Viva la France!!!

Well, that title may be a little misleading, because technically I was only on French land for about an hour. French waters.. . .um. . .not sure.
So yesterday, Saturday, I decided to visit the south of England, so I took the train down to Dover. It is about a 3 hour trip, with the train changes and everything. The first place I went to in Dover was the castle. It is magnificent! Good word, huh. It's a 13th century castle, but has been used even as recently as WW II when the British used the secret underground tunnels for a hospital and operation centers. It's amazing. . .the famous white cliffs of dover are made of a chalky rock substance, so it makes it relatively easy to burrow in the cliffs, so in addition to the medieval and napoleonic tunnels, they made I think one more layer of tunnels. It was very interesting. They wouldn't let us take pictures while in the tunnels, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was neat.
I didn't spend as much time at the castle as I would have liked, but it is enormous and I had to get to the port to jump on my ferry. I took the ferry over to Calais, so I could say that I've been to France, but really it's starting to be a hassle to travel outside of Britain because every time I come back I have to fill out this lame "landing card" and then be interrogated by the immigration office where they all ask me the same questions. . .how long will you be here. . .what are you doing, etc. Yesterday, when I told him I was doing a summer school at Cambridge, he asked, "what does that entail?" I bit back my sarcastic remark. . .and answered, well, studying? Anyway.
The ferry is so cool. I mean, I love the ocean anyway, but this boat is huge and like a cruise ship inside. I spent most of the time on the observation deck though, in the cold wind with the sea spray in my face. Rock on! I loved it. On the way back, it was super windy and the water had gotten choppier, and as you can see from the picture it was darker, so I had to take a picture of myself with my awesome frizzy-ness blowing in the wind. Probably one of the best pictures in history. So. The picture taken by someone else (also with frizzy-ness) is on the way TO France, the one I took of myself is on the way from.
I realized once I got to France that I was too tired to try and find my way around by going into town, because even though I'm sure most speak english, I don't speak French and didn't want to mess with it. Plus did I mention I was tired?
The ride on the train back was uneventful, except I found the Hogwarts platform 9 3/4 at the Kings Cross station, which was cool. It's so fun to travel on the weekend, but it's so tiring too! I know, my life is hard.
Until next time! Wish me luck as I am finishing my paper on "Hamlet". . .this first term is almost over, which means that I'm almost done! Don't get too excited!
PS. . .the picture of the river and the bridge is the Cam river here in Cambridge. Beautiful!

Don't you wish that I didn't write so much?

Today after church I went with my friend Ruth (who is one of the BYU students studying at Kings College) to the Kings College Chapel, which is said to be ranked a special number out of all of the British Chapels. But I don't know how special. . .but it is breathtaking.
It's different in architecture from the Canterbury cathedral because it has "fan buttresses" instead of the typical buttresses, making for a really pretty design on the ceiling. It's a good thing I don't go to church here because my neck would hurt from always looking up.
The Kings Chapel was started in the 15th century, commissioned by King Henry VI, I believe, and it took about 90 years to build. It, like the other chapels, has really pretty stained glass windows and hand carved wood and stone work. It also has a pretty controversial altar piece by Rubens; it was really pretty but I couldn't take a picture of it.
I dare somebody to count how many times I used the word "pretty" in this post.
IT'S SO PRETTY!!!

