This past weekend, one of my best friends came to visit me! Denise and I have known each other for over ten years and a huge facet of our friendship has been our mutual geeking out about various things coming out of England (Harry Potter, Narnia, The Beatles for me and Andrew Lloyd Weber for her... you get the idea). She's studying in London for a few weeks with SVSU and had a long weekend, so she came up to visit me! It was so amazing to be in England with one of my best friends, I don't know if there are words for the sense of things coming full circle we had.
We had a lovely time, and as if we hadn't been apart for five and a half months, we were saying the same things and the same time and finishing each other's sentences (especially when we had a mandatory Narnia rewatch haha we are such nerds), and it was wonderful. Friday night we went out with a few of my flatmates which was a fun time, and it was really nice to introduce my new friends here to one of my oldest friends from America.
Ten years of craziness led to this haha
Over the weekend we caught up on life (Miss Harvard over here is too clever for her own good :-p) and I showed her around York. Of course I had to make her have a proper English tea, so we went to my favourite tea shop in town, Bullivant of York, and I introduced her to its wonders. And we went to see the Great Gatsby in 3D, which was really great! I liked it a lot, but Baz Luhrmann, Leo Dicaprio, and Carey Mulligan are all my main babes so I might have been biased. I think it was really representative of the period and Fitzgerald, even if it strayed a bit from the actual novel of Gatsby. So go see it!!!
I was really excited for my cinnamon toast and tea, if you couldn't tell.
Denise with her first cup of peppermint tea!
It was really lovely on Sunday, so we took a walk around campus and I finally took some photos! Even though the architecture is dreadful, the campus itself can be quite pretty when everything is in bloom. The cement slabs can make me miss the ambiance of Wooster's ye olde English manor style of architecture :-p But that's what all my time in King's Manor is for, as it actually is a ye olde English manor house. Can't beat that.
The one and only pretty building on campus.
Alice in Wonderland hedges haha
Oh wow there is such a thing as sun!
After Denise left, it was back to the grindstone. I had my first group project due in the next afternoon, so after spending about six hours at my groupmate's house, and who even knows how many hours the next morning, we came up with a piece of work I think we're all proud of! Hopefully Jeremy agrees haha. We had to write up a proposal for a textbook about medieval childhood and adolescence and ours centred on girls growing up. In the end, it was the editing that took FOREVER, but I think we had a really good group dynamic and it all came together well. I'm happy with it! And it was really nice to get to know my classmates a bit better, Jemima and I had some crazy conversations later in the evening on Sunday in between formatting and editing.
Earlier in the week, I had my Arabic oral and listening exams. And the oral was devastating. It was genuinely horrific. I spoke French and English. Multiple times. And there was a whole nightmare of rescheduling it because my lecture changed times so it was at the same time and then I couldn't find the room and oh man. And I could not understand my tutor's accent to save my life, it was terrible. But the listening exam was a breeze, I think I passed with flying colours. So who knows what was going on with my listening skills in the oral haha. The written portion is next Tuesday, and I just have to remind myself it's not for credit, it's just for a certificate.
My first open exam is next Tuesday as well. Pretty much the history department sends out essay questions for a module at 10 am and you have 24 hours to write an essay and that's your exam. I'm not quite sure how I feel about them yet, but I think it will work out ok. Luckily, I don't have two in a row- if I was in two Thinking Through History or two Explorations modules, I'd have 48 hours to write essays for both modules, which sounds rather terrible. I have one for Thinking Through History next Tuesday, and one for Childhood & Adolescence the Tuesday after that. Pretty much since Monday, I've been spending hours and hours in the library doing readings and revising in preparation for my exams, so I won't need to do as much on the day of the actual essay writing.
My archaeology group project is due on 6 June, so it's my last assignment to be turned in, but we're still meeting at least once a week and working on research and such. I've been doing the illustrations for our artefact report, aka lots of drawing and shading and trying not to smudge things. We're down a group member, so there's only three of us, but I think it will come together nicely if I can find an axe-head typology!
