Falling in love with Ireland

I am glad I waited a little while to post about this because if not it might have just been the world Love in giant letters across the page. Instead of doing the normal telling what I did I am just going to post what I loved about Ireland.

• Irish people
• friendliness 
• wild flowers 
• this tour http://www.maccooletours.com/
• climbing the Burren mountains, yeah I just said that
• the majesty of the Cliffs of Moher 
• fresh cream
• Cake!!!!!
• pub music
• ghosts
• wildflowers again
• sheep
• celtic music
• mashed potatoes
• fresh fruit
• vintage stores
• handmade beauties
• Temple Bar
• Irish people again
• pizza
• my trip mates
• and everything
• and anything else I forgot
  
  
  
  

You can't be meek to be a writer

So, I have been crazy busy with writing, trips, and the new season of Arrested Development because of this I am going to combine my two recent day trips into one.
Stratford Upon Avon:

Wow. I got to see my heros birth place and grave and a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was a little overwhelming how great that was. I spent most of the day with some of my classmates and our amazing profs. We started out visiting Shakespeare's birthplace museum, which did not live up to my imagination, but that is ok, we then went to his grave. At the church where his grave is they have wonderful banners explaining the traditions in marriage and funerals during Shakespeare's time. I found these incredibly interesting, and I am sure I learned new things, but I can't remember them. The day was really cold and rainy so we spent the next portion of the day at Anne Hathaway's Tea House (Shakespeare's wife not the actress). We each got a pot of tea and most of us got clotted cream and scones. That was just so wonderfully British I almost couldn't handle it. We spent the time talking about writing and ghost stories. One of my profs said something that I really need to remember more, "You can't be meek to be a writer." Who is a better example of not being meek as a writer than Shakespeare.

We ended our day with a trip to the Royal Shakespeare Company to see As You Like It. I am a sucker for a Shakespearean comedy so I knew I would enjoy the show, but the show absolutely inspired me. It changed my outlook on theatre and truly made me want to get back into theatre, even though I know that now is not the time. The emotions of the show felt so true and pure you could not come away without a huge grin on your face.

Speaking of not meek authors, the next weeks class trip was to D.H. Lawrence's house and Lord Byron's old estate.

I am going to be honest and say I didn't really know who D.H. Lawrence was, even though I had heard of his work. Lady Chatterley's Lover not a meek novel at all. It is still infamous. I knew about it without knowing who wrote it. D.H. Lawrence had a fascinating life with many interesting twist and turns and love affairs. I am excited to continue to learn about him.

We next went to Newstead Abbey which was Lord Byron's estate for a year. Lord Byron is another writer with a larger than life persona, between his partying and affairs he is one of the more interesting characters of his literary world. Byron's work is still important today manly because he wasn't meek.

Even though I doubt my work will ever be as prolific as Shakespeare's or Byron's or as scandalous as D.H. Lawrence I need to pay more attention to their example and not be meek.

A day trip to Cambridge and the terror of poetry

  So, I had a lovely calm weekend at the manor. I watched movies with my friends and slept a lot. On Saturday my routine changed and I went on a day trip to Cambridge with the school. The weather was lovely, for the first time ever, and Cambridge was beautiful.

  We started the day with a stop at the American Memorial Cemetery at Cambridge. We were told this was a small cemetery for the an American's abroad cemetery. It didn't feel that way. We were surrounded by Cross and Star of David white marble headstones everywhere. They did not reach all the way to the horizon like it felt like the Normandy cemetery did, but it was still enough to overwhelm me. I was in awe of the sacrifices these men and women had made, returning tour after tour to continue to fight for what they believed in. Freedom. There were so many stories of people valiantly facing death and continuing to persever for their fellow man. The chapel there was a beautifully decorated in mosaics with angels going to heaven and planes of soldiers joining them. It was a powerful Memorial Day weekend stop.

