A Creative Mind Abroad

So, it would seem there’s a limit to the amount of megabytes one can upload onto an ePortfolio site… And if I keep up at the rate I’ve been going, I’m going to break that in the first two week’s worth of pictures. I’ll try to reserve uploads for the most important pictures, and then supplement the rest with Dropbox links, though how permanent those will be is a mystery to me. I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog! More pictures coming!

As I’ve said, I had an amazing month in London and am currently in Ireland, en route to the Skelligs off the west coast. Once I get back from there, I’m heading back to Edinburgh, Scotland, seeing as though I’ve pretty much made up my mind that I’m moving there sometime in the future. After that, I head back to London and ultimately to the states to join all of you lovely people! I see lots of pictures in the future of this blog, but for now, ta-ta!

Looking at my past month here, I feel what I need to say can be best said in the words of Inigo Montoya:
“Let me explain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”

In all honesty, I don’t know if I could really explain fully how this trip has affected me. It’s reaffirmed my belief in my career path, upset the balance of my day-to-day life, made me reconsider where I want to live after college, given me an amazing insight on many kinds of British literature, and all around added its stamp on who I am as a person. I don’t mean to be so sentimental about all this, but I’m going to come back to New York City a different person with a new view of the world at large. Okay, maybe I am being sentimental, but it’s hard not to with all the beautiful places I’ve seen and life-altering things I’ve experienced. Sentimental or not, I have an amazing month abroad under my belt, in addition to another glorious, self-reflective week plus in the Isles.

I’ll be adding a few more blog posts about what all I do in Ireland, Scotland, and London, but for now, goodbye my wonderful study abroad experience, and see you soon to those who’ve been reading this.

This past week has been absolutely nuts! I won’t go too in depth about the minutia of my last week of the program, since it was mostly sitting around and writing papers, but I did get to see Richard III at the Globe! I know, I know, you’d think that the thrill of going to the Globe would start being numbed after two performances there, but I still loved it! The actor who played Richard III was absolutely impeccable in his role, and the fact the production was all male gave it that extra authenticity I love to see in performances of Shakespeare.

Besides that, the past few days have been really relaxed. Other than Richard III, my two classes didn’t have any field trips, which was all the better for me since I had to write two 2000-word essays for them. As per usual, I went to a pub or two for some sticky toffee pudding, which is definitely one of the things I’ll miss most from living in London. Well, that and the sausage rolls!

It was quite hard to say goodbye to all the people I’d met, and even though the excitement of the Olympics made things more interesting, my last day was still pretty sad. I did get to see the first sequence of the opening ceremonies on TV, but really, the Olympics just blocked off a lot of the good parts of London while I was there. You could still gain access to the parks, for instance, but all the good bits were blocked off! I actually had to wake up at 4 in the morning to make it to my 8:50 train, despite the trip only (normally) taking about an hour and a half. Hey, I guess that’s what I get for studying abroad in the host city of the Olympics.

I’ll leave the concluding summary about my experience in London for the next blog post, since I’m kind of exhausted from traveling. Until then, sayonara!

I only have time for a brief write-up about my day since I have to get some sleep; I’m waking up at five to leave for Paris which is a wonderful, but exhaustive prospect.

Stratford-Upon-Avon was amazing. I mean, seriously, breath-takingly amazing. As you should have guessed by now, I’m an enormous Shakespeare fan, so visiting Stratford was definitely one of the best, most perfect days of my life. I’m really not overstating how big of an impression it made on me; it was a perfect day, and it felt so complete I didn’t actually mind leaving!

