"My name is hateful to myself"

So on Saturday my Shakespeare class took our required trip to Coventry and Stratford. 

Coventry wasn't really part of the Shakespeare trip, but it was all just wrapped into one. Coventry is a city southwest of Grantham. Its claim to fame is that its main cathedral burned down in 1940 after a bombing raid caused it to catch fire. Now all that remains is the ghostly figure of a once sacred edifice. Almost immediately after the cathedral burned down they began construction on a new cathedral, situated a mere 30 feet away from the ruins. The new cathedral has a very modern church look and is definitely a product of the 50s style of architecture. I couldn't tell you what style of architecture it is, other than that it's weird. There's lots and lots of vibrant stained glass and weird, yet interesting uses of metal. There's a lot of symbolic articles within the new cathedral that were salvaged from the old one. The crucifix over the alter is made from bent pieces of metal from the wreckage of the old cathedral. There are chapels that are brightly lit and have class walls and doors. Very modern. 

The ruins of the old cathedral are pretty sparse, only some of the outer walls remain. The inner columns and the roof are non-existent. It's beautiful, but in a somber way. Where the alter was there stands a crucifix made from burned timbers they found in the wreckage after the fire. And carved out of the back wall and painted gold are the words Father Forgive. Elsewhere on the expansive cathedral grounds is a statue so appropriately named Reconciliation. I include a picture of it here, because it struck me as one of the most powerful messages for our world today. It is a message we need to come back to time and time again. No-one is to good or not good enough for reconciliation. 

Coventry is a bustling city and I do not think that I shall return to it. It made me feel like I was back in the United States. It had such a generic feeling I could have been anywhere.

After we left Coventry we continued on till we got to Stratford, which for those of you who don't know is William Shakespeare's birthplace and therefore of great interest to me. For those that are wondering the title of this post is a line from the play Romeo and Juliet. Points for anyone who can name the character that speaks these words (No looking it up!). After we got off the buses we were given pretty much free reign of Stratford. The group of friends I was with wanted to check out Shakespeare's birthplace first. Some of you may not know this, but Shakespeare spent very little time in Stratford as he grew older. He was there until about the age of 10 and then he went off to school. When he was writing his plays he was in London, and although his wife, Anne Hathaway, had a cottage in Stratford he did not return home that often. Today we would call him a "womanizer" or perhaps a believer of "free love". Either way he was born here and we visited his house. To be perfectly honest it was incredibly disappointing. It was a glitzy, but sparse den for tourists and nothing about the house interested me. I felt bad for not being overcome with joy about walking on the same planks that my hero Shakespeare had once tread, but the fakeness of the whole place ruined any genuine excitement. 

After that we left and went to Nash Place or Shakespeare's New Place which was the house of his Grandaughter and the place where he ultimately resided before his death. It too was incredibly disappointing. We ventured on to the church where he was buried, it cost to go to the part of the church where his grave was and like typical pennyless college students refused to pay the price. Instead we headed to the pub. We had dinner at the Dirty Duck which was a pub frequented by actors and technicians and directors working at the Royal Shakespare Company, but has become more of an attraction. It was packed with people, but we all got a table and settled back for awhile in the warmth. The food was good and you'll be disappointed to hear that the penny saver that I am refused to buy a pint. I did try some mulled wine that my friend Amy had ordered and thought it was quite good; and I tried some coffee and Baileys and thought that was good as well. Don't worry though I will have a pint when I go to Ireland this weekend. I may not like it, but I'll do it to keep my Irish ancestors from rolling in their graves.

After dinner we went to see the RSC's production of Romeo and Juliet and while I thought it was pretty good I don't think that it was amazing. And I expected a little bit more out of the premier Shakespeare company in the world. I did think the lighting and the sound for the show was amazing, but the acting left something to be desired. Tomorrow in my Shakespeare class we are commenting on it and I'm going to rip it apart which will undoubtedly bring about argument and will end with me getting some scathing looks from other students and possibly the professor. But really, when you get to the end of the play and you just want R & J to kill themselves to get it over with... I'd say somebody isn't doing their job right, and I don't think it's Will's problem. 

Well I'm off to get some more work done, but I'll leave you with these immortal words.

"I wish you well and so I take my leave,

I pray you know me when we meet again"

Cheers!

Photo Journal

My shutterfly website is: http://hannahsullivan.shutterfly.com 

Lincoln Trip!

So today we had our first British Studies trip. In addition to our lectures and our seminars they take us on a few trips over the course of the semester to plays that played a special significance or coincide with what we are studying at that time. So today, we went to Lincoln. Which is a little town about an hour away by coach. Lincoln's claim to fame is it's Cathedral, which is one of the most beautiful in England. There also is a castle there that was built around the time of William the Conquerer. 

