"Reading IS the journey!"

Hey, you guys! I'm sorry that I haven't posted in so long... Everything has just been so busy. I can't even really remember what I've done since I last posted, and I'm having to look at my calendar to remember.  So, according to my calendar....... I went on a day trip to Bath. We saw the play "The Mousetrap" (I know who did it!).  We went to an Ash Wednesday service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and I gave up all soft drinks for Lent.  Jase and I went on a fun trip to Oxford and visited a really old castle.  We both then got back and volunteered at Bloomsbury Baptist Church on Sunday and helped serve lunch.  We then had a midterm and a paper due in our Lewis/Tolkien class the Monday right after the four-day weekend (yeesh). On Wednesday, a group of us girls volunteered at Bloomsbury and helped out at a kids' day (they were having a "David and Goliath" theme going on all day). We watched Veggie Tales... the "Dave and the Giant Pickle" one... I forgot how much I love silly songs with Larry... that one's the "I love my lips" song. Yes.  On Wednesday, we also saw the worst play I think I've ever seen.... Don't ever see "Dear World." It was awful. Just... made no sense. Yesterday morning I woke up unbelievably early to go volunteer at a different church... but couldn't get in.  The whole building was locked, and I waited outside for 30 minutes, but no one let me in.  I then got back to my room and got back in my pajamas, stubbed my toe, cried one solid tear at my misfortune, and promptly fell back asleep until 12:30 pm. Then I woke up and revised my paper some more (due today).

Jase drinking the water at Bath!

Me drinking the water at Bath! 

Taylor and Lydia.... They be my frans. 

I bought a copy of Harry Potter in Latin... don't ask why. 

In the Eagle and Child.... :)

Sven the Viking, our tour guide of the Oxford Castle!

 The view from the top of the castle

Oh, yeah, Jase and I also got arrested. 

Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun with everybody.  Jase, Lydia, Taylor, and I went on a fun little excursion last night. We went in search of a Chipotle (ironic that the first time I ever had Chipotle was in London, England and I live in Texas).  It was good, but not as good as Sharky's.... still, I got my burrito fix, and it was goooooood. After we ate, we headed to Primark in search of wolf shirts so we can begin the trend of Wolf Shirt Wednesday over here, but instead we came across some amazing frocket (front-pocket, for those who don't know) shirts and a bunch of us bought different, yet matching, shirts.... and today is Frocket Friday.  After Primark, we hung out at Shakespeare's Head for a little while and then headed on back to the Pickwick.  It was a good day!

We're supposed to go on the Jack the Ripper tour on Monday (shout-out to Melissa, if you read my blog, hahaha).  We're pretty excited! Anyway, Jase's birthday is coming up pretty soon, so we're going to figure out some fun things to do on March 1st for him! :) Also, we figured out that Jase and Lydia are honorary siblings. Also also, I'm trying to read practically all of the Lord of the Rings for class in a very short time, and all Jase can say to me is, "I'm so jealous that you're getting to read LOTR for the first time... it's such a magical experience... I wish I could do that again." Just yesterday, he said, "Reading LOTR is great because it's like being on the journey with them... reading IS the journey!" My fiance's so nerdy. But he's great and I love him. Hahaha!

Miss everybody at home! I love you all!

Shakespeare and Hugo... Storytelling masters.

So I've been pretty sick-y all week, but I'm slowly getting better! I've been trying to rest as much as possible, but I have to have SOME shenanigans here and there!

Shenanigans of this week include seeing Richard III and Les Mis.

Richard III was fantastic.  I loved finally being able to see some real Shakespeare; the women were even played by men! The man playing Richard was fantastic... he was just so funny.  Also, before the play started, he was walking around the stage with a "No Parking" sign (in reference to the fact that Richard III's body has just recently been discovered under a car park).  He was just a hoot.  I felt bad that most of our classmates got much worse seats than Jase and I did (and we were in the upper circle in the very back row).  Everybody else got put one more level above us and they said they couldn't see or hear most of the production.  I am really glad we got put where we did, though... this was a play that I wanted so badly to see!

Last night, though, we went to see Les Mis.  I hadn't seen this play since the fourth grade, and while I sat there watching it, I realized that I remembered the whole thing.  It's just that amazing.  The experience is burned in my mind, and I couldn't have enjoyed last night more.

To start off the night, a small group of us went to Nando's, which is a very chicken-themed restaurant here.  I'm not quite sure what ethnicity the restaurant is going for; they've got Mexican music playing, an Italian name, everything on the menu is chicken... it's just confusing. But they've got bottomless soft drinks there, so it doesn't matter. Hahaha. I got a fourth of a chicken and some chips, and Jase got some wings. It was pretty delicious.

Eating some Nando's!

We left and headed over to Piccadilly Circus.  Since we got there early, we popped into a Costa and I got a muffin and a hot chocolate.  Also delicious.  Finally, it was time to head into the theatre... we were all ... so ready.  We hiked up to our seats (upper circle, 2nd to last row) and saw a good deal of our classmates who had also gotten tickets for this showing.

