Buckingham Palace

On our trip to London I finally got to see the Buckingham Palace (I had only been there as a kid, so it had been a while...). Here are a few impressions:

The road that leads to the palace is pretty impressive with all the flags and the crowns and the 1000 lines for the three cars that are driving around.

Next to the palace there was this huge gate that separated it from the park. I was quite impressed by it until I noticed that if you walked 10 more meters the wall actually stopped... (still, pretty amazing work!)

(Also the locking system was a little less intimidating after closer inspection:)

Flags and flags and such a beautiful day we had (I am actually pretty upset about that, because my friend is  getting a completely wrong impression of how much we had to suffer until the moment (literally) she arrived with the bad weather).

Definitely not a bad place to live in, but it must be weird that people are taking pictures of your home 24/7 (although you kind of have it coming if you move into something like that...)

European Time Square

Today I spent the day in London with my friend from Spain. For some reason we decided to go and see "Les Miserables" one hour before the show (more on that on some other post) so we stayed around until pretty late. This gave us the chance to see Picadilly Circus at night! If anyone has been to New York, this is as close as it gets around here to Time Square. The most outstanding thing there is the incredible amount of light that comes from millions of screens and other sources all around. In this case the number of lights might not have been that high, but I was already very impressed to see screens like these: 

The Buildings around it were illuminated in different colors as well:

The place was pretty crowded considering the time, which might be mostly due to the fact that it was a Saturday, but on the other hand a lot of them were just sitting around the fountain like this:

As if they were waiting for something to happen at those ungodly hours (also these steps remind me of the stairs in Times Square where people sit just like on these ones).

Fun-fact to wrap it up: The name "Circus" refers to the Latin word for "circle" (since it is some kind of round junction between important streets) and has nothing to do with some circus ever having been there (I know that this word also comes from the same Latin expression but I somehow assumed that Picadilly used to have its own circus there or something). Well, live and learn.

A killer concert

This last weekend was pretty damn cool. A friend of mine had tickets for The Killers (you might have heard of them...) and asked me if I wanted to join her. What a question!!

The concert took place in the famous Wimbley Stadium. This building looks pretty amazing from the outside already, but it is even cooler from the inside!

Ok, this post is going to be a bit of an experimental one, because I discovered that I can take panorama pictures with my phone (who would have though, right? It's not like ALL smartphones do that) and I try to include a video for the first time. Whohoo!

Anyways. As you can see the stadium is pretty big and on the picture above it looks a bit empty, but believe me, during the concert that place was PACKED. There were two pretty cool bands that came first (James and Flashlight Anthem, in case anyone is a fan). We were afraid that it might get too cold (it was very windy and we were sitting at the beginning) but once the Killers came on stage we moved into the crowd and between the jumping and the mass of people we ended taking off our jackets.

The show was awesome! One of my favorite parts was the moment when the lead singer asked people to hold up their mobile phones with their flashlights turned on and it looked amazing! It was a sea of lights, almost like stars! I have to say that reconciled me a bit with smartphones (they seem to be good for something at last). In total, great atmosphere!

Ok, here is the video, let's see if it works out... I am not sure it will have sound, but I have to try... (I hope this does not mean that the site has to load for a few centuries now....)

Big, big thanks to my dear friend Gabriela who took me along to have an amazing evening!! ♥

Also I finally won the battle against my pubescent cell phone so I can upload pictures again! Hooray!

Your prayers will be heard here

I have mentioned the College chapels a few times, but I imagine that the word chapel suggests something like a small room where people can prey (for some reason I personally always have to think of those small chambers they have at the airports...). Be as it may, the term "Cathedral" would probably be more suited for those buildings (those would be many bishops in Cambridge). I have not been inside the King's College Chapel yet, which is apparently the most impressive, but the chapel at St Johns is not too bad either:

This is the humble interior. The constructors also invested some time on the windows:

I am not sure how much they actually use these buildings (they do have mass in there, though) but they are pretty fascinating. 

More good news: although my phone is still more stubborn that a 15 year-old teenage daughter I think I will manage to get my pictures out of there! Fingers crossed!

Wait a minute...

Ok, I am having a bit of a trouble with my phone and my computer and I cannot transfer the pictures from one to another. Please bear with me while I fix this. In the meantime I can show you the new business our biggest airline in Spain is having here in London:

So here is where all the food THEY DON'T SERVE ANYMORE on their flights ends up...

(Also, ironically the restaurant turned out to be Georgian, oh well...)

