laura love

the end.

2008-05-04T15:28:00.001-04:00

well i'm home now, so that's the end of that!

ja! nein!

2008-04-24T10:35:00.002-04:00

hallo from berlin! i am here in deutscheland... it is grand.

so on sunday gabi and i had our 7 hour bus ride home from cumbria to central london. lets just say that a. some english accents, particularly out of the mouths of 15 yr olds, sound like words being put through a garbage disposal, and b. 15 year olds should not have babies, because they do not know how to make them stop crying. needless to say, we made it, and found a hostel, and fell into it, and went to bed. the next day we did gabrielles passport business, the national gallery and the british museum, then made our way to gatwick and caught our flight to berlin.

once in berlin, at around 1030 at night, we realized we had no idea how to get to our hostel. a 2 hour train ride later, we are walking down the street to find our hostel, which is all dark and closed up, in this sketch apartment... sooo... we walked through an open door, climbed a flight of dark stairs, pushed another door open and sat on a couch until morning. a little scary. well, a lot scary. it wasnt too bad until polish men started coming in and out around 5. oh dear. in the morning we found the owner and it all got sorted, and she was so sorry, because she thought we werent coming... it was just a bad situation. we slept for a while that morning.

after that harrowing experience, berlin has been amazing! weve had tshirt weather since monday even. weve been to sachenhausen concentration camp, the berlin wall, old gestapo headquarters, brandenburg gate, the holocaust memorial, berlin cathedral and much more. today we rented bikes for 7 euro and biked all around, and then went to the berlin zoo! weve also been walking so many miles i think my feet are going to go on strike.

tommorow we are headed on an overpriced bus to munich (8 hours... oh crap.. hope there are no babies) where we will soak in the sights and vist dachau, another concentration camp.

i think im learning more than just directional skills on this trip. like how to survive. except seeing what im seeing sort of puts things in perspective.

gesundheit!

old man coniston

2008-04-19T04:29:00.003-04:00

hellooo from the lake district (otherwise known as cumbria)! we are currently in coniston, home of john ruskin, donald campbell - the guy who died in the attempt to break his own water-speed record - and old-man coniston, a big mountain.

sooooo my program is over. last saturday night we had a farewell dinner/speeches/dance in the church, all of which were amazing. we had a great time together, even though we knew in 2 days we had to leave. sunday was packing and watching across the universe with bee, beth, alisha and gabi, then a last gathering at sharon and jodi's. in the morning lee drove me down to the bus and then we all had to say goodbye. now, i'm not talking an ordinary, "i'm so sad", kind of goodbye. this was more like heartbreak. i've never seen anything like it. terrible. but we decided it's not the end, because we all have cars etc., so why should it be? anyways... yeah. i'm going to miss charlbury and everyone who was there with me.

so we took the coach to heathrow, where gabi and i ran to catch the tube and made it to our 11am bus in central london about 1101, and the driver was about to leave.... anyways we were thankful that God is good to us. after a looooong bus trip up to kendal we walked around and got to our first hostel!

this whole week in the lake district has been nothing but AWE-INSPIRING. i've never seen anything so beautiful. it reminds me of up-north in ontario, like muskoka, except about 3000 times better. you look up and see mountains, you look down and see lakes. gabi and i have set new walking/hiking records for ourselves. we went on this 6 mile hike around grasmere and decided to climb this mountain in the middle of it (with many breaks on the way up). it was a "the hillllls are aliiiiiive" and chariots of fire moment. incredible. between walking and hiking we've seen some great stuff too, like dove cottage (william wordsworth's home) and castles and galleries and so much more.

we've also fallen in love with lambs. everywhere you look there are lambs (it's spring!) we never get tired of them.

so this morning we are off to hawkshead, where we will have our fill of beatrix potter related entertainment/learning, and then back to kendal, where we will catch our bus back to london tommorow and then spend the night, and then fly to berlin! berlin should be... tremendous. but a bit scary. we found this way to munich where you hop in someone's car for 25 euro and they drive really fast...... yeah. alright!!!!

so off on our journeys we go. it's been so great so far, i'm hoping there are no glitches.

oh and for you beatrix potter fans, we found peter rabbit. no, actually. in windermere we went on a hike and a baby bunny was right there and i picked it up and cuddled it and everything. needless to say, that made our trip.

pip pip!

p.s. i'm so excited to see everyone in less than TWO WEEKS!
p.p.s. robyn and jacq, i will both walk and rollerblade, as long as one of you goes on a hike with me.

approaching the finish line

2008-04-12T06:53:00.004-04:00

today is a good day.

i woke up at 10, having been wasted with tiredness from finishing 3 assignments and 2 papers in the past few days, and opened my curtains to a bright, sunny day. then i went down for breakfast and found a package on a plate with my breakfast laid out, and it was for me! (thanks rob!)

