So, I'm back in America -- the land of the free and home of the brave! I'm actually quite happy to be home. I didn't realize how much I missed my friends and family while I was travelling like a mad woman around England. My trip was so blessed. Although on any trip there is frustration and exhaustion, you forget about that when you get home and all you can remember are the good times. So, in honor of that principle, I'm going to recount some of the fabulous moments of this trip right now:
1) Hearing "Glasgow Love Theme" played from the piano in the Great Hall while walking through the manor on Friday. Spenser and I were just walking around, and all of a sudden I hear one of the only songs I can play on the piano [from one of my favorite movies, Love Actually] trickling through the state rooms from the Great Hall. I got all teary-eyed [because I just do that sometimes] and just sat down and listened from the Gold Room. Then she started playing Titanic and that made me even happier.
2) Seeing London from the plane on the flight in. That brought tears to my eyes. If you know me very well, you know that I've always had a slight obession with London & England in general. I have no idea where it came from or how it developed, but having the opportunity to go there seriously meant the world to me. Seeing it for the first time, even if I wasn't to go back there for a week and a half, made it all very real to me.
3) Coventry Cathedral [the new version]. This was the first place we went, besides Harlaxton, and it was absolutely beautiful. The cathedral was more modern, built in the 60's, and all I could think about was being able to sing in a worship space like it. This was one of the only cathedrals we actually got to explore where it felt like people still worshipped there.
4) "The Goose" on Saturday night. It was just a fun night out in Grantham -- very chill. Lots of laughs. I didn't take my camera, which I regret, but I didn't want to lose it.
5) V8 & Uno.
6) Skyping with Mom for the first time. She was so excited to see me through the computer. It baffled her completely that technology allowed her to do this. SO funny. She kept making faces and being stupid because she could see herself.
7) Discussing all the different reasons why Jenn did not have skin cancer. One of my roommates on the trip was partially a hypochondriac, and one night I had to convince her that the bug bite on her leg was not skin cancer. This was a continuous battle that created lots of laughs.
8) Sardines. This was one of the most intense games of sardines of my life, considering Harlaxton is huge and there are 5 ways to get everywhere and like a million places you can hide. PLUS, it was super creepy since we were the only people there. I hid up in our classroom & I could have peed my pants until someone finally got up there to hide with me. We were barefoot and running like children around that place -- so funny.
9) "Out on the winding, windy moors" -- Oh, Kate Bush. The moors were beautiful and scary -- I can't even imagine having to navigate through that area without any sort of road or landmark. It was broad daylight and I couldn't see anything in the tall grass. Rocks, bogs, etc. The sky was low and brooding, and it was a summer day. Add snow and illegitimate shoes, no wonder these people had a low life expectancy.
10) Newstead Abbey's dress up room. Kaitlyn Fouts' picture. Also, the May Pole at Mary Arden's Farm. Completely irrelevant experiences, but both full of side-splitting laughter.
11) The wedding set up at Harlaxton -- so beautiful.
12) Mastering the London Underground
13) Telling people to put their "tired" away until we got on the plane because I didn't want to hear their complaints anymore. Eek, I guess my smartass got the best of me.
14) The London Eye. I am totally scared of heights, so this was a huge feat for me. I wouldn't stand close to the glass though until we got to the top -- no idea why this was the point that I was actually okay with it. It was absolutely beautiful though. Note: this was still the first day that I was in London, so it was insanely surreal. The view was baffling.
15) The pink room at Belvoir Castle. I may have to emulate that in my own home one day.
16) Spenser feeding me grapes at our picnic at the Tolethorpe Theater. I've never laughed so hard in my life. I was so insanely embarrassed.
17) Being spotted by Dr. Motley every single time I did something stupid. I swear, he saw me every time I found myself either acting like an idiot or having a realization that I should have understood from the beginning. For example, St. Paul's is Anglican [Church of England], not Catholic. Duh. I should have known this considering the whole Henry VIII thing, Reformation, etc. It didn't even cross my mind.
