Fun Fact For Today

My british professor informed me today that the word "sweeney" in England is another name for "the flying squad" which was involved in the criminal fraternity (police corruption, robberies, violent crime...stuff like that). There is a british movie that just came out that is called "The Sweeney" which is all about trying to catch the flying squad.
The movie Sweeney Todd is also related to the flying squad. The british have weird ways of naming things....for example:
If a Brit says "I have to go home to see trouble" the word trouble refers to "trouble and strife" and "strife" rhymes with "wife" so in reality they are saying "I have to go home to see my wife".
They have millions of these confusing little sayings!

So anyways, "The Flying Squad" rhymes with "Sweeney Todd" which is why they now refer to the group as "Sweeney".

......so lets just say, I won't be throwing my last name around loosely ;)

London!

I spent three days in London this past weekend and although it was freezing.....i loved it! it was so beautiful! The first day we took ourselves on a walking tour (SO MUCH WALKING) and saw almost everything there was to see it felt like. we saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Bridge Tower, the Tower of London, Piccadilly Circus (its comparable to times square in new york), Trafalgar Square, the eye of london (but unlucky for us it was closed for annual maintenance...), Houses of Parliament, and number 10 Downing Street which is where the Prime Minister lives.

Kelcie!

Number 10 Downing Street

Big Ben

You can see Big Ben from Piccadilly Circus

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

Eye of London

Westminster Abbey (where all of the crownings of royalty are held and also many weddings)

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

The next day we went to Buckingham Palace (where the queen lives) to see the changing of the guards. It really wasn't as cool as I had hoped, but I'm still glad I saw it. We also saw Platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross Station (if you don't know the significance of that, it's a big part of harry potter). After that we went to the British Museum which is HUGE. We spent two hours in there and only saw two exhibits! Later that day we went shopping on Oxford Street.....well, more like kelcie went shopping haha. she was in heaven. At night we went on a night bus tour that went all over London, it was awesome! it was an open top double decker bus so we got an amazing view :)

Buckingham Palace

British Museum

On the last day the school took us to Hampton Court Palace. It mostly talked about King Henry VII and a little about King William III. I had seen the movie The Other Boleyn Girl so it was very interesting.

King Henry VIII

Hampton Court Palace

 After we were finished there, they took us to Runnymede which is where the Magna Carta was signed. The Magna Carta is pretty similar to our constitution, in fact, I think our constitution is based off of certain parts of it. That night we FINALLY made it back to Harlaxton Manor. We were all sooooo tired! It was freezing the entire trip and that takes a lot out of you!

Where the Magna Carta was signed

Kelcie has a ton more pictures than I do, so if you want to check out her blog as well it's http://kelcie520.blogspot.co.uk/

Scottish Dancing

Tonight a Scottish band came in and taught us different dances! It's kind of like Square Dancing. The band would play while one man shouted out what move to do next, it was so much fun!

This was my dance partner, Reagan, we were very good!....for the most part....

This one is a little blurry, but I added it anyways

We danced in what is called the Great Hall, it's a beautiful room!

Arrival in Harlaxton

Kelcie, Alex, and I arrived at Harlaxton Manor on January 4th. It is such a beautiful place! There is so much to explore and we have gotten lost countless times in the mansion already......
There is a town called Grantham only a few miles away that a shuttle will take us to any day of the week. That is where we go to buy things we forgot to pack (or in my case, the things my dad threw out of my suitcase) and to go to church. 

This is me with my roommate Katie (in the purple), kelcie, corinne, and Amy at a formal dinner in the manor

This is the Long Gallery inside of Harlaxton where we ate our dinner. Look at how elaborate every room is!!!

We keep very busy ever single day, they dont give us much time to rest! I'm having a blast here, but at this point I would just like to sleep for an entire day to catch up. I start classes tomorrow and this coming weekend we go on a school trip to London. exciting!