An English Excursion

Potential Last Blog from England-Noooo!!!!

2008-04-12T10:50:00.002+01:00

This title adeptly describes how I feel at the moment. I.don't.want.to.leave!!!

Well, I wrote my 2 exams last Saturday and I just finished the last of 5 assignments, so I am officially done school in England, which is exciting! Nothing else much happened this week, just a lot of hanging out with people as much as possibly before I never see them again(for a long time at least). . .boo hoo hoo!! I am also very tired at the moment, which leaves me on the precarious edge of tears. Tonight may be a disaster, we are having a formal goodbye dinner tonight and anything could set me off. My mantra is: "You're going to Holland and Italy, be happy. . . You're going to Holland and Italy, be excited. . ."Hopefully it will get me through these next three days.

On a happier note, I did spend the afternoon in Windsor on Thursday with Sharon, Laura, and Laura's hostess Lee. Windsor Castle is ridiculously enormous and amazing. I don't have pictures at the moment, though.

That's all, folks!

Snow!!!

2008-04-06T10:22:00.007+01:00

It's been sunny and gorgeous no-coat weather the past few days, but then last night it snowed!!! Very random, but totally awesome!! Ree came over and woke up Sharon and I at 8:30 to tell us to look out the window- it felt like Christmas!

The bike lying outside our door.

Our apartment.

Our street.

While I'm at it, here are some pictures from 80's bowling:

Check out the height on those bangs!Doing our synchronised ballet move!

Group photo

Stourhead Weekend and Random Fun-ness of This Week

2008-03-30T00:08:00.008Z

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. . .

2008-03-20T17:56:00.010Z

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

2008-03-11T18:45:00.006Z

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??

2008-03-10T22:23:00.004Z

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!

2008-03-06T08:47:00.006Z

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.

Reading Break: London

2008-03-04T20:03:00.005Z

Now I can move on to my reading break holidays, which could become the largest post ever if I’m not careful, so I’ll try to make it short and include lots of pictures for those of you who get bored of reading.

On Thursday (21st) morning we left for London. We went to the British Parliament buildings (yeah Big Ben!!) and watched both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in progress- which is apparently something very few Britons get to do. We also had lunch with three MPs, which probably isn't a common experience either! I also noticed a police officer standing outside the doors of the building with a huge assault rifle or something (I know nothing of guns) and the viewing gallery in both Houses was separated from the floor below by plexiglass, which surprised me in comparison to the Parliament buildings in Ottawa but honestly, who wants to attack the Canadian parliament?

Beth, Sharon, Big Ben, and I (and Mark in the corner there for some reason). The reason that I look like I'm moving is because I am. A guy asked someone to open the gate for him, and as I was the only one who heard and he was carrying something really heavy, I felt that I should help him out, regardless of the fact that this was our fourth attempt at this particular shot.

Afterwards we went out to explore the city. We checked out Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Then it was time to check into our hostel. For some reason Tim insisted that we walk there instead of taking the Tube as suggested, and then the street number for the hostel didn't exist, the numbers just skipped past 229. . . I was convinced it was one of those Platform 9 ¾ deals and we just had to run straight at a wall, but it turned out not to be the case and we found the hostel down the block. That night was a much less interesting experience of watching The Homecoming. We had been forewarned that this play was quite sexual, "a pornographic male fantasy" to be exact. In the end it was pretty much the dumbest play ever!

On Friday we visited the Globe, aka the remake of the original Globe theatre in an altogether different location, but it was cool! Then we took off to explore the city again. We went to Tower Bridge, and along the way saw London Bridge which pretty much just looks like a slab of cement lying over the Thames. Funny story though: the New London Bridge (built after the Old Bridge burned down) was bought by an American, who thought he was buying Tower Bridge and then got a big surprise when the bridge was shipped over.

Laura, Ree, and I excited that Tower Bridge is awesome and way better than London Bridge. I look a little stupid, but oh well, we've determined that for the most part Oosterhof's aren't particularly photogenic, among other things. (Some of you know what I'm talking about, right girls?)

We also got go to Evensong at Westminster Abbey, after Laura used her wiles on the security guy, which is where the Queen was married and also had her coronation! We visited Buckingham that night, lying on the steps outside the gate and then walked down the Mall where they have all the Royal Processions.

Buckingham at night. I saw a light on and someone moving around inside. I'm certain it was the Queen. Originally, I though it was Prince Harry, but as we all now know, it couldn't have been him because he was in Afghanistan.

We visited St Paul’s Cathedral to, which is crazy massive, as you can see:

That's Sharon and I hugging a pillar, see how tiny we look! And that was even before we spent an entire week living off of peanut butter sandwiches!

