Tour of Duty

Wow. I have had one hell of a week. And not in a good way. I'm good now. For the moment at least. But that's why I threw some plans out the window. But it's okay, because I am in Philadelphia now and thought I would catch up a little.

I started this trip in Washington, D.C., with my Aunt. We had some weirdnesses, but we saw a lot of the Government part of the city.

We started with the National Archives, joking about doing a National Treasure tour. (Oh, that is so going to be a post one of these days. Part I and II forthcoming) They are pretty amazing and definitely work a look, though you won't spend all day, maybe an hour or two.

Then, we headed up toward the East end of the Mall and made a big loop around the Capitol. There is a great photo op on the front lawn. The grass is worn, so it's pretty easy to see where to go. One of these days they should really just put a sidewalk there to save the grass.

Heading around the north side of the Capitol, there is a small brick summerhouse that makes for a cool rest stop if you're doing DC in the summertime (like I did).

On the backside is a better picture and is really just beautiful. But behind the Capitol stands the Supreme Court building. Unfortunately, it was under renovations, so I couldn't take a picture of the front. Inside is worth a look, with a display about the building of the building which is very interesting. The Supreme Court building is much newer than the other large government buildings in D.C. and so there was quite a bit of work involved in making it fit in. There is also a detailed description of the various friezes around the building and who each figure is. That is worth a look if you are at all interested in history, especially government history. Also, don't miss the free standing elliptical staircase, which is unnerving to look at, but oh, so cool. You are allowed to go inside the main court chamber, but only on a lecture tour, which occur every hour or so.

After the Supreme Court, it's just a hop skip and a jump over to the Library of Congress, my main destination for the day. It's incredible. It's so bright! And colorful! I did not want to leave. One of the main attractions, the dome in the reading room is easiest to see if you take a tour. If you don't, you can still see it, but you have to manage to sneak in between tours. You're not allowed to take pictures, and you aren't allowed in the Reading Room unless you have legitimate research. (One of these days...) Also on display while I was there was 100 books which changed America, starting with books such as Common Sense and the Federalist Papers, but also including books such as Cat in the Hat and To Kill a Mockingbird. Beyond that stood Thomas Jefferson's Library. When the original Library of Congress burned to the ground, Thomas Jefferson donated his library to begin it again. Even after another fire reducing the collection by two thirds, Jefferson's library became the backbone of the Library of Congress collections. They have assembled the books from Jefferson's original library, including the many original volumes as well as the same volumes from elsewhere in the collection and markers for books they simply cannot find. It is an incredible display. The books fill numerous shelves in Jefferson's own organizational system. The books are in at least five languages and cover subjects from history to science to philosophy and religion. A Truly Incredible Collection.

There is a tunnel Connecting the Library of Congress and the Capitol building. We took the Capitol tour, which is definitely worth the trip. It's free, but weekdays are better if you can, the weekends can be packed. The tour uses a mic on the guide and headsets with a wireless receiver to ensure everyone can hear. Our tour guide told us right off that we wouldn't need the headsets with him, and he was right. Pictures are allowed everywhere, but don't sit on the floor. It's a sign of protest.

Head out of the Capitol building from the Gift Shop and Visitor Center and head south again for a great photo op. On the corner of the paved area, there is a small offset square with a giant bush between it and the capitol building. On this square is a permanent podium used for press releases. If you are really lucky, it will be set up with microphones for an actual press release, but even not, it is a great place to take a picture with the capitol in the background.

After that we headed down the mall to the Smithsonian, but I'll save that for another post.

"Ask not what your country can do for you - Ask what you can do for your country." --JFK

A Recommendation

Okay, so that didn't quite go as planned. Ah, well, what do you do? Life intervenes.
My summer is... well, honestly, it never really happened. I'm two weeks out from classes starting up again and I've barely had time to breathe this summer. I've had to fight to get the fun in, and that's why this trip to DC is so important to me. I finally have details settled and I'm headed out in the next couple of days.
But crossing things off my packing list made me remember this blog and I'd like to put up one of the posts I'd meant to write on before life sidetracked me.

