Beauty Beauty Everywhere

Alright, I know this is totally nerdy but I really love having a library that stays open 24/7. I have my own key to get in and there aren't any guards or anything there. You're just expected to turn the lights out if your the last one to leave. It's like having an affair with knowledge.

Well it's 3 in the morning in this here Cambridge and I'm a little too high strung after finishing my essay on World War One espionage to go straight to sleep. By that I just mean that it's hard for me to wind down after working all day. I don't mean high strung like I just watched James Bond or something.

Oh man. Writing here feels good. 


Here's the thing here. I'm either with people for five hours straight and kind of lose myself in being super outgoing to the point that I just want myself to shut up or I'm alone for seven hours doing work with absolutely no human interaction except "thank you" and "is this where I fetch a book?" (and yes, fetch is the word round here if you need to request something special in the University Library). Add to this communication drought the fact that I have lost my voice and I'm finding myself becoming a bit manic. I just want to say words and have someone listen and then say some words back to me. Is that really so much to ask?

Well, I'll get to the point of this post which is beautiful pictures of my trip to Yorkshire this past weekend since that's what your all really interested in. Not my developing schizophrenia. Here's what we did: on saturday morning we took a coach to Yorkshire and went on a tour of a coal mine and then went to the Bronte's house and then a pub and then the next day we went on this four or five hour ramble across the countryside. People have great accents there and our tour guide at the mine was obsessed with the way I said "Missouri." He kept having me say it over and over again.

Outside the Bronte's house. They've got a bunch of their clothes and old furniture and everything in there all preserved. I was in the room where they wrote their masterpieces!
(it actually wasn't that exciting. the cemetery next door was pretty creepy though)

don't kid yourself, that cat loved me

sheep! england!

Me Katelyn and my food baby Heathcliff

lovely

our PAs!

this is the cliff where they filmed the scene in HP7 p 1 where Hermione and Harry are camped out and then they have that random dance scene. Katelyn and I were just trying to recreate it.

we had a romantic weekend together. All our other friends went to Paris.

the sign of the deathly hallows! (still at the film place)

I've found the clue! (you can't see it but its the hallows pictured above)

Me and one of the PAs, Simone. She is from Sweden but her Dad is American and lives in St. Louis on the Illinois side which is incredibly random.
She met Orlando Bloom one time in a liqueur store in Stockholm.

It's called a Tarn

I was the only one who braved the water!

return of the matching waterproofs!

I think I found the shire

horses at the mine. Ok so I was having a bad hair day....weekend

typical pub

I was sooo hungry and the food was sooo good

this is gonna sound weird but it kind of tasted like Pizza Hut pan pizza.
I was probably just having hunger hallucinations.

Some favorite memories of the weekend were:

1. walking on the moors behind the Bronte house after dinner. I went with people I don't usually hang out with and it was fun to get to know them better. We passed this outdoor party in someone's yard with a legit band that was soo English. I wish I'd gotten a picture. Then we just wandered and yelled out "Heathcliff!" a fair amount. The best moment was when all the girls held hands, ran out into the grass and just screamed Heathcliff's name at the top of our lungs.

2. Playing in the park. There was this really great playground. It had a weirdly spaced climbing wall though and I got stuck at the top and could not hoist myself up and Maharu was like "you look like Winnie the Pooh!" which I thought was hilarious. It's a new image for my happy place. I'm sure I looked so silly.

just like this!

3. Chatting with Katelyn

4. Drinking the Yorkshire Air. I was getting sick that weekend and so the hike was a bit strenuous for me but when I opened my mouth in the wind it literally felt like I was drinking medicine. I can see now why they say that country air is good for you.

That's about it. It was a good weekend.
Ta! 

Cool Britannia

Have no fear my adoring public! I am back!

Ok, I know your not really my adoring public.  I've just been getting lots of complaints lately about how I need to update my blog and I felt like a minor celebrity. I'm sure all the attention will stop once I get to Provo and become boring again. In the meantime what sort of mischief have I been up to in England? Well. Where do I start?

Last Friday was the end of exams for everyone who had module one classes. I didn't actually have any module one classes (ie the entire class plus finals is in the first four weeks off the program) but I still went to the end of exams party. Here was the invite they sent out for it:
~~ COOL BRITANNIA ~~
Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves...
           


~~ End of Exams Party!!! ~~
        Friday 29th July
        9pm - 12:30am
        Doors close 10:30 - get there on time or miss out!

The end of exams is almost in sight, and to get you through the final days of revision and writing papers, your loving PKP team have got an EXCLUSIVE PARTY (Cambridge style) lined up for PKP students at one of the best clubbing venues Cambridge has to offer, Hidden Rooms.
Check it out at: http://www.hiddenthing.com/

FREE entry with a wristband - collect from the PKP office. No wristband, no entry, NO exceptions.

