England and Paris and all that's fairest

England is where most of the adventure took place. We went all over. We hiked the vast expanse of the Moors, explored Sherwood Forest while scouting out for Robin Hood, played on the beach and walked along the Cobb in Lyme Regis, and made so many more good memories. We visited the poet Wordsworth's home along with the Bronte Parsonage, one of Jane Austen's homes, Beatrix Potter's house, and many different Shakespeare properties, including a visit to his grave. It was very stirring to walk through these places where such incredible writers walked and lived as I contemplated the impact that they have had on the world. It was such a great experience.

The spirit was so strong in this little chapel where Shakespeare is buried. He was definitely an inspired man, and his work is definitely virtuous, lovely, and of good report.

It was in England that we visited even more castles and palaces, old monasteries, nunneries, abbeys, and cathedrals, including Westminster Abbey. For those of you that don't know, Westminster is a church where every monarch of England has been coronated since William the Conqueror. Many of them are buried here as well, along with countless other historic artists and scientists such as Handel, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and many others. It was so neat to be in a place of so much history.

Tintern Abbey, the remains of an old monestary.

We also had the opportunity to attend a couple Shakespeare plays put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. I must admit, because of them, I am now a big Shakespeare fan. All I've ever seen are little plays put on by high schools and little groups, but these don't even compare.

Along the lines of theatre, while we were in London I went with a group to a showing of Les Miserable. This musical is so powerful and so moving and I loved every second of it. I could have continued to sit there once it finished and watched it from the very beginning all over again and been perfectly content and happy. It was amazing. While we were there, we couldn't pass up the chance to go to the Globe Theatre either; however, I was a little disappointed to find that tickets to Romeo and Juliet playing in this historic theatre were completely sold out, so I had to just let a tour of the theatre satisfy. It was really interesting to listen to the tour guide and all the little bits of information she shared with us though. I was happy I was at least able to go look at it.

Of course we couldn't miss Stonehenge while we were there. Such a neat, mysterious place. When I die, you can bet this will be one of my questions for Heavenly Father!

The last couple days of the trip were spent in Paris. People aren't kidding when they say the French are a passionate people, and Paris really is a great city of passion; passion for art, passion for their culture, passion for their heritage, and yes, even passion for each other as we witnessed floating down the Seine River. While in Paris, I developed some passion myself. I now have a passion for stain glass. I've never been a huge fan of much stain glass, that is until I entered the Sainte Chapelle. Upon entering the old chapel covered in stain glass from wall to wall my mind far changed from its unimpressed impressions of stain glass. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, and was my highlight from Paris.

Sainte Chapelle-imagine this, times about 17, completely surrounded by stain glass. It's literally breathtaking.

The Eiffel Tower at sunset. It's funny to think that when it was first erected it was thought of as the most hideous monstrosity.

The view of Paris from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Another passion I gained in Paris is for the opera. Okay so not really, more for the opera house. I didn't actually attend any operas, but I did walk through the opera house, and that was enough to change my mind. Even though I'm not a huge opera fan, I wanted to go to one just so I could go into the building again. Big, ornate, and gorgeous. Loved it.

What would Paris be without going to the Louvre, right? In addition to the Louvre we went to the Musee d'Orsay and saw some more very famous, very beautiful art. It was great.

The Opera House-I think I heard faint ringings of the Phantom of the Opera echoing from the basements (that's right, plural).

The Louvre

Although it's good to be home, I want to go back at the same time. I learned so much about so many different things. It really was a once in a lifetime experience. I loved it, and I would do it again in a second.

Where to start

It's been a while and my blog has been neglected. I've spent the past month in Europe on a study abroad, and let's just say my blog was not at the top of my priority list. Now that I'm home though, I must come back to life as we know it, and face the realities of life again...sigh. As far as blogging goes, I don't quite know how to go about tackeling it. I have seen and experienced so many incredible things. There is so much to say and show. It's kind of daunting. There's only one thing to do but get started!

So, a month ago I flew out of Salt Lake City, and after saying good-bye to American soil, I found myself in Ireland 24 hours later. Ireland is probably the most green place I have ever seen. I have never seen that brilliant shade of green in nature before. It was beautiful. In our several day stay in Ireland we visited the Cliffs of Moher (a.k.a. the cliffs of insanity from Princess Bride...for real). We went to the Irish writers museum in Dublin, rode bikes around the island of Inishmore in the pouring rain, visited castles, and stayed in creepy/gross hostels, but we won't dwell on that. While in Ireland we made a stop at Trinity College where we viewed the Book of Kells, which is an ancient manuscript of the four gospels written and decorated in a remarkably beautiful way. Within Trinity College is a room called the Long Room as well, which, like it sounds, is a very long room. Go figure. What is neat and unique about this room, however, is that the walls are lined with bookshelves full of ancient books written by Socrates, Aristotle, and many other great philosiphers of old. I absolutely loved this room. Everything from the smell, to the overstimulation of the eyes trying to take in so many books, and the feeling that came over me to be in the midst of so much history. Yes, it sounds silly, but this room was one of my highlights from the whole trip. I just loved the special spirit the room contained.