So, this isn't about travel, per se, well, at least not about physical travel. If you've read some of the previous posts, you might have noticed that I love books. I read more than a librarian, honest to goodness. And I'm omnivorous. Romance, fantasy, women's fiction, epics, paranormal, historical, nonfiction, action, adventure, teen/kids books, science fiction, if it's out there, I'll probably read it (though I'll admit it took me a while to warm up to science fiction). And one of my favorite parts of a book, a well written book, at least, is that it transports you. It takes you somewhere else, to another world, inside another person's head. You can tell when a book wasn't quite done as well as it could have been because you keep find yourself, sometimes rather rudely, back in your world, inside your own head. The best books make you forget that all you hold are some bits of paper with squiggles on them, because all you can see is the story, the action, the romance, the world of the book in front of you.

Because of this, I count books as travel. I read so much (though, admittedly, not so much lately) that I'd like to share the best ones with the nonexistent readers I have. :) (Hi, Mom!)




I love funny books. I think there tends to be enough sadness in our world that we don't need to read about it in our spare time. I'm not saying that we should ignore that there is sadness in the world, only that sometimes we need to be reminded that there is happiness, too.

That's probably why I was a bit reluctant to read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I am generally wary of New York Times Bestsellers; too often they are heavy literature about how bad someone's life is. But I am so glad I picked this one up. It is written as a series of letters, telegrams, and journal entries, between a varied cast of characters in post-WWII Britain. The main character, Juliet, wrote a column during the war meant to keep morale up and is finishing up a book tour of the collected columns when the book starts. Her problem now? Her editor (also her best friend's brother) wants another book. So what's a girl to do? Well, through a strange series of events, she winds up in contact with an entire island in the Channel that was occupied during the war, namely, Guernsey.

I laughed at Juliet's (and the entire island's) antics and thoroughly enjoyed this book. It doesn't treat the war lightly, but it does remind you that life goes on. Being American, it is difficult for me to grasp the rebuilding that Britain, and the rest of Europe, went through after WWII. This will give you a picture of what it was like under the occupation and how lines are never as clear as you thought they were.

Alright, recommendation done. If you have some of your own (or, you know, you're actually reading this and just want me to feel less lonely) post in the comments.

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a book, it's too dark to read." --Groucho Marx

A New Adventure

Okay, okay, so I'm not going out of the country. I am however going out of Texas, which sometimes feels like the same thing. I'm also going to be spending a few days by myself in a strange city, and since this blog was started at least partially for my mother's peace of mind, I figured that now would be a good time to resurrect it.

Well, August will be a good time. Middle of August I'm headed out east coast. I've got a graduate college I'm looking at and, since I'll be there anyway, I figured it'd be a good time to take a look around at some sights I've always wanted to see.

I'm being vague, and it's on purpose, I promise.

In other news, I'd really like to use this blog more often, to write a post every here and there. Since coming back from England I've actually managed to keep a journal, so I'd like to post, oh, once a week or so. Not necessarily about my life because, honestly, when I'm not traveling and seeing amazing sights, it's pretty mundane, but about life in general. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a sucker for quotes and bad puns. So I'd like to put some of that up. I'd like to keep this travel related, and I'll do my best. So, places to go, sights to see might be the order of the day. I think I've been enough places to set something up. Right? Right.

So, here's to a blog that will be informative, and hopefully a bit entertaining.

I guess I'll end with a quote. Hey, maybe I could make this a regular thing!

"Blessed are the Curious, for they shall have Adventures." --Lovelle Drachman

P.S. I'll say this now: I'll do my best to find the proper person to attribute each quote to, but it won't always happen. I'm working mostly with the Internet, and you know how that can be. If you think I'm wrong, go ahead and tell me, but please give me a link (or a library book, I'm cool with old fashion) for a source.

Looking Back

Sorry it's taken so long, I've just been hanging out for the past couple days.

I did find my last Harry Potter book, so I now have all seven from ENGLAND! I also got what felt like five pounds of chocolate for my family. Naturally, by now it's almost all gone.

