Ending Entry

Strange to think I’ve been home for about four days now. It is strange I think because I’ve just been gone for all this time. I’ve looked back at my old blog entries form back in January and I remember just how unsure I was about all of this.

I would have never predicted the countless ways that I have developed myself and on so many levels. I read my blog especially from France and I become very satisfied by this.

Okay, so I’ve fulfilled the fantasy; I’ve traveled to Europe. I now have to decide what I’m going to do about it. I could very well leave it all alone and move on to a life stuck in the states and be happy about it as so many others I know are happy about it. They are truly happy as well. There is no hollowness to the satisfaction they feel in having gone to Europe just the one time. I don’t think they should feel any hollowness either. However, could I experience their same satisfaction? The trouble is I just don’t think so.

Which brings me to my next mission. How am I going to get back? I love the States. They are my home. But Europe is like a really good friend. You don’t just leave friends and forget to keep in contact with them. So I’ll have to leave this entry with something of a cliffhanger, annoying as it may be. Maybe it is better this way though. Travels shouldn’t be just a story but a chapter of one’s life story. That’s at least what this feels like the ending of one chapter and the creaky beginning of another. I hope to one day show up with more chapters like this hoping that this chapter analogy isn’t so cheesy you’ll just give up on me. In the meantime, I hope to find many other travel blogs that can give me some inspiration.

Closing In For Departure (and another lovely time(s) in London)

I am very much amazed at how much I'm doing here in Britain in a very short amount of time. Last week's trip for my studies was to the Lake District which I LOVE. It reminded me of the Appalachian mountains as in picturing the exact same thing but in only hill size. It is still all green and rocky with streams and lakes everywhere. On ground level, the cottages and gardens look like something out of a Beatrix Potter book. Well, she did kind of live there though...

I went on a hike every day, an activity easily done with a great variety of terrain and views. However, in England, you can be twenty and legally end every hike with a trip to a pub for hot hard cider, a hot toddy, or just about anything that is hot and has alcohol in it, not that I was in it for the alcohol. It can be very cold up there and something needs to bring heat back into one's cheeks after scaling steep hills in cold rain all day. This is yet another place in Europe that I would love to return to again.

It is also bizarre that at this time, I'm less than I week from returning home; about four days in fact. I'm happy. I'm quiet. I miss France a bit. I also miss the States. Mostly I miss my family and my dog. I still can't really complain when my biggest problem is only figuring out how to balance the weight of all my things between three bags!

My past two weekends have essentially been in London, a city so complex and a worthy rival to Paris in all ways as an internationally hailed city. I've fallen in love with a part of town not well covered in guidebooks called Camden Town. It is a place so colorful and different filled with different people that I just took a lot of pictures, lacking adequate words for it all.





Of course, I've been in the more "traditional" areas as well. In fact, a highlight of my Fourth of July was at the British Museum while also wearing my most American t-shirt featuring not only Wonder Woman but also Bat Girl and Super Girl. I would have also taken pictures of the Rosetta Stone (epic experience it was, to the point where all my nerd senses were on overload) but the glass is super reflective and not to mention there was the MOB surrounding it. Otherwise....wonderful, just wonderful visit.





I end with me having finally found Platform 9 3/4. Another good day in London-town!

Getting back from Whitby and such

England seems to be more jam packed than France indeed. Ha! I'm still trying to get over it all, my schedule. This past week, we finished up Dracula by Bram Stoker. Thus our destination was Whitby and Whitby Abby for a two day and one night stay. Whitby turns out to be the goth capital of England. Walking around, it is inevitable to run into a goth store or really several goth stores. That ambiance along makes it really fun to walk around however Whitby itself wasn't really my favorite part.

I loved really climbing on the ruins of Whitby Abby, walking the Yorkshire moors, and staying at our wonderful B&B in a nearby village. I was just so happy to have a soft, comfy mattress with free tea and biscuits and a super deep bath...all to myself.

The ruins remain massive and if I could have, I would have loved to have had a picnice there right where the sanctuary used to be. It is a very calming place and still beautiful after all these years even as erosion, grass, and time in general have withered it away some.

