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Right, so here we go. A log of my stay in Cambridge, England. Let's just start explaining how I got here. I study animation at an art academy in the Netherlands. During our study we have a so-called "Minor" to do, which technically means you get to do a different study for half a school-year, as long as you have a logical reason to be studying that. Right? Right. Since I've been studying animation, I've noticed I really like the directing part of making a video, which lead to looking for a minor where I can learn to specialise in film directing. Since my own school doesn't offer directing as a minor or anything that comes close to it, I decided to look at partner schools, in order to be able to do a minor that I want without having to pay extra college fees. And that's where Cambridge comes looking around the corner. Cambridge School of Arts is a partnerschool of our school and they offer Film & Television Production, which is the thing I am here for. My main module is Documentary (not the funnest thing, but hey, I get to learn something new) and my side modules are Directing Studies, and Design for the Screen. So that's all pretty cool! Directing Studies speaks for itself, I suppose. This is what I'm mostly interested in. Design for the Screen will be pretty interesting too, because it focusses on everything visual within a film, going from costumes to backgrounds, from world designs to character design... And that is something I also find interesting, but which isn't my main focus. Still, it's pretty cool to learn about that, right? So far... Saturday the 6th of September I departed at 08:35h from Amsterdam Schiphol to arrive at 08:40h (local time) in Cambridge. It's an hour and 5 minutes flying, but because of the time difference it looks like you only flew for 5 minutes. Haha! My mum went with me, so I could bring 2 suitcases, which I needed badly because there is so much stuff to take with me. Besides, she wanted to see where I'd live and wanted to help me take care of a few basic things, like getting an English SIM card and a map of the city... Things like that. So we went from the airport to the place where I'm staying, with a cab, which was only 10 minutes driving. The land lady is really nice, she's called Claudette and originally comes from Jamaica. She explained that family is very important in Jamaican culture and she's a very warm personality, so I really feel at home, because my own family is very warm as well. After having dumped my suitcases there and having talked a bit, my mum and I continued our way. We went to the bed&breakfast where she was staying, so she could put her bag there in order to go to the city with me. In the city we bought a SIM card and a map and walked over the market square where there's a market 7 days a week! Awesome! We were pretty tired and then went back to the house, to unpack my suitcases, put everything neatly in the closet and drawers and everything and then went to do some shopping, so I'd have breakfast the next morning. We had dinner in a pub near my house and her B&B and had a great evening together. We talked a bit about English culture, the people here and everything we'd seen that day. Next day my mum came over to my house (I'll just call it that, because for the coming time it's my home) and we went into the city again. We had lunch on a nice terrace, walked over the market again, met up with a friend of mine who's also staying in Cambridge to study and went to see the university building where I'll be learning all I can the coming months. We also sat in a park for a while (there are so many parks here) and had an ice cream. In the evening we invited my friend to come to dinner with us (we had pizza at an Italian restaurant) because her parents had left that day and we figured she'd probably feel alone, especially knowing my mum was still around. We had a great evening with the 3 of us and after dinner we said goodbye to my friend, who would cycle back to her place. And we went back to my place with the bus, because I didn't have a bike yet. In the evening we sat on my room and talked a lot still, because my mum would be leaving the next morning (which was a Monday). So that Monday morning my mum came over again to my place and we talked and talked a lot, while we sat on the couch, waiting for the taxi to come and pick her up. It took aaaages until the taxi driver was there, because I felt so sad and alone already, while my mum was there and I kind of wanted to get it over with, so I could just go and do something to distract myself. Anyway, eventually the guy came, right on time, minute precise... I found it very hard to say goodbye to my mum and I had tears in my eyes, but managed not to cry. Only when she was gone I burst out in tears. Now that I have been alone these days I actually feel pretty good. I'm used to living on my own (have done so for 2 years) and there's Claudette and her daughter to talk to at home, so that's nice. And I've been meeting up with my friend a few times already. We went into the city centre just to look around and to get to know our way. Today I stayed at home, because I really needed to recharge. In order to do that I've been drawing and animating a bit, I've been Facebooking and I've read a bit in the book I still have to finish before starting uni. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with my friend again and we'll go to the Botanical Gardens and in the afternoon we'll go and see Guardians of the Galaxy, because I haven't seen that one yet and she found it awesome enough to watch it again. Friday I'm meeting up with another friend, whom I've known for 3.5 years but have never met, so that'll be interesting. Saturday I'm meeting up with my classmate/friend again, because there will be Elizabeth Extravaganza in the city centre AND there will be a ghost-walk. So the first week is a lot of fun and very interesting and casual so far. The 18th I'm going to the introduction day at the uni for international students and after that... We'll see. Hopefully I'll be able to update this log frequently, because I tend to forget about (b)logs. Whoops! But you'll definitely hear more from me, here. Cheerio!~ Here's some fancy building in Cambridge, some kind of college of the University of Cambridge, but I forgot which one. Sorry. xD I'm not studying there, though.

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