The End of an Era

‎"There are no more horcruxes. It's just you and me. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good." -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

It blows my mind that the Harry Potter generation is over.  I remember when the first book came out - I was nine, and we read it as a class in 4th grade.  No one could pronounce Hermione's name correctly (something J.K. Rowling made fun of in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), but we were all completely blown away by the magic of Rowling's storytelling.  Jessica and I sped through Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban (Books 2 & 3), and could not wait for the next books to come out.  From then on, we always pre-ordered our books on Amazon, and it never took me more than a couple days to read each new book (including Book 4 which we read right after our move to Virginia, without any furniture in the house!).  I feel like readers of my generation grew up with Harry Potter - even to the point where I was 17 when Deathly Hallows (Book 7) was released and all of the characters were 17.  Each book in Rowling's series is increasingly mature, complex, and intense -- something I could appreciate as a reader who was also maturing and growing up.
The Harry Potter films brought in a completely different view of the books.  While I enjoy the movies, I definitely believe the books present a more complex plot and deeper character development.  Granted, its hard to turn 1000+ page books into movies of an acceptable length, so I understand why a lot of the nonessential plot points and details were left out of the movies.  After seeing the final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2, last night, I thought they wrapped up their shortened storyline very well.  All the same, it was a very surreal experience to see the last movie.  Just like with the release of the Book 7, it seemed so, well, final.  Unlike the majority of the Harry Potter fans today, I grew up with the characters both through the book series and the films.  It's sad to see the end of this phase in our lives -- it's truly the end of an era.

Monroe Research Week Four - Halfway There!

(copied from http://upperclassmonroe.blogs.wm.edu/author/sckyle/)

As the end of week 4 quickly approaches, it occurs to me that I am over halfway through my 7 week timeline!  After the remainder of today’s testing, I will have had 24 participants.  While I was originally hoping to recruit 40 participants, I will be happy if I can pass 30!  Recruiting has been much more difficult than I had originally expected.  I’ve flyered the campus dorms twice, send emails to the Monroe and Research listservs, and even teamed up with two Psychology professors who agreed to offer their students extra credit if they participated in my study!  Talk about a great incentive (in addition to my own participation reward of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream)!  My advice to anyone that hopes to research on human subjects:  start recruiting immediately after receiving approval from the PHSC.  Teaming up with professors is a great way to have easy access to students, but it definitely helps to talk with them as early as possible.  Tracking down professors in the summer can be challenging:  they flit from their classroom to their lab, and are very hard to catch in their office!
So far, I have avoided any major potholes in my methodology.  However, I have had to change the test conditions a bit.  Instead of using video chat as the third communication option, the participants now use a voice chat (like Skype or Google Voice).  It turns out that not many students seem to actively use video chat, and so we were having trouble finding a way around this.  Maybe my time abroad last semester made me more reliant on the use of video chat than the average student, but I definitely thought it was a more common form of communication!  Google Voice has turned out to be a wonderful tool for this project.  Anyone with a Google Account (i.e. any William & Mary student since our WMApps is run through Google) can use this tool to call any phone in the US for free from their computer.  How awesome is that?  I feel like I am a walking advertisement for Google Voice!  With the use of this tool, participants can be put in a “Skype-like” setting without having to have a friend online at the same time.  It’s brilliant!
Looking forward, I have one more week of testing left, and then I start the long, tedious process of converting my videotapes to DVD.  Thank goodness I have the awesome Media Center to help me!  From there, I’ll run data analysis and then sit down to the daunting task of writing up my paper.  Even though I’m past the halfway point, I feel like there is still so much to accomplish!

Eine Sehr Schöne Hochzeit

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending my friend Jenny's wedding up in Waterford. Jenny has been an integral part of my life at William & Mary - she co-lead my freshman small group, and then she and I lead an upperclass small group together this past Fall.  She is such a kind and thoughtful friend - it was truly an honor to attend her wedding!
This was also the first wedding that I've been to for a friend and not a family member.  Until now, the majority of the weddings I've attended have been for my aunts and uncles.  It's a bizarre reality watching your friends get married.  Throughout college, it feels like we're going to be here forever...that we'll stay in this social bubble.  But as I enter my senior and final year at William & Mary, I am realizing more and more that we're all on the brink of breaking out of this bubble into the "real world."  That's scary.  We'll go separate directions, and take steps to make a difference in the world around us.
As many of us commented, Jenny's wedding is the first of a season.  A season of change, a season of growing up.  I look forward to attending more friends' weddings, but I have to say I am glad that this was the first.  Jenny's wedding was simple, elegant, and radiantly beautiful - the perfect start to this exciting new chapter of her life, and what I have to look forward to.

Monroe Research Week One - Done.

This week has been incredibly busy!  As hot and humid as Williamsburg is, I absolutely love being back.  It's been really wonderful to reconnect with friends, and reconnect with the campus (though it definitely feels deserted).  I'm living in Jefferson, on the same hall as Sophomore year!  It's a bit strange being back in the same building with a different roommate and a different lifestyle - not going to class is definitely a bit bizzare.  But anyways, here is my first Monroe Blog (copied from http://upperclassmonroe.blogs.wm.edu/author/sckyle/):


It’s hard to believe that my first week of research is almost over!  These first few days have been primarily focused on background research and administration-type tasks.  My project really began to take off in late April, when my study was finally approved by the PHSC!  I had been stressed about the approval process, since I wanted to have everything taken care of before I came back to campus to start my research.  On top of it all, I was abroad last semester, and a five hour time difference definitely disrupts communication.  But in the end, it all worked out smoothly, and now I am in the midst of my research!  This week I have accomplished some major goals:  I secured a space for the actual testing of the participants in my study, and a couple of professors in the Psychology Department have been so wonderful as to let me talk about my project to their students in the hopes of recruiting them as participants!  I hope to begin testing in week 3 (around June 13), but that is very dependent on my communication with potential participants, and spreading the word as quickly as possible.

