Northern England

Monday morning we had to wake up WAY too early to get on the coach and travel to the Lake District.  I think because the bus ride was so bad I decided to torture my mother and dread my hair.  She gave me prior consent but took it back right after she saw a picture.   

Monday we went to York and took a tour through York Minster.  It was beautiful, but once you’ve seen one cathedral, you’ve seen them all.  We were able to- okay we paid to walk up 5000+ stairs to the top of the tower.  Big mistake.  Like the 66 stairs to my bedroom aren’t enough.  Once we got to the top we decided to take pictures of ourselves because it was cooler than the rooftops. 

Tuesday we traveled to Fountains Abby the ruins of a burned monastery.  One thing that was neat was that the ruins weren’t in a city.  The Abby is surrounded by tall trees and a beautiful stream that ends in a pond.  After running around the ruins and running through crazy weird tunnels for an hour I decided to take a nature walk because there is not really much to see in an empty church.  

One thing that I loved about the trip was the long bus rides.  Northern England is so pretty that I took hundreds of pictures out the bus window.  And I took pictures of everyone sleeping.  I can blackmail almost anyone in my program.  My favorite part of the scenery was the dry stone walls.  Where did all the stones come from? It boggles my mind how they could stack all those stones and they have survived for hundreds of years.  And where else in the world do you have to stop your car to let sheep cross the road. 

The Tower of London

Friday morning we were forced to wake up an hour early so we could eat breakfast and head over to the Tower of London.  I was expecting one tower and for it to not be cool.  We had a tour with this Yeoman who loved to hear himself talk, but he was funny, so it was okay. 

The tour was a mix of fun facts and a history lesson.  I saw the Bloody tower where Richard III was in charge of his two kid nephews and he had them killed so he could be king.  Almost the entire tour was about Henry VIII because the Tower of London is where he had 2 of his 6 wives put to death at the private scaffold inside the tower walls.  Because of this everything there was plastered with Henry VIII’s ugly face.  Who wants granny panties with Henrys face on the butt? 

The first place we went to was the room with the Crown jewels.  When I grow up I want to be a princess.  I saw a scepter that had a 530 carat diamond with perfect clarity.  My expectations for my husband just went up. 

We went to the torture chamber and I was surely disappointed when there were only 3 forms of torture displayed. I was sure that they were more barbaric back then. 

Caitlin and I walked around and for about a half an hour with this group of 15 year old Swedish boys following us.  The only thing they knew in English was “hello girls.” So lame.  I was not impressed. 

In the top of the White tower Caitlin and I played arcade type games to see how good of an archer or swordsman you are.  Lets just say she would be Legolas and I would be Aragorn. 

Shakespeare's As You Like It

I am enrolled in an English Literature and a Shakespeare class.  Very fitting for my time in London.  For both of these classes I read As You Like It one of Shakespeare’s most famous Romantic Comedies.  After studying this play we were able to go and see it performed in the Globe Theatre.  I have heard of this theatre since the beginning of time and in every English class since high school.  It was an amazing experience to actually be there.

The seats were hard and there was a pole obstructing my view.  The first half was really hard to get into.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about the play and the actors.  Luckily a bunch of people in the front row left at intermission (Thanks Soper) and then I had an awesome seat.  Since all of the characters fall in love in the second half the play was awesome.  I giggled and ran holding Caitlin’s hand the whole way home.  Oh and we had to lay on the stage.

Personally I do not think British guys are attractive- only because I have been looking the whole time I have been here and have yet to find any that beat American boys.  But under the circumstances I had a massive crush on the actor who played Orlando.  The crush developed in the second half and I think it was because of his character.  Caitlin and I may or may not have stayed late and looked for him after the play.  And just in case you were wondering- he does not have a facebook.  I think this creepy stalker has come out of me because I have not talked to a boy in a long time- except for the 40 year old man who asked me to be his girlfriend last night to go to a club. 

In Humanities this week we created our own Shakespeare play.  I was Claudius in the fifth act of Hamlet and had a splendid performance.  I had 3 lines and then I died. But the mustache was totally worth it.   

I'm sure Jack Laskey- Orlando from As You Like It will love me even more because of my profound love and knowledge of Shakespeare.

National Gallery

Our first free day we were given assignments at the British Musuem and the National Gallery. We walked in a huge pack. So afraid that someone would get left behind, which ended up happening. Sorry Allie. 

The National Gallery is in the famous Trafalgar Square and from there one can see most of the famous sites in the city.  

 The National Gallery was so entertaining outside I would have been fine just going home.  You never see people walking around in the nude in America.

The art I enjoyed and appreciated the most was of course not the assignment. I stumbled upon a room with Van Gogh in it. I have always loved his work, who doesn’t have a poster of Starry Night.  I glanced at Sunflowers but there were a bazillion people around so I decided to give The Chair a chance.  I have never been so blown away by art.  Van Gogh can not be truly experienced in a photograph.  The texture he used made the chair look as if it was actually made of straw.  He just globbed the paint on and I almost died.  It was so absolutely beautiful. 

Canterbury Cathedral

After a very long and nauseating bus trip we made it to Canterbury.  Like the characters in the stories that I sparknoted in high school I made the pilgrimage to the cathedral to pay my respects to Saint Thomas Becket.

I had been to cathedrals before, but I had never really known the stories behind them or appreciated the architecture.  Thanks to our personal tour guide Brian I was practically converted.  

The cathedral itself is about 1100 years old.  Because of a fire and other additions many parts are different ages and therefore different architecture types.  Roman, Gothic and rectangular arches are all seen and add to the beauty of the building.

I loved hearing about the many fundraisers that were employed to bring in more funding for the rebuilding of the cathedral.  Clever Monks.