I am a druid...House of Lords...London Eye!

So, the internet is painfully slow. PAINFULLY. It took me a half an hour to sign into blogger. It's just not worth the updates. I think they are switching to a better provider, so hopefully updates will become worth it.

Anyways, yesterday, 4/4/09, was one of the best days ever! We went to Stonehenge, Wells, and Stourhead Gardens. Amazing.

One of my life-long dreams has now been fulfilled. I GOT TO TOUCH THE ROCKS OF STONEHENGE!! (Hence the druid-ness) Waw, I'm still geeking out about it. We left for via charter bus for Stonehenge at 6:30 in the morning so we could be there by 8. And then, we got to touch the rocks. I spent a whole 20 minutes of pure bliss within the circle. (I took lots of pictures, which I will eventually post for people to see--it doesn't really work at the moment:slow internet.) I think that I can die now and be happy. I sometimes randomly break out into a little song, which goes something like this (sung to the tune of "We've got a dollar" from Little Rascals): I've touched the rocks, I've touched the rocks! I've touched the rocks hey, hey hey hey!... Ok, not really. But I did just now.

After Stonehenge (we spent about an hour there before they opened) we traveled down to the city of Wells, which is, by the way, the smallest city in England. Our bus driver, Tony, was fabulous and pointed out interesting sights along the way. He also knew lots of tidbits of information, and he explained to us the differences between hamlets, villages, towns and cities. A hamlet is a community that has no church and/or no pub. A village has at least one church and one pub; a town has a certain number of churches and pubs (Tony couldn't remember the specific number), and a city has a cathedral. Wells, even though it is smaller than most towns, is considered a city because is has a cathedral. An absolutely gorgeous one.
http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk/images/html/aerials_UK_historical_sites/cathedrals/images/AWDS_Cathedral07.jpg
Here is an aerial picture I found online. You can also see Bishops Castle to the right of the cathedral, which we also visited and was very cool. I loved Wells. I want to live there. Anyways, our tour guide was magnificent, a cute old man. Not only did he have one of the most fabulous accents I have ever heard, he was really entertaining, and very knowledgeable. He mentioned all sorts of fascinating things, like how to read stained glass windows, and how cathedrals are made.

After Wells, we drove some more over to Stourhead Gardens, which, if anyone happens to care, there was a scene from the new Pride and Prejudice filmed there. It was the scene where Elizabeth runs through the rain into the little temple thing and then turns Mr. Darcy's first offer of marriage down. (I've only seen the movie once, and it wasn't that exciting of a point for me, but some of the girls were absolutely crazy.) Anyways, Stourhead. Is. Gorgeous. It feels as if you are walking through some sort of fairy tale land.
http://www.tichbornes.co.uk/images/stourhead.jpg
Here is a picture, though the gardens are miles long and this is only a very small piece. (That building in the background is the temple I was talking about. ) Aren't the gardens stunning? We spent two hours there, and I didn't get to go all the way through--I wish we could have been there a little bit longer. But it was good.

Today, el Cinco de Mayo, (Happy Birthday Syd!), was an interesting day as well. I lazed around a little bit, had classes, took a cold shower (the boiler is still not fixed--more about that later), and then we went to Parliment. We got to go inside and see the action actually taking place. You go through a whole bunch of security, the whole air-plane shebang pretty much, they take a rough picture and give you a flimsy paper Visitor I.D. and you can't take your bags with you into the actual houses. We went and watched the House of Lords, which was a very pretty room; it had a throne and statues and stained glass and everything. The discussion/debate was interesting to watch, though I wasn't exactly sure what they were talking about. I know it had something to do with the Swine Flu though, and cleaning the air on airplanes. I was excited that I could kind of even remotely follow what was being discussed.

We watched for about a half and hour and then we had to get back for dinner and evensong by 4:45. Evensong is the time where we get announcements, and Bro. Schueler, the center's caretaker I guess you could call him, announced, yet again, that we still had no hot water. They have had the boiler and everything ready since Friday, except one special piece they couldn't get a hold of. Apparently they had to special order it. It won't be here till Thursday. I am so tired of cold showers, and so tired of washing my hair in the sink. Oh well, I guess I can last a few more days. Dr. Durham announced that he had been so impressed with how well we have handled the cold shower situation, that he wanted to give us a tangible award. So he is going to pay for us to ride the London Eye! I am so excited, especially since I wasn't planning on going on it, even though I wanted to, since it is so expensive. I guess the cold showers were worth it. Well, almost. I don't think I'll ever take a warm shower for granted ever again, that is for sure.

Well it is late and I need to get off bed. Cheers!