Formals and Rope Swings

After dinner, a bunch of BYU kids wanted to go to Much Ado About Nothing in Saint John's College Gardens. I had so much homework to do that I really thought I couldn't go. But as I went into my room I actually felt really upset that I wasn't going with them so I decided to just go. I wanted to sit up front but no one wanted to go with me! I refused to move (it's my stubborn fool coming out) and I felt kind of dumb when no one would come sit by me. It was ok though because it gave me a chance to do some of my reading. I felt a little silly though!  Well, it ends up that it was a good thing that I stayed stubborn and sat up front! The very handsome actor kept making eyes with me! After one line talking about how women are fair but he'd rather die a bachelor, he looked at me and winked and smiled. Everyone laughed and I died! And then he just found out that Beatrice "loves" him and he was going through virtues in women and when he got to fair he again caught my eyes and held my gaze for seconds and winked and waved. I turned bright red and after a couple seconds I covered my face and turned away giggling. Everyone in the audience was laughing. I felt vindicated.During the intermission, they all came up to me and were like "well hello fair maiden!" and Sydnie decided to sit by me for the second half. I guess sometimes my stubbornness pays off!

Oops, now it's the 28th and I waited way too long to write in this so I have a bunch of random stories in no particular order. Well on a Monday, I went dancing with some of the other PKP kids. It was so fun! They were all really amazed that I could have so much fun without drinking anything. I thought it was a funny way to be a good example. When I had to show my ID to the bouncer, I said "my date is on the bottom" about my ID card (Some people always have a hard time finding the birth date on the card). He said "it's too bad it looks like you already have another date." The only response I could muster was a "Huh???" As I walked off I realized that he was referring to my friend, Edmond and that he was hitting on me! Oh man, haha, I accidentally blew off that guy hard core. I wonder how often I do that without even realizing? Smooth Hanna. Real smooth. Edmond walked me home that night but ended up being so drunk he couldn't walk back to his place from mine. I facebooked my friend Thomas to ask what to do and he was all "Hang on! I'll be right there to take him home! You don't have to break the honor code by letting him sleep there!" Haha, all these other kids looking out for me and my honor code :). Poor Edmond felt so bad. Thankfully he's a really nice chill drunk guy. He just can't walk on his own.

That Thursday us BYU kids went to the church for a mutual activity. I was really trying to read all of my stuff for my Spooks and Spies class so I wasn't being that interactive. The BYU kids had started calling me out on various stuff and I was just a little tired of it. On the way back, I sat by Griffon on the double-decker bus and we had fun chatting.

Griff and me on the bus

So it turns out that I really like to sketch! I still have a funny sense of perspective and I guess I see everything rather flat. I also REALLY struggle with that silly table! I don't know why but I can never get the angles right (as you can see by my pictures below, haha) But I have had so much fun I bought my own sketch book! The thing with finding my own things to sketch is that I can't be too ambitious for my skill level yet. I tried drawing Bodley's court and I got bored part way through and scribbled out the rest. Kaylie called it "abstract."

This is the version that I thought was done. My teacher, Tom, came up and started erasing the darker lines and coloring in more. He said that my tone was too contrasting and not true enough so he had me start scribbling more. At first I wasn't happy but I'm glad I took his advice

I'm glad he had me scribble a little more. This does look a lot better. Maybe someday I'll get this drawing thing down.

I had to do laundry one day but there was this huge party in King's College. There were a ton of people in fancy dress and some in Alice in Wonderland costumes. There was giant chess and croquet set up in the lawn. I was in my sweats with my huge hamper and had to walk through them all multiple times! It was kind of crazy and funny. While I was doing laundry, I went out to eat with Theresa and Tommy at a nice big open Italian place which was really fun. Those two are cute.

Later that night I was just chilling in my room when I heard firework bangs out my window. A bunch of BYU students and I went running out to watch them. I ran to the other side of the River Cam to take some pictures of the fireworks with the chapel in the background. Some porter came up and was all "Get out of there! It's dangerous!" Psh, in Wyoming we do much worse. I ran back until the porter was satisfied. It was a really pretty and long show. Some of the US kids were really excited. It's like they've never seen fireworks before! It made me a little homesick for Wyoming.

