Cambridge

Okay, I haven't posted for a while (although, if you think about it, I never post when I'm back home, so I'm doing pretty good here), so hopefully I can get some good pictures up here. Since my last post, I've hit Canterbury, Cambridge (as seen below), St. Augustine's Abbey, Phantom of the Opera, Glastonbury, Stourhead, Bath, Beethoven's 9th at Saint Paul's (most likely my favorite part of this trip so far, but then again, every day becomes my new favorite day), the Tower of London, and on Monday we head to Paris! It's been crazy for sure, but I love love LOVE it. :) Today I have three papers due, and I am only halfway through the first, so I will have to catch you up on all of it later.

So, last week we spent some time at Cambridge, which actually made me want to continue school (which is strange, since I am so beyond excited to graduate in December). It was beautiful there--but then again, everything here is beautiful. My favorite part of course was punting on the River Cam. Punting, in case you don't already know (I didn't), refers to boating in a punt (of course!).

"A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water.Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole. A punt should not be confused with a gondola, which is propelled by an oar rather than a pole." (Thank you Wikipedia).

We were the only ones out of our entire group that went punting on our own--everyone else went in the big boats with a tour guide (so you just relax and enjoy the scenery), but since we're just so cool we wanted hands-on experience. Of course, we made Dr. Seely go first--punting is certainly not as easy as it looks!
Eventually I did get my turn--the pole was at least three times taller than me and surprisinly heavy.
But I did it, and by the end of our ride I had the best arm workout of my life and had become an expert punter. :)
How would you like to live here? Some of the dorms are there on the right--they live right on the edge of the river! I would go punting every day. Beautiful.
After punting we sprinted across the campus to make it to King's College Chapel just in time (barely) to hear the boys choir sing Evensong. Those boys hit notes that I never knew a male voice could reach, they were spectacular!

The ceiling of the chapel has one of the best examples of fan vaulting I have ever seen--and I actually can say that, because I have seen several cathedrals/chapels/churches/abbeys now, and it's only been two weeks! It really was quite a sight.