Denmark is a prison

Shakespeare shenanigans abound!
The theater class directed Shakespeare scenes, and everyone had to participate. These ten-minute scenes, each from a different Shakespeare play, were set up all around the conference center and performed Thursday night. We had to improvise costumes (mostly borrow each other's clothes) and sets. I must say that I was very impressed by what everyone came up with. As for me, I played Baptista from The Taming of the Shrew, and we did a weird alternate universe rendition in a retirement home.

We look like the cast from Scrubs. 

Somehow it worked! And it was pretty funny. Others performed in The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, As You Like It, Hamlet, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Everyone did a spectacular job staging and costuming despite our limited resources.

Nerdy Macbeth (and his sock puppet companion) discourses with the high school witches. 

Amid our research and papers, we desperately needed something fun to do. Watching everyone perform Shakespeare definitely brightened our week! Tomorrow the Dickensians will go see the new Great Expectations movie. It works for my research as well, so allons-y! 

Keep Calm and Do Your Research

The lack of updates is intentional. After our free weekend we came straight back to Norwich (well, 40 minutes outside of Norwich by bus) to work on research and to wrap up the semester. Aside from a day trip to Cambridge on Thursday, nothing exciting has happened. We spend most of our time doing homework, and if we're not doing homework then we are goofing around. Challenging Chris to a game of ping-pong, Sean to a game of tennis in the freezing English weather, watching movies in our classroom... that just about sums up my life here.
On Thursday (Thanksgiving) we have the day off to cook for the entire conference center. The whole group will be cooking. I'm on roast vegetables duty. Shenanigans are planned for Thursday night, but I'm not sure what sorcery Chris and Cheri have devised for our amusement.
Staying inside all day makes us antsy, and because the sun now sets at 4pm we have less daylight hours to goof around outside. So unless you want updates on my research on Dickensian doubling concerning minor characters, with a touch of feminist critique concerning Estella and Biddy in Great Expectations, then you will have to wait until I return to London in December for meatier updates.

Cardiff!

For my second free weekend I went back to Wales, although this time to Cardiff. While Conwy was fun, there is a lot more to do in Cardiff because it's a bigger city. The four of us who traveled to Wales decided to have an easy, relaxed weekend because we'll be thrown into more papers and reading and research by Tuesday.

After an easy train ride into Cardiff we walked around town for a bit, had dinner and went back to work on homework. On Saturday Stephanie and I figured out how to walk from our B and B to Cardiff Bay, where there is more shopping and (more importantly) the Doctor Who Exhibition.

I don't think we found it. Nope. 

Trying to explain Doctor Who to an outsider is difficult, but I'll give it a shot: the show, which has been running for ages, is about a time-traveling alien (a Time Lord) called The Doctor, who picks up Companions and has inter-galactic adventures in his spaceship called the TARDIS (the blue police box). The exhibition took us through a walk-through show highly reminiscent of Universal Studios set tours, where you stop in a room and follow a storyline.

 In the first room we were told the story: the Doctor (Eleven, Matt Smith) has been captured by his enemies. After walking through a literal "crack in time" (a crack in the wall opened) we learn that the TARDIS has called us (the "Shoppers") to help the Doctor, thus becoming his temporary Companions. The Doctor instructed us to hop abroad the TARDIS and to steer the ship. In that room we walked onto the set of Eleven's TARDIS' control room, which shook violently as the ship crashed and careened through space.Then we became prisoners on a Dalek ship (the Daleks being an enemy alien race), and after escaping we came upon a dark room filled with strobe lights and weeping angels. Of course we end up saving the Doctor, and afterwards went to the exhibition. There we got to see props and costumes and other fun things from the set. 

'

Like this fine weeping angel. Don't blink. 

Then we walked around Cardiff Bay and admired the view. On Sunday Lauren and I took a bike tour of Cardiff, which was fun. Overall a fun weekend, though I still have lots of homework to do! Tomorrow we meet the group again after a six hour train journey. Fun times.

The Primordial Soup

Celebrating All Hallow's Eve in Northern Ireland was quite an experience. In the midst of Dickens research, Pre-Raphelite poetry, and a sea of Bleak House reading, we took aside time to run a muddy obstacle course as a group.
It is supposed to be a race, but because the actual event was a few weeks ago we had the luxury of doing the course as a team-building exercise. In the early afternoon we trickled out into the common area in exercise clothes, the air so cold that our breath misted. Some came out bedecked in colorful warpaint and trash bags. Didi, one of our hosts, took us through the course.
We jogged through the muddy cow and horse fields, waded through the freezing creeks, and tackled the various obstacles placed in front of us. They were a bit precarious, though we were so full of adrenaline that that didn't deter us.
There is something about mud that breaks down all inhibitions. Once we approached the first mud pit the group broke out into open war. In light of the metaphorical political mud-slinging season, we experienced literal mud-slinging. Projectiles flew through the air in graceful arcs towards the people struggling to climb over the obstacles. People tackled each other and slipped into the mud. At one point Blake attempted to bring Chris down. At no other point in my life can I say I've seen someone with a Ph.D, covered in mud, come dangerously close to throwing a student over his shoulder like a sack of flour. As we waited for people to wade through the muddy pools we hugged one another, slapped each other on the shoulders, or patted each other with mud-filled hands, all in the effort to douse each other in horse crap.

Nothing quite says, "I HAVE A PH.D or I AM A MATURE YOUNG ADULT" than Irish mud. 

