One To Go

I have one paper left to write.

One. The topic is Religion in 18th Century England. I'm not exactly excited about this one. But, by Wednesday I will have no more papers left to write. And it will be May Day! My friend Danielle and I are going to stay in Oxford on Wednesday after our tutorials to celebrate the sunrise on May 1st in the traditional Oxford way. At six in the morning the boys choir of Magdalen College sings from the Bell Tower and there's dancing, drinking, and joy.

I finished my Irish Lit paper this morning. I worked on it so damn hard and after about 10 hours of work, and notes, and reading, and writing I had only one paragraph written. I could not get this paper to start. I began to panic that I had started an un-writable paper. After a day of agonizing I finally narrowed down my thesis upon my friend Jessica's suggestion: "Are you writing a five page paper or an honors thesis?" Ah. Yes.

By the time I did get the paper going it had such potential to be good, but I think it suffered from lack of interest. Then I did most of the reading about religion, then I started looking up recipes online... whaaa? Obviously, I am slightly ADD right now. Luckily, I get a mental break this afternoon because Jess is coming over and we're going to watch either Eddie Izzard or Gilmore Girls!!! I am quite excited.

In other news, it has become tank-top weather at long last!

Bombfire

A few days ago I was invited to the event ASE Bombfire by my friend John. Apparently he didn't know that the word was "bonfire." I'm not kidding. Anyways, this bombfire/bonfire was supposed to take place from 8:00-12:00 p.m in a 'secret ASE location.'

Around 6:15 p.m Brooke from Flat 3 came upstairs to invite us all to dinner. Her mom and dad were visiting and they were cooking a home-cooked meal of chicken parmesan, penne alla vodka, salad, string beans, French bread and wine. Of course, we accepted. The meal was excellent. All of Flat 3 and all of Flat 5 (minus Alli) were there, and Brooke's parents were incredibly nice. It felt so homey to be sitting around a real dinner table eating with everyone and talking about our experiences since we've been in England and beyond. I really enjoyed it. Dinner didn't end until around 8:15, though, so we were late for the first wave of people heading up to the bonfire. We called over to Prior Park and were told that a second wave would wait for us. We headed over about 25 minutes later, and soon began a thirty minute trek up the hill, past a residential area, through a football field, down a creepy little path, and into another field where the bonfire was started. Just as we neared, however, we got a phone call saying that everyone was leaving and we should, too, just because they felt like it. We had come all that way, though, so we were in it. We headed to the bonfire anyway.

Once there, we found out that everyone had left because John told them to-- for some reason he, an Eagle Scout, thought that lighting a fire in a tree would be ok. Granted, the tree was charred so he was not the first to light a fire there, but it was a windy day. The fire had caught and the inside of the tree was glowing bright red. They refused to call the fire department, though, and we carried on making a smaller, more controlled bonfire next to the tree. The tree continued to smolder though, and the winds whipped up the fire again. I, and a few others, kept advocating calling the fire department, but instead a few guys ran back for a fire extinguisher from one of the houses. Of course, that did nothing because it took them about 45 minutes to go and come back and by that point the fire had grown. We stood watching the flames for a long time-- people were throwing mud in the tree, like that would help-- and still no one called the fire department. Finally, John gave in and did. No harm, no foul-- the firemen thought it was funny, apparently, but I had left by that point because John didn't want ALL of us standing by the tree when the firemen arrived, and it was cold and late so I was only too happy to leave. Especially because when we left the bottom portion of the tree had pretty much burst into flames and as we walked back down the hill we saw the fire engine with its lights and sirens on coming up to the bonfire location. At that point we still weren't quite sure if it had been legal for John to start a bonfire; we were all a little fearful that he would be deported.

Ooodalalee what night!

Bizarre Bath

Yesterday my mom and I took the Bizarre Bath tour which meets outside of The Huntsman. Our tour guide arrived in a bright purple jacket and proceeded to explain that Bizarre Bath was not a tour of history and facts, but rather an evening of entertainment. It certainly lived up to its name. Our first stop was across from Sally Lunn's, where he established his credentials by reading the sign ("To prove that we know what we are talking about we will in fact start with a little history: Sally Lunn's House is the oldest house in Bath, built in 1450. Sally Lunn lived in this house in 1680."). Next, he told us about lay lines, blindfolded himself, and walked to the plaza outside Bath Abbey as a blindman. Later we ended up by the river, where he presented Stewart the Stuffed Rabbit, a direct descendant of the rabbit Houdini told his secrets to before he died (yeah, crazy backstory). Then he chained the rabbit up, padlocked him twice, put him in a bag, put dumbells in the bag, and then threw Stewart into the River Avon. Stewart, like Houdini, managed to escape his bag in 10 seconds. The funny thing was, that we all felt so bad for the rabbit, and our guide was like, "Why are you 'ahhhh'ing??? This is a toy! It's a stuffed animal toy!"