Canterbury Cathedral. . .8/4/07

This was an awesome trip because all I had to do was get on the bus and follow the train. It was so nice not to have to be staring at a map or making sure I'm getting on the right train and such. It was a pretty long train ride to Canterbury, which is in Kent, about 2 1/2 hours away from Cambridge. But that was on a bus. . .of course the bus and taxi drivers here think they're driving sports cars. . .anyway, it's southeast, relatively close to Dover. The town is small, but it's a huge tourist attraction because of its medieval cathedral and ancient roman ruins. [editor's note: there is a fire somewhere because it smells like smoke. But I don't think it's my dorm, so don't worry. If it is, I'll keep you posted. I just needed to comment on it.] The streets are super narrow with charming stone roads and beautiful old buildings, and it's really interesting to note that the gate to the cathedral is in the middle of a line of stores. But the gate was there first, ok? The cathedral is enormous. It always blows me away to look at these huge buildings, but not just because they're aesthetically pleasing, but to think about how they were made thousands of years before cranes and steel and hard hats. And all the craftsmanship is done by hand, which makes it so much more amazing. The cathedral started out as a smaller wooden castle, then upgraded to a stone church, and then added on for a monastery, with a couple more wings added here and the roof raised there. . . but it looks so consistent. The ceiling in the main nave, which is the long narrow part of the cathedral, has these un-real super high vaulted ceilings with beautiful flying buttresses. We had a guided tour that lasted about an hour and a half, but then I spent another thirty minutes wandering around. There are so many stories and great history associated with the building, but I won't get into it here because I already write too much; suffice it to say that I was enthralled.
I tried to take a picture of myself to prove to you that I was there, but it didn't work very well because I'm not very tall and my arms are pretty short.
I ate my subway sandwich (I broke my promise again because it was cheap---er) in the plaza out in front of the gate, where I was serenaded by a guitarist, a violinist, and then two guys on guitars. Luckily, they all took their turns and didn't play at the same time. I wonder if there is a sign up sheet to perform (and put your hat out for coins) in the plaza? I should see about that because I can sing "Sweet Home Alabama" just as well as they can. The violinist was really good though.
Before we met to take the bus home, I went into the cathedral for "Evensong," which is an evening church service. I wanted to hear the music there, and it turned out to be a choir from Christ's Church University in Kentucky. I think. Pretty random, but it was absolutely astounding. I could only stay for 15 minutes, but I'm glad I did. So pretty.

Hangin' with Jane. . .8/3/07

Hey y'all. So. Friday we didn't have class because it was the end of Term I and a lot of people went home, so I thought I'd head to the southwest quarter of the country and visit Jane Austen's home and maybe Bath. I was on the train to Alton, (Jane lived in Chawton. . .about 2 miles away,) but this man decided to kill himself in front of my train. . .so we were on the tracks for about an hour and a half while they took care of everything, including inspecting the train for damage. It was pretty crazy and not only did it mess up my time-frames, but it put a damper on the activities. Know what I mean? So don't ever jump in front of a train. It was sad, though. BUT, then when I got to Jane's house, it was cool. They have turned it into a museum, as they do with many many old houses here, and have a lot of things that belonged to her and her family. It was cool to see things like quilts that she made with her mom and sisters and the writing table she used to write at. And like most of the houses here, the rooms were small but it was beautiful.
I didn't have time to go to Bath, but the train ride home was uneventful, which was nice. I love riding the trains because I get to see so much of the English country side. I wish I could take good pictures off the train, but they never work out. You'll just have to trust me when I say it is beautiful. Unless you don't want to trust me, then you can come see for yourself.
PS. Just so you know, the lady in the picture is just a mannequin, not Jane. However, the embroidered collar on the wall behind the beautiful woman statue is said to have been made by Ms. Austen.

Wait. . .there's more.

I just want to tell you of the exciting night I had on my way back to England from Denmark. So my flight was supposed to leave at 10:45 pm, but it was delayed until midnight. The flight was about an 1:50 minutes long, and I knew I would probably miss my scheduled bus back to the college. But I was positive there would be another one.
Unfortunately, due to the customs line, which lasted over an hour because they only had two workers and spent half an hour on two people. . .no joke, I missed the second one. The not-so-nice lady at the closed bus desk said there wouldn't be another bus until 4:55 in the morning.
So I spent the night at the Stansted airport. It wasn't awesome. I almost took a picture of myself leaning on my luggage in the rockin' plastic chairs, but it was even too pathetic for me.
Good times!

Denmark--last day

What an amazing day Sunday was. That morning we went into Viborg and saw the south sea, the cathedral, and this beautiful lake that I can't remember the name of right now. The cathedral was so pretty, with amazing architecture and windows. The coolest thing though, were the paintings that covered the walls and ceilings. Beautiful. I climbed the turret, which was a bit creepy with the creaky stairs, but the view of the city and lake was so, you guessed it, beautiful. I need to get out my thesaurus. It was overcast and raining at home when we got back for lunch, but we were determined to continue with our final destination. After a really great nap, we headed out.
On our way to the airport, we stopped in the small town of Helstrup, near Randers, where my Grandma's mother, Karoline Lang Simonsen, grew up. We had pictures of the old house she lived in, as well as some other old buildings. We didn't know what we would find, if anything, but we were hopeful. We pulled into the town and found what we thought could be the house, which was right below the town church. We went up to the church and looked in the graveyard for any family headstones. We didn't know if there would be anything, because I guess in Denmark after so many years they remove the old headstones and use them for paving the roads or rock fences or whatever, because they need the land for more people. I guess they keep getting old there. One of the last stones in the yard was mostly covered in ivy, but Kirstine found that it was for Maren Lang, who was my Grandma's aunt. So at least we knew where the family plot was! That was miracle number one.
We went back to the house we had passed, it was nearly identical to the picture from so many years ago, which was actually a copy of a painting, I believe. It had only the difference of a couple additional windows. Across the street from this was what we believed to be the old school. Kirstine knocked on the door, and the guy confirmed that he was living in the old school and that the picture we showed him was in fact the house across the street. He then said he had a lot of pictures from old Helstrup and invited us in to look at them. People do that there. We were amazed at the pictures he showed us, some were even the same ones we had. He noted that the old couple who lived in the house were probably home, so we went over to talk to them. They also invited us, perfect strangers, into their home. As I sat there in their tiny living room, looking around me and listening to their conversation that I didn't understand, it was surreal to think that I was sitting in a room that had been occupied almost a hundred years ago by my Great-Grandmother. Miracle number two.
Finally, the couple (who have lived in the house since 1946) confirmed that they had known one of the cousins, an Anker Lang, and his wife was still living. She is in her 90's. They gave us directions (the man and the women's were both different) to her home and hoped we could find it. We were amazed when we did, and it was the same that my Grandma had sent Kirstine a picture of years ago. Mrs. Lang was so nice and excited to see us, because she hadn't seen Kirstine for probably 30 years; Kirstine had thought she had died 5 years ago and stopped sending Christmas cards. They exchanged phone numbers and committed to keeping in touch.
What an amazing day! I know that we definitely had help in finding the things we did, and it really strengthened my beliefs in the importance of family relations and history. It was fantastic!
PS. . .the last picture is of Kirstine and her husband, Allan, and their terrific dog, Toffee. The dog loved me.

Denmark--Day 2!

It's so crazy to go on a vacation where you have no idea what will happen next. I didn't have anything in particular that I wanted to do that wasn't already going to be done, so I left the planning up to Kirstine. Saturday morning we went to a big market, kind of like a flea market in the states, by the North Sea. Kind of confusing that the North Sea is totally in-land, but it's still sea water so that's what they call it. It was cool and humid in the morning, but by the time we left with our goods, it had burned off and it was getting warm. We headed home for lunch (by the way, Kirstine once had a restaurant of her own so we had some pretty good eatin') and then we headed out again to a little place less than a mile away. Up the hill in the mountains a bit, there is an Iron Age village where people will actually take their holiday (vacation) and live like they did back then, with wool clothing, leather shoes, mountain-weed eating and sleeping on sticks covered with animal furs. It was fascinating to see what they have up there. I bought a whistle whittled out of wood and treated us all to a little walking music. It was amazing.
Anyway, I was super impressed with the buildings and ingenuity that is as historically accurate as they know of, from archaeological findings, because not only were the buildings sensible and effective, but I found them to be very aesthetically pleasing. Not that I am going to live in a straw covered hut, but you know what I mean.
That night we relaxed and watched some good time German Music shows, which were sooo funny to me. That's 3 "o"s. I've never seen so many accordions get such praise! The best was a band who had 5 members; a drummer (with a bandanna on his head), a guitar player, a lead singer, a mullet-wearing keyboard player. . .but not just any keyboard, no, it was one that strapped over his shoulder and had the little notch for easier use. . .picture any great 80's band. . he was my favorite, and then the accordion player. He would often do the one-leg-kicked-up as he hops across the stage kind of move. . . .know what I'm talking about? You have to. I can't think of any other way to describe it. It was a total rocker move. And on that note, I went to bed hoping for some awesome dreams.