Hello, internet people! What have I been up to this weekend, you ask? Well, let’s see… only a day trip to Cambridge!

And of course, the adventure didn’t start there–Wednesday was a mandatory field trip for British Studies, in which we went to Lincoln and (hopefully) learned some things about the Cathedral, the Castle, and the Romans which will in some way be on our test. Yikes. Remember how this is school? I just did.

Anyway, no matter how much I think about that looming test (and my paper proposal, about which I merely know “Something about Chaucer” so far) I still can’t help but revel in the glory of each new place I visit. Even Wednesday, which may be best remembered by “The exceptionally cold field trip on which I was too irritated by the cold to learn much” was kind of spectacular. Some people say the grandeur of the cathedrals is starting to wear off because we’ve seen so many. But for me, I’m still impressed anew each time. Especially because I learned that the Devil lives in the North, so they put a darkened stained-glass window there but no doors. Because you don’t want a door for the Devil, obviously. And you need the window to protect from him. Fascinating stuff.

Next we made a brief detour by the statue of one of my favorite poets, Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Apparently, he grew up in this area. BUT even more excitingly, he was related to this (royal) woman who has her tomb in Lincoln cathedral. And you know who else was related to that woman? John Adams and J.Q. Adams. And do you know who is related to J.Q? That would be ME. So, basically, I’m not only descended from royalty, I’m in some (distant) manner related to a former poet laureate. And not just ANY poet laureate. The one who wrote The Lady of Shalott, my very favorite poem (probably… I mean, Prufrock’s a close second)! I was overjoyed to learn of my magnificent relatives. I mean, I’ve always loved being related to the president who skinny-dipped in the Potomac, but TENNYSON. Distant or no, I feel special. I mean, CLEARLY it’s where I get my writing skills. Right? Right?

Then I learned about some Roman stuff, but was outside and mostly just felt depressed. Although, I DID touch the oldest arch to have been in constant use. And there were CARS DRIVING UNDER IT. Imagine. To drive under a ROMAN ARCH. I envy them. Even if I fear I’d be doing it on the “wrong” side of the road.

From there, it was time to wander privately for a bit. Hurdled at breakneck speed down “steep hill,” which is QUITE aptly named until we found a lovely little tea shop. There, many of us had hot chocolate, but I of course took the opportunity to have tea. We also stealthily munched on our packed lunches, which consisted of various things like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, crisps (read “chips”, dear Americans), and Digestives (read… um… cookie-like things?). After that, we walked along to see what Lincoln had to offer. Which were a lot of cute little shops! Popped in to yet another fabulous book store, and then it was back up steep hill to the castle for our last educational endeavor of the day.

We were given our tour by a lovely old woman, and probably would have learned a lot, if only we weren’t such a large group being crammed in such SMALL spaces. However, we did get to see one of the four remaining original copies of Magna Carta, which was pretty cool. We also saw the former jail, and while we were being toured around there I mysteriously received quite a scratch to the face. Ghost?! My former Ghost Hunters addiction would like to say so, but I’ll just leave it at that. Finally, we got to stand on top of one of the towers of the castle, and from there we saw the most gorgeous view of the city. I wanted to walk around the walls, but sadly they had been damaged a while back and were still being restored to safety.

That was Lincoln, or at least, that was what I saw of Lincoln! Then it was back to school for Thursday and for a Friday class day, which is always a little bit sad. However, yesterday I headed off to Cambridge, the college town that hosts the various separate colleges that make up Cambridge University. Looked at some of the buildings from the outside (admission to get in? I don’t THINK so.) and then headed to the museum, which was full of some really cool old stuff. My especial favorites were the various Cupid figurines, such as “Cupid as a fisherman” and “cupid playing the hurdy-gurdy” and this FABULOUS porcelain Shakespeare. And I do mean fabulous, check out that rouge and that cape!

After luxuriating over some tea in the cafe and checking out the goods that gift shop had to offer (including a lovely book on how to British, which was lovely and comical, if potentially offensive) we headed to the Sedgwick museum, which houses all things Darwin. So basically, a bunch of really, really old rocks. A LOT of rocks. We toured around the rocks a bit, checked out some of his field notebooks, which was quite cool, and then made our way back to the bus to warm our chilled selves and try to sleep. All in all, a lovely day.

In other news, Valentine’s Day approaches rapidly for all us single ladies, but happily my friends and I have exchanged names and are exchanging gifts. My first one mysteriously appeared in my mailbox the other day, and I was quite excited. I mean, who doesn’t get excited about a Cadbury Caramel and a pink giraffe? Been a while since Valentine’s Day has been any fun–not since the old days of my high school boyfriend and his love of showing off. Gotta say, like most things, it’s better with my girlfriends!

We’ve also had our first real, British snow. It’s quite lovely, seeing a manor like this covered in snow. Especially because I don’t have to go out in it! Now it’s Sunday and on to the homework, because sadly this IS school and I am expected to learn something. Still, who can complain? I’m in the UK!