Having Dr. MacGregor along makes for many opportunities to walk the countryside with a guide, which is a very good thing for me as even though there are maps of all the trails, they look like squiggles to me. The walk was fine in my everyday sandals but if I continue to take these walks with MacGregor, I may have to consider getting proper walking shoes. Terrain can get really rough and the brambles and heather can be rough to get through. I'll have to shop around the British outdoor stores (which are everywhere it seems) and see about it.

Unfortunately, while leaving Whitby today, we ended up having to leave behind a student but he is alright though I don't know what happened. It seemed to be a mixture of that he just wasn't there for the bus on time at all and no one spoke up at the head count time to say that he was missing. Well, he is safe and that is what matters.

SO much to update...

Got back from Liverpool today and, as I’ve told others, had the Beatles-fix of a lifetime. While I could check the Internet from at least my hostel Friday night in Edinburgh (yep, went there again), I couldn’t really update the blog like I would have liked to. Add the fact that I forgot to mention the Chatsworth manor visit from the Literary Landscapes Program of the first week and the result is that I have A LOT to talk about.

So let’s start at Chatsworth. This was for the very first week of the LL program, Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) and the reason we went to this estate is because many academics are for and against the argument that this was Austen’s inspiration for Mr. Darcy’s estate. I don’t know if this place really was the estate that Pemberly is based off of but it gives a good clue as to the grandeur of Mr. Darcy’s background.

The gardens at Chatsworth are just as impressive as the house itself. At the very least I preferred the gardens to the house. It was a mix it seemed of the French gardens I was used too from my time in Angers and the English style that I'm coming to know. As a quick summary of the difference, French equals highly controlled and looking highly controlled and English equals highly controlled and working hard to not look highly controlled.

The second week, while going over Wuthering Heights, we had visited the Bronte Parsonage and later took a hike to visit places that the Bronte sisters loved to visit while outdoors. Here I have my first (sadly maybe only) British cat pic. She was hanging in the front yard of the parsonage. The Bronte's loved animals. I think they'd approve.

....Also, couldn't resist taking pictures of the Japanese tourists taking pictures.

The English countryside of this part of the country is gorgous but of course it is gorgous everywhere. Along the way, I found the two professors of the LL program (Dr. Beebe and Dr. McGregor) plus Dr. Hanlon group together in really the perfect way for a from-the-back picture.

Dr. McGregor had a surprise to show us along the walk: a "literal" Literary Landscapes. I don't know who did this and it must have been expensive but I really appreciate them doing it!

Over the weekend, I went straight back to Edinburgh on Friday and took in as many of the free museums as I could. The National Museum of Scotland is currently showing an exhibition of the Chessmen of the Isle of Lewis. Chances are that even if you don’t know what the Isle of Lewis is or even if you don’t play chess, you’ve seen images of these characters. If not, look them up!

As a side note, I stayed in the same hostel in Edinburgh as before. Prices start at thirteen pounds a night which is especially amazing considering all the many and CLEAN facities that are yours to take advantage.

I'm leaving the link for better demonstration here:

http://caledonianbackpackers.com/

Saturday was all dedicated to Liverpool and more specifically the Beatles. I’ve told just about everyone that this past trip gave me the Beatles-fix of a lifetime.

It was both cool to visit the Beatles Story, the main museum dedicated completely to the group, and to visit their hometown.

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It was also really bittersweet because everything is very cleaned up and on display for tourists. I still have to admit having had a good time.


There isn't much in Liverpool outside of the Beatles but a fun thing to try and spot throughout the city is the Super Lamb Bananas dotted along downtown. The story is all at this link:

http://www.superlambbanana.com/home.php?/home

I end with possibly the most random sign I have come across in Europe. Enjoy, please.

A little catching up on the first weekend and a small rant on homework

I swear that the homework rant is rather painless. It isn't really like I have more homework than in France. Rather I have more of a social life. Between more socializing and just as much homework, I'll have to get my act together and keep on this blog bit!