Also, I should mention that my project has changed slightly since I first posted the abstract.  Instead of describing movement/non-movement situations, the participants are going to tell their partner an exciting personal experience.  They will then repeat this story to a non-participant (because I am not observing them, they are not participants) via chat and video-chat.

In my reading (the primary task of this week), I’ve discovered that there is actually a lot of material out there on gesture and the use of nonverbal communication.  I’ve even found a couple of studies looking at the use of gesture in conversation despite the visual absence of a participant’s partner (usually the partner is hidden behind a screen) – which is extremely relevant to my research!  It’s exciting to know that my research fits into an existing topic, especially in an up-and-coming field!  Gesture studies have really taken off since about 1970, and with the addition of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) studies, this field is very new and exciting!  On entering my research, I did not know so much previous literature existed, and it is so encouraging to know that I can tie my own studies back to a well-developed field of research.

Back to the 'Burg

Hello All!  After a very relaxing week at home, I am now heading back to Williamsburg to complete my Summer Monroe Research Project.  Hopefully I will finish all of my work in 7 weeks, so then I can be back at home for the remainder of the summer!  This week has gone by so fast - it's so hard to believe that I arrived home from Bath just last Saturday!  I'm excited to go down to Williamsburg, but at the same time I don't feel like it's time yet.  I've been planning this project for just over 18 months, and it's exciting, yet strange, to see it finally happen!  All Monroe Scholars have to blog on the Monroe Blog 3 times during the duration of our research.  My blogs can be found here:  http://upperclassmonroe.blogs.wm.edu/tag/sarah-kyle/
I might copy and paste those blogs into this one, but I haven't decided yet - so check back for details!  Also, if you remove the tag/sarah-kyle/ from that URL, you can access all of the Monroe blogs!


So with that, I'm off to finish up packing, and I will see you all in Williamsburg!

A Bittersweet Adventure

I am finally home safe and sound.  And let me tell you, it has definitely been an adventure getting here.  I arrived in Dulles Airport around 2:30, and about an hour later was through customs and on my way home!  But, lets rewind 15.5 hours from my arrival at Dulles, because that is where my adventure really begins.  I got up at 4am this morning (GMT - so 11pm yesterday in EST) in order to finish packing and get everything in order for departure from our flat (we had to pack up our bed linens and make sure all our dishes were clean, etc).  So I got about 4.5 hours of sleep last night, and about the same the night before after we went out for our final night out as a programme.

Our Last Night Out

So with that background in mind, I arrived at the Bristol Airport "bright-eyed and bushytailed" around 5:50am, after a very sad farewell to my roomies and my last taxi ride through Bath and Bristol.  After dealing with the very inefficient system for paying for extra luggage in the BRS  Airport, I met up with two other ASE students on my flight to Amsterdam, and we awaited the announcement of our gate.  Sadly, instead we got a notice that our flight had been delayed 35 minutes.  Originally I did not think much of this, but then I realized that I would be missing boarding for my connecting flight to Dulles.  Trying not to freak out too much, I sat rather impatiently through my flight to Amsterdam (once the airplane finally came).  We arrived with all the other connecting flights in Terminal B, where I located a departure schedule.  At this point it was 11:50, and boarding for my connection started at 11:30.  On the departure schedule, I read the most dreaded words on the screen:  "Gate Closing / Gate Besluit."  Needless to say, I ran from that point on to Terminal E, and to my gate.  Arriving out of breath, the lady running the security check just sort of looked at me, and said, "you're on time, you don't need to worry." Funny, I was not under the impression that the words "gate closing" meant "on time," or that my panting could be instantaneously stopped by not worrying haha.  Of course to make this adventure even better, I had to go through the xray machine and get a pat down at the security check.

ASE Final Tea

As I was walking down the walkway to the plane, I was stopped by another airport employee, telling me that I could take my time now that I was past security.  Only, he thought I was Dutch, so he was explaining all of this in Dutch until he finally realized that I had absolutely no idea what he was saying!  So apparently, I can pass as a Dutch citizen and a German citizen (see notes on trip to Rome)!
All of these insane aspects of my travels were made up for with the Toffee Ice Cream they served as our snack on my flight to Dulles.  THEY SERVED ICE CREAM ON THE AIRPLANE!!!  Why is this not a more common occurence?!?  I was also very thankful that my luggage made my connection as well - I was not expecting them to get my luggage on my AMS-IAD flight, since I barely made it in time myself!
So now I have officially been awake for 22 hours, I'm ready for bedtime!  I am so excited to go to MPC tomorrow - I've missed going to church so much this semester!  Speaking of missing, I miss my ASE friends already, it's so weird being apart from all of them, knowing that we're all going our separate ways.

One Day More!

"One day more!  Another day another destiny..." -- Les Miserables

 It is so hard to believe that today is my last day in Bath.  The semester has definitely flown by, and it is so difficult to imagine not seeing the people in my programme all the time!  The fact that we won't really see each other again hasn't completely hit me yet - but that is going to be so bizarre.  Today is most dedicated to packing (which I have yet to start! haha), but our programme also has our Final Tea, as a final farewell between the students and staff.  Sadly, our tutors are not going to be present, so we already had to say those goodbyes last week.  I just can't believe the semester is really ending, and that we all have to go back to our separate lives back in the States.


