The Many Adventures of Me

The United States Again

2008-06-04T16:06:00.004+01:00

Summer 2008 has started and gotten well underway.

I've been home for a couple of weeks now, and I'm quite happy to be here. I got off the airplane to my dad waving a tiny American flag, my mom happily smiling, and Kay telling me about a pint of Ben and Jerry's waiting for me at home. In spite of the scary "leaving Bath" talk about how awkward it would be to come home nothing seemed out of place. I mean, a little, I guess. My mom had moved my room around so all the furniture was in a new formation. My cat, Sphinx, did not remember me (although Kelly seemed happy to see me). But as far as fitting back in-- no problem. Kay and I had a lovely time catching up that afternoon, and the day after I got home my cousin, Josh, came over. We always have the best time hanging out! The Tuesday after I got home Jacob arrived! The very next day we drove four hours up to Pittsburgh to see Eddie Izzard's new stand-up "Stripped." Eddie Izzard!!!!!! Eddie Izzard!!!!! The show was excellent, and the drive was actually fun-- we passed farms which are infinitely amusing to Jake.

May 3oth was Kay's 21st birthday! A group of us went out to dinner at a very nice Caribbean restaurant. We were all dressed up and pretty and I finally got to see Mike Johnson again!!!!! After dinner all of us went back to my house for a champagne toast and merriment. The next day we all gathered at Kay's for a luncheon. Generally a fantastic time (and I hope she felt the same, since it was her birthday).

Now I'm back in Williamsburg with Jake. He's taking classes while I do... absolutely nothing. I'm waiting here for my job to start on June 18th. I'm going to be an RPA for NIAHD again (basically I'm a camp counselor for a high school history camp). In the meantime I'm trying to teach myself French and I'm trying to read as many books as possible. I just finished reading Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, who I love with a passion, and Perfume, a book recommended to me by Josh while we were hanging out. Perfume was a subtly intriguing book-- I really, really liked it. Now I'm trying to read Charles James Fox, a book by Leslie, and Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. So that's how I'm keeping busy. That and trying to keep up with friends. Tonight I'm going to see the Sex and the City movie with Katie! Am quite excited.

So that's life... welcome back to the Many Adventures of Me... Stateside.

Bath Says Goodbye Sometimes

2008-05-16T23:59:00.009+01:00

I've left Bath for the last time.

The last few days-- well, the last week really-- have been a whirlwind. First of all, I forgot to mention that last Thursday (before the Dorset Hike) I decided to go exploring. It was gorgeous sunny day so I walked all the way to St. Stephens Church. I could see it from my window in Nunes House but it was so far away and I'd never even thought of going to it before. I wanted to see what I would find on the way there... turns out, Bath is beautiful. I came across lots of little antique stores, some cafes, Georgian houses with beautiful flowers in front and ivy on the walls, two crescents I'd never heard of before, little winding paths, and large public parks. One crescent I went to was called Camden Crescent, and the other was Lansdown Crescent. Both were beautiful, but Lansdown Crescent was like something out of a fairy tale. I would rather live there than the Royal Crescent even. I could see far off into the distance rolling hills with small houses clustered together, and directly in front of the crescent was a field of sheep. In front of each door was a bower; some were covered in flowers.

This last Monday afternoon my friends put on the play they had been working on since Oxford. It was a retelling of Midsummer Night's Dream, except instead of Hippolota and Theseus' wedding it was Beyonce and Jay-Z, if that tells you anything... It was funny though, and nice entertainment. They had worked hard on it. Monday night was fantastic! We all went to Opa after the play because it was warm and sunny and Brooke and I got margaritas, then I got a kiwi martini, and we all had such fun standing around recounting funny stories and praising the play. Except, while there, I suddenly realized that when I get home I have two months before I can go to a bar and order myself a margarita or a martini... which really will be an adjustment, since I'm so used to being able to get whatever I please, whenever I please. Really unhappy about this.

Tuesday I finished up my finals and went to a "re-entry" session for returning to the States. I didn't really think it would be all that difficult, but they brought up some good points that I hadn't thought of before, so now I'm almost a little worried about how it will be to go back. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow afternoon. I guess I hadn't thought of the little ways in which I've changed over the course of the semester: for example, I have become more conscious of what I eat, how much what I eat costs, and how much food I waste. I've gotten used to walking everywhere and being able to walk everywhere. I've gotten used to English grocery stores and the products they sell, and as much as I'll be grateful to have Wheat Thins once more I think I'm really going to miss Waitrose Muesli and Sainsbury's Tikka Masala sauce. There were bigger things, too-- how our friends and families will react to us, for one. And how we will react to our friends and families. Andy pointed out that just because we've been gone for four months doesn't mean that things at home have stayed exactly as they were. Friendships will be different, because while we've been growing and changing our friends have been growing and changing, too... without us and in different ways from us. I think the session helped, though, and hopefully the transition to going home will be a smooth one if I bear in mind some of the lessons of the re-entry session. Afterwards, I went to Cafe Rouge with Brooke for one last bowl of French Onion soup and a Caesar salad, which perked me right up and once again made me anticipate coming home :).

Wednesday and Thursday were spent in a flurry of packing, doing last minute shopping, seeing people, going places... went back to Opa with Alli and Jon, hung out with some Linley girls, stayed around Nunes. Brian made me dinner, which was nice since I had absolutely no food besides oatmeal left in my flat. Then I packed some more. Thursday was similar, except that I had lunch at an Indian place called Rajpoot with Emily H., and then last night we all went out to a restaurant called The Slug and Lettuce (which is a disgusting name) and had a Nunes dinner. The food was actually pretty good. And, of course, the company was excellent. I sat near Brooke, Liz, Jen, and Jon which was quite entertaining. Afterwards we had a mini-party in Nunes then everybody went to the Porter... except me. I still had packing to do, and it's a good thing I did because I realized that I needed another small bag in order to bring everything home. Luckily, Shea was throwing out a very nice large pink handbag, so I took that and made everything fit perfectly :). Shea came home early to talk to Andrew, then Danielle and Alli came home slightly inebriated-- Danielle was talking about how terrible it was that the Mr. D's truck massacred cows for their hamburgers, which was amusing. Around 2:45 or so we finally turned in for bed, so we were up late today.

I got up around 10:30 or so, took a shower, returned some books to the ASE library (not that I ever took any out... shhhhhhh), and then came back to my flat just as it was stormed by Flat 3 girls. We decided we all needed to get dressed to go right away for a last walk around Bath and a final trip to Sainsbury's Local for coca-colas, and smoothies at Smooth Sensations in the Corridor, and in general to bid farewell to the city we have lived in for so long. Really, it was kind of sad. Walking up Milsom Street for the last time, walking into Local for the last time, seeing street performers in front of the Abbey for the last time, passing Retro's to Go for the last time, going into Nelson House for the last time... We got back to Nunes around 1:15 to start getting ready for Final Tea. I wore my new yellow seersucker dress from Jane Norman with a little yellow cardigan. As Nunes Flats 3, 4, and 5 we walked over en masse and took the entire center table for ourselves. Jonathon Hope sat with us since we were right in front of the projector for the Slide Show. It was really a High Tea-- we had little tea sandwiches, followed by scones, followed by little cakes. Then Barbara made a speech, both humorous and poignant, followed by a similar speech from Jonathon. Then Frank, a student, made a speech about how wonderful the staff was-- Andrew Butterworth asked him to say a few words and Frank really lived up to it with well-thought out, funny, touching speech to thank each staff member for looking after us and making us feel always at home. Then the Slide Show itself came on and suddenly we were being handed t-shirts and envelopes and being pushed out the door.

I went back to Nunes, finished packing my bags, and then my flatmates and Brooke walked me to the train station and I bid Bath goodbye forever-- at least as an ASE student. It was a gloomy day, much like the first day that I arrived in England, and I felt rather sad on the train passing the familiar stops that I once passed to go to Oxford. Goodbye towpath, goodbye little lambs in the fields, goodbye S.T.E.A.M Museum of the Western Railroad, goodbye Didcot Parkway with your smokestacks, goodbye goodbye. All the way into London Paddington and to Heathrow.

Currently, I'm sitting in the Yotel at the airport realizing I need to get some sleep before I have to wake up early for my flight tomorrow. I don't think it's hit me yet that I'm actually leaving Bath and actually going home: back to the U.S.A. I can't deny that I'm really excited to be going home-- I've missed my parents, my friends, my cats, my house, my car (guiltily enough), Hershey's syrup, and a land where the dollar is worth something. I feel like living abroad has, if nothing else, made me appreciate the United States of America more. It has made me appreciate my friends, my family, and the life that I have there. Sometimes it takes leaving a place to realize how wonderful it really is... I've learned that if I ever again "go looking for my heart's desire, I won't look any further than my own backyard; if it's not there, then I never really lost it to begin with," as Dorothy says in The Wizard of Oz.

But at the same time, I already miss hanging out with Nunes House and having Nunes family dinners, going to sun myself in the park with Brooke, late nights talking with Alli, Shea, and Danielle, and being able to travel to any locale in Europe cheaply, with the click of a button and at the drop of a pin. Still, there really is no place like home, even though I'll miss my new found friends from Bath immensely and leaving them this afternoon was hard.

So, goodbye Bath. Goodbye England.

Tomorrow I fly home to continue the Many Adventures of Me in a brand new way. See you all on the other side of the pond.

Summer '08

2008-05-13T15:52:00.003+01:00

I'm done with finals!!!!!!

I just finished up my Irish Lit final and I took my Tudors/Stuarts final earlier this morning. Now I'm done! I'm not sure how I did on my finals... but at least I managed to write something for every question asked of me. I was thinking about it last night, and I discovered that the reason that it has been so hard for me to study for these is that I haven't had to take an unseen final in a year (except in LCST, but she gave us a very generous study guide). I haven't had to study for a history final since last Spring. Even then he gave us the questions beforehand and said that he would pick a few to be on the test. I haven't had this little guidance in studying for an in-class final ever and I haven't had to take one in so long: I'm fantastic at take-home finals, however. I really do prefer them, especially for history and English. History is less about memorizing dates and regurgitating than it is about analysis, which is much easier to do if you have ample time to really contemplate instead of doing an info-dump. English, too, usually tends to be more thoughtful when there's really time to peruse texts. I can see giving an English in class if the possible essay topics are given first and you have to prepare a few at home. I've done that and like that, but these unseen, entire semester-cumulative exams were killer.

But oh, well. They are done and I managed to write all five essays required of me today, even if they are rather average compared to the work I like to do.

So now it's summertime!!! I need to pack, go to the park and sit in the sun, do a little last minute shopping, have a few drinks at Opa, and enjoy my last few days in Bath!!!

Chefs and Sunburns

2008-05-10T10:25:00.006+01:00

Thursday night was the long anticipated Nunes Iron Chef competition! We all knew Brian could cook, but what about Jon and Gabe? This was our chance to find out.

We gave each guy 7 pounds and then they could spend up to 5 pounds of their own on food, two hours to run to the grocery store and cook, and they had to incorporate a secret ingredient--apples. At 7:40 the food was presented to six taste-testers (one from each house). I was runner for the Flat 5 kitchen, which was assigned to Gabe. Basically, if he needed anything from any of the other flats, such as cooking wine or tongs, I ran and got it for him during the two hours that he was grocery shopping/cooking. Gabe made an incredible dish of chicken marsala with an apple/lemon flavor over fettuccine.

Meanwhile, Jon was working on a similar dish and Brian made a salmon dish with spinach, tomato, and apple. At 7:40 came the moment of truth. The food was brought before the taste-testers, who then scored each dish, and Jen, Charlotte, and Liz calculated the winner. Everyone came within three points of each other. In third place, with 42.3 repeating points was Brian, then came John with 44.2 points, and then Gabe, with 44.7 points (I think those decimals are correct). Gabe was Nunes Iron Chef 2008! Everyone's food was excellent though-- Brian's salmon was AMAZING, but some of the judges didn't like seafood, so he had taken a risk. Gabe's chicken marsala, the winner, was excellent. The flavor combinations in the marsala were great!!! I didn't really get to try Jon's, but everyone said that it was pretty great, too. So, Iron Chef 2008 was really fun, and everyone enjoyed themselves. We had a huge turn-out from the other houses, too. About 30 people were crammed into the common room to hear the winner announced.
-------------------------
Yesterday was hiking in Dorset. I can't believe we've actually done it. We learned about the Dorset hike at the beginning of the semester-- it was the last 'event' of the semester for us to look forward to... I never really thought we'd get to May 9th. But we did, and yesterday we went hiking.

Dorset is a county on the southern coast of England, pretty much directly south from Somerset (where Bath is). There's a coastal hiking path around the cliffs of Dorset; the path starts in Cornwall, continues through Devon, and into Dorset-- it's one of the longest coastal hikes in the UK. We took a two-hour bus ride to Dorset, were dropped off at a little village church, then began our trek on the path. The coastal hike is along soil cliffs, which apparently have the chance of landsliding into the sea-- a few days ago 100 yards of coast went into the ocean about a hundred miles from where we were walking. We were told also not to go to close to the edge of the cliff because sometimes the ground stretched farther than the landmass to which it was connected, so though it may look like we were on ground it was quite possible we were standing on thin air, and could like Wiley Coyote go crashing down. Someone remarked: "Is it too late to turn back?"

But alas it was, so after the speech about how our hike was certain death, we hiked for 7 1/2 miles along the coast, through fields, through valleys, up huge hills and back down again... at one point we came to a hill with 204 steps up. I felt like I had run a mile once I reached the top, and last night the 63 stairs up to Flat 5 were NOTHING. The walk was gorgeous. When we were by the sea we could smell the saltwater and see all the way out nothing but blue ocean. At the end of the walk we came to a small pub called The Square and Compass where we got pasties and cold drinks (I got a coca cola) and relaxed in the outdoor seating. After we ate, we took the bus to the village of Corfe, where we could visit Corfe Castle and village. I opted to stay in the village part-- once you've seen one castle's ruins you've seen them all, I think. I got ice cream, then went to the Greyhound Inn with Cally, Ashley, and Galina.

We got Pimms! I'd never tried Pimms, and it's such an English drink I felt I needed to-- it was quite good. I'm not sure what it is, but apparently it's the official drink of punting, and everyone has told me to try it before I leave England, so I'm glad I did. We also got seasoned potato wedges, which made me want a swimming pool. For some reason I associate seasoned fries with the swimming pool. Overall, it was an excellent day, except upon returning home I realized my shoulders were badly sunburned and my legs weren't fairing too well either, mostly on the left side of my body for some reason. Oh well...

Overall, a fantastic day with ASE.

Last Tutorial

2008-05-07T21:19:00.003+01:00

Today was my last tutorial with Leslie. He had us read two plays The Rivals and The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, then take notes. We didn't have to write a paper!!! In tutorial we just discussed the plays and how topical they were, and he elucidated some of the comedy. We only discussed for about 45 minutes and then Leslie told us he had enjoyed having us in tutorial, we gave him a bottle of port which we (being me and Greg) went in on together for him, we shook hands with him, and then we left. And I got on a train and bid Oxford farewell. I feel really quite sad about saying goodbye to Leslie. My tutorial has really made my experience here in England. I've learned more than I thought I would ever learn about Georgian England and I think my academic writing has improved immensely, as well. And I respect Leslie. I want for him to like me and I want to do well. I feel like my work is not in vain for him. I think I'll write him letters, as he detests e-mail. Sigh. I will genuinely miss my tutorial.

The rest of the day was spent napping (I've been really exhausted this week) and then I had dinner with Danielle, Shea, and Sylvia at a Thai restaurant near Sainsbury's Local. Tonight we are watching the movie Serendipity together, and then possibly eating the cake that Shea baked for Alli/Danielle's birthdays.

A few items I've forgotten to mention: Cinco de Mayo!!! On May 5th Nunes House decided to celebrate in style. We all got together to cook an amazing dinner of tacos and burritos-- Shea made guacamole and it was excellent. We all sat down and had an obligatory tequila shot before dinner and Coronas with dinner. Then we had pinatas!!! Unfortunately, the candy made a mess all over the floor of the common room and ASE thinks that our attempts to clean up were paltry and we got a typed note insinuating that we had a large drunken party (which we did not) and that they were disappointed in us. It's a little ridiculous. Anyways, Cinco de Mayo was great.

Another thing I haven't written about is going to Oxford last Saturday night to hang out with some of my WM friends. We went to Hertford College Ball, which was pretty much exactly like prom except with free alcohol. We had a never-ending chocolate fountain, a buffet, an open bar, and a dance floor playing hits such as 'YMCA' and 'Low.' We had a good time, but really, it was like prom, which is always so overbuilt and then doesn't quite live up to expectations. Although, the free beer made everything seem extra fun... something I certainly wouldn't have had at prom-- either before or after. My prom after-party was a sleepover at my friend Naomi's. We made s'mores and drank Sprite and watched Phantom of the Opera and I drove home at 5:00 in the morning while the sun was rising. Hahaha, oh memories...

Also, it's birthday week!!! Alli's birthday was yesterday and Danielle's birthday is Friday. I guess that's about it for now. Strange thought: Only 10 days until I come home!

Last Week of Classes

2008-05-06T20:12:00.003+01:00

I had my last Tudors/Stuarts class and my last Irish Lit class today. Tomorrow is my last tutorial. It's strange. Everything is coming to a close. I'm happy, but saying goodbye to Adrian was kind of sad today. We got to have Irish Lit outside today at a park across Pultuney Bridge. I made a tiny daisy chain, like Alice in Wonderland. The weather is beautiful and it stays light so late now. It's past eight o'clock and the sun still hasn't set. I love it.
A picture of Adrian, my Irish Lit tutor, in Dublin.

