June 30: Just as one thing works out another breaks down

Today was going so well too. Classes brought nothing of interest, but after class was the skyline walk. Now this was to be a strenuous walk including many steep hills and over 2 miles. We started on this voyage and not too far into it my stomach decided it was not going to be happy. So for the over 2 hours that this hike took I felt like I was going to throw up. The hike itself was not that bad; I was expecting much worse if only my stomach had decided it would cooperate. We walked back to the apartment later than usual and had pasta for dinner.

Interrupting the work of the evening was a declaration of trash day as we all burst into song and made an assembly line of our trash and recycling. We forgot to take it out last week so we were on a mission not to forget this week. And why not make a game out of it? It was quite amusing. "IT'S GARBAGE DAY!"

On a positive note the baggage issue seems to be resolved, but now my camera is not cooperating. It takes photos, but after a little while says there is an error and must shut down. It only has a little over a week to last and then my handy warranty will be used as I take it into Best Buy and they fix it up. You can do it little camera!

photos (page 3, third to last picture or #58)

June 29: We may be starting a bad habit

So Laura and I may be starting a bad habit of going to this little gelato shop after classes. It has been a hard start to the week so we felt it necessary.

In our Jane Austen class we had presentations. Hopefully ours went ok, but as he hasn’t given us grades on our last presentation so there is nothing to gauge it on. Between classes I went to Retro for lunch where we had already put my bacon on for my sandwich :]. Amelia did a great presentation on a British tv show, she’s so knowledgeable. The film we watched afterwards was pretty boring and lacked a plot, but did have the father from Pirates of the Caribbean. As I mentioned Laura and I went to the gelato place and we had thought to go shopping, but we forgot to bring extra money so we have decided to do it during lunch break tomorrow.

Chelsea and Catherine made a nice pork, potato, salad, and tomato dinner complete with chocolate cake, icecream, raspberries, and strawberries for dessert. Amelia, Laura, and I then had a brief discussion about places to see while in Oxford on Friday including some Harry Potter places :] I’m pretty excited.

Otherwise nothing much of interest has happened today. Hope all is well in the States and you guys are doing fun things!

photos (today starts on page 2 at the bottom #36)

June 28: They didn't say the miles uphill it would take to get to Prior Park

Today was an earlier Jane Austen class so we could venture to Prior Park. Now what they didn’t say was that it was miles to Prior Park and all up hill. This was quite an unexpected uphill battle. Upon arriving at the park we discovered it was closed and didn’t open for a little while, sigh why did we rush up that hill then? Dr. Fallon took us around a bit and we took some scenic shots :] The focus was basically the picturesque of Jane Austen’s times and landscapes looking like paintings. We then made the walk back to Nelson House where I had to prepare for my presentation.

I was significantly flustered when it was time for my presentation to begin, but I made it through. I forgot some things on my notes and felt like I missed some points, but I had some active participation, mostly by Amelia (thanks) and Professor Ryan went on a totally different tangent with one of my points. Furthermore in his powerpoint he had scheduled to talk about something that I talked about so he skipped it :D Amelia said I did really well.

I met with my Jane Austen presentation partner after class and we worked on our discussion on Highbury (the city in Emma). The common room is amazing in Linley house and they have a real dinning room. Afterwards, Laura and I went for some well deserved gelato. I called the credit card company to sort it all out. They were calling just to make sure it was me, but wasn’t that the point of me telling them I was going to be in the UK?

The rest of the evening holds little excitement and may turn into an early evening as I have a headache. I’m also craving some real food and it is lacking in our house so I shall have to see what I can actually muster up for dinner.

photos from today

June 27: castles, polo, and all things welsh

Today is the father’s day feast at the Fulton Veasey’s. I am sad I’m not there, but hope you all are having a great time. Just because I’m not eating crabs doesn’t mean I didn't do something today so Laura and I ventured to Wales. It is only a short train ride away. Upon arriving in Cardiff, Wales we discovered we left the map back at our house. Great planning I know, but we continued on in the city and spotted the castle. It cost us a bit to go in and there were signs everywhere about the polo match, but we ventured on. Inside we watched a little video, just the two of us, that was quite weird. Upon its completion we went down some sketchy passageways and up to the wall. We walked around looking at all the different flags before climbing the steps to the keep. This was no easy feet as they were pretty steep and included a spiral staircase, which is easier to go up then down. Next was the mansion where we were allowed to take photos YAY but no flash.