Perhaps the scariest trick for me involved my Found Ring, the one that my friend Blair Hall gave to me last year in Latin American History class. Our guide asked if anyone had a ring he could borrow, so I said yes and handed him mine. He was going to do some magic trick with it, so he wrapped it up in tissue paper and tied it to a balloon. He was stepping up onto his crate and tripped and accidentally let the balloon with my ring fly off into the air. Everyone gasped. My heart sank. I know the ring isn't 'mine,' but it is. I've had it for over a year now. I wear it every day-- in Italy, on the cruise, all last semester, in England. Jacob has worn it once, even. I could have cried. He apologized profusely. I tried to be nice, I told him I hadn't even bought it myself, not to worry, it wasn't a big deal. But really, I was torn up inside. I kept hearing Kay's voice telling me that the ring went to whoever needed it most and I hoped that whoever found the ring next, on the ground miles away, would treasure it.

Then he turned to Bath Abbey and said, "We could use a miracle right now, and this is a place of miracles." And then, from around the corner, came Stewart the Rabbit on a little motorized car. And in his paws was a package. And in the package was a ball of wound wool. And after the wool was unwound there was a little leather purse. Our guide had me come up and open the purse and inside was my ring!!!! I have no idea how he did that. I was happy, though, to see my ring and get it safely back on my finger. A little later on in the tour, he made me a balloon animal as compensation for my initial distress.

In other news, I have completed my tutorial paper for tomorrow and I'm down to two papers (I hope!) for ASE!!! Three and a half weeks until summer!

Highland Adventure

My mom is visiting! She arrived Thursday afternoon. I had gone to the train station to meet her, but she got in earlier than I had anticipated so she actually came back to the train station to meet me meeting her. Such is life. We went to lunch at Cafe Rouge (soooo good!), then since it was sunny, we walked around Bath. We walked up George Street and past the Jane Austen Center up to the Circus, then headed out of the Circus towards the Royal Crescent. I pointed out the road leading up to the Northhamptons. They are far away. We walked around the Crescent, where I discovered a new museum, although goodness only knows if I will have time for it. We walked down through Victoria Gardens and past the playground, lake, and mini-golf course. I wish I had time to mini-golf. We even stopped into the Jane Austen center-- I feel like while I'm here I should do a Jane Austen walk (and a Bizarre Bath walk). I can't wait for May 1st-- no more papers! We went to Martinis for dinner, which was excellent, then I headed back to Nunes to pack for Scotland!!!!

Inverness Castle: Inverness, Scotland

Friday morning at 7:00 a.m I was in a taxi heading to Bristol Airport for my flight to Inverness. The flight was fantastic. We had these two drunken queens sitting in front of us and they were hilarious! One of them grabbed a (male) flight attendant's butt ("I want some of that!"). He had also lost his boarding pass, and said to his partner? "They are looking me up in security, like I'm a threat... do I look Arabic?" They also sang along to the iPod they were sharing the whole time. One of them, who looked like Christian from Project Runway, was meeting his mother and he said, "Oh my God, what's my mother going to think when she sees me in this state (i.e- drunk)? She hasn't seen me in 10 years!" to which my mom whispered to me, "Oh dear, I hope she's seen pictures!" Overall, an amusing flight to the Scottish Highlands.

Inverness--and the whole Highland area-- is beautiful! We checked into our hotel then began to walk around. We walked down by the River Ness, composed of overflow from Loch Ness, which is both one of the shortest rivers in Europe at only 6.5 miles, and a tidal river flowing to the sea. There, we stumbled into a little cafe for lunch. I had Scottish salmon and cream cheese on a warm croissant and a bottle of Nessie's Monster Mash brewed in Scotland by Cairngorm Breweries. The beer was excellent! It reminded me of the beer we brewed in CW at the Governor's Palace last year.