Tra La, It's May!

2008-05-02T11:52:00.002+01:00

Happy (belated) May Day everyone!!!

What a whirlwind few days it has been. I suppose the story really starts on Tuesday, as I struggled to complete my Religion paper and 'what-I-learned' paragraph for Leslie. I was so close that I could taste freedom from papers. Also, it was free cone day at Ben and Jerry's, which was much needed. So Tuesday flew by in a flurry of paper-writing, ice cream cone eating, classes, and, oh yes, a chicken, cheese, and salsa panini which tasted nearly like the Southwest Chicken Wrap at Aroma's... it made me so very happy. I miss salsa. I finished my final paper around 9:00 at night, so not too late, then tried to go to bed around 12:00, but Shea's typing kept me up until about 3:00-- I was not a happy camper. I ended up getting about six hours of sleep... which would have been ok except that it was April 30th-- the beginning of May Day.

I got on the 11:43 train to Oxford, arrived, and went straight to my tutorial. It was Greg's week to read his paper. He didn't mention Methodists, which I told him was important. Methodists were all over our readings and he said they were 'bull-shit.' I knew better-- I studied the Baptist movement in Colonial America. Perhaps it was at Greg's expense, but I talked a lot in tutorial. I felt like I had things to say. I knew what an advowson was, and I knew about the way Methodism could have been revolutionary and could have kept a revolution from happening-- much like Baptism did in America.

Tutorial ended with a promise to meet Leslie at Univ at six o'clock to go to dinner, then I headed over to the Porter's Lodge of Hereford College to meet up with my friend Sean. We went to the King's Arms for a half-pint of cider. It was so nice to see someone from William and Mary!!! I can't wait for Saturday when I get to see all of the WM kids, and go to a kickin' dress party, as well. After cider with Sean I walked to Magdalen College to meet up with Greg and to wait for Danielle to finish with her tutorial. We had an hour to kill, so the three of us went over to Blackwell's (this absolutely amazing bookstore) and spent an hour enthralled with all of the knowledge, all of the stories, and all of the little slices of world around us. At six we met Leslie and went to the King's Arms (again) for dinner.

At the King's Arms we met up with Felicity James, the Jane Austen tutor. All of us sat down to a happy dinner whereat I learned that Leslie likes Disney World, loves Mr. Toad, had longish hair in the sixties, stayed up all night for May Day when he was ten because he stamped his feet and his mother let him, and that he thinks creative writing is a bullshit course because there is no body of knowledge behind it-- writing is a talent, not an academic subject. Leslie is amazing.

Around 7:30 he and Felicity left, and a few more ASE kids arrived. Greg wanted to go watch a football match, so we headed up Cawley Road to a pub... but Danielle, Emily, Andrew, Megan and I didn't really want to watch football, so instead we went to an Irish pub that Fiachra, Danielle's (Irish) Latin tutor had recommended. Apparently there is a way to store Guinness and to pour Guinness that makes it taste at its best-- which is why it tastes better in Ireland than in England--and this pub does Guinness as close to the correct way as possible. Plus, the owner/bartender was an old Irishman. We all ordered Guinness, of course. The owner poured it in such a way that in the foam on top there was a shamrock!!! We all found this stunning. After about forty-five minutes Fiachra himself randomly showed up!!! Amazing! He's such a darling man, very chivalric, very Irish (his first language was Gaelic for heaven's sake!), very smart. He gave Danielle his address and number in case we were out at four in the morning, drunk, with no where to turn. Danielle was ecstatic.

Fiachra sat with us, and about an hour later our Irish Lit tutor, Adrian, met up with us. Then the ASE students who had been watching the game came over to the Half Moon (as the pub was called) It was about 10:00, or so. Our motley crew, including Fiachra and Adrian, stayed at the pub until 3:30 in the morning, when the owner/barman closed the pub. Apparently Half Moon is the only pub in Oxford with a 24 hour license (most pubs close either at 11:00 or 1:00) and the only contingency is that he can't let anyone in the door after 12:30. Anyways, at 3:30 we all left, Fiachra had gone home, and the rest of us had to cross the Magdalen Bridge before 4:00. They close it at 4:00 on May Day because people like to jump off the bridge to celebrate, except that in recent years the water has gotten so shallow it's dangerous to do so. People still tried, however, so the bridge had to close. Some of our crew got food off of a truck (the popular thing to do at 3:00 a.m in England) and then we all went to Worchester College, where Adrian is a fellow, to relax in their common room. By this time, though, it was past 4:00 a.m and Danielle and I wanted to go back into town-- everything starts to open around 4:30 on May Day. Everyone else wanted to collapse on the couches in exhaustion, but Danielle and I triumphantly walked back to town, taking pictures of the sky lightening-- it promised to be a sunny day. We got coffee and pastries at a little take-away restaurant and mosied up to Magdalen College. People were already gathering.

At 6:00 in the morning on May 1st the Magdalen Boys Choir sings from the top of the Bell Tower and there are Morris Dancers and bagpipers and everyone is merry and the singing kicks off a big street party with champagne breakfasts. We didn't get to partake in most of this, as we were pressed to catch a train back to Bath, but Danielle and I did listen to the boys choir, listened to the bells, and ran merrily through the streets. We were back in Bath by 8:30 a.m where I proceeded to fall into a happy sleep.

Oh, but that's not all: May 1st was also Nunes Potluck dinner!!! I made pizza bites. We ate in the dining room in Flat 3 (managed to squeeze all 11 of us in) and had an amazing dinner of a tapas potato dish, Greek salad, guacomole and chips, french fries and fried chicken, bruschetta, garlic bread, bean salad, toblerone, strawberry shortcake, and strawberry cheesecake. It was perhaps my favorite night with Nunes House. We had all filled out superlative sheets earlier this week, so the Nunes superlatives were given out. I was voted "Smartest," "Lightweight," and runner up to "Most Likely to be President of the United States." I really do like my house. Sometimes I complain, but generally I could not have lived with a better group of people.

Finally:
Tra la! It's May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev'ryone goes
Blissfully astray.
Tra la! It's here!
That shocking time of year
When tons of wicked little thoughts
Merrily appear!
It's May! It's May!

Ok, now THAT'S really all. :)

One To Go

2008-04-28T13:37:00.003+01:00

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

2008-04-25T14:13:00.003+01:00

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

2008-04-22T21:28:00.004+01:00

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

2008-04-20T23:02:00.021+01:00

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

2008-04-15T18:39:00.004+01:00

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

2008-04-15T15:01:00.005+01:00

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

2008-04-13T21:16:00.004+01:00

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

2008-04-04T22:59:00.003+01:00

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

2008-04-01T18:05:00.004+01:00

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.

Auf Wiedersehen and Welcome!

2008-03-29T22:10:00.006Z

Hello everyone! I've returned safely from my Spring Break travels and am now back in Bath. Spring Break was great. I've already written a little bit about Ireland, but to finish up-- Easter night John, Emily, Sarah, and I went out to the pubs. Yes, all of the pubs were open on Easter Sunday, as a very rude woman who worked in our hostel informed us.

John: Will the pubs and things be open tonight?
Rude Woman: (using a 'tone' with some 'attitude') Yes, why wouldn't they be?
John: Well, because it's Sunday... and it's Easter.
Rude Woman: Things only close for Good Friday, why would they close for Easter?
John: Ok, well thanks.

Which, I mean, makes some sense. Everyone in Ireland takes off not only Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but also Easter Monday. So Sunday night is apparently a perfect night for hitting up the pubs. We went to a traditional one which was PACKED. It was called Twas Coilis, I think. It had traditional Irish music played by three (slightly drunk) Irishmen and everyone else there had Irish accents and was singing along and in general quite boisterous. I had a half-pint of Guinness, because I was in Ireland after all.

On the last day we were in Ireland we went on a tour to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. It looked just how you would expect Ireland to look. I bought myself a little instructional guide to Irish faeries that day for fun and it's actually quite fascinating. I love Irish myths and legends. And looking around the Burren I could totally believe in falling into faeryland. All you have to do is walk around a faery rath three times and in you go to their splendid crystal halls, according to the book. At any rate, the scenery was gorgeous, and the Cliffs were spectacular!!! They took three million years to evolve. They are over 600 ft. above sea level. The wind up there was so strong that I worried I would blow right off, which could have been problematic not only for me but for my tour company. There was no voucher to sign before letting us loose on the Cliffs (though, luckily, most of the Cliff area had a wall). We also saw some other sites-- an old Celtic tomb, an earthwork fort from around 2000 B.C (I had my faery book by this point and if there are faeries in Ireland they are IN THAT EARTHWORK FORT), a castle that the Irish National Theatre was dreamed up in (Yeats was there, and Lady Gregory!), Lisdoonvarna-- the Irish town of the Matchmaking Festival, and a few other places. It was a good tour, I thought.

The next day we had to get up extremely early in order to catch the bus to the Shannon airport. We were leaving the hostel by 6:30 in the morning (I think we woke up the other people in our hostel room, specifically a Russian couple who tickled each other until the wee hours of the morning-- swear to God, hostels are not an experience that I want to repeat). We met up with Andrew and his girlfriend at the bus station and then us ASErs bid Megan goodbye and headed off to the airport. We made our flight, got to Stansted, spent six or so hours sitting in the airport, then we were off to Munich! We got to Munich with very little trouble, negotiated our way to the hostel, and got our room. This hostel was better than the one in Ireland-- with Danielle G. arriving we filled a room for six so we had no strangers staying with us, plus the atmosphere was more like a hotel lobby than like summer camp. Still... I think I'm over the hostel thing.

Ahem...Why I Should Have Studied Abroad in Germany:
1) Munich has really great food.
2) Munich has nightlife-- things are open past midnight.
3) Munich is cheaper than Bath.
4) Munich has a wider array of (cheaper, more interesting) day-trips than Bath.
5) I could have learned a foreign language.

The first day in Munich we took a walking tour with a native English speaking guide (it was a free tour thing for backpackers and the guides work for tips-- they are all in their twenties-- it was a really cool thing). I think this guy was a history major, because he talked a lot about history and memory. We saw the Frauenkirche (which Betsy Ray visits in Betsy and the Great World!) and we walked by the Old Town Hall, and saw the Glockenspiel, and we went into the Hofbrauhaus (not for the last time). We also found this gorgeous church called Theatinekirche. I've never seen anything like it. I wanted Jacob there, because I'm pretty sure he would have appreciated the artistic interior far more than I did. It had these twisty columns and some paintings which were probably quite famous, but I wouldn't know. We also went to the English Gardens for a bit and I swear I saw the spot where Betsy and Helena ate lunch before going to the Bayerische Nationalmuseum. Btw, Betsy is the fictionalized version of the author, Maud Hart Lovelace, so really I'm seeing all the places Maud saw... just to clarify for all you non-Betsy-Tacy lovers out there (most of you, I'm guessing). Our tourguide also talked a lot about Hitler and Nazism. I never realized how much of that had happened in Munich-- I guess I always sort of thought it was more of a Berlin thing-- but really it all started in Munich. It made me sad, because I have rather thought of Munich as a Betsy-Tacy rosy glasses city-- and for her it was! She was there in 1913! WWI hadn't started much less WWII! But we saw a lot of sites that had to do with Nazi protesters and Hitler and a memorial at the University to the White Roses-- a student organization which opposed Nazism (it's leaders were executed under the regime). We could have gone to Dachou Concentration Camp, but we decided against it. If we had been in Germany longer we probably would have gone, but we didn't really feel like spending Spring Break crying.

The second day in Munich we just went to some museums. First, we all climbed the tower of Peterkirche. It reminded me of climbing the Duomo in Florence, except less claustrophobic on the way up (and not as high, I doubt). There were some excellent views of Munich, however. Then we went to the Munich Hunting and Fishing Museum, which was actually pretty awesome. It had all these old crossbows and beautiful intricately jeweled and carved rifles, and some old hunting toboggans used by the rich and powerful. It was much better than expected. Next, us girls went to the Residenz Museum. It was pretty much like any other pretty, rich house. It reminded me of Versailles, Hampton Court, The Governors Palace... anything in a Georgian-style, really. It had an awesome treasury, though! There was this one small... jeweled thing... of St. George slaying the dragon-- it was beautiful!!!! And so intricate! I also went to the toy museum, which was a let-down. It was small. I also shopped in Promod, my favorite store from Italy, though I didn't buy anything. AND I got a Mezzo Mix, which is the soda at the Coke Stop in Disney World where there are sodas from around the world. I really kind of thought Coke made up those sodas, because I haven't seen any for real anywhere else. I love Mezzo Mix. It was kind of a dreary day, though, and I felt very homesick all afternoon. Sigh. That night perked me up though! We went to the Hofbrauhaus-- the most famous beerhall in Munich. It celebrated its 400th Anniversary last year the waiter told us, to which I replied "So did Jamestown Settlement!" We had AMAZING FOOD (Bavaria has incredible food-- I'm not sure why no one ever talks about their culinary experience in Germany, because mine was beyond belief) and we each drank a FULL LITER OF BEER! Some people finished TWO LITERS (not me, though... I'm not sure my stomach would have allowed it). We were all very happy that evening. I fell asleep the second we got back to the hostel, but apparently everyone else stayed awake for awhile and had some Smirnoff... bad call, guys. "Beer before liquer, never been sicker." I, however, woke feeling perfectly peachy.

Our final day in Germany us girls took a day trip to a beautiful little Alpine village called Garmisch, where the 1936 Winter Olympics were held, apparently. The place was classic Germany. I loved it. We had lunch outside surrounded by the Alps and I bought a little German teddy-bear (I still haven't named her) and I got some gifts for my parents. We also found a wonderful chocolaterie. I really think Garmisch was my favorite day of all of Spring Break. It was relaxing with walking trails and a peaceful church and a little restaurant on a mountainside and beautiful Alpine houses.

Final Munich note: They have much better street performers than Bath. In Bath we have some homeless men with tin pipes and guitars scattered around. If we are lucky we get a man playing the violin on a tight rope or the men who put sparklers in their behinds. In Munich, however, we got a classical pianist on a baby grand and a string trio playing classical music. In general, I would have to say that Munich is superior to Bath. Except in Bath I understand the language without trying, which is a plus.

I got back to Bath today. I had a good time going through customs:

Airport Employee Manning the Passport Line: Well, well, you've arrived at a perfect time, eh? We just got this flight in from backwoods Turkey and none of them speak English or know what they are doing. It's terrible. It's like they are from a whole nother world. Oh, I guess they are. I think it's called the third-world.

Then, Passport Control Man: Oh thank God! People who speak English! I might just keep you here for the next half-hour so I don't have to deal with any more of those Turks. It's bloody ridiculous they don't know what they are doing.

Needless to say, we were the English-speaking hit of the Border Controllers hour, so we got back into the UK with absolutely no trouble at all. Probably they would have waved us through even if we didn't have our passports with us.

So, now I have three papers and a presentation to work on. Ouch. It will be lots of working for the next couple of days. Luckily, I will sleep well now, because my bed here has back support and my room isn't occupied by strangers. Yay! Hope everyone else has had a good week!

And congratulations to Callie on getting into GRAD SCHOOL!!!!

Once Through Tara's Halls...

2008-03-23T18:45:00.003Z

Happy Easter, everyone! I'm in Ireland! We arrived late Friday night and have been on the go ever since. I'm traveling with some of my friends-- Emily, John, Andrew, and Sarah, and in Munich we are going to meet up with Danielle.

The group of us left Bath on the 1:24 train to Bristol Temple Meads, then promptly got the Bristol Flyer to the airport. We left early because John was worried about Good Friday traffic (although he's the one who had to run back for his passport), and we had hours to sit around the airport doing nothing. After several hours of nothingness we checked into our flight and made it through security where we found Sylvia waiting for her delayed Venice flight. It was nice to see Sylvia one last time before everyone seperated for the week. Anyways, our flight was on time, nice, easy, quick-- and we were in Ireland! I listened to Great Big Sea the whole flight and bus ride from Shannon to Galway. Once at the bus stop, Andrew met up with his girlfriend, Megan (she's studying abroad in Ireland), and they headed off to a hotel while the rest of us trudged to our hostel.

Our hostel is much like a summer camp. They have a board saying where all the craic (fun) is, and they push tours, and the room we are in has eight beds (we fill four) and they are all bunked. Last night we had two Swedish girls and two German girls with us. We have new roommates tonight, but we haven't met them yet. Friday night we didn't really do anything, because everything was closed for Good Friday.

Saturday, however, we went out to the Aran Islands! We went to Inishmore, the largest of the Islands. We all rented bikes, which might have been a bad idea, considering I'm horrible at bike-riding and terrified of bikes, but I managed to overcome my fear (sort of) and rode around the island. We went to this old Celtic Fort built in 2000 B.C-- it overlooks the Atlantic and is absolutely beautiful. We rode by the sea quite a bit. It was a really nice day. After we got back yesterday evening we tried to go to a pub for dinner, but everything was packed! After much walking around we finally found a little American style diner called Eddie Rocket's (Johnny's brother? His Irish cousin?) and got hamburgers, fries, onion rings, and milk shakes. I think it was much needed. We're all kind of missing America right now. After dinner we all went to a pub called "The King's Head." I stayed for a few minutes, but I was pretty tuckered out from the day, so I headed back to the hostel to rest.