Wish me luck on packing!  I'm really dreading having to fit my life back into two suitcases!  I'll see you on the other side of the pond :)

In the Final Stretch

It is so bizarre to me that I go home in only a week - I honestly don't know how I feel about it.  I feel like it's the end of the semester, so in that sense I am definitely ready to be home.  But at the same time, I've adjusted to life here, so it's hard to imagine just picking up my old life when I get back.  It'll be strange not to see my roommates and friends every day, and not to cook my own meals or walk down the street to go grocery shopping.  However, there are things that I am very excited for:  seeing my friends and family, driving Volvo around Williamsburg (though I am not looking forward to the lack of air conditioning!), and getting started with my summer activities.  We recently had a programme meeting about what it will be like to go home, and how we can reconcile our experiences here with resuming life at home.  I was surprised at the response of one of our students, who wanted to just close the door on his study abroad experience and not look back.  Apparently he didn't really enjoy his time here, but his reaction got me thinking about how life transitions work.  And so when it was my turn to speak in our meeting, my thoughts were mainly directed at his comment, though they applied to everyone.  We can't just close the door on study abroad, and shut out that experience.  Whether we realize it or not, we have been changed by living in a different culture and having adventures with new friends.  Our personalities and lifestyles have been changed by our experiences, and we can't ignore that.  We also can never go back to the way we were - whether we like it or not, we are different people, and we can't just undo that change.  Successful transition comes from acceptance of our experience here, and application of our new selves into our old lifestyles.  Spending time in denial will only make the transition back to American culture more difficult. And now I'll step off of my soap box. :)
In this last week, our time is mostly consumed with exams and final preparations for departure (I'm dreading packing all my stuff up again!).  I know this week will fly by, so I am also trying to get things settled with my Monroe project.  I only have a week at home, so I don't have much time to get everything arranged before moving down there over Memorial Day weekend.  I can't wait to see you all VERY soon! :)

An Ever Fixed Mark

O no!  It is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken. -- Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 

I meant to include a quote from Macbeth, but they all seemed too dark and depressing...so I decided on Marianne Dashwood's favorite sonnet, according to the Ang Lee adaptation of Sense & Sensibility! :)

Shakespeare's Birthplace

These past three days, our entire programme has been touring Shakespeare's birthplace and later residence, Stratford-Upon-Avon.  I had already seen much of the town on my previous class day trip, so I admit I was not super thrilled to be spending three entire days there.  Stratford is a very small town, and of course the main attractions are all Shakespeare-related.  There are a grant total of 5 Tudor properties that tourists can visit, but other than that, there just isn't much to do.  Our days were broken up by lectures from our Shakespeare tutors, and then we usually ended each evening with some kind of group activity.

Outside Anne Hathaway's Cottage

The highlight of the trip was definitely the two performances we went to see.  Our first night we saw Shakespeare's Macbeth, and then our last night we saw The City Madam by Philip Massinger.  I thoroughly enjoyed both plays - and it was nice to end the trip with a comedy, especially after the intensity of Macbeth.  On our last day in Stratford, we also toured the ruins of Kenilworth Castle, which was a nice break from the Shakespeare-filled Stratford proper.
Overall, I had mixed feelings about the trip.  I think we could have done Stratford in one day, and so having 2.5ish days to see the town was definitely too much.  It would have been nice to explore the surrounding area more, and maybe to have seen another show on our middle day (the programme usually sees 3 performances).

Shakespeare's Grave

Only 2 weeks left now!  We have one week of classes, and then one week of exams and the semester is over!  It's hard to believe that I'm going home so soon, but I definitely think that I'm ready to go back to Ashburn and Williamsburg.  It feels like the semester should be ending at this point, and that we should all be going back home for summer break.  However, it's weird thinking that I'm not really going to see the other students in my programme again.  We are all scattered across the country, and so it's going to take a lot of coordination to keep in touch with everyone!

21 years, 3 days, 7 hours, and 40 minutes

I can't believe I only have 3 more weeks here in Bath.  Where did the semester go?  Today I turned in my last paper of the semester, and finished my 28th book.  Crazy.  Since my schoolwork is in a lull until exams, that means I now have time to start planning for the future.  It's strange to think that in about a month I'll be down in Williamsburg finally completing my Monroe project!  It's even weirder that I've registered for the GRE and am starting to put lists of grad schools together.  I feel like this chapter in my life has gone by so quickly - and it's really sad that I only have a year left at William & Mary.  I feel like there is so much I still have to do there (like finish the Triathalon! haha).  But anyways, I'll stop pondering the future for now, and move on to what I've been doing for the past two weeks!

Outside Windsor Castle

My sweet family arrived on the 16th, and we had a wonderful week together!  It was so nice to visit with them and show them my life in Bath!  This is definitely the longest I've gone without seeing my family, and I've missed them!  The day after they arrived, we went on a day trip to the Cotswolds, a collection of quaint towns and villages in  southwest England.  The day was absolutely beautiful!  Actually, I'm convinced that they brought the warm Virginia weather with them because Bath was in the 70s the whole week, which is incredibly unusual for April!  Monday and Tuesday I had class, so the fam had some time to explore the city on their own, and then on Wednesday, Momma, Daddy, and I took a trip over to Windsor!  We continued the family adventure as we voyaged up to St. Andrews for a visit with Jessica on Thursday.  I stayed until Easter Sunday, so we had lots of time to visit, celebrate our birthday and easter, and even take a trip to Crail!

Hello 21!!

After travelling for the weekend, it was actually really nice to get back to Bath.  My roommates made Easter Dinner for us and a couple of our friends, and even made me a birthday cake!  My actual birthday was rather uneventful, but we all went out to celebrate on Tuesday night, which was so much fun!  We started the night at the Huntsman, as per usual, and ended with dancing at one of the local clubs, Moles.  I had such a great time - it was really a wonderful way to celebrate being 21! :)

Looking ahead, next week is Stratford week (or really, Stratford three days), and I may or may not have internet access during that time.  But I will definitely update again once we get back!  Until then, Tschues!

Springtime in Oxford

The House where Tolkien
wrote The Lord of the Rings

Yes, yet another post on Oxford!  But I promise this one won't be as long as the last few! :)  Today, I spent the day walking the streets of the old city with my "Worlds Beyond Oxford:  Lewis, Tolkien, and Pullman" class.  It was such a beautiful day - perfect for a walking tour!  The southern UK seems to have learned the meaning of spring since I got back from Spring Break.  It's been wonderfully warm (well comparatively! haha) and sunny, and the trees finally have leaves on them!

The Kilns

We started out our day at Oxford with a walking tour focusing on the locations of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Philip Pullman.  We got to see some very famous sites, like Exeter College (the undergraduate home of Tolkien and Pullman), Magdalen College (the undergraduate home of Lewis and Andrew Lloyd Webber!), the houses where Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, etc.  We also learned some "succulent bits of knowledge" along the way.  For example, apparently the poet Percy Byssche Shelley was notorious for swapping babies.  He would legitimately take babies out of their carriages and switch them!  And mothers knew it was him, and so would go to his college, Univ, and complain that they didn't have the right baby!

