warwick castle & oxford

On Thursday we went to Warwick Castle.  It was bought a few years back by Madame Toussad's so according to Professor Mason it's kind of like Disneyland (trust me, it's not. But it was still cool).  Afterwards we went to Oxford.  It doesn't have a normal "college campus" feel because it's actually separate colleges that are just collectively called Oxford University.  The buildings are all old and beautiful, but the weather there was miserable.  Like bone-chilling cold.  The tree picture is the courtyard where they filmed a scene for Harry Potter 4 (the one where Mad-Eye Moody turns Malfoy into a bouncing ferret).  Since I'm pretty sure that only like three people actually read this, and those people are Mom, Dad, and Rachael, that won't be very exciting since you probably haven't even seen the fourth movie.  But oh well.  Aren't you proud that my first blog endeavor is so massively popular?  And I must have been in London for a while now because I just tried to spell that "endeavour."  The dreaded o-u-r is getting to me.

the white cliffs of dover

Yesterday we took a two hour bus ride out to Dover (home of the famous Dover Beach, White Cliffs, and Dover Castle).  It was gorgeous, but I wasn't feeling great and it was freezing outside so I don't know if I enjoyed it as much as I would have on another day.  At least I know what they're talking about when they say the weather in England is cold.  Afterward we made it over to Canterbury, home of the Canterbury Cathedral.  Although I didn't think it was as beautiful as St. Paul's, it was still really interesting.  We got to attend an Evensong, which is a worship service they hold every day.  They had a choir made up of men and young boys and it was amazing.  I was shocked at how high those little boys can sing, and everything was angelic.  

P.S. If Dover sounds familiar, this might be why: 

Dover Beach

Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm to-night.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Agaean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; we

Find also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

walking

Sometimes when you have to do certain walks for your London Walks Class (where you basically just follow a route on the map and read the background information on the area) it feels like a forced march.  But sometimes you find amazing things, like really authentic and delicious Italian restaurants or Buckingham Palace or Downing Street, home of the Prime Minister, or friendly Londoners (that's pretty rare in my experience) who tell you about quaint and lesser known places to see  - in this case, the courtyard of King's College.  Sometimes when you go walk through London you start out doing it because you want a good grade in a class, and then in the end you realize you're doing it because you're in love with everything that's beautiful about this city.

hampton court + gardens - henry = wonderful

Hampton Court was amazing.  I didn't love the actual palace as much as Windsor (but that's not surprising because the original parts of the castle are built in the Tudor Style, which is kind of cold and austere).  The real draw for me here were the amazing gardens.  These things were manicured beyond belief.  The grounds are huge and even though it was freezing cold we spent at least an hour there.

I would probably have lived there if I didn't have to be around Henry VIII (Hampton Court was his castle).  Most of the tour was spent focusing on young Henry - conveniently pre-Anne Boleyn - and trying to convince us that he was a decent person.  I don't buy it.  Henry was a terrible person.  Decent people are sometimes upset at their wives, terrible people behead them.  But I digress.  I can't wait to go back to Hampton Court in a few months when it's a little warmer.