Hello, Colin Farrel!

On Friday 7, Chris and I decided to roam around London. It was a good, but long walking day. We started out at the Sherlock Holmes Museum. That was interesting, because everything in the museum dealt with the characters from the series. It was a three story building and it cost four pounds to get in. Not a bad price for a quaint little museum. We also visited a few music shops in the area such as the Beatles store and an all Elvis shop. That was pretty cool, I have a picture in front of the Elvis statue. :) After that we went to Abbey Road, or tried to for about forty-five minutes, lol. We walked in the opposite direction from the way we were supposed to walk. We finally figured it out though and took some pictures on the strip where the Beatles took their famous picture. After that we were going to go on a tour of Buckingham Palace but we got there too late to get tickets. But that's ok, I'll just have to go back one day! :) Later that night we had to attend the Research Symposium. That was nice and we all had to dress up. When it was over we went to eat at a place called Giraffe for Nicole's birthday. It was a pretty good place to eat. After we ate Chris and I walked around near the river for a while and we ran into Natalie. Natalie mentioned that there was a set near the Globe Theatre where Colin Farrell was going to shoot a scene for his new movie. He actually showed up while we were sitting there! It was the most awesome night I have had in a long time! I was so thrilled that I actually got to see him shooting that scene. Talk about fabulous! I got a slightly good picture of him, but I couldn't get a really good one, but I think they thought I was paparazzi or something. Oh, well, a fuzzy photo is better than no photo! :) (This picture is from http://www.fameball.com/.)

Dublin, Ireland!

On Wednesday 29, Allie, Melissa, Emily and I headed out to Dublin, Ireland. We arrived that afternoon and went to our hotel rooms and left our suitcases. We all decided to eat at a place called the Bad A** Grill. It was really good, I had a calzone that was so cheesy. After that, Allie and Melissa were tired so they stayed at the hotel. Emily and I decided that we wanted to explore Dublin so we checked out the Temple Bar area and found the Hard Rock Cafe. The Temple Bar area is the "tourist trap" that the locals don't bother with. We found this most wonderful gellato place. So tasty! The next day we went on a day trip to the Wicklow Mountains. It was so pretty in that area, it was a little scary though because our tour guide told us that we should be careful so we didn't fall into the bogs. He told us if we had fallen in, we would be found in 3,ooo years and could be put into a museum. :) There were corpses that were found in the bogs that were in a museum that Emily and I visited later in Dublin. It was very neat how preserved the bodies were. They were brownish red because of the color of the mud the bodies were in. We also got to see Guinness Lake from up in the mountains. It was a beautiful view from up there. About two days after we arrived, we met up with Jessica and went to different museums and libraries and churches around Dublin. We got to visit Trinity College and see the book of Kells and the Long Hall. It was fantastic. There were other books as old and older than the Book of Kells as well. The Long Hall had all sorts of books and other items on display. I had a great time in Ireland. I would love to go there again one day. (This picture was obtained from http://www.captainjpslog.blogspot.com/.)

National Archives

On Tuesday 28, we took a tour of the National Archives building. It is a very large building that was finished in the 1820's. It is the one of the oldest custom built government archive buildings still in continous use in the world. It is one of three different buildings that hold information about the people of Scotland. Our guide, Ms. McBride, showed us some great books that had details about land that was bought in the Mississippi and Louisiana region. It was important to have this book because it showed where someone, mainly someone who immigrated to America, was at a certain period of time. It was really neat to see some of the places not far from my house in a land acquisition book in Scotland, it was very strange, but neat. The Archives building is also equipped with computers for patrons who are interested in searching for their geneaology. The staff are trained to help patrons who need help in their searching.

(This photo is retrieved from http://www.scotsfamily.com/.)

