An English Education

Stratford-Upon-Avon and Driving a Car!

2010-05-19T21:05:00.003+01:00

Last week our entire program spent three days in Stratford-Upon-Avon... the town where Shakespeare lived. We saw three shows, all put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The first was Antony and Cleopatra, which, if I'm being honest, was kind of terrible. I know, who am I to judge the RSC, but I was just so bored. I just didn't think it was acted very well and the fact that the dress of the characters kept switching time periods confused the crap out of me. So, I was not expecting anything particularly wonderful when we saw Romeo and Juliet on the second night. It was fantastic!!!! They modernized the two main characters but left the rest traditional. The actors were ridiculously good, it was amazing to watch! This was the night, however, when catastrophe struck.
Okay, so you all remember the epic tale of that terrible phone that I got. Well, this night I have never hated that phone so much! So before the show, everyone is turning their phones off and I do the same. I even made a comment to one of the girls in my program about 'not being that girl' whose phone goes off in the middle of the production. So... about half way through the second act, the phone starts ringing. I just about fainted I was so mortified. I fumbled around in my bag and finally found it and hit as many buttons as I could get my hands on until it stopped ringing. About ten minutes later, it goes off again... of course. I shut if off again and put the phone under my thigh with my finger on the power button (for optimum shutting off speed). The show ended without the stupid thing going off again, and no one could really tell that it was mine, but I was still completely embarrassed and annoyed with myself for letting it happen. The next night, I took the battery out before the show... problem solved. The third day we saw the matinee of King Lear, which was alright. The acting was very good, impressive, but the show is three and a half hours long... and who can sit through that without wondering when the end will come.These first two pictures are from our trip, on the second day, to Anne Hathoway's Cottage (Shakespeare's wife, not the actress). It was English in idyllic in every sense of the word! The house was old and adorable and the gardens were absolutely beautiful, I had a really nice time!

Tonight we are sitting at dinner, a few housemates and I and a guy who one of them is seeing and I mention that I haven't gotten to drive a car. One of the goals that I made before coming to England was to get to drive a car... with the steering wheel on the wrong side! So the boy offered to let me drive his car after dinner! I was so excited... and I didn't even crash into anything! It was a little weird, because the stick shift was on the other side and my parking skills were a little off, but it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't trust myself enough, so I told him that I just wanted to drive around in a parking lot... but it was still wicked fun!!!
When we were walking home, the sun was setting and the Pultney Bridge looked so pretty, so I decided to take a picture of it. I love England and I'm really going to miss it, but I'm excited to see all of you when I get home!

Jane Austen

2010-04-27T23:18:00.002+01:00

On Friday day the Jane Austen classes took a day trip about the life of Jane! First we all went to Winchester, to the places where Jane spent her last few months. We saw the Winchester Cathedral, where her tombstone is (above) and they also had a nice little exhibit with some of the letters she wrote to her brothers. It was actually nice to be able to see her handwriting and the stone that her family had installed for her. Our professor told us that just before she died the family had lost a considerable amount of money (because the brother who failed at everything, failed most at owning a bank), but that they still paid a considerable amount to give her her own stone. It humanized her to know how much her family cared about her. You all know by now how I feel about cathedrals, but apart from all of the sexism... it wasn't that bad.

After the cathedral we went into the town to supposedly find somewhere to buy lunch. We had all packed lunches, but we found a really adorable vegetable stand and bought some raspberries. Yum!

After that we got back on the bus and drove to Chawton, where Jane spent most of her time when she was writing. First we saw her brother Edward's estate. He's the one that got adopted by a really rich family, because they needed an heir and he needed the money and status (plus they were family friends). The house has been turned into a functioning library by an American donor. It was beautiful, especially the gardens/lawn where we all sat and had our picnic lunches while discussing Jane Auten. It all sounds very English and lovely, I know!

Then we went to the house where Jane Austen lived, with her mother and two sisters after her father died. The house was small, but pretty... in the way that a house turned into a museum is bound to be. The best part, again, was the garden/lawn. I brought my skidmore blanket on the trip (so I could sleep on the bus) but it actually turned out to be much more useful to sit on in the grass and enjoy the beautiful day!

Bath Skyline Walk

2010-04-27T23:03:00.003+01:00

Last weekend there was Bath Skyline Walk trip. A bunch of people from the program all got together and began on the trail that leads around the entire city in an eight mile loop. Mind you, we did not plan to do all of it, but about half was expected. I, suprisingly, remembered to put on sneakers instead of my little flats before we set out, and boy was I glad that I did. What I didn't realize is that the city center of Bath is situated in a giant valley and to be able to walk around the outskirts means that first you have to climb out of the city. I wasn't exactly like hiking Kearsarge, but we did do a fair amount of walking up hill and up stairs and I was glad to have good shoes. We didn't mind the walk though, because now we are in the middle of 'paper weeks' and everyone is so excited to get outside and get a little exercise instead of sitting in the living room and writing (not that I don't love our living room). We all talked about our papers and our lesson plans until we had reached the top of the city. The view was absolutely stunning. You could see the houses lined along the sides of the hills leading into the center with all the churches and the Abbey (of course). There are also air balloons that fly over Bath quite frequently, I know, it's weird, but they made for a very pretty sky view. We walked along for a while and then all went back to doing work, but it was a very nice break!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

2010-04-11T11:47:00.003+01:00

Yesterday, like the past four days, was brilliantly sunny and warmer than it has been all year. In honor of such nice weather my housemate and I decided to go to the farmers market that is open on Saturdays on the other side of the city. While walking over we found the fruit and vegetable stand that is always open in the middle of the square by the big supermarket, so we stopped to look. Low and behold, they had rhubarb stalks in a big box and I just couldn't help myself. I started thinking about the rhubarb plant that used to grow behind our house and how amazing it tasted in the summer, dipped in some brown sugar... so I bought some. I also bought strawberries and enlisted my housemate, who is an amazing cook, in the making of a strawberry rhubarb pie. When we got back to the house, we decided that there wasn't really enough time for pie crust baking, so strawberry rhubarb crumble it was to be!
I was so excited that I ran to the store before it closed to get some oats. Then I found a recipe online and got to it. Our house, being very quirky, has only a stovetop in our actual kitchen. The oven part of the stove is a 1970's or 80's model with a broiler on top and a full oven on the bottom, wedged in next to our washer and drier. The conversion, we have all figured out, is that 350 degrees fahrenheit is 176 degrees celsius. So, Tessa helped me figure out what "cutting in" butter entails, I made the crumble, and put it in the oven. It came out and it was incredible! I highly suggest that all of you follow the recipe that I'm going to post below and make your own because, oh man, it was so good! The house of us, eight girls plus one (who pretty much lives here), finished off the entire thing in one night. So, for anyone who feels the need to eat something amazing today, here it is: Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Recipe! Enjoy!