I was pretty tired, this morning, particularly because of all the lazy, mindless traveling, but I perked right up when we arrived in the early afternoon. Nick took us to the theatre where we’d be seeing the Tempest, and after that let us off to wander and get lunch. My friend and I went to Shakespeare’s birthplace, which I unfortunately did not go inside. It was actually 13 pounds to gain entry, and though I find that more than worth it to visit something so historic, we didn’t have enough time to make it worth the price. Instead, I got four different styles of pressed pennies from the machine outside the entryway and had tea directly across from it. Afterwards, I got to see the Tempest, which had a very different interpretation from how I see it in my head. The whole show was Tim Burton-esque, with an elegant and beautiful eeriness, which really resounded with the piece. Ariel was identical to Prospero, save that he wasn’t wearing shoes, and his movements were weird and disjointed. (I mention this because Ariel is usually more fluid and graceful in his motions, and is, at times, played by a woman.) I think what stuck with me the most out of it, aside from the magnificent Shakespearean lines and amazing metaphors, was Ariel using a violin bow on the edge of a xylophone to make music. That particular bit was beautiful, but unsettling and odd. After that very different interpretation of the Tempest, a few of us wandered over to Holy Trinity Church, where we saw the gorgeous interior of the church as well as Shakespeare’s grave. To be honest, the whole thing was pretty moving for me, and not just because I’m a big Shakespeare fan. The church is gorgeous, the cemetery is as well, and the section with Shakespeare’s grave in it is amazingly beautiful. With that visit, I completed a full cycle of Shakespeare’s life: birth, life, farewell to the stage, and death, which is particularly why I wasn’t sad to leave. Besides, I’m going to go back there someday, and I hope it’s just as beautiful when I return.

After buying a couple souvenirs at the church, we stopped by the gift shop at Shakespeare’s birthplace, bought a few souvenirs (like my new darling Shakesbear), and then ate at the oldest pub in Stratford. It was an adorable place, and if my camera hadn’t died, I would have taken a lot more pictures of it! As it was, we made it out of there just in time to catch the train with a few other people from our class, and it took a good couple hours to get back to the dorms. I have Paris in the morning, which I’ll probably sum up in a short blog, seeing as though it isn’t technically part of my study abroad program. For now, I’m beat. Good night, everyone, and I’ll talk to you in a few days!

Well, to be more accurate, would a Holmes by any other location smell as… Intuitive? Seeing as though this is a literature class about London, our discussion of Sherlock Holmes this morning revolved not only around Holmes as a character, but also how London acts as a character in the text. Frankly, that’s kind of what I have planned for my final essay in this class, so I’ll be able to use some of that discussion in how I frame my argument. I don’t really want to talk too much about what we did in the classroom today, specifically because the afternoon’s instruction was so much cooler! If you aren’t aware of what I did this afternoon, you haven’t been reading this blog. If you have, you’ll know that Nick took us to the Sherlock Holmes Museum!

Now, if I’m most excited about The Tempest for my Shakespeare class, Sherlock Holmes is definitely what I’m most excited for in my London Lit class. Now, I already stopped at the gift shop once before (and came away with many, many, many random thingies of sleuthly awesomeness), but I hadn’t gotten the chance to actually go inside the museum. There was, unfortunately, a long line going in, but the museum itself is really interesting and fun for someone familiar with Holmes’ stories. The study was definitely the best part, and they actually let you take pictures in the deer-stalker and sitting chairs! It’s a very small gesture, but one that I enjoyed to no end. Honestly, I would love to actually live in the little house the museum is housed in; the study just radiates the qualities I look for in somewhere to sit for hours on end, and the furniture is all so charming I couldn’t help getting giddy whenever I used it! It was really a great experience for a literature nerd like myself, and I did actually make it down the gift shop again afterwards. I know, they reel you in with the deer-stalker pictures and force you to buy random things you don’t need! I’m not particularly bitter though; I am quite happy with the little doo-dads I got between both visits, and I think the miniature Holmes will go nicely with my puzzle cubes at home.