Traditionally, Cambridge parties are called BOPs - and this implies FANCY DRESS (i.e. - a costume party). So get your best outfits out. The theme is COOL BRITANNIA - anything and everything BRITISH goes! Think Austin Powers, the Royal Family, James Bond, Union Jack dresses (or any of the Spice Girls for that matter)...

There'll be a dancefloor where you can let off some steam and get out your best moves with your friends to some hip-hop, pop, RnB and top-40 chart tunes. If you are feeling in the mood for a more chilled evening, there is a bar-area with comfy sofas and funk and soul beats. 
****


Do you still have no idea what it was? Yeah well neither did we. BUT have I ever been one to skip out on a costume party? My friend had the idea that I be Kate Middleton with this new white dress I just bought at a vintage store and so I went to the party as, very appropriately, The Duchess of Cambridgeshire. 

Can you see my tiara? It wasn't the most convincing costume...

Aaron didn't have any costume to wear so I let him borrow my hat to look more generally English. 

Hidden Rooms was a cool club but it got so. freaking. hot down there. Seriously, it was disgusting. There were just way too many people and people kept spilling their drinks on the floor and the music was suspiciously 80's influenced. BUT. Despite all this, I had a really fun night. I will go back to before that. While we were waiting for the party to start (which wasn't until late) we decided to go punting. I was a little hesitant because you all know what happened the last time I went punting but it was very fun and I did not drop anyone's camera in the water. Though I did give Jacqueline the option of dropping mine.  


Here are some pictures of punting: 

Setting out from Kings

Does it look like I'm concentrating really hard? yeah, that's because I really suck at punting.

Jack, the one punting in this picture always says 'word' after everything. And every time it makes me giggle. 

we ran into our friends in another boat. Rob looks a bit too excited

yup. these are my friends

totally natural looking, right? Emily and I are in separate boats.

The Bridge of Sighs. I made everyone sigh when we passed under it. 

The other cool thing about Friday afternoon is that there was a wedding going on in King's. And it was posh. I'm talking buttlers in red suits with coattails and women in hats and fascinators.

the wedding party was taking pictures on the lawn

yeah...I'm not really that subtle with my stalker pics

Alright so that was Friday night. To summarize: awesome wedding, punting and Hidden Rooms 'Cool Britannia' Party.


Saturday I took another trip down to London (!!)
This trip was provided for by my programme (there are lots of different dates that you choose from so it wasn't everyone) and we took the bus down in the morning. I spent the day with a few friendss. First we got to go on a tour of parliament. PARLIAMENT! 


We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside so just imagine for a moment how awesome it was.

I love  Big Ben

Me, Rob and Jacqueline

Hello World! I am not a tourist....

"Dulce est decorum est" anti-war sign. I took a picture because I had to write an essay last year analyzing a poem with the same name

outside parliament

park next to parliament where we had sandwiches for lunch

oldest part of parliament and the only place we were allowed to take pictures

Me Emily and Jacqueline

everything is so gloriously impractical. Why use two words when "exit" would do?

I'm in love with this country

After this we walked to the British Museum, stopping to take some pictures in Trafalgar Square.

some 12 year old soldiers posted outside the cavalry museum

Trafalgar!

awesome name for a store

we started having some girl talk so Rob went and found a music store.
This might be my favorite picture of the day.
 It really captures him.

We were a bit ambivalent about what to do next but we ended up going to ...now wait a minute where did we go? I think it was Covent Garden. Anyway we got some great cookies there. 

Shout out to Aaron who remembered this cookie place from the last time he was in London.

Outside the tiny little shop

That night we went to see "All's Well that End's Well" at the Globe. And let me say, finally a good Shakespeare experience! The actors were SO good. Before the play starts all the actors come out and talk to the audience. At the begining I was standidng at the side of the stage right up next to it and so a couple different actors came to talk to me. I was complimented on my headband and told that they were excited to have the next week off.

The Globe! It was really tiring to stand the whole time

a bit blurry but its the only picture here that actually has me in it

where we were originally standing. we wanted to lean on the stage but we ended up moving so we could see behind the pillars.

Yuppers. So it was a really great show although I question the santiy of the characters. But I guess that's all of Shakespeare. Sunday I played some croquet in the garden and felt quite British. Monday and Tuesday I had some stressful classes and overwhelming homework for those classes. On Wednesday I took a break and walked to Granchester again for tea. Yesterday was just business as usual, ie homework work sleep homework. So yeah! Now you are all caught up. What a relief right?