pics!

here's some pics, no real update tonight. sorry folks

Gloucester Cathedral, the cloister where parts of Harry Potter was filmed

Ludlow Castle, Hannah and Sylvia, me

Set for Rosmersholm

.Set for Gone With the Wind

hello friends!
so i'm in london now, paid 15 pounds for wireless, but i'm sharing the cost with friends.
okay, last days of homestay: went to a castle in Ludlow- awesome! fun to climb around the ruins and find little niches. i can imagine fairy tales and medieval stories taking place, and i can't wait to draw/paint it. didn't take much time to see it, though. so phil and i walked around the town, ended up in a coffee shop for a few hours- journaling, reading, and talking. it was a good time. then we took the short walk around the castle, it was very pretty. we met up with other people periodically, went to a craft fair and the church, then back to the coffee shop, and then back on the bus, and back to gloucester.
next morning, said goodbye to sue (host mom) and sam and charlotte (host sisters; christy (host dad) took us to the bus that would take us to london. it was hard to say goodbye to christy, he was really cool. he could tell i was in a bad mood when no one else could. he has a great story, too, about being a missionary in uganda. but one thing he told me before we hopped on the bus was, "Let go, let God," for when i was upset or irrationally angry. i keep repeating it too myself whenever people get to be too much.
now london! busy,vibrant, fast-paced, beautiful, commercial, amazing london! it still doesn't feel completely real. i'm pretty comfortable here though. it's not too hard to get around, the tube is kind of fun. i'm rooming with hannah sauerwein, which is awesome.
we saw Rosmersholm the first night- a realistic play of victorian life by Ibsen. heavy, sad, but good. about loss of faith and innocence.
yesterday we went to museum of london, which was a history museum mostly, but it was still interesting. last night we saw gone with the wind, the musical. i was apprehensive about it, but it was actually really good. design was incredible, singing was amazing. some accents were questionable. some lyrics to the songs were cheesy. acting was great- especiially Rhett Butler.
meals, we found a delicious italian pizza place, so many topping otions! so good. with very good desserts, too. baby figs in white wine syrup w/ cinnammon and marzcapone! mmmm...
supper was greek! lamb kebabs, pita bread, grilled cheese (just cheese, not a sandwich), and a pepper/feta dip. love all the options for food here! have to go to any indian restaurant sometime as well.
sorry this is so sparse on details, i'm trying to go fast so that we can leave for the national museum and later the theatre (seeing The Merry Widow)
okay, i need to go now.
love you all!
(sorry, no time for pics. maybe later)

hey look!

another post!

so my host family has wireless, so i get to use it when i want! here is another quick (hopefully) update about the last couple of days. where did i leave off...?

well, yesterday, we woke up, had breakfast, and met up with our group outside Tesco (like a wal-mart). everyone had great things to say about their host family. it was good to hear. then we made our way to stratford-upon-avon: the hometown of william shakespeare. we got to see his birthplace, grave, and the site where his house used to be. it is a really cute, smallish town, we walked everywhere. everything seems to be named after shakespeare, or his plays, or characters, and their are quotes everywhere! lots of beautiful gardens, the cathedral is gorgeous.

it rained a couple of times, but it was still glorious weather. sometimes even sunny. we all broke off into small groups and went our own ways. some of us made it to the canal and saw the lock system, learned about that from a couple going through it. Ended up having tea at a pub called The Black Swan (aka The Dirty Duck) near the theatre.

Midsummer Night's Dream, was INCREDIBLE! loved it. it was on a modern production on a thrust stage, and we were really close. the lighting design was really cool- a hundred lightbulbs hanging from the cats, each with lots of tiny lights inside. it didn't look like there were any (or many) downlights, but there were so many places to put lights, it didn't make much difference. it was beautiful. there was a huge hanging ball to be the moon/sun and it was moving across the stage periodically to show time, and it was always lit with a different color. they had clear revolving squares in the floor that people came up out of, too. we all nerdgasmed at that point. they had soap bubbles and smoke bubbles fall from the cats, too. very cool. we all loved the faeries! they were kind of goth punk and had great interaction you don't get just reading the play. Lysander and Demetrius were great together, too. but by far the best was Bottom- he was so appropriately obnoxious, so funny. the play within a play at the end was hilarious. NWC would never allow it, let's just say.