Today, Easter, has been amazing! We woke up, got toast at the hostel, then headed out to church. We went to a Catholic Mass at Galway Cathedral-- the Cathedral is beautiful, and the mass was very nice. They opened with the hymn "Jesus Christ is Risen Today," the same hymn that all Episcopal Easter Services begin with, and that made me really happy-- it can't be Easter without that hymn. Strangely enough, everything has been open today. Apparently Good Friday is the day that everything is closed. We spent the day in Galway shopping (I got a scally-cap for Jacob!) and looking around. Emily and I got some Irish donuts which were AMAZING but I can feel them clogging my arteries, and we got a traditional Irish breakfast at 12:30 at Riordan's, which was sooo good. Everything here is about Claddagh-- all the tourists shops sell the rings, there is a museum dedicated to it (closed today, though, ironically) and everyone wears Claddagh rings. I like that I already had one-- it makes me feel special. It also makes me miss Jacob more than ever. Everything here is also about Guiness, which I have yet to drink in Ireland-- I may do that tonight, just to say that I got a pint while in Ireland. Also, I've seen about eight rainbows since I got here. Now I know why the rainbow is a symbol of Ireland-- they are around everyday! Which makes sense, because everyday is the kind of day while the sun shines as it pours rain.

Tomorrow we're going to the Cliffs of Moher, which promise to be amazing.

Hope everyone is having a great Easter!

Gearing to Go...

2008-03-20T16:05:00.002Z

Tomorrow Spring Break starts.

Everyone here at ASE is in a flurry of panic. It sort of crept up on us. I don't have little bottles of shampoo, and I need to change money into euros, and I finally did laundry today, but now I have to figure out how to get it all in a little duffel. Someone suggested buying a lock, because apparently at hostels they give you little lockers if you supply a lock, but I have no idea where to find something like that here in Bath. Another rumor is that hostels don't supply sheets unless you pay extra, so after weighing the options, I've decided just to pony up the pounds instead of cramming a blanket into my full duffel. Furthermore, there is no food in our flat but we're all leaving tomorrow so there's no point to buying more, so basically we're all starving. *Dies a little*

I should be doing several things today: packing, getting together necessary odds and ends, and writing a paper about Parliamentary Reform. Hm. That would be productive.

Addendum: Pictures

2008-03-16T12:21:00.005Z

Hey, I just noticed that it's been awhile since I posted any pictures, so here are a few from Jake's visit to England, and a few from France. The first six are from London, the last four are from Biarritz.

Here's where the Biarritz pictures start.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Told Him I Knew Too Many People in Biarritz; True, Too.

2008-03-16T11:09:00.003Z

First of all, Biarritz is gorgeous. Secondly, it is a bitch to get to and from London Stansted Airport.

Thursday morning I woke up around 9:00, as I do, ate breakfast, finished up writing a letter to Jacob, and popped into the post office to mail it. Then I finished up packing for France and headed out to the train station to catch the 11:13 train to London Paddington. My flight wasn’t until 6:30 that night, but I had read that it takes quite awhile to get to Stansted, and everyone knows that for international flights you have to get to the airport quite early. So off I went to on the train merrily towards London Paddington. I ought to have been reading for Irish Lit, but instead I took along Betsy and the Great World and began to read that as we rolled towards London. I love my Betsy-Tacy books. Honestly, it’s like opening an old friend to read—and lately I’ve felt in desperate need of old friends.

We got to London Paddington around 1:00 in the afternoon, then I had to navigate my way through the tube system to Liverpool Street, where I switched onto the Stansted Express going to the airport. I managed it all without too much difficulty and around 2:30 we were pulling up to the airport. So, slightly earlier than I had bargained for, but at least I had gotten there without much trouble. Unfortunately Ryanair.com, who has the cheapest flights in the world (before taxes my flights cost me two pence, or four USA cents) doesn’t open their desks until exactly two hours before the flight is scheduled to leave, so I got to sit around the airport for awhile. I got a bag of crisps and a chocolate croissant from Pret-A-Manger, then I settled back into Betsy and the Great World. Betsy, like me, gets homesick (though she gets it much worse than me…usually). I was doing quite well until I got to the line, “‘Life is just too short,’ Betsy wept, ‘to spend a year away from home!’” Then I sort of broke down weeping myself, so I called my mom. We talked for a good twenty minutes, and by then the Ryanair.com desk had opened so I got my boarding pass and went through security. Past security were all the duty free shops and I browsed them for awhile, almost buying a fake-pearl headband, then settled back into my book when Shea called to tell me that she and Margaux were in the airport, just coming through security. We met up, got a little more food at yet another Pret-A-Manger, then headed to the gate. We had a relatively easy flight (I read more Betsy and the Great World and was delighted to rediscover that she spends a few months in Munich. I’m going to Munich for Spring Break and had absolutely no idea what to see there, but now I can be like Betsy!!!), and when we landed it was a warm clear night in the South of France, in the Aquitaine, in Biarritz.

We got a taxi which zoomed us to our hotel (how they go so quickly on such narrow streets I’ll never know), punched in the night code, got up to our rooms, and fell in love with Biarritz. The hotel was somewhat similar to Hotel Patrizia, where I stayed the first few nights in Italy, except cleaner, with slightly softer beds, and an actual shower. I had a single and Shea and Margaux had a double. My room was all light blue with a headboard (if you could call it that) embroidered with anchors. We changed into lighter clothing then headed out into the night. It was only 9:00 PM on a Thursday, but Biarritz was dead. There was no one out. We finally found the center of town where a few brasseries and bars were still open—there were people—but we didn’t go in. We also passed a few discoteques, but again, didn’t go in. Instead, we found the beach. We rounded the corner onto the Grande Plage and my heart just soared. There was a palais which Napoleon had built, all lit up, and—most importantly—a lighthouse! Jacob and I search out lighthouses and all I wanted was him next to me to enjoy this beautiful, beautiful sight. The lighthouse was even a functioning lighthouse, with an extremely bright light flashing in circles. We walked down to the edge of the sand, but only Shea actually went running towards the water. After awhile we simply walked back to the hotel. I watched a little T.V, something with James Blunt (apparently he was performing in Paris, which made me think of the “1973” song, which made me think of this one time that Jacob called me from the car and just held the phone over the speaker when that song was on, just to get it stuck in my head), then I fell asleep pretty much instantaneously.

The next morning we were up by 8:00, because the hotel served breakfast at 8:10. We went down to the little, bright dining room and our hostess (who, it transpired, spoke no English—thank goodness for my meager French!) seated us and brought out warm croissants, baguettes, butter, jam, and the rich, dark, flavorful coffee of Europe. The whole breakfast reminded me of Italy, and of Spain. In Spain we had the best coffee and my mom and I kept getting refills—that was how I felt with this. It almost—ALMOST—made me miss Florence. I noticed later that the hallways of the hotel smelled like Roberta’s house, and even my room smelled like summer in Italy.

It was a bit cloudy and cool that morning, even though weather.com had said it was supposed to be warm and sunny, so we put on pants and I put on my white tunic top, and we headed out to see the Musee de Chocolat, and in general to explore the area (Margaux, on chocolate: “I would eat a chocolate-shaped poop I love it so much. Err… a poop-shaped chocolate…ew.”) We walked forever, just looking at the ocean below us and at the little pretty houses, when we came to a sign that pointed to San Sebastian. Immediately, I wanted to go, because that is where Jake Barnes is in the end of the Sun Also Rises (not to mention in St. Jean de Luz, another close place) but we found out that San Sebastian was forty miles away, and St. Jean de Luz was half an hour by car, and that buses to Spain only ran one way…we were a little confused about that. Anyways, we stayed in Biarritz. The sun had gotten through the clouds and it was beginning to be quite hot, so we went back to the hotel and changed into our “resort wear.” I wore a white skirt, my Juliet shirt, and my grey flats. Then we decided to head over to the Grande Plage for picture taking. We ended up taking about a million pictures on a cliff overlooking the beach, and even some old French guy stopped and tried to talk to us, and took a picture of the three of us. He must have been about sixty-five, he was balding, and he looked slightly like Edgar from Aristocats, but he kept talking to us about going to Copa Cabana Discoteque that night. We declined. Finally he left and we headed down to the beach, where there were more pictures to be had. It was about lunchtime, so we went to a little sandwich food stand by the beach for lunch. I got a croque monsieur, an Orangina, and an apple tart all for 6.50 euro! We took our meals back to the seaside and ate while watching the ocean, and a bunch of Spanish schoolkids who had just arrived. After lunch, we went to Hotel de Palais, which used to be a residence of Napoleon and the Empress Eugenie, then we headed back in the direction of our hotel, and yet a different beach. On the way there we stopped by a little restaurant/patisserie, and I got a chocolate éclair, which of course made me think of eating in Paul’s with Jacob, and the coffee éclair he got. Sigh. The patisserie was fantastic though, and we decided to go back for dinner and eat in, because the restaurant had a lovely view of the ocean.

We spent the next few hours lounging happily on the beach. I continued reading Betsy and the Great World. She was in Venice. It made me slightly miserable. I tried to call Jacob, but my phone wasn’t getting any reception on the beach. Furthermore, the entire area looked like Cinqueterre, which was beautiful, but also slightly heart-string tugging. Still, it was very nice to have Betsy Ray with me on my travels. And goodness, it was nice to be reading on a beach again, and to feel the sand and the sun and smell the salt air.

We left the beach area around 5:30, took more pictures at la Roche de la Vierge, a memorial for the French resistance of World War II, then ran into the old French man again, who again tried to get us to go discotequing (and again we declined). We went back to the hotel to freshen up a bit, then headed back out to Miremont, the restaurant/patisserie. We had a bit of trouble with Margaux trying to order just tap water, but we secured it, and I got a Quiche Lorraine, in honor of Jacob. We spent the evening sitting by the ocean, watching the sky gradually darken, then we decided just to go back to our hotel. We watched the French Top 50 Song Chart (there were some good, some bad), then I feel asleep.

The next morning progressed similarly to the one before, waking early, eating breakfast. Then Shea, Margaux, and I checked out of the hotel and got a taxi to the airport. I had planned to switch from a 7:15 PM flight to the 12:10 PM flight that Shea and Margaux were on, except they wouldn’t let me do that without paying 352 euro, which I wasn’t about to do, so Shea and Margaux went on past security to their flight to London and I was stranded in the airport without recourse—I couldn’t even get my boarding pass until 5:15. I called my parents and began to cry, mostly with homesickness than with anger over the flights, and unhappy at the grim prospect of sitting alone in an airport forever. I cried and cried and begged to get on a plane to New York JFK, then I calmed myself down and walked back to the terminal. Immediately, an English woman came up to me and asked if I was alright, she had seen me talking on the phone. I explained the situation and she said, “Well, I’m just picking up a friend from the airport—her name is Charlee, and we are going for drink in Biarritz if you want to come with us.” So, I did. Kirstie, as her name was, and Charlee, and I went to a brasserie and got wine and spent five hours drinking and talking. They were both incredibly nice—didn’t even let me pay for the drinks when I offered. They had lived in St. Jean de Luz, close to Biarritz, for about a year, but before that they had been friends in London, and had grown up in Bath! It was such a fantastic afternoon that I hadn’t even hoped for hours before; very Sun Also Rises. Kirstie drove me back to the airport at 5:00, and we exchanged e-mail addresses, then I got on my plane and was off to London! Got back (nearly didn’t get back into the country because I didn’t have my letter saying that I was a student; must remember to take that for Spring Break), then trained home to Bath, where I arrived safe and sound at midnight.

"Told him I knew too many people in Biarritz; true, too." ~Lady Brett Ashley

A Free Wednesday

2008-03-12T22:23:00.002Z

My tutorial was canceled today because Leslie is spending four days in Monte Carlo, Monaco, with some rich friend of his. He told us the story. Apparently when they were doing their O-Levels in Chemistry this kid spilled chemicals all over Leslie's perfect, wonderful, miraculous answer, and now, many years later after keeping in touch from that day on, the kid is a millionaire after inventing a new chemical dying process and is living as a tax exile in Monaco. This year he is president of the Monte Carlo Lunch Club or something, and has invited Leslie to give a fifteen minute speech after the meeting with four free days in Monaco to follow. Lucky dog.

For me, however, this meant that I didn't have to get a tutorial paper done for today (although I should have or I'll fall behind). It was lucky to have a free Wednesday, though, because it meant that I could get my Irish Literature paper finished-- which I did. It ended up being an OK paper, I think. I wrote about about death in Joyce's "The Dead" and Yeats' Cathleen ni Houlihan. After I finished that and printed it out and turned it in I just floated through the afternoon... I went grocery shopping, then... got Euros for my trip to Biarritz tomorrow! I'm going to France for the weekend and I'm quite excited. Biarritz is going to be warm, hopefully, and most importantly it's in the Aquitaine region, from whence came Eleanor of Aquitaine!

So, I'm gearing up for a weekend of France, followed by a flurry of tutorial paperwriting. :)

England is for Lovers

2008-03-10T09:41:00.009Z

Jacob left yesterday morning. I felt miserable for the rest of the day; on the train home I couldn't stop crying. I still have 69 days left in Bath. It's a long time.

Day One: February 29th
We had a fantastic time, though, for the brief interval that we were together! Jacob arrived on Friday, February 29th. I got an extremely early train from the station to pick him up at Gatwick airport. Even so, I got to the international arrivals gate a few moments after Jacob had come through. I stood at the gate waiting for him when I heard a voice from behind me whisper in my ear "Ciao." I turned around, grabbed him, and kissed him. Perfect airport moment. We had about forty-five minutes until the train back to Bath, so we stopped in at a Costa Coffee for some cappucinos-- we were both exhausted. We sat down at a little table with our drinks and held hands and Jake said, "Don't ever do this again." I can promise I won't. Not that I dislike Bath, or that I wish I wasn't studying abroad, but I would never do it again. I think it's one of those things that really can only be done once... that, or including Florence, perhaps I'm study abroad-ed out.

Anyways, the first thing we did in Bath was to get a pasty from the West Cornwall Pasty Company. I felt that Jacob should try something quintessentially English on his first day in England. We ate them outside, and the crumbs blew everywhere, but it was fun. We people-watched in Bath city center, then we walked to Sainsbury's Local and Marks and Spencer for some dinner supplies-- we figured it would save us money to eat in some meals. So, for example, that night I made fish-cakes, sweetcorn, and rice, with Hob-Nobs for dessert (again, something English that Jake needed to try).

After dinner, everyone headed over to the Northhamptons for an evening of cider beirut. Jake and I walked over with Alli, Danielle, Sylvia, and Jon (Shea was in Dublin). We pointed out interesting Bath-y sites on the way, such as the Jane Austen Centre, the Circus, complete with Nicolas Cage's house (and we told him how every time we pass we talk about what bad movies Nick Cage has made, and how we're certain someday we'll be doing that and turn the corner straight into him. Then, of course, we'll probably tell him his movies are excellent), the Royal Crescent, the giant hill that leads to the Northhampton residences, etc. Once at the Northhamptons the cider flowed, and instead of beirut some game called Civil War was played, which is similar to Beirut, but involves two three-person teams and the ping-pong balls are literally up for grabs and can be thrown at any time. Oh, Gettysburg College people. After a few hours at the Northhamptons, we returned to Nunes for the night.

Day Two: March 1st
We got a bit of a late start on Saturday morning, but by 11:30 we were up, dressed, and out in the beautiful day. It was beautiful, and warm, other than the wind. We decided to take a walk on the towpath. The towpath was even more magical that day than I had remembered it. Perhaps because I was out later than I normally am there was more action. Barges were sailing, people were out walking, all of the sheep and ducks were awake, and even the George was full of people lunching, once we got up to Bathhampton. We even went into the little church near the George; inside was so quiet and peaceful. Jake said it would be nice to live by the towpath with a house and a garden, but most importantly, with a little step-down dock and a small boat. He also pointed out that one of the barges looked like Darth Vader's barge, but I didn't get a picture unfortunately. Even more sadly, I had two papers due within the next four days; off the towpath we went, ordered a pizza, ate it in Nelson House common room, and then I worked on my Henry VII paper for a few hours. Jake went back to Nunes to take a nap, but after an hour or so he came back down to Nelson's Cabin where we talked for over an hour. It was so good to talk to him, and to see his face, and to be able to discuss so easily things which cannot be discussed other than when we can touch hands.

About an hour later I returned to Nunes and cooked dinner for us. We stayed around the flat for a little while, hanging out on the perch with Alli, Danielle, and Sylvia, but there were no real plans, and Jacob wanted to see a real English Pub, so we ventured out into Bath together. First, I took him to a pub called The Three Trees; it's really local, small, and switches out its taps regularly so you can always try a new beer. It was also extremely crowded this evening. All of the seats in both the lounge and the smoking room were taken, so we finished our drinks somewhat quickly, then headed back to the Huntsman for another round. We got a little table for two and sat and talked over pints for several hours. That night everything felt back to normal. There was no strain, no uneasiness in our being together again, just pure and simple and us again. We talked easily, we laughed, we exchanged random facts. We got back somewhat late to find everyone in Danielle's room watching Love Actually. Jacob and I curled up on the floor to watch with them, but I felt tired, so after Hugh Grant got the Natalie girl Jacob and I got ready for sleep.

Day Three: March 2nd
For lunch on Sunday we decided to try this wonderful little chain called "Pret-A-Manger." I've seen them before (they are literally on every block in London), but I'd never eaten at one. The food was pretty good. I got a baguette sandwich and Jacob got a chicken bacon club, which was excellent. We went to Pasty Presto for their GBP2.55 hot drink and a pastry deal, too, so we had dessert with our Pret. We ate it in the common room at Nelson House.

That afternoon we moved our things to the Best Western Bath Abbey hotel, which is right down the street from me. Walking into the hotel really helped to make things feel normal again, too. We finally had our own space, without flatmates and ASErs around all of the time (but I love them, it's just that Jake and I needed our own time, too!), and the hotel smelled all fresh and clean. Suddenly everything just fell into focus so beautifully.

