London, Paris, and Oxford, Oh My!

What can I say about the most amazing two weeks of my life? The trip was legendary. I really didn't think England would stand up to my expectations because I'd set the bar so high, but the trip lived up to and exceeded my expectations spectacularly. I couldn't have asked for a better trip and I am so happy that I went. It was an amazing blessing to be given the opportunity, and I wanted to take full advantage of that opportunity. I'm confident I did that.

I left for my journey on July 3rd, flying to Boston and then to Reykjavik, Iceland, and finally to London. Getting to my hotel in London was a quest, because they close tube lines on weekends, making it more difficult to get where you're trying to go. At least everyone spoke English and the signs were all in English! I made two friends on the way who accompanied me on part of my journey, and we parted ways at Russel Square, where my hotel, the Imperial Hotel, was located.

Our tour group wasn't scheduled to meet until 6 that evening, so I checked in, threw my stuff in a room, changed, and headed out to explore a little piece of London. I wandered around and ended up in Queen's Square Park, where there was a small street festival going on, with food, antique vendors, and music. I even asked a kind stranger to take my picture in a phone booth. I couldn't help myself--they're so iconically English.

After strolling around for a couple of hours, my tour group met up for dinner in the hotel. Everyone seemed super cool, and I immediately befriended two Aussies, Meg and Lisa, who were my pals for the week. My tour guide was sadly not the hot Brit I'd been hoping for, but he was a really nice guy and a great guide. After paperwork and dinner, the group took a walk to Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square, before a stop at the pub for a pint. It was a great first day in London.

The next morning, we had a city tour of London, where we drove around and saw the city from the bus. I snapped this picture of Tower Bridge (not London Bridge!) because I just think it's so beautiful. I'm kind of obsessed with it. :) I also got my first glimpse of my Mecca, the Tower of London, but more on that later...

After our city tour, we headed out to Stonehenge and then Bath. Stonehenge was super cool, although smaller than I anticipated. Of course, there were people everywhere, too, so taking pictures was annoying (I hate people in my pictures!!), but the whole place is totally mysterious. The audio tour they give you is basically that: a dude and a chick talking about how they only think they know the purpose of certain stones or whatever, but it's all still very mysterious. It was kind of funny.

We then proceeded onto Bath, a town aptly named for the Roman Bath house that was once fully operational there. The ruins still remain there mostly intact, and are open to the public (not to bathe, though, sadly). It was crazy to think that a thousand years ago, people were walking on the very stones I was walking on. I mean, being American, that kind of history doesn't exist for us. Our oldest crap is, like, 250 or so. But this was OLD... Very, very cool. I just imagined myself as a Roman woman, chillin' and relaxing in the water after a hard day of being Roman. I'm sure it would've looked something like this...

After a day outside London, we headed back to the city and found some dinner, and did something totally London: went to Abby Road. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe first, as per request of Lisa, but it was cool because the one in London is actually the FIRST Hard Rock, and there's a "vault" room with memorabilia in it, and there's a guy down there named Jimmy who's this, like, rock star/pirate guy and is totally awesome. He let me take a picture with John Frusciante's (Red Hot Chili Peppers) guitar and quoted old-school Renaissance poetry to me ("She walks in beauty like the night..."). Anyway, he was cool. Then we headed out to Abby Road to take the obligatory walking across the crosswalk photo, and sign our names on the wall ouside the studios.

It was a quest to get a good picture because it was getting dark, but it turns out we weren't even at the right cross-walk. That's okay--I took a picture at the right one too, just not walking across.

The next day, we had a full day in London to explore the city, and then a performance of Wicked in the evening. My two priorities were the Tower of London and the Globe. Duh. So I ended up at the Tower first with a brother and sister team from my tour group. Here it is, my Mecca:

Isn't it amazing? Perfect? Wondrous? Spectacular? Adjectives? I had the BEST time there--we took a guided tour, lead by a real Beefeater, and then had time to explore on our own. I saw the Traitor's Gate, where not only Anne Boleyn but also Queen Elizabeth I and several others had to pass on their way to the tower. I also saw the spot where Queen Anne was beheaded, where this memorial stands.

You can just see her name there, with her date of death. Amazing. I also saw her tomb, but it was inside the chapel so I couldn't take a picture. I kind of teared up, though.