anyways after that excitement ( i actually jumped up and down) i went up and starting a bit more packing. packing makes me sad, except i tried to ignore the packing for home and just focused on the more minor packing for my two weeks of travelling.

in travelling news, i have officially booked and planned my trip with gabrielle. we are going to the lake district (home of william wordsworth and beatrix potter) for a week to do some hiking, nature-loving, sight-seeing and relaxing. i am terribly excited. i am going to sit by a lake and read poetry. and then lie in a field and do the same. then i will fill myself with allergy pills, having inhaled too much nature.

week two we are headed to germany. this will be the more scheduled and historically-oriented trip. we are going to both berlin and munich, and taking some bus trips outside the cities, and we're planning to see some concentration camps and WWII history stuff.

so that's terribly exciting. now that i'm done all my work i can focus a bit more on planning the next two days. tonight we are having our last dinner/party with the group, which should be bittersweet but fun. i'm looking forward to it, anyways.

three months FLIES!

oh, and on thursday lee took jodi, sharon and i to windsor castle. AMAAAAAAZING!

numbers

2008-04-09T06:47:00.004-04:00

zero - days left in oxford, ambition to do work
one - hour until lunchtime
two - papers left to write, pounds in my wallet
three - girls in the library with me, days until our final dinner farewell party, assignments done
four - days until my last night at lee's, granola bars left
five - days until i leave for the lake district and then germany
six - yogourts in my fridge

twenty-one - days until i'm flying home.

nineteen-eighties

2008-03-31T05:46:00.003-04:00

speeding up while winding down

2008-03-29T09:44:00.003-04:00

i only have a few weeks left in charlbury, and i am sad. i miss home, yes, but i love it here. i've never been anywhere like charlbury, and i don't think i'll ever live in a place quite like this again.

i love walking down my road in the morning to the train and seeing hills go for miles and miles in the distance with the sun coming up from the other side. i love going to the co-op and getting yogourt. i love waking up and having tea and toast while i watch bbc breakfast with lee. i love sitting on the train and looking out at the countryside while i eavesdrop on other people's conversations. i love having peanut butter toast at sharon and jodi's. i love when our group breaks into random songs from movies such as high school musical. i love having parties and playing cranium, boggle, would you rather and mafia with this fantastic group of people.

but i also love home. so i'm glad that home-time is coming soon. i miss my mom's cookies.

it's a good thing i've been keeping busy these past few weeks, otherwise i might have been missing home or dreading the end of the program more. we've been to stourhead (look it up.. it's amazing), stonehenge and bath this past weekend. we went to see a modern production of measure for measure which had us raving. thursday we surprised ree with a party for her 22nd birthday. yesterday we went to broughton castle (where they filmed shakespeare in love) and had tea with a vicar's wife, and then watched shakespeare in love at my house and had a picture swapping party. tonight we're going 80s bowling for peter's birthday. my outfit is fantastic. be excited for pictures!

anyways, today i have to plan my trip for the two weeks after my program is done. i'm thinking up to scotland and taking 2 weeks to go down, but i haven't decided yet. i'm nervous. it would be easier to stay in charlbury and bum around, but much more exciting to see some more new things! eeeeee!

evolution, as captured by sharon and alisha

2008-03-18T17:45:00.016-04:00

warwick castle... first impression. mine was quite good.

inside warwick. this was ridiculous.

waiting for the train after cloudcuckooland. very tired.

more waiting... i keep looking through my pictures alot here.

parliament in london.. my dad was here but you can't see him.

boggle tourny. i won.

password. the new version.

st. patrick's day. hilarious.

ticking

2008-03-16T15:13:00.005-04:00

sometimes i wonder how time works. why is it that when you are having fun, time whizzes past you like nothing else, but when you are doing something annoying, it stands still and the clock face laughs in your face? anyways, the point of this is that my time in charlbury is slowly winding down, but instead of feeling this slow winding i feel like it's going like the wind (without elizabeth taylor). i'm excited about the upcoming 4 weeks though. we have lots of excitement behind ourselves and much more to come. this week is a case in point. after a brief affair with the glamour of acting and hollywood (our play... and we watched she's the man), this week has been a return to normalcy here in charlbury as we went back to oxford and had our classes once again. thank goodness for quality professors/lecturers/tutors or whatever we should call them over here. it's been a good week with good plays and good learning. good.

however, there has been much to do besides learning, and oh boy, have i done it all! i feel like i've been excited for everything we have done all week. time for a list.

purchases:
£15 oxford hoodie, £5 hat from a thrift store, £6 shirt from primark, and £1 cheesburger from mcdonalds. the list is actually longer if you include regular groceries. i haven't really done any shopping thus far so i don't think that's all that bad.

plays:
as you like it, a student production, which was . . . adequate. but that day included more chocolate than is humanly possible, so it made for a good day.
guards, guards!, a CADS dramatic production, which made us canadian students burst out laughing and the more subdued english chuckle.