That night, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner out. We hadn't really gone out together, and it felt like the perfect night for a date night. Granted, I was in the middle of outlining/writing my Henry VII paper, and I hadn't even started reading about the American Revolution from the British perspective, but what Jake and I needed was a night out. We chose a restaurant called Martinis. This has got to be the best restaurant in Bath. It is family owned by three Italian brothers, so the food is amazing. The atmosphere is also great. They played Frank Sinatra-style music throughout our meal, the color scheme of dark red and light red looked beautiful, there were candles. Then the food! Jake started off with a martini, I got a cosmopolitan martini, plus we had a bottle of sparkling water. Then we ordered a pizza and garlic bread as our appetizer. I'm not sure that I've ever had a better Neapolitan pizza before, even in Italy. It was spectacular, and even better was the garlic bread. Then Jake had penne bolognese, I think, and I had a pesto linguine. For dessert, we shared tiramisu.

And we talked. We talked and talked, about life, past experiences, Italy, England, the safari we will take after we graduated. Just everything and everything. I'm not sure I've ever felt happier after a meal.

Day Four: March 3rd
Monday. Mondays are always trouble, especially Mondays which begin weeks in which you have two papers due when you haven't written either of them. All I wanted to do was to stay curled up next to Jacob for the entire day, but that morning I got up early and went to Nelson House for the library. I spent several hours reading all I could about the American Revolution and beginning an outline, until I could take it no longer and headed back to the hotel to find Jacob. We decided to play tourist that afternoon, so we went over to the Roman Baths. We got our little audio-guides and went through the entire museum and ruins. A man dressed in Roman garb said, "Salve" to Jacob, which was pretty hilarious. As soon as we were through the baths, we went to the Pump Room for high tea. I must say, that has been one of my favorite Bath experiences-- England experiences, in fact-- and I'm so glad that I got to do this with Jacob. We went into the Pump Room, which is a gorgeous Georgian style room with the highest ceilings you can imagine, and lots of gilding. It feels like a set from a Jane Austen movie. They had a piano player setting the formal mood, and the waiters all had on Georgian style uniforms (a bit like what someone would were at the Kings Arms Tavern, in Williamsburg, only nicer and less costume-y looking; plus, the girls didn't wear dresses, just feminized versions of what the men wore). Jacob and I ordered tea sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, and a selection of pastries with a pot of English Breakfast tea. The food was absolutely amazing, especially the scones with clotted cream and the coffee eclair. Jacob and I couldn't believe how nice everything was-- Jacob even said that he would live in England with me for awhile, if that's what I wanted, so long as I lived in Paris with him for awhile in return. Agreed. Then he told me all about Paris-- more in detail than usual-- so I actually got a picture of what his life there had been like. Then we discussed our future houses-- yes, plural, because of course we have to own Tiberius' castle (Kay, you and Brian were going in on that with us, right?) and we have to have a house like... the French secretary whose name I can't recall that inspired Versailles... and got executed for having too nice a house.

Anyways, after high tea I had to really buckle down and write my tutorial paper, so all evening, up until nearly 11:00, was devoted to the writing of that little number. I felt terrible having to leave Jacob alone; I really wanted to spend every minute with him. At 11:00 I went over to the Huntsman for student night-- Jacob had been there for awhile with my flatmates. He actually seemed very discouraged at how late I did show up... I felt terrible, but my paper had to get done. Sigh. After a pint or two things got much better, though. :)

Day Five: March 4th
Class Day. I had class basically all of Tuesday. I woke up and went to the library telling Jacob I'd see him at 1:30, but at 10:30 I couldn't take it anymore so I went back to the hotel and semi-hug-attacked him. I can't be away from him for so long when I know he's just down the street. Unfortunately, I did have class at 11:40. After Tudors and Stuarts, Jacob and I went back to West Cornwall Pasty Company for lunch, and again we took it back to the common room to eat. There were more people in the common room today though, and they seemed to be not very talkative, so Jacob and I spoke in barely more than a whisper the entire meal-- which provoked some very entertaining conversations. That afternoon, I had Irish Literature. Jacob went cavorting around Bath by himself and met a Frenchman named Armand who hated the United States; they got a drink together and talked about politics. He also tried on nice jackets and ties, and bought me a box of chocolate truffles :).

We ate in for dinner that night; more fishcakes, sweetcorn, and rice, then I began writing again, just to finish up my American Revolution paper, which I did by 9:00. I headed back to the hotel and Jacob told me he had tried Cafe Rouge, that it was wonderful, and that we should go soon. I was quite excited, because that restaurant has always looked so nice and no one else has wanted to go with me; I love Jacob. He's always up for trying new places and new things. I love that I can always count on having someone adventurous with me in him. I love him. Sigh. I wish he didn't have to leave, and that he could have stayed in England with me for the next two months. Everything seems so much nicer with him around.

Day Six: March 5th
I had my tutorial on Wednesday, so it was off to Oxford! I felt horrid that day. All day my stomach was upset; I even got sick. I managed to get to Oxford, though, and to get through my tutorial with relative ease. I also got to go into the library of University College that day (because Greg and I figured out the code) and it was so perfectly Oxfordian you can't even imagine. It really looked exactly like what you would think a library at Oxford should look like. I wanted to take a picture, but I know if I was in Swem and some girl pulled out a camera I would be seriously concerned with her mental stability, so I refrained. Anyways, made it through my tutorial, read my paper about the American Revolution out loud-- got told it was my best ever!!!!-- then got home feeling completely terrible. Jacob took me back to the hotel and laid down with me for an hour or so until I began to feel better. Then we went to a pub called the Linden Tree (where my flatmates and I went for Valentine's Day) for dinner. It wasn't so spectacular this time. The food wasn't as tasty, nor was the service quite as good. Plus, I think both Jacob and I were a little cranky-- me because I was sick, Jacob because all I had done since he arrived was write papers and I had another to finish that night. In the event, I didn't get my paper written; I got it started, but Jacob gave me a backrub to make me feel better, and I fell asleep pretty quickly.

Funny story, though. On the walk back from Linden Tree to the hotel we passed a man who earlier had been playing a little pipe (Jacob called him the Pied Piper). He was sitting in the doorway of the Disney Store in an immaculate pink hoodie. I remarked that I thought it must be his first night sleeping on the streets. As we passed him he suddenly yelled, "WHY!?" And didn't say anything else or move the entire time he was within our sight. It was hilarious. Jacob did that to me later in London (yelled "WHY!?" loudly and for no reason) just to watch people turn around to stare. Good fun.

Day Seven: March 6th, 2008
This was our last day in Bath. I woke up early, grabbed a bite of cereal, then had a meeting with Barbara and Andy to discuss going with the Modern British Politics class' study trip. They were going to the War Rooms and the Houses of Parliament on Friday; I would already be in London. After the meeting, I began to seriously write my Tudor paper. With all of the prep work I had already done, the paper was complete within two hours. Jacob came over while I finished it up, then we went to Nelson House where I printed it out and turned it in, then it was off to Cafe Rouge for lunch! Cafe Rouge was absolutely wonderful. It really did feel so Parisian, and the food wasn't even that expensive. I had French Onion Soup with bread, Jake had a Croque Monsieur. I also had a Kir, because that's my mom's favorite drink, and I have been missing her a lot lately, so having a Kir made me feel somehow close to her all over again. I must say, lunch cheered me immensely, but I still felt exhausted and burned out. Jacob somehow has the power to kiss me and make everything all better though. He also always has the right things to say to make me feel like it's worth continuing my academic life, and my regular life, and just in general to give me a better outlook on everything (which is a little ironic). In this case, the best thing he could have said (and did say) was that we were going to London. And we were.

We had checked out of the Bath Hotel, so after lunch I packed a small duffle bag for myself, and Jacob and I headed out to the train station, where we caught a 2:48 train into London Paddington. The train ride was relatively uneventful; I think I slept for a large part of it. But just knowing that I was training away from Bath helped. Jacob suggested that the reason is because now I associate Bath with school and stress and London with fun and freedom. He's right, I suppose. I'm also tired of being always in Bath. It's a wonder I don't get tired of Williamsburg the same way. I suppose I do, but somehow in Williamsburg everything is different. Maybe it's that there's actually more work there than here so I don't have time to get bored, I don't know. And I'm not "bored" in Bath, but I just like getting out for a few days... maybe I'm that way about Williamsburg. I don't know.

Anyways, we got to London Paddington and took a taxi to the hotel-- such a beautiful, luxurious hotel!!! We had the most gorgeous room, in such a wonderful location. I had read on Playbill.com that Cabaret was playing in the West End, and I asked Jacob if he would like to see it. He said yes. We asked for a map at Guest Services, then headed out to find the Lyric theatre. We got a little lost, but we made it eventually. And anyways, it didn't matter too much because London is so wonderful and vibrant and I just get such a happy feel from being there-- I can't even explain it, but it's as if London radiates happiness onto me. We got to the theatre and bought two tickets in Box L. Then we went next door and bought two tickets for the next night to see Noel Coward's The Vortex. We decided that since we didn't have time for dinner before the show we would grab a sandwich at Starbuck's then eat our dinner after the show, which is exactly what we did. Cabaret was fantastic. The production quality was top-notch, the actors were all extremely good, the story and music are wonderful; I loved it, Jacob loved it. It's rather depressing, of course, but soooo fantastic. I was glad to get to share it with Jacob-- Cabaret is one of my favorite shows, and I know it's difficult to like shows if you haven't seen them.

We couldn't stop talking about it and how wonderful it had been all the way back to Strada, a restaurant near our hotel. It was 10:40, and Strada closed at 11:00, so we just made it. We got Aglio--garlic and rosemary bread-- and we each got a glass of wine and pizzas. A perfect meal to top off a perfect night. I don't think I've ever been happier than that evening. I was on a show high, and satisfied from a lovely meal, and in London, and-- most importantly of all-- with my Jacob.

Day Eight: March 7th, 2008
We woke up a bit late this morning, which is understandable because we went to bed rather late, as well. But today there was a plan, for this was the day we were meeting the ASE study trip. We got up and got dressed and headed out the the Cabinet War Rooms, Winston Churchill's bunker during the Second World War. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. A little chilly, perhaps, but not too bad, and not a cloud in the sky. We walked through Trafalgar Square, and under the Arch leading to the Mall, then past the Horses Guard and down to the War Rooms. We got there before Leslie and the ASE group, so we bought our tickets and headed for the cafe for a bite to eat. Jacob got carrot cake and I got a fruit scone with tea.

Tangent: The cafe had Curiosity Cola!!! I gave up soda for Lent, so I didn't get any (although I probably would have, if we had had adequate time; I think God would have gotten over it). Curiosity Cola is the best soda in the entire world-- they sell it at the Cheese Shop and I really never thought about it having any distributors other than the Cheese Shop, but I've seen it several places here in England. It's SO GOOD! Really, anyone in Williamsburg should check at the Cheese Shop for it. Usually it's next to Victorian Lemonade (both my Fentiman's) but the Victorian Lemonade is less than good, so don't get it, just stick with the Curiosity Cola.

After the cafe, we met up with the ASE group at the top of the War Rooms. We got our audioguides and went through together; probably the most lovey-dovey people to ever be in the War Rooms, besides perhaps Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine. It was nice, though, and there's a new Winston Churchill Museum that was fantastic. I love seeing how museums are being designed nowadays. It's very interesting to look at all of the interactive bits, and to see how displays are set up to be eye catching. I do like Public History, even if it wasn't my favorite class. I like the theory behind it, and the innovation. For example, they had this thing on the floor and if you stepped on it you could hear excerpts from Churchill's speeches; another part you put a golden egg on a stand and it asked a question and answered it.

After our tour of the War Rooms we had two hours to do whatever we liked. Jacob and I grabbed sandwiches at Pret-A-Manger, then we walked down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. Gorgeous. It really is stunning. We saw a Danish? couple trying to take a picture of themselves, so Jake said, "I'll make you a deal. We'll take a picture of you if you'll take a picture of us." They agreed, so we all got pictures in front of Buckingham Palace. Jacob and I walked back through St. James' Park. It looked a lot like the Boston Commons, which reminded me of Boston in the summer, and how happy were were to see each other then after nearly two months. We've done this two month thing once, we can do it again. Oh, but it is difficult not to see each other.

We got back to Trafalgar Square and we still had a goodly amount of time on our hands, so we went to the National Portrait Gallery. I was (of course) interesting in the Tudor Portraiture, so we went up to the second floor to look at it. You know you are a Tudor History geek when you don't even have to look at the labels to know who about 2/3rds of the portraits are. Obviously, everyone knows Elizabeth I, but I feel few people glance at a portrait and think "Oh, Robert Dudley!" or "Look, Elizabeth of York!" I know, I'm a little foolish. We were running out of time to meet up with the group for the Houses of Parliament, so we had to run a little to catch up to them. We did, though. As we walked towards the tour entrance Leslie pointed out statues outside the Houses, for example, Oliver Cromwell. HUH? Yes, indeed, Oliver Cromwell is outside the Houses of Parliament. Whyever did they put him there? Then, there's Richard I, who lived about 100 years before the first Parliament was ever called. HUH? Very interesting statue choices. We entered through Sovereign's Gate, where the Queen enters when she opens Parliament for the year. Andrew Butterworth, the most adorable ASE staff member ever, talked to me and Jacob pretty much the whole time. We discussed William and Mary, and giving Spotswood Tours (Andrew is a tour guide in Bath) and the funny architecture of the Houses. At one point he said, "I could use a spot of tea." And he was completely serious.

The Houses of Parliament were awesome, especially for Jacob who is far more into politics than I am, and recognized the two Houses from CSPAN and such. I just liked seeing the historical parts of the building and learning about how the British House of Commons votes, and learning about how the Queen or King opens the Parliaments, and all of the historical precedent and tradition. Also, I don't think a full minute went by without Jacob and I touching hands.

After our tour, Jacob and I headed back towards the Holborn area to grab coats and change clothes before our play that night, The Vortex. We also didn't have time for dinner. We thought we should get it after again. The Vortex was not as good as Cabaret, but still good. Depressing. Recalled parts of Hamlet, in a strange, Noel Cowardy way. After the show, we looked around for restaurants, but found none that were really appealing, so we ended up getting room service. Good room service, at that. We also had a bottle of Chianti that I had bought for us in Bath. It was a lovely evening; I ended up falling asleep with my clothes on after dinner I was so exhausted from the day.

Day Nine: March 8th
This was Jacob's last day in England, and I think we were keenly aware of it all day. I woke up and showered, then while Jacob showered and got ready for the day I ran out to Starbuck's across the street from our hotel to get us some coffee and pastries. The cappucinos were welcome; caffeine was necessary. We started off going towards the Globe Theatre, and on the way there we turned a corner into the courtyard of St. Paul's Cathedral. Since that was also on our list of places to go, we decided to go in. I began singing "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins. The Cathedral was gorgeous. I think maybe I'd been in once before, but I didn't remember it at all. The mosaics on the ceiling were incredible, the dome was incredible, and there was an altar in the nave dedicated to the Americans who died in the Second World War, from the British People. It gave Jacob and me chills. Then, they were having a service! Jacob and I went for the Holy Eucharist Rite I. He's Catholic, so it didn't mean much to him ;), but it's pretty cool to say that I attended a service at St. Paul's. Plus, I haven't been to Church in forever, so it was probably a good thing. Especially since I plan to drink Curiosity Cola soon.

After St. Paul's, we headed across the Millennium Bridge to the Globe. They were filming some movie on Millennium Bridge, but we never did figure out what movie, and we didn't see any famous movie stars, so that was too bad. We did get pictures next to the Thames, though. Then we headed over to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Jacob (and I) LOVE Shakespeare, so this was the perfect thing for us. We didn't get to spend any time in the museum, unfortunately, but we did tour the theatre. There was a woman who looked like a Sherpa on our tour. It was pretty funny. We clandestinely took pictures. They were also doing a dress rehearsal of Much Ado About Nothing while we were there, so we got to watch them start up that; AWESOME! Jacob said he wished the Globe was in season... me, too.

We went to lunch after our Globe tour, at a little boulangerie called Paul. There is a Paul on Champs-Elysees in Paris, where my family and I go when we are there, so I wanted to eat at one in London. I got a ham and cheese baguette sandwich with Viennese Hot Chocolate (nearly Polar Express worthy) and an apple pastry. Jacob got a Quiche Lorraine, which I found out was one of his favorite foods, Viennese Coffee, and a cafe eclair. All fantastic. It really was an excellent lunch, and not too expensive, plus it was getting cold and a little rainy outside, so being warm and inside felt wonderful. After lunch we walked to the Tower. I wasn't sure if Jacob would want to go in or not, because it was late in the day and costs a bit of money to go in, but he assured me that he knew how much I love the Tower and how much he wanted to see it because I had talked it up so much. We got tickets. I think it was well worth it. I showed him Henry VIII's armor, and how you can watch him get fatter as the years go by because his armor gets fatter. We went through the Jewel House to see the Crown Jewels, and we stopped and watched the video of Elizabeth II's coronation. It really is regal; it gives one chills almost. We stood at the spot where Anne Boleyn, Katharine Howard, Robert Deveraux, and Lady Jane Grey were executed, and I showed him in the Beauchamp Tower where "Robart Dudley" carved his name while in captivity. I told him about the Ravens and the prophecy, and we went into Bloody Tower, where the Princes (Edward IV's sons) were murdered, presumably by Richard III.

