Shakespeare Rules

When Kymberly and Justin were in London for a visit, we took a day trip to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon.  As you probably know, Shakespeare was born and lived in Stratford, and while there we were able to see his birth home.  The city is full of Shakespeare as he is the reason so many tourists come.  The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is based in Stratford, and in the center (or, when in England, centre) of town there is a statue dedicated to Shakespeare. This statue memorialized the tragedies and the comedies, and located in the four corners around the statue are four famous characters, such as Hamlet.  Unfortunately, the city was doing a lot of contruction around the statue, and I wasn't able to to get a great picture of the characters.  The statue itself was not touched by construction, and the picture to the left is part of the memorial.

Many towns in England are on rivers, and you can usually tell because the town is "upon" something, and generally evokes images of quaint little English towns. For example, the town Kingston (which is in London, close to me) is called Kingston-upon-Thames as it is on the River Thames. (So, really, London could be called London-upon-Thames, but the words quaint and little do not exactly fit with London).   The same is true for Stratford, which is "upon" the River Avon.  Interestingly the word "avon" means river in England.  So, the picture to the right is the River Avon, or the Avon Avon (ha ha), in Stratford just across from the Shakespeare statue.

Stratford is quite a lovely little town, and it easy to see why Shakespeare, despite all the fun of various sorts he had in London, always came back home.  

Picture of the Week--Straddling the Hemispheres

Here's the first official Picture of the Week!  This was taken a few weeks ago when my friends Kymberly and Justin were in town visiting.  On this particular day we went to Greenwich, which you may know is the home of Greenwich Mean Time where all time is measured from (though it is called Universal Time now).  This is the home of the Prime Meridian, which means that it is the marker of the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. 

For someone who gets pretty excited from little things like state lines (um, that's me), the hemisphere line was AMAZING.  I got to straddle the hemispheres, say "meet you in the Eastern Hemisphere," run from one hemisphere to the other, and talk about that time I was in that "other hemisphere.  So, basically, your typically dorky Sara-stuff.  

Anyway, hope you enjoy seeing me in both hemispheres.  I know I enjoyed my visit to them. 

The Times They Are A-Changin'

New post time!  I know, I know, it happens so infrequently you all thought it would never happen again.  I have been busy finishing up my semester, traveling, and having friends visit.  I guess things are "calming" down, but really I feel like it is all about to change again. And I am a little sad about it. 

Now, to be fair, I usually feel a bit of melancholy in May.  I think it is due to end of school,  graduations, and moving on.  When I worked at USM, the campus always saw a dramatic change in May: it became this quiet peaceful place (where I didn't have to fight for a parking spot). It always took some adjusting to life there without students or faculty around as often.  I am currently going through this again, as I live on campus and it is suddenly silent after a semester full of loud parties. Still, I don't think these are the only reasons.  I think that this year, it is different. Or maybe not different, just more. I feel the winds of change more than I have in a long time.  

I am sure some of it has to do with my becoming a new decade, and all of those old issues that I've already talked and written about, ad nauseam.  I also think that I'm moving into a new phase of adulthood. The kind where you have a career, maybe start a family, buy a house, etc.  I think as more of my friends do these things, while not necessarily making feel like I need to do it, I am realizing that people my age are old enough to do these things.  Like, my peeps, we can be U.S. Senators now. That's a little mind blowing sometimes.  Weren't we just in college? Also, am I now too old to say peeps? [Do not answer that question.]

Also, there is the obvious: I am finishing up graduate school, saying good-bye to the new friends I have made, looking for jobs, moving on, etc.  So, these play into this feeling as well. Still,  I am finding that I am ready to be settled, at least for a little while.  Even if I am only in London for a year, I want to find a flat, and just be content for a year.  I have felt in flux for so long, sometimes I think since I graduated college, that just being at ease will be nice. 