By the end of the night Sharon, Ree, Laura, and I were dying from walking for hours and riding the Tube for hours, and lugging around heavy luggage for not quite hours, so we decided the only thing to do was head for the golden arches, at which sight Laura nearly cried with joy.

Us at McDonalds. That's me in the flowery shirt. Ree's sort of hidden by a stranger. Laura's in pink at the back of the line. I'm not quite sure why we made her go last after her emotional reaction to the very sight of the place because clearly she needed it more than us.

So that was London. Not as many pictures as a promised at the beginning of this post, but I decided I didn't really want a bunch of pictures without people in them because otherwise they're not all that interesting for those of you at home. If you really want to see the million pictures I have of all the buildings and monuments that I saw, you can sign up to see them when I get back.

Anyways, I decided to do my vacation in stages over the next week. The next instalment in the series is Edinburgh. Here’s a sneak peek:

Better Late Than Never!

2008-03-03T13:33:00.014Z

So it’s been a long while since I updated my blog. I’m sure some of you have probably given up on me and have stopped checking in. If so, I harbour no ill will and take full responsibility! My excuse was that it was the end of the first half of the term and I was really busy writing papers and studying for exams! I have proof to: here’s a picture of me writing an essay at the station while waiting for the delayed train to show up.

So here’s a brief update: I got to get all dressed up and go to Formal Hall at Regent’s Park which is basically a really formal dinner. Sharon and I really pumped about dressing up!I was supposed to be striking model poses, but I can't. This was my best effort.

Heather is mad because she is left out. Poor Heather.

Then we went to Stratford and visited Anne Hathaway’s house (she’s Shakespeare’s wife), Shakespeare’s birthplace, and a couple other Shakespeare related places, including the church he is buried in. I didn't include any pictures, because they're houses, and not that exciting unless you 've been in them and know what they're all about. However, I include this Stonehenge-esque picture.

On the way home we stopped at the Rollright Stones, a perfect circle of rocks which is apparently an army of King's men turned to stone by a witch.

For Valentine’s Day we held a talent night of sorts in which Sharon and I created a collage of Bible verses about love, we were rather liberal in our adaptation at times, but it sounded nice when we read it!

I helped Sharon man the bar, and Laura just wanted to be in a picture. As you can see, she wouldn't have been cut out for the job anyway, because she forgets that the juice is supposed to be poured into a glass and not onto the floor.

The next two days were stress filled exam days, but after our exam on Saturday we went on a CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien themed tour of Oxford.

A nice view from along Addison's Walk, the path on which CS Lewis became a Christian.

Then the next four days were dedicated to writing essays, which may have turned into more like two days, because I may have, perhaps procrastinated a little (sheepish grin).

So that was brief two week run down. I hope it suffices.

Twelve Degrees and Sunny Anyone?

2008-02-11T10:22:00.001Z

I don't have time to write a real post at the moment but I just had to tell you all that it is 12 degrees and sunny today and it's been like this since Saturday! I just wanted to take a moment share that with you and rub it in, because I just checked the weather back at home and you all are getting a range of -17 to -20 today! So sorry about that. . .so here's a sample of what the weather looks like over here (and you can just imagine what 12 degrees feels like), taken in Stratford on Saturday. Enjoy!

Another Weekend Excursion and Then Some

2008-02-02T23:14:00.000Z

I want to start off by apologizing for my last post, I think it may have been a little on the boring side. Anyways, I'll try to make this one more interesting! So all of our tutors are pretty young and Friday our tutor, Matt, told us he wants to take us all out for a drink in Oxford next week, so we're all pretty pumped for that! It should be interesting! Drama auditions went as well as possible with a few more laughs, we find out today or somewhere near then what roles we got (earned?) Did I mention it involves various scenes from Shakespeare plays? It's going to be fun memorizing! Friday night half of us, the ABU half, were all in Oxford for choir and formal hall so the Redeemerites -sans Tim, who was off at someone else's home for dinner- got together for a chicken, rice, veggies and wine meal! Very sophisticated! We had good girl talk til Tim got there . . . and then we still had good girl talk (kidding!) Because we called it a semi-early night, I was able to watch Good Will Hunting which I've wanted to see for the longest time - I totally recommend it! Such a great movie(I cried)!

The girls excited for some yummy food!

Saturday we went to check out Warwick Castle. It's a famous English medieval castle dating back to the 10th century! It was an insane experience to explore a place with so much history and to think about the fact that in the very rooms I was in, 1000 years ago people were living out their daily lives with no idea or thought of us invading their home in 2008!

