It's been so long!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but I've been really busy with my new photography class and trying to enjoy London for the time I have left! I'm leaving a week from today and although I'll be sad to leave the city, I'm excited to get home and relax for a while and then go around the state and see my friends. It's hard being away from everyone and everything you're used to for so long, but it's been really fun!

Let's see...last thing I talked about was Hampton Court, so I'll start with the Sunday after that. Sunday the 17th Wendy, Amber, and I went to Spencer House in the morning, which is a house that Princess Diana's ancestors lived in. It's the only 18th century townhouse left in London, so it's a great place to see how the elite decorated their houses at that time. I have some postcards of the inside, but they wouldn't let us take pictures, sorry!

Monday through Friday I was mostly concentrating on my photography class because we had our first assignment due on Friday and it turned out really well :) On Friday afternoon we tried to visit Temple Church and some of the Temple halls which are associated with the Knights Templar, but everything was closed. We had to settle with just taking some pictures of pretty flowers in the gardens and then sitting on a bench in the rain (that was really relaxing actually). That night we went to Hard Rock Cafe (London's happens to be the first Hard Rock), which was a lot of fun. We got to go into their vault which had many famous musician's guitars and such (Elvis' jacket, John Lennon's jacket, Kurt Cobain's guitar, Miles Davis' trumpet, etc) which was really cool.

On Saturday we went to Cardiff, Wales and got to see Cardiff Castle. It was an interesting tour, but when it was over we weren't sure what else to go do, so we walked along the streets and found a really cheap clothing store. I bought a few things and they were all fairly cheap so they won't last long, but that's expected.

We didn't do much on Sunday and Monday because of homework, but on Tuesday my flatmate, Amy and I went to Les Miserables. I love that musical and it was really amazing to see it in London! On Wednesday the whole International Enrichment group went to Stonehenge and the city of Bath. Stonehenge was cool to see since it's so famous. It's not huge, but to know that it's probably 5000 years old is pretty amazing. Also, the stones come from quarries that are pretty far away and the stones are incredibly heavy...Stonehenge was definitely a labor of love. Bath was interesting because it was a Roman city that the English built over and they uncovered a Roman spa around the 18th or 19th century. The bath is the only natural hot spring in Britain and the water is probably 6000 years old or so. It was interesting to see all the structures that actual Romans used thousands of years ago!

Now it's time for pictures!

Pretty pictures from the gardens around Temple Church...that applies to the next few photos too




Miles Davis' trumpet...SO cool!

John Lennon's jacket


Cardiff Castle
the Norman fortress next to Cardiff Castle...I walked up a bunch of stairs to the top of the tower!

Mama and baby peacock in the Cardiff Castle courtyard

Stonehenge...obviously

I started having fun with my photos of Stonehenge

It's like dominoes!

It was really windy and this was the best I could do taking a picture of myself

The Roman bath

This is actually a picture from Ireland, but I didn't get it from my friend until recently. Amber's the one in the middle and Wendy's on the right of the photo.

Hampton Court Palace

Today Amber, Wendy, and I went to Hampton Court Palace, which I think is the biggest palace I've ever been to. It was huge and it took pretty much the entire day to see everything we wanted to see! Hampton Court Palace's residents included: Henry VIII and his various wives, William III (his wife, Mary was going to live here also but died before her apartments were finished), George II and his wife Caroline, and others (those were the main ones). We got to see all these people's rooms and the kitchen set up as it was in Tudor times. It was a really interesting tour, and I would definitely suggest it if you're around London one day (it's about a 20-30 minute train ride). There were beautiful gardens outside and even a hedge maze (we got lost for a while, it was very amusing!).

Here are a few pictures so you can get a feel for the grandure of the palace!

Hampton Court Palace (I was very impressed at how good the Union Jack looked in this picture!)

The back or side of Hampton Court Palace and one of the fountains (there was a mama duck with little baby ducks on the side of the fountain...adorable!)

Okay, this kind of looks like a postcard, but I swear I took this picture...it was really that pretty (and the sky was extremely blue for being rainy all day)

A "secret" garden :)

The hedge maze (we figured out there wasn't really an exit - they labeled the actual exit "fast track exit" or something like that so we figured there was another one, but after walking around for a while we reached the entrance and asked the workers who said that was the only exit other than the entrance...tricky!)

Pretty yellow roses in one of the palace's gardens

Roses on the brick wall

Yellow lilies (?)...I don't really know flowers, but I like these if that means anything

The tunnel of greenery...I don't remember the official name for it

Me in the hedge maze!

My Trip to Ireland!

On Monday I had my last day of class for Session 1 and we didn't have anything we had to go to until Friday, so Amber, Wendy, and I had planned a trip to Ireland. We got on a plane at 3:30 on Monday afternoon and then got into Dublin around 5. We made our way to our hostel and then ate at Hard Rock Cafe and just relaxed in the hostel the rest of the night because we were so tired.