It was so cold that my arms were bright red and my hands felt numb, so cold that we didn't notice the cuts and bruises and nettles. I almost lost a shoe in one of the mud pits, and I did half of the run with rocks in my shoes. One of the more difficult obstacles was the hanging net, rather like a ship's rigging. We had to climb over the net, which was at least 12 feet high, over a wooden beam, and back down to the other side. Although I was hesitant about attempting to climb in front of the entire group, I practically pole-vaulted over the obstacle. I felt like a freaking Olympian.
The last obstacle, after over a mile or so of muddy fields, was an army crawl through some pretty disgusting mud. As we all went through we made Dickens jokes. We called the army crawl “the primordial soup,” in honor of our current reading of Bleak House. The other obstacles were dubbed “the forest of difficulty.” Overall, we had tons of fun even though it was freezing, and that night we had had a huge bonfire underneath a full moon, which rose steadily over the Mourne Mountains.

Chris and Gabby attempt to roast potatoes at the bonfire. 

Today we went to the Cliffs of Moher, though many of us opted out because of the weather and from yesterday's trip to Inish More. After a two hour bus ride we finally made it to the Cliffs, which are indeed insane. Like the Cliffs of Dover we had bad luck with the weather, but it made the trip more memorable. The first half hour was okay, though the gray clouds were rolling in at an alarming pace.

The pictures don't look quite as majestic, but these cliffs are HUGE. I learned today that they were not only used in The Princess Bride, but also in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Hundreds of white birds flew in graceful loops all around the cliffs.





We walked around for an hour or so and explored the cliffs. People were crazy and were walking along the edge, but not anyone from our group. Soon the rain started pouring on us in hard splatters. Because the wind was gusting over 40mph we couldn't take out our umbrellas, so we had to brave the wind and rain. It was so windy that the rain blew sideways and looked like mist.

By the time we got back to the coach we were all pretty wet. Even though the weather wasn't the greatest it was still fun to go. Besides, we all made Princess Bride jokes and made a plan to watch the movie again sometime soon. Tomorrow we head back to Northern Ireland. We have loads of homework to do before getting ready for our mud run on Wednesday!

It's the Monastic Semester!

Apologies for the lack of updates. We've been pretty busy the past two weeks, what with a Dickens research paper to write and places to see! I'm writing about Dickensian character doubling, specifically focusing on Estella and Biddy from Great Expectations. Currently, I'm writing from our hotel in Galway, Ireland, where we are spending the weekend.
Deciding what to write about for this blog past was hard, since we've done so many things. I could be serious and write about the serious topic of the British Troubles, or even of our experience with the Benedictine Monks hanging out down the road in Rostrevor (Northern Ireland, which is a completely different country). Going to all five services with the monks was quite an experience and is worth blogging about. Oh, and the monks happen to love our college, so they've been really nice to us. I could also write about daily life with this crazy group of people, but again it's another blog post for another time.
For the past 9 weeks Chris, one of the professors, has been making jokes about how this is the "prison semester." Last week in Dublin we visited Kilmingham Jail and earlier this semester we visited another jail for a presentation on Oscar Wilde. However, we've been arguing that this should be called "the monastic semester" because of the number of monasteries we've visited.
The Republic of Ireland is a beautiful country, and I wish we were spending more time here. As part of our brief stay in the Republic, and as part of the Christian college curriculum  we've been touring ancient ruins of monasteries. Irish Christianity is known for its Celtic influences, especially in the form of High Celtic Crosses. At first I thought, "well, they are just crosses, whatever." I didn't realize how HUGE these things are:

Granted, I'm a pretty small person anyway, but I hope this gives you an idea of how big these things are.

The Galway seaside at 9:30am. 

Today we took a day trip out to Inish Mor, one of the Aran islands off the coast of Ireland. We got up early to catch a shuttle to the harbor, where we then caught a ferry to the island. Because we're so far north the sun has been rising at 7:30am, which confuses me when we have to leave early.
The highlight of the day was undoubtedly hanging our heads over a 300 foot cliff, although I didn't. The sheer cliff face made me nervous, Danielle was brave enough to face death.

Danielle doesn't mind. Nope. 

The scariest moment, though, was when a small dog walked right up to the edge. We thought he was going to jump, but he was just a brave little dog.
Tomorrow we are visiting the Cliffs of Moher, which are better known as The Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride. Instead of a 300 foot drop it's a 700 foot one. So it's a pretty full weekend, and these outings are optional, but why not visit the Cliffs of Insanity?


I do have a presentation for Dickens to prepare for later this week, so I will work on my presentation notes before getting ready to face the Cliffs of Insanity. On Wednesday we will be participating in a charity mud run, which shall be cold but (I'm hoping) fun! Just know that we are having a blast in Ireland and are all singing drinking songs that our host in Northern Ireland taught us. So I'll end this blog post with a traditional Irish drinking song:

Greetings from Rostrevor!

Gosh, I didn't expect to find Internet here, but now it's stable enough for us to do research and make sure we have next semester's schedules all figured out. We've been here for about a week and have had some amazing experiences already. We spent the day in Dublin yesterday and I have many thoughts about that literary city, but Rostrevor is an interesting village in itself.
Later, when I am not so weighed down with Dickens research, I will write about "The Troubles" in Rostrevor, our hosts' stories about the conflicts in this little village, and of how my trip to Kilmingham Jail in Dublin broadened my understanding of the British-Irish conflicts.

