Buckingham Palace

 

Fear not. I took many a picture at Oktoberfest last weekend. Trust me, though, when I say that you do not want to see them until they are carefully curated and edited. So while that’s in the works, I figured I’d get back on the blogging grind and flashback to my trip to see Buckingham Palace (like the real tourist/local/visitor that I am).

 

While Buckingham Palace strictly forbids all kinds of photography inside, they let you take as many pictures as you want of the exterior. And yes, Camille, just like every other museum we have visited, I took a sneaky pic on my phone; I hope you like blurry, off-centered chandeliers, sis!

The happiness on my face is not actually from the nearness of the palace; it is from the first opportunity to wear my new Hunter packable rain boots, which I bought for the English rain. 

Our tour group: Jenna, Lexi, myself, Emma D., Lauren, and Katrina

It was one of those times when you ask a stranger to take your picture (please!) and then realize that you could have framed it a lot better. So you leave the group and take their picture, the way you originally intended: with the splendid palace in the background. Oh well! Look at all those cute umbrellas!

Love and reigny rain,

Emma

Rocks in a Circle

Here’s the thing: I thought I’d be really unimpressed with Stonehenge. I thought that after taking archaeology at Vandy and watching a few too many documentaries and History Channel specials on a bunch of old stones that the magic of the mystery would fade quickly after seeing it. I was fully prepared to be let down and to give up the awe that I had associated with Stonehenge.

I was wonderfully wrong.

Instead, I left Stonehenge with a few new, even more awe-inspiring facts that I had known before and a deeper appreciation for the ways of the past. Did you know that 1/3 of each rock is underground? I’m sure you knew that nobody is certain how the ancient British tribes moved the stones from their original quarry to their resting place for the last 5,000 years. Its purpose is still an enigma: was it sacrificial? astronomical? agricultural? religious? ceremonial?

We don’t know.

And I absolutely love not knowing. (I’ve concluded that this is what made Stonehenge so beautiful when in reality it is a circle of really big, old rocks).

These days it is all too easy to Google every query that comes to mind, to have the answer to a previously library-worthy question in a matter of seconds. Google will even brag to you about how quickly they found the answer to what you thought was an ingenious question.

I have a dear friend named Michelle who likes to go “Google-free” on occasion. She likes to actually wonder. I love this about her. When she realized that there were black labs and yellow labs, she wondered – for two days – if chocolate labs were a mix thereof. She did eventually find the answer the old fashion way (you know: logic, reason, critical thinking, networking, actually communicating with the other people around you in a way that confesses and acknowledges that you are not the wealth of all knowledge that society expects you to be, and so forth).

So find a thinkin’ question today. And wonder. Be a little child about it. Be in awe of the little questions you ignore daily. Ask for help! Ask your friends. Ask your mom. If your mom tells you to ask your dad, then ask your dad. If your dad tells you to ask your mom, then ask a friend. (Worst case scenario , check UrbanDictionary).

It’s really not as hard as it seems to put a little of the mystic back in your world.

And what a beautiful world it is when you do not know all the answers AND you are okay with not knowing all of the answers.

 

Because – let’s face it-  if your brain was Google, I would probably have a hard time being your friend. You’d probably finish everyone’s sentences all of the time. Nobody likes a know-it-all.

So be a know-some and wonder-some.

 

Love and wonder,

Emma

 

PS for those of you who still wonder about the labrador retrievers mentioned: here ya go.