The Tower is where the Crown Jewels are kept (totally saw them, gaudy and NOT that cute) and there was an exhibition of Henry VIIIs armor in another of the buildings. I learned SO much and enjoyed my visit immensely, but this is by FAR the coolest thing I saw at the Tower:

Yep, that's HRH Prince William in the flesh! I couldn't belive it! He was RIGHT THERE! He got into a car about five seconds after I saw him, but I still saw him! Now if I could just get him to stop calling me... :)

After the Tower, I had a walking lunch on my way the The Globe. It was a lovely walk along the Thames, and I realize only now that I took no pictures of it. I fail. Anyway, I made it to the theater and took a tour, which was about 45 minutes, and I walked around the inside where they have displays of all sorts. Again, I satisfied my inner nerd and learned a bunch about the days of Shakespeare and his Globe. The theater that stands on the site now (which is not the original site) is actually the third Globe theater. The first one burned down and the second fell into disrepair. The one that now stands is as close to the "real" thing as they could legally build and is reconstructed from the information they had about the original theaters. Anyway, here I am, with the stage behind me.

After my amazing day in London, I went back to my hotel to change before I met a friend from my previoius travels for dinner. We ate a Shakespeare's Pub (no relation to the playwright, they claim) near Victoria station, which worked out amazingly well because the theater where we saw Wicked was right outside the station. I couldn't believe how perfectly it worked out! It was GREAT to have dinner with Karina, and the show was excellent. I totally sang along (I couldn't help it!) and enjoyed every second. The Fiyero in this production was better than the one I saw in Lansing, so I was happy. :)

After a couple days in London, we boarded our tour bus again and drove to the White Cliffs of Dover (lovely!) to board a ferry to Calais and then drive into Paris. The ferry crossing was killer--I felt quite sick and had to lay down for the majority of the ride. It was pretty bad, but I ended up in Paris so I dealt with it.

Now let me just say this: I did not think I would fall in love with Paris like I did. I mean London, sure. I'm an English teacher, I'm in to Henry VIII/Anne Boleyn/Queen Elizabeth I; it's my bag. Paris? I don't really know much about French history or culture so it was a surprise to me when I found myself in love with Paris. It's just so... beatuiful's not even the word. It's white and sparkly--the buildings have gold on them, and are old, and pristine and just... perfect. It IS everything they say. It's perfect in Paris.

After checking into our hotel, and having dinner, we headed into the city for a city tour. We stopped at the Hotel d' les Invalides, behind which is the golden dome of St. Jerome's, where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried. It was beautiful. See? This is my "I'm in Paris!!" pose.

Then, of course, the Eiffel Tower. We just saw it from a distance, but it was still everything I'd ever thought it would be. Just... perfect.

The awkward lighting in the picture doesn't do it justice, I promise.

After our city tour, the bus dropped us off in the Latin Quarter, where a bunch of us went out. It ended up being a great night, drinking wine in Paris and being classy. We ended up at this random bar decorated with bras (classy, like I said) with this guy who is a reality star in Denmark (it's true, I Googled it) and this herd of guys from Norway. I was salsa dancing in Paris (which is secretly Miami, I think) with a dude from Norway. How many people can say that? It was a fun, fun night.

The next day we went into the city and had a photo stop at the Arc de Triomphe and then on to the palace at Versailles, another golden wonder. It was first built as a hunting lodge under Louis XIII, then became a palace under Louis XIV. Louis XVI was the last king to live there, with his wife Marie Antoinette. The palace exterior is being restored, but it was still beautiful. And the inside? Indescribable. My eyes were not enough to behold it--every inch, every corner, every nook and cranny, contained something beautiful. This was not the first time I felt this way in Paris. Next time I go, I'm going to try and figure out what is better or more effective than simple eyes, because they were just not adequate to take in everything I wanted to see. It was truly amazing.

That evening we had an optional outing to the Moulin Rouge, where we ate dinner and watched a show. I knew I'd be dissapointed if I didn't go, so I went. In all honesty, it was just okay. It was basically a bunch of girls dancing topless and a bunch of ripped gay dudes WEARING TURTLENECKS!!! Can a girl get some abs or something? Let's get serious! There was a set of... balancers? Gymnasts? A girl and a dude who do handstands and stuff, basically, and the dude did a sit up with the girl doing a handstand on his palms, and that was pretty hot, but other than that, the show was kind of a let down. I did dance (salsa and Kylee Minogue) at the Moulin Rouge, so that was something.

The next day was our free day in Paris, where we could just do whatever we wanted. We got dropped off at the Eiffel Tower for a hearty morning climb. After 668 steps...

There I was at the top. I was at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. While, I think, most people dream of doing that, I actually did it. I dreamed it but never thought it would happen--not really. And suddenly, there I was. And it was beautiful. Paris, in all of its pristine sparkling glory, was spread out before me.

For a few short minutes, the whole world seemed like it was mine.

