Devon cream tea, a terrible ghost tour, and the Eden Project

Another super eventful two days! That probably explains why I'm too exhausted to do anything but write a blog post and look over my reading for tomorrow. And let's be honest - I procrastinated writing this post in favor of Tumblr. I'm not even going to lie.

Yesterday's classes were Early Modern Print Culture with Dr Sara Barker and another play-specific session of A Midsummer Night's Dream with Dr Sparey again (I can't call her Vicky, I really can't). Both of them were interesting, but I definitely enjoyed our morning session more. Dr Barker is very engaging, I loved the subject matter - how the first printed books were created - and the class incorporated a Stephen Fry documentary and a hands-on activity. That's a definite plus in my book.

Mini-'folios', or early books, that we folded in class

In the afternoon, we decided on what we're going to tackle for our group projects. Our group (Anu, Veronica, Stine, Sherrie, and me) has set our general theme as love and autonomy in A Midsummer Night's Dream - how we're going to narrow that down remains to be seen, but no worries about that until Friday!

Directly after class we headed to Exeter Cathedral for traditional Devon cream tea. The cathedral operates a café as well, which is where we were situated. Tea was absolutely delicious - if I could find a way to take the scones and tea back with me (or find the space in my suitcase), I would in a heartbeat.

Feeling fancy. Or British.

At tea we heard about a ghost tour leaving from the Cathedral later on in the evening, so we headed back after dinner. Unfortunately, the spooky ghost tour that we had hoped for turned out to be more funny than terrifying. Our tour guide was sweet, but she kept getting facts mixed up and didn't take us to any truly haunted places. Points added for creative stories about the different places in Exeter, minus points for this well being the creepiest thing we saw.

No one died in it or anything. It's just there.

Ah, well. We managed to make it fun.

We're so terrified that we burst out laughing after this was taken.

Today served as a nice break from classes - we headed to the Eden Project! What it really reminded me of was a much bigger version of the Missouri Botanical Garden back home, only situated in Cornwall and with an impressive rainforest biome. We spent about four and a half hours exploring everything the Eden Project had to offer. I really loved the opportunity to go - it was great to be surrounded by so much diverse plant life and learn about different climates around the world. Plus, the Eden Project is also a charity, so I knew that the money I paid for lunch went to education and conservation efforts. (A good amount of the food offered is grown on site. How cool is that?)

Of course, being tourists and college kids who love social media, we took pictures of almost everything we saw.

Great view of the biomes!

My favorite biome and where we spent the most time.

View of the rainforest biome from 165 feet up!

On top of the rainforest

Group picture! Ranuk, Jennifer, Veronica, Anukripa, me, and Lindy

Somewhere along the line, I decided that I fancied myself a nature photographer. Armed with only an iPhone. 

This one is by far my favorite.

Not bad, iPhone 5, not bad.

I am thoroughly enjoying my time here in England and I can't believe it's halfway done already. I've learned so much: not only in the classroom, but from my peers as well. The longer I spend with people from outside the United States, the more I realize the little cultural details that both make us the same and set us apart. I now know that people from the USA, Canada, India, Russia, France, Belgium, and Holland can all unite in England over a game of Mafia, and that Americans toss around 'I love you' much more casually than other countries. I know I've said repeatedly that I've learned a lot and that I've loved every single day, but honestly, I really am on top of the world.

Or maybe that's the Imagine Dragons on my Spotify.

In which I try my hand at Shakespeare...and halfway succeed?

Today was interesting, to say the least.

I was kind of dreading this day, to be honest, because I am not an actress in any sense of the word. The last 'production' that I was in was Harlequin, and it was a school production put on during the fourth grade. I was a witch and I sang maybe six lines. So you can see why when I saw that we were doing drama workshops all day today, my heart may have dropped just a little bit. And then commenced beating at about 1000x its normal speed.

But, much to my surprise, there was nothing that I really needed to worry about. Our drama professor was a very relaxed Irishman, Dr Adrian Curtin, who as it turned out actually got his PhD from Northwestern University. He had a very inviting energy which I think put all of us more at ease (at least those of us who are English and not theatre majors). We started off by chatting once more about the production of Macbeth we'd seen at the Globe and then segued into how such a production would have been put on in Shakespeare's time. He gave us two handouts about the basics of reading/acting Shakespeare and then introduced cue scripts. These are what the Shakespearean actors used to learn their parts, and I have so much more respect for them now. Rather than receive the entire play script, they only had the last few words of the line that came before theirs - their 'cue' - and then their line. It makes for a much more organic and imperfect production, but one that has a lot of advantages. Dr Curtin explained how this encouraged the actors to play off of each other and the audience a lot more, and the play changed according to who was putting it on.

