Leaving for HostUK

Well I am just about off on another adventure. This time to a town called Abingdon. It is 8 miles outside of Oxford. I am doing my HostUK visit this weekend. I will be staying with a couple, Josephine and Bruce Hunt. It should be fun. I will have computer capabilities, I am sure, so continue to email or facebook if you like. Otherwise, have a good weekend and I will be back on Sunday sometime! (Sorry for the short post but I gotta get going to catch the bus)

Love and miss everyone! See ya!

It's A Great Day To Be Alive

As I have said, the past few days I have just sat around in the computer lab or had class so they were pretty boring. Today was not boring. I had a lot of fun today just walking around two neighborhoods of London. These walks (and most of the walks that I have done and will continue to do) are from the Eyewitness London book I stole, ahem borrowed, from the the common room where I live.

I woke up kind of late and got ready to go. I didn't mention this before and maybe I shouldn't now, it might create a commotion or something but I thought about growing a beard or something. I didn't actually go through with it. I shaved the neck part to see what it looked like. I kind of liked it actually but I wasn't ready for it yet. Some day I will have one though. Anyway, I was kind of on the fence of where to go but I decided to walk around Covent Garden and then Holborn. Both are located west of where I live. They are the areas between Trafalgar Square and St. Paul's Cathedral. They are right next to each other geographically but are worlds apart historically.

I started to walk the well-trodden path along Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James's Park to get to Trafalgar Square but I was slowed down by a couple things. First, there was a parade of soldiers marching with either an insturment or a gun back from Buckingham Palace to another building just a couple blocks away (picture 1). They go to Buckingham for the changing of the guard. I walked alongside them for a little bit. Then I saw that a bunch of flowers were in bloom so I took a couple pictures. One of them,(picture 2) is just absolutely amazing if I do say so myself. I truly love this picture. After those distractions, I made my way to Trafalgar Square and on to Covent Garden.

Covent Garden used to be, well a covent garden for Westminster Abbey to get its vegetables from, then it was London's first square (designed by Inigo Jones), then it was worn out warehouses and streets. Now it is a stylish place to shop and just walk around in. I started off at the Central Market and Piazza. It's a covered mall type thing that has stylish shops and stuff inside (picture 3). Near one end of it is St. Paul's Church. You don't enter on this side though. There were a bunch of people standing around watching a street performer. He balanced stuff on his chin and hand-stand walked over 4 people. It was pretty impressive I must say. I walked into St. Paul's Church by going in the designed back door. Inigio Jones designed it and wanted people to enter from the West which is unorthodox so they made him switch the door around. He still designed the big entrance on the side facing the Piazza, just without a door (picture 4). I walked around some streets with little shops and cafes. My next big stop was Stanford's (picture 5). It was established in 1852 and is the largest map and guide retalier in the world. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Honestly, I could spend a whole day in there if there was better seating (there isn't any, probably for the exact reason I just said). There were TONS and TONS of guide books. I didn't even know where to start. I only spent about a half hour in there. It's too bad I am broke and can't really afford to buy anything.

Next I past St. Martin's Theatre which has the longest running play in the world called The Mousetrap. Near there, is the Seven Dials. It's an intersection that has seven streets converge at it. At the center of it is a column with seven sun dials on the top. Pretty cool. Then I walked on Neal's Street and Neal's Yard which has shops along it. Specialty stores and just clothing stores abound here. I have noticed that there are so a lot of places to shop in London. Notting Hill, Camden Town, High Kensington, Oxford Street, Neal's Yard, the list could go on forever. It's a good thing I don't like it that much and don't have the money for it. Neal's Street is still cool because all the building used to be warehouses and grungy homes which you can still kind of tell but in a good way. There was also an areacalled Thomas Neal's which is a small indoor mall built in a courtyard. I walked to the Royal Opera House next (picture 6). It was rebuilt in the 1850's after a fire. Just about every famous dancer or opera-ist (I don't know what you call them) has performed here. The building is really cool looking and I liked the ballet statue in front of it. From the Opera House I ended my walk of Covent Garden. I walked out to The Strand walked along it just a few blocks to the next neighborhood, Holborn.