After the Tower, a group of us walked along the Seine to Notre Dame, another of Paris' beautiful structures. The cathedral is awe-inspiring, and it's hard to believe that something that big and that beautiful was built so long ago. We don't make anything like that anymore, and we have all the technology in the world at our disposal. Again, my eyes were not enough to absorb fully what I was seeing. Plus I got to thinking--how many people had stood where I was standing, in complete and total awe of not only the building, but the God it was built for? It was a moving experience.

Anyway, here I am outside Notre Dame.

The final stop on my one day whirlwind tour of Paris was the Louvre. A person could literally spend three years there and not see everything properly, so I just saw the biggies--The Mona Lisa and the Venus di Milo. I also saw this amazing sculpture called Winged Victory that was amazing. Anyway, the Louvre is MASSIVE and (like everything else in Paris) beautiful and now I can say I've been there. I think I'd have to actually live in Paris to see the whole thing.

The coolest part of the building is the entrance, which is under this giant glass pyramid. It's very cool.

See? Told ya.

Our last night, we took the bus up to Montmartre, the highest point in the city, and ate dinner. I had escargot for the first time, and discovered it was DELICIOUS. The best part is the shot of buttery snail juice that stays in the shell. Yum! After dinner, we spied on Paris at night, and I took this amazing shot of the Eiffel Tower completely by accident.

I went out for a while our last night in Paris but had to get up early to catch the chunnel back into London. I discovered on my last night out, that dudes from Paris kind of smell gross. Um... eeww. But besides that, Paris was just a dream, and if you'd like to see the rest of my photos, click here.

I headed back to London for a couple more days before my class in Oxford. I went to the Evensong service at Westminster Abbey. I ended up crying for about 20 minutes because I just kept thinking that, somewhere in that building, Queen Elizabeth I was there, listening, and probably HAD listened to this same liturgy hundreds of years ago. I kept thinking about how many other people had listened to the liturgy I was now experiencing, and, again, I was moved deeply. Call me a nerd or what have you, but it was a moving experience. After service I walked around the city and saw Big Ben, had some shepard's pie at a little diner, and headed back to my room, an old courthouse turned into a hostel. I needed a good, long, night's sleep after a week of acting like a rock star in London and Paris.

The next day I headed to Buckinham palace to see the changing of the guards ceremony. Here I am outside the gates of the palace.

It was a bit misty, but I camped out next to a nice American military family and watched through the bars. Basically it was a bunch of stomping, pomp, and circumstance, but still cool to see. My favorite part was the guy playing trombone who was messing with his music while everyone else was at attention. It was amazing.

After that, I headed to the British Museum (free!) and saw only a part of it because a) I was tired and almost took a nap there, and b) I had a Jack the Ripper tour at 6. The museum was massive but interesting, and my Jack the Ripper tour was informative and gruesome. Our tour guide was this super old guy, a former Shakespearean actor, and he was brilliant. The tour was pretty cool, I must say, and that brought a close to my time in London. The next day, I caught a train to Oxford. To see the rest of my pictures from my first few days in London, check out my album on Facebook or click here. The second set of pictures are on FB as well, and the album is here.

My train to Oxford was pretty uneventful, and I arrived just in time to walk across the entire town (yes, I did) with my GIANT backpack. St. Catherine's, the college where we were learning and staying, is almost off the map from the train station, but I managed to find it without too many problems.

I arrived and checked in, right before the people who were already there went out to lunch together. I joined them and met the first of my classmates. At first, I was intimidated because they all seemed like uber history nerds and I'm some wet-behind-the-ears English teacher, but it all worked out. There were quite a few people my age, although they were guys, and I ended up having a wonderful week.

Each day was spent in class, two lectures in the morning, time for our projects after lunch, and then a guest lecturer before dinner. I didn't really understand much of the lectures--the style was very different from what we're used to hearing and doing in the States, and they were a bit over my head, even though I did (most of) the reading. The evenings were spent, aptly, at the pub.

The document project, our task for the week, was really no sweat and I managed to finish it in two days, leaving afternoons open for exploration. We walked around the town, our Graduate Assistant David gave us a super-secret-all-access student tour where I saw the tree Lewis Carroll "saw" the white rabbit pop out of and was inspired to write Alice in Wonderland. I saw the Hogwarts' Hospital wing, or at least where they filmed it. I nearly passed out it was so amazing. I saw the Bodlein library and the Christ Church library (old, old, sexy books), Corpus Christi's campus... All kinds of old buildings. The amazing thing about Oxford, or one of them, is that Hitler never bombed in during WWII because he saw it as the new seat of government. That means that some stuff in Oxford is OLD... SUPER OLD. It's awesome.