Still, change can be, and has often proven to be, exciting. It is exciting to think of living in London for a year, getting a job in a non-profit, making new friends.  So, while there is that same old sadness, there is also that same old feeling of excitement.  And anyone who knows me, also knows I am emotional, and sentimental, which is how I feel now.  I just can't be any other way.  

So, of course, I'll keep you posted.  I am also going to institute my picture of the week--I've been to so many interesting places of late that I want to show them off. They can also give me something to write about if nothing is going on. The one in the post is from Jamaica--Hope Gardens to be exact. This is Jamaica's Botanical Gardens located in Kingston, next to the UTech campus.  I was excited to get this picture, because I hadn't figured out how to work my close-up feature yet.  I still don't always get that feature right, but sometimes I do, and then you get pictures like these.

I'll start in full force on Sunday, and get a new one up each Sunday. Well, I intend to start that on Sunday, and change on Sundays. You know, sometimes the best laid plans...

Stay tuned. 

Scotland is wonderful

I went to Scotland over the weekend and it was fantabulous.  Seriously.  I landed in Edinburgh on Friday, and was picked up by Elaine and her lovely Mini-Cooper.  [For those that don't know Elaine, she worked at Girl Scout with Alexis about 5 years ago or so.  She came and visited De Soto a few times that summer, and then in 2004 Alexis and I visited her family. ]

The best part of the weekend was getting to be in a home again.  As much as I love my little ol' dorm room here in Southwest London, spending time with a family was great.  Elaine and her parents were (as always) warm and welcoming.  Elaine and I went swimming at her local gym, and then she took me to St. Andrews.  This is the town that has the legendary golf club where many PGA tournaments have been held.  It is a very cute old Scottish town, with                        

old buildings and great shopping.  Saturday was topped off by dinner at a Scottish restaurant named "The Bothy" (I think).  Here, I had Haggis! This is the traditional Scottish dish, which was actually very good.  You can't actually think about what is in Haggis, and I'm not telling. But, if you'd like to know, just click here.  Don't get grossed out, though. 

On Sunday, before flying back to London, we spent the afternoon in Edinburgh, most notably on Princess Street. Specifically shopping.   But, hey, with the Edinburgh Castle looming nearby, it was almost like a history trip.  

It was back to the grind on Monday though as classes resumed.  I can't believe how fast three weeks goes by.  Luckily, I now have only two more weeks of classes and agency.  Unluckily, I have four papers due between now and them.  So, with that said, I should run. If I don't post until May, well, now you know why.   

Enjoy your April Showers! 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone! It is Easter afternoon here in jolly ol'England, though the weather is decidedly not Easter-like.  It actually snowed this morning, which is, I hear, very unusual. It didn't stick, but still made for a nice effect. 

It has taken me so long to update, because I have been very busy.  As of my last post I had just started working at a Starbucks here in London.  Since then, things have been going full force.  I spend two days in class, two days at my agency, and two days at Starbucks.  Which, (if you do the math) leaves me one day free. I always feel like I have to pack everything in that one day--appreciating that I live in London, and trying to do London-esq things.  Thankfully I am now on Spring Break and have a few weeks off to relax and get caught up.  

I started my Spring Break off with a few days in Paris.  I finally made it to France, the country whose language I learned for so long.  I have to say that while I have done a disservice to all my French teachers for forgetting too much, Paris was absolutely beautiful.  We've all seen the Eiffel Tower photographed and in movies so much, but it is brilliant in person.  I also saw the main sites (Arc De Triomphe, Champs-Elysées, Louvre, etc), had dinner in Montmartre (where Amélie was filmed and the home of Sacre-Coeur), and did a little shopping.   

I am now in the "homework" portion of my break, and I have much to do in the next seven days. Some papers to write, interviews to transcribe, and research to do.  My reward will be a trip to Brussels and a visit to Scotland to visit Elaine. Whee!  

Other than that not much is going on.  I am enjoying meeting new people at Starbucks--I work with people from Poland, Slovokia, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Philippines, and France. (Oh, and even one person from England).  I have a lot of fun with them, and hearing about their countries is great.  