We walked a little more, stopped into a few shops including Highland House of Fraser, then went into the tourist center to book tickets for some tours we wanted to do the next day. The tourist center changed our plans: instead of two tours on Saturday, we ran to the Jacobite Tours bus stop for a tour of Loch Ness that afternoon. On the Jacobite Temptation tour we spent twenty minutes on a bus driving out to the Clansman Hotel Harbour with a wonderful tour guide named George pointing out sites along the way. Then we took a half-hour cruise on Loch Ness, but we didn't see the monster (affectionately known as "our Nessie" by the Highlanders). Loch Ness has black water, though, like nothing I've ever seen before. It did not reflect the blue of the sky. The foam our boat churned up looked yellow brown, like we were sailing through Guinness. It felt really weird to see water so black. We got off the boat at the ruins of Urquhart Castle. We had an hour to explore the ruins and the visitor's center. The area was beautiful and the history of the castle was interesting. More interesting was the fact that for the entire weekend I saw not a single Union Jack flag, only the flag of the Cross of St. Andrews-- the Scottish flag.

Leslie mentioned in tutorial last week that Scotland was advocating once more for independence from the UK, and everything I saw pointed in that direction. In the video about Urquhart Castle there was this quote:

...for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself. - The Declaration of Arbroath

We saw the same quote the next day on a t-shirt at Culloden Battlefield. Culloden Battlefield really was awesome. The battle took place on April 16th, 1746, so the brand-new Visitor's Center was swarming with Highlander's showing their pride. Nearly every man wore a kilt with his clan colors, and women too had on some bit of tartan. Even little boys--probably only five or six at oldest--sported kilts. They also had festivities planned, including Highland Music, Highland dancing, costumed interpreters explaining camp life and life in the Highlands before (and after?) the battle, and guided battlefield tours. Furthermore, the Visitor's Center was one of the best museums I've been in, and I've been in quite a few thanks to my Saturday Seminar with Whittenburg, being an RPA last summer, and taking a course in Public History. It presented both sides of the story equally and fairly without bias: a hefty feat, considering we were in the heart of the Highlands. On one wall was the Jacobite story and on the other was the Government story. It explained the background really well, and combined technology with traditional museum approaches to be both entertaining and education. I was muchly impressed.

The battlefield itself was... small. It's hard to believe that in one hour in such a small space 1,500 Highlanders died and the Highland way of life was subsequently destroyed. There are mass graves on the field with markers naming which clansmen are buried beneath the earth. One rock said, "Here marks where the leader of Clan McGillivray fell" with a Scottish prayer beneath it. The whole thing felt rather sad and hopeless.

My mom and I went back to Inverness around 3:00. We stopped in at a shopping mall (the first I've seen in Europe!) for some mindlessness and American-ness. We got some shirts at H&M, a store I hate in America but love in Europe, then we went to some traditional Scottish shops... ok, tourist shops... in the center of town and bought ourselves some Fraser gear (yay Jamie Fraser! Yay Outlander!) and some Scottish Tablet fudge and some Celtic style jewelry and some Loch Ness Monster/Nessie souvenirs.

We ate dinner at a Scottish chain called Jimmy Chung's, which is a Chinese Buffet. Why Scotland has a Chinese Buffet chain I am not sure, but the food was excellent and extremely cheap. The rest of the evening was spent walking around Inverness-- along the river, through some side streets, past rows of houses and B&B's... the town is quite lovely. Just charming. I think the best way to visit would be to stay in a B&B, rent a car, and travel around the tiny villages surrounding Inverness. Just getting out and exploring the Highlands. The area is beautiful. I think of all of the places I've visited Scotland wins as most beautiful, except perhaps Garmisch, which has the advantage of being situated in the Alps. But Scotland had a haunting beauty, especially the area around Loch Ness. I hope to go back someday, to explore it more fully.

This morning my mom and I got coffee, then walked up the River to the Ness Islands, a series of three islands connected by bridges. There's really not much on them besides trees and running paths and an occasional sculpture or two, but the walk was beautiful. It was even warm enough to take off our coats! After our walk it was time to fly home to Bath... where English hills hide quaint villages, fog obscures the countryside, and baby lambs have appeared in the fields with the arrival of Spring.

A Pineapple For Me

I came back from Irish Literature to find a dozen perfect red roses and a pineapple sitting on my bed waiting for me. Friday was ten months. :)

Busy in Bath

I have completed my paper on "National Identity" for Leslie, and now I need to start in on my Tudors/Stuarts paper, which I got an extension on. I have absolutely no desire to work for that class. John Stevenson doesn't even know who I am in a class of 15, despite the fact that I talk, so why should I write a paper for him? Also, I figured out that between my Tudor England class with Hoak and my tutorial with Leslie there are roughly 80 years of British history from 1485-1832 that I don't know. Pretty great. Unfortunately, that 80 years includes the English Civil War, which I should have more than a vague idea about. I'll work on that-- I have to for my paper due Thursday.