Holborn is the traditional home of the legal and journalism sectors. The journalism people left in the 80's but the law is still here. The main body of the law is the Royal Courts of Justice which is where all big civil cases take place (the criminal ones take place at the Old Bailey I believe). Totally neo-gothic building with lots of sharp points and tall windows and such. Just a super imposing thing to look at. From there, I walked along The Strand to the Twinings store. This store has been in operation since 1705. Twinings is a type of tea for those that don't know. It's the tea I drink here. From there, I walked to Temple. I had been here (and the Royal Courts of Justice for that matter) before when Vanessa and I walked along The Strand. It's still really cool. It was built by the Knights Templar in the 13th Century. There are the same stone effygies of the knights inside the church (picture 7). The area around Temple has tons of Law Offices. There was a little square right by the church where I ate lunch (picture 8). Incredibly peaceful and very pretty. While I was eating, I was thinking of all the cool places I have eaten lunch since I got here. It would be fun to make a little collage or just organize my pictures in that way when I get home. I could do a grouping of churches or of my favorite pictures or whatever too. I am getting a little ahead of myself by talking about getting home though.

From there, I walked past the Law Society. I don't know much about the building or what's inside but out in front of it along the railing are a bunch of gold lions. I thought they were really cool looking with the black railing underneath them and the gray building behind. They definitely stood out (picture 9). I continued walking to another area called Lincoln's Inn. This area is one of the best preserved Inn's of Court or so I hear. An Inn of Court is where people study law I think. I don't even really know. All I know is that there were some just amazing flowers there (picture 10) and I really liked the main building of the complex (picture 11). I went to the church but it wasn't open which was too bad. I just meandered around the area and took some more pictures. It was really cloudy but it didn't dampen my mood. I felt much better after seeing the all the flowers and just being outside and walking around.

My last stop was the Sir John Soane's Museum (picture 12). It is three houses in a row that the architect owned. He collected a ton of art through the years and when he died, he said he would turn it all over to the state on one condition. Nothing be moved after he died. The promise was kept and now its the museum. This is probably my favorite museum I have been to so far here in London. I know that that is saying something considering the multitude I have visited but its true. I liked it a lot. There are almost no electric lights in it. There a bunch of sky lights. One of the workers there told me to come back on a sunny day because it is much better. Ins bottom in sculptures or paintings. The Painting Room actually has walls that swing open so that more could be hung out. So amazing. Like I said, I really liked it. Right outside of it is Lincoln's Inn Fields which is now a park but uide the house are tons and tons of art. Some rooms have been left exactly the same way since Soane died in 1830. Others have been covered from top tosed to be a public execution spot. Lots of people died there.

From the museum I made my way back to the flats. I had a little snack and went off to the Royal College of Music. The Orchestra is pretty big and was fantastic (picture 13). The person who conducted the first piece, an avant-garde (meaning completely weird) piece, had just gotten his master's degree. The guy who directed the next two pieces was older and very famous. The second piece was a piano concerto. The guy who played the piano played it completely by heart. Phil said it was one of the toughest pieces of piano music out there and this guy was only 26!!! Holy crap. Lastly, they played The Planets which was just stupendous and awesome and so well done. I talked to Phil before the concert started and he told me that two of his sons live in Vale. One is traveled Central America a lot and is now going to India in this summer. The other has hiked the Appalachian Trail and is planning on hiking the Continental Divide trail. They are my heroes. That is just so cool, seriously.

Today was one of my best days here (which is saying something) I had a ton of fun taking pictures and walking around two interesting and different neighborhoods. The concert was phenomenal. Just a great day to be alive (a Travis Tritt song for those who don't know). I hope you all had a great day too!

Bon soir!

Anthem for Doomed Youth

Well if I thought the past couple days were uneventful, today was the Dark Ages. So I will recount today but also give everyone a little look at all the excitement coming up this month. By the way, the title of this post is the title of a poem by Wilfred Owen, who we talked about today in class.

When I walked into Senior Sem today, Phil called me over and told me that an Indian woman at the grocery store he always goes to asked him to help her two kids (16 and 13) with their English proficiency. He couldn't do it so he asked me if I wanted to do. Of course I said yes. It would involve a couple nights a week and maybe a weekend or two. I would get paid. Sign me up! We'll see what happens but I hope something comes out of it.

