Labor Day the UK way

This past weekend was the UK summer bank holiday which is similar to Labor Day in signifying the end of summer and getting Monday off from work.  In celebration we did the following:

Friday: Met up with some of Jim's fellow teachers at our local pub after work.  It was great to finally meet some of them and the group had two teachers from Mexico, one Aussie, one from Ohio and none from Britain.  So far this is how things have been going.  We have met so many people from other countries but not many locals.  This is a VERY international city and it amazes me that I have probably met more people from around the globe in the last few weeks than I have in my entire life. 

We really like the English pubs (by definition open till 11pm.  I don't like that part).  They have so much atmosphere and you feel like you are in a living room, with coaches/love seats and chandeliers.  We also found a bar (open later) that had a hip-hop dance party going on and that felt like home. 

Saturday:  Another attempt at getting the internet for our apartment.  Unsuccessful.  Grocery shopping at a "real" (but still small) store.  Pretty successful.  Although, there was no mac n' cheese in a box.  This is going to be an issue.  I'm thinking I might need to learn to make it from scratch with all my new found free time and my great new kitchen.

We went to the St. Pancras train station and asked what was the soonest/cheapest National Rail tickets we could get for the day.  This was followed by "Well, where do you want to go?".  We didn't care, but the ticket agent wasn't exactly prepared to play travel agent for us.  We ended up going to Cambridge because this train station apparently only went north.

Cambridge... We all have heard of Cambridge as in the University but this town was really great and definitely exceeded my expectations.  The amount of history, old beautiful churches, academic buildings and grass courtyards was amazing.  There were universities dating back to the 1300s.  Other highlights included the hours we spend in the pub until our 11pm train (only 1 hr 15 ride) and watching "Punting" down the river.  This is similar to a Venice gondala but bigger.  Picture a low, flat boat with a man standing on the back.  We didn't participate due to the time of day and that the weather sucked.  However, we did see a group of drunk guys attempting to row one of these things while drunk and one dressed up in a ridiculous outfit.  We think maybe a 30th b-day party or bachelor party.  Anyways we continued to watch as their boat took on water and eventually sank and the whole group went down in the river with empty beer bottles and all.  This scene caused everyone in the town walking by the water to stop and watch, especially when the boat company people had to figure out how to get the sunk boat out to the river.

Sunday/Monday:  Besides walking for hours and pub excursions we went to the Notting Hill Caribbean Carnival.  This was absolutely ridiculous.  Massive amounts of crazy people, dressed crazy, drunk and blowing whistles and horns like they do at soccer games.  Picture purple fake eyelashes, lots of stomaches showing and Jamaican flags wrapped around peoples' shoulders.  Monday was much better because we saw the parade which included round after round of a large trunk blasting heavy bass Caribbean dance music followed by a large group of people from a particular caribbean London organization dancing behind it in crazy costumes.  The best way to describe is with pictures.  Check my Facebook once my Mum mails me the camera computer cord we forgot at home....We also met up with a girl I work with and some other people she had met from Boston and New York through friends of friends which was a lot of fun, too.  I definitely want to check out the Covent Garden area more.