Saturday 1/30 - Day 19

Cambridge today!

When we arrived, there was snow on the ground. We pulled up to "the backs" of the colleges, and convened by the Mathematical Bridge before commencing our tour. Queens' College was first on our stop, then past a church named for a Saint that isn't really a Saint, but a lot of old cities have them, and they mark the place where the old city gates once stood. We walked past the Cavendish Laboratory, where Watson & Crick discovered the structure of DNA, then to the pub where they celebrated. St. Benet's was of interest as well, as it's the oldest building in Cambridge.

I loved the bikes and posters everywhere. It definitely had the feeling of a college campus. We went into Pembroke College, and examined one of the prettiest little chapels I've ever seen, which was built by the same man who built St. Paul's Cathedral in London. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that people my age actually go to school here. This idea was only reinforced as we were leaving, and I could see students eating breakfast through one of the windows, and another student leaving the campus in pajamas.

During lunch we got to check out an open air market, which was really neat, and Thai food for lunch. King's College was our next to last stop for the day, and it was worth the entire trip. The Chapel was finished under King Henry VIII, one of my favorites, and it was phenomenal. It is home to some of the oldest stained glass in the Britain, and is completely stunning. The organ started to play as we were visiting, and it only added to the ambience.

We checked out the museum of zoology last, which housed Darwin's collections, most notably his beetles and finches, which was pretty incredible to see in person.

Cambridge was pretty incredible, but in my book, Oxford was preferable.

And so ends Day 19.

Friday 1/29 - Day 18

Although I was planning on going into London today, when I woke up, it was absolutely miserable outside, and if I learned anything on the first tour of London, it was to not waste your time when it’s disgusting out. So I did what any reasonable person would do. I went back to bed. I had a nice lazy morning and afternoon, then met up with everyone for dinner.

After dinner, we went to the local NewsAgent shop, which also happens to be Bill’s. Bill is famous with the American exchange students at St. Mary’s because apparently he really likes us, and oftentimes gives us free things. However, I find him vaguely creepy, so I usually make it a point not to visit Bill much. There was a long debate as to what alcohol to get, but I settled on Stawberry Pear cider and a Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut chocolate bar, and we headed to my friend Sarah’s house for a movie night.

Kim & Danielle’s host family had lent them the film “American Beauty,” which happens to be one of my favorite movies. We had a nice evening just chilling out and watching a movie together. It’s nice because Sarah lives pretty close to my host house, so I hope we keep going back there for our gatherings. She definitely has more than enough space to host. We wanted to keep it early since we were going to Cambridge the next day. Again, another fine day in the UK.

And so ends Day 18.

Thursday 1/28 - Day 17

I woke up after sleeping in delightfully late and did some more domestic chores, then headed to school for what’s becoming a miserable health psychology class. After dinner, I came back and was greeted by Mike telling me that as a household, we’d exceeded the amount of downloads, and so the internet was off. “Frustrated” doesn’t even begin to cover how I felt. I spent the rest of the night reading, goofing off, and planning my day in London tomorrow. I was kind of torn because my friends were planning a nice night in, but I desperately wanted to go back to London. Not too interesting of a day, but hopefully tomorrow will shape up for something more fun.

And so ends Day 17.

Wednesday 1/27 - Day 16

Woke up early today to get an early start in the city. It was bitterly cold, so we decided to do as much as we could to stay inside. We decided to hit the Victoria & Albert Museum first, which was actually very convenient given that we were able to walk from the Tube straight to the entrance of the V&A without going above ground once. Once in, we checked out the fashion, which wasn’t quite how I remembered it from when I was here with my mom, and the photography, which was actually quite impressive. From there we split up to pursue our separate interests, so I checked out the stained glass windows, which were incredible. The room that they are located it had perfect lighting, and you could really appreciate the art, time, and talent placed into each pane of glass. Absolutely incredible. I visited the jewelry exhibit, which was also incredible. I found a few Claddaghs in the exhibit, which made me pretty happy. They also had this incredible wheel of stones in rings, all color-coded. Everything was gorgeous. I somehow found my way to the tapestries, which were surprisingly incredibly serene. About halfway through my visit, I realized that I would need much more time to see everything that I wanted, so instead of rushing through it, I took my time, vowing to come back later. I wandered into this wondrous gallery, which I believe contained some medieval architecture, including stone towers, tombs, and other such artwork. My jaw literally hit the floor when I stumbled upon it. I’m consistently amazed by how people were able to create the things they did with the resources they had.

From there, we went to Harrods, and spent some time wandering around the giant store, stopping to specifically admire the Tiffany’s section. We came back for dinner and a change, then headed back into the city to see “Oliver.” When we picked up our tickets, we were all kind of upset that they weren’t together, but Kim & I ended up getting really phenomenal seats on an aisle. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but “Oliver” didn’t disappoint. Very good show. Another girl who was separated form her group wound up sitting with Kim & I, and funnily enough, she knew someone that I know at High Point. Small world.