About a half an hour before breaking for lunch he distributed cue scripts to us for the first three scenes of A Midsummer Night's Dream, divided us into groups, and informed us that we'd be acting these out in our afternoon session. Cue the nervous glances around the class. I was seriously impressed with my group - the majority were non-native speakers of English who were tackling Shakespeare of all the things. Somehow I ended up with the part of Titania, who of course has an extremely long speech in the scene of the play we were assigned. We read through it - terribly - for that last bit of time and then broke for lunch, though we promised to come back early to practice. (Thank god we weren't required to memorize the lines. It would have been a disaster.)

After lunch and a warmup - which involved humming and tag - we all buckled down and it was obvious everyone was taking this seriously. I don't think anyone in our group had much acting experience, but we all tried our best. After a bit more rehearsal time, it actually started to look like something cohesive. We were able to come out of our shells a bit more and really play off of each other, which I enjoyed. To be honest, I had no idea I'd have so much fun with acting. It was a good thing that we got our lines mostly down, though, because it was time for the three groups to reconvene and perform. I really loved watching the other groups, and our professor encouraged us as the audience to verbally react to the scene, just as people would have done in Shakespeare's time. I was incredibly nervous when my turn came to go on 'stage' (AKA the middle of the circle we were sitting in on the studio floor), but I think I created a passable Fairy Queen. I certainly had fun with it, even if my sadness wasn't entirely believable! (My anger at my cheating fairy husband may have been, though. I think every woman can summon that anger from somewhere...)

I think this is the most fun I've had in class so far and I'm looking forward to the next workshop! Maybe I can manage to pop a tear...

Also, on our way back from a visit to town today, we saw a rainbow - a sign of good luck for the rest of the week, in my opinion.

Stonehenge and Salisbury

Today we were lucky enough to visit a World Heritage site - Stonehenge!

This was the first of a good number of day trips the International Summer School is taking us on - they have some really great programming for all of the students. It was an early start to the day since everyone had to be on the bus at 7:45, but that turned out not to matter - everyone went to sleep on the drive there, anyway. (And not everyone was on the bus at 7:45. Apparently college kids don't do well with waking up early...who knew, right?)

Once all of the buses had arrived we were able to begin our Stonehenge adventure! We got incredibly lucky and arrived when it was warm and sunny - doubly lucky when you consider that there was a 100% chance of rain. Stonehenge has a free pamphlet and audio guide to provide you with information as you walk, which really helped to enhance the whole experience. Anu and I got a good kick out of how dramatic the opening music was. It kind of fit, though - when I first saw Stonehenge I'll admit that a 'wow' may have slipped out of my mouth.

First glimpse!

We walked around Stonehenge for awhile and got some great pictures - I've kept my promise to myself to take lots of pictures this trip. Normally I'm terrible at documenting experiences, but this time I've done quite well!

An unobstructed view of Stonehenge.

Representing Tulane

Anu and I!

Group shot, just before we left: Anu, Sarah, me, and Becca

After Stonehenge it was back on the buses for a much shorter ride to Salisbury, home of the famous Salisbury Cathedral. It took 38 years to build, but it was definitely time well spent - the detail that went into it just made it even more grand.

Salisbury Cathedral, with the tallest spire in Britain

Obligatory 'proof that I was here' picture

Inside the cathedral

As we learned, Salisbury Cathedral was also a filming location for the Harry Potter movies - we recognized the courtyard from Goblet of Fire as soon as we saw it!

It's just missing Cedric Diggory.

May not have gone to the studio tour, but I made it here!

More importantly, Salisbury Cathedral has one of the only surviving copies of the Magna Carta. It was awesome to be able to see a document that still influences legislation today in some form. Photography wasn't allowed, of course, so I'll have to do with memory. The cathedral also proved that they have a sense of humor - Jay-Z's new album 'Magna Carta' was on display not far from the actual Magna Carta. Well played, Salisbury. Well played.

After the cathedral we grabbed a quick lunch and then explored more of the city. We stopped by the Rifle Museum but ultimately decided to go to the Salisbury Museum, which is free to enter. We never did go inside, though - we got distracted by a "Meet the Saxons" feature outside and ended up sitting on the ground making bracelets. 

Concentrating hard on a beautiful bracelet

We made it back to the bus back to Exeter just when the rain finally started. All in all, it was a pretty great day. Now to figure out what we'll do with our free day tomorrow...

