London & A Walk With Winn

Alright. As you all know I am now a world traveler. You also may have picked up that my blogging career is not as important to me as experiencing my adventures so I apologize for the time lapse.

Wow, I am really behind haha Alright, so we're in September here:

9/28/12:
After my English presentation it was just a normal rest of the week except for Friday! Friday we all went to London. On the way to London, we talked to a very cheeky ticket clicker chap about Texas, oil, and horses, all of which he was very interested in and told us his story of being in Texas once. he was very funny. A little bit later though, our train was stopped for quite some time. We were all wondering what happened and why were stopped until someone told us that they had to stop the train because someone had thrown themselves in front of it and had died. That was really unsettling and sad. It seemed very unreal that something like that would happen, let alone while we were there.

We went to London to get insight and do some recon for our group projects we had to do for INTS. My group was assigned the docks of London. So we went to the docks with our favorite professor, the Cracken. After navigating the crazy underground, we managed to arrive at the docks semi-unscathed. We started walking around and were amazed at just how modern everything looked. Everyone was in suits, there were giant business buildings all around us and not a whole lot of "dockish" things or things one would think to find at a dock. 

So it was then that we decided to trapeze over to the older looking area of London Docks to see if we could find anything interesting there. We were supposed to be keeping a look out for types of people that we found in our area, how they dress, interact with people, and any random cultures that we found. We saw nothing and no one, except a few random joggers. It was so empty, we felt like we were all in I Am Legend. 

We did find some actual water, so that was a plus. We also learned that a man named Isambard Kingdom Brunel is very important to the railway and how it is now. He designed a lot of the bridges and the underground in Europe. He had this crazy plan that one could buy a ticket in England all the way to New York. A train would take you to the coast and then you could get onto these giant iron ships and they would take you to New York. Obviously that did not work out too well. BUT he is very important and a well remembered figure. Just with a very unfortunate name.

Laynie and I did not come prepared at all and the weather decided to rain all day on and off and be freezing cold. Thank the Lord Trey Tyson is a gentleman, he let me borrow his coat. After we got our icky project recon job done, the real party began :) Laynie and I made our way from the docks (yes, ALONE, we-mostly Laynie-navigated the underground) to the meeting point we decided on with a few of our other friends from other groups. We got some coffee while we waited:)

 When we all got there, our entire group went to Chipotle (SHARKEY'S FOR LIFE), ate supper, and got changed in the tiny potties and then we went to WICKED! It was so fun!! My BFF Laynie was my hot date :)

Actually, I bought my ticket last minute so I had to buy a nosebleed seat there at the theater and sit by myself way up at the top, but it was so fun. In fact, I was so up the rafters that I could rent little binoculars. Which of course, I did. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, except her binoculars were way cooler. Wish mine were floppy like that. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my camera for this entire trip, so please excuse the grainy photos.

I enjoyed getting to sit by myself because I really got to focus on the show and the beautiful music and costumes. I'm glad that this was my first experience and it was just me and the music. Fantastic:) Made me wish I had been more involved in theater when I was in high school. Anyways, the show was wonderful and I have discovered a love for theater. I hope one day I can go to an opera. I'm sure I would love that too. After the show, we all made the long trudge back home on the underground and train. It was a very long day, but so much fun.  


The next bit of the week was just a normal school week and a normal weekend. We had classes which I should have paid more attention in and then we had a movie weekend with lots of unhealthy food such as Digestives and On the Hoof sandwiches haha

10/2/12:
The next exciting thing that happened such a long time ago was our English walk!! Dr. Winn (or Winn as Laynie and I call him), our English English teacher, promised to take us out on a walk instead of having class. So, we did just that. He took us all around Boar's Hill and through Oxford.  

We walked around for hours and just looked at the countryside and Dr. Winn told us a lot of history about poets and authors that had lived in the area. We walked through so many fields that were so beautifully green. The combination of the sky and earth were just gorgeous. I felt like I was in Pride and Prejudice the entire walk. Just call me Elizabeth Bennett. 

 Maybe don't.



We did the ol' "take a pic and pass the camera back..." 

We got Winn! :) He said he was embarrassed by his picture because his hair was so wispy. Oh English men, they are just so darn funny. 


There was this one hill we walked up and had to walk single file because the trail was so narrow. The wind was blowing, the sky was starting to spit at us, and it was freezing cold. Despite all of this, we, of course, started singing. We sang at the top of our lungs in the middle of nowhere with the wind whipping about us. It was so empowering, I felt like the most powerful woman the face of the earth! No, I didn’t, but I did feel very powerful. We had just started on “The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Music” when Dr. Winn stopped and walked to the back of the herd (my groupies and me) and told us to stop singing. While laughing, he told us that he was very happy that we were so joyful, but to just take that joy and push it deep down inside of ourselves. He said that if we did that we would bring a lot more joy to those around us and as an added bonus we would be more British if we did. We all laughed and then rebelliously sang quietly after he walked away.

 This was the top of the hill. It looks just like Texas! Brown and flat. 


At one point of our ramble, we stumbled upon a graveyard. It was the graves of many WWI soldiers and interestingly enough, it had a slot for Germans as well. It was so beautiful and we all reverently explored it. There was no talking.

It was very humbling to see just a small portion of people who had given their lives for our country and for others that had given their lives for their countries.
 It started raining at the end of our ramble, which was fun/something I’d rather not experience again, but at the end of our trip we went to a pub, warmed up by the fire, and just chatted with Winn. It was super fun. I would totally take up rambling if Abilene was pretty and actually had hills.


Well, that is pretty much all the exciting things that happened the last few days of September...Sorry it took me so long to write about this! More to come soon! Up next, SPAIN!

Cheers from across the pond,
Mallory Jean