For lunch I picked up some chips and a hot-dog (very American though the hotdog was very bizarre and I ended up not liking it). We then went back up to the wall and sat to take in the polo. Now these people who were actually there for the polo match sitting down by the field (we were elevated up at the wall height) were dressed like they were going to a wedding. Polo is a very proper sport. And as I said in the photo album I consider it a combination of croquet and soccer with horses. Though when they were doing it with the castle backdrop it made me think of medieval jousting. After the first match they had the people go out and level the grass where divots were formed – seems weird if it is such a proper sport but Amelia says the king and queen used to do it and it was considered quite an honor. We watched one game and then a British cowboy did a sort of between game show. A British cowboy seems interesting to begin with and he said lassoo instead of lasso, which was very funny. He further commented on how he went to Dallas to compete and I feel as though Laura and I were the only ones who knew what he was talking about. We had a very relaxing day and headed back to the train station at our leisure. There ended up being a hold up on route because two trains got stuck, but we arrived. On the train we heard updates about the England Germany World Cup Match. In Bath all the pubs were silent as people watched the game near the end. No riots in the streets tonight.

Back in Bath I got to talk to some lovely people: My Dad, Uncle Bob, Ren, Kendy, Uncle Michael, Frances, Granddad, Grandmom, Allyson, my brother for a brief moment, David, Uncle Michael T, and Granddad T. and see the wonderfulness that is the father’s day crab feast. So jealous! I hope you guys enjoyed it as well as the croquet and horse! We had our own fun chat in the little landing on the staircase. It was nice to just chat and ignore schoolwork, our unplanned hang outs are best. Homework is calling me now and I suppose I must give into it, or I may delay a bit longer with a shower ;)

photos from wales

p.s. the magic cookie bars that Ren and Kendy made looked great! Were they as delicious as they looked?

June 25-26: Study Trip to London

It is again late and tomorrow is an early rise so I will try to be brief. The past two days were spent in London on our study trip. Each class had a different agenda. Ours seem to be the most haphazard and not related to our class, but I’m not the organizer. Friday began with our bus not starting so instead of being picked up at 8:15 we were picked up at 9:30. Of course we didn’t know this ahead of time so we bonded over an episode of Columbo. The bus ride was long and upon arriving we found ourselves on the other side of the bridge from where we were when we visited London. Our “walking tour” if you can even call it that was random along the water point out a few things. They took us past the Film institute, but we had other random sights to see and the tube to take back to our hostel. Now they said it was not up a hill, but that was a lie there was a slight hill and it was about a mile from the tube stop to our hostel. We entered finding out that all 11 girls would be staying in one room with triple bunk beds. I’ve never seen that before. We all conquer that they should do these trips with these hostels first and then take us to Coverrack where the hostels are infinitely nicer. For some reason they thought it was a good idea to take us to the hostel only to have to leave after dinner to go right back where we were before dinner for the movie. They also didn’t leave enough time so we had to run that 1 mile back to the tube. The movie was intense and depressing. You felt like you needed to watch an episode of Winnie the pooh or something after that.

Catherine, Amelia, Christina and I were the only ones to stay in London after the movie. We walked around a bit, took some photos, had some ice cream and then made our way back. The next day was met with a cornucopia of alarms all going off at different times and people putting them on snooze and refusing to get up. We ate breakfast and headed to met our guide, but upon arriving there they told us we were almost an hour early so we could go explore. We walked down the street and found nothing to go into so we simply walked back. The tour was of Notting Hill, which didn’t used to be as nice as it is now. More celebrities live there than anywhere else in London and London has the most celebrities of anywhere in the world. The tour was fine, but I felt like we were going in circles as we passed right by our hostel. We ended at portabella market, which was way more expensive than I thought it would be at the little shops and it was super crowded. Furthermore, we had way too much time there and most of us sat in an alley waiting for the time to pass, getting some amusement from the pigeons. We then had to hike all the way back to our hostel to catch the bus (why the bus couldn’t meet us I have no idea) and embark on the long bus ride back to Bath.

In Bath we watched the USA vs. Ghana game :[ so GO ENGLAND! The rest of the evening was uploading pictures and such. Laura and I are going to Cardiff, Wales for a short day trip tomorrow. Hope the Veaseys have a great crab fest! I wish I was there! Have tons of fun!

photos from the trip

June 24: Bristol, Bath's ugly twin

In the interest of the hour (and because I have to get up in a very short amount of time) , this will again be a short post. Tomorrow we leave for London, at least the Film and Politics classes do. Laura departs with the Holmes class for Dartmoor. In London the politics class will split from the film class with the politics going to parliament and the film class going to some obscure places.

