Here I am, wrapped up in my cheetah snuggie, neon blue leggings, american eagle boy boxers, and BYU sweatshirt in the entry way to no. 29 Palace Court. We just got back from our third day trip and it has been impossible to find any peace and quiet anywhere. Luckily, one of the girls told me about this spot, and as cold as it is, I am in utter silence...so lovely :) I'm reading Measure for Measure for my Shakespeare class tomorrow, and as a brain-break, I figured it'd be fitting to blog about recent events.
Monday was absolutely wonderful! I woke up in the morning for breakfast and had one of my favorite cereals that I have found here in the center. I don't know what it is, but cereal seems to taste better here in London. Jenny and I are utterly obsessed with the breakfast. You'd think it was magic or something... Anyways, we had classes, did homework, had dinner, and then our whole group went to go see Oliver! (don't forget the exclamation point). Since we read Oliver Twist for our English Literature class, we were all super excited to see the play, and it didn't let us down. I thought it was so good! I loved the music, I loved the set, and I loved all of the actors. I laughed, I cried (well, not really...it just sounded fitting), and I even got to enjoy a dark chocolate chip Ben's Cookie before the show started--which, might I add, was the best cookie I have ever had in my entire life. Everyone here (particularly Caitlin) has been singing the songs from Oliver nonstop since the show, and I have been wearing my new Oliver shirt every single night to bed. The novel had already left its mark upon my heart, and now there's a second spot in reserve for the musical. In short, it was simply wonderful.
Tuesday Jenny and I woke up extra early and then went on a run before breakfast. Then, we came back and had breakfast and classes. I'm really enjoying my political science class a lot more than I imagined I would and I always love the discussions that we have in class. After classes, we had lunch and then Macy, Jenny, and I went to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. I really enjoyed going to the National Gallery for the first time and my favorite pieces to look at were those by Van Gough. After the National Gallery, we came back for dinner and then I was so tired that I was asleep by 8 PM. I woke up at midnight hungry, so Macy and I went down and hung out in the kitchen for a while and then I came back up and went to bed! It was great to get almost 10 hours of sleep!
Trafalgar Square
This morning I woke up at around 6:45 AM and got ready for our third day trip. We all packed onto the bus and then drove on over to Dover Castle! It was really beautiful and such an amazing castle...I will have a castle someday. We started off by walking through the Secret Tunnels where military personnel hid and where medical aid was provided. This was also where Operation Dynamo was concocted--the plan which saved tons of Allied WWII soldiers from Dunkirk. One of the highlights of the tour was our tour guide who was extremely melodramatic in her descriptions of the tunnels. After the tour, we hiked up to Dover Castle much to the dismay of my calf muscles, and after extreme exhaustion we all finally made it to the top. We walked around and took pictures--the castle was beautiful--and climbed all the way to the top of one of the towers. When we saw that our time was running short, we rushed down the steps from the tower and got onto the bus and had our lunches while waiting for one of the other girls to get on the bus. Now, mind you, the directors told us that if we were one minute late the bus would leave without us. Last day trip, my friends and I were FOUR minutes late, and got singled out at a devotional for being late and got very rude treatment by the director. The girl who got lost today was EIGHTEEN minutes late yet received no harsh treatment whatsoever. I say that if it was us who were late again, the bus would have left. I'm sensing a little discrimination.
On top of the tower at Dover Castle
the gorgeous view
Anyways, so we finally made our way on over to Canterbury. It was another quaint British town, and our first sight there was St. Augustine's Abbey. It was basically a bunch of ruins, but it was very pretty and we had a fun time taking pictures there. After, we went to the Canterbury Cathedral where St. Thomas Beckett was murdered (as described in T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral). It was a very intricate cathedral and was extremely ornate, except I thought it smelled like kitty litter, and I got to see the exact spot where St. Thomas was killed. Afterwards, we went to Starbucks and got hot chocolates and had some very good conversation on nice, warm, cozy couches :) Then we did a little browsing through the shops and I FINALLY got a new pair of jeans at Top Shop! I had only packed two pairs of jeans, and upon arriving in Europe, one of my jeans completely ripped---like, the hole extended into two holes, which has resulted in my jeans slowly but surely transforming from a pair of pants to a pair of shorts. Needless to say, when I finally found a decent pair of jeans that fit me well, I was more than thrilled. Unfortunately, this caused me to be late on the bus, but I didnt even care since I was so thrilled about my purchase. Once we got back into London, Caitlin, Macy, Jenny and I all got waffles at Whiteley's (so much more delicious than the ones at the Waffle House) and then got Subway. Who really even said having dessert before dinner is bad for you, anyways? Then, we came home and here I am back in the center. It's been a lovely day with lovely people and given that Thursdays are always my favorite day of the week, I can't wait for what excitement tomorrow has in store.
Oh, one more thing. Given that Valentine's Day is a little over a week away and that we are all far far away from members of the opposite sex who would ever give us presents, we decided to draw names for Valentines! I'm very excited about who my valentine is and I can't wait to see who has me! We all decided to get each other a flower and a candy, so this next week I'm going to have to do a little shopping. Don't you just love the holidays? ;)
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