AUGUST 7, 2008

London is just really rainy today and all I have been doing is homework the last couple of days. Yesterday we took a trip to caterbuy you know chaucers book caterbury tales about all those people on thier pilgrimage to canterbury to touch the bones of saint thomas bessett. anyway I learned that old ladies are grouchy and that catholics are crazy. This old lady called bro. holland a porky lol. I couldn't believe it. We just toured the old cathedral which you would have loved because it was a good mix of romanesque and gothic arches. It was burned down or destroyed in some areas and then the old romanesques arches were replaced by gothic ones. I am getting kind of sick of touring churches and seeing things that crazy catholic people traveled days and weeks to touch because they believed it would heal them. I guess some guy had a bloody nose and he touched the casket of saint thomas beckett and his nose was cured this info was from a freaking stained glassed window (crazy catholics just put a piece of cotton up it and chill out). Anyways we learned all about the black prince of the hundred years war which was kind of interesting because he was sixteen and a very brave young man. Then we went to dover. This is the port city that you get on the ferry at to take over to callet (which is the french port city). Standing on the white cliffs of dover you can see your beloved france. We went to the castle which is very old and cool. We learned about how it held up against the siege of prince louis when he was trying to take power from the guy who signed the magna carta and was not being good to his word. It was a fun little experience. We also got to go to the little beach that is just right there except it is not a beach at all because it is millions of rocks instead of sand but you gotta take what you can get. Me and danny ( my best friend that is a three year old) spent our time with our feet in the english channel throwing rock in the water. The cliffs were amazing and brother holland read us a really inspiring devotional written by his dad about preserverance and the white cliffs of dover overlooking the english channel which was the only thing between england and Hitlers natzis. I also went to the imperial war museum the other day and went through a holocaust exhibit. I started bawling it was so sad. i just can't take it when little kids are hurt. One of the naked little boys looked just like jaxon and was being let to a gas chamber and I just lost it. Thinking about it now i'm even starting to lose it a little. They had this way cool thing there called the trench experience and it was like a little path that was underground and had a painted sky like pirates and was just an interactive experience of what is was like to be in the trenches. Anyways thats what I have been up to in the past two days now I'm just working on homework because finals are next thursday and they are not letting up on us. The work is really hard out here it sucks. but at least its not like science classes because to be honest i don't ever read or prepare mysself for class and i will probly end up with straight As. Oh the life of an english major. I chose the wrong major but I guess where much is givin much is required lol.

AUGUST 2

I just got back from a trip around london on my own. It was nice to get away from people for a second and just be me. I walked down to the tate modern and got to see some surrealist, expressionist, and really modern paintings. It was really fun to spend as much or as little time on each piece as I wanted.
I love london but I really miss home. On our day trip last week we went to visit churchills home in chartwell and hever castle which is where anne boelyn grew up and her family lived. That was where the other boelyn girl was filmed so it was fun to see that. We went to take a tour of parlament yesterday and got to learn the rituals and see all of the governmental things. It was interesting. I went and saw chicago last night and it was absolutely amazing!! I loved it so so much. It is so fun being able to see so many cool musicals here I really love it.