The Narnia Window at
The Holy Trinity Church

After our tour we went to the Eagle & Child (Lewis & Tolkien's favorite pub) for lunch, and then drove over to the Kilns, the home of C.S. Lewis!  We ended the day with a visit to Lewis's church and gravesite.
It's kind of sad to think that this was my last study trip of the semester.  I've had so much fun getting to explore various parts of England in connection to my studies!  However, the next few weekends are still very busy.  I'm SUPER EXCITED for my parents and grandparents to visit this upcoming week, and then we are all traveling up to St. Andrews to see Jessica for Easter weekend!

Ciao Bella

After a crazy week of travel and sightseeing, I have finally arrived back in Bath!  It felt so good to sleep in my own bed last night, though now the task at hand is shaking this cold that has been following me throughout my travels!  It's really strange to go away for Spring Break.  I've always thought of break as a time to go home and relax/rejuvenate for the rest of the semester. But when you are an abroad students, break is a time for more travel, and then returning to your homebase and studies.  Because there is so much to talk about, I'll just point out the highlights of my trip - I've already posted pictures on facebook, so you can check those out too!

Eiffel Tower!

Saturday April 2 - We woke up not-so-bright, but very early (I believe my alarm went off at 3:30 am) for our 5 am taxi to the Bristol Airport.  Margaret Ann, Jessica, and I landed safely around 9:30 at Charles de Gaulle, and took a bus into the city of Paris.  After checking in to our hotel, we wandered the surrounding area before meeting up with Cathy for lunch!  We then walked down the Champs Elysees and saw the Arc D'Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower!  We took an elevator to the 2nd floor of the Tower (the top was closed due to crowding issues), and took some awesome pictures of the city!  Our day ended with a much-needed nap, a crepe & strawberries with nutella/speculoos dinner, and a beautiful walk along the Seine.

Margaret Ann and I
in the Paris Opera

Sunday April 3 - the only "rainy" day we had on our entire trip!  We toured the Paris Opera in the morning, and I was constantly reminded of one of my favorite musicals, The Phantom of the Opera. :)  We then walked down to the Louvre, and spent a couple of hours wandering the galleries.  That evening, we metro-ed out to Cathy's foyer, and went out to a nice French dinner in Elysia.  And of course, we stopped at a crepe stand for our dessert!

Jess and Marge found
the cutest mugs!

Monday April 4 - Our original first destination was the Musee D'Orsay, but when we got over to the museum, we learned that it's closed on Mondays.  Lame.  So we continued our walk to Notre Dame, and then spend some time souvenir-shopping!  After a quick lunch, we walked to the Bastille, a monument in honor of the location of the Bastille prison.  From there we tried to find the Maison de Victor Hugo, but had no luck.  :(  So that remains on the list of things to do during my next visit to Paris.  After a quick rest, we then took our longest walk up to the Moulin Rouge, and then back down again to our hotel.  We bought wine, baguettes, and cheese for dinner, and picnicked back in our room.

San Pietro

Tuesday April 5 - Another early morning of travel.  Our flight out of Beauvais was delayed about 45 minutes, but somehow we still arrived in Rome 10-15 minutes before our scheduled arrival time?  I'm convinced that RyanAir and EasyJet build in copious amounts of time into their flight schedules.  We finally arrived at our hotel (seriously right next door to San Pietro, or St. Peter's Bascilica) around 12:30-1 pm, and set out to explore the Vatican around 2pm.  After a quick gelatto snack, we walked around St. Peter's and then the Vatican Museums.  The Vatican Museums are actually rather hard to find - we had to ask the Vatican guards for directions twice (it's the only part of the Vatican that you can enter, so there is a very specific entrance) before we finally found it!  Part of the Vatican Museums include the Sistene Chapel, which I definitely took a couple of illegal pictures of! :)  There is such a rich history of art displayed in the Vatican Museums, it is really spectacular.

Toasting to Spring Break!

Wednesday April 6 - We started bright and early out at Palantino (Palantine Hill) and Foro Romano (the Roman Forum).  We then moved over to the Colosseum, followed by gelatto by Trajan's Column.  We wandered the city for a while until dinner time (it's actually really easy to walk around Rome - everything is much closer together than the map would have you believe).  Margaret Ann's dad was so sweet and treated us to a nice Italian dinner - THANK YOU SO MUCH MR. HAZELTON!  It was such a perfect ending to the day. :)

At the Trevi Fountain

Thursday April 7 - Though the day was sprinkled with shopping ventures, the major sites we hit were the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon.  Of these three, the Trevi Fountain was definitely my favorite.  It is an absolutely beautiful spot, though often flooded with tourists.  We tried to walk along the Tiber, but quickly gave up this endeavor.  If you ever go to Rome, do not try walking along the River.  The Tiber is extremely dirty and nauseatingly smelly.  I don't know if this was a result of the heat we experienced in Rome or not, but I would not recommend it hahaha.  Once again we had an Italian dinner - and our waiter let us watch our pizza being made in the kitchen!  It was so cool to see them make real Italian pizza! :)

At the Vatican Museums

Some final thoughts before I wrap up - I know this is getting quite lengthy!  Rome and Paris were very different experiences.  Paris was a very posh city - very clean and safe-feeling.  Despite its being a big city, there seemed to be very little crime, and very few impoverished persons.  Rome on the other hand is a much more grungy city.  Pickpocketing is much more prevalent, and so tourists have to be much more aware of their surroundings.  There is also a large network of con-men/women who specifically target English speakers.  They usually try to get you to take their "exclusive tour" of a building/area/museum, saying that you won't have to wait in line to get in to said site.  There are also many more street vendors that are rather in-your-face about selling knock-offs.  They will try to push sunglasses, roses, jewelry, into your hands so that you buy it from them.  The very apparent presence of such people really showed how economically different Rome is from Paris.

