Yorkminster

While I was in Britain, I also went to York, and climbed to the top of Yorkminster, and I thought I'd share some pictures of the views.

This is the view from half way up. There was a little walkway, and had amazing views of the cathedral.  

This is from the top, and oh my gosh, the views of York are fabulous.

 

This was when I first walked into York, and first saw the cathedral from the ground. It was gorgeous!

St. Paul's Cathedral

When I was in England, I climbed to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral (where Diana and Charles got married), and the views of London were AMAZING!

This is St. Paul's. I climbed past the dome to the little walkway at the top. You can barely see in in the picture but it's below the cross bit, but touching the top of the dome. I'm not scared of heights, but my mom didn't even climb up.

I zoomed in for this view, but I got some double decker buses, and I just thought it looked really cool.

Victoire

My foreign exchange student from France arrives on Thursday! Her name's Victoire, and she seems very nice.

She drinks tea, so she's going to fit in better with my family than me! It'll definitely be a different experience from last summer, but I'm interested to see what's different and what's the same.

My foreign exchange student from last year, Irene, is going to Seattle this year, so I made her promise to post lots of pictures on Facebook, so I can see Seattle because I've always wanted to go!

At the little orientation thing the organization puts on, they said to make them feel comfortable, so they aren't shy speaking English. So I think that I should just attempt to speak French with the worst accent the whole time, just to make it fair. Who knows... she might be impressed. Or not.

Anyway, I'm excited!

My Summer

I'm currently in the middle of four books. So I'm reading two for fun, one for AP Psych, and one for AP Lit.

But one of the books that I am reading for fun is a nonfiction account of the underground city of Edinburgh, (Edin-burr-uh, not edin-burg in case you were wondering) Scotland, and it's really interesting! I'm only a few chapters in, but my mom read it in a few days, so it must have been good. I bought it at Edinburgh Castle, and usually castle's don't sell that good of books, but I have high hopes for this one.

I'm reading Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert for Psych, and it seems pretty good so far, especially for a book you have to read for school.

I'm reading Wuthering Heights for AP Lit, and I'm actually kind of excited about it, because it's a classic that I probably wouldn't have read if not for AP Lit.

Although, it is a little stressful because I feel like I'm behind already, because the summer's half gone!

Books...

I had two friends go to France over the summer, and they brought me back AMAZING gifts! So thanks, guys!

I am adding to my collection of things that I bought in Britain this summer... which was a lot. Oops.

I honestly don't think I have much more wall space. I think my mom's in the same position though because we bought twelve frames today for all the pictures she bought over there... in case you want frames, Aaron Brothers is doing a sale, where if you buy one, you get one for a penny!

My room is just a compilation of my interests: travel and books. I brought back 31 old books. Yep. That's right. 31. I went to Hay-on-Wye, which is a town of bookstores in Wales (I highly recommend it: you should go there one day!) My suitcase was over the limit, so I may, or may not, have put books in my parents' and brother's suitcase as well.... They love me :)

Hay-on-Wye was an AMAZING place. There are alleyways, open to the elements, just full of bookshelves, and bookshelves against the walls surrounding Hay Castle. There are over 40 bookstores I think, and one of them is JUST murder mystery, so of course I bought an old Agatha Christie book!

I bought a gypsy dictionary, because that's always useful. (There are lots of gypsies in Europe)

For those in AP Lit, I bought an old book that has Oedipus and Antigone in it!

And I also have a really old book in Arabic, I think, so it reads back to front. SO COOL! It's my mom's old book, because her dad used to work in Jordan (not that either of them spoke Arabic)

I got books by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen (I also went to go see the house she grew up in, and the desk she wrote on!!), and Charles Dickens.

I even bought a book entirely in Welsh! Welsh is a really interesting language because of the alphabet.



That's the Welsh alphabet. It has no Z. And what I do know is that the dd sounds like the English th. so I have no idea what the Welsh th sounds like.

And that was my Hay-on-Wye experience :)

Military Wives Choir

When I was in the airport in Britain, I was bored, so I bought a book about the Military Wives' Choir.

This book is just a mishmash (is that a word??) of loads of different perspectives of the unsung heroes. The wives are left behind and have to be mom, dad, aunt, uncle, grandparent: everything. They live on the military base, so they usually aren't near any family.

It began as a TV show on BBC, but the wives have sung in front of the Royal Family, at Sandhurst, and for lots of charities and things.

I would highly recommend the book, but here's a link to them singing! You can watch the three episode show on YouTube (I'm in the middle of it right now) and I'll link that too.

This is the first part of the first episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7UGgsdZQyU&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLE379A445F06A6F05

And this is them singing in front of the Royal Family at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ7f4lV3e0c

I don't know anyone in the American military, and only one person in the British military, so this was definitely a new perspective for me.

A family friend who's in the military, his wife has joined a local choir, and she's on advertising posters, and has sing at loads of different places.

The whole point of the choir is to bring wives of different ranks and branches of the military together. Before the choir, the wives of different ranks and branches of the military didn't really associate with each other, but the choir's changed all of that, which, in itself, is amazing.

The wives are living their husbands' jobs, and the choir has broken down the barriers between them.

Disney Princess Marathon

So in preparation for next year's homecoming theme as well as our trip to Disneyland together in December, my friend Emily and I watched 5 classic Disney princess movies all in one night!

Going in order of when they were made, we started with Snow White.  I can't believe I used to have nightmares about that!  Although, the evil queen does still scare me. 

Next we watched Cinderella.  The step sisters have monstrously large feet!  Like the glass slipper only fit on Drizella's big toe! 

We continued our marathon with Sleeping Beauty.  You know, sometimes I wonder why the fairies kept her in hiding for 16 years and brought her back to the castle on her 16th birthday when she was supposed to prick her finger?  Like why wouldn't you take her into hiding on her 15th birthday or something and then keep her in hiding until after her 16th birthday when the prophecy is void?  I really don't understand. 

Next, of course, was The Little Mermaid!  If I were Ariel, I'd make Eric become a merman and live under the sea instead of going up on land to live with him.  That's no fun! 

Lastly, my personal favorite, Beauty & The Beast.  I can't even begin to explain how much I love this movie.  It's so perfect!

We still have a couple of movies to go, including Aladdin, another one of my favorites.  Oh how I love a good Disney fairytale :)