Rome, Venice, Madrid, and Alicante!

2010-04-06T17:06:00.006+01:00

The pictures are actually in reverse chronological order, but it would take too long to fix, so I will just explain them backwards. We had nine days for our mid semester break so we decided that we would travel to four different cities. We would sleep two nights and have one full day in each.

The first city we saw was Rome, Italy! We flew in on Saturday night, made our way to the hostel and just slept that first night. The next morning we got up early, ate our complimentary breakfast (a hard roll) and set out to do everything possible. First was the Colosseum, gigantic, and probably the oldest thing I have ever seen still standing. It was crazy. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we were all in very high spirits. We signed up for a tour and let this lady lead us around as we pressed little walkie talkies to our ears so we could hear her. I am so glad that we did it though, because I definitely learned a lot. Ready? So did you know that the Romans invented cement? And that they strengthened all those giant granite pillars with steel rods so they wouldn't fall down, but then the emperor didn't like them and made them take our all the rods (leaving big holes in all the pillars). The entire thing was built in eight years by Jewish slaves that they shipped in especially for the occasion. The Latin word for 'sand' is 'rena' and because they coated the entire floor of the building with tons of sand so that it would soak up all the animal and human blood that was spilt, they called the building an 'arena.' Cool right? I know you can find most of this on Wikipedia, but being there in person and learning it was just so amazing. Then we went to the Roman Forum to take the second half of our tour. The city of Rome, as the story is told because all the documents were burnt at some point, was started by Romulus and Remus, two miracle brothers. They were born out of wedlock and so their mother was supposed to be put to death, but instead she hid herself away and when the boys were born she put them in a basket and sent them down a river... (sound familiar to anyone... Moses maybe)... anyway, they were found by a she-wolf (the funny thing being that the word for female wolf and the word for prostitute are the same thing in Latin, so no one really knows which it was) and nursed until they were old enough to venture out on their own. Then they went to Palatine hill and decided to start a great city. Then they fought over which hill they would build it on, had some funny tournament, and one brother killed the other. Then the still living one built the city on his hill.

Then we wet to the Trevi Fountain, where we all made wishes and threw euros into the water... except that I had to throw mine twice, because the first time I didn't throw it at a great angle and it just ended up falling at my feet (skilled, I know). Then we made our way to the Spanish Steps, which is a huge thing of lots of stairs leading to an obelisk and a museum of some sort. They were extremely beautiful, all in granite, and you got a great view of the city from the top. There we sat, on the steps, in the sun and rejuvenated ourselves after all the walking we had just done. A man tried, for a very long time I might add, to sell us some roses, but none of us would budge and eventually we got him to go harass some other people. Then we walked home, got ice cream on the way, and had dinner. We ate a lot of pasta in Italy. I had penne with salmon sauce the first night, which was good, but can not hold a candle to my mom's salmon sauce... sorry Italy. I fell in love with gelato... and you will notice that there is a picture of me eating it in every city that we went to!

The second day we booked it to Vatican City, we even took the Metro. I got yelled at in Italian by some woman whose kid I accidentally stepped on the foot of as we were getting shoved into a too-small subway car. I had no idea what she was yelling about, but she said bambino, so I apologized to her daughter and then she seemed alright. We saw St. Peter's Basilica, absolutely beautiful. We stood in line for the Sistine Chapel for an hour, but the wait was going to take two more and our train left at two, so we got crepes instead! C'est la vie!
The train ride was about four hours long, but it was through the Italian country side, so it was completely worth it. We arrived in Venice at around six, got a map, and preceded to attempt to find our hostel. Two hours later the sun went down, Melissa called the hostel and they gave us directions from the Rialto. We had dinner beside the river and a huge tourist trap... but we got wine and pasta and just enjoyed each other's company. The picture of me with the wine glass is me toasting to you Mom! I asked my housemate to take a picture of it so I could show you.
The next morning we decided that since we had walked so much in Rome we would shop in Venice. We walked all around the tiny, beautiful streets, looking at the masks and the jewelry. I actually saw a man make a necklace of Venetian glass, so pretty! I also saw a man who was making Pinoccio marionettes in a little workshop. We had dinner at a little restaurant that we found. I got a spinach and ricotta croissant, which was huge and delicious. Then we sat on the Rialto bridge and ate chocolate and banana crepes. Then we went back to the hostel to get ready to go out. Just as we were getting dressed, a man came in to tell us that the 'flood warning alarm' was going off and that it would be a good idea if we stayed inside... so we just stayed in and played pool. The next morning we had breakfast and headed for the airport.
The next city was Madrid, Spain. This was the most 'normal' looking city that we had seen so far. We had dinner... where my croquettes got lost in translation and we discovered the trend of Spain service that would continue for the rest of the trip. We met up with another group of girls from our program and took our own version of a walking tour of the city. We shopped a little and looked at the buildings a lot. There were murals and graffiti everywhere... I took a lot of pictures. We got some more ice cream and then decided to go to the museums. The museums in Madrid are free for the two hours before they close every night, the Proda from 6-8 and the Reina Sophia from 7-9. We did the Proda first, the classical museum. I know this is terrible, but we basically spent the entire time noticing the differences between painters renditions of Jesus and Mary... they were in just about every painting. After an hour and a half we go kicked out and made our way to the modern art museum, the Reina Sophia.
Everyone booked it for the Picaso exhibit, but I was not really in the mood, so I took a walk outside in the garden and then just wandered around for a bit. I just have to say that I love modern art! I love that a hundred different people could look at a piece and all find different things about it, all depending on how that particular person is feeling. It's just great! By the end of our museum tour it was getting late and we decided to find a restaurant. The interesting thing about eating in Spain is that you are not supposed to tip because the waiters/waitresses are paid well and so they have no tip incentive... and people are allowed to smoke inside every building in the city. So, no one has to be courteous to you if you are eating out, your food does not have to come in a timely manner, and it never comes all at the same time. Yep, it was definitely interesting every time we sat down for a meal.
The next morning we got up very early, got a taxi and got to the airport for the flight to our last destination.

