Happenings in the Shire
June, 2005
It is amazing how much has happened in the past 3 months! I have been so busy, and having a brilliant time. This past year has been one of the best of my life, and will most likely remain so! I have so many great pictures up that will explain a little of what I have been up to since March, I would love it if you wanted to visit them and browse through! My actual total count of pictures is over 800!
So I am back on U.S. soil, doing job interviews for the summer and spending time with my family, seeing old friends, etc. I do feel a little surreal sometimes, caught between 2 worlds! I don't know if that is culture shock or not, but if it is I guess I could say I am experiencing it! I do have a wedding coming up that I am very excited to be a part of, a holiday in August and my 21st birthday, but otherwise this summer will consist of some hard work on my part, which I am ready (almost) to do!!
Thank you so much for sharing in this journey with me, it has been the experience of a lifetime, I hope I entertained you, or fascinated you, or made you want to visit England and Europe, which you SHOULD do if at all possible! Please do! And let me know how you find it, hopefully it is as wondeful for you as it has been and is for me! Love, Megs
3/30/05 Wow, so March is almost over. It has been so good to be home the last few days and spend time with my amazing family and also with my amazing friends! I think that I honestly haven't stopped eating since I landed either...but that's another story! Sunday morning we are leaving for Florida for the cruise and we are all really looking forward to it, it's going to be a blast. It's been a little strange to be home, but since I've been here I haven't experienced much culture shock just because I've been at home most of the time, and Jacksonville is really HOME anyways. I have missed my family though. It's so good to just hang out with them and spend quality time with them. I'm learning not to ever take it for granted! After the cruise I will fly back to Atlanta and meet up with Aunt Susan and Allie, and I will actually be flying back by myself on Saturday and they'll follow on Sunday. I am also excited to go back to England because this spring is going to busy and really fun too. I'll have loads of pictures to put up after this month too. Yay! Happy (late) Easter!!!!! Love, Megs
3/26/05 Computers. They love to torture me so. Sorry it has been so long. Hopefully you have been able to still enjoy the webshots pictures that I still post. I am back in the United States celebrating my Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Wedding Anniversary this weekend in California. Today we had a huge party and there was a great turnout. It was so sweet, my grandparents did not have a wedding cake at their wedding so many years ago and today we had a beautiful one for them to cut and feed to each other - precious! It was great fun, so many people came and all of the family was together. If you haven't already gathered from the pictures, Belle Plagne was AMAZING. Absolutely incredible. I am convinced that I will never be anywhere as beautiful, stunning, breathtaking, etc. etc. etc. as the Alps. Just incredible. Our hotel was great, the food was great, and most importantly the company was great! March 19th was also the day of our Collegiate Choir performance at St. Mary's, and it was a big success. It was one of the most challenging things I have ever done but it was all worth it for the experience it has given me. How many people like me get to perform Bach in a huge historic church/cathedral with an orchestra and professional soloists? So I am in the states, and really happy to see all of my family, immediate and extended. It feels so weird that it has been six months since I have been home, it feels both like no time has passed and years have passed! But we are to be off right now but I will finish updating once I am in Jacksonville sometime tomorrow evening. Take Care! Love, Megs
2/11/05 Well it has been a while, sorry about that! Tomorrow morning we are leaving for our skiing trip to La Plagne in France tomorrow, I am so excited! If some of you have been watching the news you will have seen that Charles and Camilla are finally getting married, and it is quite a big deal over here! A lot of people here do want them to just get married and get on with it, but only a very small percentage want her to become Queen. Can you imagine, Queen Camilla? Weird even for me and i'm not even British! Anyways it's all very interesting a quite entertaining too. Anyways, I'll have some great pictures when I get back and a I'll make sure to tell you all about it....Love, Megs
1/31/05
Saturday I made my first big trip alone to London to meet one of my girlfriends from high school. It was so fun! I hopped on the train at Warwick station, rode about 90 minutes into London Marylebone station, hopped onto the tube and went down to Oxford Circus and met her and two of her friends in front of Selfridges & Co. I love London even more every time I go back! It is so much fun. And Selfridges...it's a lot like Harrod's, just floor after floor of material bliss. Really overwhelming and fab all at the same time! Sunday we went over for Sunday dinner to the Pluck's again, this time the Middlebrooks also joined us. We had a huge delicious dinner, played tennis, the younger girls sat in their jacuzzi tub and just socialized and had a great time. We're planning on having the 2 families over for a big pasta feast, but after our trip to France, because it's only 12 days away! It's going to be incredible, I know it. Tomorrow Aunt Susan and I are taking the train into London to visit the National Portrait Gallery, and I will make sure to take my camera so I have some new pics to put up. We need our history fix! Love, Megs
1/26/05
This past weekend we went to Worcester Cathedral in Worcester, about a 45 minute drive away from Wellesbourne. The church was absolutely beautiful! Worcester is a nice town, we were going to walk around a bit but it was raining pretty hard so we called it a day after the Cathedral. Sunday Allie, Aunt Susan and I took the train up to Birmingham instead of Solihill to do some shopping. There is this huge, humungous shopping mall called The Bullring. We had never been there before and were (or at least I was) overwhelmed at how big it was. It is supposedly the biggest shopping center in Europe. We jumped on the train in Warwick and took the 30 minute ride up to Birmingham, got off, walked across the street, walked through the doors and we were there. It was so easy. We are going to try and take the train more places, it is just so much easier and more convenient and not that expensive. Later this week Aunt Susan and I are going to take the train down to Bicester to the outlets to do some ski shopping at Helly Hansen. I don't think I will ever buy another piece of clothing in America without pining for the shops here. It is just the best shopping, hands down! However, the catch-22 is that the dollar is in such bad shape! Anyways, moving on to more important things (?), skiing is only a few weeks away and I am very, very excited about it. It is slow around here in January, but that is actually quite nice because after our ski trip, we are all going to be gone in March, things will start opening up and we will be incredibly busy for the rest of the spring. So we're storing our energy and getting ready for the frenzy...the GOOD frenzy! Cheers! Love, Meg
