Continued...

and here are the rafters holding the Lantern together. The trees are the talles in england they were at least 1000 years old when they put them up in 1321 so now they are like petrified.

And he opened up these painted wooden shutters and we looked down from the ceiling into the cathedral room from 140 feet up! The first one is of the lanternwindows were the bouncing light comes in. crazy.

then looking down to the floor.

And since the lantern is this octagon, my friend ran around ducking rafters to the other side and took a picture from across the way. cute huh?

then we went up another stairwell narrower and steeper than the others and that's me on the roof from which you can see 25 miles away! and I am standing in front of the windows which you can see from my shutterspot shot earlier. so i am on top of those rafters now. they replaced the old roof with tin in 19__. Next to gragoyles! those things are pretty spooky close up.

Church This Morning

Well, today 5 of us from my school decided to go to "C3," Cambridge Community Church in the suburbs. The congregation was probably about 500 and there was a stage with concert lights flashing and the singers were jumping up and down with their microphones, bass, electric guitar, crazy drummer, and keyboard. It was VERY charismatic, which I cannot say that I expected. They sent off a girl to Cape Town to work in hospital there so we prayed over her and they have a mission group in Uganda for two weeks right now. The church was very alive, and not unlike American Churches.
There's a 3 story Borders bookstore here and I sat up there for the last few hours and child&parent watched and read C.S. Lewis' "Surprised by Joy" chapter 1. I want to try to read it all while I am here- I dont know why I am out buying books though when I dont have room in my suitcase!! I talked a while again with the man from my Bible Study who was C.S. Lewis' pupil. This guy is awesome he just talks and talks and he is so smart- half the time I have no clue what he is talking about but he obviously thinks I do and I don't stop him. He is about the most adorable old man I have ever met. I bring him latin that i have copied down off of cathedral and museum walls and we translate it together.

Stained Glass and Cathedral Roofs

Today a friend and I took a train out to Ely, a little town nearby- only £3.50 ticket. There is a Cathedral there built in 1081 and it is extra-ordinary! The only Stained Glass Museum in the world is there and it was so neat. I learned all about how stained glass is made and the history of it. It turned out that they were supposed to teach a workshop to some school kids there today but they canceled at the last minute, so since they already had all the supplies set up they just let us use it. So I made a sheet of stain glass! For free. They are going to fire it in the kiln tonight and then I am going back to pick it up later. They give you a sheet of glass and you use a razor blade to push very fine lead shavings into the outline you want them in (that's the modern way of doing it) then use fill it in with crushed-powder coloured glass. They sent the die through the glass when they were making it and then pulverized it and you just use a table spoon and the razor to place it. It was an amazing experience! The lady who was leading the workshop also is a big photographer so she talked for a long time about photography- I learned a bit. So we were sitting on the second floor balcony in an 11th century huge cathedral looking down and up all surrounded by beautiful and then an amazing Boys Choir started singing downstairs and the sounds reverberated all over the room. Oh wow! It was like all my senses were triggered- I see the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen, I hear a choir in it, I am tactile-working on a stained glass sheet, and eating a plum! Wayne got me into plums. I eat one everyday. So then okay this is like the second best part! I got to climb on top of the cathedral! I have always wanted to go through all those secret stairways and such but never get to! This church is famous for its "lantern." Its an octagonal shaped tower with windows and all around it 140 feet up! SO a tour guide took us up there- we climbed up this incredibly narrow, steep passage all the way to the top and walked around the banisters right next to the stained glass windows and then up more- through a no joke- 4 foot door that some of the men barely got through across the roof and back into the rafters and he opened up these wooden shutters and we look down from the ceiling into the cathedral room from 140 feet up! I'll post pictures later. And we went back onto the tip top of the roof and could see for 24 miles! It was so nasty high! And wondered around this round rooftop next to gargoyles for a little while and stairstepped it back down. What a day! And totally spontaneous. I only spent £14 all together.

A Few More of My Courtyard

One of the main streets

Library

"Tons of books! Miles of books! Cascades of books!" -Lumiere and Cogsworth (the candle and the clock in beauty and the beast). I really do feel like I'm in a castle! And there is even a "west wing" which is forbidden. There is a sign at the base of the bigdarkwooden staircase saying, "fellows only." I snuck up there last night but the floor creaks too much and I am afraid of getting caught. Anyway, isn't the library splendid! They have a stash of books that are over 300 years old and I am also forbidden to go in that room (there'a picture). It is under high security so there is not sneaking in there. I wouldn't anyway- I want to respect the rules.