From Bodley's Court

Across the River

Graduation Day

A lot of people in robes walking around that day

Jennifer's supervision here in Cambridge is about the supernatural. She really wanted to go on a haunted punting and walking tour so I went with her. It was really fun! the stories weren't that scary but it was good to have a tour to get to know Cambridge just a little bit better.

Bodley's from the other side

My three windows from the River!

The bottom three windows are mine!

The old hang-man's place

That night I stayed up really late writing a rough draft for my Spooks and Spies term paper. It was really intense. I stayed up with Marilyn and we were in the library alone so we were having fun talking. The next day I talked about the basics of my argument with my TA, Dave, who basically told me I needed more examples, but he liked my thesis. This meant that I basically had to redo a lot of my paper which was frustrating. The unfortunate thing was that I had a lot of classes that day and that night was the Formal which meant that I couldn't get started on my paper again until ten that night! And it was due the next day! Harsh.

I got back from my lectures at 6:30 and the formal started at 7! I had to hurry up and get ready so fast. I threw up my hair and put on some makeup and hoped for the best. I put on this really expensive beautiful dress that i bought with my own money. I fell in love with it and it was modest so I couldn't give up the chance! I signed up for the King's formal because most of my friends had. My BYU buddies didn't though, so I went to Joe's place early to get a picture with them. Then it was off to Cocktail hour.

Joe, Craig, and Richard

Sun-head!

Kailey and Kylie

Wanted to get the back of my dress. I like the ruffles. It shows off my curves and gives me leg room without needing a slit. Perfect!

With Griffin and Michael

With Megan and Marissa 

I went to say hi to Haven who I haven't really spoken to since Oxford. He thought I looked great and wanted a picture with me. I put it on facebook but he untagged himself. I don't understand that kid. 

I sat by Parker, another BYU student. He's super chill! I can be crazy all I want and he just laughs. What a winner.

Marilyn (my new late-night Library buddy) and Marissa. I'm the token white friend, haha.

The dinner was great! There was dancing afterwards and even skinny dipping with the BYU kids. Unfortunately I had to say no to all of it for the sake of my paper. 

Makeup

My crazy hair. I literally threw it up in like a minute and a half. It looked a little crazier than intended but people seemed to really like it.

 There were a ton of Spooks and Spies kids in the library! We all laughed and bonded so it ended up being a really good time! They're all great people and it gave me a chance to make friends outside of BYU which is great. In the middle of the night we went out for some food truck "Truck of Life" food. After that we were back to work.

Ghost

Cami,Megna, Marilyn and me outside the "Food Truck of Life"

We were bored so we were doing cartwheels and the like.

Cam in the wee hours of the morning.

Edmond and me.

 At the library I finished the rough draft but still needed to fix it up a bit. Thankfully I have a wonderful mother and brother and step uncle to help me out. They found some typos and such for me. Also, Josh even stayed up and helped me with some awkward wording. A girl couldn't be more lucky! All I had to do after that was finish sourcing my paper correctly. It was done and ready to hand in! I hope it was acceptable. All I then had to do was focus on my final!

That night we had an FHE at the Pembroke Chapel where the Dean (The religious head of the college) talked about being religious in an institution that is now largely secular. He said that he's respected for his traditional role  and that he's there to help anyone with their questions. I sketched the wall in front of me (pictured below) in my book. Afterwards we had snacks and I was having fun chatting with everybody. Haven told me that he has a sister with red hair but that he liked the shade of mine.

Ok, so i suck at communicating. I can never convey what i mean in travel writing. When asked the difference between writing in present tense and past tense, I said that you had to be more honest in present tense. You have to explain the action as it happens and can't jump around. Dr. Kant thought this was a silly answer and went on to say that present tense is different because there is a constraint on time frame and everything you write has to have an equal importance which is... believe it or not... what i was trying to say. I just couldn't convey it. looking back on it, honest is completely the wrong word.

Then we were reading someone's piece and it was just straight up dialogue. Dr. Kant asked why the author did it that way and I said that he was letting the characters speak for themselves and letting us form an opinion on them without explicitly stating what he thought of them. She didn't like that answer one bit and my friend Erin said basically the same answer in other words and she was like "oh that's perfect!"