In class today, we talked about a bunch of stuff. We discussed the War Poets which were some poets who served for Britain in WWI and wrote anti-war poetry because of it. The most famous of the War Poets was Wilfred Owen. The poetry he wrote holds nothing back and is quite grim and depressing. If you're interested, here's a link to some of his works. It really is worth it to just read one or two of the poems. I suggest Anthem for Doomed Youth because its short and is similar to the rest of his stuff. The most tragic part about the whole thing is that he ended up dying in WWI, just like all the people he wrote about.

We read those War Poet poems because they are featured in a piece of music called The War Requiem by Benjamin Britten. he wrote it for the re-opening of Coventry Cathedral after it was destroyed in WWII. We are visiting the cathedral in a week. Um, lots of connections there to stuff we are doing (British music, morality of war, program excursion, etc.). We are going to listen to that music next week in preparation for our visit. We spent the rest of the class time talking about "englishness" in music. We continued our journey through English music history by learning about the three great English composers of the late 19th and early 20th century, with Holst the biggest among them. Holst wrote The Planets which is very popular among high school marching bands. Park Center performed that music in 1999 I think, maybe 2001. I don't know. At any rate, I had heard it before and am going to hear it again soon. On Thursday we are going to a concert by the Royal College of Music and they are performing The Planets. You should be able to listen to some of the music at this link if you are so inclined. *Phew* That's a lot of connections and a lot of stuff to talk about and get ready for.

After class, I sat around in the computer lab applying for summer jobs and doing more travel research and just catching up on Facebook and emails. I could spend a lifetime doing travel research. Eventually, I will need to stop and do something else with myself but for now, I enjoy it and feel like I need to do it for all the reasons that I think I said before (lots of potential trips coming up). I ate dinner and read and watched tv and generally lazed around. Tough life, I know. That's about it for today.

To fulfill my promise at the beginning, here's a look at some of the uncoming stuff that I know about right now in my life:

March 6 ~ Orchestra Concert
March 7-9 ~ Home Stay near Oxford (more on that tomorrow)
March 12 ~ Theatre: Major Barbara
March 15 ~ Coventry Cathedral and Warwick Castle
March 21 ~ My mom arrives
March 23 ~ Easter
March 26 ~ Theatre: The Importance of Being Ernest
March 30 ~ My mom leaves

Busy, busy. Bye!

Victorian Paradise Now

Today was another day of classes so this is probably going be another kind of boring post for some people. Just giving you fair warning. I actually thought both of my classes were very interesting today, if that counts for anything.

In Islam vs. the West, we spent half the class learning about the Israeli/Arab conflict. Now there is a convoluted and complicated topic. Wow. I know I say this all the time about all of my classes, but man, I did not know one thing about Israel. We talked mostly about recent history (1900 to now). The circumstances of the founding of Israel are very tenuous and I can really see both sides. One of the things that really surprised me was how it is often portrayed that the Israelites are smaller and less powerful than the Arabs in the region and are sort of the David to the Arab's Goliath. It's really the opposite. After years and years of US aid, the Israelites are quite powerful militarily. Hearing about all the refugees and displaced people because of all the violence is very sad. It is a rather bleak future for the whole area still. Israel is blockading Gaza and there are still tons of suicide bombings and such. Really sad. The worst part is that there is so much history and tension, it seems hard to find a good solution. Neither side seems to budge at all. Anyway, that's what we talked about. The second half of the class was spent watching a movie made in 2005 called Paradise Now (movie poster picture 1). It's about two friends from the West Bank who are chosen to be suicide bombers in Israel and their struggle with it. I don't really want to say more about the plot because it was really well done and you should just watch it. It really made me think about what life is like for all the displaced Arabs. I am NOT saying suicide bombings are good and neither is the movie. Actually it basically says the opposite. Just rent it if you can and see for yourself. All the dialogue is in Arabic so hello subtitles. Like I said, very well done and just a good story.