I leave on 10 June, which is far too soon for my liking, and I have to start facing that reality. It doesn't feel like I've been here for over five months, and I don't want to leave at all. I bought my train tickets to the airport, and clicking the "one way" ticket option made my heart drop. But I'm going to live it up the best I can the next few weeks (whilst balancing my work ethic, hopefully). I'm going to Alnwick Castle with some Erasmus friends on Monday (the day before an exam, I know. I'll have to do as much work as possible before then!) which will be really cool! It's the castle they used for Hogwarts in the first film, and they have flying lessons on the grounds with Madame Hooch, as well as a haunted cellar and a "dragon quest," so I think I'm in for a fantastic day.
Anyone who knows me knows there are very few things I love in life more than The Beatles and Harry Potter. And being in England, obviously I had to make pilgrimages of sorts! And I'm sorry for all the photos in this post, I took like 400 at the Harry Potter Studio alone. And possible spoilers for Harry Potter stuff.
The outside of Leavesden Studios
The Harry Potter Studio Tour was AMAZING!!! Seriously, amazing. It's not in London proper, you have to take a train and then the Studio Tour has a special Harry Potter bus to take you out to the studios themselves. We were in one of the earliest tours of the day, so it wasn't SUPER full, but still quite busy. (Also, do note you need to book your visit online before you go!) They were handing out free badges for the one year anniversary, so that was pretty cool! We had an audio guide, which was an iphone (FANCY) with bonus videos and information (narrated by the lovely Tom Felton aka Draco Malfoy), so cool!
Harry Potter bus!
Cupboard under the stairs!
While you wait in the queue, the cupboard under the stairs is on display! And then you watch a little film in a waiting room, then enter a proper theatre where there's another film about the studios and the films and their impact and all that, and then the screen comes up, there doors to the Great Hall open and wahhh it was amazing! The Great Hall was sooo cool, might have been a bit emotional hahaha. There are all kinds of costumes and props throughout the room, and it's INSANE how much detail went into everything. Wow.
THE GREAT HALL AHHHHH
Just chilling with my homies
Gryffindor Common Room
After the Great Hall, you enter the main interior display, which has displays about the makeup and costuming, then the props, and then some of the smaller sets, like the Gryffindor Common Room, Dumbledore's Office, the Burrow, Hagrid's Hut, the potions classroom, etc. I was seriously geeking out so much, it was embarrassing. They also have portions about the special effects, shooting Quidditch scenes, learning to duel, etc. It was so cool to see all the little details they put into everything, and the design elements that went into the props. I could have spent a year in there and not noticed everything.
Mirror of Erised selfie
Invisibility Cloak!!!
Dumbledore's Office!
Class is in session with Snape
It's amazing how much detail went into the littlest things we didn't even see, like the books and newspapers, they had an entire display devoted to it.
Butterbeer!
Then you go to the outside lot, where they have Butterbeer (still as delicious as ever), the Knight Bus, the Ford Anglia, Privet Drive, the Potter's House, and the wonky bridge from Hogwarts. It was really cold and windy and gross out while we were there, so we didn't spend as much time out there as I would have liked, but it was still awesome!
Going to visit the Dursleys at No. 4 Privet Drive
I can't drive a stick, let alone a flying car!!
Diagon Alley!!!!
Next, there's a section about makeup and prosthetics, and some of the dummies and animals they used, it was pretty cool (and creepy, as many of the dummies were corpses from the films haha). And then DIAGON ALLEY!!!! Amazing! Finally, there were exhibits about planning, designing and constructing the sets with paper models, and at the end, you come out to the best surprise of all time, the complete model of Hogwarts and the grounds. Not gonna lie, I definitely cried a little bit haha. It was like a pilgrimage, I swear, it was so huge and seeing it all in one piece, just wow. I'm trying not to be too much of an emotional nerd, but it was pretty stellar.
