My eyes opened as the alarm went off at 7:46... and three seconds later I was hit by a pillow from Ashley's side of the room. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!"....
Oh yeah!... (Somehow I managed to forget. Again.)
In fact, at this very minute, 19 years before, I had been born! (It worked out sort of perfectly with the time change between London and Utah).
I laughed at Ashley, and threw a pillow back in her direction. And then I hopped off to the shower. Little did I know the shower was bipolar. I ended up waiting to catch it between the freezing cold and scalding hot phases... there would be about twenty seconds of average temperature water in between, and I'd get my hair wet as fast as I could, and then wait again. Ashley didn't even bother with it and washed her hair in the sink. Probably the wiser woman.
Anyway, after that adventure, we went downstairs for breakfast. The girls sang happy birthday, and I laughed, and sat down. Much to my surprise, there was a familiar looking envelope and a box covered in scrapbooking paper... I looked at Robyn, and said "oh, you shouldn't have!", but she just shrugged her shoulders and said "don't look at me!"... I looked at Ashley questioningly,and she shook her head.
I carefully peeled the envelope apart, and found, very MUCH to my surprise, handwritten letters from each of my family members, and heart shaped confetti to boot! (Which Dexter called graffiti.)
I was so excited I could hardly contain myself, and I just kept squeeling like a little girl, and thinking, "I don't know how they managed this... I didn't even tell them I would be in Stratford!... My mom is amazing."
I opened up my little box and found some candy from my candy stash, (which was certainly welcome), and a little paper airplane with the words "so you can fly home" penned unmistakably in Riley's hand.
I smiled as I ate my breakfast, and marveled at the mystery of my mother's far reaching hand. Even when I was across the Atlantic Ocean, she managed to reach me on my birthday.
After that we all piled into the bus. I sat in front of Robyn and Rachel, and one of them pulled something out of her backpack. They grinned, and said proudly "happy birthday!" as they handed me the gift wrapped in a grocery bag... I laughed, and unwrapped it.
I don't know what I was expecting, but what I found was a little wallet I had been fingering weeks ago in TKMaxx. It was adorable, brown and white and orange and teal, with little swirls and flowers, and a snap to keep it closed. I remembered lingering near it, sighing and saying, "I'll be fine. I don't NEED it. I'll just get a wallet America when we go home"...
I gave them both gigantic hugs, and started switching my money and things from the little notebook I'd been using, to the wallet. And as I did, Elise gave a little speech, starting with "Ahem!! 19 years ago, the world was blessed"... and then conducted the bus in singing. I laughed at the big finish... "haaaaaaappy biiiiiirthdaaaaaaay, toooooooo youuuuuu!"
Once the bus finally started moving, we headed toward Blenheim palace. Once there, Lancelot distributed maps, and tickets for the tour,and then set us loose.The place seemed very impressive, as we walked through the huge front gate. But we headed immediately around the back towards the sprawling gardens. We took pictures frolicking in the fields, found a waterfall, and side paths, and a lake, (complete with swans). And we made up stories about "Capability Brown", the man who had lived in solitude on the land for years, as he designed and molded the landscape.
We made it back just in time for the tour, and ran into our bus driver as we walked up the last of the garden steps. We asked if he was enjoying the scenery, and he replied, completely dead pan, "These? Oh, I have gardens much better than these at my house. You can all come! I invite you!"... and then he winked, and walked away. Oh, Ted. What a guy.
The inside of Blenheim was beautiful. Tapestries, sculptures, paintings galore. I couldn't believe the number of rooms! And I could understand why they used to call rooms by their color-- each was distinct and different from the others. There was a green room, a red room, a yellow room, a blue room... And the change from color to color was unmistakable. Everything down to the rugs and the furniture was in complete synchrony.
However, the man giving the tour was... ah... long winded. Extraordinarilly so. In fact, he'd spend 15 minutes in every room, looking at each individual painting, telling stories, even dating the furniture! And though I can't say it wasn't interesting, we had a bus to catch, and more to see! Needless to say, I began getting a little restless. I looked at Jill, she looked back... we searched for Christian and Annie and Jason... and finally we slid towards Lance and whispered, "Can we go? We've got to see the maze!" And much to everyone's surprise, he said "Well, sure."
And so, with that, Jason, Jill and I led the way, weaving in and out of tour groups, glancing at the rooms we rushed through, and broke into a run as we reached the light of the outdoors. You see, the train only ran every half hour, and it was about 5 minutes till.
We ran, and ran, and ran... and as we rounded a corner, we saw the mini train, just getting ready to leave. We ran even harder, and jumped onto a seat, with no time to lose. We panted and laughed and whooped- and then realized we'd lost Christian and Annie. We waited, squinting to see them, and then the train began to move... just as they appeared around the corner, walking at a leisurely pace. Ah, well... they could walk.