The night before I left, I went out with a few friends. We had dinner and hit the pub, the Jolly Sailor, where I somehow got talked into trying some of Ariel's drink. I blame Zach. Of course, Zach also wanted me to do shots, so thank you Sam and Ariel for agreeing that was a bad idea. Sam owed Ariel a drink, so he bought one, on the advice of everyone, something called a snakebite. It apparently has a little less alcohol and blackcurrant syrup, so it's fruity. I managed two sips. Ariel got a great picture of me (which I am NOT putting on Facebook) with a really funny face.We sat in the first floor kitchen and talked until Sam and Ariel met up with the others to go to the Penny. I went up to my room to finish packing and finally went to bed around 12:30.

We got up fairly early and then headed downstairs (with our mountains of stuff) to get on the bus. We made it to the airport with two and half hours to spare, which turned out just right, as we had to stand in a line to stand in line to check our bags. I wasn't over the limit! I did have a very heavy backpack though. :P Ten hours in the air and two and a half books later, I landed in Houston. I had to wait for my Mom, since she'd gotten caught up in traffic, but then I was headed home.

Well... sort of. We stopped in Katy to wander around the mall and keep me awake for a bit before heading home. When I got home, I divied up everybody's stuff (except Dad's, since he's not home right now) and showed them all my stuff. I didn't go to bed until 9:30 Texas time, which was 22 hours after I'd gotten up that morning. I slept for 12 hours.

So, now I'm home, safe and sound and I'm getting ready for the fall semester. I'm moving in in less than a week and I'm still trying to figure out how to get all my stuff there. My books are ordered, my hair is cut (up above my shoulders!) and now I'm going to clean my room so that it is actually possible to move all my stuff. This summer has been amazing and I'm so glad I went on study abroad. I still need to pick out a picture to send in to the study abroad scholarship competition (if you want to help, comment on your favorite on Facebook) but other than that, I'm pretty much ready to begin my Junior year of college. Bring on the GRE, part-time work, and a good library!

Last Days in Canterbury

Well, today is my last day; I fly home tomorrow. Which means that I have half a million things to do.

I finally got my paper all written out, and then I realized that I didn't know exactly how long McGee wanted it. When I asked him at the awards dinner last night (which was hamburgers and bangers in a bib in the garden of a pub, yes alcohol was involved, but not by me) he told me how about 3,000 words. I kind of sheepishly told him that I had upwards of 11,000. At which point he was speechless for a second and then cursed. And the teasing by the grad students commenced. They told me that I was ready for grad school. And McGee invited me to be his grad student. When I got back to my room, I wound up taking the last three pages, which were the analysis part, double spacing it to make it 7, then summing up my other 15 pages (single space) in three paragraphs. Admittedly, they made over a page, but still. That's double spaced. It made me kind of sad. I then inserted history wherever it felt necessary and explained things that now needed explaining and I wound up with ten and a half pages and 3500 words, which is more what McGee was looking for. I've sent it to the grad students and Mom, who are going to help me edit it. It's due tonight at six, but I feel pretty confident with what I've got.

It makes me really sad that all of that work isn't going into my paper, but I think that I'm going to turn this into my Honors thesis. The history is pretty much done. I'd just expand the analysis portion of the essay and it would be done. I really like this period in time (the Norman Conquest) because of how unlikely all of the players were. All three of them should never have been king, but somehow they were, and it changed the course of English history, and honestly probably world history, as well.

Besides my paper, I still need one more Harry Potter book, so come about ten o'clock, I'm going to go hunting. Then I still have to pack and find nibbles, get chocolate for my family, and figure out what I'm doing for lunch and dinner. And breakfast for that matter.

I'll make one more post sometime tomorrow or the next day to say that I've gotten home safely and to sum up the whole trip. So I'll talk to you all again then. :)

A Day at the Spa

It's been a long but incredible day. My alarm went off at 4:30 this morning. I just almost rolled over and went back to bed, but I convinced myself that I would really regret it if I didn't get up and go to Bath and I'm so glad I went. I made the 5:25 train to St. Pancras and slept most of the way there. Then I got on the tube, went over to Paddington, got on a different train to Bath and slept most of the way there. It was probably a good thing because I don't think I would have made it through the day if I hadn't. The train had a lot of delays, but I actually caught an earlier train than I planned to (because the rail website thinks the tube takes forever) and got to Bath right when I wanted to. Most of the stuff in Bath opens at 9, and I got there at 10 till.

