Fantastic end to a fantastic summer.

Now that the dust has settled on my last two days in England, I've survived the 23-hour journey back to the States, and I'm all moved into my new New Orleans apartment, I guess I can blog about the end of the summer school. Prepare for the overly sappy.

Thursday morning the Shakespeare pathway had its last lecture of the summer school. It was another play-specific session on The Tempest, taught once again by Prof. McRae. This time, though, the lecture was much more engaging, and I don't think that we lost any students to sleep. (Possibly.) I'm glad that we had another lecture on that play, because it was definitely my least favorite of the works we had to read. Sitting in class and discussing it, however, helped me realize just how much there was in the play that I hadn't picked up on by reading it once. I appreciate it a lot more now, that's for sure. Though I don't believe I'll be writing my final paper on that particular play.

The afternoon was free of lectures and was technically "independent/group study time" - so, naturally, people only took a fraction of that time to study. After lunch, I met with my group to discuss how we were going to organize our project. We had already chosen a topic - Shakespeare and love as demonstrated in A Midsummer Night's Dream - the question was how we were going to organize what each person had researched into the presentation. Luckily the meeting went pretty smoothly, and we had a presentation hammered out and practiced within two hours. (Shout out to Veronica, my other awesome Saint Louis girl, for choosing a perfect background for the presentation.)

After we felt like we were comfortable with the presentation that we were scheduled to give the next day, all five of us split off in different directions. Anu and I went back into town to finally go on the quay - our goal was to go kayaking and then do some last minute souvenir shopping for ourselves and friends/family. When we got down to the river (after finding our way down there - we got temporarily turned around), we unfortunately learned that kayaking was sold out for the day. No worries. There was a sign for paddle-boating not too far away, and the paddle boats were much, much cheaper than renting a kayak. Plan B success.

Anu looking fab even in her 'kayaking clothes'

Me looking not so fab in kayaking clothes

On the river! Praying we wouldn't drop the phone into the water.

We found a really awesome and fairly-priced souvenir shop by the cathedral and stopped in there to buy gifts. I picked stuff up for friends from home and got a souvenir spoon of the royal birth for my friend Emily's younger sister - she was following it super closely, so hopefully she likes it!

You have no idea how quickly Royal Baby merchandise appeared on shelves.

After we returned from our venture into town, it was time to pack and prepare for final presentations the next day. A lot of people were in denial that we all had to leave - none of us wanted to believe it. All the same, we went out to The Firehouse one last time before we all had to leave. Anu and Luis had an epic pizza eating competition, I wished once again that I could take toffee apple cider back home with me, and great times were had. (Seriously, though. U.S. needs to get on this cider train.)

Last Firehouse pizza! Delicious.

Friday morning eventually rolled around, despite every single Exeter ISS student dreading it. Everyone put just a little more effort into their appearance that morning, since almost every track would be presenting in front of their pathway and two Exeter professors. (Everyone except International Management. They got away with no presentation and just a paper. And people say business is hard...) I think that our specific presentation went very well - we stayed inside the twenty minute time limit, made great points, and had a good presentation. I think the five of us - me, Veronica, Anu, Stine, and Sherrie - made a great team! Our geographical diversity (we represented the USA, India, Denmark, and China, respectively) definitely helped us in our analysis. Even though we were well-prepared, we all breathed a sigh of relief that it was over.

Presentations being over meant that we had to face the fact that we were spending our last afternoon in Exeter. People remained in denial and refused to pack. A lot of the Shakespeare group got lunch at The Ram one last time and talked over the "Exeter ISS in One Minute" presentation that we wanted to do at the dinner later on. After that, I walked around with Anu and Lindy and got some last minute pictures of the city that I'd somehow come to love so quickly.

Description of the ancient city wall

Ancient Roman wall in a modern English shopping district.

Exeter's 'Big Ben'

These signs came in handy so many times. It's such a tourist-friendly city.

Sign for The Imperial, at which I left a good portion of my money.

Before I knew it, I was back on campus, was mostly done with packing, had changed my clothes, and was ready for the Gala Dinner. It really surprised me how much I dreaded saying goodbye to everybody. I had been super skeptical during the welcome speech when the director told us that we were going to make lifelong friends at this summer school. I kept thinking that I was only going to be there for three weeks - how was I possibly going to form a lifelong friendship in three weeks? But I did, with people from all over the world, and I was so far from ready to say goodbye. 