The Cliffs of Dover and other Shenanigans

Because the Internet is so spotty in Ditchingham, I don't normally make blog posts there. Nothing much is happening besides research in Norwich, massive amounts of Dickens reading and walking through the cornfields. On the way back from Canterbury we took a detour to the White Cliffs of Dover.

It was a rainy day, and we ended up getting soaked hiking to the Cliffs of Dover. But the Cliffs have plenty of literary significance, so we did stay long enough to recite some poetry. We also made King Lear jokes because we're terrible people. 

On Monday we're flying out to Ireland. We won't have Internet for three weeks, but oh well. Lots of things are planned for us when we get there. More on that later. 

A Weekend of Pilgrimage

Canterbury is probably my favorite city so far, even though it is fairly touristy there is something about this historic city that compels me to want to come back.
As I've said before, Canterbury is historically a place of pilgrimage, and as pilgrims we walked into the Cathedral. While we didn't walk the Pilgrim's Way barefoot, we did a number of other things pilgrims (even today) still do. If you announce yourself a pilgrim to the Cathedral staff, they will allow you to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Beckett (where his body used to reside), which is fenced off from the general public. The staff acknowledged us as literary pilgrims. The Archdeacon herself gave us a candlelit tour of the Cathedral after Evensong. As she read excerpts from T.S Eliot's essays we walked through the Roman crypts, visited the murder site of St. Beckett, and visited the two places where the saint's body historically lay.

This hipster picture of St. Thomas Beckett's shrine during the Candlelight Tour was taken by Danielle. 

Visiting the Cathedral as a pilgrim rather than a tourist is a completely different experience. In one sense you are aware that this is a journey thousands of others have made before you since the 12th century. You come to the space with a purpose other than checking off another site off your check-list, for the purpose that the Cathedral was originally made for. The sick came to be healed. Others came to seek purpose in life. So as we circled around the candle shrine for St. Thomas Beckett holding candles, I began to wonder why pilgrims come to visit the shrine.
The first thing we did, however, was attend Evensong, and the Archbishop of Canterbury just happened to be there that night. Evensong in the quire was fantastic. The next morning we took a normal tour of the Cathedral, where I took pictures of cats.

Taken outside in the cloister, where the monks hung out. 

The Paladins of Chivalry, a medieval historical re-enactment group, also happened to be on their annual pilgrimage to the Cathedral as well. So we saw people dressed in armor walking around and Cathedral staff looking bewildered.  Later we visited the Pilgrim's Hospice, where poor pilgrims to Canterbury could stay at little or no cost.

For over 800 years pilgrims of all kinds stayed at the hospice. Now it is a museum, though it is still run by the clergy. As English students we of course recited the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales, and afterwards went through The Canterbury Experience, which was like its namesake: QUITE THE EXPERIENCE. 

Chaucer will haunt you in your sleep. 

Basically it was a museum with creepy figures like this. The audio tour took you through 10 stories (thankfully in modern English). It was fun, mostly because I had forgotten how great some of the stories are. The Wife of Bath's tale is probably my favorite, although I had also forgotten how scandalous the Miller's Tale is. 

Next weekend we go to Oxford, where we plan to: 

• visit Tolkien's grave 
• visit the C.S Lewis Pub
• go punting 
• buy Oxford College sweaters

To Canterbury with ful devout corage!

Canterbury is the grand-daddy of English literary and Christian pilgrimage sites. Stratford-Upon-Avon is  a pilgrimage site for Shakespeare lovers, but Canterbury takes the cake. Watch the video below for a good dose of English literature to introduce yourself to Canterbury's literary heritage.

For those unfamiliar with Middle English, these awesome folks are rapping the first 25 lines of the general prologue of The Canterbury Tales. In rainy April twenty-nine people begin their pilgrimage to Canterbury to see the blessed martyr Thomas Beckett at the Tabbard Inn in Southwerk, London. There they devise a storytelling contest, and the winner will receive a free dinner upon their return. 

 Most English majors are able to recite the first 25 lines of The Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English. Canterbury became part of the pilgrimage road because it is on the way from England to Rome, but it became a pilgrimage site on its own after the death of St. Thomas Beckett. 

Aside from The Canterbury Tales, which is one of the most influential pieces of literature in the English language, Canterbury has also influenced other pieces of work. David Copperfield continually travels to Canterbury in the Dickens novel of the same name. Even Dan Simmon's sci-fi novel Hyperion uses the same frame narrative as The Canterbury tales. 

Pilgrims typically walk the last two miles to the Cathedral barefoot, which some of us (me included) plan to do this weekend. It's expected to rain this weekend in Canterbury, but I expect there will be some who will brave the rain and make the trek to the Cathedral. 

Some Have Greatness Thrust Upon Them!