sports and sports related activities:
(now, i am far from the sporty type, so this is actually a big deal)
-morning walks with sharon and one time with gabrielle. having walked all over rome and florence, i feel the lack of exercise now that i'm back in charlbury.
- soccer and then soccer baseball and then playground time in the rain. always great fun. always dirty. always injuries.

weekend fun:
friday- wine time at sharon's, then a boggle tournament/movie night/bonding time with everyone except tim and beth. they are in dublin. for st. patty's day. luckyyyyy. then jodi slept over
saturday- breakfast time with jodi, then soccer on the field, then i am sam with bethany, jodi, mark, gabi, alisha, ree and me at my house, then a wonderful breakfast dinner at jodi's, then pub time with ree and jodi. solid.
today- church time, chili and doughnut time with jodi, then cleaning and party-setting up, then reading and sleeping.

the best food week of my life:
chocolate, cheeseburgers, fries, sundaes, bacon, sausage, pancakes, doughnuts, hashbrowns, yogourt mousse, hot chocolate with whipped cream, fish and chips, curry, pizza, veggie tray, fruit tray, nutella toast, chili on rice, babybel, etc. etc. needless to say, it's a good thing that i chose this week to do some exercise.

so that is a bit of what fun it is here. oh joy. and tommorow, we are having a st. patty's day party, complete with poem reading, storytelling, irish games, and most importantly, a reading of the history of our beloved st. patrick, patron saint of green. i'm pumped.

and this weekend, we are going away to stourhead, where i will stand on the same place that darcy and elizabeth are during the ever-so-romantic rain scene in keira knightley's version of pride and prejudice.

oh. yes.

comfortable

2008-03-09T14:51:00.003-04:00

this week has been happy.

for our drama production, i played viola in twelfth night and katherine in love's labour lost. now, i am not an actress, save for a few elementary school productions and mary in vineland mb's christmas production a few years ago. needless to say, performing in front of any audience is intimidating.. but one filled with british people is scarier, maybe because i have this presupposition that because shakespeare is english, everybody loves his work. kind of like margaret atwood. except not. anyways, i had to learn my lines and parts in fourish days. i was doing alright until we did a run-through without a script in hand.. and i blanked on everything. i started disliking this assignment, resulting in a break-down in front of poor marion, mad's assistant and co-director extraordinaire of the production. needless to say, once i got my frustration sorted out with a good eleven hour sleep, i was back at it, and i ended up doing a pretty good job. i shone like the dramatic diamond in the rough that i am, including a breakdown into laughter in the concluding song of our performance which went down the line until the whole group was practically in tears (it was ree's fault.. she started it).

so that went well. but basically, i was stuck between the extremes of loving the play and hating the play, having made it over hurdles and then glorying in my orange and brown pant and jacket outfit for viola (really, it was quite the outfit). my outfit for katherine looked similar to a cream and blue choir robe, but it was definitely prettier than my boy costume (robyn, you'd have loved it). after our performance we cleaned up the church and got our costumes sorted out, and then had pizza and wine and laughed at ourselves for a while, the adrenaline of the night still high. except for me. i thought i was going to die of tiredness. nevertheless, everyone came to my house for some popcorn, tea and step up, which i somehow made it through until around 2 when the movie ended and i collapsed into bed.

saturday was how i like to enjoy life. we woke up early and went to the farmer's market in the playing close in the centre of town, and i got some goat's cheese cheesecake and real apple juice, which were stupendous.after a few minutes of getting our costumes back to where they belonged, sharon, jodi and i spent the afternoon watching a movie, having breakfast for lunch (sausages, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, peanut butter on toast and a stella... delicious), doing some work with courses at the church and then watching pride and prejudice with gabrielle, heather and bethany. until i fell asleep and then went home to bed.

speaking of courses, i've been humming and hawing about my honours english major and history double major. right now i'm not loving my degree, but i decided (with a few nudges in the right direction) to stick with my choices for now, to keep my options open. i'm hoping that food is in my future right now though..

today was church, lunch at wonderful couple from the anglican church's house, rosemary and david booth, and now updating my blog and then reading some plays for tommorow.

i feel accomplished, and yet.. a little tired, cold, and maybe a little hungry?

back in charlbury

2008-03-03T08:20:00.004-05:00

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

it is good to be back in what is familiar and english. however, italy was FANTASTIC! aside from some stumbling blocks and hostels that shunned us, friendly italians and unexpected expenses, it was definetly the trip of a lifetime. rebecca and i didn't even hate eachother at the end of it!

continuing from my last blog, we spent three days in glorious florence, a slower paced but beautifully atmosphered place that captured our hearts on the first day. rome was exciting and fast-paced, but in florence we took it easy. we walked the streets, climbed hills, ate gelato, viewed michelangelo's david, slept in our own loft in our hostel, had beer in a cafe, ate pasta and pizza near the river.... it was wonderful. we took a day trip to pisa, which is famous for its tower... and that's about it. it was kind of lame, but we couldn't stop laughing about it. back in rome, we visited places we had already seen and loved, and found new places to explore, and wandered through the roman forum, the place where, in its hayday, everything happened. the best part was finding the prison in which peter and paul were thrown into.... it was a strange feeling.