By the end of the day we were exhausted again, so we took the tube back to Holborn and the hotel. We had reservations for dinner, but we canceled them because we had such a late lunch, and we rested in the hotel instead for about two hours. When we got up we dressed for a night out; I even wore heels! We went down to a restaurant called Pearl, which is literally strung with thousands of pearls to get cocktails. I had an Aphrodyte-- crushed raspberries muddled with Belvedere Vodka, pineapple juice, and pearl dust. They also gave us peanuts toasted in olive oil and herbs... very sophisticated. After cocktails we went back to Strada for dinner, only this time Jacob ordered us a bottle of Taittenger. Of course, it was excellent. Our waitress seemed genuinely happy for us; I think she thought Jacob was proposing :).

We ended the night at the Absolut Ice Bar, but we missed our reservation for the Ice Bar part, so we got cocktails at the regular bar instead, and after our drink we walked back to our hotel for the evening, through Leicester Square and all of the life and hub-bub of London.

Day Ten: March 9th
Jacob had to leave by about 7:30 in the morning, so we didn't sleep much at night to get every possible minute out of the visit. Around 6:30 Jacob ordered up some pastries and coffee and tea, and we had a little breakfast. Then the taxi arrived to take Jacob to the airport. I couldn't stay in the hotel without him, or in London, for that matter, so I packed and shortly took a taxi to London Paddington, where I caught a 9:00 train back to Bath. The train route was pretty, at least... I needed that. It followed the towpath, which I didn't realize stretched for miles and miles outside of Bath-- you could probably spend a whole week walking it, living off of the pubs at the side of the path and camping at night. Yesterday was generally miserable, though. Only two months until I see my Jacob again.

Now, it's back to Bath life. I have an Irish Lit paper due Thursday, and a tutorial paper to write, and I need to read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Last night my flatmates and I went out to a Nepalese place with Shea's friend, Margot, who is visiting, and we saw The Other Boleyn Girl, which was ok. I need to see it with Jacob because he'll let me talk during it and point out the historical inaccuracies. Kay would probably let me do that, too. :) Annie would simply limit the amount of questions I could ask and the amount of comments I could make, and so would Michelle. I'm sure when I mention talking during movies all they think of is the Firefly Marathon that I wouldn't shut up during Freshman year :).

One last note: The USA has switched to Daylight Savings Time, so now I'm only four hours different from everyone instead of five!!!!!

Jacob!

2008-03-02T09:28:00.002Z

Jacob is here! It's wonderful! He got into Gatwick Friday morning-- it was a long day of train rides for me, but completely worth it. Yesterday we went for a walk on the towpath, all the way to the little pub and church. It was a beautiful sunny day: perfect towpath weather. Then in the afternoon I worked on my Henry VII paper. I really need to work a lot today, sadly, but after Wednesday I'll be fancy free for a bit, and I won't have to worry too much about papers while I'm in London!

Also, Kay, my wonderful best friend, sent me American measuring cups, so now I can make food without guesstimating at the ingredient amounts. I'm pretty excited about it-- Thank you, Kay!

Hope all my WM friends are enjoying Spring Break! Love you all!

Quiet Days

2008-02-26T18:17:00.003Z

The past few days I've been working on feeling motivated to do schoolwork again after my two-week break, thanks to Stratford-Upon-Avon. I wrote an entire paper about Sir Robert Walpole over Sunday and Monday; I finished the footnotes this morning. Last night was Student Night at the Huntsman, so around 10:00 I decided my paper was finished enough to go out for a pint. There, where many of my friends were wasted, I heard tales of Frank and Martin swimming across the River Avon and almost getting fined 50 pounds, and I heard tales of forty-five page stories written the night before their deadline (thus why I should have no fear for my Walpole paper which is due Wednesday, and should have more than one pint, an argument I wasn't quite buying last night). Today we got our grocery money, so we went to Sainbury's for all sorts of food-- butter, cereal, dried apricots, bread, yogurt, basically anything edible since we had absolutely no food left in our fridge or pantry. We were scraping the bottom of the barrel. Later tonight my flatmates and I are going to have an ice cream sundae party, then it's back to the paper-writing, because I want to have all my work done for when Jacob arrives in just two and a half days!!!

Oh, and a side note: Shea cut my hair the other night, and it's absolutely gorgeous! I'm so happy with it! It's much shorter than it used to be. Also, I thought I'd leave you some Stratford pictures. The first is of the Dirty Duck pub, the second is the Courtyard Theatre, and the third is me wondering how the hell that sculpture is supposed to be King Lear while Jon cleans mud off of his shoes.

Shakespeare Country

2008-02-24T10:42:00.000Z

Hello all! Sorry it’s been awhile since my last blog post; I’ve been away from Bath without internet, and then, frankly, I spent a very lazy weekend doing nothing but baking (though I should have been writing a paper about Sir Robert Walpole). I made a loaf of sultana and walnut bread and a French apple tart.

Last Tuesday morning, at 9:30 a.m, a coach came to pick up everyone in ASE to take us to Stratford-Upon-Avon. It was about a two hour drive through field and dale, and a couple of highways. A note on highways: they are strange to look at, because you can almost imagine you are in America when you see them, except then you do a double-take and realize that they are backwards. It’s always a bit trippy. It’s the same thing on a two-lane road; I can’t count the number of times I’ve thought another car was going to crash into me because we were in the left lane, or the amount of driverless cars I’ve imagined I’ve seen on the road. Or the number of four-year-olds I’ve thought were driving.

We arrived in Stratford around 11:45, and Claire walked a group of us to our B&B. I was staying in Cherry Blossom Guest House in a room with two girls I had never met before. The program may be small, but that doesn’t mean that I actually know all 55 kids. The girls, Kathryn and Annalise, were really nice. They were great to talk to and get to know. Our B&B was nice, too, if a little cramped. Christine, the owner, had put a tea-maker and teacups in our room, so of course we made ourselves a cup of tea that afternoon. At 12:15 we met Barbara in “The Park.” There was a large park across the street from the row of B&B’s which we occupied, and it was the meeting point of the entire trip. Barbara took us on a brief introductory walk of Stratford-Upon-Avon. The city (for our purposes) is a three street grid—three going down, three crossing. It’s slightly more complicated than that, but you get the drift. A little bit outlying the grid is Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried, and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage (Shakespeare’s wife, not the actress). Within the Grid you can find basically anything you want relating to Shakespeare from his birthplace, to his deathplace, to the RSC theatres, to Othello’s Brasserie, to Mistress Quickly’s Real English Eats, to Titus’ Pie Shop. Ok, that last one was a joke… but maybe not, actually, because I didn’t see all of Stratford and I wouldn’t put it past these people. Shea, Andrew, Kathie, and I decided to eat lunch at a fish and chips place—it was AMAZING food and a real local place. It wasn’t a cheesy pub or anything, just a (somewhat bare) dining area and only old Brits were eating there. After lunch we went to a Drucker’s for “the best hot chocolate in the world” (it was ok). On the walls of the patisserie were paintings of Shakespeare plays… except with cakes in place of key props, like Yorrick’s skull. There was even one of Winter’s Tale, where the Bear chased a man holding a cake offstage. Quite the paintings.

At 2:30 all of ASE met at the Town Hall for a lecture about the play we were seeing that night: 1 Henry VI. Ruth Hazel, one of the professors in the program, explained everything about the plot and play, as well as giving us a lot of background about Shakespeare that I really didn’t need. It was an interesting lecture, though, especially her explanations of Stratford before Shakespeare. After the lecture the afternoon was spent trying to nap and drinking tea. Around 6:00 a group of us went out to try to find dinner, but didn’t before it was time to go get our tickets for the show. That was fine with me, I wasn’t really all that hungry.

For I Henry VI I had a seat in the Circle of the temporary Courtyard Theatre. They were amazing seats. The show was even amazing, despite the fact that it was probably not pure Shakespeare but a collaborative effort, and possibly not even written first. The actors were great and it really kept my attention. I decided that my new life goal is to become an actress with the RSC. After the show, everyone went to a pub called The Dirty Duck, which is where the actor’s hang out after the show. I was talking to Claire and a student named Kiki, and they are planning to go to London in April to see 1 Henry IV and I’m dying to go with them!!! I love that play!!! After Kiki drifted away I mentioned how unfair it was that Kiki got to meet the actor who plays Hotspur last semester (Kiki is a year student). Claire was like, “Well, he’s right there if you want to talk to him—he played Young John Talbot tonight.” He was at the bar ordering beers for himself and other actors, and having a conversation with the barman. After a bit of protesting that I couldn’t POSSIBLY talk to him and a dare, then a double-dare, I went up to the bar and ordered a half-pint of Strongbow. While it was being poured I sort of non-chalantly said to Talbot/Hotspur (who’s real name is Lex Shrapnel), “You were really great tonight.” He said, “Thanks.” Then we started a conversation about where I was from, what my study abroad program was, and about how he plays Hotspur in Henry IV and how I should come to London in April or May to see it. Amazing.

The next day we had to wake up early for breakfast at our B&B’s, then we had a two-hour lecture about the play we had seen and the play we were to see (2 Henry VI). That afternoon we walked around, went to Shakespeare’s birthplace (but just saw it from the outside—it was ten pounds to go in, and from what I could tell it was a recreated house museum—we have plenty of those where I come from), went to Trinity Church to see his grave, looked over the River Avon, and got a pasty for lunch. That afternoon we went to see Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. It was… pretty much a recreated house museum… but it had an awesome maze in the backyard and some really weird sculptures which in someone’s twisted mind apparently represented Shakespeare plays. We were all really, really confused. We also got 20% off at the giftshop there, so I got a few things, including my cookbook, with which I made my loaf of bread and French Apple Tart. After we got back from the Cottage, I got ready for the play, then met up with Alli, Shea, Danielle, Jon, and Andrew for dinner. We went to an Italian place called Carduccio’s. It was good, but it was SUCH a rip-off. The guy asked if we wanted bread, we said, “ok,” they charged us 2.95 pounds for it—and they brought us two without asking. They also brought us olives (without asking) and charged us for those. It was ridiculous. We were not happy campers, but oh well. The sad thing, as Andrew pointed out, is that you can’t even not tip them, because they aren’t expecting a tip in the first place in Europe. Grrr.

The show, however, was great. Even better than the one from the night before. I think 2 Henry VI might be my favorite of the Henry trilogy (I didn’t get to see Richard III for the tetralogy). This one had a nice love scene between Margaret of Anjou and Suffolk, an amazing rebellion by Jack Cade, a scene of sorcery with Eleanor, wife of Gloucester, lots of deaths and dying and ghosts, and all of it so wonderfully done. For this performance we were two rows back from the stage, in the Stalls. I was a little worried during some of the fights that I was going to be hit and killed. One slipped sword and it was all over for me. It was an awesome view.

This night, we again went to The Dirty Duck. I talked to the man who had played The Dauphin in Part 1 and Jack Cade in Part 2. Andrew, a girl named Katie, and I had a bet going on (which a lot of people got into, but in which no money was actually exchanged) about the planting of a bag in a certain scene, so we asked the actor. Turns out I was right—the bag was a plant, the boy pulled haplessly onto the stage was not: his fear was real. Again, the actor asked us about our program, where we were from, how we liked the show, and assured us that we would love Part Three.

Thursday was our final day in Stratford. We had another lecture in the morning, but I pretty much zoned out… we were all exhausted by this point from late nights, long days, early mornings. Shea, Alli, Sylvia, Danielle, and I went to H&M; I got a 3 pound night-robe, which reminds me of the turquoise silky robe that Kay wears (and that she’s currently wearing in her Facebook profile picture). That afternoon we all went to Warrick Castle. I had thought it would be more like visiting a medieval castle than like visiting King’s Dominion. However, after pushing our way through the turnstalls, I realized that this was much more theme-park-like than historical. The Castle, of course, was real. Warrick was a real historical figure (and one in the Henry VI trilogy) known as “The King-Maker.” He was pretty badass, actually. I’m sure if he’s seen his castle lately he’s rolling in his grave.

First, we went to “Ghosts Alive” which was like Hallo-A-Scream at Busch Gardens. Then we went through “King-maker” which was essentially a wax museum (it was really creepy, Shea and I had to leave Sylvia and Danielle behind). We talked to some men at the archery booth (who called themselves Robin and Little John) and we climbed up the ramparts and battlements, and the view was great. We passed by Ye Olde Food Stand, and looked out at the summer Jousting Grounds. We went into the lavish dining room and hall of State… which were more like a glorified house museum than anything. We could even get our picture taken with a cardboard cut-out of Queen Elizabeth II!!! The Castle was fun and hokey for about an hour and a half… then we were ready to go… but we still had another hour and a half to go… Jon, Shea, and I sat in the Undercourt Restaurant for the next hour just gossiping. Danielle and Sylvia showed up later. It was a nice time, good conversation… it was warm in the restaurant. Finally, we went back to the bus. Once we got back to Stratford it was about 5:00 and we had until 7:00 to get dinner and then to get to the theatre. Shea, Jon, Sylvia, Danielle, Liz, and I all hit up the McDonald’s (though Jon, Shea, and I were the only ones who actually ate there, the others had brought pita and hummus from the grocery store). I got chicken McNuggets and fries. Heavenly. I don’t remember the last time I ate at a McDonald’s, even in the States. This McDonald’s was strange though—they had deli sandwiches on ciabatta, fish and chips, Cadbury donuts, and, my personal favorite and the one I ordered, A CADBURY EGG MCFLURRY!!! It was amazing. There can be no greater McFlurry than that of the Cadbury Egg.

After that, we went to the theatre. We watched the actors practicing fight choreography and ropes on a screen in the lobby. We got our seats and they were terrible, so a bunch of us moved around until we were spread throughout the theatre in some pretty nice seats (I was about three rows back stage right). 3 Henry VI was really good, but I think I preferred 2 Henry VI. Nevertheless, it was another amazing performance. As soon as the show was done we got on the coaches and headed back to Bath. Good-bye Shakespeare Country!!!

In other news: I booked half of my Spring Break plans (Ryanair booking system is down, so the Ireland part can’t be done yet). Also, I told you long ago that I would count the stairs I have to climb to get to my flat, and I did, but forgot to put it in my blog. 63. There are 63 stairs up to my flat. And finally, I have an awesome job volunteering for Bath Abbey: I’m making interpretive panels for thirty-five contemporary diptychs of the Life of Jesus to go on display and to travel when on loan to other churches. How cool is that for volunteer work? Plus, they gave me tea and biscuits.

Ancient Customs, Modern Twist

2008-02-18T10:32:00.010Z

The past couple of days have been really rather lazy here, and I’ve been a bum and not written any blogs. Partially, this is because I haven’t had any classes since Wednesday and won’t be having any for another week. However, dear Blog Friends, this is no reason for me to neglect you.

I suppose I can start with Friday afternoon. Shea, Alli, and I decided to go to the Thermae Bath Spa, a new spa which opened about two blocks from our house. We didn’t get any actual treatments (although Shea and I tried—they were booked), but we instead got a Spa Sessions pass. We got two hours in which to take the waters—all of it naturally heated from the thermal springs which feed the ancient Roman Baths only a few feet away. It was amazing!!! On the bottom level we found the Minerva Hot Baths, which was basically an indoor swimming pool of spring water. It even had a lazy river current going through it. A level up we found the steam rooms and thermal springs shower. The steam rooms were amazing, though not so pretty as the steam rooms in the Rainforest, the Turkish Baths on the Disney Cruise. They were much more powerful, though. The first one smelled of mint, the next mint and eucalyptus, the third lavender, and the fourth frankincense. The frankincense and lavender were the best. In the middle of the room was a large, extremely powerful… waterfall. It was a thermal shower and all of the water comes from the springs. Along the edges of the rooms were personal foot baths, and cold showers and hot showers. Also on this level was the Springs Café and Restaurant, which we didn’t go into, but it looked very delectable. Up one more level was the outdoor pool. Despite the cold day, the pool was still piping hot, due to the heat of the springs. The views were amazing at the topside pool. We could see the whole of Bath, and we were comfortable and warm in this large (if somewhat crowded) pool. Steam was rising off of the top of the water due to the cold air blowing over the pool. It was amazing.

All I could think of was the Romans and their baths—we were essentially in a new Roman Bath. Lots of people were just sitting in steam rooms or lazing about pools, socializing and relaxing, and I realized that what we had was a modern twist on a very ancient custom. Obviously, we all had bathing suits instead of birthday suits, and the facilities were sanitized and looked much more technologically advanced with sleek shear lines instead of Roman architecture, but there we were—a block from the ancient Roman Baths—enjoying the hot springs.

Saturday was day-trip time!!! My friend Andrew and I went to Glastonbury, a city about 31 miles south of Bristol. Glastonbury is the reputed home of the Isle of Avalon, from the King Arthur legends, and Glastonbury Abbey is the (reputed) site of King Arthur’s grave. Andrew and I left for Glastonbury pretty early in the morning, but what with train schedules and bus schedules we didn’t get into the town until a little after 11:00. We had a quick lunch in a pub (a pub with two cats; one of them slept on the heater behind me the entire meal), then headed for the Tor, a large hill rising out of the flatness of Somerset. There are the ruins of St. Michael’s Cathedral at the top, and I read that the ancient Celts believed that the portal to the underworld was located at the top of the Tor. It was also a pilgrimage site in the early 1^st millennium—the land around the Tor would flood and pilgrims would take boats to the bottom of the hill and climb it. The views were amazing!!! The whole Tor experience was amazing, really. I could feel my muscles working to climb it, and if you looked forward you could see the beauty of St. Michael’s Bell Tower, and if you looked back you could see an entire county—miles and miles of cultivated land and villages. At the top I realized, so many have seen this. Some have seen it as I do, others saw it waterlogged and praised God at the top. Just across the way was Wearyall Hill, where Joseph of Arimathea rested his staff after his journey from the Holy Land, and a thorn tree sprouted. The thorn tree is definitely there; people have tied ribbons to it, and at the bottom sits a picture of Jesus. It was also a pilgrimage site, but now it is a hill through a neighborhood and a sheep field (the sheep were awesome!). The rest of the town was kind of hokey, touristy, and too new age-y for my taste. There was a place called The Chalice and Well, which holds an ancient well and an ancient spring. I really wanted to go, but it cost 3.50 pounds to get in. Then, as we were descending the Tor we saw a little water runoff behind the Chalice Gardens. A woman was filling up her waterbottle there-- then we noticed that she was filling up about fifteen waterbottles, all which bore the label "The Chalice and Well." A few minutes later, as we passed the entrance to the Chalice and Well, we saw two tourists carrying out half-filled bottles of "spring" water... bearing the label "The Chalice and Well." The place was filling their bottles at a runoff grate behind the gardens! What a rip-off!!!! Then there were some interesting looking shops, but also some which sold prosthetic elf ears, and all I could think was, why on earth would that even be a practical purchase, even if you did believe in the Goddess and Avalon and Magic? Seriously? Plastic elf ears?