The Paris Opera

Another thing I noticed about Rome is how much the three of us stood out with our blonde hair and fair skin.  Just by looking at us, Italian vendors could instantly tell that we spoke English.  And actually what I found to be very interesting, is when we didn't respond to their attempts to sell us things, they assumed that we were German.  There were actually a fair number of German-speaking tourists in Rome while we were there, interestingly enough!

With these differences in mind, I can't say whether I liked one city more than the other.  I liked the feeling of Paris - it felt very posh, stylish, and just pretty.  But, I liked the history behind the sights we saw, and the actual points of interest better in Rome.  So really, it's a toss-up for me; they were just very different experiences!

Milkshakes, Harry Potter, and Farewell to Oxford

Oxford week was such a busy week - but so much fun!  I had an absolutely wonderful time exploring the city and experiencing the Oxford community.  Our week there went by so fast, though I am glad to have roommates again!  A brief synopsis of the week (I'll try not to make it too lengthy):

Oxford University
Botanic Gardens

Tuesday:  I started out the day with a stop at Primark, the discount clothing store of the UK.  Despite the absolutely fabulous prices (e.g. 5 GBP for a dress!), I only bought some accessories.  Still, it was definitely fun to have a morning of shopping and looking around the city - I haven't legitimately shopped in such a long time!  After my 4 hours of class that day, our whole program went out for Indian food.  The dish I had wasn't bad, but still was not my favorite kind of food either.  However, the naan was amazing! hahaha :)

Christ Church Tower designed
by Christopher Wren

Wednesday:  A day of adventures!  Both my roommate Anna, and I don't have class on Wednesdays, so we took this opportunity to explore.  Destination #1 was the climbing to the top of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin.  We took some breathtaking pictures of the city from the top of the tower!  Our second stop was the Oxford University Botanic Gardens.  Sadly, the flowers/trees outside of the greenhouses were not yet in bloom, but the gardens on a whole were still beautiful to look at!  They have entire greenhouses dedicated to specific regions of plant-life (palm house, arid house, insectivorous house, etc), which was really interesting to see. I've posted a whole bunch of pictures of the different gardens on facebook, if you want to see more than the limited number I can put up here!  To end our busy morning, we grabbed milkshakes and did some window shopping.  My milkshake tasted exactly like Momma's lemon poke-cake, which made me miss home!  So, it's become a goal of mine to make poke-cake before I leave the UK.  This may prove to be slightly difficult, since JELL-O is not a commonly found brand here, nor is Cool Whip. hahaha :)

The Great Hall from Harry Potter!

After lunch, we met up with others from our programme to tour Christ Church College, the alma mater of our programme director (as well as a lot of really famous brits:  John Locke, Lewis Carroll, Albert Einstein, William Penn, etc.).  This college is also the home of specific Harry Potter filming sites, which we were all very excited to see!  The staircase in the foyer is the one used to lead up to the Great Hall in the first movie, and the dining hall of Christ Church is the filming site of the Great Hall in all eight of the movies.  After our tour, we went out for cream tea, something I've been meaning to do since the beginning of the semester, and it was just as yummy as I'd remembered!  To end this very exciting and busy day, a group of us went over to the Eagle & Child, the favorite pub of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, for dinner! :)

Thursday:  In comparison with the day before, this day was relatively uneventful!  In honor of our last day in Oxford, our programme held a formal dinner in the dining hall of University College.  Everyone got dressed up in their "smart" outfits, and joined our tutors and the staff for dinner!  It was such a wonderful evening - I really enjoyed getting to talk with my tutors outside of class.  And after the formal dinner, we all went down to the University Bar for more mingling and discussion!  This evening was definitely one of the major highlights of the week!

Friday:  Sorry this has become such a long post!  We left Oxford this morning to go to Blenheim Palace, the residence of the 11th Duke of Marlborough, and birthplace to Winston Churchill.  The palace was surrounded by acres of beautiful grounds, the most notable of which are the "pleasure gardens."  These consist of a butterfly garden, a hedge maze, and playgrounds for children.  It was a lovely day to walk around the grounds - such a wonderful way to end our week-long trip!

Blenheim Palace

One of the most pleasant things about this past week was our wonderful weather.  It's been close to 60-degrees all week, and while that may seem a bit chilly to Virginia standards, it was a wonderful blessing to us!  It's starting to feel like spring here - the trees are blooming (and hence, the allergies are also starting....haha), flowers have been planted, and the sun has been out almost every day!  It's been such a nice break from the typical rainy/overcast British day - and we've been enjoying every moment of it!  Looking ahead, I only have one week of class left before Spring Break!  Jessica and Margaret Ann are coming to visit me in Bath on Thursday, and then we all depart for Paris and Rome on Saturday!  It's crazy to think that we're already at spring break - the semester is going by so fast!

Oh Hello, Oxford!

The inside of the main quad
of University College

Saturday morning marked the beginning of our programme's residential week at University College, Oxford (aka "Univ").  We all get to stay in single rooms during this week, so I am currently in a MASSIVE room that has a large common room with a side bedroom.  It's weird having all of this space to myself though.  My flatmates and I are scattered across the college, and I miss having them around!  This college is comprised of two quads and couple other courtyards all surrounded by residential and academic rooms.  It really is phenomenal being in Oxford - I can't believe I'm here!

After unloading our suitcases into our respective rooms on Saturday, we all met for a general overview meeting and lunch.  We also went on a brief tour of the college and the surrounding city.  Oxford is a much bigger city than Bath, and I really like the feel of it.  The individual colleges are like little oases in the city - each one is walled and gated, so the inside is very quiet and peaceful.  That evening, our programme held a disco, so we all went to the University Bar for games and dancing!

Punting!