First classes!

The first two days of classes are done and the weekend has arrived!

Since class has officially started, the pace of our days has slowed down a bit - something for which I think we're all grateful. I actually motivated myself to get up and go for a run through campus yesterday morning before lecture and it was well worth my time. England has perfect running weather and the campus and city themselves are gorgeous - there's always something to look at while running, so you're never bored. The only downside to running in Exeter is all of the hills. This Midwestern girl did not know the meaning of hills. My calves are hurting.

Our first class was from 9:30-12 yesterday and was an introduction lecture by Dr. Victoria Sparey, who began by insisting with a huge smile that we call her Vicky. She's very energetic and clearly passionate about what she's teaching - when I walked into the classroom a few minutes early she had already gotten into a discussion with another student about the production of Macbeth that we'd seen. Plus, rather than just stand there and talk at us for 2.5 hours, she made sure to promote discussion and encouraged us to present our own opinions on everything. She's the main coordinator of our track and is a really interesting lecturer, so I have a feeling I'll enjoy each section she teaches!

After a quick break for lunch, during which I had my first steak pasty, we returned to the same classroom in the business school for a lecture on Shakespeare's Genres by Prof. Philip Schwyzer. (Every track takes classes in the business school building since it was very recently built and has the best facilities.) It was interesting to learn the different manner in which genre was interpreted when Shakespeare was actually writing the plays. For example, to be considered a comedy, a play didn't have to actually be funny - it only had to contain a heterosexual marriage. While the lecture was definitely interesting, I think my favorite part of the class was getting into groups and rewriting A Midsummer Night's Dream so that it was a tragedy rather than a comedy.

We finished class at 3:15 and had a rather laid-back afternoon until 6, when everyone headed over to The Ram, the student pub, for our scheduled pub quiz night. The summer school had a buffet set up for us, so we ate dinner, divided into teams of ten, and then it was game on! The trivia pulled from everywhere since we come from every continent but Antarctica, so it was definitely not like any trivia night/pub quiz that I'd ever been to. We had a really great team and ended up getting third place!

Team Can't Touch This.

Friday's classes began with a lecture on Shakespeare and the Supernatural from Prof. Marion Gibson. The representations of the supernatural in literature have always intrigued me, so I found that lecture particularly interesting. We focused on specific scenes from Macbeth and The Tempest in groups and analyzed how the portrayal of the supernatural in each scene corresponds to both Shakespeare's attitude towards the supernatural and the general public's understanding of and attitude towards it. Getting background information and context really changed my reading of both plays.

Our afternoon session was with Victoria Sparey again, who was leading a play-specific session on A Midsummer Night's Dream. The majority of this class was discussion, and I am really enjoying hearing from all of my classmates on this track. Not only is everyone extremely intelligent and excited to be here, but people bring their own interpretations of the literature based on their home culture and experiences. It really gave a new meaning to something said in the introductory lecture yesterday - there is not Shakespeare, there are Shakespeares, and endless different interpretations that can completely change the meaning of the work at hand. Every track certainly benefits from a variety of viewpoints, but I feel like due to the nature of literature - there is always something new to be discovered and a new way to read the text - the Shakespeare track may benefit the most. 

Discussing with people here is something else that I've loved so far. For example, a group of us went to a nearby pub tonight for a quick drink and to chat. Though we came back early, I ended up in a conversation about the differing experiences with race and prejudice in the U.S. and Canada for at least half an hour on the pavilion of our hall. We're all taking this opportunity to learn from each other, and it's that, I think, that is most rewarding. 

We're headed on a day trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury bright and early tomorrow morning - sorry, Facebook friends, I'm about to blow up your newsfeed yet again.

Introduction to Exeter

First full day in Exeter - complete.

Today functioned as an introduction to the school and the city, which was a great transition from the social London program to the academic portion at the university. Though we arrived yesterday, most of us were too exhausted to do any exploring. They did, however, welcome us with an excellent barbecue. Something that was really foreign to me was chatting with professors over alcoholic drinks - something that rarely occurs in the States!

Hanging around at the BBQ

The weather was beautiful!

We also received our welcome packets and ID cards yesterday, which made me feel official.

Today started off with an introductory presentation to present an overview of how classes at the summer school will be taught and what they expect from us as students. It was held in the Forum, which is a brand new building on campus that was opened by Her Majesty the Queen just last year. More impressive to the students, however, were the purple and pink lecture chairs that swiveled 360 degrees. 

