Stourhead Weekend and Random Fun-ness of This Week

This past weekend was spent relaxing at Stourhead (did you honestly think I was going to do work all weekend?) We stayed in the stables on the grounds and had the whole place to ourselves!

This square building is the granary aka the girls' sleeping quarters.

For all you Pride and Prejudice fans I got to check out Apollo’s Temple where Darcy professes his ardent love to Lizzy on that rainy day and they almost kiss! There was actually rain that day, but unfortunately no Mr Darcy to be found. The building is called Apollo’s Temple and is one of many such building located around the perimeter of this gorgeous lake in the Stourhead garden.

Apollo's Temple

The Pantheon

The Palladian Bridge

An island on the lake with a burning bush. This little island was ruled by a swan who chased around the one duck who refused to get off it.

On Saturday, we also visited Stonehenge which was an interesting yet brutal experience. Brutal because it was so freezing and windy outside that I got an ‘ice cream’ headache. Interesting because it was funny to listen to the audio guide tell me that they pretty much know nothing about anything regarding Stonehenge, and then proceed to go on and on about all the ‘nothing’ they knew.

I'll just let you guess what this is.

Saturday night we had a talent night which turned out to be a ‘this-is-not–my-talent’ night that saw me lip-syncing to Avril Lavinge, cheerleading, and doing improv.

Ms. Chin-head singin' it.

On Sunday we went to an Easter service in Mere where I accidentally threw the hymn book at the feet of the lady at the end of the pew. Umm, oops. Luckily it hit Beth’s foot first instead of crashing loudly to the floor, so it wasn’t too embarrassing. That night Laura and Gabby, our chefs extraordinaire, made Easter dinner with potatoes, ham and even a home-made apple pie for dessert!!!!

It snowed Sunday morning and it looked glorious. Doesn't look all that glorious here though, but just trust me on it.

On Monday morning, we had an Easter egg hunt in the courtyard and Marion and Andrew, our super chaperones, made us brunch- mmmm!! Then we hit the road and headed home. We hit up Bath on the way, although we definitely didn’t check out the bath part of Bath because it was expensive so we got the heck out of there and cruised on over to the Jane Austen Centre where we learned that she HATED Bath and wrote nothing while she was there. We also checked out the Royal Crescent.

Poor Jane, I don't know it Laura meant to pose like that, although the look on her face seems a bit evil. One quarter of the crescent.

So that was our Easter weekend getaway. We had some more fun on Wednesday when we went to see Measure for Measure in Oxford. It was amazing!! However, we had to walk for about half an hour or take the bus to the theatre but because we are cheap we decided to walk. Then the rain came- and it poured. Then the hail came- and it hurt.

Here we are. Drowned rats. Except Laura. But she pretended to be mad anyways. Oh, my bad. Her arm was wet. Poor her.

It was Ree’s 22nd birthday on Thursday, so we decided to give her a surprise party which resulted in a lot of lying, as these things usually do, but it was a success!

Ree looking beautiful with her birthday trifle courtesy of Laura.

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon at Broughton Castle. We had a tour by the actually owner and resident of the Lady Saye and Sele. She told us it is actually just a house, but apparently back in the day all you had to do to get your house called a castle was have some little something I don't remember. Regardless, the place was gorgeous!!!

The house.

I. want. this. bedroom.

And a fun fact: tons of movies have been filmed here, including Shakespeare in Love. After the tour of the house, we had some fun outside as we had the whole place to ourselves. There was some random jumping, cheerleading, and leap frogging.

Random jumping.

Cheerleading.

Leap-frogging.

We also had the most amazing tea at the vicarage in Great Tew hosted by the vicar's wife Margaret Conway. So many cakes and sandwiches- I've never had tea like that in my life!

So those were the adventures of my third-to-last week in England! But it doesn’t end there- tonight was bowling and we went all out 80’s style! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures for you yet. Tomorrow I will, or maybe the next day. . . or the next,or. . . who knows!

For all of you who thought I was over here studying. . .

Too much fun best describes this past weekend! On Friday the entire group (sans Tim and Beth, who spent the weekend in Dublin) got together for a Boggle Tournament. A bunch of English students playing Boggle was a lot more hilarious and a lot less nerdy than it sounds, trust me! I totally bombed, by the way. . . I think I found three words.

The peeps pumped for games and enjoying the fruit tray Gabby made. She's a sweet hostess!

Heat # 2 in the Boggle tournament- feel the tension??