After staying in Birmingham for a few days to catch up on homework, we moved to Stratford-Upon-Avon for the weekend for Shakespeare shenanigans. Shakespeare's birthplace has been a pilgrimage site for literary snobs for the past few hundred years, and if you don't like Shakespeare then don't go to Stratford.
It's a small town upon a river (hence the "upon Avon") with swans ready to maul you at a moment's notice. Everything seems centered around the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre, and is within a ten minute walking distance from wherever you are. This weekend we had tickets for Shakespeare's "shipwreck trilogy", or the plays whose plays are propelled by shipwrecked characters. The same cast participates in all three plays, which is impressive. The stage remains the same: boards to look like a ship floor, a huge tank of green water to represent the ocean, and a giant crane to move the set around. Things are, of course, added to the set according to the play. Everything is a modern interpretation, which means modern costumes and sets and the addition of lines (call the airport!) mixed in with the original script. A Comedy of Errors featured a militaristic seaside town, complete with soldiers with machine guns and a giant megaphone warning all foreign merchants to stay away or be killed. Twelfth Night took place in a dilapidated hotel recovering from a storm, and featured the shipwrecked twins crawling out of the water tank (made to look like a pool, complete with a diving board) and onto the stage. The Tempest, the only non-comedy performed, drained the water tank and made the stage look like a deserted island, where all of the characters are stranded.
While there were things I liked about all three, I think I enjoyed A Comedy of Errors most. It's considered one of the more difficult Shakespeare plays to perform, since it relies heavily on slapstick humor and the exposition is dull. Explaining that there are two sets of twins separated at birth with the same names can be confusing. Twelfth Night was not as funny, but had a more sophisticated plot and a fantastic set. The Tempest made excellent use of special effects, since it featured a magician as the lead, but at times hard to engage with the plotline.
After Twelfth Night we all went out for drinks at The Dirty Duckling, a pub where Shakespearean actors traditionally hang out after a show. And, indeed, the company was milling about in civilian wear among us.

Have Fun Storming the Castle!

After Friday's afternoon downpour we were blessed with a beautiful sunny Saturday in Conwy. After walking around town and to the bird sanctuary we decided to walk along the outer city walls, which took about forty minutes.

The biggest attraction, of course, was Conwy Castle. This is a pretty big castle from the 13th century, built by Edward I to conquer the Welsh. Brittany and I had fun tromping around the castle.

Tomorrow we shall return to Birmingham, where we will meet up again with the big group. This was a nice little weekend, though we didn't get much homework done. Hopefully it'll get done on the train back tomorrow! 

Wales and Dragons

Today is the first day of our free weekend, where we split off from the main group of seven-and-twenty in company (will touch upon this reference later in Canterbury). We traveled out of Birmingham  and will be in Wales until Monday.
As we were traveling on the train I could tell when we were entering Welsh country. Signs in Welsh began to appear until we couldn't recognize some of the names. We're spending the weekend in a little Welsh town, where we will hike and spend time looking at castles. The town is entirely walled in, and is extremely small (we tried to get lost and failed). We plan on making day trips to other neighboring towns in Snowdonia.

We tried to walk along the city walls, but then it started to pour. So we'll do that later.

As we walked around town we also realized that this is yet another literary place: that of William Wordsworth's poem "We Are Seven". Tomorrow we are going back to St. Mary's graveyard to possibly read the poem out loud.
Hopefully we'll get some homework done this weekend. We have to read a good chunk of David Copperfield for next week (and a paper to write).

Chilling With the Quakers

When I say that I am chilling with the Quakers, I pretty much mean exactly that. I admit that I had no experience with Quakers prior to this trip except through what I learned in my history classes. As an American I know that Quakers were not universally accepted in many Christian societies and that Pennsylvania was founded upon this Christian denomination.
After hectic London we traveled to Birmingham, and are staying in a study center run by Quakers. On Wednesday we will learn more about the Quakers, but here is what I've picked up from the few hours I've been here:

• Quakers call everyone "Friend". It's an old, old practice but still feels weird. 
• Simplicity is key. They don't believe in clutter, they don't like photographs of people (paintings they are okay with), and they try to keep things efficient. 
• There is no clergy. They don't like that. Service (which I haven't gone to yet) is completely silent and everyone acts as the clergy (when moved by the Holy Spirit). 
• It's very, very quiet here. It's nice, especially after London. 

So far I'm enjoying my stay here. London, while fun, just beat the crap out of us. I'm looking forward to catching up on David Copperfield (my favorite Dickens novel so far!) and writing more papers before my free weekend to Wales. 

10 Things You Learn From Living in London

1. Get a coin purse, or have something to hold coins in. I've never handled so many coins in my LIFE. 
2. Get an Oyster card for the buses and Tube. It's easy to load and it will make your life easier.
3. Learn how the self-checkouts work at Sainsburys and Tescos. 
4. You have an hour? Catch up on reading or write a paper. 
5. Learn to look right before crossing the street. 
6. You know how teachers used to make you diagram sentences in English? That's what the Tube map looks like. Learn how to read it. 
7. Always be prepared for rain. 
8. When the locals cross the road, you cross the road. 
9. Prets will save your life if you need a quick lunch or dinner before class. 
10. There is tourist crap EVERYWHERE. 

Determined To Prove a Villain

Today we traveled back to the Globe for a performance of King Richard III. The difference between this performance and the last one is that we were "Groundlings". What does this mean? It means we stand for three hours in front of the stage, so close that the actors can touch us, which they did several times throughout the performance. At As You Like It, the actor playing the fool kissed a Groundling girl, but no one was kissed today. Instead, we were encouraged to cheer for the king and were made fun of by the actors (I was apparently one of the "blessed wives" of the older gentleman standing next to me).

Posters for both "As You Like It" and "Richard III" outside the Globe. Needless to say, we enjoy Shakespeare's comedies more than his historical plays. 

Barty Crouch from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire played the Duke of Buckingham. The whole performance was enjoyable, though it was an all-male cast (very strange when it comes to Richard wooing).
Tomorrow we are watching "The Mystery of Charles Dickens" for the Dickens class.

