London (still...)

Why are internet cafes so trashy? That's one of the main questions on my mind tonight. I mean, I understand that its just an internet cafe - it doesn't have to be the nicest place in the world - its no Biltmore - but why so trashy? Anyway - I'm just glad that computers are a normal thing for my household...

Yesterday we went on a crazy-long excursion, but it was a great day. We started out by driving to Coventry, which is a town about 2.5 hours outside of London. It was hit especially hard by German bombs during World War Two, and the cathedral there was mostly destroyed. The ruins of the cathedral are still there, though, and they've built a new one there which has turned into the center for an organization advocating religious reconciliation. We took a tour of both the old ruins and the new chapel and then had a little bit of time to get lunch in the town. The new cathedral was one of the most unique cathedrals I've ever seen. It had the most beautiful stained glass that reflected onto the side walls over the top of these huge stone blocks that had scripture inscribed onto them...it was truly beautiful.

After we left Coventry we drove another hour to Stratford-upon-Avon (also known as Shakespeare's home town)! It's a totally stereotypical small English town. We had quite a bit of time there, but instead of walking around and doing all the tourist things, we ended up spending most of the afternoon just lounging in the park. I think we were all a little bit burned out and tired, so it was nice to have a relaxing afternoon. One of the guys was trying to lure a swan to us using cereal, and it actually came close enough that it was eating out of his hand...hissing at him the whole time. That was funny in itself, but when an old asian tourist lady stopped and started taking pictures of him playing with the swan we all pretty much lost it. We also played a couple of games in the park and I'm sure people were annoyed by the huge group of loud American tourists, but it was fun so we didn't really care :). We had a picnic in the park for dinner and then went to see Twelfth Night performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Despite the incredibly uncomfortable seats, it was an amazing performance. John Lithgow was one of the stars and he was absolutely hilarious, but all of the acting was incredible. After the show we jumped back on the bus for our 2.5 hour ride home - we didn't get back to our rooms until after one in the morning and then had 3 classes and 2 museums to visit today - it was a busy day and I'm definitely ready for bed!!

We've had wonderful weather here so far, so I really can't complain, but I'm really missing the Colorado fall. Enjoy it for me if you're there, ok?

all my love...