I'm such a nerd.

Two blog posts in one day, you can tell it's my day off. Also if you're not interested in academic blathering and geeking out, feel free to skip over this post.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Dr. Erma Hermens, convener of my Master's program, about the program and prepping for the academics before we arrive. This included a reading list, and, like the total intellectual weirdo I am, this made my entire day. I'm not kidding.

I've only received two of my books in the mail so far, but I AM OBSESSED. And I definitely know I chose the right program after starting to read through these books. They are all from a collection of exhibition catalogues from the National Gallery of Art in London's series of Art in the Making exhibitions, which started in the 1990s. They include general essays on the period or artist under consideration, their workshop, and methods and materials commonly used, and then a collection of case studies, which are my favorite part. There are tons of images, including x-ray, radiographs, and paint-chip analysis, showing how the different pieces were created, and examining them on a whole new level. It's science and art and cultural history all combined, and considering this is what I want to do with my life, I LOVE IT VERY, VERY MUCH. Seriously, ask anyone on staff with me if I've been geeking out, because I have.

The first one is Italian Painting Before 1400, which is so cool. There are artists I've studied in depth and pieces I've seen in person from my trip to Siena and Florence in 2011. And, funnily enough, an entire subchapter about a book I bought in the Uffizi gift shop because I thought it sounded interesting,  The Craftman's Handbook, by Cennino Cennini. It's a primary source from the 15th century, pretty much a giant treatise on artistic methods and materials from the period in Florence, and it's central to the study of that period in the National Gallery catalogue. And three years ago, I was already interested in that side of the study of art history. If only I had realized it earlier, I could have saved some faffing about regarding grad program decisions :p

The second book is one on Rembrandt, which is also exciting, as I really love him and the whole 17th century Dutch artist period. (Fun fact: the sample essay I included was on de Hooch, a Dutch genre painter, and Erma Hermens specializes in Dutch genre paintings so really I think that only helped my application). I haven't had as much time looking through this one, but it's still really exciting.

The final book is on Impressionists, which are my actual most favourite, ever, but I'm still waiting on it to be delivered. I'm really thrilled about the selection of periods and artists were focusing on with these three books, however, because they're all representative of some of my favourite periods to study. In my application, I talked about how I wanted to take a more survey-based master's program because I had no idea what I wanted to specialize in because I was split several different ways between medieval manuscripts and frescos, Dutch genre paintings, and more modern art like Impressionists, which are all very different directions in the academic world. And somehow, I lucked out that we're covering all three from this perspective I'm very interested in, the materiality and methodology behind the production of the art, which I think will be very helpful in focusing my research interests for further study. But I still have lots of reading to do before I leave! And an added 8 pounds to my luggage, oh dear.

July Update: Loans, Visas, and Orientation!

Apologies for the lack of posts, I've been extremely busy and working at a summer camp doesn't leave too much time for internet activities. Working at Interlochen for the third summer in a row has been lots of fun, but, as always, full of the little challenges working with high schoolers is guaranteed to have :p

It's also been a bit of a challenge to work on preparing for moving abroad in less than a month-- I'm leaving on August 22! It's so soon. There has been lots to do- loans, visas, registering for orientation, and more.  I'm so glad I sorted out my housing in March! Doing this from a little cabin in the woods, with somewhat shoddy internet, has been another experience altogether.

I've been sorting out the financial stuff in order to get my visa, so June and early July was spent on federal loans (which can be used for international graduate programs, that's exciting) and private loans, and working with the international financial aid officer in Glasgow. After that was sorted out and I had officially accepted my offer, I was issued a CAS, or Confirmation for Acceptance of Studies. This is a document issued from your university confirming you will be a student, you've accepted an unconditional offer. It's also necessary to apply for a Tier 4 Student visa to the UK.