It rained a lot when we were there, but it allowed us to see beautiful things like this double rainbow:

You can barely see the second one above the first, but it was seriously cool. I've never seen a double rainbow before. The rain was also a contender in our punting adventure, but I rallied some troops, and we punted anyway.

Punting is the bastard child of canoeing and being in a gondola--it's a long, flat-bottomed boat that you pilot with a stick. Apparently, it's an Oxford/Cambridge thing. It's how all the scholarly men of Oxford woo the ladies, I guess. It was a pretty cool experience, and I can see its wooing potential. It was a lovely trip down the river, especially when it stopped raining and I got my hands on a bottle of beer. :)

Here's a picture of me and a punt, clearly not the one I actually rode in.

Two of the pubs we went to had an English nerd history--one, the Half Moon, is where Seamus Heaney goes when he's in town (amazing!). The Eagle and Child is where J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis met every Tuesday to drink beer and discuss writing and life. I sat in the room where they sat. It. Was. Spectacular! And our last night out we began at a pub called The Turf, which was, like, ye oldest pub in Oxford or something, and this British boy recited the "St. Crispin's Day/Band of Brothers" speech to me from Shakespeare's Henry V. It was all I wanted in life. *sigh*

I also saw Harry Potter in Oxford, which was super cool because a) Hogwarts is based on Oxford and b) there's a scene that takes place in London at the beginning, and I was thinking, "I TOTALLY just walked across that bridge last week!" It was super cool. :D

My time in Oxford was magical and I would love to study there. It's a beautiful, learned place. I would love to just... be there. Just be. I totally fell in love.

The rest of my Oxford photos are here.

I left Oxford on a train, and got back to London an hour later than expected, due to a "death on the tracks." Someone had, presumably, killed themselves on the track and so we spent about an hour going back and forth before finally coninuing on to London. I had planned to go to Harrods for tea and a look around, but went to my hostel instead, repacked my bag, and met up with some people from class for dinner in Covent Garden, complete with street entertainment. I was craving pizza hardcore, and, lucky me, I got it. It was a great ending to a magical, educational, perfect trip.

And of course, no trip to London is complete without the obligatory Harry Potter picture. So I'll leave you with this...

Much love, or as they say in London, cheers.

The Little SALTT Camp that Could (aka, "Bootleg SALTT Camp")

I am currently fighting a plague of some sort, brought about by a week with little sleep and snotty-nosed kids of various shapes, sizes, and ages. Please forgive me if I make no sense. My brain seems to be trying to escape through my left nostril, while simultaneously trying to explode out my forehead. It's awesome, trust me.

As many of you know, SALTT camp was last week. SALTT is a club at our school (Service And Leadership for Today and Tomorrow) that ministers to Guatemalan children of Mayan descent, most of whom are illegals. They had to flee from Guatemala because of their ethnicity--the government doesn't want them so they have to get out, or, in some cases, die. Our kids put on a camp for them for one week during the summer and our goal is to not only teach them about God, but to show them that education and good choices can open up a world for them that seems closed. But the biggest, most important thing we do, is love these kids who are told, time and time again, that they are unlovable.

While camp is stressful, sleep-deprived haze of children and crafts, the mission of what we're doing is important and so I go, to participate and to witness.

This year's camp was slightly "bootleg" as timing and weather prevented our first two field trips from being what they could have been. It was kind of the running joke throughout the week. We did make it to bowling (for what seemed like 10 hours...) and the water park so all was well in the end. EXCEPT that at the water park, we found out about the death of Michael Jackson. RIP, Moonwalker.

The day of the water park, Thursday, was uber traumatizing. Not only did MJ die, but I called my friend Drew to de-stress and he told me about Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon. PLUS I was having a nervous breakdown over the way the lady in charge runs things (which I went to camp knowing would happen) and I basically couldn't take it anymore.

Funny story: I'm in the back of my car with three ILS alum. One, the only guy, is driving because I couldn't take his back seat driving anymore (yes, I actually pulled the car over and got out mid-trip), another is in the front seat with a bum ankle, and the third is in the back seat with me, offering me her hand for comfort. The three girls are, like, bitching about everything, basically, and the poor guy didn't know what was happening. I think we may have destroyed his life. lol. This SALTT camp also highlighted something I've known to be true for quite some time: I have a SUPER awkward life. Like, seriously awkward. Case in point: on Tuesday morning, two random guys (CUTE guys, too) show up to camp after breakfast. I a) look like a homeless person b) am not wearing any make up and c) have HUGE bags under my eyes from lack of sleep. Needless to say, I was not looking or feeling very presentable so I avoided these two guys. I said hi, but otherwise avoided them like the plague. But Father Frank, like, corners me and makes me introduce myself to them. I was like, "I already said hi mumble, mumble, I gotta go." I went back to the library (where the girls sleep) and made myself more presentable, then went to find out what these dudes were about. Turns out they were in town for a deportation case, they were "doing a story" on it and they had heard about camp through Father Frank, who they'd heard of because of the case. They were cool guys, or seemed to be, so whatever.