Sunday was also quite a busy day.  A handful of us ASE students went to a Choral Matins service at the cathedral at Christ Church College, which was quite an interesting experience.  I had never been to an almost-entirely sung service before.  The cathedral  itself was gorgeous, and I hope I can go back and take some pictures sometime this week.  In the afternoon, our entire programme went to the river for punting!  Punting is kind of like gondola-ing, with a flatter/shallower boat.  I did not end up punting myself, but I did do a good deal of navigating and steering with the boat's paddle (it's hard to steer with the punting pole)....putting my limited experience with canoeing to good use!  My roommate Anna turned out to be quite the pro punter....we got off to a rough start (taking about 30 minutes to get out of the main starting areas!), but will her at the helm, we were soon passing other boats.  We were delayed slightly by sabotaging efforts (made especially by those in Linley House), but in the end, we made up for a lot of lost ground!  And the weather for punting was perfect!  It's been really sunny here, and I even got a little sunburned out on the river! :)

We finally caught up to our group!

After our wonderful punting adventure, we went to the Oxford "college wear" stores, where I bought some spirit wear!  I am particularly partial to sweatshirts, so of course I purchased a Oxford University sweatshirt! :)  Our evening concluded with imitation-Mexican food (I am totally craving Chipotle - it is definitely going to be one of the first restaurant foods I eat when I get home!), and a viewing of the movie Shadowlands about C.S. Lewis.

Elysia & Katie during our punting trip

Today was mostly dedicated to class and reading....and dealing with the woes of my laptop.  After 2 hours of me trying to figure it out, and 5 hours in the IT Clinic (yes, they call it a "clinic" here), I am finally able to access the internet!  As frustrating as that experience was, I am glad that it happened here where I have access to IT support, instead of Bath, where there are no free computer services.
So that's the first half of my Oxford Adventure!  I'll try to update again on Friday with the rest of the week's events! :)

O love that will not let me go

O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee.  I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow, may richer, fuller be.

After attending the Parish Communion service at Bath Abbey this morning, I just want to take some time to reflect on the religious life here in Bath.  This is the second service I've attended during my stay here, the first of which was an informal evening service at the Abbey.  After this first experience,  I was struck by how little Jesus was mentioned during the process of worship.  We sang, and listened to a "sermon," but there was really no mention of Jesus's great sacrifice for us, or really any logical reference to biblical passages.  Despite this disappointing first experience, I decided to give the Abbey another chance and attend one of the formal morning masses.
Today's service was very liturgical, a quality I'm fairly used to in a worship service.  There were hymns, responsive readings, etc. and I actually noticed a great deal of similarities in their liturgy and the one that we use at MPC.  However, the sermon still left me feeling undernourished, with no mention of God's saving grace.  His love was discussed a good deal, but not His sacrifice, which really means that they are only telling half of the story.  Communion, or the Eucharist as they call it in their order of worship, is observed every week, and it amazed me how severely ritualistic it was.  Again, no mention of why we partake in communion or the saving grace of Christ.  I decided it was best not to partake in the serving of the Eucharist this morning, but rather spent my time in prayer that the church in Britain may experience the joyous love of Jesus and, in turn, express that joy towards others.
I confess that I have not really felt homesick during my time in Bath, but today I was struck by how much I truly miss my church families both at MPC and Grace Covenant.  I miss the strength of faith and whole-hearted devotion to worship that members of these congregations are not afraid to show.  I miss the loud and joyous singing and the occasional yells of "Amen!" during the sermon.  But most of all, I miss sermons that actually feed the congregation with the words of Christ, always pointing back to the Gospel.  Even as I write this now, I have tears in my eyes - I really wish that the people in the British congregations would be able to experience the kind of church-life I've known since birth.  I feel like I've taken so much for granted, never truly realizing how blessed I am to be able to attend churches like Grace and McLean.
Sorry this is such a long post, but before I wrap up I want to talk a little bit about Lent.  Lent is a widely practiced tradition here in Bath, and for the first time in my life, I've decided to give something up for this six-week period.  What am I giving up?  Chocolate.  I know it is probably the most cliche food to eradicate from my diet, but I had an epiphany about this last week.  As noted in one of my previous entries, my flat in general goes through a lot of chocolate (mainly nutella and dark chocolate digestives), and I've found that when I'm stressed or bored or feeling snacky, it is the first substance I go to in order to calm my nerves or even just my tummy.  And then I thought, what if I prayed instead of turning to food in these times?  So I decided that, since Lent conveniently fell around the time of my epiphany, I would give up eating chocolate as a way of continuing to grow in my relationship with Christ, and learning to rely on Him more and more each day.


Much love to my families at McLean Pres, Grace Covenant, and RUF - I miss you all so much.

O cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee.  I lay in dust life's glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red, life that shall endless be.

Lost in Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife"

The Steventon Church

This week's adventure was to the home country of Jane Austen!  Needless to say, I more than a little excited for this trip!  We started with visiting her hometown of Steventon, where her father was vicar until 1800.  Her house is no longer standing, but we were able to walk around the small village church where she attended.  We then moved on to Chawton, where she spent the later part of her life (1809-1817).  The Manor House, once owned by Austen's brother,  Edward Knight, is now the Chawton House Library, an extensive collection of early women writers.  Our class not only was able to tour the house, but we also had time to look at the collection.  From there we walked down to the Austen's cottage in Chawton, which has been turned into a museum about Austen's family and career.  Our final stop of the day was Winchester, the burial place of Austen.  We toured the cathedral (one of the largest in England!), and of course took lots of pictures! :)  I loved seeing all of the Austen memorabilia and souvenirs,  and even indulged myself in a few little purchases at the gift shop. :)

Chawton House Library

This week, I was also able to see Steph, one of my friends from W&M.  Steph and I have been in RUF Small Groups together since we were freshmen, and so it was really wonderful to catch up with her for a grand total of...23 hours!  She is studying abroad in Lyon, and so she's been touring England on her mid-semester break.