Today our Jane Austen class went to Bristol. This meant getting up earlier for class and from Nelson house catching the train to Bristol. The train ride was only around 10 minutes. The tour of Bristol itself wasn’t all that interesting and it didn’t actually have a lot to do with Jane Austen either. None of us really thought it would be quite that long either. I’m glad we went so I can say I went to Bristol and saw a few things of interest like the abbey and St. Mary Redcliff’s, but otherwise not that different from a U.S. city. In Jane Austen's time Bristol was a trading city and was not viewed as highly as Bath for that and other reasons. It was often smelly and more dirty as well.

In film we watched A Room With A View which I did my paper on. The quiz we take once a week on the computer after class was incredibly difficult, a drastic change from last week’s quiz. It was as though since we all did so well on that quiz he felt he had to make this one harder but he went to such the other extreme. And there was a typo and one wasn’t even a question it was simply a statement. The quiz is timed so we couldn’t ask him about it, but hopefully he’ll give us credit for his mistake. Other than that we tried to do a bit of shopping, but failed at the store we’ve been eyeing. We hoped to catch the end of the really long match from Wimbledon, but we missed that as well.

The rest of the evening passed fairly uneventfully. We were all pretty tired and we think it might have to do something with the fact that we’ve basically had one day off this entire trip and it’s catching up to us. Well I am off to bed so I can get up in a few hours and go down to catch the bus at 8:15. Oh the joys of being the first group to get picked up. I’ll write when we return on Saturday, though it will be late so perhaps not til Sunday. Have a great crab feast Veaseys!

photos from today (page 4 #72)

June 23: The Best of Both Worlds - USA and England advance in the World Cup

In an effort to not go to bed incredibly late tonight, I shall write a fairly short blog entry tonight. Classes were not that eventful. In Jane Austen we talked a bit about Emma and Laura, MJ and I were in a group. We were talking about mysteries and puzzles with characters. Our second class was pushed up to 1:30pm instead of 2:30pm. This was all because of the world cup games. Our classes were to get out by 3:20pm so we could watch the game that started at 3pm. My teacher let us out a little bit after 3, but I waited for Laura and 3:20 and then we headed up to watch the game. We switched between the USA and the England match. They were really exciting with the USA scoring in the 92^nd minute! Yay for both advancing. The USA now plans Ghana and England plays Germany.

We went on a walking tour at 6pm with a guy named Andrew Butterworth. It wasn’t as good as the Bizarre Bath tour, but it was alright. He invited us all into a place called Porter’s afterwards for a drink. There we watched the Ghana versus Germany game and then headed up to our house at halftime. We caught a bit of the Wimbledon game that is so far lasting for over 9hours. I then ventured down to use the telephone booth and make a few calls.

Tomorrow the Jane Austen classes head to Bristol, the opposite of Bath during Austen’s time. This weekend is our study trip weekends too and we are going to London, but the non-touristy parts of London. Nothing else too exciting happened today I just hope my roommate feels better soon! Oh and the minutes on your phone card are not actually the number of minutes you get; it is a lie! You get a ton less actually, which is weird.

photos from today (staring with #24 page 2 first row)

June 22: tacos, clueless, and emma lead to fun discussions

Nothing of interest really happened today. I was awoken this morning by the cleaning ladies. They came before we went off to class, which was slightly odd. It is nice that they empty our trash and vacuum our room though. I went to class as usual and got assigned our next presentation assignments. I am doing the Highbury in Emma. I talked with Lindsay between classes about our possible trip this weekend. We are thinking of going to Cardiff in Wales on Sunday and possibly Tintern Abbey as well. We watched High Hopes in our film class, which wasn’t really my cup of tea, but a lot of other people liked it.

After class Chelsea and I went to a little grocery store to search for taco ingredients. We were successful and I made tacos for everyone. The seasoning over here is a little interesting and Chelsea said it gave it a bit of an Indian flavor. We chatted for a bit and then started to watch Clueless. We have to watch Clueless or Emma for our Jane Austen class. In that time I also chatted with Jenny and she told me she got a 36 on her mcats. CONGRATULATIONS JENNY! You’ll make a great doctor!

We are currently watching Emma after finishing Clueless and having quit ea fun time criticizing and comparing, but I thought I should write a little blog. Sorry that there is nothing too exciting to talk about. We are having some very interesting conversations, but they would not relate well here.

photos from today (starting with #12)

June 21: Is it really week three already?

Happy first day of summer everyone. If we were at Stonhenge today instead of last Friday we would have been greeted with quite the variety of individuals. Today was the beginning of week three, I can’t believe it. As Laura and I planned out the things we have left to do we realized how little time is left for us to do them in.