So I didn't. I just took pictures at the wine reception of us looking fabulous in our smart attire and told myself I would at least see everyone the next morning.

Lale, Lauren, and Lindy - three lovely Ls

Best friends I could have asked for in Exeter.

Veronica and I - representing Saint Louis!

Me and Chloe - smile big :)

Dinner was really great, though people were slightly upset when they saw that we had assigned seating. I was not happy to be separated from my friends at first, but it did give me an opportunity to have a conversation with people I hadn't spoken to as much and even connect with some professors. The professor sitting nearest me was an American who had been living in Ireland for the last twelve years. He had been a lecturer for a different pathway, so it was a great opportunity to speak to him. (I asked him why he'd chosen Ireland. His answer? "Well, I got my master's over there. Then I decided to stay and get my PhD...and then I met a girl." D'awww.) 

Things got a little bit emotional once people started getting up to make speeches. How we all became so emotionally invested in a program after only three weeks is a mystery to me, but somehow we did.

 My fancy-schmancy dinner place setting

Anu giving her farewell speech

After the dinner, they held a disco for everyone. The DJ was actually really good, so we used the opportunity to tear up the dance floor one more time. A lot of people went out on the town for one last time, but most of my friends and I decided to stay back and just hang out on the terrace for our own private celebration/commencement. It was chilly, but being around those people one last time was worth the goosebumps. 

Enjoying the company

Jenna brought down her comforter to keep warm. It swallowed her.

I ended up staying awake until about 3am, even though the coaches were due to leave at 7 that morning. Despite my sleep-deprived state the next morning as I struggled to get my luggage on the bus, it was completely worth it. I've learned so much from everyone on the trip and made such great friends - why wouldn't I want to spend a few extra hours with them? 

I've just got one more thing to say before I can end the sugar-fest that is this post.

Exeter ISS 2013, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

Acting Part 2 and St. Ives

So winning an Oscar for acting is probably not in my future. However, I did have a great time both in acting workshops all day yesterday and in the town of St. Ives today!

Yesterday the Shakespeare pathway had its last two acting workshops. In the morning we worked on voice, which made me feel a little bit ridiculous. Although we weren't singing (thank god - I relegate myself to shower singing only), I'm still not used to going through the scales of my voice or 'feeling the color of a vowel.' Nor am I used to contorting into different shapes on the ground and attempting to find whatever my natural voice is. It really was an interesting workshop, though, and even the most ridiculous-seeming things had some sort of purpose. Maybe I should change my major and just skip while reading Shakespeare all day instead of sitting and studying it...

I hadn't realized how much the inflection in an actor's voice conveys the meaning of the lines, or how something as little as pronouncing a vowel sound differently can change the emotion behind a word. I gained a new appreciation for actors all over again. From the outside, acting can seem easy, especially when we see random pop stars suddenly becoming actors and actresses. I know there's no possible way that I have a full conception of the job with four acting workshops, which means there's even more work that goes into it than I know - but even with the amount I've learned, my hat goes off to actors.

The second workshop of the day was 'abbreviated Shakespeare'. A great example of this is the Reduced Shakespeare Company - and if you have never heard of them, please watch this video:

Most of our academic discussion centered around whether reducing or adapting Shakespeare causes the work to lose its integrity. While the Reduced Shakespeare Company's work is certainly far off from the original, it has become a new thing that offers its own analysis and contribution to the drama world. Shakespeare's work lives on, just in a different manner. 

Then we broke up into groups of around 5 (my group was Bryan, Maddy, Veronica, Juliette, and me) and attempted to condense a Shakespeare play into 5 minutes. We chose Macbeth and made Lady Macbeth sound like a New York mob boss and gave the witches the "byeeeeee!" from the Most Popular Girls in School. After performing that and receiving critique, we had one more challenge - reduce the play again...down to thirty seconds. 

I think we did pretty dang well. Macbeth in thirty seconds:

The rest of Tuesday consisted of a failed shopping trip to bring back clothes from England (British sizes, what you say is a US 10 is NOT a US 10), preparing for group presentations on Friday, and watching Pride and Prejudice in one of the lecture halls. The movie was occasionally interrupted by construction outside the door, but I don't think it was really preventing any of us from sighing over Darcy. Men included.