Next was my visa application, which took a bit more time than I expected. This was mostly because I've traveled a lot previously, and I had to record every trip to the UK in the past 10 years, every other international trip in the past 10 years, and all my prior passport information (I'm on my fourth passport, so that took a while as well). And this was all on the first page! I submitted my visa application last week, and paid the fee online (FYI, if you're planning on applying for a student visa, realize they cost several hundred dollars, so plan accordingly. And your credit card account may be locked for international transactions, so watch out for that, oops.)

The next step is a biometrics appointment at an approved office, which I'm going to tomorrow. This is pretty much the visa people taking my photo (outside of my passport and extra passport photos) and taking my fingerprints and other information. I also turn in my passport and other documents at this appointment. In Michigan, the two location options are Grand Rapids and Detroit. I'm going to Grand Rapids as it's two hours away from Traverse City as opposed to four, like Detroit. It's slightly frustrating that I have to leave camp and my job for a day, but I have to do it! The Glasgow international student support team say it should take around ten days to two weeks for turnaround, but I'm not sure I trust them. We'll see how long it takes for me to get my passport back!

Last week, I also registered for International Student Orientation! I'm pretty excited. It starts on Sept. 8 and includes several sessions that I think will be pretty helpful for adjusting to the university and the city itself. U of G has a lot of really cool activities available as well, such as tours of the city and a Scottish culture night, and three tours into other parts of Scotland during the weekend through Student Tours Scotland. I signed up for two of those trips as they're only £15 each for a day trip: one to Loch Lomond on Friday Sept. 12, and one to Callander and Killin on Saturday Sept. 13. (You can click through the links to see descriptions and photos from past day trips, Scotland is really, really beautiful).

I am also now "friends" with the International Society on facebook (it has a person profile page as opposed to a likeable organization page, something I've noticed British unis do for different things), and ISoc has been doing all kinds of amazing day trips during the summer months as well, so I'm excited to get involved with that group and see even more of Scotland! Additionally, my mother and I are flying out on the 22nd so we can do a weeklong tour of Scotland before I start to settle down. I'm quite excited and it will be nice to spend some time with my mom before university life starts in earnest.

On the whole I'm getting quite excited, but also somewhat nervous! There's not much time left for me to start getting ready, and the idea of packing for 12 months is a daunting task. But I'm sure I'll manage! I'll keep everyone updated :)

Summer Time!

Guess who graduated from the College of Wooster?? This girl :)

So now I'm free of my undergraduate obligations and can relax for a few weeks until I start working at Interlochen Arts Camp as a cabin counselor for the third time! After that, I'll have a few weeks to prepare for my year in Scotland, and then I'll be off in the first week of September. It's all very exciting, but it seems much further away than it really is.

Since I don't have any school work to do for the next few weeks, that means I'm going to do some more blogging! I'll hopefully address some of my experience and whatever advice I can garner about financial aid, housing, travel planning, packing, etc. There are a huge amount of study abroad blogs for undergraduate semester long programs, but not much about post-graduate study, so hopefully this will be helpful for someone! Otherwise it's a way for me to post pictures and share my experiences :)

Three Reasons Why Americans Should Consider Graduate Study in the UK

This is a question I've had to answer a few times since making my decision, since I also got into two very good programs in the US. I've also had a few conversations about the reality of studying in the UK with some of my college friends and why I think it can be a better fit for some students.

1.) MONEY. Rather, value for money.
This is one of the biggest considerations about going into grad school for many students. I know it was for me. Especially for the humanities, there are very few fellowships or fully funded programs available in the US of A. Not that British programs necessarily provide you with more funding, but I'm pretty sure the math works out (in most cases) that it will be cheaper and FASTER, making the cost per credit less. Nearly every Master's program I saw was a year long program, and when I say a year, I mean a full 12 months of classes/work/experiences, not the nine months most American programs run.

