day 6

Today has been the best day so far. Today we went to Cambridge which is a town but also a big university. We booked a walking and punt tour. Punting is a boat, imagine a big paddle board with seats that fit three people across. Someone stands on the back with a big metal stick and uses that to direct and push off the bottom of the river.

When we arrived in Cambrige we were looking for a place to eat when we just so happened to run into a festival. What are the chances Kirt finds yet again another festival. So we ate lunch at the festival, sadly this was the best food on the trip so far consisting of gyros, chinese noodles, and venezuelan arepas.

The walking tour was awesome. Our tour guide was Alex he is a P.H.D. student at Cambridge. It was so interesting to heard about their college experience and comparing it to ours in the states. The are required to live in a 5 mile radius of the school an it only takes 3 years to get their degree. Another different this is that Cambridge is a university but inside of the university or are 30 some odd different colleges. In the states that would mean degrees, however, here it is literally different colleges. Some examples are St. Johns College, Clare College, Trinity College, and Kings College. Each college has same degree although some more geared toward certain subjects. If you were to apply to go to Cambridge you could apply for a certain school or you can just apply for Cambridge and they will place you in a college, kinda like Harry Potter lol. Although there are multiple colleges in there are many colleges in the university and some colleges are more wealthy than other depending on alumni but in the UK all tuition is the same no matter where you go. So it go to college it cost 9,000 pounds per year.

Next we went on a punting tour which was great, nice and relaxing. We enjoyed a coke and a nice boat ride. Most boats had tour guides other were self guided which never seemed to go well for anyone. Our tour guides name was Ollie, he was so cool and honestly i don't know how all these 20 year old are so knowledgeable about history. I would know nothing about Ogden, UT. Anyway, Ollie was a soccer player at Oxford University. He was home for summer break. It was interesting talking to him because we were able to hear about both colleges, similarities and differences. We also talked to him a lot about college sports and how they differ in the states to UK. Punting through campus was beautiful views which we would not have seen by foot it was so cool, bonus there was even a boat bar.

It was a cool day to come to Cambridge because it was graduation.  It was more crowded than normal but it was so interesting to see them in their gowns and here about the ceremony. They wear gown like us but instead of something around their neck they have a hood. The hoods can be different colors representing different things, pictures is a while fur hood which is a graduate with bachelors degree. When they graduate they kneel and the with hands together and while the conductor repeats a pray or saying or something, i cant remember. I should listen better but it was interesting to hear about.

From there we just walked along the shops and then headed to a small town near our cottage for dinner at a pub and to watch the World Cup. Once again not super impressed with the food but well take what we can get. After that we headed home. Spencer and I walked up to the local pub to get a desert to take away (to go). The waitress thought we were hysterical because they just dont do stuff like that. We brought it back to the house for all to enjoy while we watched Love Island. Love Island is a show in the UK it is just like Bachelor in Paradise. Kirt has been here for just under a month now and he has been watching it every night (yes, its on every night at 9). Now he has us all addicted to it, so im assuming we will be streaming it somehow when we get home lol. We ended the night with tea for Kirt and Spencer and i went with the safe decision of cadbury hot coco and of course cury whirlies.