I came back and had some lunch and headed off to the Tate Britain. That is not to be confused with the Tate Modern. There is a group of 4 museums in England all under Tate control. The other two are in Liverpool and St. Ives. Tate Britain is located east of Westminster on the Thames. It houses all the British pieces of art that the Tate controls (obviously). There is a huge range of years, from the beginning of British art to modern stuff that isn't in Tate Modern. We focused on Victorian era paintings for the second class period in a row. We looked at a few paintings that focused on the early Victorian age which had a huge fascination with the Middle Ages and with telling stories in the paintings that have a moral. An example of the "telling stories in the paintings that have a moral" was The Lament for Icarus (picture 2) by Henry Draper. In Greek mythology, Daedalus and his son Icarus lived on Crete. Daedalus made some wings out of wax and feathers. He let Icarus use them to try and get off the island but warned him to not fly too close to the sun. Of course Icarus does and the wings melt and he falls to Earth and dies. In the painting, Icarus's dead body is being lamented by sea nymphs. The classic tale of "always listen to your parents". An example of the "fascination with the Middle Ages" is Claudio and Isabella (picture 3) by William Holman Hunt. Its a story from Shakespeare. Claudio is condemned to death for adultery and his sister, a nun, tries to plead his case to the husband to save Claudio's life. He says he will only do it if she sleeps with him. She goes back to Claudio to tell him that. The painting is this moment and them discussing what should be done. Its a moral dilemma. Victorians like moral dilemmas and talking about them.

The other stuff we looked at about the Victorian era was the late Victorian era. These paintings usually had no people and were not detailed and had no moral stuff. They were art for art's sake. My favorite of these was Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea (picture 4) by James Abbott NcNeill Whistler. It's a painting of the Old Battersea Bridge at night. I just like how hazy everything is and how it seems like a fairytale sort of even though it was a kind of grungy area at the time. I just think its very pretty. Reminds me a lot of the Impressionists who were painting in France at the same time. We are going to the National Gallery, yet again, to talk about the Impressionists next week.

After Art History, I came back and hung out (i.e. reading stuff online and books, eating, napping for just a little bit, etc.). Not much to say about my evening. I do have a little bit of exciting news which is that the week after Easter, when my mom is going to be visiting, I won't have any classes. All my profs said it would be fine if I missed class (made up work after/before and such). So I have another about 10 days of no class to go travel with my mom. Sweet!! We don't where we are going yet. Just thought I would let people know and have them be jealous of me. Haha.

Happy Tuesday!

Class Space

"It looks like someone has a case of the Mondays"

That's how I felt today. I was tired when I woke up. I also just didn't really feel like going to class. You do what you gotta do though.

In Sociology, the whole class time was spent listening to my prof tell us about the Kray Twins (Reggie on the left and Ronnie on the right). They were two brothers who grew up in East London in the 40's. By the time the 60's rolled around, they were super powerful gangsters (there is rumored to be a picture of them with the Queen somewhere out there). They were ruthless and violent when they had to be. They basically ruled London during the entire Sixties. They got away with a lot of stuff. It was a really good story and parts of it were pretty amazing. Like all the political corruption that went on back then. There is political corruption now too but I suppose I am pretty naive and don't think about it much so when I get a big reminder like the story of the Kray Twins, it amazes me.

We spent the first hour of Senior Sem talking about the two plays we saw last week. Lots to talk about with them. The second hour was spent getting a little refresher on what an orchestra is. We are seeing the Royal College of Music's Orchestra on Thursday night (they are playing Planets). In preparation, Phil told about what makes an orchestra and how each instrument is like a color for an artists. They have different moods and sounds and looks. We listened to examples of each instrument which was fun. I never listen to band music and when I do, it makes me remember being in band in HS and how much I liked it.

After class, I went down on the computer and researching travel stuff. I looked at Rick Steve's website (just search Rick Steves). He has a TON of information and the people who contribute to his message boards are really good too. They have good advice and funny stories. The reason I am spending so much time researching is because, as I have said before, I like it and because there are still a lot of chances for me to travel while I am here: when my mom comes, two free weekends in April, and after the program. That's a lot of opportunities and a lot of decisions to make about where and what I want to do.

I guess that's about it. It was a pretty boring and uninteresting day so that means this blog entry was probably boring and uninteresting. Sorry about that. Part of the deal though. It can't be exciting all the time. Have a nice day everyone!

*Waves Goodbye*

Future Math Teachers Unite!

I am sitting at the computer writing this blog entry with Maggie Donahue sitting next to me on a computer as well. She was in Scotland this weekend and spent the today in London. Amazing!!!

That paragraph was written, like it says, with Maggie sitting next to me. Sadly, she has left me here all alone again so the rest was not written with her here.