A few days later, she had us do a writing exercise where we explain what objects were in her bag without seeing them, only feeling them. Mine said: "I could see the bag that the two items were held in. It was a cute little black bag the same material as a raincoat. It had a stuffed black bunny on the side as decoration. It hid two mystery items inside which I could not see see- only feel. I reached my hand in the bag eagerly. I wanted to puzzle out these mystery items and feel proud of myself for guessing their identities. However, this was not the point of the exercise. It is to write down what an object is by its feel rather than its sight, so here is my attempt: The first item is a small metal rectangle which holds many layers like a cold dry pastry. It makes a twangy metallic noise when you pluck on one of the curved layer. The second item is not a sphere nor quite a cube. It has a soft latex feel and little latex straps that wrap around it. Underneath the thick latex layer, it is hard, possibly plastic, and there is a button hidden under the top layer." And dr. Kant said: "that was very precise!" I don't know if it was a compliment but I'll take it! 

We also had to write "portraits" of each other. Kylie wrote one for me and it was really nice! It talked about how I laugh all the time and how people like to be with me. She says she doesn't feel funny usually but when she hangs out with me I make her feel funny. She said that I can make anything fun from and adapt well from the countryside in Wyoming to the streets of Paris. It was sweet!

On Thursday night, we went to see King Lear in the Corpus Christi gardens done by the Globe Theater cast. King Lear was played by Joseph Marcell who played Geoffrey in Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I have never seen that show but everyone else was excited about it! Theresa had gone in first to find us a place to sit and thankfully sat in front :) I am not really familiar with King Lear so it was fun but a little confusing to watch. It is so sad! 

On Friday, we had our Finals. Mine was at noon. The night before I was supposed to study a little but I was hungry and went out for food and then listened to Adam (from byu) play his guitar and sing in the streets of Cambridge. He's really good! Like... really good. I miss being serenaded. All us BYU kids sat around him and I tried to sing along with some of his songs. It was good times. One guy came up and told him that if he was ever in Hong Kong to give him a call because he owns some jazz bars and he'd love to have him come play. Now Adam has to go to Hong Kong! When I finally made it back I looked over the slides from Spooks and Spies and went to bed. In the Morning I woke up early to study and then went to take the test. I think I did alright! It was two essays and I had two hours to do them. I wrote about the Cuban Missile Crisis first. I forgot some details like the Russian President-at-the-time's name so I glossed over that. I also wrote about intelligence surprises and if there was anything that could be done about them. Finishing that was such a relief!

I went to dinner that night and sat by Joe, Rachel, Craig, and Richard. Apparently they were planning another trip that I was yet again not invited to, so I hurriedly ate so I could leave because I was honestly a little annoyed. At least I have a family who wants to travel with me! I went inside and found Marissa eating with some of her friends so I went to talk to her. I love that girl! She is the nicest. She came to my room to chat for a couple hours. She wants to buy a friendship necklace with me :)

That night I went to a masquerade put on by PKP. I went with Allisandre and we had fun dancing. We met up with Griffin. After dancing the three of us went and sat by the River and just talked. We decided that we were the party kids of BYU and that we should go dancing together. It was fun to bond with them.

For that Saturday, the 27th, I signed up for this "Go Ape" excursion which is just this ropes course in Thetford Forrest. It was cool going back to Thetford but I honestly don't remember any of it. Maybe I'd remember the Church building. The PA, Tudor was in charge of it. He's from Romania. No one I knew signed up for it but since it was long weekend everyone else was out of town, so I was excited to do something!

t-rex with Tudor

One of the bridges

Tudor was scared

After the ropes course, we had a picnic in Thetford Forrest. We ended up missing our Taxis back to Thetford itself and had to walk the whole way! It took us three hours and was miserable for multiple reasons. It was pouring rain. My feet were completely soaked through the whole time which gave me good blisters. We were on the highway which was narrow and very curvy with cars zipping by at like 50 or 60 mph making it really dangerous. None of them would stop for us. There are some cold people in England I guess. We missed our 11:30 pm bus by like an hour and the next one wasn't until 2am so we had to wait in a pub for an hour and then back in the rain for another hour. Finally we got the bus back and then we had to walk another 15 minutes back to Bodleys. I still had to shower and thus didn't get to bed until 5 am! I'm going to write a travel writing piece about this experience.

Random bits of Thetford at night

Sunday morning I completely slept in and totally missed church! I felt really bad about it but at the same time I really needed the sleep. I facebooked Matt Fee (he was also at Oxford) and we went to buy lunch and ate it in King's gardens. It was really nice! He's a great kid.

Matt Fee and our lunch in King's gardens.