IP&T 444

My name is Melissa Williams.  I am from Boise, Idaho.  I love to do things outdoors.  My favorite thing to do is to water ski.  I come from a family of five children. I have always loved school and the opportunity to learn new things.  I'm excited to be become a teacher!

Rexburg!

So I had the chance to go to Rexburg and visit my sister and her family finally since I got home from London. The kids were so cute. I played with them and babysat on friday while Hyrum took Sunni out for dinner and date night for her birthday just this past sunday. Then Saturday we woke up and went to Jackson, WY. It is a cute, small cowboy town. We hiked in the Tetons and got fudge. To finish up this amazing day we ate dinner at Big Judd's. It doesn't get much better than that. Here are some pictures from the adventure.

Churchill Museum

On this past Monday our class went to the Churchill Museum and the Cabinent War Rooms. It was a very hands on museum and I loved it! You learn so much about Churchill's life and also about WW2. And then the Cabinent War Rooms are connected to the museum and it was where the bulk of the operations went on during WW2. It was so fun to have a glimps into what was life back then and to be able to see it thru the eyes of these people.

Also, keep in mind that Churchill is prized on his wit, which I admire, and this was one of my favorites so, I took a picture!

Bagpipes, Kilts, and a Sketchy Hostel!

Last weekend I went to Scotland with 12 of my friends: Mary, Maddie, Hilary, Janna, Amy, Lauren, Patrice, Kiely, Elizabeth, Jenny, Maryanne, and Amanda. It was so much fun and I did see two men in kilts playing the bagpipes. It was so cliche! But let's start at the beginning. We arrive in Edinburgh and it isn't too late. We are walking around, all 13 of us, and we are looking for our hostel. We can't find it anywhere, and so we finally ask some of the bobby that we see walking around and they point us in the direction that we need to be going. We go and we walk into this back alley way and we walk past this opening and then we realized that that was our hostel. So we turn back around and go in. I kid you not, there were characterchers on the walls. And then you had to walk up about 60 steps to get to the hostel. During those steps we walked past a nice Pub that provided us with a great smell and crazy music into the night. Now not much rivals the comfort of your own bed, and let me tell you, this also does not rival the comfort of my bed! But nonetheless we were safe, thanks to Arnaud (another story, for another day) and nothing of mine was stolen, so I'm not going to complain too much. The next day we went to a castle,
hiked up Arther's Seat and saw the whole city of Edinburgh,

saw the birthplace of Harry Potter, meaning the pub where J.K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter,


and went to the Scottish Museum.

Then next day I went on a bus tour (yes, I am a tourist, so get over it) of the city and it took us a little bit out of the city near the bay. It was really fun and we went to the Botanic Gardens, where I was able to stand next to one of the oldest palm trees in one of the tallest green houses in Great Britain. Ya doesn't get better than that...

the Royal Yacht Britannia,

and went into the Scottish Parliament Building.

It was such a fun weekend and I really liked the city. It was big enough that there was always something that we were doing, yet small enough that we weren't overloaded with new stuff. I think that my favorite part was hiking up Arther's Seat. I loved being able to look over the city, but it was really windy, so a lot of my pictures you can't even see my face because my hair is blowing in it. But I loved it in Scotland and even though the hills were small, it made me feel like it was just a little bit more like I was in Provo. It was refreshing. I would just like to end by putting this disclaimer. The hostel we stayed at, as explain above, was sketchy and not the cleanest. Ergo, I didn't want to use the shower because I think I would have come out dirtier than when I went in. You can do the math. Please excuse the grease in my hair, and thank goodness for deoderant! But you know what they say, when in Europe, do what the Europeans do!

Greenwich

Last wednesday we took the river boat to Greenwich...It was so fun to be on the water and it was only about a 30 minute ride from London. While we were there we were able to participate in a plethera of activities which include the following.....

Riding on the River Boat,

Standing on the Prime Meridian,

Going to the Queen's House,

Seeing a crazy 24 hour clock,

Visiting the National Meritime Museum,

And going to the Planetarium, but I didn't get a picture of that. The planetarium was actually one of my favorite places because we got to sit down and look at the sky and they showed us a lot of things about constellations and the moon and the planets. It was a blast, and I really enjoyed Greenwich.

Blenheim, take 2......

So after Stratford we took off to Blenheim Palace. I had been there before, when we went to Oxford, but I was happy to go back. It is so pretty and full of history. So just a little bit of background about the palace. It was built for the first duke of Marlborough for military service, but then the interesting part is that Winston Churchill was born there. His paternal grandparents were the 8th duke and dutches and then his uncle and aunt were the 9th duke and dutchess. Another cool thing about the palace is that they have just recently filmed a movie there called Young Victoria. I guess that people think that it looks similar to Buckingham palace and that's why they filmed it there. And the movie just came out and so we went and saw it and it was so much fun because we had been everywhere that the movie showed. This is the reason that I am putting up a picture of me pretending to be an eagle....they showed this statue multiple times in the movie because it is right in the gardens, and Maddie and I kept laughing because she also has one by a sphinx that was shown a lot. So overall Blenheim Palace was really fun...I still think that Blenheim is one of my favorite places so far.

Stratford-Upon-Avon

A little less than two weeks ago we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon for one of our Wednesday fieldtrips. We visited almost all of the Shakespeare properties, which was a little much for me, but it was cool nonetheless. Later that night we went to a Shakespeare play called the tempest. It was put on by the royal shakespeare company. It was really good! Here are a few pictures from the trip.....

Me at one of the Shakespeare Properties...His wife's

house maybe? They kind of all look the same :)

Me feeding the ducks on the River Avon...

hence the name, 'Stratford-Upon-Avon'

So this is us at the theater...It was an amazing performance!

I loved a Shakespeare play...you can quote me on that!