The show started.  Can I just say how much I love the rotating stage effect?  It completes the show.  They use it to its full extent, too... it's amazing how something as simple as a stage setting can draw emotion out of me. (Just a head's up, I'm not going to say anything negative about how they did last night, because why would I do that? This is just the best show ever. They would have had to put someone like Nick Jonas in the role of Marius to butcher the show. Which they didn't.  Just sayin'.) Their voices were wonderful, the stage was perfect, I laughed, I cried (A LOT). Yeah.

Lydia and I before the show! 

Jase and I

I'm just so glad I was able to revisit my childhood last night.  It's like that music flows straight through me... YES, the beating of my heart matches the beating of the drums. YES, I will join in your crusade and be strong and stand with you.  Lord... it's the best story.. it affirms courage and grace under pressure.  It's just the best.

Keep Calm and Drink Cough Syrup: Canterbury Day Trip

Okay, all, so we had a trip to Canterbury yesterday.  This would have been fabulous had I not been stricken with the sore throat/congestion of a lifetime.  I still went, because I'm stubborn and didn't want to miss out on anything. So...

It was about a two hour bus ride to Canterbury, during which I read a good portion of Perelandra. Our first stop was Dover Castle.  The professors told us to get off the bus and take some pictures, and we thought they meant for us to go looking for the famous White Cliffs.  A group of boys stampeded off the bus and down a trail, and we thought they knew where they were going, so we followed.  About 10 minutes of walking proved to us that they didn't.  This also would have been fine, if by the 5th minute I didn't start having stabbing pains in my throat and chest from breathing in all the cold air.  Also, some of our boys decided that it was a good idea to hop a fence off the trail and scale a huge muddy hill (that was almost straight up). And those of you who know me, you know I have no sympathy for those shenanigans! I asked Jase if we could head back to the bus, and he sweetly obliged.  About here, I started to get freaked out because I realized that I just could not spend the rest of the day outside with this chest pain! I was even carrying a bottle of cough syrup with me and taking swigs off of it the whole day, but that barely helped.. Anyway, by the time we reached the bus, we realized that we weren't supposed to even step away from the bus by that much.  As for the boys who scaled the mountain, we had no idea how they were going to get down.... and then they came back last, all with mud all down their backsides.  Yeesh.  No wonder Europeans hate Americans. 

Jase and I at Dover Castle

We piled back on the bus and headed to the coastline there in Dover, which was so pretty.  We took pictures for about five minutes, touched the English Channel and all that jazz, and then got back on the bus and headed to Canterbury.

On the coastline

At Canterbury, which is basically a shopping center, we all got off the bus and were told to meet at the Cathedral at 3:15.  Jase, Lydia, Caitlyn, Megan, and I shopped around for a while, giving me momentary relief from chest pain every time we could step indoors! We found some fun stores, one of which was a really funky store where I bought a huge world map for 4 pounds. (Jase was sad because they were out of Middle-Earth maps).  We ate at another pub for lunch and I had some tomato soup, hoping it would help! Lydia was the first of us to order a meat pie (it was chicken and mushroom) and she said it was delicious, so I'll have to try one soon. Jase tried some sort of grilled fish over potatoes and he loved it, too.  

We met at the Cathedral, and our little tour guide, Nan, was a hoot.  She must have had some terrible American groups before us, because she kept on saying her generalizations of Americans and applying them to us... she started out by saying, "Now, I know all American babies are born with gum in their mouths, but it's not allowed in the Cathedral, so spit it out in the rubbish bin before you go in!" She would ask us if we knew information about all the archbishops and then go, "Oh, you don't know, do you?" or "Now I know it's hard for you to picture a world before the 11th century, but in the 6th century..." or "In our country in this time, we were building great buildings like this! What were you doing in your country at that time? Bows and arrows and whatnot?" Yeesh, hahaha. But I really liked her; she was funny and she was a great story-teller. 

Nan, our tour guide!

The Cathedral really was amazing... this church is technically the head of the Anglican Church, the Church of England.  Though most parts have been burnt down and rebuilt, there are still sections with the original architecture.  I have slowly learned that, anytime a tour guide or teacher tells you about some amazing relic, don't get your hopes up, you can't see it. Because it was most likely destroyed or torn apart during the reign of Henry VIII. HENRYYYYYYY........ Yeesh. 

The Cathedral from the outside

We learned from Nan all about the murder of St. Thomas Becket, one of the Archbishops of Canterbury.  We stood in the same spot that he was murdered by four knights... it was very fascinating.

Memorial to commemorate Thomas Becket's murder

After our tour, we stuck around to go to Evensong.  The choir was very lovely, and it was nice to just sit and listen to them.  

The Cathedral at dusk

When it was over, we grabbed some dinner very quickly and hustled back to the bus... I was very glad to get home.  Jase, the sweet man that he is, rushed out when we got back to get me some more cough syrup. I'm resting today, hoping to get better quickly!!!  Those of you reading from Texas, I miss you! Mom and Dad, hope you're doing well!! Miss you guys, and today I'm really craving a Sharky's burrito. Hahaha. Love you all!