Some British Slang

While people in the United Kingdom speak the same language as Americans (after all, we rebelled against their empire that stank mightily of mercantilism, something their own Scottish philosopher warned against), there is some slang that puzzles us. Eventually, we figured it out, but the slang reminds us that this is a different country with a different culture.
Chips: french fries
Crisps: potato chips
knickers: underwear
fag ends: cigarette butts
with bits: with pulp (in orange juice)
give way: yield
lemonade: sprite
I'm sure there are more I've picked up, but it does depend on the place.

Plays and Sherlock! Hooray!

This week we happen to be watching a play almost every night. Last night we watched Jumpy, which was enjoyable, although I'm glad I spent two weeks living in the UK before watching it. I wouldn't have gotten most of the jokes if I hadn't spent time doing grocery shopping or on public transportation.
This weekend Caitlin and I hope to do the whole Sherlock tour in London, mostly by visiting the film sets used in the television show. Harry Potter tours will be done as well, although that requires a bit more planning and a bit more money.
Even though the Paralympics wrapped up on Sunday night with fireworks on the Thames, there are still Olympians scattered all over London. Positively infectious British patriotism has swept London and beyond because of the Olympics. You see them in their uniforms. Nearly all the officiants at the church services we attended have mentioned both events in their sermons. Last night a particularly patriotic dude dressed in silly patriotic clothing high-fived our entire group. People on the Tube are wrapped in Union Jacks. It's kind of fun.
Tonight we are watching an adaptation of "Servant of Two Masters", which I'm familiar with. We'll see how that goes.

As You Like It

Although I had a free day yesterday, most of us spent our time sleeping (the majority of us slept in until past noon) because we came back at 4am from As You Like It at the Globe.
It was much easier to follow than King Lear, and the group was highly entertaining. I had a good time, but I was really, really tired and needed to catch up on sleep. After sleeping in I did some homework and went to see Anna Karenina, which came out earlier in the UK. Very much an experimental movie that captured (from what I've read) the mood of the book. Today is also another homework day, since we usually don't have time to rest or do homework. Brittany and I also toured the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was fun.
Nothing much to say. All of us are very tired.

London, Day 2

Day 2 has, so far, been better than day 1. It's surprisingly hot in London. We thought it would be cooler, like it was in Scotland, but we don't mind the sunshine. It just means that we need to do more laundry.
Today we had class all morning (the classrooms are at a college in South Kensington, which is a twenty-five minute walk from the dorms connected to the college). After walking around and going to theater venues I realized just how big London is. If it takes 25 minutes to walk to class, then it must take FOREVER to get to the touristy things on the other side of town. I liked being able to walk around Edinburgh without getting on a bus. I haven't quite figured out the Tube yet (we went on last night), but I did figure out which line to take when we fly out of Heathrow in December.
After class Brittany, Caitlin and I strolled through the Museum of Natural History, which was on our way back from class. It's free, which is AWESOME, and had some very cool exhibits. Here's one:

And this is the entrance! That's pretty cool! I really want to wander through the Air and Space Museum if I can. Tomorrow we have a free day, and we might arrange a Sherlock Holmes scavenger hunt (both places where Sherlock was filmed and places where the original stories took place). 

Tonight we will go to a midnight performance of As You Like It at the Globe. I hope we can stay up...

London!

Hi all,
London is a HUGE city, and it's kind of overwhelming. We're staying in a college dorm for about 12 days, then onto Birmingham, and then Brittany and I shall schedule a trip to the Welsh countryside.
Most of what we're doing is Shakespeare. Last night we saw this excellent "ghetto/trailer trash" version of a Midsummer Night's Dream, which in fact was HILARIOUS. Especially when the happy couples had a dance party to "I'm Sexy and I Know It" at the end of the production.
Tonight we're going to a three-hour production of King Lear. Tomorrow night we shall go to a midnight showing of "As You Like It" in another outdoor theater.

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON READING

I'm sad that we only spent a day in York, but our stay stay will be for two weeks, so we will have time to explore London. Today we had class (our class hours are very strange) and then spent most of our afternoon wandering around York Minster Cathedral. Since it's a traditional Christian pilgrimage site, we did the whole shebang and attended the evening prayers (again a traditional Anglican service). The remains of a canonized archbishop resides there, so that's why it's a pilgrimage site.
Most of us are reading and writing papers tonight (our due dates are strange. Lax, but strange...) before we head out to London tomorrow. It's a long drive, but we will be rewarded with a night performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream in an outside amphitheater in London. This particular production has been described as "Shakespeare meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding." How interesting.

10 Things You Learn While Traveling Abroad in the UK (Edition 1)

It's the beginning of the second week and everyone is settling into class schedules. Here are some observations:

1. Things get informal quickly, even with the profs. Hey, you're traveling together for 15 weeks. Go ahead and shove the philosophy prof while we're playing a vicious game of "Never Have I Ever." 
2. Accept the fact that you will wash your clothes in the sink many, many times. (Auxiliary law to number 2: communal washing at the laundromat is the way to go.)
3. Accept the fact that by the end of the month no one will care how cute or gross you look. 
4. You can never skip class because your professors are rooming next door. 
5. Chips are fries. Crisps are chips. 
6. People will always ask you where you are from. 
7. Some small English towns don't accept Scottish currency (EVEN THOUGH IT IS THE EXACT SAME, JUST WITH DIFFERENT ARTWORK)
8. It's "queue", not "line". 
9. It's not "sunny-side-up," it's "flat egg". 
10. The tea stereotype is true. It's teatime all day every day. 

