A message from the Queen…

Jan 28

Now that I have your attention, I would love to share the details of the most amazing weekend I shared with the McBurney family on their tropical island in the Atlantic Ocean. On Friday, January 24th I flew to London, and after my enjoyable journey on the London Underground, reunited with Allison, Gerard, and Charlotte. We shared stories of the past years over Southern Indian food and fresh mint tea. The next morning we woke early so I could catch my train to Cambridge.

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Jan 25

Arrived in Cambridge just in time for brunch!!! After walking through the town of Cambridge and into university grounds, we settled into Helena’s dorm at Newnham College. Seriously, it’s like Harry Potter. You’ll see. Cambridge is organized into colleges where students live, study, eat, and work, and Newnham is one of the few all-women colleges at the university. Which is awesome!! At 2pm Helena and I headed to a Shakespeare workshop offered through the English department. I was originally told that we were only going to watch, but you can guess who got called up to perform a scene from a Midsummer Night’s Dream…

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Saturday night Helena and I attended “Burns Night” a celebration organized by friends honoring the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. We ate traditional Scottish haggis (don’t look it up if you don’t already know what haggis is, sometimes you are better off not knowing- but it was enjoyable) as Helena recited one of Burns’ poems, “Address to a Haggis”. We spent the night with Helena’s very good friends from uni whom I was very excited to meet and trade gossip and embarrassing stories about Helena. Being in a long distance friendship for so long meant lots to catch up on!!

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Jan 26

Sunday morning we enjoyed a walk around Newnham’s grounds, famous for its gardens. Also, the library at Newnham looks straight out of Beauty and the Beast?! Cannot believe Helena goes to a school as fancy as this, it really puts SLU’s Pius library to shame.

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After our morning meander, we went into Cambridge town to celebrate Helena’s friend  Héloïse’s birthday for a very fancy sushi lunch!

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Quickly after our midday celebration, we got ready for Helena’s choir rehearsal, service and formal! Cambridge colleges host formal dinners various times throughout the semester with certain themes/attributes. The one we attended was through Peterhouse college’s choir, which Helena sings in throughout the week. We dressed in our best and donned our official Newnham undergrad gowns (like a Hogwarts house robe, yes). At the formal there was a headmasters table (Dumbledore where are you?) and a gong was rand before we sat to enjoy our three course meal. Cue horrible non-flash photos inside the candlelit dining room of pea soup, roast lamb, and pineapple upside-down cake.

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Jan 27

Somehow, after all of this, Helena even got me to EXERCISE on this trip! Yes! Helena is super sporty at Cambridge! I joined the Newnham W3 boat for their 7am rowing practice Monday morning, volunteering to bike alongside the river with them as they rowed. And boy, were those bridges hard on a bike set for someone 5’4″. Alas, I’m proud to say I biked 7 miles along the Cambridge river watching Helena be ever so athletic. And the rowing boys! Enough said about that, although I did tell my SLU roommate Dina that I would come back and join our rowing club to increase the possibility for Cambridge to scout me for my last year.

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After rowing practice, we headed to Pret for a quick breakfast before my day of travel to get back to Madrid. Train from Cambridge to Liverpool Street, Underground to Heathrow, plane to Madrid, and metro all the way home.

All in all, I had an absolutely AMAZING weekend with all of the McBurneys, and everyone we connected with was very impressed how close Helena and I have stayed throughout these years across the pond. Friends since 1st grade is a very long time! I love our friendship and I am so happy that now we are only a 2 hour flight away, and no jet lag!!!! This won’t be the last time you will see the McBurneys on my blog, I guarantee it! Allison, Gerard, Charlotte, and Helena, thank you for everything, I love you all so much.

Love- Grace xx