My first class was Jane Austen where we talked about social rank, status, and morals. I felt like I understood it more than usual and participated a great deal. Between classes I was proud that I made it to Reyman’s to purchase some dvds for pictures. My second class was a discussion on the film Another Country and concluded with the handing of our papers. He sufficiently worried most of us with his speech beforehand, but concluded by saying no one did poorly. I got an A- which isn’t bad, but it’s frustrating I can’t break into the true A range. But it’s done and I can just hope to do better on the final paper, however unlikely that may be.

Laura and I ventured to Iceland and M&S after class to get some food, but alas they failed me and did not have everything I need so I must venture to the true grocery store tomorrow after class. The majority of the evening was spent reading Emma and discovering that I don’t really like her as a character. She is in stark contrast to many of Jane Austen’s heroines and she seems to represent a different kind of female character who doesn’t aspire to marry and has a certain amount of money. I didn’t actually finish, but had to consult summaries for the ending, but as I was only required to finish Volume I, I still have time to truly finish.

No major plans for this week, but we shall see what the week holds. My roommate Laura is now sick (a different kind then mine) so I’m not sure how much adventuring will happen this week. Hopefully she makes a speedy recovery.

photos from today (starting with #7)

June 20: A day with no plans, what a nice change

Hello again. It was a very short time ago that I wrote my last blog for yesterday, since I wrote it this morning, but that shall not stop me from writing a blog today. Nothing really of interest happened today. It was our very first day with nothing on the schedule, which was actually very refreshing. No alarm had to be set, didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything. I still woke up before noon, which for the adults seems very late, but as I didn’t go to bed until after 3am and I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep the past few days that was not that much sleep.

I didn’t do much today either. I woke up and had some cereal for breakfast. I uploaded a bunch of photos and read some of Emma. Later I had some eggs and more cereal (haven’t been to the store recently so this is what I have to eat. Furthermore it’s Sunday and Bath stores close really early but even earlier on Sundays). I called my dad to wish him a Happy Father’s Day! Happy Father’s Day Dad! I hope you had a good day and sorry I wasn’t there to give you a hug and tell you what a great dad you are!

That was pretty much the end of my eventful day, so I will not bore you with more ramblings as you will likely be reading yesterday’s post and being absorbed by the large number of photos. Have a good start to the week everyone!

Happy Father's Day Dad! I Love You!

photos from today

June 19: Running through London, literally

What is there to say about our trip to London? Let us start with a checklist.

Nearly get run over on Abbey Road...check

Ask how to get to platform 9¾...check

Sit on a big book in the British Library...check

Walk in the footsteps of Sherlock...check

See the Rosetta Stone...check

Recreate the image of Harold framed by the Tower Bridge...check

Witness three different weddings going on in the city...check

Fight to get on and ride a double decker bus...check

Spy on the guards at Buckingham palace with my long lens...check

Take phonebooth photo...check

Pose with Big Ben (both in the day and at night)...check

Eat at a London pub...check

Flag down a taxi (after failing twice, third time's the charm)...check

Well we certainly made the most of one day. We got up at 5:50am and headed down to the train station at 6:15am to catch our train at 7am. The train ride was fairly uneventful with most of us reading Emma or falling asleep or in my case both. There were some technical problems so we didn’t end up arriving until after 9am. From there we purchased all day tube tickets (well worth it for how much we used them). From our detailed planning earlier in the week Amelia typed up a list of our stops and coordinating tube stations. We first got off to take the very important Beatles photo on Abbey Road. With our assigned parts in two groups we set out to recreate it. We did not expect it to be such a busy road! It was a bit ridiculous but we were comforted by the fact that a group of four guys were attempting to recreate it as well. It took several attempts, but we finally got a couple that we decided were good enough and we ceased risking our lives on the crosswalk.

From the delay on the train to the amount of time for the abbey road picture we were set back in our schedule a bit, but next on our agenda was King’s Cross Station. Here we culminated our experience by asking a guard where Platform 9 ¾ was. He kept an amazingly straight face for a bunch of college kids asking this bizarre question. We proceeded in the direction and were guided by people saying Harry (like Harry when he is searching for the platform only he follows people saying muggle). After this stop we split up and Casey and Christina went to the globe whereas the rest of us went to the British Library. My statement on Friday about seeing the oldest document I will ever see was a lie for we saw much older pieces today. We also saw another copy of the Magna Carta (there are four in total and I think I’ve probably also seen the one in DC so now I just have one left to go). The globe ended up taking the other group a great deal of time so went on to meet them at 221b baker street. The tube station was covered with Sherlock as well which was cool.