we met so many people and spent hours or afternoons travelling around rome with them. we met some guys on the spanish steps who told us about the history of what we were seeing and sang songs into the night as we ate gelato until the cows came home. they made us promise to come back to rome, so i threw a coin into the trevi to make sure.

there are many things that happened, and i wish i could relate them all... but i think most of them are only special for rebecca and me. in other words, to know how great rome and florence are... you should go.

our trip home included walk, bus, bus, plane, bus, bus, metro, bus, train and walk. it was 12 hours of this. we were exhausted. it was insane. but we made it home.

however, in london, we saw something which resulted in a conversation lasting until oxford, a trip that took us 5 hours and should have taken less than 2. one road was blocked off, resulting in the move from bus to metro, and we soon realized why. about a thousand muslims were marching to protest the death of a descendant of mohammed.... filling the street, beating their chests, flogging themselves with chains and chanting.... it was hard to watch and we all got a little emotional... especially seeing young children following the actions of their elders and beating themselves before they could understand why. it made us think about what this world is becoming, how apathetic christians can be, and what we are heading into in the future..

anyways, after this action packed week (including probably about 70 hours of intense walking...), our group is performing a play on friday, and have a week to memorize several lines, make props and sets and give a performance to a crowd of 50..

i need a vacation after my vacation.

when in rome

2008-02-25T01:39:00.003-05:00

i never knew the real joys of travelling until i came to england this past semester. so far, it's been a blast! a few bumps along the way, but for the most part, i'm having the time of my life. this said from a hostel in the heart of rome.

so much has happened in the last few days, having travelled from charlbury to london to rome. so i'll give a brief recap of some of the more interesting bits

thursday
-playing gin and cheat on the train to london while the man beside us tried to get his morning nap
-sitting in parliament at the house of commons while some members of government talked about the unlawful investigation of a government man for terrorism
-going on the london eye and then to the tower of london with my dad while he was here
-dinner at a french bistro in the heart of london, then a post-modern play that should have been thrown into the garbage and then burned
-staying the night at the ISH

friday
-crappy eggs and good pastries at the ISH
-tubing it to the globe theatre, well, the reconstructed version in a new spot. still amazing
-walking the streets with sharon, jodi, heather and ree to see london bridge - still standing - and tower bridge, plus a cathedral or two and ship called the Hinde, then spending what seemed like the whole day travelling on the tube
-going to westminster abbey only to find out tourist hours had ended, but then finding out the evensong was RIGHT NOW and that we could go for free - best part of my trip so far
-st. paul's cathedral at night with the bell chiming eight
-buckingham palace where we lay on the steps out front and thought about the queen, then ree dreamed that james was a cloud...
-collapsing after walking for 12 hours at mcdonalds where we have never enjoyed bigmacs as much
-seeing jodi and sharon off to edinburough and feeling so sad about not seeing them for a week
-taking the "easybus" for 2 pounds and entertaining our 10 year seasoned driver
-making a fort on the floor of the london luton airport and sleeping with gabi and megan until we could check in
-realizing that the lady from ryanair i talked to was apparently on crack because i could NOT take my purse on for free and that in fact i had to pay 12 pounds to check my bag.... not cool
-getting the full "are you sure you're not carrying a weapon" search from a very unfunny female security guard at the airport while the 3 girls laughed at my very unamused face
-boarding our nofrills aircraft only to find out that it was pretty much a bright blue and yellow windup plane... but it got us there!

saturday
-being woken up by rebecca to see the alps below
-taking the bus then tube to the rome termini station then finding our hostel, hostel eden, where we had to pray a little because of the sketchiness
-taking the 15 euro tour bus around rome to get our bearings, using our 2 day unlimited ticket the same day and doing it again, but this time checking out roman life instead of roman sights
-tomato and cheese sandwiches from the supermarket, where we didn't know you have to a. weigh one tomato and b. pay for a bag. oh well
-having a pigeon poop on my arm and then having a fit... and then making ree wipe it off
-the Santa Maria basilica.. forget england.. italians know where it's at!
-passing out in our sketchy hostel before 8 and waking up at 8 the next day, refreshed

