This is it. The final installment of my study abroad photos.

There isn’t really a way to wrap up the photos for a trip like this. Just as there isn’t really a way to wrap up the trip. They just kind of end. And that’s how it was for me getting ready to leave.

After the last three weeks of the program, during which I took surprisingly few photos, it was time for final exams, and then to end the program. At this point I realized two things. The first was that I should have been taking more photos all along, and the second was that I felt totally disconnected with the reality that I was in fact returning home. While a lot of people were expressing relief that they would be going home, I was utterly neutral. It just was sort of going to happen, and that was that.

No matter. I tried to make up for my lack of photos of Hughes Hall as best I could in the last day or so while studying and doing everything else. So sorry that you don’t get a better picture of Cambridge when it’s all over, but I did the best I could.

After the program finished and we were booted from Hughes, I took the train to London for the day, and stayed there the rest of the night. I got to hang out with my friend Lizzy one last time. The next morning, I had planned to hang out in London for the day, but I decided I needed to get out of the city, so I went to Waterloo Station, looked for a train that was going somewhere fun, and settled on Salisbury.

That night, I met up with my family friend Alex. I stayed with he and his wife Vicki for a couple of days, and he took me around to a few places I hadn’t yet been to. We went to Bath, and on the way back went through the New Forest.

The last day we did what Alex called a “whistle-stop tour.” We drove around and through Oxford first. Then we headed to Woodstock, a small village outside Oxford that’s known for being home to the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim Palace. My grandparents used to live next door, above the Blenheim Tea Rooms, and when I had my picture taken there I was the third generation of my family to do so.

Then we stopped and visited a few more family friends, going through a village called Tackley and seeing the flat where my dad was born. Then, just like that, we were on our way to the airport, and I headed back to the States.

So that’s how it ends. Suddenly, without any particular bangs, without any real zinger conclusion. A trip to England, France, and Italy. Just what it is.

And that’s probably how it should be.

Posted on October 7th, 2004 by Lee
Tagged: Cambridge, Photos, Studyabroad