Backdated: First Weekend - Mostly Sunday

This Friday we had our first Smart Event, as you all may have seen from that picture of me in my dress. :D We met our tutors and milled around looking at art. It felt pretty grown-up and also scary because all our teachers are pretty intense - I walked up to my Irish Literature teacher to introduce myself and he handed me homework. So, even though the classes are very, very exciting and I can't wait to start them on Tuesday, they're going to be WORK. One of my teachers even told us how kids in his classes are always coming up to him saying, "I don't know what you want from us in this class! What do you want??" GREEAAT. Looking forward to that. (Actually, that class looks really fun, so I actually am, but still. AHH!)

After that, Linley went out for Thai food in our formal wear, at a Salathai right across from our house. I can see it out of my window. :D Then we holed up inside watched incomprehensible British game shows, as is becoming our tradition.

On Saturday morning, Mark (or Maahhhhk as the girls call him) and his University friends took us on a tour of the Bath markets, which were awesome. There's a good-sized farmer's market/flea market down by the grocery store we shop at, which I will definitely be visiting in the future, because they had everything, from specialty baked goods to obscure British cheeses to books, leotards (I don't know), half-price organic vegetables and a station with a lady making crepes. I had one of those for breakfast, yum. After almost getting left behind there, too absorbed in the great food to notice that everyone was leaving, we went halfway up the city to a couple of smaller markets, one which is indoors and very old, and another that's sort of in an alley, and sold lots of old records and EPs and gardening tools. Mark and his friends said goodbye and we were free to wander around, so since we were at the top of town for once, we walked over to the Circus and the Royal Crescent, which you can see in my pictures. It's a very Austen part of town, and is in fact where the Jane Austen Centre is. I think a movie might have been filmed there. I don't really know anything about the Jane Austen universe. :D

Then we walked home, I took a nap, and Cali, Yeji and I had an abortive attempt to see Atonement (ugh, it was the worst: we couldn't find it, got lost, made it *just* in time for the opening credits, couldn't find seats, were given permission to sit in the aisle, were un-given permission to sit in the aisle, were given a refund instead, and sent home.). When we got home we just watched more game shows, though, so it was okay. And then, SUNDAY:

Linley was first to the buses (again; we were first to the Smart Event, too. We're so punctual), and it was an hour to Stonehenge, during some of which I took a nap and some of which I filmed the countryside going by. At Stonehenge it was UNBELIEVABLY cold; not exactly temperature-wise, but the wind was vicious and within five minutes I couldn't feel my fingers, and I had a killer headache because of my ears, hence why a bunch of us have scarves over our heads in most of the pictures. The walk was a path around the perimeter of Stonehenge, and it got pretty close at times, which was cool. The actual road road, like for cars, was very close to
Stonehenge, which was kind of weird. You'd think it would be some sort of national park grounds, or something. But no. Spread out for miles around Stonehenge were burial mounds, which I forgot to get pictures of, because Stonehenge is apparently just the center of a very large religious area where significant figures were buried. I thought I also read something about a pilgrimage from another stone structure to this one - but I dunno.

After Stonehenge we practically RAN for the bus, it was so cold, and the next stop was Salisbury, a motley medieval-Regency-modern city with a looming, sun-blotting cathedral at one end. We went to the cathedral immediately and took pictures outside of it - the wind almost took my camera out of my hands - and inside, where, ready for this? One of the four existing copies of the Magna Carta is housed. Yeah. In that cathedral. I WISH I could have taken a picture in there, but they were super down on that, which I understand. It was sort of amazing, though. Also, I didn't know that King John signed the Magna Carta. This throws my perception of Robin Hood out of whack. They also had one of Chaucer's translations of Boethius, which if I could have just photographed and shown to my Courtly Traditions professor, I'm sure would have bumped my grade up at least a letter.
:D

We ate in Salisbury, in a Market Inn that had been there since the 17th or 18th century, and then we ran to St. Thomas's church to get a picture of the Doom painting (well, okay, I ran while everybody else walked, I was excited) before we had to be back at the bus.

The last stop was Lacock, a town that you may recognize from the first or second Harry Potter movie, or any filmed adaptation of Jane Austen ever. It's so perfect and little and OLD - there are no wires, poles, or anything except cars to mar the medieval appearance of the town. There are only four roads. We couldn't get into the Abbey, the grounds of which are the most recognizable location from the Harry Potter movies, because they were closed for the winter (they open in March! Let's go!), but we did walk around the four streets and listen to old bitter-bronze church bells going over and over for a christening.

I took 106 pictures, but only 56 or so made it online. :/ It was an amazing day - it feels like I've been traveling for a week or something. And it didn't even start raining until we got back to our
house! Basically, everything was beautiful, and I'm going to sleep really well tonight.