Note: Yesterday I wrote "Paraplegic" when I meant "Paralympics". Auto-correct changes everything. 

An Anglican Church Service

Today was mostly a free day, except that we had to attend church together. Normally, if I were back at school, I would have to attend chapel three times a week. Because we're traveling all the time, we obviously don't have time for chapel and instead have group worship on Sundays. This morning we attended a traditional Anglican service. Which, I must say, was an experience.

I have never attended a traditional Anglican service before. Most of what I know about the Anglican church comes from my history courses: that this sect began under the reign of Henry VIII so he could get a divorce, though there are other reasons behind it.

The Rydal parish church is a stone structure down the road from Rydal hall, where we were staying. Bells announced the morning service. It was still a little damp outside from the rain yesterday, but it would end up being a beautiful sunny day anyway. Narrow stained glass windows lined the small room. Many of the people there were also staying at Rydal Hall.

The two priests, or ministers, were dressed in white robes. Upon a closer inspection I noticed that they both wore black cassocks underneath, which surprised me. The Anglican church's close connection with the Catholic church was something I noted throughout the entire service. An older woman assisted the main pastor, which made me wonder about the Anglican's church's views on women in ministry. Conservative? Liberal? Or is this particular parish special?

The entire service reminded me of growing up in the United Methodist Church in Detroit, where I lived as a child. Priests dressed in traditional garb, the numbering of the hymns on the wall, in those aspects an Anglican service is similar to a Methodist one (elements of Catholicism were extremely prominent in today's service, though). However, the differences are stark to a sharp observer.

Most of my biblical and theological studies are associated with Protestant teachings, which meant that the service's continual emphasis on the Virgin Mary perplexed me. I have never before taken part of a service that focused on her. The hour and a half service was structured around the Nine Joys of Mary, which are centered around the life of her son Jesus Christ. Meditative chants interposed the prayers and sermon, some of which were in Latin. In a way the meditative chants are refreshing: they allow the participant to meditate and reflect upon important messages within the Christian faith. As a Protestant, I don't necessarily agree with the emphasis on Mary (though she is, of course, important), and it is one of these key differences that alienates our group from the congregation. To be honest, today was a special day dedicated to Mary, so maybe not all services are like this.

Nearly everyone who took part of the service—save maybe, the singers—stopped and bowed their heads before the altar and genuflected. How different is the Anglican church from the Catholic church, aside from the fact that Anglicans don't follow the Pope?

I found the sermon itself to be short. In a break away from the chanting and traditional prayers, the priest spoke about the Paraplegic Olympics, which are happening now in the United Kingdom.

For the first time in my life I felt very much an outsider taking part in communion. Initially I was unsure if we would be allowed to take communion, since I understand that certain churches won't allow it unless you are a member. But this was a hospitable community, and Chris did tell us tonight that some other conservative churches may be less hospitable to outsiders (such as St. Paul's in London, which I believe we are attending for a service). 

Usually, one goes up near the altar to receive communion, but instead we were instructed to circle the altar as a group. Real wine was used, which didn't faze me, but it did make me wonder why American churches are more conservative in alcohol use during communions and why this difference exists.

The church itself is very old. The congregation's attire clashed with the stone walls and stained glass windows. What makes this particular church historically significant is the fact that Williams Wordsworth used to be the chapel warden. A plaque commemorates his special pew, near the front left.  

I think it was definitely an experience, and while it was uncomfortable most of the time I think it was a good experience. We will be attending a Quaker service as well as a Benedictine service, so we'll see how that goes. 

Poets and Writers in the Lake District

Hello!
While I didn't see any daffodils today or yesterday, we did tour several writers' homes as part of our literary pilgrimage course. Yesterday we took a hike to Dove Cottage, where William Wordsworth spent several years of his life writing The Prelude. After touring the small, cramped dark house (Wordsworth was very much a starving artist) we had a chance to speak with the curator in charge of the manuscripts. Once he realized that we knew quite a bit about The Prelude (courtesy of Cheri's lecture earlier that morning) he took out Wordsworth's personal copy of Paradise Lost. He invited our school to come back to do more intense work with manuscripts, curator training and writing in Dove Cottage in candlelight at night (I guess he really liked our group!).
Pictures of us reading some original manuscripts are on Facebook, for those who are friends with me there.
Today we went out to Hawkshead and made our way to Beatrix Potter's home, where there were also manuscripts for us to look at. I took some pictures of rabbits and the garden there. We also hiked around one of the lakes. Afterwards, we visited John Ruskins' home and wandered around the gardens. The bulk of our stay at the Lake District will end on Monday, a travel day. From here we will go to York, but on our way to York I'm looking forward to visiting the parsonage where the Bronte sisters lived.
Tomorrow we have most of the day to ourselves, which is nice because we all have lots of homework. The theater people need to write reviews, Victorian Studies people have lots of reading, and we Dickensians should get started on David Copperfield. I also have to write a reflective essay about a site where an author lived. I thought about writing about the Elephant House, but I feel as though the parsonage will be especially interesting.
I don't think I've ever been asked where I'm from so many times in one day. Even though this is England, I could very much blend in because modern England is very much a diverse community (the man who helped us get our connection to Edinburgh is Asian, but British, and he told me all about the Filipino sub-community in London!). I will talk more about this in London, where I have a presentation about Andrea Levy and her work on Jamaicans living in a post-colonial London. Usually I'm the one asking people where they're from, but my American accent is very prominent. Most people know our group is American, but they always want to know what state.
I think every single day I've been asked where I'm from, especially when we are eating dinner with other people in the convention center. Accents are different, though I don't know the difference between a Liverpool and Manchester accent. Welsh is pretty distinct.
Unfortunately, I won't be uploading pictures here until London. The Internet here is available in the lobby and isn't very strong. There's a lot I could talk about, such as how we're slowly getting to know each other, or how we occasionally get lost, but this post is getting long as it is. I'll attempt to update again tomorrow during our free time.