When we left this morning it was bitterly cold and spitting rain. Nasty! The coaches were late, of course, and there was a great rush to get us all out of there when they finally did arrive. Because there were 144 of us we were split up into 4 groups when we got to Lincoln. The first thing my group was supposed to tour was the Roman Ruins. Apparently when the Romans were here, roughly 42 AD- 407 AD they had a settlement here. We saw a few gate remains, a couple walls and an amazing arch. You could stay that stones are stones, but when you are walking under an arch that has been standing without fail for almost 2000 years and you think about all the millions of other people who have also walked beneath that arch... well, it changes things a little. Unfortunately for our entire tour of the Roman Ruins it was freezing and raining so it was not as interesting as it might have been were it better weather. After that we had 2 hours to kill until  our next tour so a few of us went to a pub called Magna Carta, where we had lunch.  After lunch we just milled about Lincoln, which is a charming little market town. After lunch we got to tour the castle, which was incredible and we saw one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. In the document there are no capital letters and no punctuation and it was all written in a form of Latin shorthand so I honestly have no idea how they were able to translate it.

After that they took us over to the Lincoln Cathedral which was absolutely stunning, and enormous! It was originally Roman Catholic, but like almost all churches in England was switched over to Anglican with he reign of Henry VIII. The Cathedral is also incredibly unique because it includes 3 major forms of architecture. It has Norman-Angle columns and Romanesque arches; It has early gothic windows and more slender columns, and it has lots of decorative architecture it it's huge stain glass windows and thin fluted columns. If you ever come to England a day trip to Lincoln is a must. 

I have also started up a website devoted just to my pictures so please go there if you are interested in seeing more pictures. But I will post a few here from my Lincoln Trip.

Jan 21st- Good morning, America!

So first of all I was awakened this morning at a very early hour, 7am, by the most horrible high pitched siren I have ever heard. It was the fire alarm. It was SO loud. My roommates and I hurriedly grabbed jackets and keys and headed for the door. I should note here that this was a drill. They have to do a fire drill one: because I'm sure it's the law; and two: because this building is made mostly... almost entirely of wood and plaster it will light up like a match and be a pile of rocks smoldering before you can say "United States of America". So anyway we were moving through the house with all the other disgruntled students and the way we tried to exit was blocked (obviously by the fire) and so we had to walk to the other end of the manor and exit through the conservatory and out to the front circle. It was bitterly cold and most people were wearing shorts and flip-flops because that's all they had time to grab. When the fire alarm is going off you don't really have the time to consider which ensemble would look best. So we all traipsed out to the front oval and had to check in with our RA. After about 20 minutes they informed us it was a drill. DUH! And they said that there were still students wandering around the manor at 4 and 1/2 minutes and that it we HAD to be out of the building within five minutes of the alarm going off or we were toast, literally. They also said dozens of people were still missing so we needed to care to find other routes out of the manor because the way would not always be clear. After al this they invited us to go in and have breakfast early. Psh. Breakfast was the last thing on my mind. My head hurt so much from the high-pitched siren. 

So that was this morning; but what is more important is what happened yesterday. Yesterday afternoon at 4pm students and faculty alike gathered in every room that had televisions to watch the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America. I was camped out in our bistro where they had set up a projection screen and the pub part of the bistro was open. Surprisingly I don't think anyone availed themselves to it... atleast not at that time. So we all watched in excited silence as the Vice President was sworn in seamlessly; and then as the evidently very nervous President of the United States was sworn in. Those of us who are a bit more cultured thoroughly enjoyed Aretha Franklin's performance and I have to say I personally loved John Williams piece. This moment in history will probably be the one that defines my lifetime. The induction of an Kenyan-American man into the office of President, possibly the most powerful position in the entire world. We were talking about it in my Women and Politics class the other day and I think some people don't realize what an amazing accomplishment this is. This isn't just for African-Americans or minorities or any other group that has been oppressed publicly. This man's achievement is a reflection of the freedom in America. It shows that the people DO have a choice and that that choice is not only a right, but a privilege. We read an article in my Women and Politics class that was about Virginia Minor who was a woman from Missouri who voted and then was arrested. She took her case to the U.S. Supreme Court and do you know what they told her... "Tough luck. You may be  citizen, but not all citizens are voters". It was at this time that the Woman's Rights movement changed tactics, but it because of them and the constant efforts of those who have come before us that we have the right today to elect who we please. Thousands of people have died for the freedom this country represents and yesterday we were shown that no matter how our country may falter and stumble we still have the unalienable right to choice and freedom. 

Needless to say there were tears shed around the room and spontaneous eruptions of applause and at the end there were smiles and hugs around the room. We may be young idealistic college students, but when you are thousands of miles from your home where you don't have any of those rights because you are just a visiter, you come to appreciate what you have in your native land. I voted this year in my first Presidential election and I think I kicked my whole voting career off in a good way by voting for the dude that won. 

Happy January 21st!

London-Day 4

Finally!