Tuesday we got up fairly early so we could catch a 9:00 tour bus to Glendalough. We got to see lots of gorgeous countryside and then went to Glendalough. In the 6th century, this is where a monk, known today as St. Kevin, set up a church and brought Christianity to the area. He wanted to be a hermit, so he settled in a cave near the intersection of two lakes, but people would come to his church from all around to grow stronger in their faith. There were ruins of his small church and then the basic structure of a cathedral/church built later called St. Peter and St. Paul's Cathedral. The coolest thing in my opinion was the Round Tower, which was a tall tower that could be seen from all over the area and signaled to people that this was somewhere they could go to practice the Christian faith. Also, there was a building called St. Kevin's Kitchen and I don't remember exactly what it was for, but apparently the acoustics are such that if a few people sing inside, it could be heard in the village nearby.

On Wednesday we got up kind of early again so that we could get on a bus that took us all over Dublin. It's a pretty good concept: the buses run the same route the whole day (about 20 stops) and about every 10-15 minutes a bus will be at whatever stop you are at. We went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Kilmainham Goal (a jail where the leaders for Ireland's independece were held and killed), Christ Church Cathedral (Ireland's national church), Trinity College, and I think we saw a few more things, but I can't remember what right now.

Thursday we hadn't really planned anything for us to do, so we decided to get train tickets to Waterford and went on a tour of the Waterford Crystal factory. The crystal that they make is GORGEOUS! The process was really interesting to see and I understand why the crystal is so expensive now. Every piece of crystal goes through many different hands to become a beautiful work of art. The people that work in the factory have to go to school for up to 12 years to learn how to do everything it takes to make the pieces for Waterford Crystal. We met one man who had worked for 30 years in Waterford Crystal and has worked on trophies for some of the world's biggest sporting events and believe me, it's not an easy job! It was a really cool experience and I ended up buying a few things there (which of course wasn't very cheap), but I didn't go overboard and it's a very good quality product.

We left on Thursday night and got back very late. I slept for about 11 hours the next day because I had lost so much sleep. We had some terrible hostel-mates who came in incredibly late (around 5 AM one night) and then proceeded to talk to each other in normal/loud voices and when we asked them to be quiet they told us that they were enjoying Dublin and pretty much insulted us for going to bed at a normal time. Let's just say that there was a lot of drama in that room and I am SO glad to be back in my flat.

Well, here are a few pictures and I can show you all more once I get back to the States!

This is Dublin Bay (I think)

Lough Tay (pronouced Lock Tay)...Braveheart was filmed here apparently and the Guinness family owns the property

Some hills...I really can't tell you anything more than that

Round Tower and St. Kevin's Kitchen

Upper Lake at Glendalough


Inside of St. Patrick's Cathedral

Outside of St. Patrick's

Kilmainham Goal

The big room full of cells in Kilmainham Goal (I don't remember what the room's called)

Christ Church Cathedral

A typical Georgian door in Dublin

putting a handle on a pitcher at Waterford Crystal

A man blowing glass into a mold


One of Waterford's creations: a PGA trophy

Tower of London and Tower Bridge

On Sunday Amber, Wendy, and I went to the Tower of London and got to go up inside Tower Bridge. It was a fun day and I took a TON of pictures, but I'll only put a few up here so you don't have to wait an eternity for all of them to load.

I was really glad that I had read Richard III in my Shakespeare class before I went to the Tower of London because some of the stuff that happened in the Tower of London was in the play so it made the history a little more relevant to me. I got to see the Crown Jewels, which was really cool because they're just so extravagant and beautiful! After the Tower of London we went over the Tower Bridge and then we went up inside it. The only neat thing about going up was the view, but walking across was really neat because after we got about halfway across the bridge, we were stopped because the road needed to separate so a big boat could go through. I guess I had realized that the Tower Bridge could do that, so I was surprised and it was fun to see the road pretty much break in two.

It was a fun day, and I got to take pictures of some buildings I really like in London, City Hall and the Gherkin, both of which are almost completely glass and interesting shapes.
The Tower of London...well, part of it at least...


The White Tower, which was the main building of the Tower of London

The obligatory tourist shot in front of Tower Bridge

City Hall...it's so cool!

Tower Bridge through the trees

Oh no, the bridge has broken in two!

The Tower of London and the Gherkin (and other buildings too)

The bridge separating for a very annoying tourist boat.

A Saturday at Brighton

Yesterday Wendy, Amber, and I went to Brighton and got to see the beach and go to an amusement park. It was so much fun! It was nice to just be able to sit on the beach looking for seashells and cool rocks and go to the amusement park, play arcade games and go on rides without worrying about trying to learn something or needing to be somewhere else and having to budget our time. It was a day without responsibility for the most part and that was a needed break!

Today we're going to Tower of London and Tower Bridge and when I get back to the flat I have to write my last paper for Shakespeare and work on finishing The Tempest. Tomorrow I leave for Ireland pretty much right after class and then I'll be back Thursday night, so I won't be updating for a while! Have a great week everyone!

Brighton Beach from the Pier

The ocean and rocky beach

The ocean with rocks in the foreground

The amusement park we went to!

And here are some photos from the Globe last week!


The stage for Othello

The gallery seats of the Globe