A Lot in One Weekend

(Disclaimer: I am kind of out of it.  Hope this is readable…)

First of all: Friday was my birthday and I am now 20. 

Second of all: Saturday all the BCA-ers left Cheltenham to go on a weekend coach trip.  We hit up Stonehenge, Winchester, and Portsmouth. 

                Here are some highlights:

-It was sunny at Stonehenge and the country around it was beautiful.  The significance of the ancient stones didn’t escape me (we had a whole lecture on their history), but I think that once you’ve done the henge, you don’t really need to do it again.  Unless you’ve somehow lost your pictures.  Then you should go back.

-Winchester is the home of the Great Hall with the legendary round table of King Arthur (not the actual table—if there ever was an actual table—but one on which centuries ago someone painted the names of all the knights ).  The visit was exceptionally neat because all around the hall were set up 40 individual speakers.  From each speaker came the voices of one or two singers.  When they all sang together it was like we were surrounded by a choir.  It was hauntingly gorgeous.

-When we got to Portsmouth I had my first look at the English sea.  Portsmouth has long been one of the England’s major naval bases—I LOVE the navy.  I love the ocean.  I love the history and the salt and the sailor men.  I really liked Portsmouth—I might have loved it had it not been raining and windy and freezing our second day there.  We got to have a tour on the HMS Victory, which was Horatio Nelson’s ship—the one on which he was shot by a French sniper and died during the Battle of Trafalgar.   I stood on the spot where he was hit.  I almost got shivers.  I’m such a history nerd.  I saw all the little claustrophobic hammocks (800 + men on one ship), the hundreds of cannons, deck after deck after deck, I didn’t hit my head on any of the low beams.  I wish I could have taken pictures, but we weren’t allowed (maybe because the Victory is still part of the Queen’s fleet?).

-Lots of girl talk with Emily, Janet, Chrissy, Michelle, and Abi.  Chocolate cake three nights in a row!  Sunset over the ocean.  South African food.  Rugby.  TV. Coffeeeeee!

Third of all: I am back home and hard at work on my next paper.  Augh.  Bring it on.