Also, I found the most British card ever:

Today was our last day trip, and they definitely saved one of the best for last - Saint Ives! It's a beautiful fishing village in southwest England and we had perfect beach weather today. This definitely is one of my favorite day trips. First of all, just check out what the village looks like:

View of Saint Ives from the hill where we parked

Rocky coastline

Saint Ives street view

After walking around and grabbing some lunch, we went on a boat trip to the lighthouse to see seals. I think we went about three miles or so offshore and saw a ton of seals sunning themselves on the rocks and playing in the water. The boat ride itself was really fun, too - I even got to drive the boat!

My thoughts in the moment: "This man is crazy for letting me touch the wheel."

Water at the dock - it's so clear!

All smiles! Daniel, Grace, and Jenna

On the water!

View of the lighthouse

Seals! If only the iPhone had better zoom...

After the seal tour we went swimming - the water was cold, but it was still fun! I didn't stay in for very long and chose to read on the beach instead, which was just as enjoyable for me. It was uncharacteristically warm for England - I think nature must have known we were coming and wanted to give us a good last trip. 

At the beach!

The rest of the day was mostly spent walking around peeking into boutiques and eating ice cream - so basically wonderful. Saint Ives was such a great choice for a day trip! We were all so exhausted by the time that we got back to Holland Hall that staying in and working on presentations actually sounded like a good idea rather than a chore. Lindy, Anu and I managed to make it fun, though - late night jam sessions to a 90s playlist will liven up any Shakespeare study session. Random fire alarms will, too, but in a much different manner.

Only two full days left here now, and we already had to say the first goodbye to Ronak today - I'm not ready for this to end.

Being abroad does not improve Mondays.

So...

England doesn't make Mondays any better. Mondays are still crap. 

I'm very tempted to just say, "That's it. That's the blog post for today." I guess I'll be a good person and writer and actually describe my day...though compared to my weekend, it was extremely boring. 

We started off the day with a quick briefing about what was going to be happening this week. Lyndon, the program manager, also decided it would be a great idea to remind us that this is our last week. Not a good idea, Lyndon. We're all going to cry - none of us are ready to leave, even those of us continuing on abroad somewhere else! 

Classes started as usual for each pathway after that initial presentation. Our morning lecture was taught by Dr. Ed Paleit, who was lecturing on Shakespeare's classicism. The talk itself was engaging, but I kept getting distracted by the way he spoke - he often stopped for long pauses at odd times or would close his eyes and gesticulate while speaking. Honestly, it kind of looked like this:

Sorry Dr. Ed, not to compare you to Zefron as a person, but this is what you look like.

I did enjoy the lecture, though. It was interesting to discover what Shakespeare would have been taught during his school years and then look at how that education manifested itself in his written work. That also led to a discussion on how much freedom of thought the British grammar school system offered at that time, and if they were educating their students to be free-thinkers and analyzers or molding them to follow the crowd. It was my favorite lecture of the day by far.

After lunch (during which I spent no money on food - YAY), we went back upstairs for our second lecture. Unfortunately, this wasn't quite as engaging as the first - no offense to Prof. McRae, the man of those two hours. It was our first specific session on The Tempest today, which I enjoyed. The first hour of class, however, was used up by our professor speaking in this monotonous and calming voice. A few of the girls sitting behind me fell asleep. I managed to avoid sinking into a stupor, but I did notice my notes getting progressively messier as the lecture went on. You can practically see my level of attention on the page, determined by the messy or neat state of my handwriting. 

After class, we went to an information session about graduate study in the United Kingdom. I'm not completely sold, but I am definitely not taking the possibility of getting my master's degree abroad off the table. I know that I'll want to go back to England, and graduate study abroad is an easy step towards that goal. I'm thinking Spanish-speaking country for my next abroad experience, though...we'll see. 

The highlight of my day would probably be going back to The Firehouse (we seem to be making this a habit) and finally ordering one of their famous pizzas. It was delicious! We had a group of 8 that split the pizza between us, and not only did it taste great, but it was cheap. Once we split the bill, the total came to less than a pound for each of us. Difficult to beat that one.