The Austen Cottage in Chawton

Speaking of William & Mary, I've been thinking a lot about the upcoming year.  We were just assigned time slots for the housing lottery, and the course schedule is up online already!  It's very weird to think that I only have a year left at W&M.  And, I'm taking my last English class next semester!  I feel so attached to the school - to the people, activities, and really just the environment, that it will be hard to leave!  But, I've decided that I'm not going to say the word "senior" until I am actually on campus for my final year - I still have two-thirds of a semester and a whole summer to get through! :)

A Walk on the Moors

"Little girl, a memory without blot or contamination must be an exquisite treasure — an inexhaustible source of pure refreshment: is it not?" - Mr. Rochester

My Class and Tutor

Wycoller Hall

This weekend I had the pleasure of rambling the moors surrounding Haworth - the "Bronte land" of England.  On Friday, I traveled with my Nineteenth-Century Women Novelists class first to see Wycoller Hall (the inspiration for the secluded Ferndean Manor in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre), where we had a picnic lunch and a nice walk around the countryside.  We then drove over to Haworth, and toured the local church and the Bronte Parsonage Museum.  The entirety of Haworth is devoted to the tourism that comes from the Brontes - most shops have some sort of Bronte-related words in their names, etc.  But the town is still very cute to see nonetheless.  Dinner was followed by a viewing of the Lawrence Olivier version of Wuthering Heights and a walk down to the local pub, The Bronte Hotel (they are really original about their names in Haworth haha).

Outside the Bronte Parsonage Museum

The next morning, we embarked on a six-to-seven mile hike around the moors.  Putting the cold, wet, and muddy aspect of this venture aside, the walk was magnificent!  The fields are covered in heather (which sadly was not in bloom), and there are sheep EVERYWHERE (which always makes me think of the board-game Settlers of Catan).  We explored the ruins of Top Withens, the supposed inspiration of Wuthering Heights (the building in reality bears no resemblance to the one described in the novel), as well as waterfalls and hills.

Top Withens

Bronte Falls and the Moors

After a five hour bus ride back into Bath, the second half of my weekend began!  Tasha, my best friend from high school, and her friend Natalie came to spend a couple of days with me over their spring break!  It was wonderful to see them, and I finally got to do some of the more touristy things I've been wanting to see!  We walked around the Roman Baths (the main tourist attraction in Bath), the Art Museum, the Abbey, and went up to the Circus.
This past weekend was definitely a great break from the school work and paper-writing that has been the norm for us ASE students.  I loved having some class-bonding time and getting to see a wonderful friend from home! :)

Piracy is Our Only Option

"You will care very much when your nose swells up." - Elinor Dashwood

"Please don't say anything important until I get back!" - Margaret Dashwood 

These quotes are some of my favorite lines from the 1995 Film of Sense & Sensibility.  Part of my homework this week was to watch this movie, and of course its one of the DVDs I brought with me to Bath!  As I just finished watching it, I thought it was only appropriate to include some quotes in my post. 

The Shakespeare Archives

Anyways, the highlight of this week was definitely my first study trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon.  My "Mythologizing Shakespeare" course joined up with the "Shakespeare in Performance" course to travel to Shakespeare's Birthplace for the day.  Our trip started at 10am, and we did not return until 1am the next morning!  It was definitely a long day, but Anna and I started it off with a delicious bagel from The Whole Bagel and coffee.  Upon our arrival in Stratford, we had around 45 minutes to eat and walk around before going to the Shakespeare Archives.  The Shakespeare Archives holds the scripts, photos, programs, and general records for every production of a Shakespeare play by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).  As a class, we had just finished discussing The Taming of the Shrew, and so we were able to peruse the materials for four different productions of this play (1978, 1982, 2008, and one other one I can't remember!).  I especially loved looking at the prompt-copies of these plays.  These are the scripts containing all blocking, lighting, and sound notes.  It was so cool to see what parts of the play different directors took out or what they added, and how they had the actors move about the stage!

Shakespeare's Birthplace

After our time in the Archives, our tutor took us on a brief walking tour of Stratford (its actually quite a small town, and very touristy), showing us the main sites like Shakespeare's Birthplace, the Guild Chapel, and the RSC Theater.  We also had quite a bit of free time to walk around the town and get dinner before the evening performance of King Lear.  One of the most memorable moments of the evening was definitely meeting a British couple in the elevator of the RSC Theater.  The lady was celebrating her 70th birthday, and so she and her husband had driven from Bristol to see the performance.  They were very friendly and interested in what we were studying in Bath, etc.  And to make the encounter even more wonderful, the gentleman invited Anna and I over to their house for lunch (his wife later told us that he had had a couple of glasses of wine earlier, thus explaining this rather random request).  "Just hop on the little choo-choo train to Bristol!"  They were such a sweet couple - Anna and I could not stop talking about them!  The performance itself was absolutely wonderful, though definitely intense (as Shakespearean tragedies often are), and we were all thoroughly exhausted by the end of the night!

The RSC Theater

Looking ahead, I definitely have a busy week ahead of me!  I have another study trip Friday-Saturday to Haworth, the hometown of the Bronte sisters, which I am definitely looking forward to!  Also, I am SO EXCITED for Tasha and her friend Natalie to come and visit this weekend! :)

ice cream & nutella

Taking a short break from finishing my first paper of the semester, I thought this would be a perfect time to blog!  I finally feel like I've settled into a routine here - between class, activities, and homework (well, really just reading - 7 down, 21 to go!), I definitely have a set schedule.
One of the best days of the week was Wednesday (and not just because I didn't have class :) ) - my roommate Anna and I bought ice cream from one of the local ice cream stores, and oh my gosh was it delicious!  That night was also curry night at one of the local bars.  Sadly, this one did not live up to our expectations, so we relocated to a different pub for dessert!
My flatmates and I definitely have a sweet-tooth problem.  The two most commonly eaten foods in our apartment are dark chocolate digestives and Nutella.   The three of us can literally go through a package of dark chocolate digestives in a day (digestives are like finely-ground oat cookies....what my family would call "tea cookies" at home), and Anna and I went through a 750g jar of Nutella (the biggest size available) in a week!  The ice cream shoppe we went to also sells crepes, and we found the perfect size Nutella jar for us!

We wish Nutella actually came
in this size!

