Once again, so many fun things to report for the last couple of days! So Tuesday was National Pancake day here, so a group of us went out to a little Dutch place to get pancakes, where I had the biggest pancake I've ever seen in my life.
I'm not joking, that plate took up like half of the table. Then, that afternoon I went to celebrate Mardi Gras with my good friend Rose in flat 2. She cooked the most delicious pot of gumbo I've ever had in my life (sorry mummy, but her gumbo has surpassed your recipe) and we enjoyed some leisure time just hanging out and chatting.
After that I went and got all dolled up to go to the opera La Boheme at Royal Albert Hall, and I had just about the biggest blonde moment of my life when I was watching the ending and thought, "Oh my gosh, this story is such a frigging soap opera--oh." So yeah, that made me laugh at myself.
On Wednesday we started the day off by sleeping in (just a bit) and boarding the bus at 8:00am to go see the JFK memorial and the Magna Carta Signing memorial out in Runnymead. We had to walk across a muddy field and then hike up a hill to get to them, and I don't think I've seen anything more lovely than the first signs of spring that greeted us there. The birds that sing here remind me of the ones I hear in my secret park back home, but the sound seems infinitely sweeter here for some reason. I can't help but smile from ear to ear whenever I go for a walk outside now.
After a short visit there, we headed on over to jolly old Windsor Castle!
I kept humming Without You from My Fair Lady to myself all day as I walked around the castle (you know, the song where she basically tells 'Enry 'Iggins to suck it and that "Windsor castle will stand without you!").
As we were waiting in line to get through security (which is like airport security), I had a serious moment of panic when I remembered that I had a pocket knife in my bag (think what you like, but there have been numerous occasions in which it has proved most useful to have with me). I thought for sure I was going to get police-tackled, arrested, and thrown into the London Tower to be beheaded. Fortunately I got through without any problems, so that was a relief.
Once we got through security, we got into the castle just in time to see the changing of the guard. The band came marching through the streets of Windsor and through the gate into the castle courtyard. After doing some ceremonial stuff, the band started to play a medley of Mamma Mia. I kid you not.
One fun thing that everyone got excited about was that apparently there was a portrait of a queen in the castle who looked just like me. I couldn't see the resemblance, but everyone else insists it looked just like me *shrug.* After our lovely tour of the castle (which we were forbidden to take any photos of inside), Betsy, Briona, Molly and I all went and had a little lunch in a cute picnic area down an alley just outside the castle.
Windsor is such a charming little town full of all kinds of adorable Tudor-style shops and homes, so just walking around seeing everything was a real treat.
From there we rode out to a churchyard where Thomas Gray wrote his famous poem Elegy Written in a Churchyard, where there is a memorial erected to him.
(I forced Betsy to let me take a picture of her adorable rain boots)
The memorial was out in the middle of a field next to the churchyard on this island thing, kind of like it was on a raised platform. We were able to climb the fence and walk up to it, and it has one of the poems written by Thomas Gray inscribed on it.
That churchyard was hands down the prettiest cemetery I've ever seen. Everything there is covered in ivy and moss, and because spring is tiptoeing in here, there are wildflowers blooming all over the graves and grounds. Trees grow wild with low-hanging branches that give the place a sense of undisturbed rest.
I felt like today was Jenna's day (Jenna is one of my adorable friends who shares my habit of using almost any word or phrase to break out into a song). She was thrilled about visiting the churchyard because she loves Thomas Gray, and our next stop was none other than Milton's cottage (yes, the Milton who wrote Paradise Lost and Paradise Found). I think Jenna was even more excited about this than the churchyard, so that was fun to see her so happy :)
We had the absolute most delightfully sweet museum curator who was about as British as you can get introduce us to the place, and I seriously wanted to just adopt him as my new grandfather. One fun fact he shared with Jenna and me was that one of Milton's books they keep in this cottage is worth £20,000 a page!
After that we got home early by like 5:30, so we all pretty much spent the rest of the evening doing homework and relaxing.
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