Viva la England! [ May 24, 2008, 5:14 pm ]

I suck at this whole blogging thing. Yes, I am alive. And yes, I was in England for two weeks. Here's the highlights. Maybe more details to come...

- I am in LOVE with Scotland. It's beautiful, it's vibrant, the people have such passion and pride. It's love, I say!

- Some of the colleges we visited? When they heard "talk to the class colleague to colleague" they heard "pitch us their school and sell! Sell! SELL!" While the campuses were gorgeous, I have no desire to cavort through the Gallows of Glasgow as a student. Sorry. The campuses that did speak to us as professionals? They now have my heart. (These include York St. John University, London Metropolitan and Cambridge. Yes, THAT Cambridge.)

- I got to sleep in the Harry Potter Castle aka Alnwick Castle. And it. Was. GORGEOUS! My life will never be the same after having cavorted around those grounds for two glorious days.

- Every single buidling in the UK is beautiful, adorned with sculptures, intricate moldings and chockful of history and stories. Each time I stepped into a cathedral, castle or historic building I wanted to cry because the amount of detail-work and effort was nearly too much to take. The beauty that surrounded me daily took my breath away and made me thank God for being alive and for giving me the opportunity to see these things.

- The food! Glorious food! All so good! All so bad for me! But so SO good!

- Along those same lines I tried Haggis while in Scotland. And if you don't know what it is I'm not going to try to explain it. The verdict? I liked it! The texture was unusual, but the flavor was slightly spicy and very tasty.

- I had never heard of Lindisfaire/Holy Island, but the place is beautiful. It's an island when the tide comes in and if a person doesn't haul ass when it comes, he or she is stuck there until it goes out. There are also ruins from a monastery/religious school that are incredibly gorgeous. And? It may or may not be the very first residence hall. It was an honor to be standing on the grounds, taking it all in. Also? They're famous for honey wine (Meade), which is sweet and yummy and sooo damn good. (Also, I ended up buying some random ceramic Meade container in the gift shop. WTF? THAT was fun to get home.)

- Cambridge is a very complicated university. I learned so much from the sight visit that I can put into practice in my job/career/life. The tour we took around the city and campus was great--full of intricately detailed buildings and even more detailed stories and legends. It's a great city.

- London still has my heart. The city is beautiful this time of year--warm, sunny, welcoming. It felt good to be there after tromping around random areas of the UK for a week and a half. And I loved showing a good friend some of the best places in the city.

- It's cheesy, but Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum is a fabulous way to spend an afternoon. When else in my life am I going to get photo ops with Julia Roberts, Daniel Radcliffe, Indiana Jones, Elvis and Shrek?

- The greatest accomplishment of the trip was that I put on my big girl pants, escaped my class of 27 other people and took myself on a date all by myself. I hunted down the theater where Hairspray was playing, got myself an incredible seat (for 1/3 the price--thank you student discount!!!) and enjoyed a great night by myself. I was scared of going around the city by myself, but I knew that I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't try to find my way around the city and treat myself to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. (And seriously? It was needed after SO much time with SO many other people. It really goes to your head. Trust me on this.)

I'm detailing the trip on my other blog, but I have a LOT of catching up to do on it. But more details will be there.

Ciao, dahling!

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