The Market

I would rather tell you about these places and then let you imagine them. Book are always better than movies and pictures dont do reality justice. But anyway- this is the open market. There are at least 3 fruit stands- the best fruit I have Ever tasted! A lovely flower stand- I may go buy myself a flower sometime- I want one that bad. Jewelers, spice and tea venders- selling them in little glass bottles, and I bought a hemp bag there.

More Michaelhouse

Here are some more pictures of Michaelhouse. Oh guess what- I found a coffee house ministry for international students learning English! They do conversation partners and everything. I met one of the women who runs it on the street yesterday- i may go sometime but time is small. I'll let you know.

My Room

This is the hobbit hole of a door leading to the two story stone spiral staircase leading up to my bedroom. Then my bedroom window and view from my bedroom window. I like to open up the glass and play Nat King Cole down into the streets. There is music playing everywhere you walk. Bagpipe players and people play random wind instruments or fiddles on the corners and opera spilling out of the windows. Here's a picture of my view of the big tower clock in the college court next door- i have to peer between to chimneys to catch the glimpse. Chim-chimney chim-chimney chim chim cheroo. Thank you Dick van dyke. Anyway, the clock chimes every half hour. I've gotten used to it. Maybe having lived by train tracks nearly all my life and always having a grandfather clock downstairs has made me amune to waking up to it. We don't have air conditioning here and every old building is made to insulate in winter so we just open the windows to let the breeze through. ALL windows are always open in summer- it is seldom hot enough to make you sweat and there are no mosquitos to avoid either.

Cambridgeshire, England

Merry Old London

We took a day trip to London. It is only one hour away. I don't like the idea of being a tourist. I would rather blend in as a local. Since I am a student with residence I can think of my self as an untourist and I like that very much. I actually blend in quite well I think I have a very similar style of clothing to the people here. In fact, I wish I could afford more to shop. I know that I must blend in somewhat because I was asked on a coffee date by a bicycling Englishman yesterday and his line was, "Do you live here? I am new in town." I questioned him a bit and it turned out that he has lived here for a year. haha. That and he is 35. When I told him I was but a young maiden (um no i didn't say that but I like to write it) anyway he didn't seem bothered by my age. I kindly told him no and he rode away.
London was a Saturday and was so packed with tourists! If ever I go again it will be a weekday in April. I'll take a coat that is fine but not again on a weekend in summer.







London was lovely. We watched Shakespeare's Othello in the Globe Theatre and now I am writing an analysis of the character, Iago. I really think they named the parrot in Aladdin after him. He's a jerk.

Fireworks

sitting in the library in a cocktail dress right now because we just finished a banquet and I lingered in my dress because i feel pretty.

I heard loud booms and ran down to a bridge on the river and there i watched one of the most fantastic firework show that ever i've seen! The British pop fireworks for whatever excuse they can find and hey it is friday 13th so why not? ha. It wasn't the most professional of shows but it was fantastic because they were shot off from a college courtyard on the Cam and there were only a few of us, me the only American and there was another old bridge between the launching and us so that it's silhouette was dark in the smoke and all the people were shouting. It really was a grand moment. I won't forget it. scroll here again later and look at the picture i will post.

Tomorrow I go to London. We are seeing Othello in the Globe Theater.

properiety is dull

Look I can do this £ and this € on my keyboard! A correction to a previous post, the sun rises at 5am and sets at 10:45 because we are so far north.

I went with some friends to the Fitzwilliam Art and Culture-History Museum today. It is about 4 blocks from my school. It was pretty much amazing- just the architecture of the old building in and out was art itself so the medieval and renaissance paintings fit in better than they do in American museums. I secretly wanted to run up next to paintings and snap pictures of myself in representations of how they made me feel or to a marble bust and match their facial expression (usually angry constipated roman senators and swooning women) but wayne was not there with me and no one here is as crazy as him so I held myself back.

Steven Hawking went to a scholar's banquet in a room near my chamber last night. I didn't get a glimpse of him but they say he will be back later this week so I'll let ya'll know.

o'clock

The toilets here use so much more water than do the ones in the United States.

