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.