Harvard Initiation

Summoning all our intellect, today we got the train across the river to Cambridge on a mission to investigate Harvard. When we arrived, we headed straight to the main campus. It really is very pretty, with all the old buildings around grass and trees. We managed to latch onto the end of a tour, so we learnt about the library, and that the guy it was named after died on the Titanic after a trip to England to gain more knowledge. We also learnt that the statue of John Harvard isn't of John Harvard at all, it's just a random student that the sculptor chose as a model.

After our adopted tour ended, we sat on a bench in the middle of the square and chilled out for ages. It was crazy hot, we were in the shade and thoroughly enjoying people watching. When we could be bothered to move, we wandered around and took some tourist photos before wandering down into the town. Along the way we found the Harvard shop, where they sell t-shirts and hoodies and the like, and where we took advantage of their water cooler...

When we got all the way down to the river, we sat in a park to eat lunch. This is where the most eventful part of the day occurred: I got shat on by a bird. For real. I didn't even realise, and just thought a leaf had fallen on me, but alas it was not to be. Kitty was alarmed by my lack of reaction, but after a laughing fit, was kind enough to get as much as possible out of my hair. I was mostly too hot and tired to care. I'm taking it as a sign that I have been singled out for my astounding intelligence. It's also yet more proof that birds are evil! Following this significant event, we mooched back into the town and hit up Starbucks for our new favourite refresher drink: passion fruit tea lemonade. Sounds bizarre but it does the trick!

We got the train back to the hostel where the first thing I did was wash my hair! After eating dinner, we headed to the cinema to see Ruby Sparks, which we had seen advertised earlier on in our trip. It was really a very good film; it's basically about a writer who begins writing about his dream girl, only to find that she appears from nowhere. It's made by the same people as Little Miss Sunshine and is thus equally funny as it is moving. Like LMS it also stars the legend that is Paul Dano. Antonio Banderes also makes an excellent appearance. Believe me, it's not as ridiculous as it sounds. We highly recommend it!

When we got back to the hostel, we had yet more new roommates, this time three guys from Chile who were very friendly and came and talked to us for a good half an hour or so. They told me that I sound like the voice from their listening exercise tapes when they were learning English which highly amused us! They randomly broke into song at one point, apparently it was a Portuguese song?! One of them didn't speak as much English but kept joining in with random comments which were thoroughly entertaining. As we all went to bed, they all started singing 'Call me maybe' which was hilarious! Definitely an improvement on the strange guy in the skirt!!