Snapshots - "real" ones this time :)

These are from last weekend's trip to my friend's new flat in Thetford, a tiny town about a 45-minute train ride from Cambridge. It poured down rain, making all the different shades of green even greener and more beautiful. Can you tell who's English in this picture? (Hint: they're wearing the Brits' favorite outdoor footwear...)
The town has ruins of a medieval monastery. No big deal. Doesn't every town? (?!?! How cool is this!!)
In between rainshowers we got to see lots of these! Susannah (from Dublin) made the joke about the leprechauns at the end of the rainbow, though all the rest of us were thinking it and not wishing to spread stereotypes...

Also, my friend's college had a Harry Potter-themed formal dinner!! It was absolutely perfectly like Hogwarts, complete with a super high hammerbeam wooden ceiling and long trestle tables and students sitting separately from the professors. And, of course, everyone wore their normal black formal gowns... and maybe a special hat. :)And look what they brought in as special guests!! (they were very camera-shy, especially in the candlelight - can you tell what (or who0oooo) it is? :) )
And in between all this excitement, there's some work thrown in at my beloved desk in the PhD office, which I share with 14 others including 5 new PhD students (very exciting!).
And after a long day of "work" (can learning about interesting things really be work?), I go home to my wonderful attic room and try to make space around the enormous and cuddly cat who also lives there.