Going to get my wand, nbd
Dream job is definitely designing card models of Harry Potter sets
The most spectacular thing I've ever seen
Seriously, it was a religious experience.
The gift shop was huge as well, but it was hard to justify buying much of anything since all the products have the same numerical price as the souvenirs in America at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but with a pound sign in front, so it's nearly two times the cost. I ended up getting a ton of postcards, and a Ravenclaw quidditch badge. (And when we went to the Platform 9 3/4 store in King's Cross, I bought a train ticket from London to Hogwarts haha). So yeah, it was pretty freaking fantastic. And, as my friend pointed out, I went before the royals, most of whom haven't actually read Harry Potter?? WHAT A SHAME. And again, sorry for all the photos but considering I took 400 while I was there, I think I did pretty well cutting down haha. If you want to see more, there are a ton on my facebook!
Beatles time! I went to Liverpool for the day with my friend Chantal during the end of the holiday, and we spent part of the morning at the World Museum, which is super cool and free! It has mummies and dinosaurs and a planetarium, so it automatically is fun in my book.
Our bus, it was pretty colourful
But the main part of our trip was the Magical Mystery Tour, which was so kitschy and touristy it was painful, but totally worth it haha. If you're going to do a Beatles tour, make sure to book ahead of time online or by phone to avoid stress haha. We were on one of the obnoxious buses, it was insane. Pretty much, you're taken through Liverpool to see many of the important sites from Bealtes history, including the homes or birthplaces of each Beatle, their neighbourhoods and other important landmarks mentioned in their songs, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, etc. There are pricier tours that actually take you inside the museums in some of the houses, but we're poor students haha. The tour ends near the Cavern Club, and then you can explore the Cavern Quarter. It was quite a fun trip, and super amazing for a Beatlemaniac like me!
Penny Lane! Apparently they constantly have to replace the signs because people steal them.
Strawberry Fields Forever
John Lennon's house! Most of my photos were bus photos like this one, blurry and smudged glass, but such is life.
Hey buddy
Inside the Cavern Club! So cool
I still didn't get to see Abbey Road, but I suppose I'll have to live.
This term is flying by! It's very strange not to have many contact hours- there was an article that just came out saying that York has the fewest contact hours of UK unis for history ugh, I'm noticing it as I've got ONE hour of contact time each for my two history modules, for an entire ten weeks, it's insane. So unlike Wooster, where you always have three hours a week for each module! So it's been a bit of a struggle to get myself to focus when I don't have any classes three days a week, but I've managed to get some work in! Group projects are also helping me to focus and be responsible.
My archaeology group project is quite interesting in that we have to work to identify objects from a York assemblage at the Yorkshire Museum. So far things have been going pretty well, although we still have lots to do to write our report! We have two hours of group time with our tutor in the museum for the first four weeks, and then we're on our own. I'm responsible for the illustrations in our report, which is fun, I get to draw all kinds of old things! I'm also working on the metalworking aspects, and researching an axe head and a pick axe head. Scintillating haha.
My Childhood and Adolescence group project has been a bit of a bumpy ride, not because of my group members by any means, but because the professor hasn't been so clear about what he expects of our project. We're writing a proposal for a textbook about female childhood and adolescence, and the word limit is a strict 3000, so we had each written 200 word summaries of what would be in our chapters (quite succinctly, I must say!), but it turned out that was not what our tutor had in mind, and now we're having to scrap the majority of it and start working on a new approach, which is quite frustrating. The result of having less than an hour of contact time in a term!! Seriously, we have two 20 minute meetings, kind of annoying, like where is my tuition going exactly??? But I think we'll get it done and it will be fine. And we also have an exam which is the majority of our mark for the module anyways, so I'm not getting too stressed yet.
Arabic is beginning to stress me out a little, I have my oral and listening exams this upcoming Tuesday and I don't feel at all prepared for them. I have about 600 flashcards and that's not all the vocab we've had to learn in the past three terms, ugh. Oh well, I'll just try my best I suppose! It's not for a grade, just a proficiency certificate, but I still want to do well. But after Monday, I'll be done with LFA seminars! So soon I'll be having no classes during the week at all, so strange!
