Day 3: Lake District and Dove Cottage

On September 23rd we went to William Wordsworth's Dove Cottage. He was born in the Lake District in 1770 and the district had a profound impact on his life and poetry. We then went on a beautiful drive around the Lake District- where it was pretty for awhile until Tony our coach driver took us on a little road and we all got coach sick! That night we stayed on Ambleside.

Jenny and I outside the cottageIn the gardenAfter the Dove Cottage Jenny and I walked around Ambleside and ate at Bizzy Lizzy's! It really looked promising... we decided to get potato broccoli cheese soup because it was so cold and sounded really good.... unfortunately what we got was weird pureed pea green mush!

I shall call this "Contemplation"

I shall call this "Determination"

*Model: Jennifer Christensen

Day 2: Fountains Abbey

On September 22nd we went to Fountains Abbey and then drove up to the lake district to stay the night.

The Fountains Abbey was a beautiful abbey ruin that went through the dissolution of monasteries that Henry VIII put through. Hope you enjoy the pictures! We had a lot of fun enjoying the property.The Attic Group: Brittany, Me, Sarah, Elliot, Jenny, Ashael
Me, Elliot, and Sarah playing around in the field!

Lake District Day 1

So as most of you can see I am way behind in blogging so I am taking today to get everything in order so enjoy!

For the week of September 21-25 our group got on a coach and took a tour up North. Although it was great fun I am pretty sure that all of us were pretty sick of the coach by the end of the week! The first day on Monday the 21 we went to Haworth Parsonage which is the home of the Bronte's from 1820-1861. The Bronte sisters, Emily, Ann and Charlotte were famous for writing famous works of literature under different names. These books include Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. It was cool to see where they lived and go through the museum and learn more about their lives.
The graveyard in front of the church

We then got back onto the coach and went to York Minister. We split into tour groups and my guide was Malcolm Walker. When going into this minister I immeditaly saw how much this looked just like Canterbury. Just as in Canterbury the Puritans came through and cut of the heads of the statues. During the Civil Wars they were also suppossed to break the stained glass but General Fairfax forbid his soldiers to touch the glass and because of that York Minister has the most Medieval stained glass. That night while at York Minister we got to see an Even Song that the church put on. It was really interesting to see how everything was done and in the paper I was reading it said the Even Song has been largely unchanged since the first English language Book of Common Prayer of 1549! With this Even Song I could see how similar the Church of England and Catholic churches are the same.Some of the beautiful stained glass

The ceiling in the chapter house
Some of the hand carved statues

We also got to climb up the tower and see the view from the top of York Minister! There were 293 stairs to get to the top!!! Good thing I live on the fifth floor and had a month to train for York Minister!Some of the stairs!

After the minister we had some time to walk around York and see the town a little. One place we stopped off was the Shambles! Since I have been here I have been so amazed at how much history and how old everything is!

Off To The Theatre

So far while being in London I have been blessed with the opportunity to see so many plays and a couple of musicals! In one fireside our speaker told us that if we saw one play a night every night while we were here we would not be able to see all the plays London has to offer! At first this seemed to be a false statement, but now that I have been here for a while I have learned that it is in fact true!

The first experience I had was with the Royal Opera House when I went to see the opera Linda di Chamounix in concert. I saw this on September 7 and even though it was just the cast singing everything out it was still so amazing. This was my first experience with opera and I must say it was a good one! I did not think I would enjoy it that much, but the singing was great and I even could understand what was going on!

The next experience was on September 11th when we went and saw Peter Pan. I have already blogged about that, but again I must say it was amazing!

I then went to Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre on September 12th with my roommate Jenny. This was a nice way to get out of the centre and see the theater side of London. We went down that night and got tickets to the night show. They have these half price ticket booths down in the square where you can go the day of and get amazing tickets! We were so lucky because we got tickets in the stalls and had such an amazing time! The accents were a little funny because it was British actors putting on an American- Chicago accent- so pulled it off well and others were just plain funny! It was also not as risque as I thought it was going to be. Everything was tastefully done- in fact if you have seen the movie then I should tell you the play is a lot better! The set and costume is so simple and yet it is so amazing at the same time! I would recommend this to anyone... well at least adults!

