Today, London was a wet, soggy mess. It drizzled for most of the day and remained pretty chilly. In contrast to a previous post, however, such a state was not the same as how I was feeling today. Hooray! But let's start a bit earlier, shall we?
On Saturday, we took an hour long train out to Edinburgh Town which is about three miles away from Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Bolyn (one of Henry VIII's executed wives). Instead of going on to Hever Station and walking the 1.3 miles to the Castle, we opted to take a taxi because it had been raining for most of the morning.
Upon arriving at Edinburgh Town, there was no one in sight. Por que? Well, this past weekend was Bank Holiday--the UK got Monday off just like the U.S.'s Memorial Day--so businesses were shutting down for the weekend. We called a few taxi companies and found one that would take us to the castle. While waiting for the taxi (~30 minutes), we stopped by the Town's oldest pub to get a quick snack. I had tea and a scone which were quite good. British scones are something like sweet biscuits. In any case, we rode the taxi to the Castle and immediately went over to the Castle's Bank Holiday festivities which included a dressed up Henry VIII and Anne Bolyn along with archery, jousting, and hawking in their honor. The hawks were my favorite!
After a bit of that, we went back up to the Castle and toured the inside. I almost lost my ticket, but a lady found it on the ground for me (Yay!). Apparently, the Astor family who had made a fortune in the U.S. bought the Castle in the very early 1900s and added some refurbishments. The inside was very ornate (mostly from the renovations), but we did see quite a few parts from the original 15th Century structure. The Castle was on the small side, but the gardens and lake more than made up for it. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and enjoying the greenery so absent from busy London.
That night I called the pastor of the church I had visited on Wednesday (Bethesda Baptist Church) because he had invited me to a sleep-over/lock-in type thing for Sunday night and then some sightseeing on Monday with their younger people. At first, I was a little hesitant to go mostly because I had only met a few people. I imagine had the BSU at Truman had something similar during Truman Week I doubt I would have gone. In any case, after webcamming with my parents, grandparents, and siblings a bit, my mom and dad encouraged me to go for it.
After I had ridden the Underground to the nearest station, I still had to walk a few blocks to get to the church. I'll admit, it was a little scary walking around in an unknown place during the night without someone I knew, but I made it safe and sound (after sending up a few prayers...). I arrived at the church and was quickly introduced to the people there (about 15), many of which were from the Philippines--they all knew each other some how. We played a whole slew of sports on the church's Wii, and I set the record for hula hooping! Crazy, huh? Anyways, it was a great time, and we all laughed our heads off during some of the more difficult games. Around 1 AM, we popped in Martian Child and settled in for the movie...until 3 AM, wow.
While watching the film, I was blissfully unaware of my location. Because I can escape to the movies' world, I forget reality. I become 'Laura Beth, 19 year old' not 'Laura Beth, current London resident.' Perhaps I shall be watching more movies this summer?
In any case, we woke up the next morning around 8:45, had breakfast (I had a cup of coffee--with 5 sugar cubes!--and one of tea to combat sleepiness), and played more Wii until about 12:30 PM when we took off for the Natural History Museum instead of Westminster Abbey because it was raining. After a long walk through a park, again with the rain!, we finally arrived and made our way through parts of the Museum I hadn't seen such as the ecology and rock stuff. We bid our good-byes later in the afternoon, and they all very warmly invited me back whenever I could come.
I'm glad I went. The people were so very nice, and despite my relative status as a stranger, they welcomed me into their time together. Mom really was right when she called them my "spiritual family." I'm pretty sure I was one of, if not the, only American there. Such a strange feeling! I've never been in the ethnic minority! The cool part was, though, I didn't feel out of place. I was a different person, lived in a different country, and had so many different experiences that I was definitely not like the people I had just spent almost 24 hours with. But we did share one thing--our faith. And that one thing was enough to overcome all the other differences. Neat how God can work things out.
And so as I walked back from the Museum on my way to Sainsbury's and the flat, I found myself smiling. What a wonderful time I had over the weekend! The weather was not my mood. I'm not nearly so homesick anymore, and although I still carry a genuine regret over missing this summer at home (which I will detail in a later blog post) I've managed to begin establishing security here. Walking along Cromwell Road carrying my bag of groceries for the coming days, something felt different. I was heading somewhere.
I've got pictures up from the weekend; the link is below:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068778&l=2f242&id=36107967
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4 comments:
Ahhh, Henry. One of my favorite English Monarchs. I am very jealous of all the history you get to experience in London!
I'm not entirely sure why he would be one of your favorites. I think I rather dislike his character, from what I know.
Oh yes, be jealous, because all this history is somewhat wasted on me. But I am going to get a book to read! Or, I could just tell and show you all this stuff. ;)
People just don't understand. I really think he wanted what was best for his country, and he couldn't accept that a female monarch could be best for the country. He lived 500 years ago, and there wasn't an example of a strong female leader. He didn't want to risk losing the peace England finally obtained after years of civil war. His family, the Tutors, had only been in power for one or two generations after the War of the Roses, and their hold on the throne wasn't particularly strong. Other people had plenty of incentive to try to overtake a ruler that was percieved a weak, and women were not veiwed as strong people. He wasn't just some dirty old man that wasn't satisfied with one wife. (I could say more on the subject, but I think you get my drift.)
Hold on, I do need to say more.
He kept marrying people because he needed to have a legitimate male heir because women were not considered to be competent rulers. Had the ruling Tutor monarch not been strong, other people who thought they had a stronger claim to the throne would have tried to take over England starting another round of Civil Wars. Henry wanted to aviod that.
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