In exciting news, one of my best friends, Denise, is coming to visit me next weekend!! I'm so excited to be able to spend time with her in England as a huge part of friendship is based on Harry Potter (and other English things haha), so this will be quite fun! We were hoping to meet up in London when I went to see the Tempest earlier this week, but it didn't work out. But we will be wreaking havoc in York. I hope she's prepared for a talking Viking museum!
It's been so nice out lately, with lots of sun (and some rain) and warm weather! Since we're so far north, and the clocks turned back, it's sunny quite late into the evening, and there have been some lovely sunsets lately out my window! But there have been some other not so pleasant things around people's windows- PIGEONS. They're trying to invade Le Page and it's not ok. During the Easter holiday, they got into the kitchen and a few rooms on the first (second to Americans) floor and left messes as surprises for us all, but this past week, they've been back in our kitchen twice (Rhiannon gets the Pigeon Chaser award!) and into another room, today alone! And they've come up on to the window ledges and pecked on the windows to quite a few rooms, including mine, which is a nasty shock. So now we can't really open our windows to let in the nice spring breeze without fear of an evil flying rat attacking us with their poo. The waterfowl are bit nastier than usual as well, as the geese have their little babies about, and they can be quite protective (which leads to them attacking Clare, who is petrified of birds hahaha). So the birds around here aren't so friendly as of late!
Sunset out my window one evening! The tree is also in bloom, which is lovely.
I'm still loving life abroad, and I'm not looking forward to leaving :-( My flight is officially one month (from yesterday) away, which is not a nice thought! So, not surprisingly, I've been considering how on earth to get myself back to England, and I'm pretty seriously considering coming back for my masters or PhD in York! My mum told me she's been waiting for me to say that haha, but it's somehow cheaper, even with the exchange rate, than many programmes in America, and PhDs are only 3 years here??? WOW. Not to mention my Le Page faves will be in their third year of uni if I come back, so I'd get to see them again haha. So who knows, I might be back in a year! :-p Seriously, I really do love living in England and I definitely wouldn't mind coming back haha.
Faith, Clare, and I <3
If anyone has any questions about study abroad, studying in England or York, etc., please feel free to ask me as well!
This post is long overdue, but one of the most amazing parts of my study abroad experience so far has been going to see The Tempest at Shakespeare's Globe in London. It was so good, I went back to see it again! Seeing a play at the Globe has been on my bucket list for a long time, so when someone had an extra standing ticket for opening night (23 April, also Shakespeare's birthday and death day), I scooped it up and booked tickets to London on a whim. A major motivating factor, beyond seeing a play at the Globe, was that Colin Morgan (Merlin from the BBC series) is in the cast. He's one of my favourite actors and a total babe!
The view from my tree I settled by to read for a bit
So I went down to London for the day, and it was some of the best weather London had seen in a while. I hung out in Kensington Gardens for most of the afternoon, which was lovely. I really love the Kensington area of London, and it was so nice to sit out in the sun, watch kids playing football and frisbee and see the gardens.
Peter Pan, my main bro for life
This picture is most for my mum, the heron was literally a foot away from me at one point!
Such a beautiful day in the gardens
I headed over to my hostel in Bankside before heading to the Globe to get in the queue around 5.30 (we were queuing so early because we weren't sure when to get there to be close to the stage). And we were smart about it, because we were RIGHT next to the stage, a bit to the right of centre! Seriously, it was so, so amazing. It's completely changed how I think about theatre, and rekindled my love of Shakespeare and theatre. The way the actors interact with the audience, who are literally right at their feet, is so different and refreshing from a typical theatre experience. And I throughly believe seeing Shakespeare in the original context of how it would have been performed is far superior than reading the text for class or even seeing it in a regular theatre.
A (very blurry) picture of my view of the stage!