Dublin Castle

The street in Galway we stayed on, and yes, many streets are cobblestone and narrow in this part of Ireland. It's pretty neat.

Overlooking the Galway Bay. You can see the city of Galway on the horizon of this picture.

The Cliffs of Moher. If only pictures could do them justice. They don't even come close to showing their majorist enormity.

First comes Ireland, then came Wales, home to some of the most genuine and welcoming people. We stayed in Cardiff and visited Chester for a couple hours where we walked along the top of the wall encircling the the city. The Romans would stand guard on this wall and watch for any threats. In addition, we traveled some more, walked through more castles, and then headed into England.

Skipton Castle

On top of the wall surrounding Chester. P.S. Just disregard any closed eyes :)

On the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Holyhead. Isn't it beautiful?!

Rather than taking on the overwhelming task of trying to tell you everything I ever did on the trip, and to save you, my fellow reader, from reading a saga of events, I have decided to end this entry here. Keep checking back for part 2 of the European adventures of the British Literary Pilgrimage Tour. England and Paris have yet to come!

And there goes the final project.

Well, my photography class is about done and I turned in my final project yesterday. Hurray! For this last project we just had to take a bunch of pictures of a single theme and put them together in some sort of scrapbook, web gallery, multi media presentation, etc. I decided to take pictures of several different pianos and put them together in a slideshow. Hope you enjoy!

More photography assignments

My mom requested more photos from my photography assignments a while ago, so here are a few more. They are from a conglomerate of assignments we've had regarding composition, color, motion, lighting, etc.

This assignment was about composition, focusing solely mainly on the rule of thirds and leading lines and such. I owe my roommate big time for sitting out in the snow in the freezing cold weather while I tried to hurry and take the shots. She's a gem!

There are four difference color schemes we learned about in my class: harmonious, complementary, monochromatic, and polychromatic. For this assignment we were supposed to pay attention to those color schemes. This photograph is monochromatic, meaning there is only one dominant color.

For this assignment we were required to experiment with different kinds of artificial lighting as they all cast different colors. I figured I'd make my brother-in-law proud and used good ol' LED.

Last but not least, that is if you're still reading this (sorry, it's kind of a boring post this time), our motion assignment. Yes, there's my roommate again. She makes such a great model!

Totally pointless

Going to school in Rexburg, Idaho in the winter is...an experience. One thing you ought to know about Rexburg is that it is really really cold, and snows. A lot. The snow is never shoveled or plowed anywhere, resulting in a lot of ice everywhere. It has become an art to distinguish between the patches of ice that are bad news and to be avoided at all costs, and the patches of ice that really aren't that slippery and no problem to walk on. You can imagine what happens in the process of learning this art, I don't think anymore explanation is necessary.

There is a particular spot on the sidewalk just outside my apartment complex that has a sheet of ice layers of inches thick, and very slippery. The fear of falling and looking like an idiot exists within everyone, but let me make myself clear, looking like an idiot is inevitable. Let's be honest, we have all spent many flailing moments, looking like an idiot with arms and legs flapping in every direction, staying erect on our feet by some miracle. Somehow, we still manage to justify our dignity since we "didn't actually fall."

Over the past couple of days, the weather has been beautiful and the sun has been shining, aka, the temperature has been above the freezing point of ice. Following our logic, this means melting. This means standing water everywhere, particularly on the sidewalk that used to contain the ice of fatality, which has now transformed into the lake of saturation and depth, and by that I do not mean wisdom.



Upon reaching this complimentary wading pool of ours, a decision must be made within a matter of moments. One has several choices. You can a) attempt to walk around the gigantic puddle and get stuck in the mud, ruining your shoes, b) walk through the mounds of snow remaining to the street, and pray you don't get hit by any angry drivers, or c) suck it up and wade through the pool, still ruining your shoes and also soaking the bottom of your pants. having tried them all, I've come to the conclusion that risking my life, venturing into the street, and going around the whopping waterway is the best choice, in my opinion, even at the expense of driver's road rage. I'll go with option b and take my chances. It has been great fun.

Snowshoe Adventure, survived.

Last weekend I got to go snowshoeing for my first time. It was a lot of fun, but man was it tiring! About halfway through I hurt bad, and by the time we got home, I was pooped. We hiked a very long 6.5 miles and went up to Mesa Falls here in Idaho, and it was beautiful! There were lots of trees everywhere, which was nice for a change from the flat, barren wasteland that I live in, and even though I am surrounded by a ton of snow all the time, I must admit, I even enjoyed the snow. We couldn't have had a more beautiful day for our outing either. The sun was shining bright and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Sometimes we were hiking in just our T-shirts...and it is the middle of February! It was glorious. I must say though, next time I go snowshoeing, I plan on going at my own pace and my own distance, which you can probably count on being a wee bit shorter.

Cake anyone?

I have two nieces that were born a week apart a year ago. They just celebrated their first birthdays this month. In celebration, my two sisters got together and partied, and seeing as I live only a couple hours from these festivities, how could I miss out? So despite the bad weather, I took the weekend off from school and joined them. It was so much fun to watch them interact with each other, devour their first cakes, open new presents and toys, and gorge ourselves with more cake. Not that I'm biased or anything, but I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm pretty sure I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever!