Sussex, London, and More!

So once again, a lot has happened since the last update!

Saturday we went on a little day trip to Sussex. We originally were suppose to stop by a church with significance to Woolf, but for some reason they had 2 weddings going on that day and so they couldn't accommodate us. So instead we took a little detour to Seaford and got to see the English Channel. It was absolutely gorgeous! One of the prettiest sites I've seen yet! The water was so incredibly blue. Some people decided to go down in to it and swim, although I opted for just wading. We ended up going climbing up some of the cliffs and getting to see the view from the very top. It was definitely one of the favorite things I've done so far this trip!

We then went to Monk's House to see the last place Woolf ever lived. The house had a gorgeous garden, and we even got to check out her little writing cottage in the back. I know this will sound morbid, but it was absolutely amazing looking at where Virginia Woolf took her last steps down to the river where she drowned herself. After Monk's House we went out to Charleston House where Woolf's sister lived along with their little 'Bloomsbury Group'. Lots of Vanessa and the rest of the Omega gang's artwork was around the house, and it had a lot of information. Unfortunately we were all a bit tired from the entire day that (at least myself) was a little too out of it for the entire tour. Which is a shame, since I would have loved to have actually listened to a lot of the information said.

Sunday was the birthday of one of the girls in our group- Lauren. I've gotten pretty close to her, along with 2 of the other girls, so the 3 of us put together a surprise birthday get together with the whole program. One of the guys, Chris, was having his birthday soon so we put them together. It was the worst surprise ever, but regardless it was a lot of fun for us all to get together and celebrate.

Monday after class I went in to London with a few people from the program, and went to go visit the Tower of London. I've already been there before, but I remembered loving it so much, that I decided I wanted to do it again! I'm really happy I did too. It's just, once again, indescribable to know that you were walking in the same streets and in the same rooms as such powerful and influential people. I stood by the same place Anne Boleyn was beheaded! What a crazy thought that is! I left London with Joanna right after the Tower in hopes that we would still make it back in time for dinner. Unfortunately (or possibly gladly hearing about the food for the evening) we didn't make it, so instead we went off to the Pizza Hut in Oxford with it being one of the few places still open. It was definitely much different from the US! We were seated to our table, given a menu with much fancier items, and I was corrected when I ordered a 'cheese pizza' since it's actually a 'Margherita pizza' instead.

Today has been a big catch-up day academically. I've been reading up on Woolf's book Jacob's Room and also trying to memorize my 30 lines for my Shakespeare class. For those wondering, I'm actually going to be reciting the lines where Brutus justifies killing Caesar. Tomorrow we're going to Stratford to see if the Royal Shakespeare Company can even meet the quality of the Globe Theater.

This weekend is the first long traveling weekend for me! I'm going to Dublin, Ireland with 6 of the girls from the program, so it should be a blast! I'm not exactly sure if we have definite ideas of what we're going to be doing there, just kind of playing things by ear. But I know it's going to be a blast and we're going to have a lot of fun doing it!

So, I'll catch y'all on the flip side!