Wow, okay, so I'm really bad at keeping this updated. So much has gone on lately! I will try my very hardest to write more often! I apologize in advance, because this is going to be long.
(Also: Hello to the Extended Canadian Family and Grandma, who are also now reading this!)
I finally saw The Dark Knight on Thursday -- despite the fact it was supposed to technically be released in theatres here on Friday. We went to a very American mall to see it, so it felt a little bit like being home. Anyway... we were all settled in our seats, having seen the previews and ads and whatnots...and the most British alarm possible went off. "A situation has arisen and we kindly request that you leave your seats..." This, of course, did not really fly with the presumably mostly American audience, who were all quite displeased with this Situation's Arising. Eventually a staff member came in and informed us that the situation was cleared and we should all take our seats, and that when the projectionist finished going up the stairs he would start the movie for us. Either way, the movie itself was fantastic and well worth the wait. If you haven't seen it, I strongly urge you to!
Friday I went on a tour led by John Morrill, a Leading Cromwellian Scholar and Expert on English Beer (He led the lecture on the history of English beer drinking, which was sort of dull and should have warned me not to take his next tour, but apparently I didn't heed that knowledge). We went to a nice church about 40 minutes away, where we spent about an hour and read some poetry. After that we went to Oliver Cromwell's hometown to look at the Oliver Cromwell Museum and Major Points of Interest in Reference to Cromwell Himself. This was spectacularly dull; the highlight was listening to John Morrill very excited about Oliver Cromwell's Stupdendous Hat, which was large, felt, and sort of ridiculous. This tour lasted about two hours and the real highlight was eating, to be perfectly honest. From there we got back on the bus and drove to a major site of the British Civil War and then went to Ely Cathedral, which was easily the highlight of the entire day. We left at 9 AM and returned about 5 PM; I had been hoping to work a little bit on my paper that day but this was apparently not in the cards for me. After all of this I still don't actually know who Oliver Cromwell actually is, beyond the fact that he liked the Bible a lot.
Saturday we went to Canterbury Cathedral (just like the Pilgrams in the Canterbury Tales!), which quite conviently had a Starbucks next to it, in case the pilgrams wanted a mocha frappachino after their long journey. No, seriously, Canterbury Cathedral was gorgeous! The program had arranged for us to have an audio-guided walking tour of the cathedral, which was convienent provided you could follow directions that were along the lines of "if you turn left next to the pulpit you will find a set of doors. Walk through them until you see three steps, then turn right. Then, please choose the next number on your keypad." I was very bad at these directions and subsequently got lost a few times, but Canterbury was really cool.
From there we hopped back on the coach to Dover, which put everything I had seen so far to shame. We were deposited at the helm of Dover Castle, and from there we walked around the perimeter of it, looked at the White Cliffs, climbed a few hills, and then set off for the beach! In fine form I fell down a rather steep incline near the Hidden Wartime Tunnels. You would think they would not advertise them so much, in the event of another war (HIDDEN WARTIME TUNNELS THIS WAY! ---> etc) but due to time constraints we didn't really get to check them out. We did, however, see a Wartime Lookout (this also had big signs) and reached the ultimate conclusion that part of Atonement was probably filmed here. The beach was beautiful and rocky, but certainly worth the walk down! We did not, sadly, see France, as it was once again in True British Style, fogtastic. But in all seriousness, Dover was easily the coolest place we have been thus far and I'm glad I've been going on these excursions; they've been, for the most part, lots of fun.
Sadly while in Dover my camera broke; the lens doesn't close and doesn't focus, so I don't have many pictures from there. I think I'm going to have to get a new camera though, which is going to be expensive due to dollar/pound exchange rates....
Yesterday I went on an optional trip as sponsored by Stuart, our chef, on a traditional Englishman's holiday to the beach. Stuart is too wonderful for doing this; we finally felt like we were seeing Real England as opposed to Tourist England, which is what much of our trip can occasionally feel like, despite the fact we can say that we've been to Dover, Canterbury, London, etc. A traditional English holiday, so it seems, involved trains - several of them - but we ultimately ended up in Sheringham, which seems akin to the Cape in terms of English Touristybits. We had asked Stuart if the beach was sandy (he said it was...it, much like Dover beach, was quite rocky). We climbed some rocks there, frolicked in the ocean for a bit, and then Stuart took us to two pubs. One was a nearby pub in Sheringham and the other was in Norwich, where he used to live. So, an Englishman's Holiday is essentially a beach and a beer. This is how real English folk live! Sunday is a big day for these sorts of things, it seems; he found it strange that Sundays in America are sort of quiet, subdued days compared to the rest of the week. He had a lot of good stories to tell and was legitimately happy to show us around, which the five of us that went were very happy about. It sucks that everything else we've done was led by the Leading Expert in the Field (Cromwell Day was led by a Cromwell scholar, the castles / cathedrals we've been to have been led by castley/cathedrally people who are quite knowledgeable about it, etc. This was a normal guy living his normal life, and being so kind to take a day out of his life to try and show us real British culture, not the prefabricated tourist culture we're exposed to all the time.
Still coming up: The Bristish Food Entry, The English Language Entry (you knew this was coming)
This weekend: The land of plaid & bagpipes!
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