Sneak Peek

I know everyone's been anxious to get the scoop on Paris, but things are a little crazy since I only have FIVE days left here and still have FOUR papers to write. Oh well. So if you want a little look at some stuff in Paris let me refer you here to my friend who is more on top of things. 

I promise I'll post pics as soon as I get them from everyone and have a second. But let's be honest. I'll probably be back on American soil when that happens. Yikes!

Northbound: England, Scotland, & Lake District

Last Monday through Friday we did our last big trip as a group. We loaded onto the Westbus coach bright and early with our chatty driver, Tony, who likes to point out interesting sights and divulge little factoids where he can along the way. This time we were headed up north. This was the schedule for the week, plus some highlights from what we did during free time in each of the cities:

Monday:

• Lincoln, England
• Lincoln Castle; Lincoln Cathedral
• York, England by evening
• Ghost walk

Tuesday

• York
• City Wall walk
• York Minster Cathedral tour
• Edinburgh, Scotland by evening
• Elephant House Cafe for dinner -- birthplace of Harry Potter!
• Calton Hill at sunset; graveyards

Wednesday

• Edinburgh
• Edinburgh Castle 
• Walked along the city's Royal Mile
• Saw the Palace of Holyroodhouse -- the Queen's official residence in Scotland
• Hiked Arthur's Seat, overlooking all of Edinburgh

Thursday

• Leave Scotland for Lake District in Northern England
• Pretty drive through the countryside/Lake District
• Boat ride on Lake Windermere

Friday

• Hiked in the Lake District near Coniston Lake; summited Holme Fell
• Drive back to London

And now for the picture dump :)

Lincoln Cathedral

Piety

The cool gate into the city of York that we walked through to get anywhere.

I think it's one of the only cities left in England that still is surrounded by a city wall

Oh the ghost walk.

York Minster:

My favorite cathedral we've seen, rivaled only by St. Paul's. I'm telling you, taking a tour makes all the difference when visiting cathedrals. Otherwise they're all the same all over Europe, one flipping cathedral after another!

York Minster has the largest amount of original medieval stained glass in England, possibly Europe; I can't remember for sure. But I thought this one was interesting because it's not traditional brightly colored Bible scenes like the rest.

Beautiful ceiling!

Along the York city wall. Such a beautiful city!

The river that ran through the city was also beautiful

EDINBURGH

(not in chronological order)

Andrea, Taylor and I at Edinburgh Castle

Alison, me, Taylor, Nick, Cara, and Andrea atop Edinburgh Castle

This is the cafe where J.K. Rowling spent a lot of time writing Harry Potter books. The back room overlooks Edinburgh Castle, which sits on a cliff and looks a LOT like Hogwarts. 

In the women's restroom, there is this HP-decopaged toilet, but make sure to sign up for Dumbledore's Army on the door jamb! I'm number 179!

I'm in the army now!

We hiked up to Calton Hill after dinner to watch the sun go down (at 10:30 pm!). Great views of the whole city!

Looking back at Calton Hill from the cemetery we explored afterward

A view of Edinburgh by night from a cemetery on a hill

Another HP pilgrimage was another graveyard that had Tom Riddle's grave! Ok, it's actually Thomas Riddell, but there was also a McGonagall and Moody in there too, so J.K. must have come here and gotten inspiration!

Just me and a fake bagpiper at Edinburgh Castle!

And a real bagpiper performing on the street! We're not in Kansas anymore, folks.

At the top of Arthur's seat, a beautiful hike up above Edinburgh! A must do if you're ever there. 

Awesome panoramic views.

Lake District

View from the boat ride in the Lake District. There were TONS of gorgeous lake houses too.

The view from our hostel up in the hills above Windermere in the Lake District. No bigs.

So beautiful and picturesque.

Andy Goldsworthy nature sculpture that was part of our hike in the Lake District. He does a bunch of this type of thing all over! Look him up!

A pile of rocks: the end goal of a most heinously muddy and wet, but easy, hike. Now I know what it's like to be a hobbit and trek through a veritable quagmire, albeit a gorgeous quagmire!

At the top. 

The Toms sacrificed for that view. This wasn't even the worst they got. Think caked on mud all over. But don't worry, a quick trip through the wash and they're pretty much as good as new!

Oreo cow!

Those are the highlights from the trip! I wish I could explain more, but it's au revoir to London and bonjour to Paris in ten minutes!

A bloggy day in London town

I have been kind of dreading blogging because I am so far behind. The time is flying and I don't want to spend it in front of a computer! Hence, I have already pulled two all-nighters while I've been here to do homework and papers because I refuse to spend all day sitting in the centre being productive haha. But I was talking with some people last night and they were kind of appalled because I don't skype, skype-chat, gchat, call, or email my family every day, weekly, or every other week for that matter. Sorry guys!  My best effort at keeping in touch is this blog, and the best I can do right now is some more highlight pics from the last 10 days or so. I hope you like them!
P.S. -- to see some other stuff I've been up to in London don't forget to check here!

Les Mis!