Not a country for vampires...

In Singapore all days are equally long. All year long the sun goes up around 7 am and goes down around 7 pm. Let me tell you, this is a little bit different in this country. The other day I had to get up at 4:30 in order to get to the airport and to my surprise the sun had already risen! The cycle to the station at 5 am was one of the sunniest trips I have enjoyed in Cambridge so far (not to mention the complete lack of traffic) and when I got to the station the sun was surprisingly high in the sky. Just see for yourselves:

I am considering changing my whole day-schedule...

BUMP!

Last week we had a very special event in Cambridge: the May Bumps! This is one of the big rowing competitions between Colleges and it's quite peculiar (not only because of it's rules, but also because of how passionate students get about it). The rules are easy but quite odd. There are several divisions, each with 17 boats sorted according to the results of the last term. Since the cam is obviously not wide enough for all 17 of them to row in parallel they came up with another method: 

The boats start lined up and one and a half boat lengths apart from each other and the goal is to bump into the next one before reaching the finish line and before getting bumped themselves by the boat behind. If a boat hits the one before him (this includes the blades hitting the face of the opponent (not every convenient height for the oar, though)) both have to move to the riverbank and stop. Like this:

There are four races on four consecutive days and if you bump the boat in front of you you swap places for the next race. This means that during one May Bump you can technically only move up a few places (there is overbumping and stuff, but that is another story). If you bump the four days you get blades, which is not only a huge honor, you also get to keep the actual  blades. Once the race is over the boats that bumped/were bumped have to row back to the finish line (there not going to stay on the side for ever, obviously).  In order for people to immediately know what is going on the bumpers (the ones that hit the boat before them) put some greenery in their hair or on their suits. It looks really curious, like this:

Not sure if you can see it though...

As you could see on the second pictures there are people on the side of the river cheering and every team has a maximum of 4 people that can cycle along the river shouting and whistling secret commands to their teammates.

Not knowing all the colleges names (not to mention all their colors) it was a bit hard for me to figure out which one was which since they don't necessarily have their full name anywhere. Apparently you have to recognize them by their blades (yeah, right) and  we found out later that they were handing out flyers with the Colleges and their blades.

Also we had a big incident with one of the Colleges! I must say I saw it coming, which is why I had my camera prepared, the only one who did not was the swan:

It was in the middle of the river when the second division men teams came along and since they are clearly not equipped with eyes on their necks (and I am not sure they would make a huge evasive maneuver even if they did) they almost ran (rowed) into it.

It's a good thing that Churchill does not have an incredibly in-your-face color (like bright barbie pink would be) so the Queen's guards are going to have a hard time trying to figure out what College it was from my picture in order to punish them for (almost?) rowing over a swan. 

Tell the world that I'm coming home

Even though it seems like it was yesterday when I left Madrid it had been 9 (!) months since the last time I had been home. But this has changed! This weekend I visited my family in Spain. It was really nice to see everyone and to be back in the environment I grew up in for a few days after running all around the globe. And I am not exaggerating.The other day I was going through all the places I have visited since the last time I was in Spain and I was surprised myself!

Germany

Singapore

Cambodia



Qatar

Thailand

Japan

USA

and finally, of course: UK

These are places I haven been since the last time I was in my hometown!!
This last year the motto has really been adventure time!

Just leave that in the corner...

... said no one ever at this place. 

As you can imagine there are quite a few churches in Cambridge (every college needs their private chapel and then there are churches between the colleges for the normal mortals) but there is one that I especially like. People here call it the round church (I have no clue why) but it's original name is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (or Sepulcher if you are from the States (seriously, when did someone decide to swap the "e" and the "r" in all the words? And why? WHY?)). 

The church is really cute because it is all circular and tiny. It was built in 1130 so it has been around for a while (longer than any college, actually. As a matter of fact it witnessed the whole construction of St. John's College (that is just on the other side of the street). Never had considered it that way...). 

If I was an interior designer I would honestly not know where to put the altar here...

Flower Power

After wearing my big winter coat today I have realized spring (and apparently also summer) is over. There were a few very nice days during which not only the British went wild (whoooo nothing says flip-flops and hotpants like 15ºC!!) but also mother nature. I give you the best of Spring 2013 UK edition:

The trees were incredible as well:

This last tree is actually a cherry tree in our front yard and apparently it gives very nice cherries! Hooray!