Saturday night was slightly crazy, but less so for me than for all of the single people on this trip. I got slightly drunk at a party at the Northhamptons, came home, talked to Jake online for awhile (I remember a conversation about 1 Henry IV, by William Shakespeare), and then fell asleep. Apparently much more excitement happened after I feel asleep, however.

Sunday was lazy. So lazy I didn’t even bother with a blog entry. So lazy that I bought a pasty for lunch from the good pasty place. The only productive thing that happened was that Emily, Andrew, John, and I worked out our Spring Break plans tentatively, and we should have it all finished by the end of today!!! So far, we plan on about four days in Ireland and three days in Germany. The two places I most wanted to visit while here! It’s perfect! “Nien, das auto ist kliener rot!” That’s all I know how to say in German. It means no, the car is not red. Thank you, Rosetta Stone. Nevertheless, I’m excited for today, for Spring Break planning, paper-writing, exercising, and packing for Stratford-Upon-Avon!!!

England is for Lovers (And Flatmates)

2008-02-15T15:10:00.001Z

So, yesterday was Valentine’s Day. To tell you the truth, I’d been a little apprehensive about the whole thing. First of all, I’m not with Jacob right now, and I miss him quite a bit, so having a day for couples seems depressing at the moment. Secondly, I’ve rarely had a good Valentine’s Day, much less a memorable one. Thirdly, Bath has more Valentine’s advertisements than any other place I’ve been, and that’s distressing, since Valentine’s Day is essentially a made up holiday. But Valentine’s Day in Bath was the absolute best day I could have imagined, especially considering the circumstances (that I’m far far away from Jacob).

I woke up with nothing to do. Not one thing on my schedule. I have no classes on Thursday, so I decided just to stay in—it was also cold and gray outside. I wrote Valentine’s cards to my flatmates, postcards and letters to my friends and parents, showered, then took a little catnap. Then the Valentine’s presents rolled in!!! Alli had gone out and gotten each of us a bouquet of flowers, and Shea bought all of us little chocolate truffles, and I got a letter in the mail from Jacob!!! I was feeling pretty spectacular after all of that. Then I went shopping, first with Shea, then by myself, and I got two new shirts and a skirt. Plus, I found the most beautiful pair of shoes for only twenty-five pounds—I got them today. After I got home from shopping, all of us decided to dress up and go out to dinner. We were going to go to a place called Strada, but it was already booked with couples. The same thing at a Firehouse Rotisserie and at Café Rouge. But then we stumbled across The Litten Tree, a pub, which was having “Singles Night.” We went in and secured a table for four, then we ordered a pitcher of a very girly mixed drink. The atmosphere was fantastic. The Litten Tree isn’t cramped like most old pubs, but neither is it “modern,” like the King of Wessex. They had even set out little pink candles on each table in honor of Valentine’s Day. We ate dinner (I had Chicken Balti with naan bread), had a shooter each, then had dessert (I had three scoops of ice cream, because I cannot resist ice cream, although the toffee was really good and I’ll probably get that next time). After what had been the most wonderful dinner with the most wonderful people, we returned to Nunes house and met up with other ASE-rs going out to The Huntsman for Student Night. Student night was good—I had a cider, then a drink called a Snakebite (cider, beer, black currant). It was really good. A bunch of people went to some club with the English, but that was a much drunker crowd than I wanted to hang out with last night, so I stayed at the Huntsman with Alli, Martin, and Andrew. We talked forever, even though Andrew had to get up at 6:00 in the morning for a study trip. Alli and I returned home to Nunes where we promptly crashed into sleep, and all I could think was what a lovely day it had been.

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

2008-02-13T19:26:00.002Z

I had the second day of my tutorial at Oxford this afternoon, and I must admit that I spent all of yesterday dreading it and all of this morning wishing I had opted to take just the regular four classes so as to avoid the stress of the tutorial system. Today, however, was much better than I could ever have expected.

First, a note on the past few days. The weekend and Monday and Tuesday were spent primarily in reading for my classes and writing for my tutorial. Monday was distinctive for being half-full of finishing my Whig and Tory paper, for the creation a wonderful chicken and rice stir-fry, and for the discovery of Monday Student Night at The Huntsman (in addition to Thursday Student Night). Additionally, I began reading The Wind in the Willows (my roommate is reading it for a class, so I decided to peruse it) and discovered that, indeed, they are along a towpath: After Mole tips the boat Rat says, “Now then, old fellow! Trot up and down the towing-path as hard as you can, till you’re warm and dry again, while I dive for the luncheon-basket.”

Tuesday was exhausting. I had two hours of Tudors and Stuarts in the morning, followed by a hodge-podge lunch, then two hours of Irish Literature in the afternoon. Both of those classes turned out wonderfully. I had been rather worried about Irish Lit, but yesterday seemed to portend greatness ahead, and I must say, most of my fears are allayed. I love all of my classes—including my tutorial.

At any rate, I woke up this morning rather terrified and without having revised my paper to the degree that I normally do, and in general quite unhappy with the state of the world. Plus, it was extremely foggy (but the fog burned off into a gorgeous day). We left at 9:43 instead of 11:43 in order to have some time to look around the city before meeting with Leslie. Greg and I got to Oxford no problems; we looked around at the Oxford Castle, Nuffield College (one of the many Oxford colleges), and into shops and I was having such a pleasant time I almost forgot that I had a paper to present later that day.

Nuffield College.

We had lunch at a nice Malaysian place called Makan La, and I must say it was nice to get a change of cuisine from pasta and sandwiches in the flat. After lunch I called my old friend, Eric, to see what he was up to (he’s studying abroad at Oxford for the entire year). We made plans to meet in front of University College, where Greg and I study, and in the meantime I looked into a few more shops. I considered buying an Oxford hoodie, but maybe I’ll do that during the ASE week in residence. The best thing I saw that I most wanted to buy was a hat that said, “Oxford University: Est. 1231”.

Around 1:10 I met Eric in front of University College. It was so nice to see him again after over a year!!! It was like we’d never missed a beat we picked up talking again so quickly. He’s studying math and philosophy, which is fitting for him, and he was asking me if I had done any acting recently or if I was writing anything new at all.

Me and Eric!

He took me and Greg into a very pretty park-like area behind Christ Church College at Oxford, which he explained is one of the richest colleges, and one that his college—Pembroke College—absolutely detests. Apparently long ago the Pembroke college boys went over to a meadow owned by Christ Church College and painted a cow, but the paint was lead-based and the cow died. The boys of CCC were extremely angry and stole the Pembroke Mascot, the Pembroke Cat, and threw it out a window and it died and now the two colleges hate each other. This probably happened in the 1600s. Then Greg and Eric got into a spat about whether or not English food is any good, which was absolutely hilarious! I think my favorite quote was when Eric said, “Blood pudding is great, fuck you!” and “Don’t knock English breakfasts!” to Greg. Anyways, we had a lovely walk and it was a gorgeous day. The colleges at Oxford are all so pretty and picturesque!

Shortly though, it was time for our tutorial. We met Leslie at the gate of University College, and he led us to the classroom. I had to read my Whig and Tory paper aloud to him today (next tutorial Greg will read his aloud). I got a very decent grade!!! I was surprised and quite pleased!!! Then we discussed the appropriations of war money during the late 1600s and into the 1700s, and the creation of the London Season, and how some profited and others went under financially due to warfare. Overall, I felt quite happy and light about the whole tutorial thing today. And now no more class for two weeks! Next week the whole program goes to Stratford-Upon-Avon, so classes are cancelled! It’s like a little Spring Break only two weeks into classes! “O rapture!”

Various and Sundry

2008-02-10T20:38:00.000Z

The past two days have been rather uneventful. Well, except Friday night was pretty fun; Danielle and I attended a belly-dancing class at the gym-- it's much harder than it appears. My abs still hurt. Later, we all went to a pub called Cork and Bottle for some karaoke. I sang "Genie in a Bottle." We also met some Brit named Jonny with crazy hair who seemed pretty nice. A native! Wow! Next Friday we're going to go back and eat dinner there and sing some more. I'm pretty excited.

I returned to the towpath on Saturday morning to take pictures for you guys; here are some of the best. It was really different Saturday than Friday in lots of little ways. On Saturday morning barges were moving up and down the canal, and people seemed more active. Also, it was a bit colder and as the day wore on fog rose over the waters; it was really beautiful. It's nice to see that there's a way of life there and that I wasn't imagining it. There are more pictures of the towpath in a Facebook album, should you care to look.

While I walked the towpath my flatmates and some other ASE people headed to Wales. In retrospect, maybe I should have gone, but I'm really stressed out about homework and my tutorial, so I decided to stay in Bath and hit up the library. It turned out to be a very productive day-- I got a lot of reading done. I even have half of my paper done as of today! Plus, they didn't go into any castles in Wales, they just walked around one, and then watched a rugby game in a pub. Still, they came home raving about Wales. Oh well. I feel academically secure today, and that peace of mind probably is worth more than Wales at this point.

I also grocery shopped and today I made a really great chicken dish for dinner! All of our cooking is improving and anyways nothing can be worse than those pancakes. Alli and Danielle made Oatmeal Raisin cookies tonight for me and Shea! It was pretty fantastic. I love my flatmates. They are so wonderful-- I could not have asked to live with better people.

Back to paper-writing for me, so tomorrow I can work for my other classes, and maybe have a little but of fun in Bath to boot!

The Wind in the Willows

2008-02-08T12:29:00.000Z

This morning I found the most beautiful place in all of Bath-- the towpath. I woke up to find the sun shining and the weather warm enough for a tank-top (provided I was keeping active). I remembered the other day Jonathon mentioned that a great place to run was the towpath, so I went to his office in Nelson House to ask him how to get there. It's about a two minute way to the towpath from Nunes House, which is excellent. I had to go up some steps and through some mud and I was beginning to mourn for the cleanliness of my shoes when I emerged at the most quaint little area full of bargehouses and ducks and swans all sitting and swimming gracefully along the canal. I have never seen anything so extraordinarily beautiful in my whole life-- or maybe I have, but nothing that looked straight from an English children's book. It's an eight-mile loop, so I only went about a mile and a half or two on the path before turning back, but I plan to go the entire loop before I leave here in May. I also plan to go for a leisurely walk with my camera soon, instead of a run. I really never thought I'd find any place for running that I liked more than Duke of Gloucester Street, but I was mistaken.

I wish I could describe everything more vividly to you in words, since as of yet I have no pictures. All along the path are rushes and barges and lots of people out running, or walking their dogs. There was a little old English man with his dog and he looked so picturesque. The barges are low in the water, and they have little pipes on top, and several of them were sending out puffs of delicious smelling steam-- people cooking their breakfasts on their barges. The canal was completely calm, save for the v-shaped ripples left behind by the swimming ducks, who always look so determined. Here and there a swan glided silently by. Occasionally I passed a little house or small pub area. At one of these I got off the towpath and went down into the little village area-- called Bathhampton, in this case. There was an old pub called "The George" by the towpath and a small Anglican church, probably dating from the 1700's, across the street. I went over to the church and wandered among the gravestones for a moment; it was so peaceful in the sun with the birds chirping and a slight breeze. A man tending the flowers around the graves told me that the church was open, should I care to go in. I did. It was the most beautiful small parish I've ever seen. It's like a great cathedral on a mini-scale, and something about it feels so joyous. I wish it was closer to Nunes House so I could attend regularly, but it was quite aways down the towpath. I continued past the little town and out past all of the houses into the rolling hills surrounding Bath. Here even the spread of barges grew thin, and fewer people were walking, and there were fields of sheep across the canal. I decided I should probably turn back, or I would never make it back to Nunes House in a reasonable amount of time, and I do have a lot of reading to do today for my classes.

I want to live along the towpath. I want to write along the towpath. I feel that one's imagination could really spark in such an environment; I really thought that sort of place existed only in the past or in the rose-colored imagination of an author. But there it was, just waiting for me. And there's still so much more of it to explore, and so many paths branching off of it.
---------------------------
I had my tutorial at Oxford the other day. Oxford is a much different city than I imagined it would be. Instead of a slightly bigger version of Williamsburg, Oxford feels more like New York, except behind the walls of the colleges, where it looks like you've stepped into the early Renaissance, owing to the architecture. I was at University College, where Leslie teaches. I have my tutorial with another student, named Greg, so he and I managed to find our way to the college and Leslie met us in the main courtyard. The tutorial itself was alright-- easy this week, because we hadn't a paper to present. Next week either Greg or I will read our papers and discuss, and then Leslie will collect the unread paper and grade it himself. I rather wish I had my tutorial alone, though. Greg is nice, but I feel like that isn't the point of a tutorial. Oh well, at least I get to experience Leslie Mitchell, and that is an experience. Last week he argued why democracy was a stupid system of government, and I must say he made some excellent points.

In other news, they want us to get involved with the City of Bath by volunteering or going to the Uni and meeting people, which is all well and good, but the things for which I want to volunteer don't want me-- you have to fill out an application to cat cuddle! Seriously? I'm waiting to hear back about volunteering in the Bath Abbey shop or at the Heritage Vaults, both of which sounded nice. I'm thinking if it doesn't pan out I'll just do Bath my way, instead of trying to fit some criteria that I've never fit very well.

Well, that's all for now. Off I go! Time to read!

Tuesday is Pancake Day!

2008-02-05T23:48:00.000Z

Apparently, Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras is called Pancake Day in the UK. I went to the grocery store the other day and they had a display of different pancake batters, lemon juices, and sugars (which is what they top their pancakes with instead of maple syrup). I bought a package of batter. After eagerly awaiting the gloriousness of pancakes, they turned out to be crap. The English make neither fluffy buttermilk pancakes nor thin French crepes. Instead, they make a conglomeration. They make pancakes like colonial pancakes, except worse (because I’ve tried colonial pancakes and they were pretty good). They are too thick to be crepes, but not fluffy so they end up being rubbery and kind of doughy and a little gross. Although, the thin parts did taste quite good with the lemon and sugar. We took our creation down to the boys’ flat and let them try the glory of an English pancake. Brian refused to even touch the thing, but Greg and Jon bravely tried a bite, and Gabe even liked it. Seriously, they weren’t that terrible, but I think we had a preconception about what a pancake should be, so we made them too thick instead of thin and papery. Oh well, I guess we know for next time…if there is a next time. Hmmm… In other news, I decided to give up soda for Lent.

Today was also my first day of classes since December! I had The Tudors and Stuarts and Irish Literature. Tudors and Stuarts seems like it will be really spectacular. The professor looks so typically Oxfordian, and he’s very kind and knowledgeable and all around he seems great. Irish Literature…not so much. The professor is young and scatter-brained, but I think the real killer was that he showed up late then kept us twenty minutes after class should have ended …and the classes are already two hours long. He said that that wouldn’t happen again, so maybe this week was just strange and things will look up by next Tuesday. I hope. I’m considering switching classes, but there’s nothing that I want to switch into, so I think I’ll stick it out. It has some potential, and the kids in the class are all really great.

Tomorrow is my first tutorial with Leslie, who I’ve met once, and of whom I’ve heard so much. I should get some reading done for that before I fall asleep (though I plan to read more on the train to Oxford—eeee!). I’ll keep you posted on that one.

And finally, I saw a rainbow today out my window; it was joyous.

Playing Tourist, or Let's Take a Picture!

2008-02-03T21:14:00.000Z

The past two days have been all about being tourist-y. Yesterday, we spent the morning touring the farmers markets and flea markets which are open on Saturday here in Bath. All I bought was a sugar and cinnamon crepe. It was quite tasty. A boy named Andrew was eating a strange food that he bought at the market—he said it was called a “Scotch Egg.” Essentially, it’s a hard-boiled egg, wrapped in a sausage and onion mix covered in breadcrumbs. It looked… convenient to transport.

Nearly immediately after discovering a Scotch Egg, we ran into a street performance in front of the Abbey. Two men, probably about 45 years old each, were wearing thongs and carrying torches. They proceeded to dance around with them, set their hair on fire, build a little stand, stand on the stand then—GET THIS—stick a sparkler between their butt cheeks, light it on fire, and do a handstand. They probably would have gotten arrested in America.

The rest of the day was spent relatively quietly. Danielle, Shea, and I got lunch at a cute little Panera-esque restaurant. I ordered an Earl Grey Tea and it came out as an entire tea service, complete with tray, milk, and sugar cubes! It was adorable.

My Tea Service

Later, Shea, Alli, and I wandered around Bath for a little while. We found a bridge that looks like the younger sister of Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Really, the whole town has an Italian feel, which is how it was designed… so well done City Planners from the 1700s. I googled Bath a lot in order to discover things around here that I want to see and found some plays, museums, etc. I also googled plane tickets to Scotland and Ireland and, oddly enough, Stockholm, Sweden (they are running a special at Bristol airport). Some people are thinking of going to Spain, which would be amazing; others want Italy, which I refuse to even consider.