Thanks to my wonderful flatmate Emily, I had a map of Bath and so I successfully navigated to the Abbey, Baths and tourist information. The tourist info didn't open until 9:30, so I went into the Abbey. The Abbey is a beautiful church, but not as developed as the other churches I've seen. It had a little pamphlet, but no huge tour or audio guide. I lit a candle and listened to the someone practice on the Organ after I'd made the loop of the church then headed back to the tourist info. I got a combined ticket for the Baths and the Fashion Museum (I'll tell you why when I get there) then I decided to head over to the Crescent, which had a house that you could go in that was restored to how it would look in the time of George III (Mad King George of Revolutionary War, well, American Revolutionary War, fame).

Bath is wonderfully walkable, so I headed up the hill to the Crescent and eventually found the house, No. 1 The Crescent. However, it didn't open until 10:30, so I went and walked the gardens that were just across the way. I actually wound up walking off the map. :) The gardens were beautiful and the scenery was lovely. I made it back to the house just after they opened and went inside. I have to say that it's great to travel as a student because you get a discount on everything. I got into the house and there are four rooms, plus the kitchens downstairs, that you can go in and there's a volunteer from the museum in each one who tells you all about the room. It was really neat.

Then I went around the circus, which is much like the Crescent, but a circle, and headed over to the Fashion Museum. The Fashion Museum used to be the Assembly rooms. THE place to be for the social season in Bath. They held dances, concerts, and other events there. Right now they have an exhibit on English movie costumes. They have ones from Pirates of the Caribbean (Capt. John Sparrow and Will Turner, of course) Ben Hur, Gladiator, lots of dresses from movies about the queens, as well as some other stuff. :) That's in what used to be the ballroom, where the dances were held. Then you move into the Octagon, where people would meet. I was reading Persuasion on the way back and one of the scenes talks about Anne and Capt. Wentworth meeting in the Octagon room. I had to sit back and take it in for a minute. I had seen that room. I now knew exactly where they were and what it looked like. It was kind of incredible. I also kept pulling the map out to see where everyone was staying. :)

But back to the Fashion Museum. The museum itself is downstairs. In honor of the royal wedding this year, the main showcase is about wedding dress through the centuries. They used to be day dresses, then became evening dresses as weddings were held later in the day, then became a style all their own. I have to say that some of the modern dresses were kind of ugly. You also got to go and look at their stores. They had everything divided by decade and you could walk along and watch the styles change. They do a thing called dress of the year, where someone (who is apparently knowledgeable in fashion) picks a dress that typifies that year. Again, some of the dress were interesting. The point is to keep the museum up to date, but I have to say I don't get high fashion.

After the Fashion Museum, it was getting close to one, so I headed to the bridge, looking for a cafe on the way. I almost got lost a couple of times, but I finally found the bridge, and on the corner was the cutest, most affordable, best cafe ever! got a baguette (which was heavenly) and a water bottle for 3 pounds. I went down to a park that was on one side of the river and sat on the wall while I ate lunch. They have an old Celtic maze, the kind with stone paths on the ground, in the park, so I took a few minutes and walked it after I finished lunch.

After lunch I went to the Baths. They have a really cool set up for the baths. There's a terrace that you walk around at street level that lets you look down at the Great Bath which is at Roman street level. Then you go down through a museum and then into the baths. The audio guides are awesome and really determine how long you spend there. If you stop and listen to everything, you could be there for hours. If you just look at the big stuff, then it only takes an hour and a half or so. I went through the baths at a pretty good pace. They were really neat, but I could only stare at them for so long. I got a nice lady to take my picture with the Great Bath behind me, so shout out to the really nice random lady.

With an entry to the baths, you also get a free glass of mineral water from the springs. It's an experience let me tell you. There's a fountain in the pump room and the waiter just grabs a glass and sticks it under one of the spouts. The water is warm (not luke warm, like just the cooler side of hot) and smells funny. If you drink it down, it's alright, but it leaves a funny taste in you mouth.

