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!

Hello from Bath, England

Margaret Ann and I at our gate in Dulles

I safely arrived in Bath yesterday around 1pm (that's 8am back home), after a very long day of travel.  I left Dulles Airport at 6:30pm the day before, and had one of the best overseas flights!  Our flight was fairly empty, so no one was in the seat next to me.  I had lots of space to relax, and of course I loved having Jessica and Margaret Ann just across the aisle from me!  One very exciting moment for us (though very twampy*, I have to admit) was listening to the background music of the flight progression screen.  After watching an in-flight movie, I checked the flight progress before trying to sleep, and I instantly recognized the music:  Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King!  The three of us were very excited about this, and yes, I could name the which scene from the movie the music went along to. :)  We arrived in Amsterdam 45 minutes ahead of schedule, so we found a Starbucks and relaxed before splitting up to go to our various flights.  In Amsterdam, you have to go through security at your gate, and I got to experience the new scanning machines!  I also met up with 6 other ASE students at the gate, and once we landed in Bristol, we all shared taxis to Bath.

*TWAMP = typical William and Mary person

Moving into my flat was an interesting experience.  I'm on the fourth floor, so I carried my luggage up eight flights of stairs!  After that exhausting experience, I discovered that my apartment was locked (the others had been left unlocked for easy entrance by the students), but thankfully an Su (my ASE mentor) was right around the corner and could unlock it for me.  Ironically, I was locked out again 20 minutes later, as our door lock is very finicky, and wouldn't accept my key.  Unpacking my luggage was definitely a chore, as was finding places for all of my school stuff!  Two downsides of our flat:  our desks don't have drawers and we can't hang things on the walls.  However, our flat was recently remodeled, so our bathrooms and kitchen have new (or close to new) appliances and furnishings.

my desk and bulletin board

the beautiful view from my window

Our small but newly renovated kitchen

Why do our sinks have one faucet for hot water and one for cold?
It makes your hands alternately burn and freeze :(

Yesterday was primarily set aside for getting to know the house and unpacking, so today was our first real day of orientation to the Programme.  Today was also the first day that I had to walk around Bath.  I feel so much more acclimated to the city now that I've walked around a bit and figured out where most things are.  I'm so excited to explore the city more and get involved in activities in the community!