I started the day by going to church. It was really good. The pastor, Father Perry, did the service. He hasn't been at the 10 am mass for a while so it was nice to have him again. The other priests have bad accents and are hard to hear. Plus Fr. Perry is just very calm and he smiles a lot. I like his style. Not to get too evangelical but I just liked his homily. He had a baby (not the Fr. Grile Christmas Special Homily) and talked about how babies can't see when they are first born just like people can't "see" until they baptized. It was more complicated than that but it was really good. He did a good job. It was refreshing to be able to completely understand the whole Homily. Anyway, I didn't go to Whole Foods like usual after mass because Maggie had told me that she would be in London today so I went back to the flat and tried to call her. It was no good. Her phone wasn't working. I was depressed but couldn't do anything about it. I started to put more pictures on Facebook and then all of a sudden I got an e-mail that said. "Call me you fool!" I replied calmly, "I can't!!" and then gave her my phone number. Soon after I got a call.

We met up at Trafalgar Square (picture 1). Kristina came with me because she knew some of the people Maggie was traveling with. We walked around the square looking for them. I turned to Kristina and said, "I bet Maggie is going to either scream my name or jump on me when she sees me." Sure enough, like 1 minute after saying that, Maggie jumped on my back. It was so cool to see her. The first thing we noticed was that we have the exact same coat!! Haha, the rain coat thing that I always wear and bought from REI. Crazy. Reminds me of the first time I saw John's winter coat (we have the exact same one of those too). I guess the old saying, "great minds think alike" is true. Maybe the other old saying applies better, I think it goes "Jeremy has excellent fashion sense" :-)

Anyway, it was just unspeakably cool to be able to see Maggie here (picture 2). It was like having a little bit of home come and visit. That sounds weird maybe to people who are still in MN. The same kind of feeling comes over me when I buy fruit cocktail (Dad) or read a depressing young adult book (Amy) or see a little boy walking hand in hand with his dad (Josh and Sam) or see an amazing sunset (Mom). In each one of those instances, its sort of like each of you are there with me. I have stuff like that for everyone from back home. With Maggie being here, it was like all my SJU friends and memories were here, even though it was only Maggie actually sitting with me. I hope that that makes some sense. As soon as Maggie and I started talking, it was game over with the rest of her friends. I felt sort of bad because we were walking way faster than everyone else but I was just so excited to talk and see her that it translated into a faster walking pace. Plus, I always walk kind of fast now. Its just a by product of all the walking I do.

Maggie and her pals wanted to see the Tower Bridge so we crossed the Thames on the Jubilee Bridge and walked along the South Bank. We passed the National Theatre, Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, Vinopolis, the Clink, and London Bridge. Maggie and I stopped on the Tower Bridge (Maggie said picture 3 looks like an elephant, I agree) and sat and talked while we waited for the rest of the group to catch up (where we sat picture 4). I don't even know what we talked about. Just a million things. We were sitting there and some people walked by and one was wearing a St. Cloud State sweatshirt. Turns out Maggie swam with that girl for 11 years when they were little. Go figure... The group caught up and Maggie and I zoomed off to go back to our flats. The rest of the group went another way back.

I took Maggie back by way of The Strand, the major roadway through The City. We passed by St. Paul's Cathedral, the Royal Courts of Justice, and Fleet Street. St. Mary-Le-Strand (picture 5), the church in the middle of the road, was looking especially good in the late light and budding trees. We got back to Trafalgar Square and continued on my well worn path back to the flats (I have walked from Trafalgar to Metrogate about 10-15 times. The usual sights went by: St. James's Park, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park Corner, and Hyde Park (the Serpentine and daffodils picture 6). It was fun to go on it with someone that wasn't jaded by it all like I think me and Vanessa are sometimes. This whole time we were talking and walking by the way. We took a little different way back by passing by Harrod's (picture 7), the V&A, and the Natural History Museum.

