Evensong at King's College Chapel

I know I've already raved about the beauty that is the Chapel, but let me rave once more. This evening I had the chance to see (hear?) Evensong in the Chapel, which occurs most nights of the term and is finishing up at the end of this week. According to the King's College website,

the Choir [the one that sang in the Evensong service] owes its existence to King Henry VI, who envisaged the daily singing of services in his magnificent chapel. This remains the Choir's raison d'être, and is an important part of the lives of its 16 choristers, who are educated on generous scholarships at King's College School, and the 14 choral scholars and two organ scholars, who study a variety of subjects in the College.

and these boys were AMAZING. Two in particular stood out, a little redheaded boy whose voice was SO high and an older boy, probably in his late teens, who had a high voice as well, all the more impressive for his age.
My cursory internet search turned up no results for a recording of the Evensong service itself (which the BBC seems to sometimes stream live online), but I did find a lovely recording of the choir singing something else here.
As "students" of the college, we also got special treatment, meaning we got to skip the line and go in early, as well as to be some of the first people to leave the chapel when the service was over. We even had preferred seating--I was directly behind one half of the choir and so could hear their voices clearly. Things got a bit uncomfortable during the very religious moments, but other than that, it was a lovely way to spend 5:30-6:30 PM and I'm sad that I probably won't ever witness it again.

It's finally the weekend (man, what a grueling three-day week this has been, with a walloping six classes) which means that tomorrow I'll be going to tea (how British am I!--incidentally I just ate a scone with some jam, yum!) in the afternoon, Saturday I'll be heading into London for my first time and seeing a show at the Globe (Henry VIII, I believe), and Sunday I'll be going for tea again, this time at The Orchard in Grantchester, which will be really fun.

The other day I was at the Gap and I walked out of the changing room and handed a pair of jeans back to the guy and took a pair with me, and I say thanks and he says "cheers" and then I didn't know what to say back. What do you say in response to "cheers"? "You too?" "Cheers too!" "Right back at ya!"

England, the Abridged Version

I've finally got internet in my room, which is a vast improvement on me running to the library at random times to check my e-mail. That also means I can start blogging as regularly as my schedule allows. Which is, I think, going to be not very much! For instance, I haven't stopped DOING stuff since I woke up at 8 AM this morning. When I wasn't in class, I was reading Titus Andronicus to prepare for class, and in 20 minutes I have to leave for an information session about my Scotland trip this weekend, and then after that, we're having a "restaurant night"--I chose to go to an Indian restaurant--and then after THAT, I have to come back and read A Midsummer Night's Dream for my Shakespeare lecture tomorrow as well as interview my character (...more on this in a second) for my Short Story Writing class. Short Story is SO much fun. For example, yesterday, our professor told us to write for 10 minutes when we woke up this morning. Then today, in seminar, we were to go through and pick out 7 words from what we wrote and write them all spread out on a separate page. Then our task was to link the words together in story (mine's about an old man dying with some sort of lung disease that makes it hard for him to breathe). Then, she sent us out into the town to follow the first person we saw, taking notes on his movements, speech, where they were headed, what we though they were thinking, etc. When we returned, she had us add this character into our story in some way. It's a lot of fun, forcing yourself to be creative and seeing what comes of it. Which is why tonight, I have to interview my character without planning the questions beforehand, the idea being that each answer will prompt the next question. This sounds weird, because, well, I'll be supplying both the question and the answer, but the point is to become the character, to really get inside his head. Should be fun.
So my classes are good. The social scene is fun too. Last night was our first "formal hall" which is essentially everyone sitting down together in a giant hall (which looks a lot like the Great Hall--there were even four tables) and being served a three course meal. Much fun! We even got to walk on the lawn (this is a subject for its own blog post. I wish to do the inanities of this university's traditions justice.)
There are about a gazillion more things I want to say--so I'll note them here for now and return to them later. They include: vocabulary differences, new friends, my first pub experience, the power of the British accent, the dining hall and food system (esp. in comparison to Yale's), and my room.
Unfortunately, I won't be posting any of my own pictures today as I literally haven't taken any since I got here. However, I will treat you to one of my favorite views so far:

I haven't been inside the chapel yet, but hopefully soon I'll step inside the *wondrous* King's Chapel. 

One final note before I head off. I was reading Richard II the other day for my Shakespeare class, and funnily enough ran across the lines that I quoted in my first blog post. I suppose it was only a matter of time, but still, reading those lines after having actually seen England made them infinitely more powerful: you cannot imagine the beauty of the English countryside or the quaintness of the Cambridge streets until you have seen them for yourself. So the thing I am actually looking forward to next is the bus drive to Scotland and the hike in the Trossachs, where I will really get to see this blessed realm.

Cheerio? 

Erica

Addendum: I can't be positive, as I'm no expert on bird-calls or whatever, but I'm pretty sure I hear owls outside my window all the time. This, of course, leads me to hoping that one of them will swoop into my window holding a letter only about 10 years late.