So today was probably one of the best days, but really only in the morning. So after we got up we had to check out but we were allowed to leave our luggage locked up at the hostel. Some people made the foolish decision of going down to St. Paul's Cathedral for "mass" thinking it was a Catholic church. Nuh uh. Nope. Did everyone seriously fall asleep in history class and miss the whole Church of England/ Anglican thing? wow. But 4 of us did not go and instead went up to the Abbey Road Studios. It was really hard to get there because on the weekends they shut entire lines down to work on them and so we had to take this really roundabout way and we weren't sure if we were going the right way because this area was off of all of our maps so it was the blind leading the blind but we discovered how charming London can be when you aren't in the center of all the tourist craziness. We were in a neighborhood called... um I actually don't remember the name, but it really pretty. There was no-one on the footpaths and so we didn't have to worry about running into anyone or any pickpocketing us and the sun was out and the sky was blue so it was gorgeous. The neighborhood around it was quiet and it had the lovely lazy Sunday morning feel to it. When I go back to London I hope to spend more time up in that area. We saw the studios, which are pretty small actually... or atleast it looks that way from the outside. We signed the walls outside the studio and had our picture taken by this lovely French family as we crossed the famous Abbey Road crosswalk. It was kind of cool to think that we were walking on the same ground as the Beatles. 

After that we started walking down the street looking for a bus stop where we could hitch a ride to a tube station. We met this lovely English woman who helped us figure out how to get back to Knightsbridge, which is near Harrods which is where we were meeting for lunch. So we took a ride on the famous double decker buses and we got on a train towards Harrods. I actually had lunch from Harrods from their grocery store part (remember it's like Wal-Mart except for the exceptionally rich). I had a delicious piece of goat cheese and spinach quiche for 2 pounds. It was amazing. After lunch we walked around the area near Harrod's until we got too cold and tired to walk anymore. Again we couldn't find anywhere to sit and be warm at the same time so we hopped back on the tube towards our hostel and went to a patisserie near our hostel. We still had several hours till we were supposed to meet before leaving to go back home to Harlaxton so we just went back to the hostel and took naps in the lounge. We all met up again, had dinner at a little Italian restaurant down the street from our hostel and headed out for Kings Cross Station. Once we got there we had loads of time till our train so we went to Platform 9 3/4 which was lots of fun. We all had our picture taken and then relaxed until our train left. 1 hour later we were pulling up at the Grantham Train Station, platform 2. We had to wait a little while for our taxis to arrive, but we were all home in the manor by 10:20pm. 

So to recap: 11 kids made to London and back without the help of any adult, we walked the streets of London that have outlasted even fires. We saw that the queen was home and figured she was probably spying on us. We met more people who didn't speak English than did. I took exactly 336 pictures and I would have taken more had it not been so cold and my camera hard to access. We almost got run over several times and survived every time. We spent more money than we probably should have, but didn't spend nearly as much as the kids from school. We discovered some little known places and found some places we definitely want to come back to. We didn't even scratch the surface of London, but we know we'll be back. We had fun and we learned alot which goes to show that education really extended to outside the classroom. 

Speaking of classroom I have to go start working on my Shakespeare presentation, argh, so I'll leave you here. 

Enjoy!

London-Day 3

So we woke up Saturday morning with ambitious looks on our faces. Actually, it was more like "are we really going to walk 5 or 6 more miles today?!". We packed up our stuff and headed out to Leicester Square in search of some West End tickets. Originally we were going to try and see Chicago, not for it's stellar plot and phenomenal actors, but more for the fact that one of our professors at UE was the associate scenic designer. He's kind of a big deal. Anyway, we got there and discovered to our dismay that the cheapest seats for Chicago were 30 pounds and none of us was willing to spend that much on that show. SO... we did some looking and finally decided to go see The 39 Steps instead. I actually worked for the stage manager who is currently stage managing the Broadway production. Deciding to go to 39 Steps was the better decision by far, but I'll tell you more about that later. So after we got our tickets we hung out in the little Leicester Square park for awhile and then split up into two groups. One group was going to take the Tube out west to the Portobello Market and the other was going to take a short train ride to the Camden Market. I chose to go to Portobello market and I personally think I made the better decision. So we had to take this totally round about way to get to the Portobello Market which is near Notting Hill if any of you know where that is. So this market... is like a flea market on steroids and heroine except it is full of really class, upscale stuff at ridiculously low prices. I was talking to a booth owner and he said that it's even larger on Sundays and that some people have had a booth there for 30 years, so this is no 21st century invention. This stuff is old school. They have everything from handmade jewelry that is one of a kind to off the beaten path designers, to antique stuff, to impossible to find vinyls. They have food from everwhere including fresh fruit, really really fresh fish and bread that literally just got out of the oven. They have jackets and scarves for miles and silver tea sets and typical touristy souvenir things. If you can imagine it they have it. There were hundreds upon hundreds off booths that took up almost this entire neighborhood. It was incredible. You could spend a whole weekend there and still not be able to stop at every booth. Almost immediately after we got there we got separated from each other, but we had made a plan to meet back at the tube station in time to take it down the the British Museum to meet up with the other group. I was with my friend Dani and she and I barely got half way through when we had to stop looking at stuff and book it towards the end of the Market. Even when we stopped looking and just walked we didn't make it to the tube on time. I definitely plan to go back there as many times as possible. 