Crazy thought: my next paper for Leslie, "Leisure Space" is my penultimate paper for my tutorial (unless of course "To Be Arranged" means another paper of my choice... Greg and I are hoping it means Leslie will take us out for a drink).

In other news, Bath continues as usual and each passing day brings with it more and more a feeling of Spring. Yesterday it rained while I was walking home from Sainsbury's Local and for a moment I was upset, then I realized that the rain was warm. I had on a t-shirt and the droplets on my arm felt like Spring rather than Winter. It was actually quite pleasant to feel Spring rain. Today the sky is blue and it's warm in the sun, though rather cool in the shade. I love it. I love, love, love that the days are growing long and warm. Though, such weather makes it hard to concentrate on work and reading. Instead, the afternoons seem made for laziness, as did yesterday afternoon-- I wasted away two hours (quite unfortunately, as I hastily wrote a paper into the wee hours of the morning) on Eddie Izzard: Definite Article with Jess. It was the first time I'd been to Linley House-- it's so pretty! It all felt so relaxed, almost like last semester, how I wasted my time stretching out on the floor in Stith with Kay, Katie and Callie, only to have papers rear their ugly heads in the evening. But what glorious sunny afternoons!

Hello Spring!

Oxford and Other Foibles

Sorry to have gone AWOL for awhile, but the past week the program was in residence at Oxford where there were three computers for fifty-five people and no wireless internet. Lovely.

Oxford, though, really was lovely. I almost wish I had done the WM Oxford program, just to live in that city instead of Bath. I like Bath, but I love Oxford (although if I had three tutorials like the WM program makes everyone take I'm not sure that I'd actually leave my college very often). I'm so glad I get to go there every week for my tutorial. It was also nice because while everyone else scrambled to try all that Oxford had to offer I was serenely writing papers and casually saying, "Oh, well, I'll try a milkshake when I'm here next week," or "Maybe I'll decide on those earrings for next week." That was quite nice. Another perk was that I actually knew my way around. Instead of pretending to know where Christ Church Meadow was, I actually DID know. Instead of groping about in the dark for my way to the market or Primark I could just walk there no trouble.

Oxford has so much more than Bath. The most amazing discovery was a restaurant called The Mission: Mexican Grill which was Chipotle. I could not have been more pleased. It also has a more diverse history, as a Civil War Walk with my Tudors/Stuarts class proved. It was such a beautiful morning for a walk--bright and sunny--and we got to see lots of buildings associated with the Tudors as well as with Charles I, since Oxford was the King's Capital during the English Civil War. After the walk Danielle, Katie and I went to the covered market for some hot, caffeinated beverages-- that's another thing! The covered market! I love it so much. I wish I could pick it up and move it to Bath... or Williamsburg. I really do love Oxford. Another thing Oxford has is punting, but our punting day got snowed out. Yes, it SNOWED the first day we were in Oxford, but by the end of the week it was warm enough to just put on a hoodie instead of a full coat. English weather is very strange. Leslie quoted, "April is the cruellest month." But yes, I didn't get to go punting. Maybe next week.

The best part of staying in Oxford was that I got to meet some new people, especially some of the Linley girls. My roommate for the week, Jess, was amazing!!! She's so nice! She also likes just about everything I do plus some-- Firefly, Gilmore Girls, Labyrinth, Ralph Fiennes, etc. She also watches Doctor Who, which most of my friends do (and I feel that I have woefully neglected... I should take that up). And she loves Shakespeare! She's going to loan me her Twelfth Night DVD. I'm really excited about that. Generally, getting to know some new people was awesome. I'm also getting to know a girl named Emily H. who is an amazing singer/songwriter (I first heard her play at Write Nite about a week and a half ago). She's such a great person, and she's friends with a couple of people that I know from Shakespeare in the Dark! Then, there's a girl named Danielle who lives in Prior Park that I started to get to know over Spring Break (she was in Munich with us) but who I feel like I talked to much more in Oxford. We're going to go to the May Day celebrations at Magdalen College together, which I'm really looking forward to.

The downside about Oxford was that I had two papers due, both for Leslie. I love my tutorial (I'm trying to figure out how to make Leslie my best friend), but the papers are taxing. They usually end up being quite long and he expects a lot from each paper. The other ASE papers I can semi-half-ass, but not the papers for Leslie. I have another due Wednesday (plus a Tudors/Stuarts paper). On a happy note, Leslie said that my paper on Marriage and Gender was my best yet, which I think means I got an A, since my last was an A-. Nevertheless, I got hot chocolate after the tutorial, simply because I deserved it after having double session. I've found that Caffe Nero has the best hot chocolate in England. It's like drinking melted chocolate bars. It's so incredible.