1/20/05
Greetings! It has been very quiet around here lately, taking a breather between Christmas and spring holidays. We are going to try and visit Worcester Cathedral on Saturday, if so then I will have some new pictures to post! Allie has a "ball" coming up so we are also going to drive up to Solihull to do some shopping for that. I have started to sort pictures and mementos to put in my scrapbook, I have over 300 pictures so it is a little overwhelming. We also only have a few weeks until our France ski trip, which I am so excited about. Cheerio! Love, Meg
1/6/05
I had my first choir rehearsal last night at St. Mary's in Warwick. I was the youngest person there by far but everyone is extremely nice, friendly and helpful. We are practicing now for our big performance in March, and our piece(more like our CHUNK) is Bach's Passion. It is beautiful, complicated and a real challenge. Wow. But it is so much fun. I also am excited because I think I found a good ballet class, I go on Thursday night to watch the first time before I just jump right in. I am also starting yoga with Allie, which should be interesting, especially if you know how much (?) natural grace and balance I posess... Aunt Susan is coming home tomorrow morning, it has been so quiet here lately! But Michie is all settled at Pt. Loma and she is going to have so much fun. Hope everything is going well at home! Love, Meg
1/8/05
It has been extremely windy here lately, gale force winds, and it has been really cool. This morning I went with Allie and my uncle to her horse riding lessons at a stable in Kineton. Her lessons were in an indoor riding arena and I thought for sure that some slabs of tin were going to fly off and at any moment. Our house is surrounded by trees and when it is windy it's very creaky and noisy, but I like it. There have been severe weather warnings in Wales and Scotland, too. It is really sunny today and just driving around is a lot of fun. It is so beautiful here, I can hardly get enough of it. I could really just drive around all day and be very happy. We went to the store in Stratford and we took the scenic route home which is so much more fun than taking the main roads. The landscape is just gorgeous. Many times it reminds me of Middle Earth, you know, Lord of the Rings. My uncle is leaving tomorrow morning for China and Japan, so tonight we're going to go to the Incredibles at a cinema in Leamington and then have a really big yummy meal. Luckily my uncle is making us some pasta sauce and soup so we won't be wanting for yummy food between tomorrow and Wednesday. Allie has been studying hard while taking her exams at school too, which she is doing really well on. At King's, her school, she has to take 3 science classes! Biology, Chemistry and Physics. When I was a sophomore I don't even know if I took a science! My aunt will be back from California on Wednesday, and I'm really glad she got to go because my mom and aunt Janice flew down to stay with her, and whenever the sisters get together, watch out! Hope everything is going well across the pond!
Love, Megs
1/5/05
Well Happy New Year! And yay, yay, yay...I am so glad to have my site back. I hope everyone had a great New Year! We stayed at home and had a great time, we (or my uncle, really, but we did help) made cheesy fondue with bread and veg for dinner and chocolate fondue with fruit for dessert, it was amazing. We watched a movie and then watched the countdown and fireworks show in London, it was the best fireworks show I have ever seen. The backdrop was London with Big Ben and the London eye. It was really nice to be home and relax and all hang out together. New Year's Day we went to a cocktail party, the day after we went to Sunday Dinner at Allie's friend's house. It was so good. We arrived at 1:00 and didn't get home until after 11:00 pm! I will say this for the British people - they know how to entertain! They are excellent hosts. We had just a great time. So now I am sad and the house is empty, Aunt Susan, Stefi and Mich left this morning to head back to the states, Stefi back to Athens at UGA and Michie at Pt.Loma. Wah! We had such a great time together, it was so hard for them to go! We did so much, I know I wasn't very good at writing it all down for you but we had the best time ever. A lovely time. But things are looking up! Now we must all get ready for our ski trip - to FRANCE! Yes, that's right. FRANCE! Shoop, Shoop, Shoop! (if you haven't seen Friends, that will be lost on you)
Love, Megs
31-Dec-04
Well we just got back last night from our whirlwind trip to London, and it was a blast! We had so much fun. I offically adore London! We took the train in on Wednesday morning and went to our hotel on Bond Street - really lovely. Our room was so nice. Uncle Gary and Stefi headed to the Natural History Museum while we braved the crowds to find some sales on Bond Street. It was so crowded! After we browsed for a while we took the subway and met at Harrod's, which was amazing! Harrod's has to be the coolest store (if you could call it that) in the world! We bought some cheese and bread from the Fromagerie and Bakery in Harrod's and ate back at our hotel room and got ready to go to the show. We went to SoHo and saw the play of Little Women, and it was so cute and really good! After the show we went and ate at a little Italian restaraunt - always yum. Thursday morning we got up and had a quick breakfast at a little deli by our hotel, and then headed off to see the sights. We walked down through Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square, then to Buckingham Palace and St. James. We were in time to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham which was really neat. They only do it every other day and so we were really glad we hadn't tried to go on Wednesday. At 1:00 we went to the National Gallery and saw the special exhibit on Rafael, which was absolutely incredible. He was so amazing! After the exhibit we again braved the crowds and went shopping on Oxford street, one store we went in had more than 1,000 people shopping. It was crazy, but so fun. We headed back to the train station around 7:30 and got home at around 10pm. It was such a fun trip and i can't wait to go back!!!!! I posted pictures from the trip in my albums, check them out if you have time! Happy New Year's!!!
Love, Meg
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