And so it begins... : Last moments

Hey guys. :) So, yesterday I turned in my final essay for Painting in England. It felt so good to finish it. Today was my last lecture for my art studio course. Then, my last seminar for Painting in England is tomorrow and my final for that class is Friday morning! Then, SPAIN on Friday! Woo!

So let me catch you up on the past week. Last Wednesday I went on a tour of the Wren library (the one at Trinity college in Cambridge). It was beautiful. And old. I found out that Sir Isaac Newton went to school at Trinity college and became a fellow of the college. There was even a little box of his things in the library! I saw his walking stick, his practice book of Latin, a watch he gave to Richard Bentley, and even a lock of his hair (random!)! There was also the first edition of the Principia, where Newton recorded the 3 laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation for the first time. Another cool thing I saw in the Wren library was the original manuscript (handwritten) of Winnie the Pooh! Apparently, the author A.A. Milne and the main character, Christopher Robin (Milne), were students at Trinity college, too. It's cool finding out these fascinating, random facts about Cambridge. I also had no idea that Christopher Robin was a real person. Another cool thing I saw was an 8th century copy of the epistles of St. Paul in Latin. They think it was probably copied down by an Irish scribe. So that was last Wednesday. :)

Then, on Thursday I went on a tour of the Pembroke chapel, St. Bene't's Church in Cambridge, and finally the King's college chapel (finally!). I learned that the Pembroke chapel was designed by Christopher Wren, the same architect who designed the Wren library, the dome and nave of St. Paul's cathedral in London, and other beautiful and famous buildings! Apparently he was really popular here. :) Afterwards, we went to St. Bene't's Church, which is the oldest church in Cambridge. It was quite small compared to all the other buildings. I also learned that in the old days a church was for common people while a chapel was for priests and such. Finally we made our way over to King's chapel! Even though I've been here for a month and a half, I still hadn't seen the inside. So it was nice to finally see it. It is gorgeous! Very extravagant and luxurious. I can't imagine how it must have been to build it. It's huge and the inside is vast. So many glass-stained windows, too. Our tour guide was Nicholas Chrimes, who is an author of Cambridge: Treasure Island in the Fens, a book on... you guessed it, Cambridge! He pointed out how multiple master artists, such as Michelangelo and Jan van Eyck, had influenced many of the pictures on the stain-glassed windows.

Lastly, on Sunday I went on a day-tour to Brighton and Beachy Head, two beaches on the south coast of England. It started off cold and rainy, not one you would think is a "beach day," however the weather warmed up as we got off the bus. There, I got to explore the city a bit after eating a lovely breakfast at a French café. Brighton is known as the gay capital of the UK, so I saw rainbow everywhere! After, I toured the Royal Pavilion! It's where the Prince Regent (later King George IV) had stayed at. It was his getaway beach home where he could have parties and enjoy life as he wanted. It looks really interesting: Indian style on the outside and Chinese on the inside. We weren't supposed to take photos of the inside but it was super cool to see and walk through. A lot of what was inside was original, too; so that was really neat to see. Afterwards, I walked down to Brighton pier. So enjoyable. So windy! Then, got myself a banana milkshake at Moo-moo's. :) Yummy. Then, back on the bus and to Beachy Head! This place was REALLY WINDY. It was so windy that it was hard to walk DOWNHILL! Here, we got an awesome ocean view and were able to enjoy walking alongside the cliffs (not too close to the edge, of course!). Beachy Head is actually in the top three places for suicide, amongst some location in Japan and the west coast of the US. I can understand why. So, if you go, take a buddy and don't get too close to the edge, seriously. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable to visit. My new friends I met on the tour and I took lots of photos together. While walking, a little old lady grabbed onto my arm, too, because it was too windy for her to keep balance. Haha, it was cute.

Finally, tonight was the PKP talent show! It was great. A success. Lots of people performed and lots of people showed up to watch! So many great acts and bold people. Madi, Jess, Sophia, Cecilia, and I sang a medley of songs to the cup song beat. It was great! So fun practicing with them. They were all very encouraging and had such good ideas to add to the songs.

Thanks for reading my post. :) I know it was long... Final is on Friday so I won't be posting soon but will as soon as I can. 10 more days till I'm home with the loved ones! God bless.

...Almost forgot, last Saturday was the PKP London trip! I went to the Tate Britain museum with my Painting in England class and afterward walked with my classmates to an Indian lunch. :) We walked along the River Thames to the Tate Modern museum where we met an interesting stranger who wanted to be our friend haha. He took us to bridge nearby the museum where we got a nice view and where I saw a talented artist painting the scene and selling other works of his. We ended the night by going to the Globe theatre. The play was King Lear! It was hard to keep up with their dialogue (and hard to stay standing for so long... since it was that type of ticket entry haha) so I didn't watch the whole thing. But from what I saw, they were really talented. And it was cool to see the theatre. Anyway, that about wraps up my experiences within the past week. Hard to blog it all! I still need to go punting by the way!