sunday
-having our packaged croissant breakfast at our sketchy hostel, then taking some in our bags for snacks, and then wrestling with an ill-informed cleaning man about getting our 10 euro key deposit back.. which we did
-exploring on foot to find our second hostel, only for ree to realize that 157 was in fact a mini mart, only for me to realize that the number was 159 and ciao bella was two doors down
-finding some unbelievable sights, museums and churches on our way to our bus stop
-taking our tour bus for the third time to the colosseum and palatine, exploring, then having a picnic lunch on the grass in front of the colosseum with the pigeons
-hopping back on the bus to the vatican, where we saw the apostle peter's tomb, michelangelo's pieta and some of the most beautiful art i have EVER seen.. and then somehow missing the sistine chapel, and the pope speaking at lunch. we missed that too. oh well, there is always today!
-walking all the way from the vatican across the city along the tiber, amongst endless great value in REAL dolce and gabbana and REAL dior sunglasses.. it was hard to resist
-watching a crazy woman scream periodically then attack a female tourist
-meeting a nice american girl and then going out for pizza and pasta with her
-getting a strawberry and wildberry gelato then sitting on the spanish steps while italian men seranaded us all night, and then meeting some crazy indonesians who are going to add us to facebook... hilarious
-happily making our way back to our safe and secure home, ciao bella

so for now, the places we have seen remain somewhat of a mystery... we've seen so many famous things in so little time. but pictures will come so i can prove it. for now, pray for us as we find hostel number three and then plan our journey to florence and beyond.

ciao!

happiness

2008-02-20T16:14:00.002-05:00

tommorow morning i am taking the 9:38 train to london, seeing the parliament buildings, going on the london eye and possibly the tower of london, then seeing a play. then i'm staying at the ish, international student hostel, with the whole group.

friday i am going to the globe theatre, kicking it up in london for the afternoon and finding my way with ree to luton airport via easybus.

06:30 on saturday, i'm flying to rome.

arrivederci!

procrastination

2008-02-18T09:06:00.007-05:00

i'm supposed to be finishing my paper right now. instead i'm uploading pictures and emailing others, as well as writing this blog. oh well.

what has been exciting the past few days? well, my DAD is here! he has come to charlbury the last few years with this program and decided to come again this year. i was very excited to see him (as well as the delicious things and clothes sent by my mom and sister of course). he came thursday and is staying with marion and andrew, and they nicely invited me over for dinner to catch up with him. then we had our valentines day party! we decorated the church with streamers, candles, red and white balloons and tables covered in red cloths and had a mini bar and cinnamon hearts. we all read poetry, sang songs or told stories about love, or lack of love, and members of the community joined us as well. it made for some good times.

friday we had our first exam in shakespeare. yikes. it wasn't so bad, actually. afterwards ree and i made happiness brownies and we had brownie sundaes with our study group. i think brownies can make pretty much anything better. after staying up too late and falling asleep on my bed with my books i decided to just let the exam happen. luckily it turns out i absorb well, because my exam wasn't horrible at all. saturday afternoon my dad took about half of us on a lewis and tolkien walking tour of oxford, and we got to see places they lived, worked and studied. it was really neat to walk the path where c.s. lewis changed his mind about becoming an atheist and turned back to God after a long time rejecting Him. anyways, after that, we went to the lamb and flag for a cup of tea and some warmth, then went to see a play called cloudcuckooland, an adaptation of aristophanes' the birds. it was a children's production but the whole group was practically rolling in the aisles we were laughing so hard. it was hilarious. high-spirited, the 18 of us invaded a pizzeria and spent the night laughing and eating.

a few of us decided to be martyrs and take the train while the others got rides home in cars. we sat and talked about hopes and dreams and passions while we waited about an hour for the last train home, and i discovered that earl grey is much better than it sounds. usually i drink english breakfast or orange pekoe. actually i have started drinking tea by the bucketload, as opposed to the occasional cup at home. enough about tea. we were all a little sad about having to walk up hill a long ways in the bitter cold home, and then, lo and behold, there was our saviour marion waving from her car! it was the most wonderful thing i'd ever seen. needless to say, our group of weary travellers were excited.

yesterday i went to church in the morning with my dad, had some of the 18 pounds of tuna pasta salad i for some reason made, and then went to blenheim with my dad and marion and andrew to walk the grounds and see the gardens. it was a wonderful day. although at the end of it, i think my legs had enough from the past few days for quite a while. last night, after a shower and a power nap, rebecca and i booked hostels for the first two nights, and i found a 3-day itinerary we are going to loosely follow. i also found lists of the best things to do for free, as well as days you can visit museums for free. it turns out that the last sunday of the month is free to visit the vatican museums! bonus! i also made a list of things in roman holiday i have to do, like sticking my hand in the mouth of truth and eating a gelato on the spanish steps. i may also become a princess and run away with gregory peck, and then have champagne in the morning at a road-side cafe. ahhh. but seriously, i'm so excited for this trip!

and today i'm supposed to be working. oh well. i have three days.

famous last words.

fancy pants and very old rocks

2008-02-11T05:32:00.000-05:00

WELL. it's monday! it's funny that i have yet to dread a monday in england. it seems so much better over here. that and we don't have anything til noon. woowoo.