Boggle gave way to a passionate game of Password, although passionate may be a bit of an understatement (see video on Laura’s blog).My team won, by the way- both times! The night ended with a three hour discussion about everything and anything which ended at about 1:30 in the morning. Then I slept over at Laura’s and did nothing all morning until it was time to play some soccer and soccer-baseball in the rain for a couple hours. For some reason soccer tends to coincide with rain for us, but we are way to die hard to care! I’m pretty sure the village thinks they’ve got more than enough idiots. After that we warmed up with hot chocolate and watched I Am Sam and then decided we needed to have breakfast for supper which turned into a bit of an ordeal (people running around in the literally pouring rain looking for ingredients and then making pancakes without a recipe). But as always, it was worth it.

The chefs. I look awful, but I'd like to blame it on the rain and the bacon grease.

Sunday was supposed to be a productive day but Laura and I spent most of it planning our St. Patrick’s Day party for Monday night. One of the several highlights of the day (wink,wink-Laura) was when Sharon arrived home from her cousin’s in London with her Mom in tow! She surprised Sharon! Also awesome was the goodies Mrs Heuving brought me from Mom and Dad- which included more peanut butter, of course!!

Monday was St. Patty's Day. Our party was a smashing success with food, games, poetry, story telling, and we even had our very own DJ O'Reilly (aka Alisha) who mixed up some Irish music for us! The pictures say it all!

The spread. It included punch, strawberries, veggies and dip, m&m's, skittles, chocolates, popcorn, crisps/chips and cake!

The hostesses. I was also the bouncer.

No, we are not praying. SOMEBODY was peeking during Mafia!

Team 'Better Than Couch' (as opposed to 'Team Couch'), minus Alisha. Best team ever! I'm pretty sure we practically won Cranium. Actually, we would have if Mark knew how to draw a flower girl.

We couldn't believe how divine the cake was. Sharon couldn't stop eating for the picture, it was just that good!

Us giving the peace sign. Because.

So that was last weekend. Tomorrow we're heading up to spend this Easter weekend in Stourhead where we pretty much get to do what we want, so I'll probably use these next four days to do school work.

Fun

Yesterday was an awesome day! Alicia, Laura, Ree, Sharon and I played tackle American football in the mud and goofed off on the jungle gym (don’t worry we didn’t kick the little kids off- it was raining, so their mum’s wouldn’t let them out of doors). We got really muddy and felt like we were 10 again- it was great! I just wanted to share some of the fun:

Dublin, Belfast and. . . Shakespeare??

So Sharon and I departed from Edinburgh at 10:30 at night to arrive in Dublin an hour later and spend 9 hours in the Dublin Airport praying that the airport police would keep interrogating the guy over at the other bench and leave us alone. We were happy when we finally left because it was sunny and metal benches suck, but then we got into the city and it was ugly- think endless horizon of Industrial Revolution-esque brick buildings! However, Dublin's saving grace was its massive gorgeous parks and sweet cathedrals!

St. Stephen's Park (and Sharon)

The city was a bit sketchy too and we were told to be careful in the area around the Guinness brewery, which of course is where I wandered around alone while Sharon toured Guinness. I wasn’t too worried though because I saw an elderly lady walking by herself and she wasn’t getting mugged, so I figured I was fine! St. Patrick’s Cathedral was sweet, we were befriended by a caretaker who took out his keys and let us into the Lady Chapel where tourists aren’t allowed! Oh yeah! This is also the church where Jonathan Swift was minister!

A stone from the well that St. Patrick used to baptise converts. . .supposedly.

The crypt in Christ Church Cathedral

After two days in the Ugly City we left for Belfast which is an amazing city (lots of shopping centres, even one in a cathedral!!)Our first day we just cruised around and checked out the Botanic Gardens and with its greenhouses built in the 1800s!

Flowers in the Palm House

Tropical Ravine. This flower is bigger than my hand!!

The next day we did a bus tour to the northern coast to Giant’s Causeway.

I just really like this picture of the huge waves- it was crazy windy!

The rocks!They were huge!

We also hit up Derry which is where Bloody Sunday happened, a sobering experience- that was some crazy stuff that happened!

One of the many murals depicting the Conflict.

On our very last day we went for a hike in the hills of Belfast, specifically Cave Hill, we kind of assumed there would be a bunch of caves- we found one.

The one cave.

It was crazy windy at the top and it started to rain, so it felt like we were being attacked with knives, but it was worth it! Of course, by the time we got back down it was blue skies all around!

We hiked out onto that edge!

Sharon had decided to get her hair cut, and once she did I was jealous of her clean, styled hair so I got mine cut too. The lady who did my hair almost had a heart attack because the hike earlier had turned my hair into a disaster area (her reaction, and I quote, was “Merry Christmas!!”) That night we decided that it was time to splurge after a week of peanut butter sandwiches and went out for dinner. I gorged on protein- steak, pork, sausage, back bacon, and an egg, and of course no veggies! (Although, strangely enough I had started to crave broccoli by the end of the break)

The clock tower in Belfast- proof you don't need to go all the way to Italy to see a leaning tower!