Ponte Vecchio? No...

Today was even more tourist-y. ASE organizes a trip on the last day of orientation for all of the program participants, and today was the day! They arrived with a bus (called a coach) at 9:30. We all boarded and headed off to Stonehenge! Shea and I on the "coach" before leaving for Stonehenge.

Stonehenge, I discovered is a very cold place in the middle of winter. It wasn’t particularly warm in the middle of summer, but this was terrible. I had on layers of clothes and I still thought my hands were going to be frostbitten. A girl named Sylvia commented that she thought, “This is it. My body is going to shutdown right here. I’m going to die at Stonehenge.”

My flatmates and I in front of Stonehenge! (Shea, Me, Danielle, Alli)

Personally, I just wanted Kay or Callie around so that when I said, “Ah, building a henge, are we? Very nice, I’ve seen the plans,” and “Before Stonehenge there was Woodhenge and Strawhenge, but uh, the Big Bad Wolf came and blew them down,” and finally, “Two-hundred miles in this day in age, why, we don’t even know where we live anymore! I wish the Christians would hurry up and get here!” someone would understand that I was quoting Eddie Izzard and would laugh. I mean, hey, Kay could have even said one of those and saved me the trouble of remembering all three! Still, it is pretty impressive, when you consider how long the stones have been there, and how far they traveled in order to reach the very windy hill upon which they have stood for thousands of years.

A picture in front of picture of "What-Stonehenge-originally-looked-like-we-think."

After Stonehenge we went to a town called Salisbury. I’ve been there before, but this time I saw it from a different angle! A colder angle. We went to the Cathedral and I found a very sweet little chapel along the side. I stopped in, prayed, and lit a candle, which made me happy. Even more, the whole time I could hear the music from the end of the service playing. It was beautiful. After being there for a little while my flatmates, Sylvia, and Kathie went to a little pub for lunch. I had a cottage pie, which was excellent. Very traditionally English. Also, very warm, which was a welcome change from the pervasive cold of the day. After lunch we stopped in at the Costa Coffee next door. Danielle and I ordered a selection of mini-biscuits for 2.20 pounds and we each got three cookies. ‘Twas lovely.

Pub for lunch! (Kathie, Danielle, Shea, Me, Sylvia)

Finally, we ended up in a tiny medieval village called Lacock. It was very picturesque, except that both the Abbey and the Church we were supposed to see were closed (the Abbey for the season, the Church for a Christening). The Abbey was used as a location in one of the Harry Potter films.

The exterior of the place where Harry Potter was filmed.

The whole town has been used for over fifteen blockbusters, including Pride and Prejudice and some new Judi Dench film. Exciting! We ate dinner there at a pub called The George. We had a traditional English Sunday Roast Dinner. I had a fantastic stuffed chicken for dinner, a great hard cider to drink called Scrumpy Jack, and a raspberry apple crumble for dessert.

A note on dinner: Kathie and I ended up being separated from our regular group by accident, so we were at a different table from our friends. The girls we were sitting with were… interesting. They seemed nice, except that they were discussing the different camera angles used in Bridget Jones’ Diary versus Bridget Jones’ Diary 2. THEN they started talking about their foreign language skills, namely elvish, as in Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, ELVES! One girl asked the other if she knew any elvish curses; one girl talked about how she has written several poems in elvish; another girl told about how she and her friends used to pass notes in elvish during high school. [Jaw drop]

Kathie is awesome. We had a very nice dinner together in our little corner of the table.

A sign in Lacock, which I thought was kind of cool.

Now we are back in Bath, eagerly awaiting the 10:30 p.m coin toss and 11:00 kickoff of the Superbowl! Exciting! GO PATRIOTS! We’re going to the Northhamptons to watch it with those kids (it’s on BBC2, so we all get it in our ASE houses). I haven’t been to the Northhamptons yet, nor have I seen the Circus or Royal Crescent, so this is exciting, though I’m told the houses are up a mountain, so it will be a lot of walking. I'll say hi to 29 Northhampton for you, Melinda. :)

I’m a little sad, though, because I’m dying for some chips and dip and a Superbowl party American-style, but that probably isn’t in the cards, considering I still haven’t seen salsa or Velveeta in the stores. Grrr… Oh, well—nachos and cheese probably looks tourist-y anyways. :)

Of Pubs and Clubs

2008-02-01T11:05:00.000Z

Yesterday was our last day of real orientation stuff. We have a little more today, then a reception with our professors tonight, but really orientation is over and we’re now on our own in England. I didn’t have to write any diagnostic papers yesterday, either, which was fantastic. I got in a nice long nap, then Danielle, Alli, and I went to Orange and got our English cell phones! My cell phone. It's pretty blinged out.

Afterwards, Danielle went to write her last diagnostic paper, and Alli and I went shopping. We basically just walked around the center of Bath to see what we could see. There is a long main drag of shops, of which we made an extensive tour, then we dropped into some side streets and shopping arcades. We found the most beautiful little shop on a side street called Uttams London, but all of their clothes were ridiculously expensive, especially when considering that the prices were in pounds and not dollars.

A little shopping arcade containing beautiful but expensive shops.

We also stopped at Whitehall Cornish Pasties and I got a chicken and vegetable pasty for lunch. It was funny, though, because we went in and they had different flavors—one called “Traditional”—and I had to ask the man what a “Traditional” was. I felt like an idiot; I’m probably the only person on the island who has to ask that question. It was something with beef and onion or what have you. Anways, pasties are excellent and not very expensive, so there’s what I’ll survive on while I’m here. As we ate our pasties, Alli and I continued to scope out the main area of Bath. We passed a pub called The Saracen's Head, which seemed wildly inappropriate; we passed a club called The BlueRooms that I want to go to with Jacob (but I want to check it out first, to make sure it's worthy); we passed a cafe called The Parisien which looks darling and we both are dying to eat there; we passed a Strada, which is I guess a pizza chain, because the Strada in London is FANTASTIC. We stopped in a store and we each bought a dress. She wore hers last night and looked fantastic, but I’m saving mine.

Later that day we met up for an ASE tour of Bath Abbey. Basically, they just wanted to welcome us to the church and let us know that we were welcome to worship there. They were really friendly. They gave us tea and coffee and homemade cakes from the women in the parish. It almost makes me want to consider going on Sunday mornings for services, especially since it’s only a few minutes walk from my house. The Abbey itself is beautiful; it reminds me of some of the great cathedrals in Italy, except not as ornate (since it’s an Anglican church and has always been an Anglican church, rather than a Catholic church).

Top: Outside the Abbey, Bottom: The Altar in the Abbey

As for last night…Last night was the first night that everyone in ASE went out, because Thursday’s here are student nights. First, basically everyone in Nunes House (all fifteen of us) gathered in the dining room of Flat 4 for some pre-gaming action around nine o’clock (the Brits go out really early—pubs normally close between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning). We played a very lame game of Kings without Never Have I Ever or Hot Seat. What was the point? I don’t know. After we were done with that and the Kings Cup had been drunk (by poor Alli) we headed off to The Huntsman, which is a pub right by our house.

My flatmates and I, minus Danielle, at The Huntsman

We had been told there was karaoke there, but that was a lie. There’s karaoke on Friday nights at a different pub called Cork and Bottle. That’s where we’re going next week, because Danielle and I want to sing. Anyways, The Huntsman serves cheap drinks to students on Thursdays, so I had several vodka lemonades whilst there. After we had been there for a bit, we decided to try to find the Cork and Bottle, and from there we ended up at a techno-club called The Second Bridge. It was PACKED. We could hardly move there were so many people—it was student night there, as well. It looked a bit like Yab Club in Florence on the inside, except grungier and with more VIP rooms, plus it was full of dancing people, unlike Yab. I wasn’t really wearing the right outfit for a techno nightclub, however, and after awhile techno music just becomes the same beat over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, so my friend Jon and I left pretty quickly. We walked back to The Huntsman to meet up with some ASE people still there, speaking in a British accent the whole walk back to see if we could fool anyone. I’m not sure it worked, but no one called us out on it.

There were still a few people at The Huntsman, so we each got beers and sat down for a chat with them before last call, then we headed back to Nunes House. I must admit I wasn’t entirely sober at this point, so the British accent thing seemed like such a good idea. Once we got back, my flatmates and the guys downstairs sat out on the landing for awhile talking, but finally we all retired to bed, contented with the nightlife scene in Bath. Now, we just need to meet some Brits!!!

Transition Shock

2008-01-30T13:25:00.000Z

It’s my second full day here in Bath, and so far it’s mostly been orientation. This morning we got a lecture about culture shock, or as Andy, one of the ASE staff members likes to call it “Transition Shock.” He said, “When you go back you may have a friend who went to China (he seriously used China as the example) and everyone will crowd around them saying, ‘Oooo China! How was that? It’s so different! Eh, you just went to England, whatever, ooo China!’” Then he went on to explain that Britain was different from America, and that our culture shock, when it sets in, will probably be far more traumatic because we aren’t expecting England to be very different, whereas those in China are more prepared for difference. This made some sense, but I still think that I’d rather have someone misunderstand me for three minutes when I say “water” instead of “wahta” than not be able to understand anyone at all EVER.

Still, he’s right in a lot of ways. For example, the flat I live in is transition shock. It’s also pretty crappy, comparatively speaking, with the other flats. It’s on the fourth floor and up a shit-ton of stairs (which I’m planning on counting later today, so I’ll let you know exactly how many) and it’s got low ceilings and an “attic garrett” feel, whereas the other flats have high ceilings, soaring windows, and dining rooms. The whole house gets along well, though, so we are going to use the boys in flat 4’s dining room and the girl’s in flat 3’s dining room whenever we cook big meals. Also for studying. But more than that, the flat has quirks that are apparently just English. For example, the kitchen sink has one faucet with two holes and hot water comes out of one hole and cold out of the other and they don’t mix so you have one extremely hot stream of water that burns and one that freezes. The same in the bathroom, but there are two faucets so there’s no chance of mixing at all. The microwaves and cooking directions on microwavable food are very different, too. Everything goes by watts here.

The bedroom that Shea and I live in.

View from our kitchen window.

View of our flat from the door.

There are other differences, too. The food, for one. Yes, we can get Pizza Hut and KFC, but in the grocery stores there is frozen Indian food instead of frozen enchiladas, and you can buy packets of naan bread in a thousand different brands but only one kind of tortilla chip—grocery store brand. They sell hard liquor in the grocery store—aisles full of rum, whiskey (there was some Glenlivit 12, Mike!), and vodka. They also sell different vodka brands that I’ve never heard of, Russian and Polish stuff. They don’t have 1% milk or 2% milk, but whole milk, skimmed milk, and something called “semi-skimmed milk” which we aren’t quite sure what the hell percentage it is. Furthermore, they don’t have pizza mixes or huge packs of sodas, but just six packs and two litres (notice the spelling). They don’t sell gallons of ice cream or milk, but litres and half litres. Plus, you can buy bigger bottles of hard cider than soda. And there are these great little oatmeal cookies called McVities HobNobs that I’ve become addicted to. Oh, and you have to pay for a shopping cart, so we all carried around baskets instead. I’m sure I’ll find more differences as I continue to go to the grocery store looking for more food.

Frozen Indian Food, grocery store brand.

The nighttime culture is entirely different, too, though I’ve yet to experience much of that. It seems, however, that students go out on Mondays and Thursdays. Our ASE staff—including our student liason, Mark, a British grad student at Bath Uni—says that Mondays and Thursdays are the best nights to go clubbing. Also, last night my flatmates and I, and the boys from the flat downstairs, went out to a pub to watch a football match (soccer game) and the pub food serving hours were 12:00 pm-8:00 p.m Fridays-Sundays and 12:00 p.m-9:00 p.m Mondays-Thursdays. ANNNNND on Thursday nights at this pub called The Huntsman there’s karaoke!

The oddest thing, especially for me, is how lax they are with schedules. Other than getting to class on time, nothing seems to run on a tight schedule within the programme. Things just happen on their accord. I don’t even feel strange without having a watch or cell phone with me at all times to check the time. Well, a little strange, because I’m somewhat obsessed with knowing what time it is, but none of that seems very important here. Andy told us that we would be even more shocked in France at their lack of punctuality. Andy, by the way, looks so British in a typical Monty Python way and sometimes sounds like Eddie Izzard; watching his presentation on culture today was somewhat like watching a stand-up comedian.

The worst thing today is that we have to write two diagnostic papers so our professors will be able to evaluate us before the class starts. We have to write another tomorrow. So far I’ve only written the Tudors and Stuarts one… I think it went ok. Seriously, though, papers before class? And they are timed and have to be handwritten in Nelson House (the programme’s main building).

Alright, time to finish eating lunch and then back over to the Nelson House for paper number two of the day—Irish Literature! I'm in England!

Jolly Old England!

2008-01-28T22:03:00.000Z

This is my first post from England!

1-27-08
All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps. ~The English Patient

Around three o’clock EST Kay, Jacob, my parents, and I began the trek to the airport. First, we dropped Jake by the metro so he could catch his train back to Williamsburg, then it was on to the airport! Check-in went smoothly, I nearly began crying as I started through security, then I got to my gate and waited around to board the plane. The ride was pretty uneventful. I finished reading The Alchemist (which was a great book, everyone should read it), then watched part of The Jane Austen Book Club, which was ok, but I wouldn’t advise spending money on it. The characters weren’t all that lovable, but I mean, it was cute for what it was. After the movie ended I watched the map they provide for awhile. I watched as we flew past Boston, over Newfoundland, past St. John’s, over part of Iceland, and then I fell asleep for about an hour or so. I woke up with the worst leg cramps in the world, because I had fallen asleep in a little ball on the airplane chair. My legs still hurt and it’s been nearly a day! Anyways, I woke up with about another hour and a half to go. There was more map-watching involved. There was also some serious thinking, since it was quiet and dark with that nice airplane noise going on, and the tiredness beginning to really set in. Soon we were descending from the sky over London. There was fog over the city in patches, and the lights shown through in orange and white swirls. It was silly, but I felt like I might be Peter Pan flying over London at night going to Neverland. I was tired. At long last the flight ended, and somehow it had become six o’clock in the morning, Greenwich Mean Time.

1-28-08
The wind spoke to Vianne of towns yet to be visited, friends in need yet to be discovered… ~Chocolat

I got off of the airplane and easily went through customs. I made my way to the train station in the basement of Heathrow airport to buy my ticket on the Heathrow Connect to Paddington. First of all, the first twenty pound bill I handed the cashier was apparently an old twenty pound bill that is no longer accepted as legal tender in the UK. That was somewhat of a shocker and I had a short, mini-freak-out that maybe all of my twenties were dead bills, but luckily it appears that it’s only the one. He told me I could just exchange it anywhere that changes money, and explain the situation.

Next, I got down to the platform and realized that I had just missed the train. I had an hour to wait in a metro-like station all alone. Plus, it was foggy in there, because it connected to the outside somewhere along the line. I began to re-read The Alchemist, then read my sea-turtle I Love You book, then sat around a bit before beginning to laugh out-loud because I remembered this old couple in the Wren Building to whom I was giving a Spotswood tour when they said, “You know, there was so much inbreeding in Britain. That’s why the British are a weak race with holes in their hearts.” And they were dead serious. I decided it would be wise not to share this anecdote with any of the Brits sitting around me.

Finally, the train came. We got to Paddington at 8:30, and I bought a ticket for the 9:30 train to Bristol Temple, which stops at Bath Spa. I literally sat and watched the seconds tick by for an hour. I felt rather numb with exhaustion and sadness and loneliness and boredom. I people watched a bit. Some British guy asked me if I knew which line to take to West Point, which I didn’t. He called me “Miss,” though, which sounded very British polite. I watched a pigeon dive-bomb the ground in front of me repeatedly. He came to a sliding stop each time. It was amusing. I saw a girl spill coffee on herself, and I saw a man eating what appeared to be a sausage link and cheese sandwich—it looked disgusting—and I noticed a Paddington Bear kiosk at Paddington Station. I was almost tempted to buy a teddy bear, just because they are nice when you are lonely, but then I decided to save my money. Plus, I never much cared for Paddington Bear. Just as my train was arriving it hit me that “Hey, I’m in London right now! I’m in my favorite city in the whole world right now!” It was kind of an exciting thought.

The train arrived and I managed to get on without problems (a first, as anyone who knew me in Italy can attest to). On the train, I met three girls also going to Bath for ASE. They seemed very nice and we sat together on the train. One of the girls, Liz, said she was going to take a nap and to wake her up if we saw anything British, which we did. There were little churches, and rolling hills, and sheep, and hedgings. We got to Bath after a rather short train-ride, though perhaps that’s just compared to the airplane ride, and stepped out into the unknown.

Bath is beautiful. It’s one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been in. It has sort of an Italian feel to it, but also a jovial, kind, English feel, like London. Everyone I’ve met so far, both British and American, have been incredibly nice. We got to our building, then realized that our flat was at the top of the building, so we have to climb up a thousand stairs to get to it. It’s ok, though, because it’s an incredibly sweet little apartment, with the best views of the River Avon and the city. One by one I met my flatmates and my roommate. Shea is amazing! We hit it off right away. And our room is huge, but also cozy. The program had provided some starter food for us, but I didn’t get a chance to eat any because of unpacking, and the quick orientation to the building that ASE gave us. At long last, my housemates and I went out for dinner. We began to walk around Bath and realized that, indeed, we are right in the center of everything. We’re a two minute walk from the train-station and just down the street from the shopping and restaurant district and about five minutes from a movie theater. We ended up eating at a place called Wetherspoons/King of Wessex for supper. They had a beer and burger and chips deal for only 4.49 pounds, which seemed excellent. I got a pint of Strongbow with my burger. They IDed me though, and I swear the guy thought my driver’s license was a fake so I had to give him my ISIC card. Do I really look younger than eighteen? Really? Anyways, the four of us were happily finishing up dinner when one of the bartenders came up and said that he had just gone on break and could he sit with us to drink his latte? Well, ok? What else could we say? “No, doesn’t this place have a breakroom?” He seemed nice enough, but we were all a little weirded out, especially when he gave us his number and said to call him if we ever wanted to go clubbing…. Sure…. Maybe one of the other girls will take him up on it, but seriously?