Goodbye, Scotland!

Apologies for the two hastily written blogs before this. Since landing in Edinburgh, the EngSem team has been on hyperdrive. Places to go, things to do, all that jazz. Last night was our last night in Edinburgh, and we ended it with an intrepid night hike to the top of Arthur's Seat. We didn't know about that until Wednesday morning. It was on the schedule, but it only said "Speed of Light." It ended up being part of the Edinburgh International Festival, and we were part audience, part participant in the show.

Firstly, we donned our coats (for it rained BUCKETS yesterday) and were handed glowing staffs that blinked whenever they struck the ground. You can imagine the epic Gandalf jokes we made ("YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!"). Secondly, we went out with guides to the top of the summit, which was a two and a half hour hike. Runners dressed in TRON suits (OK, they called them "light suits", but they were basically TRON suits) ran up and down Arthur's Seat in formation in the dark. It was pretty cool, actually, especially once we hiked up to the summit:

Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat at night.

   Once we reached the plateau before the summit we started hearing strange ringing noises. At first we were confused (I thought it was an ambulance down below), but then we realized that our staffs were "singing." It was part of the performance. Then once we reached the summit (a pretty treacherous hike up slippery rocks) we unscrewed the part of the staffs that blinked and connected them to a device on the highest point of the summit, making a modern "cairn."

 Then we got back to the hotel at 1am and had to get up early to go to the Lake District (not in Scotland). Other things happened as well. Brittany and I had lunch at The Elephant House, where J.K Rowling wrote part of Harry Potter (it has an excellent view of the Edinburgh Castle from one of the windowseats, which supposedly inspired Hogwarts). The bathrooms are full of handwritten messages to Rowling and quotations from Potterheads. 

Today we rode to the Lake District, where William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter lived. On the way we stopped by Gretna Green. What is that? Two words: GUNSHOT MARRIAGES. English couples used to hop over the border to Scotland to bypass marriage laws requiring couples to be 21 and have parental consent. Then we stopped by a stone circle and took pictures of the English countryside. 

Now if you excuse me, I have 15 chapters of Wuthering Heights to read by tomorrow morning.

Last Day in Edinburgh

Scotland is much different than I expected.

As some of you know, Scotland is technically its own country even though it's part of the United Kingdom. One thing I never realized is that Scotland has its own currency. The system is the same, but the money looks different (the coins are heavier, the bills have different artwork). Sometimes the accent is so thick that I can't understand, but then I have to wonder how much they have to pay attention to understand me. 

Monday, August 27 was the last day of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so we watched a couple of shows. Chris and Cheri took us to this play called "Hangman", and my reaction: bewilderment. It's one of those experimental "physical theatre" shows with non-linear (and at times nonsensical) vignettes that aren't suppose to mean anything. Again, there was an attempt to interact with the audience (during an auction during one of the scenes, the only time the actors spoke).
Last night we watched a 4-hour Theatre du Solei production. IT WAS ALL IN FRENCH. They projected English "supertitles" for us to read. I must admit that I nodded off once or twice because it was so freaking long. The play was about people on a boat filming a movie, and we got to see how world-events (WWI) changed the way they filmed their movie. I'm not certain if they were critiquing communism or advocating it. Hm.
Today is our last day in Edinburgh, then we're moving to the Lake District. After class today I'm going to find the Elephant House, one of the places where J.K Rowling wrote Harry Potter. Then perhaps take a tour of the Edinburgh castle, depending on how much homework I have after class today. 

Hello From Scotland

After a long flight to Edinburgh (with an adventure at customs, which an agent held Brittany back at the border for... silly reasons??). Eventually, it got to the point where the agent called Chris and we ended up almost missing our connection. The British Asian connection guy was really nice and called the airplane for us, and despite the fact that the flight was held back a bit we made it to Edinburgh on time.
We didn't sleep much, but went right into things once we checked in with Chris and Cheri. We walked around Edinburgh and got handed a million flyers. The street performers are NUTS. A man in a thong juggled machetes. There also seems to be a trend for street performers to heckle people as part of their skits.
We watched a very strange play about the author of Alice in Wonderland last night, where the actors were two feet away from us. They involved us in the adventures of "Outland," and the actress brought to whole group to tears of laughter when she involved Evan (who had a pretty big role!). Today I have to get some mundane things done, but later we'll be watching One Man Star Wars in a giant plastic cow!

Two Weeks!