After the show, we wandered around London trying to find somewhere to eat, and finally settled on McDonald’s. We caught the train back home, recounting our favorite parts of “Oliver.” All in all, another great day in England.

And so ends Day 16.

Tuesday 1/26 - Day 15

Shockingly, I woke up in enough time to eat breakfast and get ready before my class. We had a new professor for the tourism class today, and I like him as well. He apparently has another class to teach, so our lecture was cut short by an hour, which I was very okay with. I went back home to explore my box that came from Terry today, which included wonderful amounts of food and a panda. It pretty much made my day. I decided to take a nap, which turned into more of a sleep, and woke up in just enough time to go back to school for dinner. J We had a fun time recounting last night, including discussing how sore we all were from so much dancing.

I came back to my room after dinner and talked to some people, which would have continued if my internet connection hadn’t went out. I decided that as fun as last night was, not wanting to do much the day after except sleep is kind of a problem, so I’ll have to figure something out for that.

Tomorrow the plan is to go into London all day, then come back for dinner and to get changed to go see Oliver at the theater. Very exciting. All in all though, it was a beautiful lazy day, and everyone needs some of those.

And so ends Day 15.

Monday 1/25 - Day 14

Monday means back to school, & I can’t say that I was entirely looking forward to it. My first class, Individual Differences, was better than it was last week. We talked about a lot of personality things, which I am familiar with thanks to my HPU education. My next class, Positive Psych, was pretty interesting. We discussed happiness, then our professor presented us with our first journal “assignment.” We’re supposed to make a collage with pictures and representations of what we want, then put it under our beds & look at them every night, then reflect on our feelings regarding our collages. I’m not entirely sure what she wants us to do, & my confusion rose to new levels after she showed us her collage, which featured scantily clad women with “features” that our professor admires, vacations she desires to take alone, and pole dancing moves she wished to accomplish, since she readily admitted to us that she was a pole dancer. Obviously a very interesting class. I didn’t find much in the magazines she provided for my collage, and definitely didn’t have time to put it together, so that’s something that I may or may not be doing later.

I spent the rest of the day doing errands, trying to get some sleep, and talking to people from home before eating a delicious dinner and going out. I was supposed to meet another American at the dorm to let me in for a little bit of fun before the club, but she was nowhere to be found, so I followed some other kids in and wandered around a bit before finding Kaitlin, Kim, & Danielle, and heading to the kitchen (apparently the party room) to have some fun. There were a ton of people there, and they were playing a drinking game. They kept telling people to “consume,” which I thought was an English thing, but it was really just part of the game, as was pointing at people with your elbow. We eventually left there to get tickets to Oceana and to get on the bus that would take us there, spending some time in the student union bar.

What followed was one of the most ridiculous bus rides I’ve ever encountered in my life. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was singing. Singing anything, from “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” to popular 80’s American anthems. I really didn’t understand it, but it was fun nonetheless. We made it to the club, and were pretty much instantly ushered in, and spent the next 4-ish hours dancing in the enormous, mulit-themed dance club.

The bus ride home wasn’t nearly as entertaining as the one there, but we got to sit in the front top of the double decker and had a beautiful view of the area on the ride home. I figured out where my house was in relation to everything else, a revelation that would save me a lot of walking time in the future. Getting home at almost 3 am, I was able to video chat with people at home at a time that was considered “late” to them, and fell asleep after one of my best nights in England to date.

And so ends Day 14.

Sunday 1/24 - Day 13

I woke up bright and early to get ready and get to school to catch the bus to Oxford. I was there 15 minutes early, like the sheet said, yet there was no coach in sight. At 8:30, there was still no giant tour bus in sight, but after a while, the six of us going on the trip discovered that the company had sent a taxi to get us and take us to the next pick up point, where more students would be waiting. The cab ride was slightly frightening, given that people drive like crazy people here, and I was very glad to arrive at the pick up point. The college, called Royal Holloway, was absolutely gorgeous, and appeared to be straight out of a movie. We took several pictures before the bus showed up.

We loaded the bus, and had a pleasant ride to our first stop, Blenheim Palace, passing Windsor Castle along the way. The views were breathtaking, with I suppose what could be considered the traditional English countryside and lots of horse and sheep. Our tour guide also pointed out where some of the 2012 Olympic teams will practice rowing.

Eventually, we arrived at a small town, apparently famous for a weekend getaway spot with the rich and famous. From what the guide was telling us, Blenheim Palace was built by Henry II, or at least sometime in that time frame, on the grounds of an old hunting lodge, which unfortunately no longer stands. We took a long walk around the garden and lake area, getting some fantastic pictures, then saw a Victory Statue, which is directly in line with the palace, then walked over a bridge to the palace itself. The bridge actually had rooms build into it so that visitors could stay there. However, they're closed to the public. We didn't get to tour the inside of the palace, but the views were lovely from where we were. Some random facts surrounding Blenheim include the fact that Winston Churchill was born and became engaged there, and is buried nearby, one of the residents altered the water level in the lakes surrounding the palace to make it more aesthetically pleasing, and it supposedly has phenomenal gardens, that sadly, because of the weather and the time of year that we visited, we were unable to see.