so this weekend was a very exciting one! friday after class all day was formal hall at regent's park college. heather, sharon, jodi and i got all dressed up and took the train to oxford, where we walked all prettily to the college, heather lamenting the fact that she didn't bring sensible shoes for the walk (which i did, trying to make my mom proud). the student body of regents were all dressed up wearing this strange black thing over top which goes with their formal dress, and we all went in and stood behind our chairs in the long dining hall until the faculty and lecturers filed in to the head table. i felt like i was in hogwarts actually. dinner was a seafood salad (oysters, prawns and scallops in lettuce), prawn crackers (chinese food staple over here), beef stir fry with rice and bean sprouts, and sorbet for dessert (which i did not eat because of lent). afterwards we went up to the junior common room, a place for undergrads to hang out and have cheap drinks at the bar there. after a pint heather and jodi got a ride back with peter and sharon and i took the train. later on we had a pajama party with some more girls and tim and watched notorious on lee's tv. apparently not many people are as cultured as i have been privileged to be growing up, but we all enjoyed it nonetheless.

saturday was a planned day trip into stratford, home of shakespeare and his wife, anne hathaway. we went to see her cottage, his birthplace, his large home "new place", his daughter's home and the place where he and his family were buried at holy trinity church. it was very interesting to see all of this in person, and to think that one of the greatest playwright's walked where i was walking.. too bad my camera battery died before this point. photo credit goes to sharon.
afterwards we went to see a stone circle, kind of like stonehenge but a lot smaller, and not a major tourist attraction. it was really neat though. apparently you can try all you want but never get the same number of stones. the legend is that the stones are actually a king and his army who were turned into stone by a witch. there's a lot more too it, obviously, but i have a terrible memory.
yesterday, sunday, i went to the baptist church's morning service where i was commissioned to read a verse, psalm 19:1-4, as the sermon was on the lord's prayer and heaven. very interesting. i spent the day cleaning my room and doing laundry and getting lots of homework done. so overall, it was a well spent weekend. oh wait! last night i went to evensong at christ church catherdral in oxford. i've never been to a service that was so beautiful before. it was definetly a great experience.

and there are many more to come.... it's less than 2 weeks until i go to rome!

now it's time to finish volpone and then use sparknotes to figure out what happened.

see you anon!

crazy week

2008-02-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

hmmmm well, i noticed i hadn't updated in a few days so i thought i would write some of the events that have been going on. starting..... last sunday! after a long day at warwick on saturday i was very tired on sunday, so i spent the day reading and planning my reading break adventure with rebecca. we booked our tickets to rome!! we got them at a really great price, except we have to get to a sketchy sounding airport on the outskirts of london... and we aren't checking any luggage because it costs 18 pounds extra. so one pair of clothes and a toothbrush may be all i have! what an adventure. i'm really looking forward to that!! we decided to watch roman holiday before we leave so we know all the important places to go to. we plan on spending most of the 10 days in rome, but are thinking we might train it up to florence for a few days in the middle. but rome is our main target. yippee! if only i was audrey hepburn though... anyways the rest of sunday... lee invited me and heather for an amazing sunday dinner which consisted of a russian hamburger and noodle dish with salad and warm baguettes, followed by a pavlova (meringue shell, whipped cream and fresh raspberries) which was to die for. i have the best host in the world.

anyways, monday and tuesday were fairly ordinary days for us, having our regular classes and lunch at both the methodist church and in regent's park college. yesterday, wednesday, was also a full yet good day. we had four hours of class and lunch at the college (this amazing leek, potato and bacon dish with green beans on the side... ooo baby). then i went to the bodleian libary to research for one of my essays. the bodleian is NOT a lending library, which is kind of annoying, until you realize that they have every book that has been published in britain since the 1800s i think. that makes it all better. sitting in the lower reading room surrounded by shakespeare is kind of fun actually. anyways, after that we all decided to go to the eagle and child, a pub where lewis and tolkien battled it out on philosophical issues and probably talked about talking lions and stuff, and then we went to see a play, a trip to scarborough, at the oxford playhouse. it was kind of post-modern but really good.

today was a normal day, but i'm feeling the strain of the busyness of this week. i'm really glad i can sleep in tommorow, as class isn't until 1045. this is good news.

i gave up dessert and dessert-like objects for lent. only 39 days to go.......

i think i'm beginning to realize why people come to england...