So a little bit later, I'm in the library writing names on bags (trust me, it was VERY important) and the camp director comes in going, "Have you seen Father Frank?" I reply, "He's probably with those guys." Then I hear, "You mean us guys?" Yeah... they were there, in the doorway. Awwwwesome. At least I didn't say, "He's probalby walking around with those hotties" 'cause yeah, that would've been more awkward. And if all that wasn't bad enough, Father Frank and D insisted they get my phone number for NO reason AND they talked to the guys about me like I wasn't even in the room but I WAS SITTING RIGHT THERE! I wanted to sink into the floorboards, for SURE.

And let's not neglect my final awkward story. I was called a boy THREE times during camp. Twice it was by kids, so whatever, I can deal. In their culture, much like the culture of Miami, girls don't have short hair. So they see short hair, and they assume that person is a boy. Okay, fine. I can deal. But then I go to Walgreens to get stuff for the poor sprained ankle (see above) and I'm checking out, and the guy goes, totally unprompted, "Uh, like, don't take offense but, uh, I thought you were a dude for, like, two seconds." Um... Really? REALLY guy who works at Wallgreens? WHY did you feel the need to share that?! Did I ASK you? Did you call me "sir"? No. AWKWARD! More so for him than for me, really. Whatever. In his defense, though, I did look like a homeless person.

Sadly, that was my second adventure at Walgreens during camp. The first adventure, whose point I cannot at this time recall, was funny only because I found this:

Had it not been $20, I would have bought that hot little number and worn it every day. Aww yeah!

Our fieldtrips were, as I said previously, pretty bootleg, but we did manage to make it to the water park for a good three hours and I spent my time there with Aileen who is so sweet and lovely. Here we are after an afternoon of waterslides.
At the end of the week, the kids put on a little show. They have singing, drama, and dance classes throughout the week, and they all culminate in the show, which was Alice In Wonderland this year. The show is always a shortened, dare I say bootleg, version of the real thing, but it goes along with the theme which was uniqueness. After the show, we always do a group picture, and here it is. You can barely see anyone, but trust me, I'm there in the bottom left corner, with Selvin and Domingo on my lap.

Selvin, I decided, is my child, not only because he's cute as heck, but because his last name is also Garcia. Clearly, meant to be mine.
After the show we have a carnival and then the kids leave on the bus, just as they do every day previous. But on the last day, the big kids follow the bus nearly into the street. It's really touching. Here's what it looks like.

All in all it was a great week, although I wish I could have gotten more sleep and I wish I could tell D how to run it more efficiently and smoothly. But I know if I tell her, it won't really matter, so that sucks. Anyway, this last photo is my favorite of camp. Ana Lourdes (another Ms. Garcia and memeber of the English department) took it and when I saw it the first time, it brought tears to my eyes. I just love it...

I think it says so much about the camp experience--it's all about hands. Two hands, reaching toward each other, trying to hold on for a minute.

On the way back from camp I almost got into a serious car accident because the road was wet and this IDIOT of EPIC proportions decided to come into my lane (FALSE) and I slowed down and moved to the next lane but lost control and slid across four lanes, ending up facing oncoming traffic in a ditch. It was scary and horrible, but luckily no one was around so I didn't get hit, I didn't hit anything, and both me and Georgia (my car) are fine. I was pretty shaken up, but I made it home and Tanya, my savior, picked me up for our friends' going away party. I am clearly a rock star.

Monday night I drove up to Ft. Lauderdale to have dinner with Annie, which was nice, and then Tuesday I had lunch at Five Guys, which, apparently, is super famous but I've never been. Let's just say I WILL be going again! It was delicious!

This week has been devoted to researching London, finishing up travel plans, watching Hugh Grant movies, and healing myself from this awful plague. I leave for London tomorrow... I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!

One final FYI--my church is doing a competition to promote their summer series called At the Movies. Congregants had to remake scenes from a famous movie, and my friend Yesi and I couldn't resist. Here's what we made--check it out! The video with the most hits is the winner so watch, watch, watch and tell your friends!

Much love!