We made it to the tube station about 10 minutes after we were supposed to and so we just hopped on because we figured the other group would figure it out. We arrived at the Tottenham Court Road station 15 minutes later and walked another 10 minutes to the British Museum. The British Museum is another hopeless case. It is huge and you couldn't get through it if you even tried. I think we saw 3 exhibits and that is pathetic when you understand the size and scope of the museum. We were so exhausted from walking so we kept it simple by going to the see Ancient Egypt exhibit and the Greek Pantheon exhibit as well as part of the Mesopotamia exhibit. I know you'll hate me, but I didn't take many pictures because it was pointless. The museum is SO overwhelming and everywhere you turn there is more stuff and it just starts to give you a headache. So I kept the pictures to a very very bare minimum, but includes the Rosetta Stone and a few statues from the Pantheon and some of the Book of the Dead. So after all this we crashed on the floor of the British Museum and waited for others to finish up and meet us. We all went to dinner at this pub called The Plough and after dinner we headed to the theatre for 39 Steps. We could have taken the tube, but we decided to walk instead. Yes, we are fools.

The show was incredible and before curtain I met these 3 lovely English gentlemen who were sitting behind me. They were three brothers who got together for the day to go to a boat show down the river and then came up to see a theatre show. They were charming and witty and half the time I couldn't understand a word they were saying because their English accents were so thick and they were speaking so fast. They told me that Grantham doesn't have a good crop of good looking young men and that I should hit up Nottingham instead. We had a lovely chat and they were so kind even though I am American. 

After the show we went back to the hostel and decided to stay in for the night because we were all exhausted. We sat around talking in the lounge. Oh wait, we did go down the street to a little coffee shop/ internet café because we were starving. I don't know what it is in the food over here, but it leaves you less full and so you get hungry every 3 or 4 hours. Anyway, while we were there there was a torrential downpour and so on our way back to the hostel we got soaked to the bone. AFTER that we called it a night.

So I guess this means end of day 3.

London-Day 2

So we woke up this morning at 9 and had breakfast at the hostel before heading out. 

We had planned to go on a free walking tour of London, but when we got held up at the Royal Albert Hall because the kids who had arrived later wanted to see Quidam and so we had to go get tickets for them. When we arrived at Hyde Park Circle where the tour was supposed to meet we couldn't find the "people". To be fair we were a little late, but there were alot of other people there standing around, looking like they were waiting for a tour, but no tour guide appeared. So we decided that we would make our own tour and started walking towards Buckingham Palace. It was FREEZING, but the park we walked through was quite pretty. When we arrived at the Palace they just happened to be doing a changing of the guard, we had no idea this would be happening, and so we stopped and watched for awhile. It was a MESS, to put it mildly. There were so many people you couldn't see a thing and there was security all over the place, obviously, so you could barely lift a finger without someone giving you the glare. So, sadly I don't really have that many pictures because as you all know I am vertically challenged and I wasn't willing to shove people around to get a good view of men in skirts marching around like pompous knights of the round table. The palace is surprisingly bare and plain looking and I think my own home, Harlaxton, is much prettier than the palace The Queen lives in. We stayed there longer than I wanted because one of our friends felt she needed to record everything and in case you didn't know after they change the guard they march around the courtyard while the band plays dramatic music. It is not all its cracked up to be, so if you are ever in London... Skip it! Finally we managed to tear her away from the gates and we continued on towards Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. We walked down past the infantry palace where there were more marching exercises going on and it was alot funnier to watch these guys who I'm guessing haven't graduate to the status of being able to march in the public displays.

So we walked and walked and walked and eventually got down to the Westminster area. First: Big Ben is alot smaller than you think, but is still beautiful and awesome to look at. Second: Westminster Abbey is not Catholic. All my friends make the incorrect assumption thinking it was and I informed them that we couldn't go to mass there on Sunday because the church is Anglican. Am I the only one that studied history in high school? Geez. Westminster is beautiful on the outside, but I wasn't overwhelmed by it's beauty, just it's size. We didn't go inside because it cost lots of money, but perhaps I will on another visit to London. Then we crossed the street to see Parliament, which was closed because none of the dudes were there. Sad day! I will have to come back on a day where it will actually be in session so I can go inside. The Parliament building is amazing. The sheer number of windows it has is crazy and the architecture of the building is awe-inspiring. After mulling around Parliament for awhile we walked along the Thames trying to decide where to go for lunch. We wanted to stay close to the Westminster tube stop because we had to catch the tube to get back to Hyde Park for the Cirque show. We had lunch in a tiny burn and turn restaurant (for those of you who don't know what a burn and turn restaurant is it's a place that just likes to get you in and feed you and get you out as soon as possible to get other people in). Despite its atmosphere I had the best sandwich I think I have ever had in my life: Brie, Avocado, Lettuce and Bacon. It was delicious. After lunch we had some time so we walked towards Trafalger Square but never made it all the way there because we had to turn back to get back to the Tube in time. 