2008-02-02T14:10:00.001-05:00

today is saturday, and another fun-filled week has ended. the past few days have been very exciting! yesterday after class and lunch in charlbury, we had our second play auditions for our final drama production. after that slightly frightening episode, some of the girls and i decided to have a dinner party at jodi and sharon's place. tim joined us later for some girl talk and an attempt at some games, but for the most part we just enjoyed eachother's company at the end of a long week.

afterwards i went home, crawled into bed and watched brokedown palace before i went to sleep. for a movie about travelling that goes terribly wrong, i am still undaunted at the prospect of travelling in reading break. originally i had intended on going to morocco with heather, but plans have changed for the better! (no offence to heather) heather decided to go to prague to see a friend, and ree and i decided we are spending the week in italy, and are booking our flights tonight! i am so excited. we are hoping to go to rome first, then venice, and if we have some time, florence. i can hardly wait. we're hoping to find cheap hostels and save money by buying cheap food and then spend our money on seeing the best of what these cities have to offer. it seems funny being excited about another country when i'm in ENGLAND, but this opportunity is too good to pass up. i don't know if italy can compete with the wonderful green of this country though.

today was another good day. we had a day trip with the whole group, and it turned out to be beautiful weather and a great day overall. we first went to warwick castle (pronounced war-ick, which i was told only after i made a fool of myself), a medieval castle that has housed dukes and other royalty until the end of the 1900s, or so i was told. it was so amazing to be up on the ramparts and look out onto the town of warwick. it's crazy to think that people actually lived their lives where i was running around like a kid in a candy store today.
anyways after warwick castle we went to coventry cathedral, which is one of the most interesting things we've seen yet. the original cathedral was bombed during the second world war, and in the 1950's they rebuilt one right next to it. the ruins were beautiful, and i found the cathedral next to it slightly obnoxious compared to the destruction besides... that and there was an ad for speed dating in the cathedral for christians on valentines day.
after all of this we went back to mad's where we had pound cake and tea and warmed up for a while. it was quite comforting after being in the cold the whole day. after that i went back and chatted with lee and her friend richard for a while, and now i'm at heather's having a picture-sharing and wireless internet stealing party. this is quite the life...

many things

2008-01-29T15:42:00.000-05:00

so today is tuesday, and i am very tired. i think the initial high has worn off of being in england. not that i don't love it, but the reality that my body can only handle so much each day has set in. however, a few nights solid rest should fix that. here's what's been happening the last few days:

sunday

i went to the baptist church morning service,
where the group of people in my program made
up more than half of the congregation. then i went back to my house where lee was preparing a dinner party for mark, sharon and i, along with 3 of her friends. it was very posh, with wine and beer before lunch, which consisted of beef bourbingion, potatoes, carrots, peas, baguettes, tomato goat cheese salad and more wine. to follow was a hungarian apple tart and gourmet cheese and biscuits, followed by more wine. needless to say, i was in culinary heaven. then her friend took me, mark and sharon for a long ride around the countryside in his 1924 automobile, from which we waved like the queen, laughing like crazy the whole time. then we went to sharon and jodi's to read henry iv which was dull, but we felt like we accomplished something.

monday

on monday we had our second co-op lunch at the methodist church, where my group made spaghetti, garlic bread and caesar salad with cookies for dessert. then we had auditions for the play we have to put on which were excrutiatingly painful but hopefully will turn into a lot of fun once we all have our parts and can understand the shakespeare a little more. after that i went home and then went for a late night walk with rebecca all over charlbury and looked at the stars which seem a lot different here than they do at home.

tuesday (today)
today i left my house early to do some errands at the post office and the church, then headed down to the railway station and caught the 9:38 to oxford. we had our shakespeare class then lunch at regent's park college, then had a tour around oxford, went to the bodleian and looked at books that are hundreds of years old, got groceries and stumbled my way home. now i'm using the internet at the baptist church and highly anticipating the bourbon creams i treated myself to today. mmmm i am very excited. i'm also going through chocolate withdrawal as most of the time it seems a waste of money to buy chocolate instead of something important like bread.

anyways that's pretty much all that has been happening. tommorow i have medieval drama and shakespeare, lunch at regent's and then the group is going to stratford to see henry v, which i am very excited for.

oh, just another palace

2008-01-26T15:08:00.000-05:00

ahhh freedom. today is the first day we've had that has been unplanned, and i'm now relaxing at rebecca's stealing her wireless internet.

last night half of the group went into oxford to a formal hall for burn's day at regent's park college, so the other half of us played games and had wine at my house. lee was so super and offered us pizza and some of her own wine. she's such a sweetheart. the rest of the group came after the formal and we attempted to watch a movie. a few of us decided that we would plan a trip into woodstock for today, and 9 of us ended up going!

it was a crazy ride on the double decker bus (which felt like a rollercoaster actually) to woodstock, the home of blenheim palace in which winston churchill grew up. we asked a few locals to show us the secret non-paying way into the grounds and spent the afternoon walking around the most beautiful grounds. we weren't able to go into the palace or see the palace gardens, but only go around the palace itself. still, though, the sight was incredible. after a long day of walking (probably about 4 hours) i'm pretty tired though.

tommorow there is a morning service at the baptist church and then we have the rest of the day off to read some of the plays we need to have read for monday's classes. it should be a good day to catch up with my homework and emails at least.

cheers.

ridiculous

2008-01-22T17:55:00.001-05:00

so the play last night was ridiculous. first of all, being in ACTUAL stratford-upon-avon, rather than fake canada stratford, was amazing in itself. but we saw a play performed by england's best acting group. it was a great experience. richard ii was a real "chuffer", so one of our program leader's told me, which i think means gay...