Besides paper writing, this weekend also gave me the chance to finalize plans for Spring Break!  I am so excited to travel Europe with Jessica and Margaret Ann! :)  I'm also very excited to have my flatmates home today!  They were both gone for the weekend, and its been so weird to be in the apartment by myself!
This upcoming week promises to be very exciting - we have a program-wide pub quiz on Wednesday, and then I'm going on my first study trip on Friday!  My Shakespeare class is traveling to Stratford-Upon-Avon to see the Shakespeare archives, and to top it all off, we're going to see a production of King Lear.
And now I'm off to finish up that paper!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday (I hear the weather is gorgeous in Virginia - over 70 yesterday in Williamsburg!), and I'll post more pictures after our day in Stratford!
Tschues!

"The People are so Nice Here!"

...the words of a 6-year old girl I've babysat since high school, upon her family's recent move.  I definitely would have to say the exact same thing about the people I've met here in Bath!  Everyone, especially the local students, is so welcoming and willing to help us Americans as we figure out our way around the city!


This week has absolutely flown by!  After our first week of classes, I finally feel like I'm settling into a routine...I only have class Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, which gives me Wednesdays and Fridays as complete work days!  Most of my classes are full (11-13 people is considered a full class), but I have one class that has only 5 girls in it!  As someone who is not entirely used to speaking up in class, this is definitely going to take some getting used to!  This week was also the first week to go to various activities around the city.  We have a program called the CCE (Certificate of Cultural Enrichment) that helps us get involved in the community through volunteer work or extracurricular activities.  It's not a mandatory program by any means, but it definitely helps us get motivated about going out and meeting new people!


Monday night was my first contemporary dance class at Bath University.  I was so interested to see what European contemporary dance would look like, as it was founded my mostly American dancers!  The class itself wasn't as rigorous as I would have liked, but I loved getting to know my classmates.  For example, I talked with a girl named Anna for a good while before class started - and it was just so fun to compare American student life to British universities!  Thursday night was my second activity, a trip to the Bath Spa University Christian Union (CU).  Unlike William & Mary where there is a student group for almost every denomination of Christianity, the universities in Bath only have one overarching group.  However, the meeting was still small enough (probably 30-40 people) to feel inviting and close.  Going to the CU was probably the highlight of my week - everyone there was so warm and talkative, I felt so welcome!  It reminded me of RUF - and I realized just how much I've missed being in that environment.  Being at the CU was simply a wonderful and happy experience; I had originally planned on not going regularly (because it's a 20 minute bus ride from the city centre), but I have no doubts that I will be going back next week!


Completely unrelated to my activities here in Bath, I learned that my grandparents (Nana & Papa) will be able to visit me when my parents come in April!  I had been hoping and praying that they would be able to make it, and I am so excited to show my family the city of Bath!  They're all coming just before my birthday, which is an extra-special treat for me! :)


I wish I could post some more pictures, but I've been so busy with classes, that I haven't really been able to go out and take some more!  Much love, and I miss you all!

Such a Busy Week!

Wow it's been a while since my last post!  We've been so busy with Orientation, its been hard to sit down and write!  Here are some highlights of the week, before I talk about our adventures today!

Bath Abbey

1.  Wednesday (Feb. 2) - the congregation of Bath Abbey invited us over to the church for tea and cake as a welcome to the ASE students.  We were able to tour the cathedral afterwards, and it was simply breathtaking!  Many of my pictures turned out strangely because of the poor lighting, so I hope to go back and take more soon. 
2.  Thursday (Feb. 3) - I ate my first pasty for lunch! And for dinner, my roommate Anna and I went out for our first pint of cider and fish 'n chips!  It was really fun to experience a pub environment, though we went on an off-night, so not that many people were out.  One funny story: we were stopped for directions to a Sainsburys (grocery store) by a British man.  I assume he wasn't from Bath, but it didn't make sense to ask the Americans for directional advice!
3.  Friday (Feb. 4) - In the morning, I signed up for a Contemporary Dance class at Bath University!  I'm so excited to see their take on Modern Dance - a largely American dance form.  We also picked up our books for the semester - and I have 28 novels to read in 16 weeks! 

My "Library" as My Roommates Like to Call It 

That evening, our Programme held a "formal" (more like business casual) reception at the Victoria Art Gallery as a chance for us to mingle and chat with our tutors (technically, they aren't professors - I'm not really sure why).  It was strange being in a social setting with our tutors!  At home, students and professors would not meet for a casual meet-and-greet before class!
4.  Saturday (Feb. 5) - Our first free day of the semester!  This was one of the best days of my Orientation, just because I finally got to walk around the city and take some pictures.  My flatmates and I also went grocery shopping, and I bought FROZEN CORN!  As you all probably know, I am not a huge fan of vegetables, but frozen corn is my favorite "vegetable" to pair with dinner, and I wasn't expecting to find it in the UK!  We also ordered Thai "take away" for dinner with some other girls from our house, which was a wonderfully relaxing way to end the day.

Sorry the picture is slanted - the wind made taking
level pictures quite difficult!

And finally, today was the adventure day for our Programme!  We started bright and early at 9am with a trip to Stonehenge.  Oh my goodness, it was SO WINDY!  There were definitely times that I thought I was going to be blown away!  One of our faculty, Andrew Butterworth, just so happens to be one of the best tour guides in Southwest England (he's a Blue Badge Tour Guide in Bath), so he gave us a wonderful history of the site and ruins.  Our next stop was Salisbury, and we saw the beautiful and HUGE cathedral!  The town is also very cute, and we ate at a traditional pub called the Haunch of Venison.  Our last stop was Lacock, a famous filming site in England.  Scenes from the BBC Pride & Prejudice,  Emma, and Harry Potters 1, 2, & 6 were all filmed in the quaint town of Lacock!

Elysia, Zoe, Katie, and Anna at the
Haunch of Venison!

The Quaint Village of Lacock

It's so hard to believe that I have class tomorrow!  I'm actually very excited for class to begin, and to have a set schedule again.  I can't wait to tell you all about my classes (and hopefully, not so much about our extensive amounts of reading!)  Cheers!