We arrived in Alicante, Spain at 9:00 in the morning, ready for some heat and sun! We all decided, for our final destination, to splurge a little and stay in a hotel instead of a hostel. IT WAS SO NICE!!!!! We put on dresses, skirts, and bathing suits, and then basically laid on the beach for the next two days. We would eat the AMAZING continental breakfast, and then head for the beach, where we would lay on our towels, reading Jane Austen and listening to music until we all got hungary for lunch, usually around three.
Then we would go get lunch and switch from the beach to the side of the pool until it got chilly. Then we went out to dinner, went back to the hotel, and slept really well in our hotel beds! After two days, very relucantly, we got on a plane and went back to Bath.

It was a wonderful vacation, but we were all very happy to be in England again!

Oxford, Punting, and Palaces

2010-03-26T21:05:00.005Z

Our entire program spent the last week living at University College Oxford.

We took our normal classes with our normal professors (who already are 'tutors' from Oxford), but we lived in the University College dorms and did a bunch of activities.

The most eventful of the activities was probably something called "Punting." It is the picture where I am standing on the back of a boat. The deal is that four people sit in the boat and one person stands on the back and attempts to propel / steer the thing with a really long metal pole. The only issue was that we were only supposed to do it for an hour, but (long story short) we got kind of discombobulated and lost and ended up taking about three. There was even one point where Tessa got out of the boat and Nicole and I took turns sitting in the front, each of us holding an end of the pole as Tessa pulled it along from land.

The food was great in Oxford! Well... not so much at the actual school, but when we went out to eat, it was phenomenal! Our group even got to meet up with my friend Mary (who is going to Oxford this semester) one night for gourmet pizza, which was really nice.

We climbed to the top of the tower on the Church of St Mary the Virgin and got gorgeous views of the entire city.

The last night we had a lovely three course dinner... all fancy and everything. There was goat cheese and roasted figs... followed by steak on baby leeks, potato, and roasted cherry tomatoes... and ending with pear and something desserty thing (that was really really good). We all got dressed up, and attempted to eat with the correct fork and drink from the correct glass all night. It was really nice.

Today we came home, but on the way we stopped at Blenheim Palace on the way. It is a HUGE palace... I am not exaggerating! There is a lake that took a thousand men a year to dig by hand and gold encrusted everything and beautiful paintings. The best part, however, was the gardens! It reminded me of being at the Fells in New Hampshire or the Arboritum in Dallas, TX. Anyway, it was beautiful, and I'm sorry that I'm skipping a lot of details about this trip, but I have to go pack because I leave with my housemates for Italy tomorrow! SPRING BREAK!

Monday

2010-03-15T15:50:00.002Z

This is the first time in two weeks that I have actually been able to sit down and say that I don't have a paper that I should be writing. I handed in the final one this morning after completing the finishing touches last night at about 1am, and I am so happy to be done with papers for a while! I have developed a very persistent cough, but other than that I am feeling great! I get to student teach twice this week, tomorrow and Wednesday and then on Friday our entire program is off to Oxford for a week. I'm starting to feel relatively at home in this city, which is a very good feeling as well as a slightly scary one... so I think it will be good to have two weeks away from Bath (although I love it, don't get me wrong).

I also just opened my bedroom window for the first time since we have been here! It is about 50 degrees and gloriously sunny. This morning I had Education in England, where we talked about gender inequality in schools in England. Surprisingly, we talked more about the underachievement of boys and how to curb that than the fact that it is becoming a very large trend for schools to be completely staffed (lunch ladies, maintenance, and teachers) by women, but run exclusively by men. I am sure that it is happening in America as well, but it has become more and more apparent to me because my teaching placement school is in that position. Then I had my Jane Austen class, which went really well, considering that I don't usually enjoy myself. We did a close reading exercise called a "silent discussion," where we were in groups of three, each group picked a sentence from a specific part of Mansfield Park, and then we passed the quotes around and everyone made literary comments on them. I found it more interesting than our class has ever been before.

Then we (a few housemates and I) went grocery shopping and made lunch. It really is nice to feel as independent as we are allowed to feel over here. To go grocery shopping for the week, do laundry, clean my room, and know that I am going to be able to get up tomorrow and go to school and at the very least see a tiny glimpse of what the rest of my life might actually be like is wonderful.

To anyone who I haven't written a postcard back to yet, I'm very sorry and I promise that I'll get them out this afternoon. Thank you to everyone who has sent mail, it is so much fun to get!

Week Six

2010-03-12T18:22:00.002Z

I'm sorry that I haven't written in so long everyone. This last week and next week are "paper" weeks and I have not been doing anything particularly interesting besides writing papers for my classes. I had Jane Austen on Monday, Patterns of Power on Thursday, and I have Education in England on this coming Monday. The most exciting thing is that I get to go to my teaching placement twice next week instead of just once. I also received news last week that I got the residential life position that I applied for for the 2010-2011 school year, which is very exciting. I will be living in the Northwoods apartments, and I get to pick my housemates (which is a huge bonus). I'm sorry that I don't have anything very exciting to report, but I will keep you all updated! Thank you so much to all of you who are sending me cards, it is really so nice to get mail! Love, Emily

A Weekend in Northern Ireland

2010-02-28T20:12:00.005Z

This weekend, two of my housemates and I decided to take a trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland! We flew in on Friday (because none of us have class that day). We walked, in the pouring rain to our hostel and were immediately greeted by a hilarious South African man, who runs the place. He told us that there was a "Black Cab" tour leaving in five minutes and that we would be sorry if we missed it, so we hopped on board. The "Black Cab" tour is basically a political tour of the city from a taxi driven by someone who is an ex-convict from one of the sides of the Protestant/Catholic conflict. We rode all around Belfast and saw all of the murals on either side, as well as the Peace Line that divides the city into religious sectors. We learned more about politics in Northern Ireland than I could ever tell you in this blog, but I will never forget that tour! The most important thing that I learned is that neither side is fighting about any particular belief central to their religion, the religions are just a label for political parties, killing each other over money and land. Honestly, the tour was very upsetting... but also extremely educational.