There were two nights of note: the first was Indian Food Night, and the second was formal dinner night. ASE took everyone out for Indian food for 12 pounds, which Danielle, Andrew, and I thought was ridiculous. Instead, we went up Cowley Road and found an Indian food restaurant where we got four curries, two naan breads, two rices, chips (french fries), and a 1.5 litre of Coke all for 13 pounds (total). Since we saved so much money we went to a pub called Cape of Good Hope and got ourselves some pints to celebrate. As Danielle said, "I haven't been this happy since Munich!" We were very thrilled with our bargain finding.

The next was the Formal Dinner Night. I was seated in a corner with Andy Venn, Adrian (my Irish Lit tutor who is fantastic), Emily W., Kiki, and Galina. Basically, I had a loaded corner. Adrian and Andy are hilarious and with the rest of us joining in the conversation was great. Then we had these awful singers and the whole time I was trying not to laugh while Kiki and Adrian were doing their best to make me laugh, especially Adrian. After dinner we went back to the University College bar (yes, each college has its own bar) and Emily H. played some songs which literally bring tears to my eyes they are so gorgeous and in general we had a merry time, until the bar closed. Then we went to some club called Baby Love, which was less fun, but ok. I left before everyone else, because thanks to my double session of tutorials I had been sleep deprived. And I needed to pack. And I wanted to call Jacob. You know how it goes.

This weekend I went to London to stay with my parents!!! It was so nice to see them. My mom will be back on Thursday, so it wasn't a goodbye until May with her today, but it was with my dad. London was quite nice. We saw the play God of Carnage with Ralph Fiennes. OMG! I adore seeing him on stage. He's such a great actor. Sadly, he didn't appear at the stage door this time, but it's ok, since I got to meet him after Faith Healer (which I didn't actually see, but oh well). God of Carnage was a great show. It was described as "a very funny tragedy" and I think that's apt. Very witty, very well acted, I want the script. My parents and I also went to the National Portrait Gallery to see a new exhibit on the Bluestockings and today we ate lunch at Ye Olde Cheddar Cheese Pub. Generally, a very good weekend. But now I'm back in Bath and back to the books! Less than five weeks until I'm done with my studies and I'm back stateside!

Papers x8

I had a paper due Wednesday.

I have a paper due Wednesday and Thursday.

I have a paper due the following Tuesday and Wednesday.

I have a paper due the following Tuesday and Wednesday.

I have a paper due the following Wednesday.

Anyone sensing a pattern? Basically, I will never see the light of day again. Unfortunately, ASE doesn't understand this, so I am being forced to see the light of day-- the light of the Oxford day. Tomorrow the whole program moves to Oxford for a week in residence. I was really looking forward to this week, as I've heard that it is a lot of fun, and the packet they gave us with our schedule looks amazing! But now, Oxford just sort of stresses me out. If I could stay in Bath for the week I know I would be able to get everything done, but as it is I'm struggling. Furthermore, with all of this looming ahead of me it's more paralyzing than motivating. There's no "Well, get it done and you can have fun!" Instead it's "Get it done and there's more to do!" Of course, I will get it done. I always manage.

In other news, to distract myself from the horribleness of my academic life and to honor the coming of spring, I bought myself a new dress. It is a yellow seersucker dress and I absolutely love it. I feel like I should buy a big hat to go with it and then go out to the Ascot or the Kentucky Derby. If I could wear it all the time I would, just because it makes me happy. It's so cheerful and the skirt twirls. It's a pretty, in the words of Kaylee from Firefly. Shiny.

Winter's on the Wing

Happy April 1st everyone! I can't believe it's already April, but I must say that I'm quite pleased that it is. The past three days have been gorgeous here. I can even go outside without a coat! I knew Spring was coming when I saw the trees blossoming on South Parade as I walked back to Nunes House on Saturday. But I had forgotten how glorious Spring really is!!! I feel as though I've made it through some dark night and emerged on the other side with a lightened spirit.

"And you'll be here to see it
Stand and breathe it all our day
Stoop and feel it, stop and hear it
Spring I say!"

And, finally, a few pictures from Spring Break. The first is me on the Aran Islands, the second is of the Cliffs of Moher, the third is the Frauenkirche in Munich from the top of the Peterkirche Tower, the fourth is a view from a hill in Garmisch, the fifth is a flower-shop in Garmisch.