Then on the 14th of September as a group we saw Shakespeare's As You Like It at the Globe Theatre. For our Shakespeare and Hum 202 classes we had to read the play so our professors also wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Globe was putting it on! It was such a great play! Being at the Globe and seeing it preformed in such a classic way was a great experience. All of the actors were so good and very convincing. Of course Orlando, played by Jack Lasky, was a crowd favorite. Jenny and I became quite enamored with him and even went as far as looking him up on facebook! He was quite cute. But the play really came to life at the Globe and every ones humor was so much better seeing it in person. I never really liked Shakespeare before but since this play I have gained a better appreciation for him.

On the 17th my roommates and I (Jenny, Brittney, Ashael, Elliott, and Sarah) all went and saw Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre for Sarah's birthday! I saw this right after I graduated high school, but there was a lot that I did not remember about the show. It of course was so amazing! Again some parts were funny because they had British accents and it was weird hearing them while they were singing! But the cast did a great job. At the concessions they had Wicked shirts with the black hat and the point of the hat was a map of England! I thought it was so cute but I could bring myself to drop 30 pounds on a shirt! This night was also memorable because this is the first night Jenny and I had a Lion bar! Which is the best candy bar on the face of the earth! For those of you that have not had the opportunity to try one picture this: if a kit kat and hundred grand could have a baby it would be a Lion bar! DELICIOUS!!!

On the 19th as a group we went and saw another Shakespeare play, All's Well That Ends Well at the National Theatre. Again we had to read this play and it was pretty good in text, but I thought this production was amazing. Some of my classmates did not like it, but I really enjoyed myself. It was a darker take than some directors do with this, but it turned out good. The only complaint I had was some of the acting. But again such a great experience.

The last theatre experience I have had was seeing The Winter's Tale at The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace). We had to read this for my Shakespeare class and it was really good. The director did most of the second act with everything made from pages of books! It was really neat and I thought a lot better than reading it!

So this is the last of my theatre experiences thus far and as you can tell everything has been so good! I am hoping to have many more opportunities to go see productions and I will or course let you know how they go!


I will put pictures up when the internet is better!

A Glimpse of the Lake District

September 21-25, 2009

This photo was taken at Fountains Abbey on September 22, 2009. Fountains Abbey is the largest abbey ruins in England. It was one of the abbeys that King Henry VIII commissioned to be stripped.

Although the abbey is focused in the center of the photo I was aesthetically drawn to take it because of the reflection the abbey has in the stream. The stream also gives us a serpentine line to follow leading towards the abbey. I also liked the way the trees on the sides framed the picture. The trees seem to be overpowering the abbey, which shows how nature could take over the abbey if no one kept up with the grounds. I wanted to take a full picture of the abbey, but I did not want to overwhelm the picture. By taking it further I feel as if I almost capture more of Fountains Abbey’s beauty.

I was drawn to the picture on the left because it shows the ruined state of Fountains Abbey. There is something in the way you can see the moss growing over the sides of the standing wall that makes this picture really show to devastated state of the abbey. The picture on the right drew me in spiritually because I am always touched when I see birds flying together. I also liked that with this picture you can see a portion of the top of the abbey, but that the sky and the birds are the focus.

This picture was taken on September 23, 2009 at Ambleside in the Lake District. Aesthetically I was drawn to this because I could see the rays from the sun coming through the cloud and hitting the water. The water and the mountains looked so beautiful to me I was glad I was able to capture this. The focus of my photo is the sail boat on the lake- this is area of the lake it was the only one sailing at the time. There was also something spiritual about seeing the sun rays and seeing the lone boat on the lake that drew me to grabbing my camera.

I wanted this picture to be the focus on the slide because of

how bright and dramatic the clouds are. The sky is so full of

light you are drawn in to look at it. The boats along the

water also provide a nice serpentine line across the lake. Again we can see the grandness of the sky by comparing it to the size of the sail boats. I was also spiritually drawn because of the beauty of the sky.

Aesthetically this picture works because there is not a 50/50 split in the land and lake. There is also the lone person sitting on the rocks looking out- with this person we can see the grandness of the lake and even the mountains around. I was drawn because of the person and because of the way the sun was reflecting of the water- I also liked the sail boats in the background just floating.