Now this stop was probably Laura’s favorite as she loves Sherlock Holmes and is taking the seminar class on him. I went in with her to visit the house and we took lots of pictures, but probably my favorite is our one with the guard at the door complete with hats and pipe. They even had wax figures on the upper floors depicting characters from some of the stories. The globe crew was still delayed so we headed over to the British Museum and did the quickest museum trip ever ;) Trying to get back on schedule. I saw the Rosetta Stone and some of the Parthenon sculptures.

The last true stop and not simply a photo shoot was the Tower of London, however we arrived there a little after 4pm and they said it would not be enough time. This was a little disappointing as I really wanted to go in, but never fear for Laura and I are already planning a trip back to London so we can see the changing of the guard, the inside of Westminster Abbey, and the tower. We got rained on a bit here and waited a while for Casey and Christina to rejoin us. Laura and I went down to look at the Tower Bridge where we took a picture framed by it. It made me think of Harold, who is in the movie The Long Good Friday and delivers a moving speech while being framed by that bridge on a boat. It took some coordinating to finally find Casey and Christina but Amelia discovered them and we headed onward.

The next part of our journey involved the touristy parts of London. First we had to get on a double decker bus because they close certain lines on the weekends to work on them. This was quite a difficult task as everyone seemed to want to get on the bus. We managed to get on the third one that came by and went on the second level. Getting off in Trafalgar Square we discovered that the museums there were closed (our guide books lied to us) so we took some photos and decided to make our way down to Buckingham Palace. It was quite a walk, but upon arriving we got to see the guards move around and take some pretty photos. On the way back we stopped in a gift shop that was just entirely overwhelming and then we made our way to Big Ben. The main sightseeing things in London are all right by each other so we got some photos with Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey before finally stopping for food. It was nearly 9pm by this point so we stopped in a pub where I ordered a coronation chicken sandwich. It was ok, but not my favorite. The chips were really good. After eating, it was sufficiently dark to take our night photos with Big Ben so we did that and then got on the tube followed by the train to get home. The train was fairly full for so late, but we were the very first ones on it. It also was a bit delayed on the way back too.

Upon arriving back we discovered that it was quite cold and quite a long walk to get back up to our house. We elected to see how much it would cost to get a taxi, but that task was more difficult than expected. We got one and as he pulled around he picked up someone else. Another taxi said he would come around but he drove away. We finally got one and she said it would be £6. I sat in the front seat. Now I never really thought that driving on the other side was that weird, but when you are sitting in the space that should have the wheel and when you can see out the front window it is a bit weird. I looked at the temperature gauge in the taxi and it was just 40 degrees outside! Furthermore, in a bizarre twist, Bath was a happenign place at 1:30am. So it shuts down at like 6pm but is bustling with people again later, very strange. Upon arriving back the plan was to upload photos, but I was just too tired to finish so I got a shower and went to bed.

photos from London part 1

photos from London part 2

June 18: Stonehenge & Salisbury

This morning started early, but not as early as tomorrow is going to be. We departed for Stonehenge at 9am. Stonehenge was cool, but it’s one of those places you see and take photos of and there is really nothing else to do. They no longer let you go up in the rocks, which is a shame, but people were defacing them and chipping parts away as souvenirs so now it’s roped off. The main thing there was the beetles! They were ridiculous. They loves Amelia and my hair and were not easy to get off. After that we departed for Salisbury where we saw swans, beautiful churches and the Salisbury Cathedral. It was amazing and beautiful! To think how long ago it was made and all the detail that went into it! A bunch of us went to lunch at the Haunch of Venison and I decided to try something new. That didn’t go very well. I had a salmon sandwich, but the salmon was weird, thinly sliced and I’m not sure if it was cooked. We got a guided tour through part of the Salisbury Cathedral and got to see the Magna Carta, which was pretty cool. That is probably the oldest piece of paper I’ll ever see. The ride back should have been a half an hour, but it took considerably longer because of traffic issues.

Today’s blog seems incredibly short for such a busy day, but nothing too exciting happened it was just a lot of pictures and touring. Tomorrow is bright and early for a 7am train to London. Now that is going to be a busy day and I’m sure I’ll have quite the stories to tell.

photos from today

June 17: I saw the sun rise this morning...

As evident by my picture from today, it has been a long week. I was up until a little after 5am working on my papers this morning. The sun came up at around 4:00am, which is so weird. It was hard to get up this morning, but I did it. Then we ventured down to print out our papers after a final look over. I felt bad for our Jane Austen professor because no one seemed to be with it this morning. Between classes I took Laura to Retro for her first sandwich there. The guy was so nice and gave her two stamps (once you get five stamps you get a sandwich free). When I walked up to the counter he said hello and asked if I wanted my usual :] he has learned who I am. The people here are so nice!

