Thursday, March 11, 2010

Days 59, 60, 61, & 62

Tuesday class was cancelled and we went on a hike with Brother Chiddock! Just so everyone knows, the hike was voluntary, and yes I chose to go. A miracle, right? Anyway, we hiked 9.6 miles through the english countryside. I didn't bring any hiking or athletic shoes of any kind, because honestly, until Tuesday I didn't need them...so I wore my wellies. Surprisingly enough, I didn't get a single blister. It was a cold, but beautiful day. We saw so many pretty farms. We hiked through several private properties, but we were allowed to because in England there are walking paths that have been around for hundreds of years and they have laws that protect the public's right to hike these paths. I think that is it fantastic that everyone gets to enjoy the pretty places. That night we decided to rest our feet at Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and it was good, especially Johnny Depp.



Brother Chiddock talking to the group of us.





Oh hey sheep.






Wednesday we took a day trip out to Stourhead and Chawton. They filmed part of Pride & Prejudice at Stourhead(the part where Darcy confesses his love for Elizabeth in the rain), and they are some of the prettiest gardens I have ever seen. I fed the ducks my croissant and Dr. Macfarlane gave us a mini lecture in front of a replica of the Pantheon. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty excited when Dr. Macfarlane asked who had been to the actual Pantheon and I got to raise my hand. We crossed a bridge over the nice little man made lake and walked up to the Temple of Virtue where the P & P movie scene was filmed. Much to our disappointment we found the temple covered in scaffolding, so we couldn't reenact the scene which is a shame, because I do an excellent Mr. Darcy. After the gardens we drove on to Jane Austen's house. I love Jane Austen, end of story. I was so close to buying a boxed set of her novels, but I didn't. Birthday present, Mom? We traveled to see Jane Austen's gravesite and Winchester Cathedral and then it was back home for us. Back in London I followed Katie, Cam, Calvin, and Britt to a Sports Restaurant to watch a soccer game. ManU dominated, and the italians were sad.

Stourhead Gardens.





P & P scene. The scaffolding was lovely.

Jane Austen's house.

Winchester Cathedral.







Those aren't tiles, they're slices of bread.



Alfred the Great.


Thursday I went to class, and studied until dinner. After dinner we saw Les Miserables! It is easily my favorite musical, I almost always cry. However, this was not my favorite performance and I wish the other girls could have seen a different cast. Still, the music was amazing and so was Eponine, and that's all that really matters.

Friday I finished reading Wuthering Heights(not my favorite), went to class, and then took a trip to the Imperial War Museum with my political science class. It's a pretty good museum, and there was so much information about both WW1 and WW2. I have 2 midterms in the next two days, so after dinner it was study time again. Tomorrow is going to be great though. Also, I love London.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

everytime i see your clothes i swear you're in something new you didn't have when you left...