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space with a purpose other than checking off another site off your check-list, for the purpose that the Cathedral was originally made for.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. 

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. 

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...

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!