Jane Austen

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

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

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!

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!