The cast was BRILLIANT, all of them. I hadn't seen the Tempest before, so I'm not sure about how it usually comes across on stage, but their casting and staging were hilarious!! It's not meant to be a comedy, but you can get so many different puns and jokes from the script when it's performed live, and the relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda was very well done, extremely funny. Ferdinand had a cheeky boyish charm in the best way that made their flowering love quite funny, and Prospero's rolling eyes and orchestrated interventions in their relationship came off quite hilarious. And Caliban, Stefano, and Trinculo were obviously hilarious, especially since they were the ones most often interacting with the audience in the front row. Colin Morgan is seriously such an amazing actor as well, he was so in character as Ariel the whole time I didn't even think of him as Colin Morgan or Merlin, and he made himself seem like this ethereal, birdlike spirit of the wind, not a human. And he tried to attack me with a demon dog prop as well, so that was exciting :-p
Colin Morgan as Ariel, photo credit to Marc Brenner for the Globe
Miranda, Prospero, and Ferdinand, photo credit to Marc Brenner for the Globe
Since I went opening night, there were a few little blunders along the way, but it was still a spectacular production. I was on cloud nine for days afterwards, and bought tickets to go back to see it the moment I got back to York. I already had to go back to London to go to the US Embassy at that point, so I figured I might as well go see the Tempest again! Honestly, it's £5 for a standing ticket, which is less than many cinemas, and the quality of entertainment is so high, so why not??
The Natural History Museum
So on 7 May I was back in London! I spent the day in Kensington again, this time I went to the Natural History Museum, which has an AMAZING dinosaur display, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was really cool to see the V&A as an art history student as well, since I've seen so many of their online videos about production methods for different materials and such for classes. It was quite huge though, and a bit overwhelming haha.
Sooo many dinosaurs, it was a dream come true.
Entryway to the V&A
Guess what I wrote an essay on for Islamic art? This here manuscript, it's one of the largest in the world WOOOO
The V&A!
I got in the queue for the Globe around 5.50 after picking up my tickets, and there were far fewer people in front of me this time compared to last time. I got a spot right next to the stage, this time to the left of centre, and met a few other Americans who were there by themselves. One of them just graduated from CMU and we knew some of the same people from Midland, so that was quite funny! Another is from MSU and was studying abroad in France, so many Michigan people all over the place haha. So it was really great to make some new friends while we waited for the show to start.
It was even better the second time around, they'd worked out some of the kinks in production and it was just as funny and enthralling as the first time. And this time, I was even more involved in the show, as Caliban "killed" me at one point! He was miming how Stefano should kill Prospero to free him, and he all of a sudden was grabbing my head, and whacking me with his hand as a rock and nail (it kind of hurt a little haha but it was still so cool!) At later when Stefano was actually holding the nail and rock, he lurched at me with them saying "I begin to have bloody thoughts!" And there was one point when Caliban and Stefano were talking about the voices and music on the island, and a helicopter flew over and they had this wonderful improv scene about the sound of it and it was hilarious.
Caliban, Stefano, and Trinculo being fools haha, photo credit to Marc Brenner for the Globe
After the show was over, I yet again was on cloud nine, and I walked to the London Bridge station with the girl from CMU, and gave her a mini tour of Bankside, after which she told me I should be a tour guide, so that was pretty cool haha. Maybe I'll just become a travel agent? The next morning I got myself over to the National Gallery, the last museum on my to-do list for London, and that was AMAZING. I think between all the museums I've been to on study abroad, I've seen 2/3 of the works we studied for Seventeenth Century Art, so that's pretty cool! And lots of Impressionists, the only things that matter in life. So I'm officially done with London (for this trip at least), and I've seen almost everything I wanted to (Abbey Road and Baker Street are the only exceptions). And I definitely highly recommend the last hostel I stayed, Palmer's Lodge Swiss Cottage. It's a two minute walk from the tube station, free breakfast, tea, and wifi, and it's in an old manor house, complete with a suit of armor! Can't beat that! Seriously, it's so nice, the nicest one I've been at and not that pricey at all.