As summer comes to an end, so England Semester looms over my head. Annoying all-student emails have returned, most of which I must ignore because I will be abroad.
I'll admit it: I'm going to miss being on campus. I'm going to miss the dorm life, the movie nights, the TV marathons. I'm going to miss my friends who are staying. Not to mention missing Chelsea and Molly's 21st birthday shenanigans.
For the next two weeks I'll be packing, messing with international travel stuff, and communicating with my travel abroad team. I'll be blogging about my travel as often as I can, depending on when the Internet will be available. I received an email two days ago from Chris that we're not really gonna have Internet when we're chilling with the monks in Northern Ireland for three weeks. Oh, the humanity!
Given that there are two weeks left after this week for preparing, perhaps I should introduce the players of the game (aside from moi):
 Cheri: Professor of English literature and Gender studies. She is the leader of this expedition. I had her once before for British Literature After 1700. She's a closet Doctor Who fan. Will be my Dickens, Literary Pilgrimage and Victorian Lit prof.
Chris: Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, hubby of Cheri. I discovered quite by accident that he's a fan of HETALIA. OF ALL THINGS. He thinks it's a clever show that accurately portrays modern European relations. He's in charge of Literary Pilgrimage as well as British/Irish Culture and Politics. I actually don't know him as well as Cheri, but he seems pretty chill.
Brittany: is my travel buddy (and was my roommate last year). A strange combo of English/Biology double major.
THERE ARE MANY OTHERS: As I get to know people I'll introduce them along the way. We're a pretty small group of people (albeit with a TON of estrogen), and I'm sure we'll all know each other by the first two weeks.
I need to practice writing on this blogger. I was too lazy to figure out how wordpress works, but this will suffice. Pictures will be up once we start doing stuff in Scotland.

More Dickens: A Muppets Christmas Carol, a Faithful and Humorous Adaptation of the Novel Aforementioned

The Muppet Christmas Carol is a 1992 musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It was directed by Brian Henson and the screenplay written by Jerry Juhl. The songs were written by Paul Williams. The movie is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of Dickens' book. Because this is a Muppets movie (and by default for children), many of the scenes were crafted with humorous intent. Thus, some scenes that have very little humor in the book are much more humorous in the movie. By adding the Muppets, musical numbers, and paying close attention to the text's detail the director managed to create humorous scenes that move the plot forward in a faithful manner. The Marleys' nightly visit to Scrooge is one such scene

Veteran actor Michael Caine takes on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, and he is one of the few main characters played by a human. The scene I will be focusing on is the musical number “Marley and Marley,” which adapts the passage where Jacob Marley's spirit visits Scrooge to warn him of the visiting spirits. Here is a clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RUth7EX-eo

A noticeable difference is the creation of “Robert Marley” (presented as Jacob Marley's brother), though this seems to be so the director could add both heckling puppets (Statler and Waldolf, with Dave Goelz and Jerry Nelson as their puppeteers) instead of one. From the director's standpoint it would be logical to do this, since the puppets are a pair and it would be strange to previous Muppets viewers to see one without the other. While the film is an adaptation of the book, it is also first and foremost a Muppets movie. Any scene without a Muppet may cause the audience, probably children unfamiliar with the book, to lose interest.

In the book, Jacob Marley is a ghostly specter who merely relates the reason for his visit. The Muppets interact lively with Scrooge, mocking Scrooge's words as they warn him of the coming visits. Despite the additional character, the Muppets do not detract from the scene, since they accurately fulfill Jacob Marley's role as a herald for the spirits.

The costumes are taken right from the passage. It is clear that both the director and script-writer knew Dickens' book well. Scrooge is dressed in “his dressing-gown and slippers, and his nightcap” (15). Dickens describes the chain around Jacob Marley as “long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel” (16). The Muppets wear them, although the cash-boxes and padlocks become animate objects and sing along. The bluish-gray lighting emphasizes the ghostly complexions of the puppets and their costumes, while also creating a gloomy-enough atmosphere for this scene.

The musical numbers are short and catchy, and are not too annoying. While “Marley and Marley” sing, Scrooge stays completely in character, at times quoting directly from the passage. The dialogue is changed to accommodate two Marleys. For example: they tell Scrooge that “in life we were your partner.” While the song itself is not very similar to Jacob Marley's dialogue in the book, the Muppets nevertheless convey to Scrooge that their avarice in life shackled them in the afterlife. Caine's performance keeps the scene serious, as he is clearly terrified by the puppet ghosts just as Scrooge is horrified at Marley's appearance. Although Caine does not sing, his vocal absence serves to increase his obvious anxiety over the apparitions.

With running commentary by “Charles Dickens” (played by Gonzo, puppeteer Dave Goelz), this is a charming light-headed adaptation that succeeds in being humorous and approachable for kids, while also keeping the story faithful enough for older viewers to enjoy.

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Oxford University Press: New York. 1976. 

First blog post!
I've been tinkering with blogspot for a while, though most of my time was wasted upon coming up with a witty url. While I may never be as hilarious as my blogging idol Hyperbole and a Half, perhaps I may be able to entertain.
The purpose of this blog is for me to write about my experiences abroad starting August 2012, when I shall travel to the UK for England Semester. During the summer I may post about the EngSem homework. This blog is also about whatever I want, so I may rant about my obsession with comics and science fiction and other fictional things that make me cry irrationally. I do plan on writing a long rant post about how DC Comics is making all the fans cry. Occasionally I may post some of my drawings, which look like this:

While I may not have access to my Wacom tablet during EngSem, perhaps I shall post sketches anyway. So this is my blog, you are all welcome!