Castles

This was written Sunday morning, but I didn't get a chance to post it until today.
Hello!
This morning, I slept in, took a late shower and am now watching some kind of British Morning talk show. This morning should be quiet because it has been a very busy few days. You should know…I love England a bit more every day. This place really is everything that people say and more.
Ok so here we go…
Thursday: Stonehedge! My camera did not find its way to my bag that morning. So I do not have any pictures (that’s ok 17 other students took pics, so I will be able to steal more than I will know to do with). Stonehedge was really, very cool. We were all given an audio guides to listen to as we walked around the monument (temple, big pile of rocks…etc.) There is not a whole lot to say about stonehedge. It is exactly what it was supposed to be. Gigantic carved stones that has been standing for fifteen hundred years or so. The monument was progressively built over hundreds of years, and no one really knows what its purpose was. My favorite part of the tour was the part where we heard about different theories about how it was create. Here is my favorite: In the middle ages, it was commonly thought that Merlin the Wizard stole the monument from Ireland. Yes, because that explains how the darn thing was built in the first place.

You should also know that the Stonehedge gift shop sold Stonehedge Umbrellas. It had a large picture of Stonehenge strapped across it. Tackiest souvenir so far!

Then Friday took us to the Winsor Castle. Which was really, very cool! It is a current and historical house for English royalty. It really was beautiful, and I became completely lost in English history. It was a wonderful day…ask me more later!

This is the courtyard

This is me, in the courtyard (yes, I did get a subburn that day)

Saturday was Warwick historical castle.


This castle really is from the thirteenth century and it really is beautiful, but unfortunately/fortunately it has been turned into a medieval theme park.


Think renaissance festival plus a real castle and minus all of the dirty humor (I have to admit to missing some of the “mature” humor from the ren fest. It really was cool though! I saw the world’s largest trebuchet launch a fireball! It was amazing!!!
On the way to the train station, we stubled upon a genuine hobbit hole (no hobbit's present sadly)



The fireball launching ended up costing us five hours….crazy story! So a few of us decided to break off from the main group to stay at the castle longer instead of traveling back to the hostel with our professors (hey, I am only in England for a little while) we figured that we could navigate the train system and find our way back on our own…woops! We ended up taking the wrong train in the wrong direction for more than an hour! Somehow we ended up in Paddington station when we had wanted to end up in Bath…how this happened is a mystery, because the train we took was really at the right time and at the right platform. Something must have been running late!!!
It really did work out though! We found our way back…enjoyed some cookies at Paddington and met a delightful group of German fourteen year olds on our train ride. So, no complains and an extra dose of adventure!

Hello Family and Friends…
If I fail to return home next week, do not worry about me! I have probably taken up residence in Oxford. I absolutely love everything about the town and the college. I have always heard, read and thought about it, but none of the ideas that I had in my head about what the city would feel and look like came anywhere close to reality.

First…we arrived at a house that was built for the purpose of housing international students who study at Oxford. Fortunately, all of the students who normally live there have left for the summer, so we had a huge house to ourselves and all of us managed to get a good night’s sleep in, basically, private rooms. It was SO nice to sleep in a quiet room!

I had a wardrobe in my room...I did not find Narnia. (Lint yes)
The next morning, my group and I walked into the city center through a rainy path in the woods. This gave me the biggest C.S. Lewis vibe and I got pretty excited. It was beautiful, and SO English!

We then had the grand tour of the Oxford colleges. I was shocked by how big the college really is. It is made up of many individual colleges within the main college. There is something amazing about going through mile after mile of ancient buildings filled with quirky and delightful traditions. (My favorite is the inter-college tortoise race).
We did, of course, see Magnline college where C.S. Lewis taught, and were introduced to the many locations where the campus was used in the filming of Harry Potter (which is actually a lot of campus).
Next was a visit to The Eagle and the Child pub! It was amazing (Despite the fact that it they were out of all chicken and beef, and despite the fact that the man behind the counter accidentally dropped my change into my coffee).
It was so much smaller than I had guessed, but the Inklings really did meet there! I was pretty excited for the entire time that we were there (the men who were running the pun were even more thrilled when they managed to get the 18 SAU students out of their small pub!
After leaving the pub, we made our way to the Bodleian Library. It was amazing! The library has been around since the thirteenth century, and it has a copy of basically every book that has been published since then. It has received a free copy of every book that has been published in England (and later the UK). It grows by about five miles of shelves per year. This thing is huge and much of it is stored in a vault below the library (not to mention in an old salt factory off campus).
Also: FUN FACT: the Acronym for Oxford’s tec services is FRODO. Coincidence…I really doubt it!
Fun Fact #2 several Harry Potter Scenes were shot in the library too! I have now seen the room where the “Dance Lessons” scene from movie four was shot. It was filled with a lot of students sitting at computers.
After the library, we had a limited amount of time left, so we stopped at starbucks and a few shops.
That was the end of Oxford…for now!
The strangest of my trip to Oxford was the fact taht I really missed my family. It was wierd to see things that we have always talked about without them. it really was incredible though!

Now I am in the lovely city of Bath. It has been here for about a thousand years, and has housed almost as many famous writers as Oxford. Jane Austin and Charles Dickens for a start. This city also holds an authentic and nearly perfect Roman Bath. We get to see that soon!