Every hour, from our courtyard, I can hear all at once SIX clocktower bells ringing! And then the parlor room clock chimes one minute late everytime.

My Spirit Doth Burst!

We had our first rain here in England today! The buildings changed color and it smells wonderful- especiall the gardens.
Yesterday, I sketched a flower. It actually turned out quite acceptable. I spied it while watching a bee. It is pink and looks like it is bursting; so, since i have sonnets on my mind i thought of the the line, "My spirit doth burst" (i have the poem in my blog june 15). Drawing petals is more like drawing around them than actually drawing them because the lines are made by the light which means you have to fill in the surrounding shadow instead. I sat on the walk for aobut an hour doing that on brown paper and then i painted around the flower with a sort of tarnished pink watercolor and wrote the poem-line below it. I hung it up along with some post cards in my bare-walled room.

Oh Oh! I went to michaelhouse today! We set up a table in the middle of the chapel (which is more like a mini cathedral) and 14 sat around it. A Dutch couple, a young Parisian man who looked like orlando bloom, a Completely Irish man who looked like the australian shepherd in Babe (that pig movie), and the rest are from here. So there were 5 different accents in the room. And save the parisian, the dutch couple and myself everyone was over 50 and two must have been 85! Everyone of them amazing people. The leader reminded me so much of Louise from St. Lukes! And John, the man sitting next to me was one of C.S. Lewis' students here in Cambridge (Lewis attended Magdalene College down the street and later was a professor and tutor here). John had studied Latin for years and we translated some notes I had made from the Trinity Chapel wall together. Anyway, it is a church of england church and we read some readings not unlike those I have read in traditional methodist services and then we read a segment from Genesis when Joseph makes his identity known to his brothers that's 44:18-21,23-29, & 45:1-5 and Matthew 10:7-15. We took holy communion together. it was "informal" as opposed to "formal" so it was briefer and all in English. They have formal communion twice a week so I will go to that later! It was neat, we all stayed seated and passed a torn wheat roll around the circle each person placing it in the next persons hand, saying "the body of christ borken for you" and looking right into your eyes and then we passed the cup of wine and each of us took a sip and dabbed the edge where are lips were with a cloth that we passed with it saying "this is the blood of Christ shed for you." I'd never drank directly after people quite like that before. After we had each of us had a drink, he passed the bread again for us to finish then the minister drank all that was left from the cup (which took him several gulps) then he did something i have never seen a minister do. he washed all the crumbs off of the plate into the cup with a pitcher of water so that there were no crumbs left and drank the water too. I have heard that you are supposed to consume it all but i have never seen it done like this. When we read the Lord's prayer and other lines out loud, they read it much slower than I am used to and I kept trying to speed the lines but had to hold back "holy...holy...holy Lord God of power and might..." They really took their time. Anyway, the conversation was wonderful and deep we talked about hospitality and compared the city of sodom and gomorrah to the town that would "not welcome you or listen to your words" in Mt. 10 and about each's lack of hospitality and how as a church we are called to be hospitable and we need to treat incoming strangers so more than we do. It was interesting to learn about the typical English congregation and see that it does not differ much from here except that the unchristian community's view of Christianity is somewhat different than that of American agnostics. and we talked also about judgement and how in the scripture it says that God will judge that town like he did sodom but it does not say that it is ours to judge them and we compared that to how Joseph did not judge his brothers but rather offered forgiveness and hopitality (well other than when he put one in jail but that doesn't count). More like Jonah and Nineveh than Sodom. I will go there regularly!

http://www.michaelhouse.org.uk/

Okay so today when I walked out of our college gate, i noticed a place right across the street called "MichaelHouse" it is 15th century chapel ("chapels"here look more like cathedrals to me they are so big and extravagant) revamped. the exterior looks just like one of the other 20 churches in this town but you go in and it looks like they lifted IKEA out and put in a futuristic coffee and pastry shop. all pale wood and glass and odd changing lights. the stained glass windows are still in place. and the far side of the chapel where the main altar has always been is still the same as it was 300 hundred years ago save a glass wall between it and the shop and some more modern Bright artwork. So they have weekly Bible Studies and communion and everything! It reminded me of the venue but for adults and no video games or anthing haha. I did my Bible at a table on the second floor, which is a half floor only above the bar with couches. I read Acts 8 about the church and then some more about giving. I am so excited! I am going to the discussin group on Thursday!