After that presentation, we split up according to academic track to go on a tour of campus. I really liked being able to see who I'll be learning with before we actually begin classes tomorrow, and it seems like we'll have an awesome group. Campus itself is a pretty good size, over 300 acres, and extremely hilly - I am going to have amazing legs by the time I leave! It's also incredibly beautiful, and I can't believe that people get to live here nine months out of the year. 

View from my dorm, Holland Hall

One of many very old trees on campus

One of Exeter's ponds

There's so much vegetation and green space on campus that the university is actually a registered botanical garden.  Administration has also recently invested millions into the campus, so many of the buildings are either brand new or recently renovated. All in all, I think everyone in our group was impressed. 

After the campus tour, we took a break for lunch at one of the many places to eat on campus. We chose the Terrace Café, which is in the Students' Guild. I got made to order stir fry, which was delicious, and found out that Coke has been literally calling people by name to buy their product in the UK.

They got me.

After lunch, it was time for our tour of the actual city of Exeter. Even though the city is quite big, it still manages to have a small-town feel in some areas. Streets vary from being narrow and pedestrian to resembling more of a typical downtown metropolitan area. Also not far is the quay, where you can go canoeing on the river. 

One end of the road to the quay

The quay, with a peek at the river

A street in Princesshay, the shopping district

There are key points in Exeter for both the religious and the nerdy. There is of course the well-known Exeter Cathedral, which was unfortunately under construction today.

Inscription on the walkway to the cathedral

Exeter Cathedral

For the nerdy, some original Harry Potter locations are in Exeter. J.K. Rowling graduated from the University of Exeter and so drew her inspiration for some places from the city - it's definitely a great place to spark creativity!

Gandy Street, inspiration for Diagon Alley

People also say that The Firehouse, a pub in Exeter that's frequented often by students, was the inspiration for The Leaky Cauldron. I didn't snap a picture, but we'll be headed there before our time here is done!

I explored the city a bit more after the tour with two girls from Denmark (Stine and Anna), a girl from France (Juliette), a guy from China (Harold), and another American from New Jersey (Bryan). We ducked into a bookstore and I was able to pick up The Cuckoo's Calling, J.K. Rowling's new book under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It's much cheaper to buy hardback books here than it is in the States!

My souvenirs for the day

In a few minutes I'll be going with a group to check out The Imperial pub, which is apparently quite famous. I'm excited to see it! Our visit will be brief, though - classes start tomorrow morning, and with them the academic portion officially begins. Let the international exchange of ideas begin!

How do I love thee, London? Let me count the words.

London, how do I even begin to explain you? I only got a few days there and I definitely was not ready to leave, even though I was leaving for another interesting city. London drew me in with a vibe that's incredibly unique. I've finally marked another city off of my travel bucket list, but I'm adding it to my 'must revisit' list! There's so much to say that I can already tell this is going to be a very long blog post...bear with me.

Even though I only arrived on Saturday, it feels like I've been here a week since so much has been crammed into our schedule. Thankfully, my flight was relatively uneventful. I managed to score an aisle seat and watched British TV and movies in honor of the country I was headed to. Even though I don't sleep well on airplanes, I crashed during Pride and Prejudice right after Darcy's first failed attempt at a proposal and woke up in time to watch an episode of Downton Abbey before we landed. I don't think I've ever appreciated coffee as much as I did when it was handed to me right before the end of a red-eye flight! 

After I landed and made it past Customs and a man in a purple suit (which made me smile), I somehow did not get lost in the massive Heathrow Airport, caught the correct express to a different terminal, and found the Exeter group. I was lucky enough to run into more International Summer School students on the express train over, so I didn't feel quite as intimidated as I probably would have walking up to the group by myself. One of the girls that I met at the station ended up being my roommate, a girl from the University of Kentucky named Lindy. As it turns out, we're both also on the Shakespeare track, which is perfect! 

The fabulous Lindy.

I explored London on my own for the first time after we checked in at the hotel. I was on a mission - find an international cell phone. (Wait, correction - mobile phone. I am in England, after all.) Since the universe let me find my way around the airport successfully, of course when I was actually let loose on the city I got myself turned around. I walked into two or three different shops before I finally found where the hotel clerk had directed me, but that just made me more proud of myself when I was able to find my way back to the hotel after taking the most roundabout way possible of buying a phone. We had dinner at the Strand Palace Hotel that night and I was able to meet everyone else with whom I'll be studying for the next few weeks. I don't think I've ever been at such a geographically diverse dinner table in my life - together, we represented the USA, India, Zimbabwe, the Netherlands, and China! We explored more of downtown London on our own in the evening and eventually headed to bed - way too late, thanks to jet lag. 

