Entered on 2001-10-22 at 9:00 a.m..
A weekend at Cranfield
That probably isn't a very good title for this since, almost everything that I did this weekend involved leaving Cranfield. Then again, that is the norm around here...
To begin on Friday night, I fled the library at 5pm inorder to make it to the hardware shop in the village before the ambient light died. It was a futile attempt, and I realized it on my way there. Luckily if things got too bad I'd pull the flashlight out of my back pack and use it as a head lamp. I wasn't too worried about cars coming up behind me because I was wearing my backpack with its big reflective stripe. I had to go to the hardware store to return an alarm clock, which I had bought on Thursday. It didn't work. While there, I did buy some lights for my bike (no more flashlight). Then I rode home grabbed a quick dinner and off to Volleyball practice. We practiced fairly hard for about two hours.
After practice the other girls (all two of them)and I headed home with a promise to meet at the CSA (Cranfield Student Association) Pub at 10. We all met up at the Pub as expected, had a few drinks, danced, and met new people. I met two new Mexicans studying for their Ph.D. It was interesting finally meeting the other half of Mexican society. I really got along well with the girl, Maria. She said that in Mexico she has to go by her middle name because too many people answer to Maria.
Saturday I joined most of the Cranfield population without cars, and headed off on an organized coach trip to Cambridge. I met up with some fellow Marshalls there, and got a rather grand tour. Cambridge is beautiful, even in an overcast grey day. We walked quite a distance on our way to a neighboring village. I'll talk about it later at more length.
At 5 we loaded up the coach and headed home. I was exhausted... So I got home and vegged for an hour or so, before Earnest came to take me to a movie. Earnest is the guy from Ghana who held me responsible for all US/Western initaitives since 1492. Generally though he is a nice guy. I enjoy hearing the "African" perspective on things I never think about, like the IMF. We watched AI. We got the student rate, which to my relief, was only �0.30 more than the "cheap" Tuesday night tickets.
After the movie I crashed.
On Sunday I woke up to the most miserable weather I can imagine. It was about 40 with heavy drenching rain. I was glad that I didn't have to go outside until noon. The volleyball team met in Lanchester Hall and then headed out to Ampthill for our first game. We arrived before the other team, so the gym wasn't open. So there we were one Brit, one American, one Chilean, one Mexican, one Greek, and one French all huddling under an awning. I accused Rodger (the Brit) of false advertising, because all of the club pictures show people playing volleyball on the beach in the summer.
Eventually the other team showed up and we got on with the playing. We played against an all male team of guys between 16-18. We narrowly one the set by a score of 3games to 2. We played by the new funky international rules, where everything is rally scoring, first one to twenty-five wins and serves can hit the net... We were all exhausted by the second game as both teams were playing well. We lost the third game 25-14, as we just needed time to regain our energy. Next time we'll bring food.
I spent the rest of Sunday reading, and quite a bit of time in a warm bath, hoping that my body would forgive me.
Well I should get to work. P.W. It finally stopped raining sometime last night. This morning the news was full of flood watches as more rain is expected. The girl from Chile was laughing, because aparently Chile floods quite regularly.