After seeing the museum, the Holmes revelry did not actually end. My friend and I went to the Sherlock Holmes Pub, which is not associated with museum and is not located on Baker Street. (Fun factoid: though the museum’s location is actually around 241 Baker Street, they petitioned the city to get special permission to have its address be 221B Baker Street. The actual position of where 221B Baker street would be is denoted by a statue of the great detective.) The pub was really cool, and had a lot of similar things to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, but with a much more theatrical flair. It was a really nice place to sit and read, and the food was pretty decent. By the time I ultimately got home, I was quite pleased with the amount of Holmes I received.

I would lament the passing of our class studying Sherlock Holmes, but I’m too busy being excited for Stratford-Upon-Avon! Seriously, I’m so excited about this I can hardly stand it! I’ll be sure to leave a post when I get home tomorrow night, but I don’t know how long it will be. It takes a couple hours to get there and another couple to get back, so I could be home a little late, and besides, I’m off to Paris the day after. I need to get some sleep in order to function for what is sure to be an amazing day, so I’m off. Good night, all, and I wish you as good a day as I’ll be having tomorrow!

As I predicted yesterday, today was a really easy-going day. Frankly, I’m really glad that I haven’t had to hike around London for a couple days; I may not be “sick” anymore, but I certainly don’t feel completely well again. We talked about the cold-inducing Henry V this morning, which was really great, and in the afternoon we discussed The Tempest! I am exceedingly excited about going to Stratford on Thursday, and not just because The Tempest is one of my favorite works of Shakespeare. Getting to see the birthplace of Shakespeare is going to be one of the more amazing things I’ve done in my life, and I cannot wait to go to the church he’s buried in! I’m such a Shakespeare nerd…

I really don’t have all that much interesting stuff to say right about now; the day was calm, the discussion perfect for preparing to watch The Tempest, and the afternoon/early evening laid back. Yep, it was a pretty boring day, now that I think about it! Oh well. The next six days should make up for the drollness of this post, namely because I’ll be going to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and Paris during them. Yeah, now whose study abroad trip is boring? Anyway, I’m going to spend the rest of the night trying to get a little preliminary work done on my final essays, which I won’t be doing this weekend because of the whole Paris thing. After that, it’s bedtime to get the rest I need for a hectic almost week! So, for now, toodle-loo!

Today was a really good way to get back into the swing of being non-sick for school activities; instead of going out on the town after our morning discussion of Oliver Twist, we watched a movie version of it. No, it wasn’t the musical, but it was still very engaging. It was also really long and in black and white, but I definitely don’t dock it for being that way, considering how much I enjoyed it. It stuck very close to the book, which is sometimes difficult to do when transposing a text to film. I really don’t have all that much to say about what we did in class, but I love Oliver Twist as a text.

What I can say, and what this morning’s discussion was mostly about, is that Nancy is a very difficult character to work and come to terms with. The stereotype of a fallen woman redeeming herself in the eyes of society and God was too thorny for the era Dickens wrote in, forcing him to kill her off at the end. Despite how awful it is to see her death, especially at the hands of the one person she tried not to betray, it was the only way for her story to end without upsetting the audience of the book. Then again, Dickens stripped away the Romantic ideals of the charming rogue with his depictions of Fagin and Sykes, so a little extra controversy probably wouldn’t have hurt the text too much.

Tomorrow will be another easy-going, all-class day, particularly because we have to cover the Tempest before we go to Stratford-Upon-Avon on Thursday. I am so completely exuberant over the prospect of seeing Stratford, and I’m not sure how well I’m going to sleep the night before, all excitement considering. For now, though, it’s time to sleep and think thoughts of Henry V and the Tempest. So, good night, and I’ll check in again tomorrow!

Yessirreebob, Brittany is finally back in action! It took two days for most of my nasty cold to dry up, and though I can still feel it pushing at the back of my sinuses, I actually had the energy to go out on the town! I would have been really mad if I hadn’t, because today was very nice.

