Day Late!

Hello!

Sorry for the late update guys! As you might be aware, Universities are germ farms and I caught the flu as well as a case of tonsillitis. I went to the Doctor's yesterday and I'm on antibiotics now but it's been a rough week. I've missed all my classes, including today's class which included a trip to a play we need to see to write an assignment worth 30% of our final grade. I've already emailed the prof about what to do and we're going to meet up after reading week (next week) and discuss how to modify the assignment or dole out a separate assignment altogether. Illness is never convenient is it?

Other than that I've been doing well. The weather here has been a mixed bag of sunny, rainy, windy, cold, warm and humid. And all of that is just before noon! I really shouldn't complain, I know weather has been much MUCH worse for everyone back home. Still, it gets boring and a bit dreary living in a perpetual grey mush.

Well enough of that. Last Saturday I was lucky enough to get up to Windsor with the International students. The city itself looks like pretty much every other British city out there except there's a massive castle sitting on top of a hill. The tours were not cheap, even with the student discount but the did give free walking tours of the outside walls as well as free audio guides for inside the castle so I guess it evened out in the end. The castle itself is almost boomerang shaped, not so much a square monster one might expect from a castle. Pictures were only allowed outside the building, so if you want to see the inside head over to google or get on a plane to England! Heathrow airport is the closest. And by closest I mean planes were flying rather low right by at the castle and had to make a rather sharp turn to avoid flying directly over it. Okay, on to the photos!

First look at the castle

Pub! Didn't eat there but I liked the name. 

Gates. That was actually the exit.

Inside the inner walls...kinda.

To be honest there were so many towers I forget which

one this one was for.

Round Tower. It's a library now I do believe. 

So much castle!

Symbol for Knights of the Garter (or something like that)

More gates! (Seriously, you're never 

sure when you're INSIDE the gates.)

Court yard!

The castle was well thought out. This was where an

archer would stand to fire on attackers. Well protected

but good sight too. 

This did not lead to a moat. It is actually a long classroom

for school groups to use when learning about medieval history. 

Props to the gardeners and landscapers who look after this stuff. 

Seriously. This stuff goes all the way around. 

Amazing line of sight for the castle. 

So serious.

Queen Victoria directing traffic.

The inside of the castle was stunning, and very ornate. The Queen was no there when we were, which is kind of lucky for us actually. When she is there a few of the rooms of the tour are cut off because she is using them. So we were able to see everything. The restoration work the did after the fire of 1992 was extensive and very well done. The cool thing was they decided to re-make what the rooms used to look like rather than just modernize them. Of course, I'm sure over the years they've added some modern touches like internet and all that. I'm sure the Queen needs her daily dose of Flappy Bird and Candy Crush on her iPad. (Does the Queen have an iPad? I'm sure she has a gold one if she ever did get one.)

Okay that's enough blogging for today. It's also time for me to take the damn antibiotics again. They're weird over here. It comes in blister packs instead of orange pill bottles. Somehow that doesn't seem right. 

Hope you're all well and not at all ill!

-Kirsten