The entire program went, but this is a few of us after the show 

Hampton Court
The group took a little day trip to he palace of Henry VIII. It was huge and pretty awesome, almost overwhelmingly so! My favorite part, of course were the gardens and the exterior architecture. It's interesting how the palace has a lot of different facades because different architects worked on different parts The rooms inside all kind of started to look the same after about the 3rd wing and the audio guide tour was too long-winded.

The Down House

This is Charles Darwin's home and the other stop on our little day trip. It's called the Down House because it's in Downe, England. I'm not going to lie, at this point I was kind of museumed-out, as I call it, since Hampton Court was a lot to handle, and I hadn't read Charles and Emma, like everyone in the English class did, so I wasn't too interested in this Darwin place. But then the bus rolled up to the cutest house ever with beautiful gardens and I was sold. It was interesting because the first floor rooms are preserved as they were when he and his family lived there, and then the top floor rooms are little exhibits. 

We got to take a stroll through the gardens and along the "sand path" Darwin liked to walk along while he thought. This was a pretty view back on the house.

 Wicked!
I had been wanting to go since I got here, but most people had already gone. So after dinner on a Tuesday, Nick and I randomly decided to go, along with Cara who goes to the same ward as me on Sundays. It was the best snap decision ever! We left the Centre at 6:30 and booked it over to the Apollo Theatre. At about forty minutes till the show began we got there and ended up getting 4th row, center tickets for 28 pounds! Perks of being a student, going on a weekday, and showing up right beforehand! I absolutely LOVED the show. The set, the costumes, the music, and  the cast were all fabulous. Elphaba's voice was amazing and Glinda was so funny. I wish I could go again before I leave!

4th row! So close I couldn't get it all in the shot!

Cara, me, and Nick before the show

 Cambridge!
The group went on another day trip to Cambridge a couple weeks ago, now. Of course, it is famous for Cambridge University, comprised of dozens of separate colleges spread throughout the city. The main reason we all went was because Dr. Miller had arranged with his colleague, the director BYU summer Honors program at Cambridge, to have some of the students there show us around and get kind of an insider's look at Cambridge while the whole place was pretty much shut down because of exams. Apparently they don't take exams every semester. They get to take a week of comprehensive exams after three whole years of school! Woof. Cambridge was quite enjoyable. Dr. Carey took us into a Wren chapel at Pembroke College and gave us some info on the colleges, then gave us a huge list of stuff we could go see with the students to take us around. I went and saw an exhibition on the emergence of the King James Bible at the Cambridge University Library. They had a real Gutenberg Bible so that was pretty awesome to see. The whole group reconvened at King's College Chapel for a little tour. As it turns out, John and Susan Tanner were in Cambridge for the day before they head out on their mission, and they hung out with our group for a bit, which was really nice of them. The highlight of the day though was "punting on the Cam," or riding in quasi-gondolas down the Cam River, which runs behind all the Colleges. It was so quaint but hard because you propel the little wooden boat with just an a paddle in the front, and an aluminum pole on the back! My boat had some issues with steering, to say the least, but it was really fun and beautiful!

 
King's College quad

punting down the Cam

Shakespeare at the Globe!

I thought I'd throw this in here; I've been to two plays at the Globe now: All's Well That Ends Well and As You Like It. They were both such fun shows, and it's awesome to be up close to the actors. They are so good! The day after As You Like It the group got to go on a tour of the Globe and the remains of the Rose, its predecessor. We saw a live rehearsal of Much Ado About Nothing, which was really fun to see and has the guy who played Geoffrey the butler on Fresh Prince!

Kelsey, Nick, Andrea, me, and Scott after the Globe Tour

Oxford!

Oxford was great. Me, Tara, Shelisa, and Hannah decided to go as a little sef-guided day trip a couple Saturdays ago since it's only an hour train ride away. We wanted to see some the HP sites there, the colleges, get some paraphernalia, etc. Our Oxford trip was fun, and I would definitely go back and do it again! It is more touristy than Cambridge, but they are both great in their own ways. 

Outside the Great Hall of Christ Church College, the inspiration for the Great Hall in the Harry Potter Movies, but NOT where they filmed it. We still wanted to go though and pretend it was. We were SO BUMMED because we ran to get there by 4:30, got there at 4:28, and the guy still wouldn't let us in. We sat on the steps and wept for a bit. I'm just barely getting over it.
.

The Divinity Room where they DID film the infirmary in HP 1 and the dance lesson scene in HP 4!

This is during our climb up to the top of a church that overlooks the whole of Oxford. There were stunning views, which I included a couple of below:

Radcliffe Camera, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and now the reading room of the Bodleian Library.
It's one of my favorite pieces of architecture that I've seen so far!

Lastly, we ended our Oxford day with dinner at the Eagle and Child pub, the stomping grounds of J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis. They would meet up and bounce ideas off each other and swap their drafts of Narnia and Lord of the Rings.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned! My next post is on North England, Scotland, and the Lake District! After that: PARIS. Brace yourselves, lads.