I was also spotted when a child ran into my purse and started crying. Everyone thought I hit him, but I didn't! I felt absolutely terribly though and all the blood rushed to my face. I was so embarrassed. Then later that day, I was walking through the catwalk onto the flight to Nashville and in a singsong voice, I was saying "We're almost there lalalala" and just giddy that we were finally just one flight away from being home, and I turned the corner and ran into someone. I turned around and of COURSE Dr. Motley is laughing at me and turns around to Spenser and asked him if he saw it.
18) The waiter at Garfunkel's who sang Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" as he swiped our cards. It was playing in the restaurant, and I asked him if he liked Queen. He said yes and asked if I had seen the musical. Apparently in England there is a musical called "We Will Rock You." I considered it, but decided to buy clothes and a purse instead.
19) The creepy waiter at the cafe across the street from our nasty hotel [sidenote: found a full fake eyelash in my bed. I don't even want to talk about it.]. He told us that it was one of those days where you wish you had stayed in bed all day. I don't know why this is significant, but I thought it was funny. I brought Kaitlyn back over there to get a coke and he was "happy" I brought more customers. It was amusing.
20) All the tour guides! Chin-haired lady at Cambridge, Brisk-walker Terry at Oxford, Too-much-info woman at Southwell Workhouse, I'm-an-Actress Lady at the Globe, "This is a private tour, please go over there" Lady at York Minster, Russian Lady at Belvoir, Very-cute-&-knowledgeable Punter on the Cam, Nose-scruncher/Looked-like-Nanny lady at the Bronte Parsonage, etc.
--
This trip was just SUCH an amazing experience. Regardless of how many times I set my timer for 3 more minutes of sleep or was crammed into the mini-bus driven by Ziggy, shoulder-to-shoulder with Spens, about to kill someone if I didn't get to stand up, the good experiences were tenfold. I could talk for days about this, and I probably will. I'm so glad I was able to do this...I'm so insanely blessed.
1) Hearing "Glasgow Love Theme" played from the piano in the Great Hall while walking through the manor on Friday. Spenser and I were just walking around, and all of a sudden I hear one of the only songs I can play on the piano [from one of my favorite movies, Love Actually] trickling through the state rooms from the Great Hall. I got all teary-eyed [because I just do that sometimes] and just sat down and listened from the Gold Room. Then she started playing Titanic and that made me even happier.
2) Seeing London from the plane on the flight in. That brought tears to my eyes. If you know me very well, you know that I've always had a slight obession with London & England in general. I have no idea where it came from or how it developed, but having the opportunity to go there seriously meant the world to me. Seeing it for the first time, even if I wasn't to go back there for a week and a half, made it all very real to me.
3) Coventry Cathedral [the new version]. This was the first place we went, besides Harlaxton, and it was absolutely beautiful. The cathedral was more modern, built in the 60's, and all I could think about was being able to sing in a worship space like it. This was one of the only cathedrals we actually got to explore where it felt like people still worshipped there.
4) "The Goose" on Saturday night. It was just a fun night out in Grantham -- very chill. Lots of laughs. I didn't take my camera, which I regret, but I didn't want to lose it.
5) V8 & Uno.
6) Skyping with Mom for the first time. She was so excited to see me through the computer. It baffled her completely that technology allowed her to do this. SO funny. She kept making faces and being stupid because she could see herself.
7) Discussing all the different reasons why Jenn did not have skin cancer. One of my roommates on the trip was partially a hypochondriac, and one night I had to convince her that the bug bite on her leg was not skin cancer. This was a continuous battle that created lots of laughs.
8) Sardines. This was one of the most intense games of sardines of my life, considering Harlaxton is huge and there are 5 ways to get everywhere and like a million places you can hide. PLUS, it was super creepy since we were the only people there. I hid up in our classroom & I could have peed my pants until someone finally got up there to hide with me. We were barefoot and running like children around that place -- so funny.
