miss emma.

welcome to the stourhead estate, which is in the top ten most beautiful places i've ever been to. 

i haven't seen pride and prejudice, but apparently it was filmed here. it is now on my list of movies i absolutely must see when i get home. after reading my first jane austen novel, northanger abbey, i've surprisingly fallen in love with her literature. we walked this beautiful estate and the whole time i kept thinking about how this is truly the ideal place for a romantic boy-confesses-love-for-girl love scene. i wish my life was a chick flick sometimes. 

we walked around the lake, which was probably about a mile, which kind of was uncomfortable considering my calves and my butt are so sore from that murderous hike yesterday. my poor body is kind of wrecked. the combination of only 5 hours of sleep and recovering bronchitis and ten mile hike has not been good to me. that's besides the point though. we walked the lake and then came to his mini-pantheon, where roger gave us a little background information about hercules (who is carved into the marble of this mini-pantheon) and how hercules had to endure twelve trials to reach his exaltation according to greek myth. we then climbed this pathway that was symbolic of the twelve trials and overlooked the whole property. 

(sometimes my friends speak duck)

(roger)

(the view from the top)

after we finished our scenic walk, we got on the bus and drove for over an hour to jane austen's house. susan told us about how when jane austen was writing her novels, she had to hide her work from anyone other than her family because she was a woman and it wasn't acceptable in society. that makes me so immensely grateful for the freedoms that i have and for her dedication and persistence. thank you, jane austen, for not only writing beautiful stories and characters, but for being an example to me personally.

after visiting her home, we went to where she was buried, in winchester cathedral. of course she wasn't buried here immediately after she died, because she wasn't famous at the time of her death, but she's buried here now, among kings and queens. and isn't that cool? that a middle class person, who just happened to be a genius, can be buried with royalty because she has touched the lives of millions of people with her words? one of my favorite quotes is from robin williams in the dead poets society and he says, "no matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world." it's true. i love words. they are powerful. 

we finished our day trip with sweet onion chicken teriyaki from subway, got back on the bus, and two hours later, here we are, safe and sound at 27 palace court. i'm starting to get sentimental about leaving this place so soon. even though i complain about the stairs and the rude people of london and the sometimes ridiculous amount of homework i have, 

i have loved every single second here.