Back at the flats, Maggie and I had a cup of tea while we waited for the others. When they got there, we made the noodles and sauce that they had bought. They bought 2 kilos worth of noodles (!). That's a lot of noodles. There were 7 of us though and, come hell or high water, we finished all of them. Like I said, Maggie and her friends had just been in Scotland and they took an over night bus to London so they were all really tired. Plus, I felt like they were visiting me in my "home" so I was sort of the host. I did all of the cooking and cleaning. They offered numerous times to help but there wasn't much to help with and they were all tired. This made me think of one of the big themes of The Odyssey which is hospitality. All the people in the book offer lots of hospitality to everyone else who visits because they know that some day they will need the hospitality when they are out adventuring. I feel that way now too. Sort of a "Pay It Forward" type of thing. Plus I really enjoyed cooking for all those people. A welcome change to always only making stuff for myself which can be depressing and boring. It was really funny trying to finish the noodles (everyone was so full). Maggie told me that she sometimes cuts up garlic or spinach and adds it to the crappy sauce she buys which makes it taste way better. Great idea. I will remember that. Also, one of the people in her group made coffee chocolate. That being melted chocolate mixed with instant coffee and sugar, then reformed. DELICIOUS!!!!! It was so good and it was instant energy.

After dinner, we all just hung out in the dining room and computer room. They finally got ready to leave. I was really sad to see them go. It was all over so quickly! I was really sad to see Maggie and all her friends go. They had to catch a bus to Stansted for their flight in the morning. I was so glad to have Maggie come here while I was in London. I was/am amazed that the same person that I worked on Foundations homework with 18 months ago, is the same person I was walking across the Tower Bridge with. Crazy!! I had an awesome day of walking and talking. Tomorrow: class :-/

Thanks for coming Maggie and friends!

TTFN: Ta Ta For Now!

Punting Cam-Bridge

As advertised yesterday, me and all my fellow CSB/SJU'ers went to the city of Cambridge today. It is a city steeped in history but alive with the present (haha, I made that one up myself). Honestly, it's a college town (almost literally). I have to say that it was the most picturesque place we have been as a group yet.

Cambridge has always been a pretty popular place. Romans and Normans were here long before the first college. It's called Cambridge because there is a river running through it called the Cam and there are numerous bridges over it (picture 1). Thus Cam-Bridge. Scholars started coming here at around the 13th century. The first and most famous College in all of Cambridge is King's College. It was founded by King Henry VI in 1441. The Chapel is by far the most famous building in Cambridge as well and is a true Gothic building (most of the other buildings on King's College are from the 19th century and are Neo-Gothic). The Chapel was built in the Middle Ages and is really amazing inside. King's College is not the only college in Cambridge though. There are 30 (!) other colleges to chose from.

The colleges in Cambridge don't offer any classes per say. The University of Cambridge does. I should mention that there are about 14,000 undergraduates at the University and 6,000 graduates. Its like St. Ben's and St. John's except with 29 other choices and they are all in the same town if that makes sense. You live with only people from your college but you take classes with everyone. Each college has an identity of some kind (radical, conservative, easy going, all women, etc.). King's College is known as a radical type of college. It accepts more students from state schools (public high schools) than any other and was the first to accept women.

We started the day by getting on a bus at 8 am. The group of students from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR (also doing stuff with FIE) was going to Cambridge today too so we decided to share a bus. The coach was a double decker type coach. The ride was 2 hours long and went through some nice English countryside. I noticed that we drove near Saffron Walden, where Sonya lives so I did a little tip of the hat. I had no idea that we were driving close to it. We got to Cambridge and waited for our tour guides. The first stop on the tour was The Eagle Pub. Its near a college (I forgot the name) where a bunch of really big scientific discoveries were made. The electron and neutron were discovered here, the atom was first split, and some other stuff. The guys working on the DNA blueprint discovered it here and when they figured it out, went to The Eagle to announce it, instead of going to their supervisors. The Eagle was also a big hang out spot for WWII troops stationed near Cambridge. They graffittied the ceiling (picture 2). We walked by a church and to a Fudge Shop where we watched a guy make fudge (picture 3). We had a free sample. Yum!

The main thoroughfare of Cambridge is the King's Parade. Along it is Trinity College which has the Wren Library. The library houses the first manuscripts of Winnie the Pooh (the author lived near here) and a bunch of stuff from Sir Isaac Newton including a lock of hair (he went to Trinity College). Then we walked along the Cam and into King's College Chapel (picture 4). The Chapel was started by Henry VI in 1441 but was added on to by the Tudor's (1500's). Henry VIII added the big screen (the brown thing is the screen and the stained glass goes along each side in picture 5) seperating the antechapel from the "Holy Part". It's made of wood and is very decorated with carvings. The ceiling has fan vaulting which is just crazy to look a (picture 6). It also has a TON of stained glass windows that, thankfully, Oliver Cromwell didn't smash to pieces. This is where our tour ended.