I miss Pride and Prejudice. It is Wurthing Heights week and my greatest praise after analyzing the living daylights out of that book is that Heathcliff just finally died. I wish I could say I admired is "devotion" and "passion" for Katherine but no, just no.That is over-simplifing the story to almost a criminal level.

Yet again, I rant.

A far, far, more pleasant report is York and Edinburgh this weekend. I stayed in York for Friday and Edinburgh for Saturday and Sunday- Sunday night returning to Harlaxton.

York is quaint, charming, and just pleasant. I have nothing bad to say about this city and think that this place can easily be covered in a day.


If you can, I highly recommend walking the entire wall around York. It was part of the towns protection and now continues to be regularly stormed by English families on holiday.

The shops and streets are destinations in themselves, especially walking by guys like this.


I fell in love with Edinburgh. I love how the streets and buildings are connected together like the mind of a mad man in the Old Town. I love the bohemian allure with art gallery, independent bookstores, tattoo shops, and street artists. I think every traveler should find a foreign city to truly, truly love and yearn to go back to and that for me is Edinburgh.



My proud souvenir form this trip is a red lambswool, Scottish-made sweater. Lovely, warm I will need it for the remainder of this trip.

I'm off to Lincoln in ten minutes and this weekend, I guarantee nothing but Liverpool to visit. Check back later (sooner than last time I hope)!

Getting ready for the first weekend and homework

Well, I've almost finished making the necessary bookings and checked the train times to go to York, Edinburgh, and New Berwick this weekend. The first two you've probably heard of but the last one interests me because it is just a half-hour train ride from Edinburgh and is the preferred beach town of the locals so it seems. No swimsuit-wearing though I imagine. It looks just too damp and cold.

Settling in at the Harlaxton manor has been going very well here. I like the students and, of course, the professors who I'm working with and the discussions concerning Pride and Prejudice have been slightly more lively than I've experienced in past lit classes, a very encouraging thing.

Madame and Monsieur continue their communication with me and I with them. It is mainly tying up loose ends. A very confusing instance happened where Madame thought I took the English-French dictionary of Jean-Baptiste and left mine behind. I took only one dictionary with me and it remains with me and no other. I went all through my things just in case but just as I thought, I didn't take his book. It was rather bizarre instance and I hope she finds it soon.

To go along with Pride and Prejudice week, I have one response paper and a mandatory journal entry to do. Tonight, along with weekend packing, I'll be writing the response paper. The prompt asks to focus on one or two important scenes in the novel and write on Austen's use of first impressions in the plot and messages of the novel. Then also I must mention how these said scenes play against "pride" and "prejudice."

To end this entry, I leave a pic of a failed attempt to shove as many people as we could into a photo booth. Funny all the same :)

Day One at Harlaxton

Well, as you can imagine, I'm not in France any more. I'm still trying to get over it a little. I just said good bye this morning to Madame and Monsieur and now I'm staying in a whole other country with a whole other set of priorities and goals. England may not hold the same challenges and excitement it seems as an environment in a different language but I expect to learn a lot from this place, mainly how to get around with a mansion in the middle of the country as my home base. My prediction is getting to know very well the taxi drivers here. One of them is suppose to have a special student rate from the manor to the station that is three miles from here.

Speaking of the manor, what I'm doing exactly for the next five weeks in saying at Harlaxton College, an outpost campus of University of Evansville in Indiana. UE shares the manor with other schools such as Eastern Illinois University, my university for groups of students and professors to come throughout the year to study and be in Europe while gaining American credit hours along the way. I'm with two English professors from EIU and EIU students and we will all be studying British Literature with a focus on how different locations in England helped influence some of literature's most important writers. This week is Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. Class discussion starts at nine in the morning until noon with the afternoon off. I'm very curious what the homework will be like. From what I understand at least journal entries will be included. I shall let you know.

Mainly right now, I'm just getting my bearings and figuring out how this place works and how that will affect my studying and traveling. Hope to be more in the know tomorrow!