So here is probably our biggest adventure of the whole trip!!!! So those of us that were going to see Quidam went down under the ground to the tube platform. We knew what train we were supposed to get on and we were shocked to see that it was insanely crowded on the platform. Apparently there was extra traffic and line closers/ problems so they were asking people to seek alternate routes. Well for us there was no alternate route, it was this station or a taxi or walking and we definitely didn't have enough time to walk. Well the train was late and it was already packed to the gills, like sardines, when it arrived and so only 2 of us could get on. We made the mistake of separating because we thought that the next train would be along in a minute or two but it wasn't. It was now 2:25 and the show started at 3pm. ahhh! We waited as long as we thought we could and no train showed up so we ran. Yes, we ran. We ran through the tub station and we ran up the longest escalator I have ever seen and we ran out into the streets of downtown London praying to God that we would be able to find a taxi. It was so scary and exciting at the same time. We must have good Karma because we emerged  from the tube station and just by sheer luck we were able to hail a taxi from across the street by having all 6 of us wave our arms frantically in the air. We all piled in out of breath and high off of our crazy adventure. Our lovely taxi driver took us right to the theatre and bid us farewell by telling us to enjoy the show. Now this whole taxi ride we were praying that the 2 kids who had made in on the tube wouldn't wait for us in the station and just start walking because by this time it was almost 2:50pm. We decided it would do no good to wait for them outside the theatre and so we all just went in and found our seats. Miraculously they showed up a few minutes before curtain saying that when we didn't arrive a few minutes later they assumed we would just fend for ourselves and they weren't going to miss the show on our account. So all of this craziness led up to the best theatrical show I have ever seen in my life. It was spectacle with feats unimaginable and music that hit you right in the heart. It had a story and plot and it's hard to explain so if you are interested just look it up online. But anyway, after the show we were all left stunned and couldn't stop talking about it as we walked to Harrods. Upon arrival there we learned that Harrods didn't like the unwashed masses such as us and we ate dinner at a little place across the street. Afterwards we walked around Harrods under the watchful eye of lots of men in black tuxes and funny hats. I have never felt so poor in all my life. We were surrounded by Oscar De La Renta dresses (google it), diamonds that cost more than a year of my education. There was children's Dior and Prada shows that cost upwards of $14,000. They have EVERYTHING there. It's like Wal-Mart except for the richest people in the world. They were having their once a year sale and so a pair of jeans that is normally 800 pounds was only 200. Big whoop!

We left Harrods at 8 and headed back to the hostel. We picked up our other friends and headed back towards SoHo, for what purpose I know not. Some people wanted to go clubbing but a few of us just wanted to find a quiet pub to sit in because we had been walking ALL DAY and our feet hurt and we were tired. Well, let me tell you that quiet pubs with places to sit don't exist in SoHo, and I'm not sure if they exist in London as a whole. We left the rest of our friends in SoHo and walked around London just trying to find a pub that would have a place to sit and we couldn't find anywhere. We walked for 2 HOURS and found nothing. At one point we were just going to get on the next bus we saw and go wherever it took us. We ended up walking from Tottenham Court Road all the way to the Leicester Square tube station and at that point we boarded the tube to go in search of a pub somewhere else. We finally found one, but it was closing in half an hour so we said forget it and tried to find our way back to our hostel walking. We were in place that wasn't on any of our maps, but fortunately I knew what direction we needed to walk and another girl had a compass so we were able to find our way back to the hostel. We got home and almost immediately went to bed because we were all exhausted.

End of day 2. 

London-Day 1

So I know I'm skipping a few days last week but that's okay. If you are really interested in what happened bug me and I'll tell you. Also, there won't be any pictures posted with these because I took over 330 pictures, BUT I will put up some London pictures at some time, somewhere. 

Okay, so I got out of class on Thursday at 11:30 and ate a hurried breakfast followed by a quick taxi ride to the train station. The Grantham train station is this cute little 2 platform station with a small station house with a little café type area for people to get a bite to eat and sit in the warmth. We got there about 45 minutes before our train was schedule to arrive so we sat in the café and studied for Shakespeare because most of us have a 15 to 20 minute presentation in that class this coming week. YIKES!!! I am doing a presentation with 2 other theatre students about film and Shakespeare in the context of Romeo and Juliet and how Shakespeare translates from words on a page to images on a screen. Anyway, the train arrived on time and we boarded heading south towards London. I wasn't sitting with any of my friends, but I was sitting next to two lovely elderly English gentlemen. There was an English woman sitting across the aisle from me who was heading into London because her daughter and been "knocked down" by a car. Despite the tragedy she was living through she was very upbeat and asked if she and I knew each other and when I told her that was impossible because I just arrived in the country a few days previous, she told me that I had a lovely face. So anyway, the train ride was pretty short, about an hour, and in now time we pulled into Kings Cross Station. We all got off and were shunted off the platform like confused fish. We figured out we had to get Oyster cards and so that took awhile, but after that we hopped on the Tube (Picadilly line) and headed towards our hostel. London's underground is pretty much identical to New York's except cleaner and less dodgy, so I won't describe it in much detail. We got off in South Kensington and walked a couple blocks to our hostel. Our hostel is a youth hostel with alot of character. Most of the employees are from Australia and New Zealand, but their cliental consists of people from all over the world. Most of us were staying in different rooms, but 4 of the 11 were in the same room so that was comforting. When we got there on Thursday we had three other roommates. Two guys in their early to mid twenties from Australia and a English girl from Devon who is up in London for 6 weeks doing an internship. I think that there are several people at the hostel who stay there for extended period of time/ maybe live there.