After the tour, we met up with Colleen, who is my very good friend from school and is studying in Belfast for the semester. She took us to a restaurant for lunch called "The Other Place" where we had bacon (which is not like American bacon, it's more like ham), brie, and cranberry sandwiches. Then she had to go to class and Melissa, Shaina, and I went back to Lagan Hostel to take a nap! The hostel was surprisingly nice, moderately clean, and felt very safe. The owner let us lock our passports away in a lock box behind the front desk, but we had our own room with it's own key, so we didn't have to carry all of our stuff around with us. After the nap we went to dinner with Colleen at this adorable French bakery!

Saturday morning, we decided that in order to see all we could of Ireland, we should take a tour of the coast! So, with the help of our host, we booked a tour and hopped on a coach bus for an all day tour for only 17 pounds (about $25).

We drove from Belfast all the way up the Irish coast. We saw two different castles (Carrickfergus and Dunluce). You aren't allowed to go in the castles anymore, because they are falling down, but we got out and looked at them for a few minutes. The main attractions on our tour were the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge and Giant's Causeway. We didn't actually cross the rope bridge, but we climbed up to it and in the process got an amazing view. It was very windy and cold, so we walked fast and wrapped our scarves around our heads as we tried to take in the beautiful landscape unfolding before us. Giant's Causeway is where I got the best pictures. When you get to the fork in the path, you are suppose to go left, down to the coast and the rocks that make up the causeway, but instead we decided to go right and hike up to the top of the cliffs above the coast. It was the single most beautiful thing I have seen in my entire life. You could look to your right and see over the edge of the cliff, down to the ocean, then look to your left and see what looked like the entirety of Ireland stretching out before you. There were green hills with sheep grazing, little farm houses, and snow capped mountains under a bright blue sky all at once. It was truly amazing!

The three of us took the opportunity to call our families and tell them what a beautiful place we were in. Then, we climbed down, trying to burn the image into our minds so that we would never forget it! We went to the gift shop at the bottom (Hannah, you should be excited) and then back onto the bus.

The end of the tour was a stop at the Bushmills Whiskey Distillery. It was the end of the day, so they were closing and we couldn't go on a tour, but we went in and looked at the buildings and bought a few postcards. Then, we were thoroughly exhausted and preceded to sleep the entire bus ride back into the city.

We had pizza for dinner, with Colleen. Mine was BBQ sauce, chicken, spinach, sweet corn, and sour cream. It was fantastic!!!! It was called the Las Vegas at this little dinner place called "Cafe Renoir." We completely lucked out with the weather, because it only rained on Friday and then decided to be sunny for the rest of our adventure!!!!!

This morning we had English breakfasts (made for us by our hostel host) or eggs sunny side up, baked beans, sausage, bacon, and toast. We packed and then met Colleen for brunch, then took a bus, a plane, another bus, and a train back to Linley House!

It was a weekend that I will never forget, but it feels really nice to be home... and get to shower in my own bathroom!

Rugby

2010-02-24T23:30:00.002Z

On Sunday there was a Rugby match in Bath. It was Bath v. Worcester and we kicked butt, if I do say so myself. Our whole program met at 1:30 in front of the Huntsman (a local pub) and walked to the game together. It was basically like going to a Red Sox game... except in England. The fans were all really excited and drinking and just generally having a good time. There was a little boy sitting near us who was clearly being taught the rules by his dad or older brother, which was really cute. None of us knew anything about rugby, so Ian (one of our peer helper people) was kind enough to explain it to us. Basically, your team had to get the rugby to the other teams end zone (like football). You can run with the ball, but you can only pass is backward. If you get the ball to the end zone and touch it to the ground you get five points. Then someone has to kick it through those poles for an extra two points (but they have to kick it from hard angles, because the kick begins at whatever spot that the ball crossed the end zone line). If you kick the ball through anytime besides the extra point, it's worth three points. The timer only stops if the ball goes out of play (it does not stop for injuries or for fouls). Then someone throws it in and the guys in play lift each other up by the shorts to try to catch the ball. If there's a foul committed then they make a "scrum" which is basically a bunch of guys lining up and trying to plow each other over for the ball. A person on the team who was the victim of the foul throws the ball into the scrum and attempts to help his teammates to get the ball, while the other team is trying to get it away. The guys on the outside of the scrum have to connect within so many seconds or it's a foul... because if they don't connect the inside of the scum falls in and people break their necks. Ian said he has two friends who are paralyzed from playing rugby, because of that exact situation. Also, you aren't allowed to tackle someone above the neck. There are a lot more rules than that, but those are all that I could learn in one game. All in all, we had a lovely afternoon of watching men try to kill each other, it was great fun!

The Roman Baths

2010-02-24T23:08:00.004Z

Hi All,

I'm sorry I haven't written all week, but it has just been crazy over here. I had a presentation in my Jane Austen class and then I was teaching and I just haven't had time to put these up, but today was my day off and so I'm ready to tell you all about the Roman Baths. On Friday, we decided that the bus tickets to London were too expensive and that the next best thing would be to go see what our city is famous for.

Melissa, Tessa, and I took a self guided audio tour of the main exhibit (which was much more extensive than I had expected it would be). They also had a children's audio tour which, I'll admit, I probably listened to more than the adult one. This first picture is of Bath Abbey from the ground floor of the Baths. They said that the ground level had been raised so much since Roman times, that when they built the city they had no idea that it was even there. The handrail at the top of the picture is at ground level with the rest of the city. When people found the spring and the baths beneath the city, they were all shocked and amazed.

There were a lot of rock benches all around the baths that people used to sit on, and so we thought that we would join them. Some really nice British girls offered to take this picture of the three of us after we took one of them. Also, there were signs everywhere that read "Caution, this water is not safe enough to drink or even touch" which most of the parents trying to convince their kids to touch the water clearly didn't read.

