and Erin would have loved it- and how old it was! I think my most favourite bit was walking up the Grand staircase in the state apartments. The audio guide was telling me that I was walking up the Grand Staircase that the Queen herself walks up, and guests to the state apartments would walk up. I was just in ore! Thought of you Sarah! – You would have enjoyed it. Just knowing I wasn’t far from the queen; and being in the different rooms with various Royal purposes!

We ate lunch at a pub down the street from the castle. It was called ’51’. We went there because Gemma knew a girl who was working there, form home. We spent the rest of the afternoon wondering the perimeter of the castle. Long walk was a long walk... so we didn’t walk down it. To explain there is this long pathway which starts at the castle and appears to lead to a statue at the other end. It’s lovely and green… but such a far way to walk so, although we were curious, we didn’t walk the distance. We were exhausted by the end of the day and slept the bus ride home!

Nicole, Claire, Jordan Jumping at the Top of Long Walk

Pimps and Hoes

If you’ve read previously you would have been told that there is a night club on campus called the forum.  Every Friday night they have a theme.. the first we went to was School disco, there was a Jungle one we didn’t go to… and this week  just past there was a pimps and Hoes which we inevitably, went to. Pre drinks/Pre gaming with peeps in Teford court (a different residential section to ours- a closer one to the forum) was awesome! Lucky enough Gem and I were able to Claim The Wonderful Bachelor Tom as our pimp for the evening!

Us with the Lovely Tom - Our Pimp for the Evening

Rose and Claire. Hoe Posing

Claire, Gem... and Some Guy - Cant remember his name

Star Gazing

Following Monday, I was exhausted from not having a great day… and gemma had a very very long day FULL of classes (9am-7pm, with minimal breaks). Gemma is my Hero because she was able to make dessert out of nothing… well just about. Golden dumplings were created with the ingredience from our rather bare cupboards. They were very good. We decided to do something a little crazy to make up for today. Gemma and I rugged up, grabbed our sleeping bags and a Bottle of wine and headed for the open grass patch just down the way from us. Star gazing, drinking and singing along to gamma’s itunes was so much fun! By 11 we we’re merry and so we went to bed… but not before uploading those photos to facebook! J

Us on the Chelsea Bridge

The Millenium bridge

The Globe

At the Tower of London

Our Yeoman Guard

Claire wasnt sure if this was disrespectful or not....

Chruch in the tower

Memorial where the most important people were beheaded

Exploring

Tower Bridge

Us with the Tower Bridge

Just chillen

Getting serious

But not too serious!

Living out our princess fantasies

St Pauls cathedral

Huge and magnificently lit up at night

Our home sweet home, #8 Roberts Way

Little community (We dont actually know anyone else...)

Bathroom for 8

Our room, Claire's desk

Our pantry and decorations

 My desk

Our Kitchen