This doesn't even look like a hostel, it's like a museum.
And go see a play at the Globe if you have a chance! Don't worry about not being able to follow the language and plot if you don't know the play, or being bored, this isn't like reading if for English class haha. The Globe museum is really great as well as the theatre tour, and they're always doing really cool stuff there, like productions with original pronunciation. And for funsies, some cats insulting you with Shakespeare haha.
I mentioned in previous blog posts that I had the opportunity to participate in HOST UK, a programme where British families host international students for a weekend and learn more about British culture. And I'm here to tell you that if you have the opportunity in whatever country you're travelling in to stay with a host family, DO IT!!! It's seriously the only way to experience the way that real people live in whatever culture you're in. I absolutely loved my time in Todmorden, and I hope I can keep this post short since I could go on for ages about it!
I stayed with Anne and Colin in Todmorden, a lovely little town in the Pennine hills, which is an area of England I haven't been to before. It wasn't too far from York, but it was a nice change of scenery. The area was historically the big textile manufacturing economy, so there are tons of old mills and paths around the area from trading textiles. I had heard about the history a bit on the coach tour I'd been on in March (who even knows if I'll ever get around to writing a post about that trip haha), but it was really great to get to see the area firsthand.
Todmorden
After a little mix up about which station I was arriving at, I met Anne and Colin and they were beyond wonderful! They were super welcoming, and I don't think HOST could have come up with a better match if they tried. Seriously, somehow we meshed amazingly. Our interests overlapped quite a lot, and I think our general outlooks on life and the universe were pretty in sync. Not to mention vegetarian cooking! Some of my favourite parts of my visit were our conversations about British culture and American culture, education, travel, and languages. I learned so much from them, and hopefully they learned something from me (beyond what homecoming is haha). Since they were so interested in languages, we spent a lot of time discussing the differences between American and British English, which was really fun. We also talked a lot about how tv shows and films depict such idealised images of cultures on both sides- I grew up with British comedies and British mysteries, most of which are centred on the more well off classes, which is similar to many US shows they've watched- so you get this unreal view of how life really works in other countries.
The canal through the town which connects it to other mill towns
One of the Incredible Edible gardens- they also have places for bees and butterflies to live!
I told Anne and Colin early on that I was working on a paper for Arcadia about British food and culture, so they made an extra effort to help me see it in their local area. Todmorden is especially interesting for my topic since it has a market and a newly founded programme called Incredible Edible Todmorden, where there are vegetables, fruits, and herbs planted all over town that are free for the taking, anyone can have them! It's pretty cool. So part of my second day with them was spent in the market and walking around town to see these little garden patches, which was really cool! We got some amazing feta cheese in the market as well, and there is a really fantastic Mediterranean food shop, although that doesn't fit in with my topic as much haha. Totally wonderful!
Shibden Hall
We also spent time exploring other cities and towns around Todmorden. First, we went to Shibden Hall in Halifax, a house that was originally built in the 15th century but Anne Lister (check out this really cool lady!) refurbished it in the 19th century to its current appearance, and it's quite something. We went on a day where they had "Secret Shibden," where many of the panels covering the original structure were opened up, so you could see the original fire places, staircases, wall paintings, beams, etc., as well as go up into the tower which is usually closed to visitors! The Lister family is quite interesting as well, and we got to hear about some of their history during our visit. While we were in Halifax, we also went to Dean Clough, which was once the largest textile mill in the world, but now houses offices, art galleries, and a cooking school! We had some tea in the cooking school's café, and then looked at some of the art galleries, which had some interesting modern art from some local artists. We had dinner at a lovely Indian restaurant in Todmorden, I do love a curry! And then I was exposed to the British equivalent of ER, Casualty haha.