Inside the building, branching out from the original bath was a large exhibit of what the rest of the Roman Baths probably looked like. I am not a history person, but I tried very hard to imagine all of the people who used to go to the baths and what they would do in the different parts. I actually managed to get pretty into it! This picture is of a man made waterfall that allows the water from the springs to circulate.

Here is my beloved Abbey again, from behind the back of the Julius Ceasar statue. They built statues of all the famous Roman rulers around the first floor (second floor) of the Baths.

Bradford-On-Avon

2010-02-16T17:30:00.002Z

Today the children of Bath all have the day off from school for winter vacation, so none of the education students could go in and practice teaching. Instead, a few of us decided to take a train to a neighboring town (Bradford-On-Avon). One of our professors lives there he agreed to meet us and give us a grand tour of his town. We got hot chocolate at a really cute café and then he took us around the town. We went to see the Tithe Barn, which is a really old barn that they used to use as a market like about 1000 years ago. The tiles on the roof are made of limestone rocks, it's really interesting. Then we went to see the second oldest church in the country, an Anglo-Saxen church in a really cute neighborhood. When our professor finished the tour, we went a pub called The Dandy Lion for lunch. Today is National Pancake Day in England. I'm not kidding, it is actually a holiday and it's actually kind of a big deal, so at the pub I got a pancake. The first picture is of my lunch, toffee and banana pancakes with whipped cream. It was absolutely amazing! It has been a great day!

Cider Festival and Quaker Meeting

2010-02-14T13:57:00.002Z

Saturday night was the City of Bath Cider Festival. First, we went out for dinner as a house to a little Thai restaurant that is, quite literally, ten steps from our house. Everyone but Jess went, because she felt sick. The picture is of Me and Shaina, who is Jess's roommate. I had never had Thai food before, so it was an interesting experience. I split an order of pork dumplings with Annie... and it was a good thing because I didn't really like them all that much. Then I got what basically amounted to pork fried rice, which was good. We all ate and talked and just generally had a good time.

Then three of us met the people who live in another house near by to go to "Cider Fest." At the door they gave you a cup and you bought little purple and green tokens. Then, you could exchange your tokens for cups of cider. For anyone who isn't familiar with English Cider, it is basically like alcoholic apple juice. It can be made in a variety of flavors and styles, with different amounts of alcohol and such. There were 106 different kinds of cider at this festival. The one I am holding in the picture was called "Blue Orange" and was... interesting (since it didn't really taste like orange, or anything else in particular), but my favorite was "Mango" flavored. There was a band called the "Mangled Wurzles" who were playing a British form of hillbilly music. They were all dressed in overalls and suspenders, with crazy Swiss hats and were just generally really funny to watch. All in all, it was a very fun experience.

The next morning, Jess and I decided that we would go to a Quaker Meeting as part of our attempt to culturally enrich our trip. I had never been to a Quaker Meeting, and found it to be a very interesting experience. Everyone was very nice and welcoming but the service wasn't exactly what I had been expecting. Basically, everyone comes in and sits in chairs in kind of a circle around a little coffee table. At the time when service starts, everyone gets quiet, closes their eyes or bows their head, and stays that way. For the next hour, everyone sits in complete silence (to "return again and again to the still centre of our being, to know the presence of God"... from the pamphlet they gave me). I tried for a while to think on this, but ultimately I just ended up trying to plan the rest of my life : ) I want to get a puppy when I graduate. It was like the ultimate exercise in patience and meditation and I have a lot of respect for all of the people around me who do it every week. Ultimately, I think I like the Unitarian church a lot better, but to each her own right?

Today I had two classes and went grocery shopping... very exciting, I know. I did, however, find rice crispies so that I can make trail mix, which made me very excited! Now, if you'll excuse me, Miss Austen and I have a date.

The RSPCA

2010-02-12T15:21:00.002Z

This is Archie!

This morning I went, along with nine other ASE students, to the local RSPCA (where all the abandoned or abused animals are kept until people come to give them a home). As part of an intigration program that I'm doing, we are supposed to do things in the local community and this just seemed like the perfect activity for me. So, we walked the dogs in pairs. My partner was a girl named Rachel, really nice girl, and together we were assigned to Archie, a seven month old mutt.

He was friends with Dizzy, the dog in the picture with Meg and Betsy, so the four of us took the two dogs out of the SPCA and onto the trails right outside. We found a really big open field to play with them and let them walk around in the grass. It was so fun, and they were soooo cute... don't worry Dad, I didn't get too attached.

The ten of us met up at the end of about forty minutes to catch the bus back into town, and that's when the trouble started. We had one bus pass for the ten of us, so we had to stay together... luckily for me, the woman who had brought us there had handed that only bus pass to me as she was leaving. We met at one and walked to the place right outside the "Dogs and Cats Home" where we had been dropped off by the bus a few hours ago. We were told that our bus pass would only work on a U18 blue line bus, so we waited, figuring (because we had been told as much) that they come every ten minutes. Well, ten minutes came and ten minutes went. We saw white, red, black, and orange busses, but no blue ones. After about half an hour we spotted our blue bus coming around the corner. We all waived to the bus driver so that he would know to stop, but he just stared at us and drove past. Awesome!

So then we figured that the Bath University was only a couple minute walk from this bus stop and we knew that the busses came and went for downtown Bath ever ten minutes from their stop. We walked to the University bus stop. By now, everyone is beginning to get a little cold, hungary and cranky. It was just around forty degrees, balmy I know, but we had been outside since about 11:30 and it was started to be unpleasant. By 1:40 we were getting to the University stop, just as two blue busses were pulling out. No big deal, we figured, they must come quickly here. Fifteen minutes, six orange busses, two black busses, two white busses, and a red bus later, we were thoroughly freezing and distressed. People were threatening just to walk back to the center of the city, to go into the university pub to get lunch, or to just pay to get on one of the orange busses that seemed to just be teasing us on purpose. Then, a blue bus pulled up. Woo hoo, we all though, as we watched all the people get off and prepared to board. Then, the driver looked at his watch, shook his head, closed the doors and pulled away. FML!

Needless to say, a bus did eventually come, it was about 2:05. We all got aboard and let me tell you that I've never been so excited for public transportation in my whole life. We managed to get off the bus and into our respective housed where we could warm our frozen feet and drink hot chocolate without much more excitement.

