"There'll be bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover"

...except bluebirds are an American species...aren't they?

Anyway, we went to see the white cliffs and Dover Castle yesterday! It was a lot of fun and pretty much worth visiting. We had a lovely tour guide who reminded me of an older version of Lucy from the Chronicles of Narnia. She was sick though, so she was speeding through the secret WWII tunnels that are under the castle (which aren't so secret anymore...). The tunnels reminded me of Disney World because there were these "magical" audio voices that you followed through the tunnels that reanacted the story of a pilot that was injured and had to have his leg fixed up...I guess it was more of a "graphic" Disney World ride but the magic was certainly there *hehe*. It was suggested to us that we pack a lunch or use the school money to buy stuff from the food court before we took off and I do suggest that for anyone else who plans on going. You can buy packaged sandwhiches but only at the castle and the castle is up a very steep hill...you'll want to eat before then, trust me. The trip was a lot longer than it needed to be but in way it was a good thing for us because we ended up wandering off on our own and finding some medieval tunnels that were completely hidden from anyone's view. There were some rooms in the tunnels that didn't have any light. Due to this darkness, Shanna decided to take out her camera and turn on the flash so that she could take a picture of the dark rooms. Caroline, however, was unaware of this and starting screaming while the flash was going off (which made Nikita, Ashley Langly, and I scream like kiddies as well). It was great fun!

Summing Up Canters (part 1)

So, after living in Canterbury, England for two weeks I have decided to list "Canters Top Ten" things to do (PS: the top ten are not in any order!):

1.) Boho ~ A little Indie restaurant/cafe with amazing vegetarian options. They have regular burgers of course but you can substitute any one of the burger recipes with a veggie burger. They also have grilled cheese with pesto and tomato (interesting...) plus a spectacular Panini sandwich. It's also a great place for a cup of tea or a sip of soda (complete with purple bendy straw!). Boho also offers vintage buttons and clutches handmade by a local artist.

2.) The Moat Tea Rooms ~ A very quiant yet elegant tea house with a very kind and helpful staff. They have a large variety of different teas (and coffee if anyone feels they need to step away from the Britishness) and a great selection of cakes and bite size sandwiches. I suggest a pot of English Breakfast with their Lemon Sponge Cake. It's like heaven...

3.) Thrift Shopping ~ There were at least six different thrift shops in Canterbury...all of which were amazing. The names of the different shops escapes me but all of them were very cool! Some of them offered old Halloween costumes and The Nightmare Before Christmas bags while others sold old hats, army medals, school uniforms and cute jackets. Any of the thrift shops in Canters will surely amaze you.

4.) Siesta! ~ As Caroline Locatelli would say, Siesta is a "Hippie" store. This place sells everything from gag mugs and piercing jewelry to dijuridos and insense. It's a large store for Canterbury but and has wide selection for any style of clothing. The scarves are expensive but very cute and come in all different kinds of colors (no joke).

5.) The Secret Cellar ~ Another veggie friendly place with a kind staff. I have yet to actually eat here but I peeked in to see it and talked to the manager. It's a movie themed cafe/diner that resides under an art gallery. It's a little hard to find (hence "secret") but it's quite cool and pretty. The manager gave me a list of all the old movies that will be playing throughout the week and to come when the one I wanted to see would be playing. There are movie posters and vintage film novels and scripts hanging around for those to look at and see, plus the food looks and sounds quite satisfying.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Canterbury Cathedral

Greetings!

Oh my goodness! The Canterbury Cathedral is so amazing! It's a lot bigger than one might imagine. The gate to the cathedral was the original except for the big statue of Jesus...because the Puritans shot his head off and took a lasso to the body; pulling it down. Talk about cranky...poor Jesus. The new statue was made in 1992 by an English sculptor and was chosen from four or five different sculptures from other artists. We saw the one that got second place and clearly the one that is up there now is much better than the others. The one that got second place was an ugly color and looked more like a Greek god than Jesus Christ.

Our tour guide for the outside of the cathedral, Lenny, was very cool. He took us around the cathedral and told us some of the grusome history and ghost stoires that originated from there. He even took us into town and gave us some background on that. When we got back to the cathedral we got a new tour guide. This time it was a little old lady (her name escapes me) she was very nice and told us the history of the inside of the cathedral like a story. It was pretty amazing. The one story that stuck out was the one about Thomas Beckett and how three of the king's knights came into the church, dragged him away from the alter he was at, stabbed him in the back, cut off the crown of his head and mashed his brains out. Yup, and this was all from a little old lady! It was awesome...

PIMMS

I'm in England! It's been pretty great so far! A little stressful but pretty nice! The only reason why it's a little stressful is that the school is extremely disorganized! They really didn't know what they were doing with/for us half of the time and the OAs here all thought that we were freshmen (...with funny accents apparently...) Anyway, they took us to a lot of freshmen events and we were unable to meet other international students! It was very interesting and a little lame.
I just bought a phone over here and got it working in a matter of a few hours. I can only talk to people in the UK but that's all I need. As long as I can get a hold of my friends then all is good I supoose. We have no internet at Canters at the moment and it's been extremely disapointing. I'm at a pub right now (it's 10:20pm here) having a glass of Pimms, cinnimony lemonade yumminess, and acessing the web. At least I am with friends. Lindsey and Nikita is with me along with a very nice girl from Chicago named Erica (she is vegetarian like I am, yay!) Along with some of her girlfriends. It's very cool and lots of fun. This pub trip has actually been the best experience so far! I finally feel like I'm really experiencing the culture of Europe and the night life of the average British college student. Everything else so far has been unnessary I feel. I can't wait to finally have time to travel and take my classes! It will be amazing! Okay, well, once I get internet again and have more stories I will write again soon! Love & peace!

Leaving Tomorrow

ello ello!

Well, tomorrow is the big day! My family and I will be leaving for NYC tomorrow around 5pm and plan on arriving around 11pm or 12am. I'm pretty much all packed except for a few things (umbrella, airborne, and so on...) but mom's going to pick those up today. I'm starting to get really really nervous! I've been talking to Nikita, Caroline and Shanna about it and we're all kind of freaking out. I guess it's because it's our first time over seas without any parents. I suppose it's also because this trip is not just a vacation either...we'll be doing school. It will be okay though, I think we all just have pre-plane jitters (at least that's what I have). Once I get on and off the plane and go through customs I'll be fine.

Well, maybe I'll post something from the airport. If not, you'll see me in England!