Anyway, we dropped our stuff off and decided to take a walk because the rest of our group (4 other people) wouldn't arrive until 6pm. We walked down Cromwell street that runs right in front of our hostel towards the Natural History Museum and the V & A museum. The Natural History Museum is gorgeous! We didn't go inside, but the outside of it is exquisite, just wait for the pictures. The V & A (Victoria and Albert) Museum is also pretty stunning. We didn't go in there either, but instead walked up Exhibition Road towards Hyde Park. We walked past the Imperial University London, yeah I know it's a weird name, and when we got to Hyde Park we headed west. We came upon the Royal Albert monument right across the street from the Royal Albert Hall, which is a multi-purpose performance space. The monument is incredibly ornate and shows Albert as a golden ruler surrounded by the people of the world and the sects of his own society such as the merchants, agriculturalists, scholars etc. We walked over to the Royal Albert Hall and discovered that Quidam, the Cirque de Soleil show was currently playing and we could get tickets to the matinee for the next day for only 17 pounds. We all decided we wanted to go see it and so we got tickets. Afterwards we walked back to our hostel via another street... not sure of the name, but it was a street lined with embassies for other countries, most outside of Europe. We hung out at the hostel until the rest of our friends arrived and then we headed off in search of dinner because were all starving by this point. We found a pub, The Earls Court Tavern, and had lovely dinner there. After dinner we walked back to the hostel and decided that we wanted to go to SoHo later that night so we jumped on the tube up to Tottenham Court Road (Harry Potter reference: Book 7). I don't really know how to describe SoHo to you because it's not like anything I've ever experienced. It's a combination of clubs and pubs and patisseries and shady looking places and beautiful architecture and people hassling you to go to clubs and people EVERYWHERE! It made me wonder where the youth of London goes to party/ hangout because most of the people we saw there were mid to late twenties some pushing the 30 year mark. We went to a couple different pubs/ clubs but for the most point it was pretty disappointing. As you will learn on day 3 I have real doubts about the pub scene in London, for various reasons. Anyway some of us decided to leave SoHo and go back home to the hostel. A few stayed to hit up a few more places but the majority of us went home. When we got back to the hostel we talked to one of our roommates, Sam from Melborne, Australia for a little while before we called it a night.

And so ends my first day in London.

P.S. The hostel beds were amazing!!!

First Day of School

So yesterday, Monday, was the first day of classes at Harlaxton. Every Harlaxton student is required to take a six credit hour class called British Studies. In essence it is a cultural, historical, and social study of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and Northern Ireland. On this, our first of British Studies our lecture focused on What it means to be British versus what it means to be English because they are too very different things that most people often confuse and use incorrectly. Many stereotypes and global images of Britain come from the English and are, in fact, English and not British. Because Great Britain actually includes not only England but also Northern Ireland, Whales and Scotland. So to say someone has a British accent is to be very vague and probably incorrect. Most people, Americans actually, assume that what is British is English. Not so. So that, was the basis of our lecture. There were alot of hairy dates thrown out about the forming of the United Kingdom in 1707, but I won't bore you with those details. 

So for this British Studies business we have lecture every Monday and Wednesday at 8:30am. This is followed by a Seminar with our individual groups at 11am. The purpose of the seminar is to break the 144 students down into more manageable discussion groups. There are 4 British studies professors at each teaches two groups. I have Dr. Helen Snow, who also happens to be the Shakespeare professor here at Harlaxton. Professor snow is your typical "English" woman with a humble appearance, a bad memory for names, and a very quick wit. I have no doubt that even though British Studies will probably be hardest class I will ever take in my four years of undergraduate work, that she will make the class very delightful. On the very first day she assigned us homework, which was that we all had to do group presentations on the Norman Conquest on Wednesday. I'm not kidding when I said this class was hard. I am, however, done with classes every day by 12 0'clock so I have plenty of time in the afternoons to work on homework. 