After the incredibly eventful last few posts, this makes today look even less eventful than it did before. I think I needed it, though - a nice, slower paced day was what I needed after the bustle of the weekend. Just wait. Come tomorrow, everyone's energy will be back again...

A Very British Weekend

From the Roman Baths to the Jane Austen Centre to the Harry Potter studio tour, it's been a packed - and British! - weekend.

Saturday the whole summer school took a day trip to Bath, which was incredible. I had looked up specific places that I wanted to see while we were there and managed to hit all of them! It also helped that we had a good six hours to spend there so that we could explore as much of the city as possible.

Our first stop was, of course, the Roman Baths. Our group had a bit of an addition to it - we were followed for part of the day by a film crew making a promotional video for the summer school. They were very non-intrusive, though, and fun to be around, so they didn't disrupt our day at all. After some footage of our initial reaction to the entrance, they left us alone to explore.

I didn't know just how much of the baths had been preserved - I was expecting just the main pool, but there's much, much more in the museum that's available to view. They also had actors and actresses portraying Roman life both on screen in the museum and outside by the main bath, which reminded us of the fact that life actually happened where we were standing. Thousands of years ago, people got good news, bad news, and relaxed after a long day in the same place we were occupying. It's especially weird to think about coming from the States, where we don't have much that's very old due to the fact that colonists destroyed the majority of it, so it was a special treat for the Americans.

Entrance to the baths!

View of the baths

You're not allowed to actually bathe here, but you can for a price at the Thermae Bath Spa.

Oldest inscription at the museum

Ancient altar, with some not so ancient additions

Chloe and I on ground level at the baths - Midwest girls!

After the Roman baths we walked over to The Circus and then to the Royal Crescent. The homes are absolutely beautiful, and the Royal Crescent was used as a filming location for Jane Austen's Persuasion. 

The Circus!

Royal Crescent at Bath

Just hanging out in front of my future multi-million dollar home

Before going to lunch, Lindy and I filmed a short interview in front of the Royal Crescent for the promotional video. It was super casual, but it made me laugh how many people were peering at us trying to decide if we were important or not because we were being filmed. I'm sure they were sorely disappointed we were just a couple of Americans. 

After a delicious (though pricey) lunch at The Slug and Lettuce, I split off with Ian to go to the Jane Austen Centre! It was perfect timing since I'll be taking a class on her this semester, so I loved being able to walk around a town where she lived and learn more about her life and the time in which she lived. 

Sign and mannequin outside of the museum

Fan language - I had no idea that there were so many things to communicate!

Tea was kept under lock and key. 

Putting Darcy's income into perspective - no wonder Mrs. Bennet was so keen.

Example of a writing desk!

I also had the opportunity to try my hand at writing with a quill (I'm terrible at it). They have a room available where you can have tea just like you would have in the nineteenth century, but they were completely booked and we didn't have the time, anyway. We did have to go through the centre a little faster than I would have liked due to the time we spent on lunch, but no big deal - I got to go.

After the museum, we walked around Bath and saw different landmarks. We saw filming locations for Pride and Prejudice and Les Miserables, the Pulteney Bridge, and Bath Abbey. The Pulteney Bridge is actually kind of underwhelming - the architecture is impressive and it's cool that you can't tell you're on a bridge, but I didn't really see why it was a "must-see" of Bath. But it was on my list, so I could mark it off! I really enjoyed Bath as a whole, though - it's a gorgeous city with a ton of history. I would definitely go back! (I'm starting to wonder whether that sentence has any meaning anymore. I would go back to every single place I've visited on this trip.)

We finished off our Saturday by heading to The Firehouse, which is a local pub. (The one that was the inspiration for The Leaky Cauldron.) They were playing live music and it was a great time hanging out with friends. Also, they serve the most amazing drink - toffee apple cider.

The delicious toffee apple cider. Why can't I be 21 so I can take you home?? 

Classy by candlelight - which is the only thing the Firehouse is lit by other than Christmas lights.

I went back early, however, because I had to make sure that I was ready to catch my Sunday train...to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London.

I have pictures and souvenirs as proof that I was there, but it still doesn't feel real. I think someone else may have taken my place yesterday? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that after years of dreaming of being able to walk on set - but never actually believing that was possible - I actually got to go. So as you can imagine, this was me before getting on my train to London yesterday:

Kept it all in, though. Outwardly I was totally cool.