That's all I have for now. I'll let you know how Brussels and Scotland are, and how much homework I finished!  Wish me luck on that front.  

I always want to thank everyone for being part of my Virtual Birthday Party. I know it was a month ago, but it was a great party!  

As always, I miss you.  

Virtual Birthday Party

If you want to be part of the party just add you're very own comment!

In anticipation...

Hello, and I once again must say sorry for the lapse of posting. The weeks are just flying by, faster than I realize. I am firmly entrenched in classes, and have gotten one major presentation over with. It wasn't too big, but it was worth 30% of my grade, so I spent quite a bit of time on it. I am also now successfully employed at Starbucks (once again). This store is much bigger and busier than the one in Leavenworth, and hopefully I will get to meet lots of new people.

Well, as most of you know my birthday is Friday, and to top it off, as I was born in that great year of 1978 (on the very day Leon Spinks beat Muhammad Ali, in fact) I will be the big 3-0. All things considered, (and this is considering I've been dreading this birthday for 2 years), I'm not freaking out too bad. In fact its given something for to reflect on for my  reflection class' journal (we meet fortnightly--I love that word). Since I don't want to have to re-reflect, but since I am officially a blogger (no matter how lame), I decided to put an excerpt from that reflection here. I'm probably crazy, but for whatever it's worth, here it is, a peek into the crazy nearly 30 world of me:

Now, I know all those things people are saying: 30 is the new 20, 30 isn’t old, age is only a number, etc. The truth is I basically agree with them. I just think that with 30 comes expectations, both on the part of others and the part of me. I’m honestly not sure where I thought I would be at 30, when I was 15. I don’t really think I thought about it. I was a teenager, and in high school, and that was when that was all that mattered (did I actually just write that monstrosity of a sentence?). It’s really just that now, I do think about what I’ll be at 40, and boy it includes a lot of things.  And it’s a lot of want for only 10 years, and since I haven’t managed to put the whole package together in 30 years, at times it is hard to think I’ll do it in only 10. I’m not unrealistic to think that even if I achieve all  of it, I will be 100 percent happy all of time. Of course I won’t, no one is, but I am also enough of an optimist to think that I can achieve "it all". What I’m truly scared about is not only not having this in 10 years, but waking up an realizing it all ain’t going to happen. I’m not there yet, but this birthday is a bit like a whisper telling me to step it up.

The thing is right now, I’m pretty happy with where I am. I’ve worked hard to get to a better place in my life, about how I feel about me and where I am headed. So, in some ways February 15, 2008 will just be like every other birthday I’ve had. I know I am loved and cared for, and on this day its gets to be about you, and that’s ok. I’m sad that I am so far away from most of the people I care about, and that the 30th blow out party I would have had, will have to be a 31st blow out party. But, I’m in London getting a degree, which will help me find a job, a career, in a field I am passionate about. This is the paradox I find myself in. There are times when I just don’t care I am going to be 30. In fact, secretly, I might even kind of like it. I complain about my wrinkles (the ones that are already there because I have been fortunate to be able to laugh most of the time, and the ones that I know are coming) a lot, but sometimes I think they are pretty.

So, there are times when I truly (and truthfully) think I could say, what if I just stopped obsessing about turning 30. Surely, the two years of my worrying about this point have been “more painful” than the actual event will be. I don’t suspect that I’ll feel much different than I did on February 14th. I know that the expectations causing me to freak out, are mostly mine, and the ones that are “society’s” I can’t worry about. I just need to take a deep breath and keep moving forward.

And just to prove I really am the same old Sara, no matter what age, a few weeks ago I fell off the sidewalk and wiped out in the middle of London. In front of a ton of people. I wasn't hurt, just (as usual) a little embarrassed.  Clearly not enough to keep from repeating the story though! Ah, well I think some things will never change.

Alrighty, well I will post again, perhaps a 30th birthday update. We're touring Parliament (Not in honor of my birthday, just because), having some dinner, and going out for drinks.  

I'll miss you all very much.