9) "Out on the winding, windy moors" -- Oh, Kate Bush. The moors were beautiful and scary -- I can't even imagine having to navigate through that area without any sort of road or landmark. It was broad daylight and I couldn't see anything in the tall grass. Rocks, bogs, etc. The sky was low and brooding, and it was a summer day. Add snow and illegitimate shoes, no wonder these people had a low life expectancy.
10) Newstead Abbey's dress up room. Kaitlyn Fouts' picture. Also, the May Pole at Mary Arden's Farm. Completely irrelevant experiences, but both full of side-splitting laughter.
11) The wedding set up at Harlaxton -- so beautiful.
12) Mastering the London Underground
13) Telling people to put their "tired" away until we got on the plane because I didn't want to hear their complaints anymore. Eek, I guess my smartass got the best of me.
14) The London Eye. I am totally scared of heights, so this was a huge feat for me. I wouldn't stand close to the glass though until we got to the top -- no idea why this was the point that I was actually okay with it. It was absolutely beautiful though. Note: this was still the first day that I was in London, so it was insanely surreal. The view was baffling.
15) The pink room at Belvoir Castle. I may have to emulate that in my own home one day.
16) Spenser feeding me grapes at our picnic at the Tolethorpe Theater. I've never laughed so hard in my life. I was so insanely embarrassed.
17) Being spotted by Dr. Motley every single time I did something stupid. I swear, he saw me every time I found myself either acting like an idiot or having a realization that I should have understood from the beginning. For example, St. Paul's is Anglican [Church of England], not Catholic. Duh. I should have known this considering the whole Henry VIII thing, Reformation, etc. It didn't even cross my mind.
I was also spotted when a child ran into my purse and started crying. Everyone thought I hit him, but I didn't! I felt absolutely terribly though and all the blood rushed to my face. I was so embarrassed. Then later that day, I was walking through the catwalk onto the flight to Nashville and in a singsong voice, I was saying "We're almost there lalalala" and just giddy that we were finally just one flight away from being home, and I turned the corner and ran into someone. I turned around and of COURSE Dr. Motley is laughing at me and turns around to Spenser and asked him if he saw it.
18) The waiter at Garfunkel's who sang Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" as he swiped our cards. It was playing in the restaurant, and I asked him if he liked Queen. He said yes and asked if I had seen the musical. Apparently in England there is a musical called "We Will Rock You." I considered it, but decided to buy clothes and a purse instead.
19) The creepy waiter at the cafe across the street from our nasty hotel [sidenote: found a full fake eyelash in my bed. I don't even want to talk about it.]. He told us that it was one of those days where you wish you had stayed in bed all day. I don't know why this is significant, but I thought it was funny. I brought Kaitlyn back over there to get a coke and he was "happy" I brought more customers. It was amusing.
20) All the tour guides! Chin-haired lady at Cambridge, Brisk-walker Terry at Oxford, Too-much-info woman at Southwell Workhouse, I'm-an-Actress Lady at the Globe, "This is a private tour, please go over there" Lady at York Minster, Russian Lady at Belvoir, Very-cute-&-knowledgeable Punter on the Cam, Nose-scruncher/Looked-like-Nanny lady at the Bronte Parsonage, etc.
--
This trip was just SUCH an amazing experience. Regardless of how many times I set my timer for 3 more minutes of sleep or was crammed into the mini-bus driven by Ziggy, shoulder-to-shoulder with Spens, about to kill someone if I didn't get to stand up, the good experiences were tenfold. I could talk for days about this, and I probably will. I'm so glad I was able to do this...I'm so insanely blessed.
Great job at blogging, Sarah. I have really enjoyed following you via pictures as you posted them. And I can appreciate your issues with "not believing you were really in London/England". Going to London/England and Ireland is on the top of my "bucket list" too. I am hoping and praying I am able to go in my lifetime. Thanks for sharing all your pics. Margie <><
ReplyDeleteAww, Sarah!!! I miss our trip so much!! Reading this made me smile, laugh, and want to cry. Especially when you mentioned talking Jen out of her having skin cancer and the Goose. Best time of my life :)
ReplyDeleteHave a great senior year!
Noelle