Getting there was an unexpected ordeal, though. My first train ride from Exeter to London Paddington was a very smooth journey with no issues - got to the station early, picked up my tickets, got to my platform - easy. When I arrived at Paddington, I thought my next leg - taking the Underground to London Euston - would be just as simple. 

Nope.

As it turns out, the Underground train that I was supposed to take is not, in fact, in the main 'Underground' area of London Paddington. You have to go down past all of the platforms, go up the stairs, over the walkway, down a hallway, down some other stairs, and THEN you find the correct line. But was I aware of this when I arrived at the station? Unfortunately, no. So I followed the signs to the Underground, checked the routes on my map, and slowly realized that none of the lines in this station would take me to London Euston. Cue slight panic mode. 

I went back up the stairs into the main station, and a super nice man at the information desk eventually gave me the directions that I needed. (He also apparently thought I was from somewhere other than the U.S. Is my accent not a dead giveaway?) Directions were great, but this was now twenty minutes from the time my train would leave from London Euston, and it was going to be about a twelve minute Underground ride to get there.

I power-walked to the platform and had to stop myself from dancing in place as I waited for the thing to just show up already. The train eventually came, I jumped on it, and managed to get to Euston Square at about 3:09. My train was due to leave at 3:14. And another detail - as it turns out, I couldn't take the Underground direct to Euston Station, which is where the train left from. I took it to Euston Square, which is a block away.

Thank god I ran track in high school. I quite literally ran through the streets of London, got a couple looks, prayed that the building I was heading to was actually the station, ran through the building, scanned for what platform my train was leaving from, found the platform, found the train, and jumped on.

It was 3:13. 

So after THAT stressful experience that took ten years off my life, I made it to the bus stop that would take me to the studio tour. It was kind of difficult to miss.

It only plays music from the soundtrack while you ride.

And eventually, I was greeted with this wonderful sight!

I was so happy to be there. We arrived about an hour and a half before my tour time, so I was able to take my time in the gift shop to buy souvenirs and sit in the on-site café for a bit of dinner before my tour. (Even the gift shop has real props on display - though they're not for sale.)

Then, at 5:30, it was time! I had to wait in line for awhile, but then we were ushered into a room with three long, rectangular screens on two walls. A worker (whose name was also Lauren) introduced us to the studio tour and then rolled video footage across all six screens, which was telling the story of how the rights to the first book were purchased to turn it into a film. After that introduction, we moved into the next room, which looked more like a movie theater. Here they played a clip filmed especially for the tour, with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint telling us about the studios and all of the hard work that had gone into making the movies. At the end of the clip, instead of going into another room to start the tour, the movie screen lifted into the air - and this was what we saw:

Best start to a tour or best start to a tour?

The doors open into the Great Hall, which is where our tour began.

High Table at the Great Hall. The set is absolutely magnificent.

I took over 200 pictures at the tour, so I'm obviously not going to post them all here. But these are some of my favorite pictures from yesterday!

Gryffindor common room 

Hanging out in Dumbledore's office!

Even the portraits have backstories. That is some insane detail.

More prop detail - Lily's letter to Sirius from the 7th book, word for word. 

Butterbeer!

Standing on the actual Diagon Alley. Incredible. 

I spent about two hours in the actual tour, but I could have spent much longer. To be honest, there is no amount of time that would have been enough - I would have spent ages looking at one prop before moving on to the next one. I think the record is thirteen hours - I understand why! But I think that I saw everything there was to see, and I'm incredibly grateful that I even got to go at all. I absolutely LOVED my experience. Plus, I got a bonus - they're currently running their 'Summer Spells' show at the tour, so I got to see more behind the scenes stuff than during a normal time! 

The ride back to Exeter was much less eventful than the ride to the tour, though I was a bit sad to have to leave. I did get a laugh while waiting for my train, though. My train from London to Exeter was leaving from Platform 9, and since I'd arrived early, I went to go sit in the waiting room. I looked up and realized that the waiting room was situated exactly between Platforms 9 and 10 - my own personal 9 3/4. 

Now you know that English majors can find symbolism in everything!

Also, special thanks to Lindy, Brad, and Ronuk for picking me up from the train station at 12:30 last night - it was great to see smiling faces waiting for me!

Be on the lookout for a post about my Monday later on tonight. :)