The ruins of the church and the graveyards
Sunday we went to Heptonstall, a village up on the moors above Hebden Bridge, the next town over. It was really lovely, although a bit grey and windy. The village has retained a lot of its historic buildings and ambiance, which I really enjoyed. Our first stop was the old ruins of a church, originally built in the 13th century which was destroyed in a storm in the 19th century. However, instead of fixing it up or reusing the stone to build the new church, they left the ruins right next to the new church, which is pretty unique. The town's cemetery also houses the grave a familiar name- Sylvia Plath! We had a bit of an adventure searching for her tombstone, but we found it! There's a cup of pens and poems people have left on their visits. The town also houses an octagonal Methodist chapel, which is the oldest one in continuous use. And I had a nice surprise when I watched the newest Doctor Who episode this week- it's set in Victorian Yorkshire in the mill area, and they filmed a church scene in the chapel! So that's pretty cool. We visited the local history museum, which had connections to my artefacts module- a lot of coiners (people who clipped the edges off coins to mint new coins and inherently decreased the value of coins) worked in this area, and I've seen their handiwork while looking at medieval coins!
Sylvia Plath's grave
Very old houses that used to be family textile production workshops
The octagonal chapel
Watch Doctor Who and see if you recognise that organ :-p
Anne and I walked down the hill to Hebden Bridge (Colin drove the car down), and we spent the afternoon looking around the town. Their market was open, as well as a flea market where I bought a lovely necklace from a local artist. And the best part was having tea in The Blitz teahouse- how perfect for me! It was super cute and everything was 1940s themed, including the dress of the workers. The shop downstairs was full of old fashioned soaps and shaving supplies, and the tea room upstairs was very quaint. There were original newspapers on the table from the time, and the menu was printed on a ration booklet. I was geeking out!! And our tea was very lovely, in fancy china with very scrumptious cakes (although those weren't so historically accurate- they would not have had rich chocolate cakes with cream with rationing in place!) Check out this video to get a sense of the atmosphere :-)
View during the walk down- England, you're looking gooooddd
Hebden Bridge, with one of the old mills!
Inside the Blitz tea room
Lovely tea!
We also spent some time solving word puzzles- they were doing the cryptic crossword and I was working on a Shakespeare themed puzzle book I found in Hebden Bridge- and that was quite fun. There was one clue that had us all stumped and I would not give up on it, so even while Colin and I were waiting for my train, I was working at it, and I finally figured it out minutes before I left! I also watched Snooker for the first time, as the championship was this weekend and Colin was following it. It seems quite complicated, but the guy who was reigning champion made it seem like the easiest thing in the world, it was ridiculous!
So long, Tod! Still puzzling out crossword clues at the train station
Overall, I'm so, so glad I did HOST. It was so nice to be in a house, not a dorm, and have home cooked meals, and get a break from university life for a little while. And I learned so much about the culture and politics and such, and was exposed to new perspectives on things, that I would never have just from my hallmates (not that I haven't learned TONS living with British students haha). Anne and Colin were so welcoming and made sure I was comfortable and we did things I'd enjoy, and it was just so lovely, I can't put it into words! They reminded me a bit of my parents, in their interests and even in some of their mannerisms, which was probably part of what made me feel so comfortable coming into their home. I certainly was nervous before I got there, but it was so worth the nerves, which dissolved in my first cup of tea in their living room.
It was really lovely on Sunday, so we took a walk around campus and I finally took some photos! Even though the architecture is dreadful, the campus itself can be quite pretty when everything is in bloom. The cement slabs can make me miss the ambiance of Wooster's ye olde English manor style of architecture :-p But that's what all my time in King's Manor is for, as it actually is a ye olde English manor house. Can't beat that.
It was really lovely on Sunday, so we took a walk around campus and I finally took some photos! Even though the architecture is dreadful, the campus itself can be quite pretty when everything is in bloom. The cement slabs can make me miss the ambiance of Wooster's ye olde English manor style of architecture :-p But that's what all my time in King's Manor is for, as it actually is a ye olde English manor house. Can't beat that.