For example, the Master's program I was considering in America was two years (or three, depending on if you did a dual degree, which I intended to complete). The tuition was $965 per credit hour, for two or three years, for nine months of classes. There were not any fellowships available for this coming year, just a part time on campus job for $12 an hour. This was in no way going to cover tuition, living costs of a big city, or supplies for classes. My UK university costs £13,500 for the entire year of tuition. This includes two semesters of full course loads, an internship or elective component, a field-study trip to Europe, and dissertation advising through the summer. I will have another degree in 12 months, along with experiential learning. It's pretty great. (FYI: The cost of living in Glasgow is a wash with living in Chicago.)

The kicker, though, is the length for a Ph.D. program. The majority take THREE YEARS to complete (you have to have done a Master's first). That's four years total to get a Ph.D. That is pretty much unheard of in the USA, where it takes at least five years for a Ph.D., if not longer. So yeah, saving time and money on further education seems like a great idea!

There are also scholarships available. There are the super competitive ones- like the Marshall, Rhodes, etc.- or specialized ones, like the St. Andrew's Society of the State of New York, for which I was a finalist (seriously one of the coolest experiences, even though I didn't receive it). British universities often have their own scholarships for international students or specific programs as well, so there is definitely a way to find outside sources for money. I will (probably) have to take out a loan as well, although the FAFSA can apply to Glasgow, so that's convenient. (I wish American student loans worked like British ones, but that's a post for another time). At the end of the day, I'm taking out a smaller loan than if I went to school in Chicago, and that's what really matters- I'd rather go broke doing a program I really love and traveling than spending more time in school in a country I've lived in for 22 years. (I know this is my opinion, but it's obviously something to take into consideration)

2.) SPECIALISATION
I also think there are far more specialized Masters programs in the UK, across the board. Obviously I haven't looked into this too much for disciplines outside of history, art history, and archaeology, but I have heard similar observations from people in the sciences. There are also unique programs you can't find in America-- I'm the poster child for that. In a way, this can save you time by taking classes exactly pertinent to your interests or speciality. However, there are also good survey programs as well, which can help you figure out what to focus on for further research and study or for you career. My program is a combination of these two aspects, which is what I really love about it.

A thing to note about British post grad courses: there are two types, taught and research degrees. Taught degrees (always a Master's program, never a Ph.D.) include classes and what we normally associate with the first few years of grad school. Research programs are exactly what they sound like: you complete a research project with some level of advising, but you're pretty independent. Most undergraduate programs in the UK require some form of dissertation (not anything on the level of Wooster's I.S., but more than many senior capstones across the US), so this kind of research isn't necessarily new to all students on the other side of the pond, and Master's programs also require a thesis (ALSO shorter than my I.S., I might add, but Wooster's an odd egg on occasion). So bear that in mind when looking at programs and exploring your options. And DO explore your options- there are more unis out there than Cambridge and Oxford, and many specialize in unique departments. For example, Glasgow is the top art history department in the UK, and York has a killer archaeology program. Just because you haven't heard of it in America doesn't mean it's not a high global standard degree! And these schools have been at it for literally centuries, so they have extensive libraries, archives, museums, and access to some really amazing local sites, no matter what discipline you're entering.

3.) TRAVELING
Finally, I think everyone should travel. There is so, so much value to those experiences beyond whatever the price tag for a piece of paper is. If you're leaving home, but not yet entering the work force, I think this is a great time to do it. Obviously there will be a lot of adjusting from undergrad to grad school, so keep in mind if you can handle that and being in a different country (although the UK does- generally- speak English). There is so much out there for people to see, and different countries have different approaches to research, education, medicine, and politics, which can be really valuable, eye-opening lessons before you enter the workforce in your given field. And traveling is a life changing experience to begin with. Once you begin your real world job after getting a degree, you generally won't have the kind of travel opportunities and flexibility you have during school. Studying abroad is like YOLO with an investment and actual worth to your future.


Obviously this is all my somewhat biased opinion, and I am speaking from a humanities perspective. Many science programs in the US will provide funding and living stipends, so the expense of graduate study is not as hard to bear. However, these are just factors to keep in mind, and they explain part of why I personally chose to study in Scotland. This is also my view from America, we'll see how I feel after a few months of Scottish education :)

Clare writes a blog post for me :)

I just found this in my blog post drafts and thought I'd share it with the world, because Clare is one of my fave humans ever.