After class yesterday I did the reading for British Studies (from now on referred to as BS) on Wednesday and wrote up the notes I would give to my group because I would not be able to make it to the meeting that night. That night I went to dinner with my Meet-A-Family in Grantham. My parents here are Zyggy and Merle and they are a delightful old couple who have been in Grantham for some time now, but herald from vastly different parts of the world. Zyggy was born in England after his dad immigrated here leaving Poland during the war. His father went on to fight for the Royal British Army in the war and met and married Zyggy's mum in England. Merle was born in South Africa and both her parents were world champion ballroom dancers. At some point Merle came up to England where she met Zyggy. They have lived both in England and in Ireland and now live in a little "town" outside of Grantham. They are both charming and I can't wait to get to know them better. 

After returning from a lovely evening with them I hit the books again and started doing research for my trip to Paris in February. As of right now it looks like I will be in Paris on Valentine's Day and in Nice the next weekend for Le Carnival (aka Mardi Gras). The only thing that would change that plan is if our trip to Norway has to be moved to the Valentine's Day weekend. I'll keep you posted. Also, last night I booked all my arrangements to Cork and so I will be spending the end of the month in Cork, Ireland which is on the South coast of Ireland. We are spending two nights over there and plan to see the Mizen Head Cliff and perhaps take a day trip up to Dublin for some proper Guinness. 

The manor really is spectacular rain or shine so here are some pictures of the exterior on Monday when it was a little rainy outside. 

Orientated Out!

Last night we had the High Table Principal Feast or Dinner or whatever it is called. And for the first and probably the last time they served us exquisite food. Prior to our dinner we had "mingle" time in the Great Hall where they served us the Harlaxton concoction of Rose wine, gingerale and lemonade. It was much to sweet for my taste, but the only other option was Orange Juice. So we were led in by the BagPiper of Harlaxton, a man named Billy James, I think. During dinner all the faculty and their families were introduced and the Principal made a little speech about the incredible opportunities we have at Harlaxton. 

After that we all changed out of our "smart dress" and planned to walk down the drive (a little over a mile) to a pub right outside the Harlaxton estate. However, The Gregory, the pub we were trying to go to, was closed. So we walked all the way back to the Manor in the cold and proceeded to hire taxis to take us into town to a pub called The Goose. I have to say it was intensely disappointing. It was so Americanized and I felt so embarrassed to be an American because now I know where people get their perceptions of Americans. Here were 40 American college students being the loud and obnoxious people that they unconsciously are. We left early because we decided to op out of the clubbing. We weren't feeling it. We were a little  worried we wouldn't be able to find a taxi but we hailed one and were soon puttering back towards Harlaxton. Our taxi driver was so nice and really helpful about places to go and places not to go in Grantham. Once we got back to the manor we called one of our friends back in Evansville through Skype and talked to him for a long while. We finally called it a night, but not after we had some pretty sketch pizza delivered to us. Meh, food is food and when you're really hungry you'll eat almost anything. 

Sunday morning we got to sleep in much later and we went to an orientation session after lunch. Then we had our joining procedures which involved signing a contract and those kinds of things. We had dinner and then after dinner we had meetings with our British Studies professors. Mine happens to also be my Shakespeare professor and from the looks of the class it should be pretty interesting. And now here I am. We just got back from an escapade of exploring the manor for secret passageways. We found several good ones and we also found some stuff that 2 past students had left to me and a friend of mine. 

Now I'm just settling back for evening before I have to get up at the crack of dawn for class. 

Talk to you soon!

-H

I Woke Up In A Castle- Day 2

The last time I left you I was about to head out to the Bistro, Harlaxton's in house pub. Now don't be concerned that I've become a drunkard... not yet. Because Harlaxton is a University of Evansville campus that means that it is also a "dry" campus. We do have the Bistro which is technically on campus, but after an incident a few years ago they made Harlaxton a "dry" campus outside of the Bistro. So anyway, we went down to the Bistro last night and had a jolly good time with some of the professors and students from other universities. We turned in at about 21:30 or what would be 9:30pm your American Central Time. I have 3 other roommates so it took a little longer to get to sleep than one would have anticipated, but I finally got to sleep about woke up this morning at 8am, your 2am. I felt surprisingly refreshed and I've been doing good all day so I guess it's true when they say that you should just stay away once you get there and it will immediately set you on the new time standard. We had convocation this morning which was basically an introduction of all the professors and a statement from the principal about how amazing Harlaxton is and how we are here to work first and foremost. After that I took my hardworking self up to the library and switch my British Studies class to an easier class where I would not have to do as much work. I really am a good student, I promise. 

We had some more orientation things and then lunch which consisted of a salad. Yumm! It is absolutely true what everyone says about English food. It lacks in flavor and unless you have a keen interest in having fish and chips everyday you are out of luck. Needless to say I am definitely looking forward to our High Table Dinner tonight with the principal. The menu includes a caesar salad, and chicken with pesto!!!! I know you, mom, probably don't want to hear this, but it looks like I will be getting a bitter thinner during my stay in Cheery Olde England. 