The picture above is of the Mound, the oldest part of the castle (built in 1068),

and below is a view from the Mound of the main building.

I tried to help the poor man figure out what it said,

but I was no help because he couldn't hear me when I told him.

I think he had to much wax in his ears.

We played dress up. I'm the lady, supposedly looking adoringly at my gentleman,

although in fact I just look ridiculous!

My fellow explorers and I

We also went to Coventry Cathedral. The orginal cathedral was built in the 14th century, but was bombed by the Germans in 1940, so now the ruins remain as a 'hallowed ground' and are meant to be a symbol of the futility of war and also reconciliation. It was such a moving experience. No one really talked, and only in whispers.

These pictures, above and below, are of some parts of the ruins,

although they don't do it justice.

This cross is made of two charred beams.

A new Cathedral has been built next to the ruins and is absolutely stunning, a lot of beautiful artistry. Besides the main worship area, it has several tiny chapels each with a different symbolic theme. The choir was practicing as we walked around quietly taking it all in, which added to the sacred feeling of the place, it felt very worshipful. The one disappointment, which others agreed with me about, was that there was a booth in the main sanctuary selling items which can best be described as kitsch. These pictures don't do it justice at all, I could put so many more on, but I won't:

Enormous tapestry, 'Christ in Glory'.

The chapel of Christ in Gethsemane.

Saturday night, Sharon, Beth and I checked out an event called Green Weasel at the Shed in Charlbury. The Shed literally looks like a shed, which we thought was hilarious! The performances, which ranged from musical pieces, singing, poetry readings, and short sketches, were amazing! I've been told by a couple people that Charlbury is full of artists but tonight was the first time I witnessed it as a fact! I'm still so amazed!! They did make fun of good old George W. at one point, so when asked we were more then happy to be able to say no, we are not in fact Americans!

Sharon and I at - well it's pretty obvious!

Sunday was a chill out day, just reading and doing laundry, so exciting! Today, class has been cancelled, so I plan to start working on my essays!

Week 2 - Weak Title

2008-01-31T22:06:00.000Z

So what have I been up too? At first I thought this blog was going to say "I've been doing nothing special. It rained today. The end." but I was told that it would be the lamest blog ever and I realized it wasn't all that true either, I'm just lazy!

So here's the reality: Sunday I had lunch with Bethany and Heather at a Marion Ackrill's home (she has done homestays in previous years). We had amazing food and conversation and before we knew it, it was 3:15 and we were late for our group reading session of Henry IV! Unfortunately, that reading wasn't nearly as interesting as lunch had been! It was brutal!!! We had a few breaks near the end of the play to literally scream in frustration. Monday was drama auditions, which was another brutal experience for me (I can't, don't, shouldn't, and wouldn't act until this moment in time when I was forced into it because it's part of the curriculum). We did have some laughs though. . . at eachother. On Tuesday we had a tour of the area of Oxford we had yet to explore. Unfortunately I was feeling ADD that day and could not for the life of me pay attention to what our guide was telling us about the history of the buildings we saw, but I took some nice pictures anyways!

Courtyard of New College Chapel, the inside of which looks more like a Cathedral.

One of the stained glass windows in the Chapel, this picture doesn't do it justice!

The awesome organ way up above the sanctuary.

The organist was playing while we were there- it gave me chills!

That night, due to a major chocolate craving and suffering from sugar withdrawal (we never snack over here) Laura and I split on a chocolate cake and ate half of it while watching a movie- oh, comfort food, how we love thee!! Wednesday night we saw Henry V in Stratford! Everything about the play was amazing! It was the best theatre production I've ever seen (which would be all of 5). Today was our first rainy day since the day we arrived (and it only lasted half the day), unfortunately it was also quite windy and my poor umbrella didn't make it through! Don't ask me what I was thinking, the thing would've had to be all steel to survive, my only consolation was that I wasn't the only dumb Canadian who attempted it! After class some of us checked out some 'charity shops' (second hand stores) there was some pretty interesting stuff and we made some good purchases.

So that's it so far. Tomorrow we have more auditions (oh joy!) and Saturday we have a trip to Warwick Castle (pronounced War-ick) and Coventry Cathedral.

The Beginning of Many Adventures

2008-01-26T21:35:00.000Z

I’ve been living in England for a week now, so I thought it would be a good time to catch you all up on what exactly is going on over here! There are 12 students, 6 from RUC and 6 from ABU- only two guys, not that they mind - studying Shakespeare and Drama.