Our next  stop was the city of Cambridge. This college town is filled to the brim with pubs, cafes, and history. Everywhere we turned there was another college that produce amazing scholars, writers, and scientists. We started our city experience with a basic walk around and found our way to a fun outdoor market, where I did not buy everything insight. We then found another outdoor market, but this one was an artisan market and I did spend a chunk of money, but it was from an artist who made everything herself. Then, we went punting!!! It was awesome!!! Punting is when you go down the river in a punt, which is a small boat with a landing on the back for someone to row. We decided to have a guided tour instead of punting ourselves. It was a very good decision. We finished our trip with a stop at the Eagle Pub where Crick and Watson announced their discovery of the double helix.

So, I have talked about my class and it is still wonderful, but it is different now that I have been workshopped. I am realizing that even though I have some natural writing talent I have a lot to learn and I need to put more effort into thought. So, we will see where this leads me. 

a trip to Edinburgh

So my first weekend here I went to Edinburgh. I went with a very patient and good friend, Henry, and may I say we had a ball. We started our trip with a four hour train ride, which is always a good way to start a trip to me. Then we got lost in Edinburgh, but we found our hostel after awhile. We stayed in a 30 person mixed dorm, which scared me to be honest but it was fine. The guy next to me might have had the worst cough ever though. Our first night we were both full of energy so we explored the area around our hostel and ended up in the oldest pub in Edinburgh. We found this by listening for the quietest place. Neither of us like loud music and crazy drunk crowds. It was wonderful. There was a guitarist who was very talented and knew all of the locals in the place. He played music we could sing along to, so it did get loud but it was fun loud.
The next day we started the day by trying to go to the Castle, but it was raining and the wait for the castle was outside and took about an our so we found our way to the National Museum instead and it was worth it. We explored Scottish history, including the making of clothes and agriculture. It was awesome. We spent quite awhile in there. Then, we went down the street to one of the closes that had been covered up and went on a tour of it. Closes are another name for streets. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/ The next day we spent more time around our hostel and went into numerous cute little stores.

Welcome to the manor

As I have mentioned before most of this trip will be spent studying in a country manor house. Yes, you read what you thought you read a country manor house. It is spectacular. My class is held in the Gold Room. THE GOLD ROOM. Now of course this room is actually very understated and almost shabby right. No, it really is the Gold Room. There are cherubs on the ceiling, that is how understated that is.

There are actually cherubs everywhere in this room and in this house in general. 

Sadly, I am not living in the manor. I am in the Carriage House. Which is beautiful from the outside but very dormish on the inside, but who cares. It is still a carriage house on the grounds of a beautiful manor. Speaking of here is a picture of the outside of my school. 

and some pictures of the inside

Crazy right!

So I have been here for two weeks now and in that time I have: started classes, made great friends, had a weird club experience, drank lots of tea, been to Scotland, ruined a pair of shoes, been very cold, and most importantly been inspired. 

If you did not know I am taking a creative writing course that is truly amazing. We workshop each others work and some really cool and different writing projects, but the best part is our guest lecturers who are each here for about a week. They have been so amazing, helpful, and inspiring. Our first guest lecture was Mr. Ken MacLeod. He is a crazy talented science fiction writer who spent a lot of time helping us come up with openings and endings of stories, the most difficult part. Here is a link to his blog: http://kenmacleod.blogspot.co.uk/ Our next visiting writer was Christopher Wakling. He is a talented fiction writer, who spent much of the time working on short stories and doing exorcises on character and place. Here is a link to his blog:http://christopherwakling.com/It was great for future lessons for teaching and for my future writing. So far I have turned in two poems, one in meter ahhh, I have the rough draft of a psychological

 thriller based on Belle Meade Mansion in Nashville, and I am now working on a comedic short story on a girl who loses her phone down a mole hole and the mole people take it. 

I have also visited another beautiful manor, Belton House http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/belton-house/, and went a great below stairs tour of it. Here are some pictures of it:

Next up: Edinburgh!

