1. Said camera is not, truth be told, very dear to me. In fact it's not surprising it's dying, as I've treated it pretty badly over our two years together. I blame my frustration at it's low quality performance.
2. I discovered the terminal malfunction on the very last day of my 2-week vacation in England and Southern France with my amazing boyfriend. Although he was not able to revive the camera any better than I could, I had a good couple 100 shots of our vaca already!
3. My next trip home is conveniently during Christmas....
In an ode to my camera, I think I'll share about my vacation, complete with pictures.
I met up with Ken and our Camp Chingachgook brit Dan in Nottingham, where Dan's family was nice enough to let us stay with them. They had 2 adorable and pudgy little jack russell terriers! This of course set Ken and I off on getting a dog... which I really want to do but cannot right now for obvious reasons. Dan took us to Sherwood Forrest, the home of Robin Hood. Not only did we see the Major Oak, the biggest tree ever to be held together with metal bars, but we also learned everything you could ever want to know about Robin Hood through the amazing talking museum exhibit (I was really excited that museums are all free in England!). The exhibit may have been geared toward a slightly younger set, but we thoroughly appreciated the narration, especially Friar Tuck: "I take care of spiritual life for the merry men. I like good spirits... and good food." The next day, we went to York, which is a town with mediaeval vestiges. Ken and I discovered the real secret of York though- it is home to Diagon Alley, as seen below:
Dan made sure that we tasted all of England's culinary traditions as well. Above, Ken is enjoying a cream tea at Ruffert, an abby near Sherwood Forest. Perhaps the most impressive thing about our time North of London is that we were able, between all our adventures, to fit in screenings of BOTH Paranormal Activity movies. Trip = Success
On Wednesday Ken and I took a bus back to London, planning to leave for Toulouse the next day. In an interesting turn of events (greves+easyjet+kristenbeingreeeallystupid) we had to stay in London until Sunday morning. I know, it's a hard life. We used our extra time to see everything there is to see for free in London. One prescient memory is our 30 minute wait to get into the Museum of Natural History, 30 more minute wait to get into the dinosaur exhibit, and subsequent discovery that the exhibit was popular because of a life-sized, automated T-Rex that roars at you while a museum docent says "please keep the line moving". We agreed that the most interesting thing we saw in the museum was a giant tree sliver... well besides the T-Rex, which actually was pretty frightening. Another favorite moment was Ken receiving a love bite from a swan in Kensington Gardens. This was quickly followed by me running away and yelling "Come on! Come on! The birds are landing on people..."
When we finally arrived in Toulouse on Sunday, we were exhausted, hungry, and a whole lot closer to broke than a week before. We decided to take it easy during the week, but I loved every minute. We went to Carcassone, where I was guilted into buying 8 euro tea by a sneaky shop owner and Ken insisted on walking ALL the way around the ancient fortress and looking into EVERY alcove and wrought-iron door, saying "I wish we could get in!" and rattling it sufficiently. We finished out the week with a trip to Narbonne, a small city on the mediterranean that isn't known for much other than a cool unfinished cathedral and the remains of the Via something-or-other, a road from ancient Roman times that connects Rome all the way to Spain. This made me a little nostalgic for high school latin.... in pictura est puella, nomine Flavia. This sentence and "via" is about all I recall. I was more for the undead languages. Anyway... in Narbonne Ken and I saw a rugby match, complete with cheerleaders, mascot, and horrible team colors. Narbonne beat Lyon in a big upset, and I enjoyed watching the Narbonne cat mascot wave his tiny arms, which he could neither bend nor put by his sides, in joy. We finished off the evening with a whole pizza between the two of us. (Pictures forthcoming)
A night's sleep, a few museums, and a church later... and Ken was leaving to begin his 2-day journey home. And all I had to remember his visit by were an inordinate number of photos and a dying camera. Nevertheless, I'd say it was a successful first journey to Europe for him, a great first trip to the UK for me, and a much needed vacation together for the bothof us. It wasn't until he came that I realized that between me leaving for France and our crazy summer at camp, we hadn't spent more than 24 consecutive hours of quality time together since the spring! Now that I have less than a month left until Christmas vacation, I am trying to balance my enjoyment of being in France with my impatience to see Ken and my family (including Ellie, whom I haven't seen since August!) in December.
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