Digestive Biscuits

So, I have a minor obsession with McVites Dark Chocolate Digestive biscuits. Out of curiosity I had to find out why they're called 'Digestives'. Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

A digestive biscuit, sometimes referred to as a sweet-meal biscuit, is a semi-sweet biscuit originated in the United Kingdom and popular worldwide. The term 'digestive' is derived from the belief that they had antacid properties due to the use of sodium bicarbonate when they were first developed. Historically, some producers used diastatic malt extract to 'digest' some of the starch that existed in flour prior to baking.

Whatever the reason, I'm completely addicted!

British Library and Tate Britain

Not much to post today. We went to the British Library which was pretty neat. They have tons of illuminated bibles. They had two very worn pages from the Gospel of St. John, written in Greek on papyrus, dating from the 3rd century! How cool is that. What's even cooler is they found these two pages in a trash dump in Egypt in the early 20th century. Amazing!

They also had the handwritten musical score of Handel's Messiah, one of Jane Austen's notebooks from when she was 16 to 19 years old and the prayer roll of Henry VIII. Very cool.

After the library a few of us went to Tate Britain where they currently have an exhibition of the 'Romantics'. There were absolutely gorgeous pieces by Turner and Constable. Love, love, love Turner and his way of painting light. There were also some pre-raphialite pieces such as Ophelia and the Lady of Shalot. Loved.

We're headed to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath tomorrow so I must go to bed. I'll post more when we get back on Friday.

Messing Around in Photoshop

Goodbye London!

Well, I'm off to home. Not looking forward to the flight, but I am looking forward to my own comfy bed!!! Yea!

I'll see my family in a few days too! Oh happy day!

Portobello Road

Well, there were a lot of people on Portobello Road, in fact I think all of London may have decided to go today.

Oxford, Warwick and Stratford-Upon-Avon

Yesterday we left London by coach, first stopping in Oxford where we walked all around Oxford University, then onto Warwick where we visited Warwick Castle. It's been turned into a sort of medieval amusement park. There was jousting and wax figures...the castle is real everything else built up around it and in it is somewhat questionable. We then went to Stratford where we watched The Merchant of Venice, performed by the Royal Shakespearean Company. There was a little more Elvis than I expected, but it was pretty fun. We stayed at an adorable little B&B called Woodstock and the next morning we saw Macbeth. I couldn't stand it so I left at intermission and went shopping. Stratford-Upon-Avon is a really nice little town. I could happily live there I think.

Just a week left in London and I must admit I'm ready to head back to the real world now, but I feel the need to cram in as much as possible in the little time I have left.

Notre Dame

I loved visiting the Louvre, The Pompidiu Center, the Orsay, Rodin Museum, Ivalides, Eiffel Tower, Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame and Pere Lachaise Cemetery. The food was great (even if I've forever maimed myself on baguette), especially the pastries but I would gladly never have to ride the Metro again, be accosted by insane French poets, smell stale urine for 4 days straight or pay 7 Euro ($10) for a diet Coke again in my life! This evening when I arrived back in the UK I took a deep breath of clean English air and grinned from ear to ear! I love you England!!!

Here's my favorite picture from the trip, it's the Rose Window at Notre Dame. If you want to see all the pictures I took, check me out on Photobucket. Here's the link: http://s1112.photobucket.com/home/Moxeyjc/index

Tower of London

Went to the Tower of London this morning. Very interesting. I just noticed that I took about 20 pictures of windows...it's a minor obsession I guess.
1. Our small group.
2. Church in the White Tower. 3. Stairway and a window in the White Tower. 4. Henry VIII's jousting armor. 5. Horse statues from the line of Kings.

Winchester

Today Courtney, Sabrina, Rachel and I went to Winchester. I was kind of nervous about it because it was my idea and no one had ever even heard of the town. I found out about it in a book I found laying around our flat. Winchester was the capital of England for along time, the Cathedral is really huge, which is kind of odd for such a small town. It wasn't always so small. Anyway, there are 12 Kings buried at Winchester Cathedral as well as Jane Austen (which if I am honest is really why I wanted to go in the first place). The oldest private school in GB is also in Winchester as well as the ruins of an old castle and a very fun shopping district. We had a blast today...I'm so glad my idea to go to Winchester was a success! (King Arthur's round table is also in Winchester but we didn't get a chance to see it...bummer!)

Tate Modern

Some of you may know that I'm not a huge Modern Art fan. I just don't get it to be honest, which is why I'm taking the class I'm taking this semester. I figure if I take a class and someone (aka: Courtney) can explain the whole artistic meaning of a spoon laying on a table to me, then maybe I'll learn to appreciate it.

There are a few artists I like, but over all, it's a big huge, "Huh?". Yep. So here's some pics of stuff I liked at the Tate Modern today.

National Gallery and the West End

Went to the National Gallery yesterday, which was really exciting. We couldn't take pictures inside so I don't really have anything to show you. I finally got to see a few paintings in real life that I really wanted to see. I say Constables, The Hay Wain, a bunch of Turner's and Renoir's and Dega's plus Caravaggio's, The Supper at Emmas, which was beautiful and amazing.

I never really liked Caravaggio's work until I started taking art history classes, now I'm a total fan. His use of light and shadow is so beautiful.

After our time at the National Gallery I went to the West End to get a ticket to see Billy Elliot that evening. Wicked was on right across the street so I walked over there to see how much tickets were and ended up going to the matinee. So yesterday I went to two plays and they were both really good, although I liked Billy Elliot the best.

At Wicked I sat next to some people from Utah, how crazy is that? One of the girls in the group is friends with one of the girls on the same study abroad as myself! Small, small world. Then at Billy Elliot I spoke with the nice couple sitting next to me. They were locals and we had a lot of fun chatting and they explained the slang to me. So over all, I had a lot of fun yesterday.

Today it looks like laundry, grocery shopping and a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum right down the road. Might have some pictures of that later today.

St. Paul's Cathedral

We went to St. Paul's Cathedral today. It's a truly beautiful place and very peaceful, even when it's full of people. We couldn't take pictures inside but I did get a couple before I saw the no photography sign.

Canterbury

Sabrina, Courtney and I went to Canterbury today. It was pretty fun. Sabrina got her nose pierced, a life long dream, and I bought some presents for some people back home. We went to the Cathedral which was very nice and not creepy at all. There was a service going on at the time with the choir singing through most of our visit. It was rather pretty. I recorded a portion so that you could hear what we did today.