Hi! I am making socks right now. I just came back from Buckingham Palace after a fabulous afternoon of tea and scones with Queen Elizabeth II. Spiffing. ;)

So, Rebecca said I could write a blog post. This is it. I'm not travelling so it's not very interesting...
Awesome things about being from England:
1. Getting mail at university. Just wow.
2. The variety of cereals available.
3. Not being obsessed with the Queen. (Although she is quite cool.)
4. Harry Potter is English.
5. Crumpets. Google them. They're incredible.
6. Being close to Irish accents.
7. Not being in Oxford. There are other unis.
8. Being James Bond. Yep, that's me.
9. Boys in suits. ;)
10. There is more than just a cockney accent.

And here are some things about America:
1. It's very big.
2. Holes randomly appear there. Apparently.
3. There is lots of food.
4. Hollywood is there.
5. OBAMA. OBAMA. OBAMA.

Thanks Clare!

Update!

I know I said I was back, but then I failed terribly at actually posting anything. I PROMISE (for real this time) I'm actually going to keep up with this blog for the foreseeable future because
I'M GOING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW!!!!!!!!
So that's very, very, very exciting.

A lot has happened since January: I went to England to do research on my Senior Independent Study, a 125 page labor of love about Peter Pan, finished it in March, turned it in, celebrated, and completed my oral defense this afternoon, and celebrated some more. I got into Glasgow, and accepted my conditional offer (conditional meaning I have to graduate from college and send them a copy of my diploma). I've found housing in Glasgow, quite by accident, really, but I'll get into that later. I was a finalist (one of four) for the St. Andrew's Society of the State of New York Scholarship to finance graduate study in Scotland, which I unfortunately didn't receive, but it was still an amazing experience.  I went to New York City for the first time for the scholarship interview, and now I have three weeks left of my senior year. Insane!

I'm so immensely excited to be attending the University of Glasgow to study Technical Art History, and I promise I'll post more soon about my research trip in January, visiting the Glasgow campus, the admissions process, funding, and finding housing. I'm here to help y'all out so if you have questions, feel free to ask!

Time for Take Off

I'm literally writing this at the exact same gate, waiting for the exact same flight, 360 days after I flew to England to study abroad in York. It's a strange feeling, and I've got some serious excitement/nervousness jitters, but in a few hours I will be back in my favourite country with some of my favourite people :)

And I've officially submitted my application to Glasgow, so now it's time for the waiting game to see if I'll be back for another year or not.

Tomorrow morning, after going through customs and the whole lot, I'll meet up with Clare and we'll hang out and I'll probably cry over a Caffe Nero chai latte (I'm not kidding) and then we're going to see a pantomime of Peter Pan! Fun and work, mixed together. I've never been to a pantomime, as they aren't very common in America, but I'm excited to finally see one! Peter Pan is traditionally a Christmas play, and it translates well into with the pantomime tradition (which Barrie was trying to break from, but alas, Peter has a life of his own, my dear Barrie).

I'm going to update my blog more while I'm in London, doing exciting things, and taking lots of pictures, so check back soon!

I'm Back!

Wow, I never really finished this blog, sorry everyone! It's been very strange coming back to America, but I think I've settled back into things decently well. There were definitely some bumps along the road, and tears were certainly shed (though not before I actually came back to America, which is a first haha).

It's hard to believe that a year ago I was finishing up exams, turning in Junior I.S. and getting ready to spend nearly six months in England. Seriously, time has gone so fast. But funnily enough, I'm still finishing up exams (I have two tomorrow), and working on Senior I.S., and ... preparing to go to England!! Not for six months, sadly, but for two weeks.