I edited my paper between my two classes and then went on to film where we watched Another Country. I had my bottle of coke ready for keeping me awake during a very anti-action packed movie. We then unexpectedly had a very long thought out discussion on what we are going to do in London. It was quite a planned out endeavor that culminated in us purchasing our train tickets. Here is what we are planning ot at least see

1. Abbey Road (complete with Beatles picture photo shoot)

2. King’s Cross Station (for the harry potter picture)

3. British Library

4. The Globe

5. Holmes’s House

6. British Museum

7. Tower of London / Tower Bridge

8. Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, London Eye, Portrait Gallery, Ben Franklin’s house, Downing Road

The things at the end are all together and we are just planning to take pictures of them and not actually go in them. If you have any suggestions of major things we’re missing let me know asap!

Next we had to take our cinema exams that we have every Thursday. It wasn’t that bad actually though and I’m pretty sure I got a 100. The original plan was to go out to dinner today, but the planning of London took such a long time that we just chilled out here as a house and had a nice chat in the common room before attempting to watch The Matrix. After battling with the tv and vcr I came upstairs to meet Kendy on skype.

Tomorrow will be a busy day as we go to Stonehenge and Salisbury bright and early, but not as early as our planned excursion to London on Saturday. Well I think I’ll go to bed before too long since it was a late night last night. Talk to you after I've witnessed these mysterious stones that have perplexed people for years.

photos from today (page 6 the second to last picture on the page or #119)

June 16: I'd rather be trying on corsets than writing these papers

This morning was a slightly earlier morning as the Jane Austen classes were to meet at the fashion museum. That was a fun class, I mean who wouldn’t take a field trip over discussion any day? We got to see a lot of dresses, obviously including some that I would definitely not consider stylish, but apparently someone did. The most fun was trying on the big skirts and corsets though. Especially seeing our professor in his stylish corset and green hat complete with feather.

We finished the museum at 11:40 (ten minutes after my class is normally starting) and instead of venturing back to the house (which was actually only a short ways away) I decided to go down to the Nelson house to try and be productive. The house has so many distractions mainly my computer and photos that returning would inevitably result in negative work. I walked with Abbey and Casey to retro to get some food. While eating I worked on editing Amelia’s film paper. Hopefully that was helpful to her and then I went to the computer to work on my Jane Austen paper. I forgot to email my work from last night so I ended up starting from scratch (mind you my Jane Austen paper did not get very far as I decided to go to bed and think on it than stay up for hours getting nowhere). I ended up getting around 900 words in my lunch break towards the total count of 1000-1500.

Film class had us discussing The Beautiful Laundrette that we watched yesterday. Nothing too noteworthy discussed. As Laura asked her professor a question I went in and talked to Claire about things to do in London. We are venturing there on Saturday for the day. If you have any suggestions feel free to pass them along.

The entire evening has been basically working on my two lovely papers. I had the film paper pretty much written last night, but today I elected to rewrite it. Since then it has gone through some edits and I am now stepping away to look at it again hopefully with almost new eyes. The Jane Austen paper was seemingly more difficult, but for two of my roommates I think it was a lot easier. I have successful written drafts on paper and have edited them both. They are both slightly over the word limit (less than 100 words over each) so I will go back and fix them in a few minutes. I think they are good and I have been working on them for an awfully long time, but I am not sure my professors will share my belief. In addition to those papers I also have reading to do, so it is going to be a long night.

Tomorrow is the last day of classes for the week, which is surprising, but welcomed as its been a stressful week with the papers. A bunch of us are thinking of going out tomorrow to celebrate our completion of the first draft of papers. Then Friday brings Stonehenge and Salisbury and Saturday London. No plans for Sunday, but possibly walking along the canal or something close by in Bath.

My entries seem to be steadily decreasing in length, a reflection on the workload I think, but hopefully they are still informative of the happenings over here in Bath. I must go back to the bane of paper editing and reading now...

photos from today (same album as yesterday. they start on page 2 in the second row or #27. there are a lot from today enjoy!)

June 15: "I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours"

As I seem to be the queen of procrastination what better way to further delay other than writing my blog. I wouldn't want to skip a day you see so I better write a little something of today's uneventful happenings. I woke up on my own accord before Laura. SHOCKING! I went down to class early to meet with Baxter, my presentation partner. Our presentation could have gone better, but its over. Nothing too exciting happened today in classes. We made a trip to the train station to inquire about tickets for the weekend, but we are going to plan out a bit more before purchasing since the ticket rates are fixed.

