more adventures!

so, i determined that if i was to be completely honest in my blog, i should begin by saying that i am a tad bit homesick today. i mean, i am having an amzing time here in england and i absolutely love it...but there is something about a warm hug from your mom and dad or a sloppy kiss from a little four year old girl that you begin to desperately miss when you can no longer have them. and so while i am here, across the ocean, i miss everyone terribly and wait in anticipation for the millions of hugs i will get when im back! but for now i just got a wonderful hug from beth....that should tie me over for awhile!

well, the weather here is absolutely beautiful! we have been walking in the blazing sun, gazing at all the flowers beginning to bloom. life is good and spring just may be here!!

this past friday, jodi, laura, heather, alisha, and myself went to formal hall at regents park college. before cathching the train, we of course had a modelling shoot in which heather turned out to be a budding model!! we had a few good laughs looking at the pictures after! at regents, we began supper with a questionable salad...there was a creature in it...i think it was an oyster...but thats unsure. all the food that followed, however, was delicious and not abnormal in any sense. we had a wonderful dinner conversation with some friendly brits who were more than enthused to discuss american politics with us (apparently they follow it really closely here...who knows!). it was a fun evening ending with a hitchcock movie at laura's house.

the next morning we set out for stratford - the city that shakespeare put on the map! we began our explorations at anne hathaways cottage (shakespeare's wife's family home) - a quaint, picturesque cottage filled with scandolous stories of shakespeare and anne during their courtship (according to our enthusiastic, quircky tour guide)! after a packed lunch by the avon river, we walked over to the birthplace of shakespeare - the house where shakespeare grew up....very very cool!!

above is a picture of shakespeare's house

and here i am touching the handle that shakespeare along with billions of other tourists have touched. hey, he still touched it at one point right?

although cameras were not allowed, i managed to snap a picture of the famous folio, which was published in 1623 - the first pulished compilation of all of shakespeares works.

after, we continued to explore through out stratford and visited the nash house/new place.

new place was purchased by shakespeare in the late 1500's during his retirement. it is at this house where he passed away in 1616. the house was then given to his daughter, elizabeth, who married thomas nash (hence, nash house). i loved the gorgeous gardens behind the house. following, we went to halls croft (pictured to the left). this is where shakespeare's daughter, susanna, and her husband, john hall lived after they were married in the early 1600's. it was really intriguing to walk throughout the house because the oldest part of it has been dated back to the early part of the 15th century. absolutely beatiful inside.

after touring around, we all congregated back at the holy trinity church in stratford. this is the chuch where shakespeare along with his whole family was buried. interesting to see - i wonder if he ever thought that centuries after his death, billions of people would still be coming to look at his gravesite. kinda weird, isnt it?

regardless, below is a picture of his actual grave which is located inside the church.to conclude the day, we stopped in long compton on our way home to look at the rollright stones. there is a myth that some king from long ago, was told by a witch that if he took 7 paces and saw the town of long compton it would all be his. unfortuntely, the witch caused a hill to rise up and he could not see so he along with his whole group of soldiers were turned to stone. or something like that. so this circle is thought to be all of his soldiers.

check out the country side - no matter how many times i get to see views like this, they still take me breathe away ever time. God is amazing!