that was yesterday...here's today. it should be shorter.

today (and tomorrow) was (and will be) spent with our host families. Sue, Christy (the father- he's Irish), Sam, Charlotte, Johanna (the girl from Hong Kong also staying with the family), Bekah, and I all walked around Gloucester. Went to Gloucester Cathedral, where a lot of Harry Potter was filmed, and the next Christmas special for Doctor Who. beautiful stained glass, beautiful romanesque and gothic architecture. we got tour up into the tower and down into the crypt. very cool. had a very english tea at the coffee shop- tea, scones and jam and clotted cream. very tastey. then went to the folk museum, walked around some more, and came home- on a double decker bus!

supper was amazing, because the Hartnett's invited over some friends of their's: Liz and Colm (pronounced like column). they are also Irish but have lived in england over 30 years. they are SO funny! liz has a story for almost everything. colm can make a joke about almost anything. i interviewed them for that part of my classwork, and they are so interesting. growing up catholic in ireland during the segregation- they told me frightening stories of bombs and bullets. we talked for a long time after supper, a long time after "the interview" actually ended. sue and christy interjected a lot, too, and sue told us about here past. she ran away from home when she was 10 and lived on the streets of london for 18 months. after she was found, she was put in foster care until she was 16, worked very very hard to do well on her exams, and made a life for herself. she is bold as brass and so sweet!

it was a really good day. Sam and Charlotte (lottie) are so wonderful girls. they make me laugh, always help us out, explain things to us. Bekah and i get along great. we saw some of our friends from the trip in gloucester, too, and everything is good with them, as well. it was a good day. probably won't post again until london, unless something really good happens tomorrow. it's supposed to be rainy, though. monday we meet again w/ our group and go to Ludlow Castle, and that's the last day of our homestay. sorry this was so much longer than i'd promised. hope you enjoyed it though!

now it is again time for bed...

we made it!

so, i'm here in Gloucester, where my homestay family lives. they are a wonderfully nice family, in a cozy cute little house with a dog named harvey. it's great!
we left oc at 10 am, flew out of sioux falls at 2:00, and arrived in atlanta at about 5. had a 5 hour layover, then an 8 hour flight into heathrow. queaziness galore! my tummy hates me still. but dinner smells delicious so hopefully i get over it. i'm so tired but i can't sleep yet. can't sleep yet. can't sleep.... can't sl..... oh sorry!
we had no problems at the airports, or any traveling. everything went really well.
it's really pretty here, and there are a lot of sheep. the houses are all very similar on each block, but each one has it's own individuality. the accents are happy and the country is beautiful!
tomorrow we get to go to straton-upon-avon (or whatever it's called) and we'll see midsummer nights dream. i'm so excited! anyway, i should probably get offline now and be sociable. rest a bit before supper. miss you all, love you
shelbi

Intro!!!

hookay, so...
i'm going to europe, and my fam and friends want me to keep them updated and this is the easiest way to do that. so this will be my link to them and if anyone else stumbles upon it, yay for you!
first of all, what am i going to be doing across the pond? well, for three weeks, i will be with 22 other people, mostly college students, doing a study abroad in london. we have a 3 day home stay in Gloucester (sp?) and then the rest of the time we will be in london. (w00t) we will be "studying british culture through theatre and art" which basically means we get to go to theatre productions and art galleries all the time and talk about them and write about them and so on. good times.
but after that three weeks, a friend (Tucker) and i will be backpacking more of europe for a month! oh, and so will edgar allan poe, in action figure form. we will hit as many countries as we can in that time before coming back for fall semester (chicago for me!). we have no set itinerary yet, so each blog will be a surprise as to where we are. (*Where in the world is...shelbi and tucker*) plus, i don't know how often internet access will come up, but hopefully we can get internet cafes periodically, and maybe at hostels and such. so yeah.
i will try and get pics up as well, when i can. hopefully this blog becomes helpful, at least in alleviating the worries of my over-anxious family members. i'm not very good at blogging, though, not very consistant, so it might not happen very often. just a heads up.
thanks for listening, tune in next time for more EU Adventures news
(btw, i'm leaving tomorrow!)