From the Chapel, we met up with Dominic, a guy who used to work for FIE and did his graduate work at Cambridge. He told us about the application process and some other stuff about the colleges like what classes are like and how the whole system of colleges and the university works. He did a pretty good job but it was really cold out (super windy). I did not prepare for this when I got ready in the morning to leave. It sucked. I was basically cold all day and Dominic spent the whole hour or so talking outside. Not good. Anyway, he brought us to Pembroke College (building of the college picture 7) which is where he lived. We walked inside the chapel which was designed by Christopher Wren (Wren Library and St. Paul's Cathedral in London). We also walked by the gardens and the dining hall. Very pretty. I will say this about Cambridge, they like and take care of their grass. As a former lawn care specialist (haha), I know good grass when I see it and there was good grass everywhere.

After Dominic got done, we had about 3.5 hours of free time. Me, Nick, Anna, Vanessa, and Amy went punting. Punting is taking a flat bottom boat that looks like a gondola out on the River Cam. You steer it with a 15 ft. pole. Sounds interesting? Well it was. I never actually punted but I did use the small paddles to help steer. Anna punted first. She did a good job getting the hang of it. It looked really tough but some people going by gave us some pointers after seeing us get turned around. The Cam was so beautiful and it was really warm sitting in the boat in the sun (River Cam with punts on it picture 9). The Cam gives good views of "The Backs". That being the lawns from the backs of the colleges down to the river (the Back of King's College with Chapel picture 8). When our time was half up, Anna and Nick switched. Nick also did a really good job (picture 10 has Nick punting with Anna on right and Amy on left along for the ride). Our time was up soon so we headed back. From there we went to the Fitzwilliam Museum. It has a wide variety of art of artifacts. Things ranging from Egyptian to Roman to Picasso to Monet to Japanese Porcelain. We didn't spend a ton of time here and didn't examine all the stuff super closely. We spent the most time in the Egyptian and medieval armor galleries. From the museum, we went back to King's College Chapel.

This deserves it's own paragraph. We had to wait in line to get into the Chapel for the evensong performance. While we were waiting in line, the sky and clouds were phenomenal so I walked around and took some just fantastic pictures if I do say so myself (Chapel on the right in picture 12). The sun and clouds were amazing (picture 11 and 13).

As I said, we went to an evensong performance at the Chapel. Evensong is a prayer/choral service that most Church of England churches do. King's College has a really good choir and the service was really cool. I was really tired so it was hard to stand for as long as we had to but the singing was just amazing. The choir was a mix of little boys and guys around my age. We sat right by the choir and there were candles lit all around them. It gave it a very calming atmosphere. Superb. After the evensong, the Lewis & Clark group had to stay for an organ recital. Amy, Vanessa, Peter, along with a few others, and myself decided to stay too. It was unforgetable. The music was by a French guy. It was so weird. Honestly, for the first 15 minutes of the performance, I thought the performer was just warming up. This is the only way I can explain it: imagine sitting a little kid down in front of an organ and letting him/her hit random notes, that was what we listened to for about an hour. According to the pamphlet, it was supposed to be birdsong or something to do with Bible verses but I don't know. It was just toooooo weird. Seriously. You had to be there to really know what I am talking about. It was so crazy that I started laughing and then Vanessa and Amy did and we laughed for a while at just how outrageous these totally random notes were. Then we saw Phil had fallen asleep so we laughed more. Then I noticed one of the Lewis & Clark girls was looking at me from across the aisle so we played the awkward eye contact game for a while and then laughed at each other and the organ "music".

When the "performance" was finally over, I was really excited and clapped a little too loud. The girl across the way saw and laughed. We ended up sitting next to each other on the bus and talked about where we were from and stuff. It was fun. She's from Orgeon which makes me really jealous. Nick and Kristina joined in and the four of us ended up talking about a range of topics including wars and English candy. Good times.

Cambridge was a very interesting experience. I went punting, heard some messed up organ music, saw a bunch of colleges, went to a museum and was really cold in the sunshine. Now that's a wide range of experiences. I really enjoyed all of it though. A nice way to spend a day.

Au Revoir!