After the Baths, I wasn't ready to go home, so I kind of wandered around. I went back to the bridge and got a strawberry smoothie from the cafe I ate lunch at to wash the taste of the mineral water out of my mouth. I also found some great places to take pictures of the river. I wandered into the Guildhall, which was just a bunch of local shops, kind of an open air market, but with everything from hardware to fabric to used books. I looked at the used books, but they didn't have the Harry Potter book I was looking for. However, I can't walk out of a used books store (especially one like this, it was awesome) without a book, so I wound up with Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile. Which they also had some of the costumes for in the Fashion Museum. :)

After this I knew that I needed to go ahead and leave so I could get home at a reasonable time. I headed to the train station, but the next train didn't leave for another half hour, so I wandered around near the train station. I saw a street vendor with souvenir stuff and decided that I wanted something for myself from Bath, so I now have a Bath t-shirt. :) I like it.

I grabbed dinner at St. Pancras and made it home without any eventufulness. I'm going to bed now. And I'm going to sleep late tomorrow. And then it's back to the, currently, eighteen page paper. Hopefully to make it less than eighteen pages. Since McGee said at least ten... I think I qualify. :)

Thanks so much to everyone who's helping me edit. :D

Essay and Break

Well, Saturday was spent in a marathon on my independent study essay. I started at about 10:30 AM, and besides a long break for lunch and a shorter break for dinner, I worked on my essay straight through to midnight. However, I did not finish it, though I did finish the notes for the historical dates.

Sunday I went to class, went to church, went back to my room to work on my essay some more. I got all my notes typed up and went to print it out so I could edit it more easily. At this point it was 16 pages, but with the longer paper here and double sided, I got it on 7. However, this began an adventure as the computer lab near the House did not have paper in the printer. So I had to go all the way down to Augustine House where I did manage to get it printed. I then folded it up and put it in my purse and went in search of lunch, as it was now getting close to two. I was trying to find a shop that I'd seen, but I found a guy with hamburgers first. I have discovered that I rather like onions on my hamburgers. :) Just because, I went into two of the little bookstores on High street, and lo and behold, I found the first two Harry Potter books! I'm only missing the fifth one now, and I'm okay with buying that from a chain store if I have to.
Then back to my room, but it had turned into such a beautiful day that I changed into shorts (!) and grabbed my towel and laid out in the courtyard to edit my paper. Three hours later I'd gone through it twice and managed to make it a bit smaller. I'd also managed to get the top of the back of my thighs sunburned. Yep. I got sunburned in England. That my friends, takes dedication.

Today I returned to London, for the final time (unless something weird happens) to visit two museums. I finished up the Natural History Museum in morning. I got to see lots of rocks and fossils, but I also went to the Sexual Nature exhibition (I got you a postcard, Mom). The exhibit was actually fairly tasteful, except for the random videos that made me feel like I was back in freshman health class.

I then headed over to the National Gallery. It sits facing Trafalgar Square, and the scaffolding was down, so people were everywhere. There were lots of street performers. There was a dude playing the bagpipes, a Charlie Chaplin, a gold statue man and some acrobats.

I can now say that I have seen a Degas, a Da Vinci, a Raphael, and a Van Gogh in person. It was so amazing. I'd wind up standing there just looking at some of this stuff thinking that these were actually painted by some of the best there ever were. I love Degas, Van Gogh, and Renoir and they had a bunch of their paintings. It was so cool to see them in person.

After wandering through the museum I went out front to take some pictures of the Nelson Column and the lions around the bottom. Then I headed back to Charing Cross station where I just missed a train to Canterbury. I wandered around the area for a little while then got on the next train. I was standing at the platform when it pulled up, which was a good thing because there had been fire or something on one of the lines so lots of people were being forced to take that train to get to somewhere to swtich. The train was packed. I actually fell asleep on the train for a while, but I made it back to Canterbury. I've now made and eaten dinner and semi planned my trip to Bath tomorrow. I just have to look at trains. I'm going to go early and get back late.

I'm now going back to working on my essay. I want it done! I figure I can sleep on the train to Bath and I can sleep all day Wednesday if I like. :)