National Library of Scotland and the Central Library

On Monday 27, we took a class tour to the National Library of Scotland. The tour was not very long, it took about ten minutes and she was done. I did like the exhibit of the Scottish immigrants who left Scotland for America. There were old suitcases that held papers and letters of the immigrants to their families back in Scotland. The really neat part were the telephones in the suitcases that allowed one to listen to a Scottish person detail the accounts of what life was like after they moved to America. There were also some clothes of the time period behind glass. It was a cool display, and our guide was friendly, but I wish the tour could have lasted a little longer. A little later in the afternoon, we met across the street and took a tour of the Central Library, which is a Carnegie Library. This library was built in 1886 after Andrew Carnegie donated a large amount of money so that people could have a free library. That tour was very thorough and I enjoyed it. My tour guide was very enthusiastic and seemed happy to show us around. She showed us the music library which is a favorite of the teenagers. It is a very popular part of the library. However, it, and the children's library is not in the actual library at the moment but there are plans to place those in the main library. This library tour was my favorite one because the people in the library were so friendly and helpful. That was a pleasant day for me. (This picture is from www.staceyslondonventure.blogspot.com.)

Destination: Dalkeith!

On Sunday 26, we departed London at King's Cross Station for Edinburgh, Scotland. We took a long long train ride to Edinburgh and then took a bus for Dalkeith Palace. It was only about twenty five minutes outside Edinburgh and is a lovely place. It was slightly cold, but it is a very old building built in 1701. They were in the process of remodeling the outside of the Palace. The Palace is very large with enough rooms to get lost in. There were not very many shower stalls for all those girls but we made it just fine. I shared a room with Chai and Nicole both of whom are very good roomies! The first day in the castle we were given a tour of the Palace. They had a cabinet with things previous students had left behind for other students to use and they called it the "Walgreens Cabinet". I thought that was very nice of them to let us use the items in the cabinet. Dalkeith was an awesome place to stay and my favorite part of the Palace was the movie room. There were tons of movies to choose from. The first night I came in the middle of Pulp Fiction but I stayed because it was pretty funny. The next night Chris and I watched Miss Congeniality, I love that movie, Sandra Bullock is great! :) I also had a really good pasty at a local place in Dalkeith, it was super cheesey, but it was really good. On the first night in Scotland, it was Chai's birthday so we went to eat at an Italian restaurant. Mmm... Italian! I also ate at the Hard Rock Hotel Cafe, I love that place. All the rock memorabilia is just great. I had a wonderful time in Scotland I would love to be able to go back one day soon! (This picture is retrieved from www.georgesnyder.org.)

Bodleian Library

Today we visited the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Oxford is a very pretty place. All the places we have visited so far are just beautiful. The Bodleian Library was first opened to scholars in 1602. It was created by Duke Humfrey but he died in 1488 before it was completed. He donated about 281 manuscripts to the library but Edward VI removed the Duke's manuscripts and had them burned and only thirteen remain. Thomas Bodleian was a Diplomat, who may have been a spy, he retired from the job after his wife and father died. Bodleian donated a large amount of money to the Oxford University library. In 1610 he made an agreement to have one of every book published sent to the library. All the first editions of Shakespeare's sonnets are at the Bodleian Library. The oldest manuscript in the Bodleian Library is from the year 527 B.C. of an Egyptian marriage contract written on papyrus. We learned that this library was also a chained library up until the eighteenth century. This library is using the Colon catalogue but is in the process of changing to the Library of Congress cataloguing system. This library is the first national library. Bodleian wanted it to be a public library but it is not. (This picture is from www.historic-uk.com.)

Victoria and Albert Museum

On Wednesday afternoon, after the library tour, my friends and I walked around the Victoria and Albert Museum. It, like all other museums, was very interesting. We walked around until closing time and took pictures like good little tourists. :) We saw an exhibit on silver, for example, silver tea pots and serving sets and statues made of silver, very pretty and shiny! We also saw a mosaic of Christ from the 4th Century A.D. There was also a section of the museum that had a fashion section. It had a display about the fashions from the early seventeenth century until the present time. It was really cool to see how fashion has changed so much for men and women. There was also an exhibit that displayed jewelry. It was absolutely gorgeous! I wanted to take most of it home with me, but I do not want to be arrested! :) I really liked this museum, mainly because of the jewelry exhibit, but the rest of the museum was great too! (This image is retrieved from panoramicearth.blogspot.com/2006.)