After we left we all laughed about that for a little bit, then just marveled at how beautiful Bath is, especially at night. It really is. And from my window I can see a view of the whole city! It’s spectacular. I think I’ll be happy here. I hope I will be. Anyways, I’m still pretty jet-lagged, so I’m off to bed for now. Also, I happily have Skype up and working!!!!

New blog posts will begin to appear nearly daily! Start checking back often now!

Less Than A Week

2008-01-23T04:02:00.001Z

I said goodbye to Williamsburg today, so now I'm home with a bit more shopping and a bit more packing to do. I'm in a strange mood. A sad mood, too. I'm excited about going, but today I'm a bit sad, as well. Leaving was sad. I mean, it's not like I love Williamsburg for itself, but driving away knowing that everyone else will be there for the rest of the semester living their lives and doing things that I could have been doing... well, that's sad. Saying goodbye to Jake and Kay today was the worst. Luckily I get to see them briefly before I actually go to England.

Now I am home spending a few days with my parents, who I haven't really seen all winter break for various and sundry reasons. And packing. I think I'll be better tomorrow, once I've gotten a good night's sleep and looked through clothes to figure out what to take and what shouldn't see the sun of the British Empire. I actually like packing, so it should cheer me up. Also, it will break me of the feeling that I'm in a holding pattern, just sitting around waiting for something to happen. Packing is making small steps towards England and the continuance of my Winding Hall of Fate (which is a Betsy-Tacy reference).

Road Trip: Hilton Head Island

2008-01-17T16:01:00.000Z

On Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 11:00 p.m, Jacob and I decided to take a roadtrip. First we thought Florida, but that was an extremely long drive, so we decided on Hilton Head Island, SC. We found a hotel running a special winter rate, booked it, and on Saturday morning we began our drive to Hilton Head Island. First, we stopped for road trip snacks-- the box of Pringles proved the most popular between the two of us, with the Twix bars making a close second. Then we started spinning the tunes from our iPods and in seven and a half hours (Mapquest said it would take nine hours, psh) we were pulling into the parking lot of the Main Street Inn. This was honestly one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in (and that's saying something). The room was large, clean, and had a nice Old South/Island feel, much like South Seas Plantation on Captiva Island. We had an amazingly nice bathroom-- you could twirl around in it it was so big and the shower was great... I think they called it a "spa shower" in the description. Our room overlooked Charlestonian Gardens and a lap pool, but it was a little chilly for swimming. It was about 70 degrees and foggy the first day we were there, and cooler but sunny the second day. The first night, after we checked in and marveled at our hotel, we went to dinner at a place called the Crazy Crab. I had a great flounder stuffed with crab meat, and Jake got fish and chips. The restaurant was a typical island restaurant with nautical items on the walls and only seafood on the menu. The best part was the amazing feeling that 24 hours previously we had been in D.C with no notion of ever driving to Hilton Head Island, yet there we were ready to start exploring!

The first day we woke up, ate the complimentary breakfast provided by the hotel (which was really good--blueberry pancakes-- but the breakfast room service was really slow, probably because we were in the south). After breakfast, we decided to check out the Disney World Hilton Head Island resort. As we approached the gate, we saw a sign which said "Welcome Home DVC Members." Me!!! Oh Disney, you are home. Anyways, we went onto the property like we belonged there (which, let's face it, I go to Disney enough that using their facilities when I'm not actually staying there doesn't phase me in the least-- I deserve it. If Disney had little hole punch cards like coffee shops and Sno-To-Go I think I would have punched out enough Mickey heads to earn a free week at a Disney property). We walked around, found a dock, and looked out over the marshland on the inner part of the island. Then we played ping-pong, shuffleboard and warmed our feet in their hot-tub. Jacob won at ping-pong easily because he's good, but then played a ruthless game of shuffleboard. In his Machiavellian way he used his pucks to knock my pucks off of points and onto negative points. One Disney employee commented on his game, "That's right, go for the throat!" Grrr, Jacob, grrr. ;)... Love you!

After being at the Disney resort for awhile, we went to Sea Pines which is a resort like Kingsmill in Williamsburg. We went to Harbour Towne first, where we discovered a lighthouse! This lighthouse turned out to be a climb-able museum. This was the second lighthouse we found over Winter Break (the first was on a short day trip to Havre de Grace, MD, to the Concord Point lighthouse. That was on January 8th. We took a picnic and a bouquet of daisies that Jake had bought for me and sat in front of the lighthouse for hours enjoying the warm day and the water)! It was a thrill! The museum itself wasn't too bad, but as Jacob pointed out, a little bit biased in the Civil War part... under a picture of freed slaves with the description of the Union Troops pulling out of South Carolina is said "Free at Last!" which could be read as either the slaves were free at last or South Carolina was free of Union soldiers at last. Hmm... It was foggy, but the view at the top of the lighthouse was still quite beautiful. Next, we went to South Beach Marina, where we ate lunch at Jake's Pizza (ironic, no?) and looked into some little shops, and imagined what it must be like in the summer filled with people eating and drinking and laughing, and we planned a return trip for sometime not winter.

Finally we went to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean side. It was a little chilly, but not too bad. We took off our shoes and walked with the water splashing up over our feet and calves. We held hands and chased seagulls (but they had the wing advantage) and generally played in the water and sand until it began to get dark. We went to Fuddruckers (World's Greatest Hamburgers) for dinner that night, which of course brought a flood of speech and debate memories, then we chilled out in the hotel and I quickly fell asleep-- probably a result of all the wonderful salt-water air.

The next day we awake to find it sunny, but much cooler than the day before. We started out at the beach, but we had to wear our coats (though we still took off our shoes and walked in the waves). The ocean was stunning in the sun. It glittered gold and blue and white and the beach spanned on and on forever on both sides, a wide expanse. The ocean makes me feel so... incredulous. It just goes on to the horizon so full of promise and adventure and... I don't even know how to describe it. It was nice to see it in the sun. We went back to the Disney resort after that to warm our feet in the hot tub. They were pretty numb, but the hot water brought them back to life. It was getting into afternoon, so Jacob and I left and ate lunch at Fuddruckers (again. It was near the Disney resort), then commenced our long drive back to D.C. Hilton Head Island was an incredible place. I can't wait to go back again!

Right now I'm in Williamsburg seeing a few people before I leave for England! 10 days! I should really start packing...

Christmas and Weddings

2007-12-30T23:08:00.000Z

"Somebody's getting married!!!" ~Sara Duke, nee Strehle

My friend Sara got married last night. It's so strange having a friend get married. She was a senior when I was a freshman (in college). She was a beautiful bride. She had the prettiest dress I've ever seen and she and Kevin looked so happy the whole night. It really only hit me that she was married when we were gathering for a picture and Kevin said, "Where's Sara? Where's my wife?" Hannah (who was standing by me) and I both looked at each other a little shell-shocked.

Before the wedding though, we had my Aunt Mary and my cousin Hannah visiting. It was really nice to see them. They arrived on Christmas night and stayed until yesterday. It was sad to see them go. We went to Williamsburg the other day; I actually went to the historic area for an afternoon, which I haven't done in awhile. And we got Cheese Shop sandwiches!

Tomorrow Jacob arrives!

Well, that's my quick update. Hope everyone is having a good break!

Home for the Holidays

2007-12-21T23:42:00.000Z

Finals are over! I'm home! Thank goodness paper-writing is over!

I got home a few days ago, and now I'm caught in a flurry of gift-making, gift-buying, gift-wrapping, and cooking. It's stressful in itself, but in a much different way than writing papers for class or worrying about studying for a final. Plus, the house looks so cozy with the Christmas tree all lit up and stockings hanging over the fireplace. Sphinx (my cat) loves sleeping under the tree, and it's very cute to look at him hiding among all of the presents. My friend Annie pointed out the other day that perhaps the reason Sphinx is rather effeminate for a male cat is because all Sphinxes of myth and legend are female. Oops. He's sandy colored and has a cat-like body (being a cat and all) so the name seemed to fit at the time. Maybe he would be less Cowardly Lion like if I had named him Theseus or Amun-Ra. Or even John.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to Christmas and all that it entails! Hope everyone else is having a lovely Christmas season!

Housing!

2007-12-13T03:53:00.000Z

So, I got my housing assignment today, but I still don't know my classes (other than my tutorial) or my schedule (except that there are no Friday classes). I'm living in a Georgian apartment with four other girls. I'm pretty sure I have a roommate, though the other two girls have singles. I really hope my roommate and I will get along-- maybe we'll end up being really good friends, unlike some other roommates I've had in the recent and not so recent past. (But don't worry, Kay, you will always be my dolphin-speaking roomie best friend!)

The apartment description says it has spacious rooms, a kitchen, a common room with a TV and DVD player, and that it overlooks the River Avon. It sounds very nice! As my future roommate wrote in an e-mail, it sounds like the nicest of the housing. It's also just around the corner from the main program building, according to the description. Also, the description calls them flats, but Jacob got mad when I said flats, so I'll stick with apartments until I'm actually in England :).

Meanwhile, I still have this stupid Annales school paper to finish, I have a final in the morning, I have to write up footnotes for one paper, and I have to write up endnotes for another, and basically I want it to be this time tomorrow when I can sleep instead of pumping myself full of Wawa coffee. Ciao!

Um... This is Totally About the Annales School...

2007-12-11T01:53:00.000Z

Currently, I should be composing a 10-page lecture/paper about the Annales School. I would prefer not to, not because I don't like the Annales School (I do, actually, quite a lot), but just because, papers, really? I have an outline. Shouldn't that be enough? It's a very creative outline, as well. If you know anything about the Annales School (or the work of Fernand Braudel) you'll appreciate this.

The Annales ‘School’

I. The Role of the Environment: La longue durée

a. The Climate of Historical Study in France Pre-Annales

b. The Conditions Which Made the Formation of The Annales ‘School’ Possible

c. The Historical and Political Climate in France During the Formative Decades of the Annales School

II. Collective Destinies and General Trends: La Conjoncture

a. Ideas of the Annales ‘school’ at its inception

b. Later innovations of the Annales ‘school’

c. Some general trends of the Annales in the 1960s and 1970s

III. Events, Politics, and People: L’histoire événementielle

a. Marc Bloch, The Royal Touch, and l’histoire de mentalités

b. Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean, and his “longue durée” with the Annales, the sixième section, and the writing of history

If you don't know anything about the Annales School, and if you have any interest in history, historiography, French historical methods, etc. I recommend looking them up. It's very interesting! Much better than "boring, dry history." Although, I must warn you, they aren't very into "events" as such, though they recognize that events have the most human interest. Rather, Braudel likes the "longue durée" of geographical time, and slower moving processes, which are the structures upon which events ride. Events are simply "foam on the sea of history" and to understand history we must "dive beneath the waves," according to Braudel. Marc Bloch deals with history a bit differently, relying alot on mentalités, or the historical pyschology (though that's not an exactly accurate description). Lucien Febvre is another historian you absolutely must look up in regards to the Annales school, but my assignment doesn't specifically tell me to mention him, and since I have limited space he's short-shrifted in my lecture.

Ahem...right anyways...

Classes ended Friday, so now it's finals time! I have three papers due Thursday (one of them is this Annales school thing) and then a final in Literary and Cultural Studies. Part of me is desperately dying to finish up here and be home for the holidays, getting ready for England. Another part of me doesn't want these next few days to end, because that means I won't be back here until next August. Unlike some people, I like it here. And I'm going to miss it-- well, mostly the people (certainly NOT the workload). Sigh.

But England soon! Both exciting and scary... Just have to finish two more papers, work on some footnotes, and take a final!

And Now My Computer Screen Is Cracked

2007-11-28T21:36:00.000Z

I got hit by a car today. Normally I wouldn't do two entries in one day, but this seemed like kind of a big deal. I was crossing the street at Confusion Corner towards CW. I thought that one of my friends was in a car that had stopped, so I turned back to see if it was them. Unfortunately, the car coming towards me didn't stop, and I didn't notice because I'd glanced back. Seriously, I was halfway across the pedestrian walkway. I really didn't think there was any danger that a car wouldn't see me and stop. Anyways, I got hit. Kind of hard. I rolled up on the hood for a second, then crumpled onto the pavement. I scraped my ankle and bruised my leg, but everything else is ok. I didn't get the guy's insurance information. Maybe I should have, but I'm really not hurt at all. And there's no point in making a mountain out of a molehill. Also, I wasn't thinking all that clearly at the time. I was pretty shaken up. Possibly in a bit of shock, too, because after I walked down the street for about twenty feet I started laughing and couldn't stop, but nothing was all that funny. The only real damage is to my computer screen. The corner is all messed up--probably happened when my bag smacked the pavement, or maybe when I landed on it. Luckily, I got to spend the next hour and half with Jake. He gave me Neosporin and a band-aid for my ankle and a great big hug for my shaking nerves. The strangest part is that I'm the most cautious street crosser ever. People literally make fun of me for it. They have since high school. And yet, it's me that gets hit. It's a bit vindicating. All my worry has been validated. Sadly, all of the hard work put into reversing my fear of crossing streets has been undone. So that's my story.

I'm really ok, though. Just a little afraid to cross streets again.

We Could Always Use More Sleep

2007-11-28T16:48:00.000Z

Students are never functional at this point, are they? ~Professor Bossenga

I'm sitting at work right now working on a Precis for my Public History class. We are supposed to look at history.org and figure out how CW portrays one person on their website. I was browsing the Randolph Family when I came across Peyton Randolph House. "Peyton Randolph House?" I thought, "I've never heard of him!" Enormously interested in this apparent oversight in my Revolutionary knowledge I clicked on the link-- only to find that they meant the Peyton Randolph House... like, a real house. The big Spanish Red one that's apparently haunted. Obviously, they didn't mention ghosts, but you get the idea.

Then Josh, who is at work with me, said I should write my precis on Peyton Randolph House, the ancestor of Dr. House (for those of you who have seen that t.v show). Then my professor came in and I told her all about my planned precis on Peyton Randolph House. Josh and I could NOT stop laughing. I think Prof. Kern was laughing at us. It was this episode which provoked the quote at the beginning of this entry.

And yes, Professor, you're absolutely right.

Gobble Gobble Day?

2007-11-23T04:19:00.001Z

Happy Thanksgiving! Or Gobble Gobble Day, as the conductor of my train home called it in an extremely perky "Welcome aboard boys and girls of aaaaallllll ages!" It was trippy, let me tell you.

It's been a very Christmas-y Thanksgiving. To begin with, I slept until after 11:00. I never sleep this late at school, but for some reason I've been exhausted since Tuesday. I think my body thinks that the stress is over for the semester since I'm home, but it's wrong-- I have a paper to write over the weekend, in fact. After I finally crawled out of bed, it was about time to head over to the Country Club for dinner. Because it's just me and my mom and dad we normally don't cook a full-out dinner at home; we go out instead. We used to go to Texas to visit family there, but after I got into college, what with the short break and never being home except on break, we tend to stick around the house. Dinner was great, as usual! Wonderful mashed potatoes, turkey, caesar salad, sweet potato pie, stuffing, etc.

Then we decided that tonight we would decorate for Christmas. Accordingly, this afternoon we made sugar cookie dough and molasses cookie dough (both doughs have to chill for a few hours). Then I made supper!!! I love cooking. I'm not exactly great at it yet, but I'm getting better. Tonight I made a dish that Kay makes me at school-- rice and chicken. I also made a dish that I was taught how to make at the Governor's Palace-- potato balls. The rice and chicken turned out fantastically! I added carrots to it, which we normally don't do at school, and some parsley. The potato balls were better than I remembered, and my mom and dad loved them. After supper, I spiced some apple cider to get us all in the Christmas-y mood, and we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas" while we cut out cookies from the sugar cookie dough and baked cookies from the molasses cookie dough and decorated the tree. My dad actually stuck around for the decorating this year! (Normally he gets bored and goes upstairs.)

Then my favorite part: setting up the Nativity Scene. I put on quiet Christmas Carols and work alone, unwrapping every figurine that I know so well. The camels give me trouble every year, but I manage to fit them in. And the whole scene is crowned with the angel above the barn. Then sprinkled with 'snow.' There's something really spiritual in setting up the Nativity Scene. It's when I know Christmas is coming. I don't know how to explain it, exactly.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Hello!

2007-11-14T16:43:00.001Z

Hello everyone. Welcome to my blog. I should be writing a paper right now, but this felt like a sort of productive procrastination. I made this just now because next semester I'm going to be studying abroad in Bath, England, and I thought it might be a good way for my friends and family to keep up with what's going on with me, as well as helping me to remember everything that happens over the semester. I wasn't planning to start writing until next semester, but the title is wonderfully ambiguous (because isn't life an adventure?), so I can start writing now if I want, and keep writing after I get back. Also, Melinda, Emily, and Dana inspired me.

Ok, now I should really write my paper. So, friends and family, if you're interested, keep visiting for updates about my oh-so-exciting life (especially next semester)! Bye!