My college is Gonville and Caius (pron. keys). This is the picture of the gate which opens right into the town market area. It's location could not possibly be any better. Cambridge is somewhat of a tourist town on the weekends, but during the week it is quite peaceful and unbusy. Fortunately on the weekends I will be traveling but then I guess it will be busy iin those places too so what is the difference?

Today I went and heard a world famous boys choir sing in Kings' Chapel. It was so lovely. The inside of the chapel is gorgeous! And the echo is perfect and warming. It took 300 yrs to build. King Henry VI started it and Henry VIII finished it.

It is absolutely beautiful here! I cannot believe that i am here and seeing what I am seeing! My dormitory is in Gonville Court and is in the oldest of the towers, built in 1380 but recently renovated (we are spread out over 4 dorms the youngest built in the 18th century). I have to go up a huge wooden staircase that splits at the top and one way goes in the the college masters apartment and the other leads to a hobbit hole of a door, wood with black bolts and funny round latch which leads to a 2flight spiral staircase lined with windows which leads to my hallway. My room is pleasant- it was renovated in the 70s so it looks like a typical dorm room. i have a window above my desk that opens out like shutters and the glass is original so it gives the distorted shine. The street outside my window is narrow cobble stone lined with shops. it looks like the village in Beauty and the Beast (some girls and I sang that song at breakfast this morning "little town, its a quiet village, everyday like the one before"-Belle) I have made friends already. I already know everyones name it is a grand group and i have picked out 5 girls that i want to spend time with- very sweet but we haven't talked about faith yet. My room is on the 4th floor so i am just above the windows across the way and i can see somewhat into the next court yard over which is Trinity College and if I hold my head just right, i can peek between two chimneys and see their clock tower. it is black with gold roman numerals so i can check the time that way! How perfect!!! Unfortunately dad's memory card is not compatible with my camera- either that or something else it wrong- it wont work. i'll have to figure something out. my room is in the same building as the dining hall which is huge and gloriuos- it looks like the hall from the harry potter movies and there are paintings of great scientist from my college on the walls including steven hawking. different discoveries and inventions are in stained glass on the windows which are high in the ceiling by gold-stenciled rafters. like a venn diagram above the picture of venn and the double helix which was discovered by Watson and some various physics and mathmatical drawings. i am also right above the university's pub. called The Buttery. I did drink a half pint of local ale last night and it was nice. i get free a coffee thrice a day and tea whenever i want. Oh! The library is amazing!! I almost cried standing in there! Itlooks so traditional- lots of wood, wooden tables and anything that is not wood is delicately stenciled. It is like a long hall with high banisters on each side and spiral staircases leading up to them. wow. there is an open market right around the corner i bought fruit there yesterday, the best strawberries i have EVER had!! they tasted like sunshine. the sun was out all day yesterday which they say is rare. Mornings and evening are brisk-cool it is a good thing i brought jackets-thanks mom. the sun sets at 10:45 pm and rises at 5am because we are so far north. i went into a church of england chapel yesterday and talked to the minister for about 30 minutes. He gave me a great history lesson that i will spare you but he did mention that the first openly protestant (as in legal) sermon ever spoken in england was from THAT pulpit! wild huh. Although it is called "cambridge university" the town is actually just a concentration of about 32 seperate colleges all built between 1284 and 1800. This town is so old and when i walk outside i am in the very oldest part of it. I can see 5 churches when i step out. And the campus is not open. there are 3 four-high-walled courts in my college and one gate for coming and going which is monitored by a porter to keep visitors out. During the day, the BIG wood door is just opened but at night, they open only a little hobbit hole of a door in the big one that you have to step up and over to get through and they channel you through the office. it is like A&M, you cant step on the grass ANYWHERE except the local greens (Queens Green and Jesus Green) where they play cricket and "football." only fellows of the college and step on the grass and those a re graduates or professors. I cant say enough about the beauty of the buildings. there is shop after shop and then narrow staircases between them leading to the apartments above them. Oh and i crossed the river cam yesterday- people go punting on it- flat boats with a stick to push your way off the shallow bottom. i will do that at some point for sure. my first class is today at 2:00. I have to write 3 papers, one of which is 10 pages for my king arthur class and i do not yet have my shakespeare syllabus. I will write again later. there is not possibly a better program out there for me than this!