We travelled back home the next day via plane and train and were super pumped when we ran into some of the gang at the Oxford train station!
And that was the end of our trip!

Monday was the first day of Drama Week. Everyone was so pumped to see each other and we were all so hyper the whole day, poor Glena, our director!

This is Glena!

Our production was called Shakespearean Confusions and it was a collage of scenes from various plays in which people think people are people they’re not. I was Longaville in Love’s Labour’s Lost (I dress up like a Russian and try to woo Laura, who I think is Sharon- but she totally shoots me down!) and Malvolio in Twelfth Night (for any She’s the Man fans, it’s Malcolm!) I had to be pompous and bossy (that’s kind of close to sarcastic and huffy, right Eric?). We practiced every day from 9 to 4 and performed it on Friday night, so it was a crazy intense week. In the end, though, it was totally worth it because we all had tons of fun and did a whole lot of bonding (plus I look so incredibly hot dressed up as a man!)

Three merry men be we! (Gabby, Beth, and me)

Edinburgh!

From London Sharon and I took the overnight bus to Edinburgh. This mode of transportation was chosen for its twofold cheapness. First, it was way cheaper than train or plane and second, it meant not having to pay for a hostel for the night. I’m not ashamed of being cheap! When we arrived after a night of what don’t think qualifies as sleep, we dropped off our stuff at our hostel and hit the town. The strange thing was, we appeared to be almost the only ones in the entire city awake at 9 in the morning, and nothing was open (except the tourist stuff).We assumed that store owners had determined it was pointless to open up shop because the entire town was in bed hungover. (Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, not everyone in town was hungover- we ran into two guys who were still completely drunk.) We started off the day by checking out Palace Holyroodhouse. This is where the Queen sets up camp when she comes for her visits. It’s also where Mary Queen of Scots lived with her husband who killed her guy friend. One room of the Palace was dedicated to artefacts from these people’s lives with a scary amount of locks of hair.

The ruins of Holyrood Abbey built in 1128.

Another picture of the ruins, just because I like it.

Then we hit up the Scottish Parliament, which is a completely modern building which some people apparently think is an abomination in the world of architecture. I thought it was pretty cool. After that we went to the Edinburgh Museum which had a multi-room display dedicated to the town’s relationship with alcohol throughout the years called, “Here’s Tae Us.”

A miniature of a pub. The little dude had fallen over, which we thought was funny, because he wasn't supposed to be like that, but it's probably what would've happened in pub anyways.

We also checked out a museum called The People’s Story, which we had some fun in.

Posing with the ladies. This is the same place we also punked it out in the preview picture from my last blog. I don't actually remember the point of this display.

That was pretty much it for the day. We went to bed pretty early, which was probably a good thing seeing as we were woken up a couple times by our drunken roommates stumbling in and out of the room!

On Sunday, we went to church at St Giles Cathedral where John Knox was once the minister, we thought that was pretty sweet! Then we went for a three hour hike in the hills of Holyrood Park. Absolutely gorgeous!! It was one of my favourite parts of the entire trip! It was also our first of a few experiences with ridiculously strong wind on the trip.

The ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel up in the hills of Holyrood Park.

A view of Salisbury Crags from the hill of Arthur's Seat. We hiked all along there. You can see the tiny people at the bottom. That's how big these hills are- this was no wimpy hike!

Me at the peak of Arthur's Seat. I am not leaning against this pillar, the wind is pushing me! (Notice how my ponytail is blowing straight back!)

That night we met an American named Katie at our hostel and she showed us where JK Rowling penned ideas on a napkin which would eventually make her rich and famous (she’s the author of the Harry Potter series for those of you who didn’t know). We also went out for a drink at The Last Drop. It was named this because on that street is where they hung people back in the day, and apparently people’s last request was usually one last drink.

Katie and Sharon at The Last Drop.

The next day it was a windy and rainy day, so we were a little bummed out after having two days of good weather. We checked out Edinburgh Castle which was sweet. We saw the Stone of Destiny which is placed under the coronation chair and has been used for centuries, and the Royal Honours (the crown, sceptre, and sword)and a bunch of other stuff.

Edinburgh Castle

Me. terrified to go into the prison.

We also checked the Writer’s Museum, when we finally found it after walking forever in the lovely wind and rain. Anyone know Robbie Burns? He’s a big hit over here and was quite the looker too! Then we spent the rest of the afternoon killing time before we had to head to the airport at 8. We whined a lot about the stupid weather, but when we weren’t complaining we had fun laughing at our moping selves.

That’s it for Edinburgh. The next city we went to was Dublin, which Sharon and I somewhat affectionately call the Ugly City.