Another week down, two more to go. Or well, less than two.
How tragic.
Well last weekend was my last trip out of beautiful London and it was a group trip to the Lake District! Particularly we went to Grasmere where Wordsworth lived and wrote many of his famous poems.
We were really worried because it has been raining here in London since we got back from second break a few weeks ago and the Lake District is the wettest part of England and the forecast was looking pretty grim! Safe to say we dressed as if we were going to Eastern Europe and thennnnnn it was sunny the whole time. Oops. English weather for you!
Now, I’m not much of a hiker so hiking did not happen, but there were some really lovely walks that a group of friends and I managed. Our traveling group was dubbed LT for leisurely travels or the lazy troop. The first one sounds so much better! And less lazy haha.
It was fun and quiet but we were under the assumption that we were going as a group (I mean the whole house, all 14 of us, the RA, and the Prof and his family) so naturally there would be some group…stuff. Anything, dinner, hikes, whatever. Our professor decided he did not want to spend the weekend with us so he kind of left us in the dust.
So we were kind of stuck because we hadn’t really researched anything to do because we thought we are going as a group! There will be scheduled activities! But, alas, no such luck. Grasmere is beautiful and the weather was pretty nice and we made it fun for ourselves, including doing a walk around the lake that should take an hour for normal people but we made it three hours because we stopped at every bench we saw. And then proceeded to eat snacks, but not healthy snacks! We found a grocery store and loaded up our ‘hiking’ backpack with chips, candy, cookies, and juice and water and went on our merry way.
It was a pretty awesome way to ‘hike’! We had a lot of fun regardless, I haven’t laughed so much and so hard in a long time! The Lake District is absolutely beautiful but I was happy to get back to London.
This week was also super awesome because we got to see our first play at Shakespeare’s Globe which was AMAZING. The Globe is doing this thing where, to celebrate the Olympics, they are doing all of Shakespeare’s plays in 37 different languages. That is pretty intense. So yesterday we saw Merry Wives of Windsor in Swahili. I was really worried going in to this because it is pretty safe to assume that I KNOW/DO NOT UNDERSTAND ANY SWAHILI. And none of us read the play. Oops! Thanks Sparknotes! And to top off all that loveliness it was raining.
Ok raining is an understatement. It was thunder storming. And we had to stand outside for 3 hours and watch a play in a language that none of us understood. There was a definite possibility for things to go terribly.
But I was pleasantly surprised and the weather managed to not dump, but it did rain for a large portion of the first half of the play. And it was absolutely HILARIOUS. I mean, I was just this wet (from the rain), giggling mess by the end of it. I didn’t notice until about half way through that they had one actor playing all three suitors. Hilarity ensued. Paige lost her ability to contain the giggles resulting in all my housemates laughing at me laughing at the play.
So, yes. It was a darn good day. Then I came home and let me soaked shoes and socks dry and cooked myself a darn good dinner.
We also are throwing a retirement party for our art history professor who has worked with the program since it started in like the 70’s. It’s going to be another huge family dinner with professors and staff and drinks and goodness.
I’ll be spending this weekend and next weekend in London and then it’s back to America! But not home. I’ll be spending a week in New York with friends and it also happens to be my 20th birthday. Not a bad way to spend my first non-teenage years!
I keep looking around my room thinking ‘man this is going to suck packing’ and at the same time getting emails from those who are coming on the program next semester asking questions and I’m thinking ‘this is my bed, not anyone else’s.’ So. I can see that I am going to have a problem letting go.
Clearly.
The only way I can leave this wonderful city is if I promise myself to come back. And I’m already working on some ways to do so, maybe next summer? I’m sure I can find an internship or something here. Yes, I will come back.
Thanks for reading dears, only two more!
Cheers,
Paige