Just before our tour of Charlbury. L-R, front: Heather, Rebecca, (RUC) Gabrielle, Megan, (ABU) middle: Laura (RUC), Alisha, Bethany (ABU) Sharon (RUC) back: me, Mark, (ABU) Tim, (RUC) Bethany (ABU)

We all live with various host or host families in a little town called Charlbury. On Mondays and Fridays we have classes here in town and have co-op lunches. The rest of the week we take the train into Oxford where we have classes at Regent’s Park College (RPC) and lunch there as well, which is awesome because every day I meet and talk with different RPC students! We are “tutored” by Oxford school graduates – one just received his doctorate!! As for our weekends, some of them have planned outings and others are free for whatever we want to do like school work (or not!). This first week has been insane, but from now on it should be much calmer- normal school related busyness notwithstanding!

Ok, what have I been up to since Monday. . .Tuesday was classes, Wednesday, classes and dinner at our chaplin, Claudette’s, Thursday, class in which we got into groups and re-enacted a scene from a Greek with our own interpretation- hilarious!! That night some of us went out for supper at a fancy restaurant called The Bell, basically because we were to lazy to go shopping and make our own food!

At The Bell, Bethany, Bethany, Sharon, Mark, Alisha, Heather (me behind the camera)

Friday, class, obviously, but that night 7 of us were out at choir and formal at RPC, and the other 5 of us got together to drink wine and play Buccaneers (on the recommendation of Mad, our co-ordinator) it was a brutally boring game (or maybe we weren't playing it right?), but I think we managed to have fun anyways!

This is a totally posed shot, can you tell? L-R: Heather, Me, Mark, Laura (Sharon's behind the camera)

When the others came home, we attempted to watch a movie, but some of us (including me) were to hyper to watch a serious movie so it was shut off ‘cause we just annoyed the rest of them (hehe, oops!) Today was a free day, so a bunch of us decided to take the (double decker!!!) bus into Woodstock to see Blenheim Palace. The bus ride was crazy and we were stoked!

On the double decker at a calmer moment before we actually drove off! Me, Bethany/Sharon, Alisha/ Tim, Rebecca (Laura behind the camera)

Same group as before + Bethany and Mark at the gate to Blenheim Palace

The palace itself was closed today for a wedding, but it was super sunny and a local told how to get into the park for free through a side gate – anything free makes me happy!!! It was so beautiful!! Now, Laura, Sharon and I are at Rebecca’s stealing her wireless (because we don’t have any) and watching John Tucker Must Die! Well, that's all for now, cheers!

Craziness

2008-01-22T22:33:00.000Z

So this feels like the craziest and busiest four days of my life! For all of you who knew that I was a little freaked out about flying, you'll be glad to know that the flight was amazing!! I had such a great time crushing on the male British flight attendents with their accents!

This is supposed to be me freaking out and sobbing as the plane takes off, and Sharon looking annoyed. In fact, all I did was hold her arm.

I didn't get much sleep though, and from the time we arrived on Saturday we never stopped. I was so exhausted, I kept saying to myself, "What was I thinking??" but after a long 10 hour sleep, I felt so much better and have't looked back since!

Sharon and I live together, we have our own "studio" (apartment) that is connected to our hostess' house by a little path. We have a living room, kitchen, and bathroom, even a washing machine, which here always seem to be tiny things found in the kitchen. We love the independence (everyone else lives with their hosts), we just had a bunch of people over tonight.

We've been to Oxford and given the grand tour as well as had a few classes, we are here for school after all! Oxford is an amazing city, so many old buildings with beautiful architecture!

This is Laura, the humble subject, kissing my ring as I stand at my throne. This is the throne seat in Convocation Hall at the Bodleian Library where Charles I held parliament during the English Civil War, so where I am standing he once stood!!! This is also the room where I had to swear not to light a fire, among other things, in the library in order to be given a library card that gives me access to 12 million books and counting - a copy of every book published in England since the 1600s.

Last night, we went to see Richard II in Stratford, it was another of what will likely be many amazing experiences in the next three months. I have so many stories to share already, but I don't want to make this unbearably long so I will stop there for now.

A little P.S.: I justed want to say that although its been cloudy, it has been about 13 C since we arrived! I think it's a little colder at home? HAHA! It has only poured out twice, and one time there was even a thunderstorm, but I haven't had to use my umbrella yet!! (Here in England, no one uses their umbrella when it's only drizzling).

Getting ready. . .getting psyched!

2008-01-18T01:31:00.000Z

Just thought I'd write a quick opening post: As of now I am packed and ready to go, all I have left to do is try to get some sleep tonight! We - 3 other girls and myself- fly out of Toronto tomorrow night at 9 but first I'm heading to Ancaster to visit friends for a couple hours before I leave - its going to be a crazy busy next couple days!!