I made it to and from class today all on my own. Today was pretty much going to class and working on my papers, the source of my procrastination. I have two papers due Thursday, which I'm trying to create drafts of tonight, but as its already midnight it seems that I am procrastinating quite well. As anything else I write will just further the procrastination I will end it early. Facebook must also know that I should be writing papers because it will not let me upload the photos from today so I will have to do those tomorrow. Hopefully the next time I write here I will have made substantial progress on my papers.

photos from today (same album as yesterday photos start on page 1 #9 or the picture of the chocolate cake)

June 14: Sadly it's a school day

Today was sadly a school day. After a weekend of being a tourist it was not easy to try and switch back in the mode of schoolwork. After spending quite some time last night trying to figure out why facebook was being particularly annoying with photo uploading I finally went to sleep and got out of bed at 10:15am. This required some coaxing. I was awakened earlier by a heated debate over the internet between Jason and Peter, but when I asked them about it this evening they had no knowledge of such a debate, but Laura and I both heard it this morning. I had plenty of sleep and more than once my body tried to insist I arouse from bed earlier but I adamantly refused.

I can’t believe it is already the second week. Time is really going to fly by. Today’s classes were uneventful except for the handing out of the assignment sheet for the Jane Austen paper due on Thursday. It was revealed to be quite a bit longer than we anticipated, but it will be done sometime in the next few days. Our film paper is also due on Thursday. Tomorrow is our Jane Austen presentation. I met with my partner after classes today and worked on it a bit after returning here.

I find myself quite tired after a restful night sleep so I feel as though I may head to bed soon to prepare for the long nights ahead writing papers. There are very few photos today but a couple of the town as I walked back to the house after classes. I managed to make it back on my own after some confusion on meeting up with others. It is quite a miracle that I managed to navigate through the city after only a week, but I did!

I broke with my eating British things as my housemates decided on ordering Dominos for dinner. This proved that we are all not math majors and trying to calculate the divided cost with random coupons added was far beyond us.

As I prepare for bed Laura is diligently working on her papers for later in the week proving herself a much better student that I. I will consider it quite an accomplishment if I prove successful in writing drafts of my papers tomorrow.

small selection of photos from today

I also added a brief bit about a piano in the mansion and a group photo on yesterday's post

June 11-13: Weekend in Cornwall - of King Arthur, lizards, and millionaires

I'm playing around with different backgrounds of this blog as I try to decide what I like (it may change again ;) I also warn you that there are a lot of pictures that go with the links (around 250 from all three days. You were warned)

So this weekend involved a lot of walking. On Friday we left at 7:30am for Tintagel, arriving there a little after 1pm. Tintagel is the legendary birthplace of King Arthur. According to legend (and recorded in some medieval romances, including ones I read last semester), King Uther fancied the wife of a Duke, Ygerna. King Uther disguised himself as the Duke, snuck into the castle, and conceived Arthur with Ygerna. The Duke subsequently died in a battle that evening and King Uther made Ygerna his queen. Now saying we went to Tintagel Castle is a little misleading. There is no castle actually there, but simply ruins. And it is quite a ways down and then up some steep steps to get to the actual “castle”. They started this part with the warning “Do not stray from the path because the grass overhang is just grass and there is nothing underneath. A student died a couple years ago from straying off the path.” Needless to say we didn’t really stray off the path (but we went on some rocks a couple times (far from the edge but not on the designated path).

Now they said that the major hike was going to be on Saturday, but many of us felt that these stairs warranted a warning of their own. Not really enough time to walk along this area, have lunch, and shop so we found ourselves quickly hurrying along to get back on the bus to head to the Roskilly’s Farm. This was a farm, but very few animals were there, just some cows. They described it on a handout to us as “whilst here for our BBQ, you can explore the farm, meet the cows and donkeys, amble along paths through charming valley of ponds, meadows, and woods, feed the ducks, or follow the path to ‘Joe Stones’, a great look out place from which you can see over the sea to St Mawes and the Cornish mountains.” Now we went exploring and all we found was a little pond, some cows in a pasture, and a major road. We had barbeque for dinner and ice cream for desert, which they are famous for. I had coconut bounty and green mint chocolate (interesting to note that Mint Chocolate Chips is called green mint chocolate in the UK).

We then got on the bus again and drove to the hostel we would be staying at. The bus parked and they pointed way across town and upwards to where we were staying. We lugged our bags up many more hills until we arrived at the hostel. Now the hostel was much nicer than I ever expected a hostel to be. Many of the rooms were quite spacious (not ours) and they served hot breakfast in the mornings. After settling in, we ventured down to the coast for some pictures before heading back up and calling it a day.

