Ketchup...

Oh dear me...
I seem to have been neglecting this lately. I tended to remember that I needed to record things...right as I turned off my lights and climbed into bed...so naturally I just kept putting it off. So now I need to do some catching up.
This past Saturday BCA...the organization that I'm doing my study abroad through...organized a trip for us to Windsor Castle. We left Regency at around eight thirty that morning and got to Windsor about two hours later. We had to hustle to get to the castle because we wanted to see the changing of the guard, which was at eleven. After getting our ticket and going through security...which was like going through security at the airport and, if you remember, I am really not a fan of that...we found our way to the courtyard where the guards were. We were just in time and a minute or two later the ceremony began. Honestly I found it to be rather dull after the first two minutes. After the band played a song or two and led the guards in, there was just a lot of standing around, shouting of orders that no one could really understand, stomping, moving their guns from arm to arm, and shuffling...although I have to say that the shuffling was rather funny. The head guard would shout something and then the whole group would shuffle like two inches to one side...they couldn't just take a step over...no, they had to shuffle. I thought the whole ceremony was rather drawn out and long. But when that was over, a group of us went to St. George's Chapel. That was really cool...complete with high ceilings and arches...but my favorite thing was the ceiling. It had lots of decorations on it and was very ornately carved...absolutely gorgeous!! Of course we weren't allowed to take pictures...which is rather annoying...but I survived. When we finally finished looking through the chapel, everyone in our group was hungry so we left the castle...we got wristbands so we could come back later...and went to get some lunch. We ended up eating at a pub in town. After lunch we headed back to the castle...there was still so much to see!! Unfortunately to get back in we had to go through security again...I was less than thrilled about that. Once back inside, we went to go see the famous dollhouse and the state apartments. First we saw the dollhouse. It was awesome. It made me wish I were the doll that could live there...it had everything from electricity and running water to a grand piano. Of course we couldn't take pictures...but my camera was just hanging around my neck and my hand was just conveniently resting on it...so I couldn't help it if my finger just accidentally pressed the button and took a few pictures while we were in there...and they actually turned out...yes, I'm just that sneaky. After the dollhouse we moved onto the state apartments. Wow. The lavishness of those rooms is incredible. Every room had a chandelier and things inlaid with gold...some rooms even had ceilings with paintings on them. It was fabulous!!! At one point we had to walk up a grand staircase covered in thick red carpet...I couldn't help imagining that I was grand princess dressing in a lovely flowing gown...ascending the grand stairs to meet with the queen and socialize with the nobles of society...too bad it's not real. There was just no end to the grandeur of the rooms...I could have stayed there all day. But sadly we ran out of time, and before I was ready it was time to go back to the bus. I ended up sleeping the whole way back.
As for Sunday and today...I have nothing really to report. I have actually started working on a paper that is due next week, which is pretty good for me since I usually procrastinate doing papers until the very last minute. But I figure I should probably get going on it since they take papers a lot more seriously here...and because it's practically half of my grade for that class. Well now I can go to bed and not feel bad about not having written for a while.