After lunch we took the bus, coach actually, into Grantham for a little shopping. Most of us had to get notebooks and such because their stationary standards are different over here. For instance, they don't have 3 hole punched paper, it's either 4 or 2 holes. Their mechanical pencils are also different. I'm not sure how many types of mechanical pencils you can have in the world, but apparently there's a difference between the American pencils and the British pencils. After procuring the pencils and such we wandered around Grantham and found a pub to warm up in. The 4 other students I was with ordered drinks though I did not. There was practically no-one there other than what seemed like some regulars. It also appeared to be a "young crowd" type of pub because the 4 other guys there were probably in their early to mid twenties... granted it was 14 hundred hours (2 in the afternoon). After our nice long stay at the pub we milled around Grantham for a little bit and then headed back to the bus park to be picked up by the shuttle. We arrived back here and I went to meet my Meet-A-Family dad. He's a wonderful elderly gentleman who used to be a shuttle driver but now works security. Most of the security officers are retired policemen, but I'm not sure about Zyggy, that's his name. Anyway, he seems like a wonderful guy and I will be meeting his wife Merle later in the week. They have one other student they have "adopted" this semester and she happens to also be a theatre major from the University of Evansville. 

Anyway, It's almost 18:00 and I need to get ready for our dinner tonight, but I'll keep you guys updated on what's going on over here.

-H

The Red Coats Are Coming!

After taking a 49 minute flight from St. Louis to Chicago I sat on the floor at O'Hare International Airport for about four and a half hours. If you've never had to sit in an airport for four and a half hours before I'm letting you know now... it's not fun. Patience has never been my forte and that was shown today while sitting in line for four hours to check in with the sassy ladies on Virgin Atlantic. I don't know what kind of training or education you go through to become a flight checker-iner; but the Virgin Atlantic clerks are not your average comfortably lump American Airlines checker-iner. The Virgin Atlantic staff wears lipstick red skirt suits with black stockings, high heels and full length red wool coats. If I was ever to quit theatre and join the world of commercial airline travel I would refuse to work for anyone other than Virgin Atlantic. Not only do the ladies strut their stuff, but the men do too. In case you were wondering they wear red vests that have purple silk backs and long black wool coats. So basically they are stylin'. 

So I sat there for four hours and contemplated the meaning of life and how large O'Hare airport is and after four hours I boarded a plane holding 300 people and then sat there on the plane for almost 2 hours before we took off. Now I understand that it takes a while to board 300 people, but when take-off time comes and goes and no one is boarding any longer and we are just sitting there for over an hour before anything is announced... well that's just ridiculous. Finally, finally we took off and were served a delectable meal of who knows what. On the bright side the grey stuff I consumed did not make me sick. :-) Now for most passengers dinner was followed by being lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the plane, but in my section we had not one, but two infants who are apparently going through the stage of teething  and therefore cried the ENTIRE flight. I was able to get a little shut eye, but once we got out over the Atlantic ocean we hit some pretty rough turbulents that didn't let up until we hit the coast of Ireland. 

After arriving in Heathrow and disembarking we were all dragged through immigration where we had to answer a bunch of questions about why we were here and how long we would be here and what we were studying, etc. I must have said the right thing, because I now have a stamp in my passport and I was waved through to baggage claim. Finally we had to go through customs which was totally anticlimactic; and what'dya know but customs ends in a spirits store before emptying out into the arrival area. Typical! We all got checked in again and then put on coaches, not busses, and bounced off towards Grantham. Due to everyone's lack of sleep most of us slept for a majority of the ride to Grantham, but every now and then I did open my eyes and let me tell you that all I saw was grey (or 'gray' if you prefer it that way). I also opened my eyes at one point to see everything around me covered in white powdery stuff, my heart skipped a beat thinking that perhaps Harlaxton would be blanketed in snow, but alas it is not. We finally pulled into Grantham and as we were approaching we could see the manor off in the distance. Although everything is pretty dead and grey here it looked stunning with the fog hanging over the moor and the manor. As I was sitting at the front of the bus and our bus was the first to arrive I was the first student to step through the doors of Harlaxton for the Spring semester of 2009. Woo!!! The entry way is phenomenal. After our orientation tonight I'll try to take some more pictures to show you, but pictures cannot in any way due this building justice. It is an architects dream as well as most princes and princesses. My room is on the fifth floor and it looks out the front of Harlaxton over the front circle and down the mile long road between the manor and the front gate house. I took some pictures tonight of the sunsetting and whoever said that England is old and dreary needs to seriously have their head examined. We've already discovered some secret passage ways and heard about ghosts haunting the manor, but I'll have to figure that out for myself in due time. Tonight we all have orientation, but after that I think we'll probably go to the Bistro to relax and for those who care to, throw back a few pints and then perhaps go exploring. Let me make it quite clear that I have been up for over 24 hours straight... approaching 31 and I'm so excited to be here you couldn't force me to go to sleep. 

I hope all is well. 

-H