Photos from Day 1

Day 2 of the weekend had us, of course, riding on the bus to the Lizard. Breakfast was at 8am leaving the hostel at 8:40 to make the trek to the bus pick up point to depart. The Lizard is the most southerly part of England and the National Trust owns much of it so it protects it from development. This is the hike they had been warning us about and made sure we wore proper shoes. Now this was a hike, but it was much more level than Tintagel or even the city of Bath with a few inclines and such, but not too bad at all really. Laura and I are also convinced that it was not close to 4 miles but more like 2. Before beginning on the hike our guide showed us the most southerly football field and proceeded to make comments about the game that night. We walked along the path, stopping at the most southerly loo in England and the most southerly café (where I fell, but who can say the fell at the most southerly part of England? Only me from our crew). We walked along the lizard and around the Southern part of England for quite some time, taking many photographs along the way. We eventually got back on the bus and headed for St. Ives. St. Ives is a little town at the bottom of a hill (noticing that a hill is included in everything). We had very little time for this part of our exploration, but we decided we wanted to accomplish it all. We got lunch at a little sandwich place, went to the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, visited the Tate and went to the ocean. I was the only one in our close crew who ventured into the ocean, but some of the other sin the large group choose to sunbath and be on the beach the whole time. It was quite cold as was expected since it is the Atlantic, but I couldn’t not go in the water! MJ and I even stopped for a picture by (well with the) lighthouse from Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse in the Background for Professor Flynn (our English professor at Gettysburg College who loves Virginia Woolf and To the Lighthouse.)

We departed St. Ives at 5pm and passed a military barracks and the Goonhilly Satellite Communications Earth Station where the first trans-Atlantic telephone call to the U.S. was transmitted. It was then up the hill to drop stuff off at the hostel and back down the hill to the Paris pub. Here we had a pasty supper (not my favorite) and watched the much anticipated US vs England football game in the world cup (The two have not met in a World Cup since 1950 when the US beat England 1-0. They were interested in some long awaited payback). The England supporters sang their national anthem so naturally the Americans got up to sign our national anthem (I should say tried as it was a bit more difficult to coordinate and sing in tune than the English one). Within the first five minutes the English supporters were up with cheers singing “Engaland Engaland!” with their first goal. Thankfully the US scored a goal not too much late, but to say they scored gives them some sort of credit rather than acknowledging that it was simply a goalie error. Laura and I felt bad for the goalie after that. There was much yelling and differencing perspectives throughout the game, but as climatic as it was it ended in a tie, which didn’t seem that satisfactory. It meant there could be no boasted from either side, but it seemed unfinished. It was quite fun to be in that atmosphere for the game and it was completed by drinking their special cider, which was quite good.

Happy 18^th Birthday Steven! Sorry I wasn’t there to celebrate. Hope you enjoyed your week at the beach!

Today we woke up for breakfast at 8am again and departed for Knightshayes at 9am. We arrived at Knighshayes a little after noon and had until 3pm to explore, which proved to be more than enough time. Knightshayles is a house built by a millionaire in 1867. It remains the only example built of “a medium-sized Burges country house, to the ‘standard’ Victorian arrangement.” Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the interior of the house but we made up for it with the large number of the exterior and in the garden. I also played a short song on the piano thus starting a trend of other's playing on the piano. But I figured I had to do it because when else would I have the opportunity to play the piano in a mansion? The trek back to the Bath seemed to drag on for quite some time, but we eventually were back in our house around 5:30pm. A letter was waiting for me from Jenny :) Thanks Jenny! We had a group dinner made by Chelsea, had a conversation about movies including Harry Potter, and then split up to do homework and sort through photos.

After the weekend is said and done I came out with pink cheeks (big shocker there since no matter how much I apply sunscreen I always have pink cheeks), a red right arm that will make a nice farmers tan and red behind the knees, but compared to many others I did well. Not a lot of homework for me tonight, but there are quite a lot of pictures to sort through and later this week will not be so fortunate for homework with a presentation on Tuesday and two papers due Thursday. But Thursday is the end of the week and Friday has us going to Stonehenge and Salisbury and then probably off to London on Saturday. Hope you all had a nice weekend and hopefully my dad, brother and Mary are enjoying Steven’s birthday dinner out!

Photos from Day 2 & 3 (too many to all the days to fit in one album ;))

the entire group minus our academic advisor Jonathan just so you have a gauge of how many people are in the program (the teachers are in the photo too)