TODAY: i took the train into oxford again, had a shakespeare class with an oxford graduate who recently got his ph.d, had lunch served to us in the dining hall of regent's park college, walked the streets of oxford, had tea with the principal of regent's, took the train back, had a meeting at the baptist church in charlbury, shopped for dinner, made dinner, read oedipus rex with 6 others, and now i'm back at the baptist church using the internet.

this is the first breath of air i have had in 4 days. we literally have had no time to ourselves since we have arrived, with outrageous amounts of work already, and no end in sight, at least until our first unplanned and unpacked day on saturday. it's really great, though, i'm having too much fun probably, but i'm not sleeping right yet, so it's hard to get through the day without falling asleep these past few days.

i took some pictures of my killer house today so i should be able to load them up tommorow, but for now i'm putting up some random (and far from extraordinary) pictures i've taken so far. but the weather has been somewhat grey, so i will most likely supplement when the sun shines again (it did yesterday for a bit but not today).

anyways for now, i'm still getting used to the crazy people who drive on the wrong side of the road, the endless cups of tea (that i now drink without sugar, only milk), toast for breakfast, sounding like an uncouth monster next to the locals, surviving on few hours of sleep, grey skies, buildings that are hundreds of years old, and somewhat crazy teeth.....

oh and ps. for those of you who have seen love actually, i had a moment on the plane that killed me for about the rest of the trip. you know when natalie's mom first meets the prime minister and says, "hello, david"... well we had a few male flight attendants on the plane, and one of them said to the other as he went up to his cart, "hello, david", in the same voice as natalie's mom. i died.

cheers.

charlbury

2008-01-20T12:22:00.000-05:00

hey everyone,

it's my second day in charlbury, and i already love it here (despite being ridiculously tired). i'll give you a run-through of the last few days.

yesterday we got into heathrow at around 10am here, then changed terminals to meet the rest of our group and then bussed to charlbury, all of us sleeping on the way. we went to the baptist church in charlbury which is very small but very cute, where they fed us lunch. we then went on a short walking tour through bits of the town which is ridiculous (and by ridiculous i mean old and amazing). after this walk we had met with our hosts at the church and had tea with them. my host is an older woman named lee who is very fashionable and also very sweet. her house is amazing, and my room is twice the size of my room at home, which i very much appreciate. i'll post pictures soon. i fell asleep after lee made me dinner around 830 and slept until 830 this morning. we went to the church of st. mary this morning and then the baptist church made us a delicious lunch. i just got back from an incredibly long (but also incredible) walk through the countryside which took us through woods and over fields, but mostly in mud. it has been overcast and it was misty rain for a while today but hasn't poured yet, which is promising, but i'm not hoping for much. tonight we have dinner at madeleine's, our program coordinator, and then afterwards we can do what we want, which probably means bed for me.

so far everyone has been amazing. the program directors, church people and passers-by in charlbury are all so friendly and nice, and (as we seem to stick out like sore thumbs in a town of 3000) all welcome us. tommorow we go to oxford and get a tour, meet some important people, and tommorow night we are off to stratford-upon-avon to see richard ii. which is pretty exciting. some things have been frustrating, though. my voltage adaptor/convertor doesn't work, so i am using my host's computer until madeleine can sort me out a new one. that also means i can't use my battery charger, hair dryer or straightener until then. oh well. there is no wireless in the house i'm staying in so internet won't be that easy. but anyways, a bunch of people just came to visit me so i must go!

love you all.

at the airport

2008-01-18T18:23:00.000-05:00

well, i'm sitting at gate c32 in pearson airport, eating the goldfish crackers my mom gave me and thinking about the next three months. at this point i'm much more excited than i am nervous, despite the somewhat ornery security officer who gave me the evil eye when i took more than 2 seconds to produce my boarding pass. i think she needed to lighten up. i also think that she was jealous of my stash of snacks (i could see it in her eyes as she x-rayed my luggage). despite this unfortunate woman, however, i think i'm finally ready for my trip now.

the other girls i'm flying with (heather, jodi and sharon) have yet to arrive and find me and jump for joy. i think i'm a bit early, as i am one of about 10 people waiting for this flight so far (they are also eyeing my snacks, maybe wishing that they were my friends and that i would share). as my ride was playing a very important hockey game soon after he dropped me off, waiting a bit is alright by me (hockey is very important to me, too).

anyways there is not much to say, as nothing is happening besides lots of announcements and a bit of waiting. however, i'll miss everyone at home (only the people who take the time to read these, clearly, as everyone else only claims to love me) and i hope to talk to some of you soon.

four days

2008-01-14T11:11:00.000-05:00

i'm leaving for england on friday. i am very nervous, but also excited. wish me luck!