We got to the other end of the gardens in about ten minutes, and headed immediately for the famous yew tree/hedge maze. It was totally awesome. We ran right in with all the ten year olds, and got completely lost. The bushes were trimmed immaculately, and rose far above our heads. Eventually the others made it, and we directed them from atop one of the high wooden platforms. They lifted a waterbottle above their heads so we could see their progression. And then we met them in the middle.
It was seriously cool. I want a maze when I grow up.
Then we went over to the butterfly house, which was a little bit of a disappointment at first, seeing as how they weren't flying all over like we had expected. But if you paid attention and looked a little closer, there were butterflies everywhere: hiding under leaves, camoflauged against the wood, sitting quietly on the brick. A gigantic blue butterfly landed on my knee as I was bending down to get a closer look, and it perched there for at least a minute, slowly opening and closing its wings.
Gah! Awesome!!
After that it was time to head back to the bus. (But not before grabbing a Ribena blackcurrent popsicle, on account of it being so beautifully hot outside). We passed a few gigantic, hollow trees on the way, and I thoroughly enjoyed the grass beneath my feet.
Then it was off to Oxford.
First item of business? EAT SOME FOOD. We found a Wagamama's and decided that it sounded like as good a time as any to try the famous noodle place. Jill and Jason got giant bowls of soup, with huge ladels to drink the broth. Annie got a plate of thin delicious noodles, and I got some rice and gyoza. Yum.
We moaned about the typical SLOWNESS of service, but enjoyed our food none the less. In England they won't split your bill, they've never heard of free refills,(or any other kind of refill, for that matter), and you NEVER hear the occasional "Hey, how's your meal?"... in fact, for the most part, you're left pretty much alone. Which is great for an Englishman I suppose, but for us Americans, well... it gets a little aggravating.
After that we went to the church where the Harry Potter scenes in the "great hall" were filmed. Of course, they charge you to see it, and none of us but Annie wanted to see it 5 pounds worth. So, we sat in the park and people-watched while we waited for her to be finished.
It was another gorgeous day, so we didn't mind lounging in the grass. We threw things at each other, and talked about everything from Jill's sister's wedding to Christian's camera.
And once Annie was ready, we consulted our maps, and headed toward the National History Museum. This particul museum is unique because it is a vast collection presented in the rather condensed Victorian style. Everythingw as shoved together in glass cases and drawers, which meant you didn't have to walk hardly at all. You just sauntered around the relatively small building looking at the cases filled with interesting, strange, or exotic things.
We saw a gigantic crab that had legs longer than mine, and the skeleton of a DoDo Bird, and a giraffe! They had a stuffed Ostrich, which was much bigger than I imagined. And a Leopard and a Cheetah you could touch! And an adorable little Kiwi bird, which is an awfully funny looking animal, and a WAMBAT! And even one of those Lizards with the stretchy neck part, like on Jurassic Park. And a rather large collection of gigantic/odd looking bugs, with horns and pinchers and stings and wings. It was totally awesome.
We took some pictures in the dinosaur footprints outside the building, pretending to be Raptors. And this very nice girl who worked at the museum volunteered to take the picture, admitting she had done the very same thing more than once.
And then we trudged back to the City Center, where we sat on some steps with the rest of the group, completely exhuasted and ready to go home, waiting for the bus to arrive.
When we finally got home, Jill said we had to do something awesome for my birthday, so a few of us girls decided to hop on the first bus that came, and see where it took us. (Of course, before we could do that, Cali insisted on making me a birthday crown. Possibly the coolest head ornament ever created. It was made out of lined paper and Miriam's shakespeare duct tape. And they wrote "Happy Birthday Shamae!" around the side).
We decided after several blocks that the Pizza Express we had passed looked like a good idea. We'd never been there, but heard it was amazing. So we hopped off at the next stop, and back tracked. Of course, when we walked in and realized that Pizza Express is in fact a very high class restaurant, we felt a little sheepish... (considering we were wearing jeans and t-shirts, and one of us was wearing a paper crown). But, despite the dissaproving looks we got from the English men and women looking all posh in their suits and fancy slacks, we sat our party of six right down, and took a look at the menu.
Elise had a little trouble communicating with the waiter. He just couldn't understand why she was asking what KIND of cheesecake they had... (apparently in England there is only one kind). We laughed a lot at her expense, but she was a good sport about it.
I ordered some mozzarella/basil/tomato pizza, which was delicious. And we all had a good time. (Don't worry, I removed my hat, for etiquette's sake). And after several minutes of trying to figure out how to get our bill, and how to pay for it, we decided that there are just some social cues, (especially in restaurants), that we don't pick up on because we don't know they exist. Somehow, everyone else knows what's going on, and we never do. But, no matter. We always manage to figure it out somehow.
And I guess that sort of defines this experience--a little awkward at times, but a growing experience none the less.
It's middle school. All over again. Only ... better.
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