To begin with, I woke up in the later morning feeling just a bit sick still. I took some cold medicine, and headed out to London with one of my friends, where we spent a good three hours perusing bookshops near Charing Cross. It was absolutely wonderful! My favorite bookstore in New York City is the Strand, particularly because of the Rare Books Room on the third floor. Well, basically every single store we went into was covered in turn of the century books, ranging from philosophy to art to poetry to fiction and everything in between. I walked away from those bookstores with about seven more books than I’d started with in the morning, which I’ll now have to deal with in my suitcase… Still, I think a 3 pound, late 1800’s/early 1900’s edition of Christopher Marlowe’s seminal works is more than worth a little back and arm ache. The smell alone is worth the price, and they look so pretty sitting on my nightstand! We were unfortunately called away when two more of my friends asked if we wanted to go to Abbey Road. Obviously, we did, so we left the beautiful, amazing bookstores, hopped on the transit system, and made it over to the very touristy and surprisingly congested crosswalk. We did not have the foresight to bring a fifth person to actually take the picture, so a couple of French tourists were nice enough to catch us walking across the crosswalk. After that, we signed the wall outside the studio and headed to the Sherlock Holmes Museum! My London Lit class is going there pretty soon, but that didn’t stop us from going into the gift shop and buying some fun souvenirs. I almost got a letter opener with the great detective as the handle, but decided against in when I realized I’d have to get a relatively knife-like object through US and British Customs. After that, we split into to pairs, my bookstore friend and I heading to a partially closed off St. James Park. (Thank you, Olympics!) We still got to go to the waterside and read some poetry in the late afternoon light, despite the barriers blocking off about half of the park, but it would’ve been nice to see the full extent of “London’s Central Park.” Finally, we headed to Leceister Square for some food and headed back to Surbiton just as it got dark.

Now, it’s late, and I need to get some sleep, even though tomorrow won’t be a particularly strenuous day. I’m very excited about my recent book acquisitions, and I plan on starting “Irish Fairy Tales” when I head to Ireland! For now, it’s bedtime for Brittany in Britain, so good all you lovely people across the Pond!

It’s Saturday in the lovely outer boroughs of London, and I’m lazing about reading books, tending to my awful cold. It’s been a pretty uneventful day… I’m pretty sure it’s going to stay that way, considering the fact that I still feel miserable. I’m at least clear-headed enough to finish reading the books I hadn’t gotten the chance to finish, namely a quick re-read of the Tempest and Richard III, which are the other two plays we’re studying and watching in my Shakespeare class. That’s about all I’ve been doing today, but I figure since I’m about halfway through the program, I’ll do a quick sum up of my experience so far (providing my head allows it).

This has been a really interesting and engaging experience for me. I mean, that’s kind of a “no duh” statement, but it’s true. I’ve done a lot of touristy things, most of which I’ve related in this blog; hung out in some pubs for pub grub, which has been delicious and very fatty; and gotten a taste of what college is like for British students. I think the most different thing about studying the UK is the grading system, where grades in the 70s are considered “A’s.” I’m not sure how exactly they go about converting UK grades to those that work in the US system, but my head is really too groggy to postulate a guess and, besides, I’m not the one who has to worry about it. I’m really enjoying the instruction of Nick, whose wit has made every class entertaining while simultaneously educational. (I kind of wish I could take him back to CCNY and let him teach some of my classes…) I really enjoy the feel of British life, and if for whatever reason I had to live in London instead of Edinburgh, I wouldn’t be complaining. They’re both very old cities, and I love that sense of history that wafts up from the old cobbles of the winding backstreets… And on that bombshell, it’s time to end. (UK Top Gear? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?)

I suppose I should get back to reading and resting; I have big plans for some small bookstores tomorrow, and I want to have as much energy as possible before setting out in the morning. So, for now, I’m going to go read beautiful and philosophical things like “we are such things as dreams are made on,” which is the beginning of one of Prospero’s more infamous speeches. Good evening, and good reading!