Spring, spring, spring ♫

Professional photography 101: try to get as much as you possibly can of your own shadow into the picture so people remember that you are the actual star of all your shots:

Well, that was that. In my next post I'll show you the snowmen I'll be building.

♥

Handicap -1000

If you happen to know any professional mini-golf player you should stop reading now and run to warn him that a new star of this sport has been born today. Little did I know about this gift never having played before but after leaving people speechless at the fair today I found my vocation. Not only did the ball stay within the fenced area most of the times, it never actually hit a human being on the few occasions when it flew away (due to my immeasurable strength and motivation). Also everybody knows that the obstacles are just distractions to keep you from scoring, so the more you avoid them and keep hitting the walls the more focused you are (duh!). I am pretty sure I scored the highest (reaching the maximum number of allowed hits quite often, actually) and at least I was not lying on the ground throwing the balls at my sibling like some of my unprofessional opponents dared to do.

As you can see on the picture focus is my middle name, sponsors, please hold back I am already suffocating under all my offers! Here is the green: 

A lot of very famous golf stars have started their careers here which is why many people consider it the Olympus of golf. This attraction was part of the fair we have in Cambridge right now. Don't ask me which one, because it did not appear to have any explicit name. Since they seem to host at least one fair a week I am pretty sure they have given up on coming up with names to justify the food and bracelet stands on their greens...

This fair seemed to be more children oriented (not much of a contest regarding that the last ones were the beer festival and some sort of hippie convention). They had very shy ponies:

And way too many inflatable castles (I always thought you can never have too many of these, but there was literally a dozen of them on Parker's Piece).

Conclusion of the day: there is no human way to make the ball go straight at mini-golf (not even being a future gold medalist).

Spspspsps

At some point during English class in school they told us we should choose between either British English or American English (it makes sense not to write a text using both spellings). Since I am pretty sure that most of my English actually comes from American movies and TV series I went for American. So far everything has been great, but living in the UK makes this choice a bit of a challenge. I've had more than one misunderstanding where someone thought I was referring to their underwear when talking about their pants (or trousers as they prefer to call them). A line is a queue (I feel like there are a few more "ue"s missing in that word), cotton candy is candy floss, the toilet is the loo and their pens are biros. On top of all this, their spelling can be confusing as your colors are their colous and the center is a centre. After a while you cannot be sure about anything anymore,  but there is one word where I will stand my ground and that I refuse to use. Actually it's two, but they go together.

Their fries are chips.

So you might wonder what they call chips (as in the potato slices that you can eat from a bag)? Never will you see me calling them:

I refuse to use that word. What is wrong with chips? And for some reason my eye twitches with the "sps" sound. Chips, for the love of God, CHIPS!!!! 

Google google

Today I visited a good friend of mine that is currently doing an internship at Google (I am not sure if any of you have heard of this small company...). It already has an amazing reputation but that is only the tip of the iceberg!

Hearing people speak about their projects and the facilities they have is incredible. It's like a building full of original and bright people with lots and lots of interesting ideas and the money to actually bring them to life!

The decorations are incredible!! And the facilities are unimaginable. They have things like gym, game room and even a music room!:

This place really is heaven for any computer scientist on earth! ♥

PS: I really want to thank my friend Gabi for an amazing day in London. She had enough patience to show me both Google and Imperial College and basically solved my life with all this :D. It's funny how life turns out. I would have never guess that I'd make such a great friend during an interview on the other side of the world! Thank Caltech we were put in the same room. :)

Fifth College: St John's College

I am under serious stress because of this College challenge. How am I ever going to cover all 31 of them!? I am already circling the spots on maps and looking for the optimum routes to get to all of them like some madman chasing after his victims. I think one of these weekends I have to take my camera and just do at least 15 of them.

Meanwhile I give you...

St John's College! (aaand we're back to Harry Potter again)

St John's College is one of my favorite colleges in Cambridge and one of the most impressive to show to visiting friends, because it is huge and has a lot of pretty cool buildings. Follow me!

My countless loyal followers will remember the post about the bridge of sights last month, well this is it from the inside. The first time I walked through it I was running after my friends and did not notice I was actually crossing the river until I was halfway through (in my defense I will have to say it was night...).

After living here for a while people must be convinced they are knights or something. I still find it hilarious when I see people carrying their groceries along these corridors (instead of horses or armors).

Of course St Johns has his tiny little chapel, like all big colleges (yes it's that huge tower in the background):

But I'll get to that one later on...

All in one great College! 

Now let's run out again and enjoy the only sunny day of the year!