The first leg of an amazing journey

I AM IN ENGLAND!!! I have finally made it. And I am in love with it here. My university has this amazing campus in England that you can attend either for the summer or semesters. I picked the summer. However, I got to start the trip early by staying with Boyfriend and his parents, which meant I got to explore some less touristy parents of the area. But I will explain about that later.

Let me catch you up:
The trip started out in a very bumpy way, not literally though. The night before the trip my parents and I tried to check-in to my flight to no aval, then we figured out that my name was misspelled. We thought that would be an easy, though time consuming, fix. Nope. Not my luck. We fix the spelling, but we still can't check in so we get to the airport way earlier than normal and explained the situation to a very kinda neon clad airline worker. After numerous phone calls and computer checks my knight in neon armor was able to print my ticket for my flight to Chicago, but could not assist with my ticket to London. So, after our plane landed Boyfriend and I went running across the airport to my international flights kiosk and without even breaking a sweat my next knight fixed my ticket and Boyfriend and I were on our way.










First two days: Beach Days
Exhausted after the flight we landed, but Boyfriends parents knew better than to let us sleep. We went to the beach near their home (yes, you did read that correctly). We went to a pub and then wandered around the beach. This beach is different that any other I have ever seen. When the tide goes out it really goes out. I goes out for what seems like miles, and might very well be, and it leaves behind this thick mud that people like to play in. Then, we walked down to the castle ruins close to their home. (I didn't get pictures and I am kicking myself for it.) And then, we crashed.
The next day we slept in and then went to the longest pier in the world. It has a train and everything. This were amazing days just soaking in all of the beauty of England and falling in love with it.

the longest pier in the world

Next two days: London days
Boyfriend's parents live very close to London and that meant we got to really explore London. The first day Boyfriend and I went to the Tower of London and I was amazed at my mixture of love and disgust at this place. It is truly a wonderful piece of history, but it also has such a dark past. I am still trying to reconcile my feelings for it.

 The we got to go to the most wonderful place in the world, THE GLOBE. As in Shakespeare's Globe. The starting place of some of the most important and wonderful works of literature ever. We even got to see a play standing in the commoners section. And not only did we see a play we saw the one and only Tempest. It was outstanding the actors were just brimming with love for their craft and characters, and it made me truly miss theatre. We then had fish and chips, my first time trying them, and they were yummy.
The next day started a little late, but we got to go to Liberty of London and I might have looked a little like this:

I wanted everything! but I am a poor college student so I only got most of the things they sold, not all. If you aren't aware Liberty of London makes some of the best and most beautiful fabrics in the world. They are also a department store filled with different but wonderful things. I left with 2 rolls of fat quarters, a needlepoint project that ends up as a clutch, and somethings for my mom. (I took no pictures, it seemed wrong)
Next, we stopped to have lunch (yes it took me that long, sorry Boyfriend) in one of the numerous beautiful parks and got to enjoy a beautiful view as we ate.

Then, we visited Buckingham Palace and continued to travel to see all the sights. And we ended up at Westminster Abbey for EvenSong, on Ascension Day! I can even begin to describe how beautiful and powerful that service was.

The next day we explored more castle ruins and little towns. And then they brought me to my home for now, Harlaxton College. I will post pictures and a description of it later.

back to blogging

So... It has been a year huh. Well, I am BACK!!! And not only am I back I have had a lot of changes recently: I am in a happy long term committed relationship, I am now considering going into ministry, and I am in a Sorority. But somethings haven't changed: I still have the best parents in the world, I am still growing in my faith and self, I still love mission work, and I still love to CRAFT! Since, my last post I have had the joy of working on redesigning my new room, I have made myself a new computer case, I have had way too much fun glittering things, I have made flower crowns, and lots of other hair stuffs.
But the reason I am back is I am about to head off on the adventure of a life time, studying abroad!!! I will be leaving on Sunday for England and then heading to the castle I will be staying in. (oh yeah you read that right) So, hopefully I will be better about posting things.
Love,
SK