Daniel Radcliffe Makes Poor Decisions: The Movie

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I went to see the Woman in Black with a few friends last night. We went to the Little TheatRE, which is this adorable and diminutive independent theatRE, where the tickets are about 1/3 the price they are at the big theatRE.  (Liza, my friend Maddi did get a little bottle of wine for the movie, so that's another thing to check off the list!) Also, Monday is vintage night, so everyone is dressed up in '40's style, and there is an intermission and its so cute! My friends dressed up, so they got free ice cream, and I did the 'MY FRIENDS GOT FREE ICE CREAM I WANT FREE ICE CREAM' thing, like a toddler, and it worked, so I also got free ice cream! No regrets. It was a very strange movie, in that we were all actively TERRIFIED for almost the entire film, while simultaneously realizing that there were several things that did not make sense, and that Daniel Radcliffe was being a complete idiot through most of it.

*Spoilers* For instance, the premise is that in this little town there is a ghosty lady who makes children die every time ANYONE sees her. Discussing the movie very loudly on our walk home, our main problem with it was this: WHY LIVE THERE?! YOU KNOW THAT YOUR CHILD WILL PROBABLY DIE, AND YOU ARE LIKE OKAY, NO BIG DEAL? NOT OKAY! MOVE FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! We couldn't figure out how the town was populated at all. Other issues included why the townspeople were so vague, and why the ending was so dumb.
MOVING ON *end spoilerville*

I've decided that I have reached the point in my journey where it is no longer necessary for you to follow me on EVERY day. I'm sure that you are just as relieved about this as I am. So, I can skip the uninteresting or unimportant bits. I should however, tell you about Saturday.

On Saturday, Liz, Hannah C., Hannah B, Laura, and I went to Canterbury. We woke up extremely (and as we quickly realized, unnecessarily) early, and took the 6:15 train. When we arrived at 9:30, we first went to Canterbury Cathedral, which was gorgeous, and we feasted our eyes upon the sights and sounds of the place where St. Thomas a Beckett was martyred, and where Chaucer was so intent on sending his pilgrims. In the crypt, you can still see some of the original wall paintings. It was haunting the way that these scraps defiantly remained, shouting that yes, all of this time actually did pass, and this place has seen more life and death than you could ever comprehend. I loved being confronted so blatantly by all that history.

That took about 90 minutes. Next we went to St. Augustine's Abbey, where there was a free audio tour (I freaking love audio tours) of the extremely ruined remains of the place where it all began. St.Augustine was the man who originally brought Christianity to England in the late 6th century (disregarding the sporadic and faded attempts by the Romans), and the first Archbishop of Canterbury, so for me that was a really wonderful place. I would have just loved to stand there and imagine it all for hours, if it hadn't been FREEZING COLD. We did however, enjoy sampling Mead in the gift shop before we left. It was really sweet and honey-like, but also very strong.

Mead in one hand, drinking horn in the other...?

So we moved on, after about an hour, to St. Martin's Church, the oldest continually in use church in England. Sadly, since it is OLD, as in, 6th century,* it was not very architecturally impressive. It was cool though, just to be in a place that was so OLD. Did I mention its age? OLD.
After those three landmarks, we realized that we had run out of things that we could afford to do in Canterbury. Nothing else was free, and we didn't want to spend more money to go to the Canterbury Tales Museum or the Museum of Canterbury. So. We went to a cafe. And sat. And ate the sandwiches we had packed. And sat. And read Shakespeare. And sat. I took a nap. We sat some more.  We spent 2 1/2 hours sitting in that cafe.  At about 4:30 we finally got off of our butts and walked around for a while, before taking our 6:25 train home. NOTE to anyone who is planning on going to Canterbury ever...plan for a quick trip!

Swooshing back to Monday I think you all should know I went for a WONDERFUL run along the canal in which I was running for 45 minutes and did not get lost :) as a result my calves are sore (from my silly five-finger shoes) but I feel a lot better about the excesses that are about to take place in honoUr of St. Valentine. Also the countryside along the canal is gorgeous.

My roommates and I are baking Brie (which is a thing that Maddi does that is heavenly), and eating said Brie with fresh baguette(s). Also there will be copious quantities of cider, chocolate, jelly babies, and Mr.Darcy. I LOVE MY HOUSEMATES! Best Valentine's day ever, and it hasn't even happened yet.

I had my second internship day this week, which was considerably more enjoyable than last week. I know the door code now, so I got into the building without a fuss, which should not be something I am celebrating. I was also much more comfortable chatting with all of the people, so while I was researching Australia, New Zealand, and Vietnam all day, I also talked with the people around me, and got their advice on traveling around Europe, which was awesome! You gotta think that if anyone knows about traveling, it's these guys. Plus, I got to research three different countries instead of just one, so that was cool.

Things I learned at my internship today:
1. There is a place in Vietnam called "Dong Van"....giggle
2. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches are NOT, I repeat, NOT a thing anywhere outside of America. I was dumbfounded! The people I work with actually seemed to think it would be a pretty gross combination.
3. There is a guided tour through Vietnam especially designed for Vietnam War Veterans. WHAT?! How is this a good idea? "The wartime flashbacks I've been having, what with all my PTSD, just weren't realistic enough, so I thought I'd go back and see the real thing, maybe jog my memory a little bit."-Imaginary Vietnam Veteran, excited to take this tour.

Sorry that all of my posts end up HOURS long. I just have so much to say! MY LIFE IS INTERESTING AND EVERYBODY SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN IT.

* Hannah's quick history lesson for the day: King Ethelbert's wife, Queen Bertha, was Christian, but he wasn't. (she was foreign) Luckily, he was a pretty nice guy, so he built her St.Martin's Church, even before Augustine and his Abbey were in town.