I received Copeland Funding from Wooster so I can go complete research in London for my Senior I.S.! I'm writing about J.M. Barrie and the evolution of Peter Pan, so I'm going to the Great Ormond Street Hospital to look at their archives, the British Library, the National Art Library, a handful of museums, and Kensington Gardens (again). And the fun bits, I get to see a pantomime performance of Peter Pan (which is traditionally a Christmas play), and the COOLEST LOOKING THING IN THE WORLD. Seriously, it's made by the Cirque de Soleil producers and I can't even deal with my excitement. Here's the trailer if you don't want to go searching for it:

The best part of all, of course, is that I'm going back to my favorite place and I'm going to see some of my favorite people (not all of them, sadly). Clare and I will be reunited and Saher as well! We're still working out the details, but I am SO EXCITED.

And can we talk about how I'm going to have Caffe Nero chai lattes and Primark shopping trips again, it's going to be so wonderful.

I'm also considering going back to the UK for my master's degree next year. I'm applying to the University of Glasgow for Technical Art History, and I sent in an application today for a scholarship from the St. Andrew's Society of New York that would pay for it, so fingers crossed!

I'm blog more once I get to London- it's going to be so lovely to be there during the holiday season. I'm leaving on December 27th, and then popping up to Glasgow for a visit on January 8th before flying back to America and starting my final semester at Wooster (weird, where did the last three and a half years go?) I hope everyone is surviving finals and I'll post more soon :)

The Final Countdown

I have less than a week left in England and I am anything but happy about it. Especially the fact that half of this week is devoted to exams and projects. But I'm powering through and not thinking about the emotional bits too much and hopefully after Thursday I will have the best time ever in my remaining days!

I'm currently taking a break from my second open exam. Pretty much I have to write an essay in 24 hours, though normally you do two essays in 48 hours for two modules. But since I'm in a combination of first and second year modules I escaped that fate, but it still is utterly bizarre. Why don't they just assign a proper essay? But I think my first one went ok, even with my Arabic exam right in the middle of my 24 hours. I have over 50% of this one written, so I think it's ok to take a break!

I'm also working on my archaeology group project, which is shaping up nicely, but there is still lots to do before we turn it in! I have to finish my illustrations, as well as write a bit more and do some editing, but I think it will turn out well. We're hoping to turn it in a day early (as in tomorrow), so hopefully that happens and I'll have another day free to spend with friends!

Last Monday I went to Alnwick Castle with a group of friends, which was a splendid time! I'll upload photos and write a new post about it later, when I'm not in the midst of projects and exams. I took a flying lesson from Hogwarts Professors, it was pretty cool.

Sunday was Faith's birthday and we had a lovely dinner and night out with some of our housemates and her friends. It was really nice but I wouldn't call Pizza Express a "classy restaurant" haha. Sometimes I forget I live with 18-19 year olds until someone's birthday rolls around and they're so excited to be 19! And then I feel like a dinosaur haha.

I have to start packing, which I'm also dreading. I have no idea how I'm going to fit all my stuff into one suitcase and my carry-ons. It's not going to happen, and I'm going to have to leave stuff behind and the rest of this week is not going to be particularly fun in that regard.

I genuinely do not want to leave at all, but I am REALLY excited to go to Interlochen, which is one of my favourite places in the world and full of some amazing people, so I'm feeling conflicted about leaving. Mostly, though, it's a lot of unhappy feelings. I've felt like I've had a growing weight on my chest for the past week or so, and it's only getting worse. I know I'll definitely keep in contact with my friends with skype, facebook, and SNAPCHAT (CLARE!!!!!), but it still is going to be weird to go back to America. Thinking about living in America seems way more foreign to me than England ever did before I left, which is really strange. But I just can't fathom going back to it, and it feels like a foreign country instead of home. So I'm in for some lovely reverse culture shock when I get back, I am sure.

But now it's time for me to finish up this essay so I can actually spend time with my friends instead of working all evening!

Projects and a special visit

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.

Get Your Geek On: Harry Potter Studio Tour and Magical Mystery Tour

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.

Summer Term Week 3

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!

The Tempest and London x 2

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.