From the palace, we walked back to the village the back way, passing seemingly millions of sheep, and these incredible stone walls made without cement - they're just rocks placed together that have solidified over time, designed to keep the sheep in. They're called cotswalds, with "cot" being an old derivative of "sheep" in some language. We walked to a pub called "The White House," apparently one of Winston Churchill's favorites, and had tea & biscuits. It had some wonderful Churchill quotes on the wall.

After tea, we walked up to a little cemetery where Churchill is buried. Today was actually his death anniversary, 45 years. There were flowers on his grave. Our tour guide told us that he was given the privilege of being buried at Westminster Abbey, but didn't think that he'd get along too well with some of the people buried there, so he declined in favor of being buried close to where he was born. She also told us that the King before Elizabeth II had offered to Knight him, but he refused. However, when Queen Elizabeth II offered, he accepted.

We all loaded the coach and headed to Oxford after tea. Everything in Oxford is made from yellow brick, and it's incredibly beautiful. There are bikes everywhere, and even more people. We got off the bus and began our walking tour. We went into kind of the heart of the city. Apparently, Oxford is a university within itself, but there are 39 colleges in it, all of which have rivalries, yet they all come together to make Oxford. You have to pass a rigorous exam, the Oxbridge, or something like that, as Cambridge uses it as well to get in, then pass an interview process. It all sounds very complicated and whatnot, but it's a very good school, lots of famous people have studied and taught here, and it's a neat town.

We began by looking at this rotunda/theater bulling, called The Sheldonian. It's where all the graduations, matriculations, and the like take place. It had these crazy statue head surrounding it that all had expressions of surprise. Bizarre. Apparently they were all redone in the 1960's, so that might explain some of that.

We then went behind it into this beautiful square where we were completely surrounded by incredible architecture. It was too cramped to take a picture to do it justice, but it was almost a magical place to be. We walked next into a courtyard area of a library, and I was intrigued by these little heads, all unique, that ran as a border around the top of the courtyard. They were designed to give the building "character."

When we came out of that, we came into another area with a stunning round building called "The Radcliffe Camera." I'm not sure exactly what the building is designed for, but the same man who designed it designed the church I was in last night, St Martin's In The Field, for the concert. So cool. We saw more churches, most notably the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, and as we were passing that, passed the lamppost that is believed to be the inspiration behind "The Chronicles of Narnia," as C.S. Lewis was both a pupil and teacher in Oxford. We took some more pictures with some of the colleges, then broke for lunch.

We were able to find an adorable store that I got postcards and an Oxford t-shirt at. We ate at an incredible little sandwich shop, and had ham & cheese paninis for 2.95. However, when I asked for tap water, the woman glared at me as if she wanted me to die, so that prevented the rest of the group from asking for drunks as well. We did a little more window shopping after that, then met back up with the group for the rest of our tour.

We journeyed then to Christ Church College, which also houses the Cathedral of Oxford, the smallest Cathedral in England. The college is inspiration for "Alice in Wonderland," as well as "Harry Potter." Before we went into the college, our tour guide told us that there are a few things that every college in Oxford & Cambridge have, which are residences/quad, a guard tower, a chapel, & a great hall. Colleges still use this model today. We took some pictures on the staircase that they used in the movie, as well as in the Great Hall. I wondered where the floating candles and ghosts were, haha. People still eat there today. They were actually setting up for dinner as we were touring. On the wall behind where the head table is were portraits of some of the famous people related to the college, including King Henry VIII, who stole the school from the Catholic Cardinal who founded it, and Queen Elizabeth I. The ceiling was amazing. Kaitlin & I definitely enjoyed our time there.

We walked out into a giant courtyard where apparently a lot of movies are filmed as well, and into the cathedral, which was gorgeous. Beautiful stained glass windows, incredibly ornate carvings, it was just phenomenal. One of the quotes above one of the carved arches read, "Fear God, Love the Brotherhood, Honor the King." I really took a liking to it. Kaitlin & I took some more pictures in the hallways, and in the courtyard that seemed to be a potential filming spot as well, then the four of us grabbed some group shots as well.

We headed back to the bus down a busy shopping lane, & Kaitlin & I quickly ran to "The Eagle & Child" pub to get some pictures. It's famous for writers such as C.S. Lewis, Tolkein, & even J.K. Rowling to have frequented to hang out and write.

We got back on the bus and I basically instantly fell asleep on the ride home. I woke up enough to get in the taxi, and we were delivered back to St Mary's, just in time for dinner. Once I got back to my house, I was able to talk to some people at home, and think back on what a great day it was. Great weather, great sights, overall great day.

And so ends Day 13.