The next morning we started our first full day in London, which of course was absolutely PACKED. I had my first real English breakfast, and despite the stereotype that English food is terrible, I've really enjoyed everything I've eaten here. We started off by breaking into small groups of twelve (our group leader is a guy named Adam who seems much older than his 19 years) and going on a walking tour of London. We covered a good portion of central London in about two hours, including The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham Palace. 

Big Ben!

Me and Lindy in front of Buckingham Palace

Lion in Trafalgar Square!

And thanks to our excellent tour guide, we got a great spot for the Changing of the Guard right when it started! 

We saw so much more than just the big ticket items I mentioned, but it would take me all day to list all of the trivia that I learned during those two hours. After the tour, we had a free afternoon until 5 that evening. Lindy and I met up with a girl from India, Anukripa, and checked out the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square to start. The Gallery has enough amazing art that we could have spent the entire afternoon there, but we managed to at least pull ourselves away for lunch…and WiFi. (This may or may not prove that millennials are eternally plugged in. I plead the fact that I wanted to meet up with friends in London and needed to give them my international phone number over Facebook.) After a quick lunch, we saw the British Library and King's Cross Station. The library was incredible and King's Cross was more exciting to nerdy me than I wanted to let on. 

Entrance to the British Library

In front of the King's Library!

Platform 9 3/4

On my way to Hogwarts!

The three of us took the Tube for the first time to get to those two places, and we felt like resourceful travelers figuring it out on our own. Also, the 'look right' or 'look left' signs painted on the road probably saved my life more than once. 

Seriously. Thank you.

Just by walking around we got to see more of London, which I loved. Eventually we made it back to the hotel for a very short break and then left to see Macbeth at the Globe Theater!

The stage!

A blurry picture of Lindy, me, and Anu before the ushers kicked us out of the theatre.

We had standing room tickets, which made watching the play more than a little painful after a day full of walking. I think my feet may have actually cried at one point in time. But the performance more than made up for it - it was absolutely stunning. I was so moved by the actors and was so captivated that I almost forgot the pain in my feet. Almost. Getting to go was completely worth all the pain! Not to mention the fact that the actor who plays Pippin in LOTR played Banquo, which just made the experience even greater. 

Our final day was Monday, which started off with a big announcement - Kate Middleton had gone into labor! Interestingly enough, as I'd find out as the day went by - your average Londoner couldn't have cared less. Americans and the media were much more invested in this than anyone actually in Britain - the general attitude over here has been "Who cares? Someone else is having a baby, that's nothing new." Business as usual progressed in London, completely contrary to all of the media hype.

The Exeter students started our day in the groups of 12 again, this time heading off to the Tower of London to begin. I loved learning about all of the history that happened there and seeing different relics from early time periods. Though I saw White Tower, the Bloody Tower, and the chapel, my favorite would have to be witnessing the Crown Jewels in person. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed inside, so I had to make do with taking a picture of the sign.

Entrance to the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London!

One of the more impressive towers

Green space at the Tower of London

I'd also like to point out that according to an interactive exhibit, I am a natural born archer. I mean, just saying. 

After the Tower of London, we went on a Thames river cruise, which was a great opportunity for both a breeze on a hot day and some great photography. (They actually weren't kidding about the London heatwave. It's legitimately hot, even coming from New Orleans.) After the cruise we had a short lunch break and I ordered my very first fish and chips. In true tourist fashion, I took a picture.

We visited the British Museum after lunch, which was incredible. I wish I had had more energy to stay and walk through every exhibit, but the building is massive. I teamed up with another American and a girl I'd met from Zimbabwe to tour the museum, and the three of us made the mistake of sitting down. After that, we were toast. I did get to see the Rosetta Stone, however, which was truly the only thing that I would have been upset about missing. 

After a short break at the hotel we went to dinner back at the Strand Palace Hotel, which was delicious once again. After dinner was my favorite, however - I finally got to meet up with my friend Evangeline!

Smile big!

I hadn't seen her since last May when she moved back to London, so it was great to see her and catch up. We had a great time walking around the city and she showed me parts of London on the other side of the Thames that I hadn't gotten to yet, which was great! I loved catching up with an old friend and spending time with her. And catching up on gossip, of course. All the gossip. 

Reunited after more than a year

That pretty much covers my time in London, and it's incredible that two and a half days were able to hold all of that activity. I just arrived in Exeter this afternoon, and I can't wait to find out what my time here will hold!