Rockin' the Ruins

Yes, I did say I was getting better about blogging. Slowly, but surely. Maybe I am getting worse, I haven't decided yet. The Wifi here is not the best wifi in the world and so we can't stream, or technically upload pictures. So, be happy, that for all of you lovely readers I am breaking the rules, and you are all looking at illegal photographs.
On Wednesday we had our first "London Field Study". Field Studies are just a big group field trip, of sorts. We went to St. Paul's Cathedral in the morning and then headed to the Museum of London after we picked up some lunch. First, let me just say that whenever we go somewhere it's like a big mob overflows everything, and then on top of that, it turns into a paparazzi photo shoot. For 46 people. We get lots of looks, but it's fun.
This is our little group of friends taking out photo shoot in front of St. Pauls Cathedral.

St. Pauls Cathedral is by far my favorite thing in London thus far. Maybe-- actually, it may be tied with half naked men running through Hyde Park and Digestives. It's a tough tie. We took a tour of St. Pauls and then hiked up to the top (VERY top) of the dome. All 538 steps. Once we got to the top, all out of breath, there was a little tiny sign that said, NO WAY DOWN. I don't know a better way to greet visitors either.  It was such a breathtaking view of the city, I have never seen anything like it. I would gladly walk up all 538 steps everyday. (okay, maybe not everyday, every other day). Did I mention they also filmed part of Harry Potter here? Well, they did. Two words, Dumbledores Staircase. I would download another picture of us at the top, but I am averaging 10 minutes a picture, so pretend there is a picture below, and use your imagination. :)

On our way to the Museum of London I spotted Gresham Street! I stopped and took a picture, so in all reality, this is for mom and Aunt Julie!

Thursday we had class, and I just hung out at home and worked on homework and just kind of hung out. It was very, very nice just to take a nice relaxing day for myself.

Friday was our first day trip! It was an absolute adventure. We all woke up at about 4:50 am and had to be showered and ready by 6. At 6 we had breakfast and had to pack our lunches and be on the bus at 6:45. At precisely 7, we were off to Dover, and all 38 students, out. We had a two hour bus journey to Dover castle. Per usual- we spent the first hour having a photo shoot, and then we got our tour started! We first went to the WW2 "secret" tunnels (why they are called "secret" is a mystery. It's hard to miss 4 massive doors and windows sticking out the middle of The White Cliffs of Dover) and then had our own time to explore the castle. Not much exploring was done, it was mostly a photo shoot, again. This is an example: Why I am on a cannon, not really sure. We saw it and decided we would spend 20 minutes of our time taking pictures on it. But I guess I will forever have a picture of me on a canon at Dover castle, not many people can say that. Besides the 30 other girls in my group that took a picture on it, of course.
After Dover castle we hopped on a bus and went to Canterbury. In Canterbury we went to St. Martins Parish, St. Augustine's Cathedral Ruins, and Canterbury Cathedral.  We arrived to our first destination at St. Augustine and noticed a rather large CLOSED sign on the front gates. Brother Seeley called and showed them who was boss. They were going to send a tour guide to let us in, in a half hours time. In the mean time we went to St. Martins Parish. It was the first church in England and that is also where Queen Bertha went to church before her husband, Kind Ethelburg converted to Christianity. The church was very small, and set back in a graveyard. A cute older lady talked to us for a while and then we sung hymns in the church for about 10 or 15 minutes. It was quite the experience. You could tell the spirit had a very strong presence there. Brother Seeley pointed out that alot of our relatives would have gone to small parishes for church like St. Martins and it make the experience very special, Christianity really did pave the way for the Restoration.
We wrapped us St. Martins and then walked back over to St. Augustine's ruins. The ruins were cool to look at, and then once again it turned into a photo shoot. It was a blast, the ruins were like a jungle gym for big people. You can only look at ruins for so long, and then you have to rock the ruins, spice up the ruins a little bit. We took countless pictures, and then 5 of us were brave enough to climb to the top, and then we of course had to document that, in various different ways. I will spare you all, and just give you our Greek Goddess pose, and then mine and Jani's Roman warrior picture.

And we were off to our last stop! (it's almost over guys, promise) Canterbury Cathedral, here we come. This cathedral was amazing! It was constantly under renovation and construction from about 1200-1700 AD. The cathedral was HUGE. There really isn't a better word for it, it was just absolutely HUGE.

Because we had such a long day this tour seemed to drag on for a rather long period of time, though I did enjoy every moment of it. Once we got into the courtyard I was feeling kind of droopy and tired, and realized this looked familiar.
I got all excited and told my friend Meegan I was positive that this was where they filmed Harry Potter. She got all excited too and you could instantly see the group perk up once we figure out it looked exactly like HP. Meegan asked, no, yelled (he was hard of hearing) at our tour guide about 5 times if they filmed HP here and he looked completely clueless. So, we still don't know, but I am convinced it was filmed there.

Today was a really good day. I LOVE Saturday's. We had a pretty late night last night. We watched Pride and Prejudice and then stayed up to sing Happy Birthday to Lisa, and then just talked. I slept in till 9, and then Lauren and I went for a 6 mile run. A few of us went to Camden Market, which I like much more than Portabello. It's a little grungier, but it is just a blast to go there. Then we went to Tuk Tuk Thai. I would fly 7,000 miles just to eat there. I spend 4 pounds on the best Thai food I have ever had. Now that is a happy ending to this long blog.