Hello Cambridge University!

30 June 2013

Kings College, Cambridge University.

The people I have met at Cambridge are amazing. I know that these are the kind of people who I can always turn to for advice and help in the future. Thank you for being so great!

Oh happily ever after didn’t you know, didn’t you know
Oh skip to the ending, who’d like to know, I’d like to know…

The infamous lyrics of He is We’s song Happily Ever After.

Sometimes I wish I could just see into the future and see what my ever after will look like. Have you ever wished the same? There are so many what if’s and where to go’s it makes me crazy. I love that life is a surprise, but often I wish that I could just get a glimpse of the end of the path. Where will I be in 5 years? In 20? In 50? Life is a funny game, it throws curve balls left and right. Sometimes it throws one right down the middle, but it just so happens that those usually occur when you are least prepared. Learning to play the game is only half the battle. The real challenge is facing the unexpected obstacles that seem to place themselves in your path almost too perfectly. I have learned to welcome challenges with open arms because with that attitude they will never hold you back. You have the power to crush them, and learn to grow from them.

There are 31 Colleges here in Cambridge. Over the course of the next eight weeks I hope to photograph as many of them as I can and post them for you to see. This is part of Kings College.

Have you ever been faced with a decision where you had no idea what to do? Like choosing between two things that are both great but at the moment you do not know which one will be the best path to take? Often I feel like this. I feel like this right now. I have no idea what to do. One moment I am set on doing one thing and the next my mind has completely changed into thinking the other way. If you have never been faced with such a thing, be grateful because it is hard. Decisions are HARD, especially decisions made between two things that are great. I try to step back and analyze how each path will shape my life differently and then decide which one of the endings I would rather experience. This may sound easy in theory, but in practice the ability to assess the outcomes of your choices can be very difficult. As a girl who already has difficulties in making decisions, this is a a real hardship for me.

This is the inside courtyard of Kings College.

Brother and Sister White are so kind. Once again they took my friends and I into their home and gave us a place to sleep and meals to eat. I honestly feel like they are my second family. We went to the Hyde park ward again today but instead of going to the family ward at 9 we attended the YSA ward at 1. It was incredible to be surrounded by people who were from all over the world. London really is a mixing pot of cultures and people.

Hoping of the train that took us from London to Cambridge! I am so excited to explore the city!

I am on my way to Cambridge right now with Stephanie and Kailey and we are so excited! Tonight we have an opening banquet in the King’s great hall with all of the incoming Cambridge students. Once again this will be a mixing pot of students from all around the world.

Kailey, Stephanie, and I really enjoyed our vacation in Portugal….but now it is time to move on to bigger and better things! Here we come Cambridge!

We arrived into Cambridge at 4:30 (or half past eight as the British say it) and we started the mile and half long trek to our dormitory. The bus would of probably been easier, but as stubborn independent women who just tackled Portugal on our own, we weren’t going to let even a bus help us out. We are staying in student housing on Fitzwilliam Street just down the way from both Kings and Pembroke. Unlike Oxford where we were put up in bed and breakfasts due to the rush of organizing the seminar, here we will be living on campus as REAL students would. I am anxious to experience so much over the next 8 weeks.

This is the street on which my dorm is located.

The bright blue door to my dorm!

A street view of where a bunch of us Cambridge students live. My place is near the front right of the photo. Fitzwilliam is the same street where CHARLES DARWIN lived several years ago. Wow!

The banquet this evening was incredible and I met so many people from all around the world. It was held in the Great Hall of King’s College, a dining hall that looks just like the one Harry Potter ate at in Hogwarts. It is surreal to be surrounded by such miraculous architecture, art, and scenery. I can already tell that life is crazy and I am worried that my blogging may go down the drain as I get busy and have less time in transit (travel time on trains and buses) to sit down and blog. I will do my best to write about everything that is happening in as much detail as I can but I may slip up here and there. Tomorrow we have a day full of orientations and tours. I am anxious to continue to meet new people and build friendships with such incredible people.

Punting is a really big thing here. Just as it was in Oxford, everyone hits either the Pubs or the rivers after a long days work… Quite a relaxing past time if you get the hang of it.

Oh yeah…did I tell you that my supervision proposal was accepted? …And it is to be supervised with the Professor I was hoping to work with, Dr. Tasselli. He is a great business man and professor from Italy

Josh, myself, and Parker. Josh is a Cambridge student from the UK (Cambridge I believe) and Parker is a fellow BYU student studying at Cambridge as well.

Kings College is beautiful. There is so much history and beauty associated with this building. I am so lucky I get to be a part of it.