Now, I'm going to go read some Jane Austen, and hopefully not fall asleep!

First Day of Teaching

2010-02-11T11:41:00.005Z

I love them. They're amazing! So very cute and brilliant. Needless to say, I had a fabulous first day at the primary school I'm sudo-student-teaching at yesterday. The headmaster met me as I came into the school and explained to me all about the OFSTED inspection that the school had just been through. In England, they have a National Curriculum, so kids of the same age are learning the same exact things in every public school in the entire country. OFSTED is the government agency that makes sure that the National Curriculum is working the way it's supposed to and the schools go through ridiculously rigid inspections every few years. My school was inspected on Monday and Tuesday and I was there on Wednesday, so all the teachers were exhausted and anxious about the inspection and its results. I can't see how the inspector couldn't have just been completely mesmerized by all of the children and the wonderful things they're learning, though. There is no way that she couldn't love this little school as I did.

So, you know how in America we have Revolutionary and Civil War re-enactors? Well, in England they have re-enactors for their history... including Anglo-Saxen Re-enactors. One of the boys in the class has a dad who is really into it and so he came in yesterday dressed as an Anglo-Saxen warrior to teach the kids about that time period and its people. The picture is of me in an Anglo-Saxen helmet from like 1500 years ago, no joke. Everything here has a ridiculous amount of history behind it. Anyone who thinks AP US History was a pain, think about trying to take it for like ten thousand more years worth of history, it's crazy. Anyway, all the kids were really excited to touch all the artifacts and to try on the helmets and use the giant shield! They were also very excited to use my camera.... : ) The teacher of the morning was fantastic. She related to the kids really well and they clearly loved but respected her. It was really nice to see such effective teaching.

After lunch, the kids wrote about their favorite part of the morning and the best part of the dad coming in. They were adorable!!!!!! They are also sharp as tacks! I mean, they are only six or seven years old, but they were writing entire pages of work about the morning and all the materials that the helmets were made out of and what the symbols on the shield meant and why Anglo-Saxens burried all their favorite belongings with them when they died. The kids at one table in particular kept getting distracted by how funny my American accent sounds. They kept asking me to say "water" over and over and over again. I finally told them that I would only say in again when they had a half page of writing done, it was hilarious. They would also ask me to spell things (and you know how awful I am at spelling) just so that they could hear me repeat the word in my accent. So, throw in the fact that some random British-English words are spelled differently than American-English words and the fact that I can't even spell in American to save my life, and I'm sure their papers have miss-spelled words because of me. I must remember to work on my spelling!

At the end of the day, I gave them all the Valentine's Day cards that I brought with me from Target. You know how every little kid in America makes those really cheap printed Valentine's for their classmates on Valentine's Day? Well, they don't do that in England. They make real, homemade hearts and things that they fill with poetry or little love notes, and the kids don't really do that. So, they were all ecstatic by my "Disney Princess" and "Cars" Valentine's and all said "Thank you" in their adorable British accents as I handed them out! I love them all!

Then I took the bus back to my street... and I was feeling pretty good about myself. I put my iPod in and started blasting my own personal life soundtrack, lol. As I got off the bus and started walking towards my house I actually thought to myself... "I'm going to be a teacher." I know it doesn't sound like an epiphany, because I've already declared a major and made up my mind and all that, but I just suddenly felt like there were no longer any doubts in my mind about what I am supposed to do with my life. I'm going to be a teacher and I am going to be damn good at it!

Yeah, yesterday was a good day.

Monday

2010-02-08T19:13:00.004Z

So I realized today that I may need to spend the rest of my life in the library if I am going to keep up with my classes this semester. I had my first two classes today. The first was my Education in England class, which I think is going to be very interesting. So far, it almost completely parallels the School and Society class I took last year on America's education system . It's going to be fun to compare the important issues in the systems of other countries. We went over the diagnostic papers we wrote last week as prompts for the class and I didn't do terribly. I think I have a basic understanding of what the class is going to require. The second class was my Jane Austen class. The tutor, who I think is new to the program, got a little lost on her way to Bath and so we began and ended a little late. We used the time to pick apart the first line of Pride and Prejudice. This is the part where I started to feel a little inept. I swear to you all that just about every time I opened my mouth, the tutor did not agree with my analysis. Now, usually this doesn't deter me from spewing my opinions out loud, but it was the first day of class and so I think I got a little quieter than I normally would have. I continued to try and fail to say intelligent things until I was sure that this class was going to be the end of me. For next week, we are to finish Pride and Prejudice and read the first half of Sense and Sensibility. Now, if you know me, you know that I do not read quickly. I take in every single word on a page and, consequently, take a very long time to read anything. Then, she went on to explain the criteria for an A in the class. I know, I know, I don't have to get an A... but I'm at least going to try and things like "there must be opinions of literary critics mentioned and analyzed in all your papers or your grade can't be more than a B-" make me a little worried. Not that I don't use academic journal articles for all my papers at school, I just don't usually think of it as criteria for a certain grade. Anyway, I wasn't feeling particularly confident that I would still have my mind in tact at the end of the class, but I made it through, drank some tea, and felt much better. There is definitely going to be a no slacking allowed policy as far as academics go this semester, I'll tell you that!

After class I made some lunch... although I didn't have very much food left, so it was just pasta with sauce. Then I went with Melissa, Shaina, and Annie to the post office. Paige, I mailed your birthday present!!!! Woo Hoo!!! I hope you have the best birthday ever tomorrow! Anyway, at the post office the lady told me how much it was and I actually paid her in exact change (Meg, you would have been so proud). Yesterday we played a game where one of us would pull a coin out of a bag and the others would have to say how much it was worth. It totally worked, because I found 83 cents in a not embarrassing amount of time! I was so excited! I know it doesn't sound very amazing, but I'm taking all the little victories I can get. Then we went to Marks and Spencer, which is the nice supermarket and bought food for the week. I had a salad with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and grilled chicken for dinner. I feel very healthy and accomplished. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a novel.

Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Lacock

2010-02-07T19:39:00.009Z

Today we went to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Lacock. Upon first arriving at Stonehenge, my Education tutor (which is what they call a professor over here), Andrew Buttersworth, explained to us some of the significant things about the monument that we shouldn't miss. I couldn't upload the video, but I'll find some way. Then we walked all the way around it and took picutures standing in front of it and with the sheep that were grazing in a field near by. I found it very interesting at the beginning to think about how they got the stones there and what the significance of them might be, but after that they just became a pile of stones that we were taking pictures next to. I know it sounds awful and kind of demoralizing to put a monument of such magnitude into such literal terms... but come on, it's a pile of rocks. They are really old rocks, and at some point they were very important rocks, but now they are mostly important to the crows who nest in them.
The first picture is of six of the Linley Ladies: Me, Tessa, Jess, Melissa, Annie, and Saina (left to right)... and I promise you that there are a lot of stones behind us, we just seem to be sort of covering them all up.

The next is of me, taking a really touristy picture. I know, I know, but we were there, what was I

supposed to do, not take it?

After Stonehenge we moved on to the town of Salisbury for lunch. This is the part where I have a funny story for you all. We walked by this pack of swans (according to Annie, they are all

owned by the Queen) and made our way to the Salisbury Cathedral. We were told that there was a really nice little café in the refractory where we could get lunch.

Now, the bus had been earlier than it was supposed to be this morning, but I had gotten up early, showered, dressed, and packed my bag for a full day. I had Pride and Prejudice, my iPod, my wallet, my phone, some lotion, a raincoat, chapstick, a pencil, a banana, a bag of apricots, and a ham and cheese sandwich that I made before breakfast. We got to the little refractory and I ordered a hot chocolate and went to sit down. Everyone else came back with their lunch and I pulled my ham and cheese sandwich out of my bag. At that very moment I realized, with shocking clarity, that I am my mother. I'm sorry, Mom, if you read this and are startled or offended by my observation, but I was slightly startled myself, although not in a bad way really. I had just saved

myself about eight pounds, and the sandwich was absolutely delicious. So, thanks Mom!

After lunch we looked around the Cathedral, we saw the Magna Carta, the tombs of great Bishops, the little chapels built in the honor of royalty, and the stained glass windows. I would love to say that it was beautiful and perfect and that I have never seen anything so grand in all my life, but I was feeling in a particular mood as we passed through and so I don't think I was particularly seeing the building with the same eyes that everyone else was. All I could focus on

was the fact that on every grave stone of a woman it said something like "Here lies Jane (insert last name here), wife of (some royal guy) who did some important thing and died at the age of 74." Now why is it that none of the man's graves say anything about them being husbands or what their wives did for a living. I know, I know, it was the culture and the time and whatever other excuse we can think of, but being in my particular mood, it just continued to make me agitated until I decided that I had better leave before I felt the need to say something about it to a clergy member. Again, I am my mother.

The stained glass was really cool though, probably the best part. This particular window, I was told by Andrew (the guy in the first video) was made in 1980 and is a little more abstract that it's neighbors. There is supposed to be a crusificion scene in the middle panel, with a cross and everything. The light from Jesus's head is supposed to be shining on the graves of all the people who died in prison because of crimes of conscience. Mary is supposed to be draped at the foot of the cross. Now, I don't know if you can see any of that, but it's not very clear and looks really cool from the ground in front of it, I'm just saying.

From Salisbury, we drove to Lacock (pronounced Lay•cock). Lacock is a Medieval town that was supposedly overlooked by modern renovations and is, therefore, the perfect site for filming movies. The house in the last picture is where they filmed the house of Harry Potter. We had a Sunday roast at a charming little inn in town and then headed back to our houses, where I am now attempting to read as much of Pride and Prejudice as humanly possible before class tomorrow.

The Epic Tale of Phones 4 You

2010-02-06T21:39:00.003Z

So I finally decided that getting a pay as you go phone would be a good idea. Mostly for when I travel, even just out of the city to my school placement. All my housemates got phones a few days ago and told me they were working great, so I decided to give it a shot.

Day 1:

So I went to Phones4You and asked the nice man behind the counter to sell me the cheapest phone they had, because I would only need it for four months, and an international SIM card (so the phone can call other countries). He seemed alright, got me the same phone everyone else in my house had and a SIM card. He told me that the phone would have to be unlocked before I could put the international card in it, but that if I went around the corner, four doors down, there was a store that could unlock it. So I bought the phone and went four doors around the corner. There I asked the nice man behind the counter to unlock my phone so I could use an international SIM card, to which he replied that he couldn't do that. I explained to him that the sales man in Phones4You told me that he could, and he told me that maybe he would be able to if I came back in a month. So I went back to Phones4You and told Mr. spiky hair that the other store couldn't unlock it. He told me that customer service could unlock it and that I should use up the minutes on my non-international card and then call them and have them switch it. I agreed and went back to the house. While playing with it that night, my housemates and I found out that I could call people, but the phone wouldn't take incoming calls.

Day 2:

So I went back to Phones4You and told another guy that I needed the international SIM card to work, and I needed it to work now. He asked who sold me the phone I had and I told him about the kid with the spiky hair. He then replied that that kid was a moron and had sold me the wrong network. He told me that the manager had already gone home for the night and that if I came in the next day, he would make sure it got sorted out.

Day3:

So I went, again, to Phones4You. The manager was a woman in a black dress with her hair pulled back tight and a forced smile. She told me that the first guy had sold me a phone that needed unlocking (which I already knew) and got customer service on the phone. She told me that when they answered that I should just say that I needed to have my phone unlocked. Well... customer service told me that it would cost twenty pounds and take ten days to do... so I told them I'd call them back. I told the woman that I couldn't pay that much and asked her if she could please just give me the other network. So, she called headquarters (wherever that is). So she told them the whole story and practically had to beg them to let her switch out the phones. So headquarters asked for my registration so that they could give me the credit or whatever. When I told her that the sales guy had never asked my name, she rolled her eyes and looked like she was probably going to kill him when she saw him. I gave her my name anyway. They looked it up, and, low and behold, it was not in the registry (what a shock). So she took the phone box and scanned it to pull up the registration. She then came back and told headquarters that the sales guy must have heard my name wrong and entered the wrong thing. They asked her what the name was, she looked at me, smiled apologetically, and said, "Sally Green." I just about fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard! So, she credited me for the wrong phone, got me the right phone and explained to me how the British mobile phone system works. She was really nice, and I appreciated her answering my culturally ignorant questions like "what does 'top up' mean?" It means to add minutes to your phone... which kind of makes sense when you think about it.