I chose these two pictures because they are focused on the same tree just in different ways. The picture on the left is a broad view of the area with the tree being almost the frame of the picture. On the right we see a close up of the same tree with the lake in the background. I took this picture sitting down so I could get a sense of looking up at the tree. Both of these work so well because they both show the

beauty of the Lake District.

These were also taken at the Lake District, but in a pasture right next to the lake. I was drawn to this because of the cows grazing around. Although it is a close up I wanted the picture on the left to be the focus because I found her so beautiful. The picture to the right works aesthetically with the lone cow and the mountains in the background. I loved the picture at the top because the sky looked so dramatic and so different from my lake pictures even though they were taken five minutes before.

September 24, 2009

I WISH I WAS A YEOMAN WARDER!

So on September 20 our group went to the Tower of London. Like always Jenny and I ended up wandering around the Tower alone just taking our time through everything. We arrived at 9:00 to see the guards opening up the gates- it was so neat to see them come down and open it up for everyone to come in. Jenny and I enjoyed the Tower so much we did not leave till 4:00! There was so much to do and even with us staying all day we still want to go back!Notice the crown on the weather vain: this shows that it is still a place of the monarchy

There are 20 towers in the Tower of London and today we can still go through most of those. In some of the towers like the Salt Tower you can see engravings where prisoners wrote while they were staying there. The Tower of London is where Anne Boleyn stayed when she was being put on trial. One thing that was neat that was not there the last time I was there were the reenactments that were taking place!

Traitors Gate: Anne Boleyn and Cromwell were brought through this

While we were there we took place in the trial of Anne and Lord Cromwell was there! It was so fun because they took us through what happened and it seems to me they forced the jury to make the decision to kill her.Where Anne was executed!

In the White Tower they had a special exhibit that showed the war and sportswear that King Henry VIII wore. It also showed how much he loved playing sports and how good he was at them. I learned that King Henry VIII was playing tennis at North Hampton when he was told Anne Boleyn was executed. Ten days later he was remarried. I love going to the Tower because I learned so much about the Tudor period- and of course this is my favorite period!

Of course, we also saw the crown jewels! It was so interesting to see all the jewels used in the coronation. Everything is so symbolic and has been in practice for so long. The amulet that is used to give the holy oil dates back to the 1200s and has been used since the 1600s!

I must say that now that I am older I appreciated this so much more than when I came here in the 8th grade!

This is not a Yeoman Warder- but a guard in front of the crown jewels

We also took a tour with a Yeoman Warder! Our tour guide was named Bill and he was so cool! He taught us so much about the tower. To be a Yeoman Warder you have to have been in the military service for 22 years and be a distinguished officer. Yeoman Warders are between the ages of 40-65. It is now my goal to be a Yeoman Warder (as of right now there is 1 woman) even though I am American! Yeoman Warders are the Queen's bodyguards and there are only 35 of them!

There are also a lot of ravens around because Charles II said that if the ravens flew away the White Tower would fall down and the monarchy would fall-so there should always be 6 on the grounds but they keep it safe and have 9!

This was an poll they were taking- of course I said NO!!!

We also saw where and how they tortured their prisoners! I don't think I could ever live on the rack! Although I think the savengers daughter since I like to be curled up!

It was so much fun to go through the Tower and I can't wait to go back! It was such an educational experience and I think that if you ever go to London this should be in the top ten!
I was trying to be him- but it looks like I am about to attack him!

Peter Pan In Kensington Park

After Southall we raced back to catch the 7:30 production of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. I am so lucky to be in London right now! It seems that during the Fall the city has all these amazing events! It was excited take part in seeing Peter Pan because we were actually in the place where it all happened. JM Barie lived close to Kensington Gardens and Peter Pan goes to Kensington! The play was so amazing. It is set in a tent in the garden and so it closes in a couple of weeks because it will soon be too cold to sit outside. We were in the back but the set is so close and personal we really had great seats! The acting was pretty good and I soon found myself so caught up in the story. I especially liked Tinker Bell - her character was so quirky and unique- she seemed like an annoying little sister! I also really enjoyed the stage set up and the set design- it was so clever! I don't want to give too much away because I believe if you are ever in London in the summer and early fall you should come and see Peter Pan- this production will truly make you feel like a child again! This play is truly for everyone- I was never a Peter Pan fan when I was younger, but this production was so good! I am glad I decided to experience seeing Peter Pan in the gardens.














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