The moral of the story is drawn from something that I was taught when I was very little and forget sometimes as I get older, but when I forget it always costs me: When you go into Home Depot find the person with the dirtiest tool belt, with the most tools possible shoved into it to help you. Then, and only then, will you get the right information.

The Royal Crescent

2010-02-06T14:56:00.002Z

Yesterday was the first day that we had time to really go exploring. A few of my housemates and I decided to make the best out of it and walk to the north end of the city to see the Royal Crescent and anything else we could find along the way!
This is Annie (my roommate), Melissa, Jess, and Shaina (left to right) standing in front of the Abbey we love so much. We walked through the Abbey courtyard and through the main street of the city. According to Annie, the reason that the cobblestones are different on the main roads and the side roads is because the Romans rebuilt all the main roads when they took over the city, but left the side streets.

As we

were walking, there was this man, playing a fiddle while walking along a home made tightrope!

The Circus

This is a video of the "Circus". It's just basically where a bunch of really fancy apartments are in this huge circular set of buildings. From there we continued on to the Royal Crescent.

It was so beautiful and we had so much fun!

On the way back we went into an art gallery and looked around and then we decided that we should get cream tea. There is a list in the house of everything we have to experience in Bath before we leave and cream tea was one of them.

So we found a little place called Sally Lunn's that was opened by a girl who was a French refugee in 1680. I had the house tea and half a Sally Lunn Bun... which was like a huge piece of homemade bread with cinnamon sugar frosting. It was really good! In England (I've figured out) a "biscuit" is a cookie, a "scone" is a biscuit, cake is cake, and no one really knows what Jaffacakes are.

Tea at Bath Abbey

2010-02-04T19:56:00.000Z

For tea this afternoon our group was invited to the Bath Abbey, about a hundred yards from the door of our house. The Abbey is beautiful and has become somewhat of a homing beacon for me in the last couple days. You can see it's tower from just about anywhere in the city, and it is lit at night. Whenever I find myself lost, I just look for the Abbey. In this way we have developed a very trusting relationship and so I was really excited to get to see inside. The parishioners of the church made us all sorts of cakes (I tried fruit cake for the first time and I have to say that it's not as gross as Christmas specials would like everyone to think) and tea. We got to poke around and look at all the stones and the beautiful stone carvings, not to mention the stained glass. Then a very nice old British man named Jeremy gave us a tour of the Abbey and told us all about it. Meg, you would have loved this part! He told us that the first king of all of England, King Edgar was coroneted in the cathedral that stood where the Abbey is now in 973 AD. Bath was very important back then and they were very proud to have the new kingdom begin in their city. The ceiling of the Abbey was carved by hand by these two mason brothers named John and Robert for the Bishop of Wells. It is incredibly beautiful and I wish I had brought my camera. They said we were welcome back at any time as honored guests, so I promise that before I leave I will get some pictures of it for you all.

For Dad

2010-02-04T16:07:00.001Z

This is the electric panel, it's above the door to the laundry/stove room. Just for you Dad!

Welcome to Linley House

2010-02-04T00:24:00.001Z

So I thought I would post some pictures of my house. It is the quirkiest house I have ever been in and I will attempt to explain why.

The first picture is the street we live on. If you want the address, just ask me and I'll give it to you, but I don't really want to post it on the web. Ours is that one on the left with the Roman triangle arch things.

The second picture is the door to the house of the lovely Linley Ladies, all eight of us. On the ground floor there are two double bedrooms on the right and staircases going up and down on the left. The staircase going down leads to a room with a toilet and a sink, then on to the classroom in the picture on the left, which houses that map of Bath. On the other side of the
basement is the room below, with a washer and drier, a freezer, and a working stove.

The stairwell on the ground floor is the picture to the far left. At the top of the stairs is this lovely little cherib picture (which reappears throughout the house).

This is the view from the landing on the first floor (which is really the second floor). The hallway on that floor leads into three rooms: the kitchen (to the left), the living room, and the dining room (the one with Tessa and Melissa, roommates).

The next picture is of the second floor (3rd) bedroom where I live with Annie. There is also another double on our floor and a room with two showers and a sink.

The best part of the house is the secret tower bathroom! Next to the shower room is a little door that looks like it would lead to a linen closet. But no, open it and you get a tiny narrow stairwell. The stairs lead to this tiny bathroom with a great view... the one in the picture below!

The Beginning

2010-02-03T15:33:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

I got to Bath, England three days ago to start my semester. Since then we have been oriented to within an inch of our lives, but are doing well. We took a walking tour of the city yesterday and I am slowly but surely figuring out where everything is. The grocery store is called Sainsbury's and it has really great dried apricots! The CVS is called Boots and it is really clean and organized, with two floors and practically any bathroom item you could ever imagine.

Today we did a short orientation in the morning and then we got to write our first diagnostic essay. It wasn't nearly as fun as it sounds. The prompt: Analyze the gender roles and importance of marriage in the first two chapters of Pride and Prejudice using language, style, and characterization. Ready. Go. Alright, so it wasn't that bad.

After lunch (ham sandwich on pita) I had to catch the bus to the school where I'll be student teaching on Tuesdays. I got to the bus station on time, caught the right bus, and managed to get a ticket from the driving without embarassing myself too much. Then I remembered that they don't call out the stops on busses in Bath. So I sat there for a while and tried to figure out what to do. Our professor (Andrew) had told us the night before that if we got lost we should find a little old lady and ask her what to do. Luckily for me, a little only lady sat down right behind me at the next stop. I am not kidding. So I asked her which stop I should get off to get to the primary school. She told me that it was the stop that we were pulling away from, but that if I got off at the next stop, and just kept going down the little path and over the hump bridge at the end, I would get there. So, thank you to the little old lady on bus #4 this afternoon for helping a scared American girl!

We are having a house dinner tonight, spaghetti with sauce and champagne. I'm excited to get to know all my housemates a little more, although they all seem like reasonably nice people at this point.