A Merry day in London!!!

Yesterday was out excursion to London. Although I have been there several times before I still stopped by all the obligatory tourist stops because it's fun and great for new profile pictures on Facebook!  We saw Parliament, Buckingham Palace (no new baby sightings yet), some WWI memorials, Westminster Abbey, the Tower, the eye, the Millenium Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral and The Globe Theater. Geesh, we had a busy day, with a lot of walking! We stopped at Wagamama for a noodle lunch and I was so hungry but that time that I basically inhaled my lunch before I could take a picture of the lovely noodle dish and sparkling elderflower water :( After we went to the Tower, we stopped at a pub for dinner then walked along the Thames down to the Globe so we could go see Macbeth.  It was a nice walk but really hot in the sun and I was very close to jumping in and going for a swim despite the grossness of the murky, brown-green water! When we got to the Globe there was a buzz among people in our group. Apparently Billy Boyd (who played Pippin in The Lord of the Rings) would be playing Banquo!  That's exciting in itself and I would have been so happy with just seeing Pippin, live, on stage.  But it gets better. 

When I was returning to my seat after going to the restroom I noticed the short man in front of me had a very distinct nose and looked familiar... hobbit like you could say.  It was Dominic Monaghan, who plays Merry in LOTR and he sat a few rows in front of us. Now I've been obsessed with LOTR since I saw the first movie when I was eight. New Zealand is my dream destination, I have to watch at least one of the movies once a moth to get my fix and I re-read The Hobbit like it's my job.  My roommate and I equate ourselves to Merry and Pippin (I'm Pippin, she's Merry) so, to say the least, I was freaking out!!! I got a group picture with him but that still wasn't enough. Throughout the whole play I was talking to myself in my head, "Emily, just go talk to him, he's just a person". "Yes," I responded, "but a person who has been in all your favorite movies and has been in an Oscar winning film and a person who I admire so much for making my childhood awesome"!  I could barely focus during the play.   When the play was over I finally sucked it up and asked for a photo with him and I got it!!!

 It was so wonderful and I got to talk to him a bit about how he and Billy still see each other, which is adorable. At the end of the play when the cast was bowing, Billy gave Dom a cute little wave and a happy/surprised smile that was oh-so Pippin-like… they have such a bro-mance, it’s great!  It was so surreal seeing a person who you've only seen on screen sitting next to you, I still haven’t really gotten over the fact that I got to meet Meriadoc Brandybuck.  In a few weeks I’ll be back in London for the day and I plan on stopping by Speedy’s, where they film some of the BBC show Sherlock. Now, the cast is currently on a summer hiatus but they should be back filming towards the end of the summer. I’m hoping for a little glimpse of filming (fingers crossed) and to meet Martin Freeman and/or Benedict Cumberbatch.  It’s a long shot but my hobbit interaction has made me hopeful!!!

Bend it like... Kwesell?

So my professor's son is 11 and really into soccer (although, because I'm in the UK I should probably say football). And when I say really into I mean obsessed with it.  Like he has 12 soccer jerseys, follows nearly ever team in the world, knows all the players and their stats, practices nonstop and can tell you anything about the game anytime, anywhere, kind of obsessed! I've learned a lot from him so far. He mostly just shows me youtube clips of attractive football players scoring goals and taking their shirts off though, so the only thing I've really learned is that I need to watch more football! But, because he loves soccer so much he decided to organize a tournament for all us study abroaders.  Now I have never been good at soccer. When I was younger I played a bit but I'm told I preferred to play on the sidelines and look at dandelions, and there goes my soccer career. So when the kids placed me on their team for the tournament I was more than a little intimidated. I was not alone, however. We have some athletes on the trip but I think the majority of the group prefers reading to sports! The tournament was actually really fun though! We got a bunch of food and had a picnic with everyone and ate food and played soccer (some better than others). A bunch of people bought Pimm's to make Pimm's and lemonade and would release their "Pimm-dorphins" when they scored a goal... the games got progressively shorter and more entertaining as the evening continued! The sad thing is, I'm a bit sore and exhausted right now even though I played goalie for the majority of the time. Looking forward to showering, chugging a water bottle and going to bed before an early morning and London tomorrow!

My crazy-fun-awesome-exhausting weekend!!!

So this weekend has been a whirlwind of trains, travel, pictures and lots of fun!  Let's start with Thursday night, shall we?  On Thursday we went to Stratford Upon Avon to go see the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Titus Andronicus.  Stratford was a little bit touristy but we did get to walk around and see Shakespeare's grave which was pretty cool.  We had about 5 hours to kill when we were in Stratford between the time we got off the bus and the time the play started so some of us grabbed food (I got fish and chips for the first time on this trip!) and then sat by the river and watched the swans and ducks.  I don't know if you've ever been up close to a swan before but they're kind of terrifying.  They look all beautiful from a distance but when you get up close they just look really fierce and sometimes they hiss at you and ruffle their feathers if you don't give them food, which I can understand, we all get hangry sometimes!  But back to Shakespeare... Titus was in a small theatre anfd we were sitting in the second row back from the stage.  Because I had read the play for class and discussed it I knew what was coming and was a little bit nervous about it.  Titus is one of Shakespeare's bloodiest plays, I mean when it starts the Roman warrior Titus Andronicus has already lost 21 of his 25 sons.  The body count just goes up from there, as does the amount of gore.  I had never seen an RSC production before but I thought it was spectacular!  It was a two and a half hour play but I was so entranced it seemed to be over in 20 minutes.  It was stressful, unnerving and also ridiculously hilarious if you have a good sense of morbid humor, which I'm glad to say I do!  We didn't get back to Cambridge until around midnight and we had to get up at 6am the next morning, ugh!

On Friday we hopped on train number 1 en route to Bath.  Bath was really beautiful.  It was crowded with graduates and tourists but it still felt out of the way.  I got to go to the Jane Austen center, hang out in a park and see the Roman Baths.  The Baths were used as a sort of social place where people could go, hang out, relax and feel a more spiritual connection to the Goddess Minerva for whom the monument was built.  A lot of the architecture is still in tact which is really incredible to think about considering they haven't been fully used in centuries!  I also finally got my ice cream in Bath!!!  I'm an admitted ice cream addict and have been going through ice cream withdrawals in Cambridge.  There's not that many shops to buy ice cream in Cambridge which is surprising considering the amount of tourists here.  Every time we've gone out to get ice cream, the shops have been closed, booooo!  But, in Bath I got a delicious scoop of blackcurrent ice cream and a scoop of honeycomb, here I am with it super happy :)

That night we stayed in a hostel which was a little grimy and a little loud but, hey, we had cheap beds, which is really all that matters.  Saturday morning we got up early again (after a later-than-expected night out in pubs and out dancing) and hit up train 2 for Cardiff.  Cardiff was much more of a city than Bath was but once you made it down my the water, it was really pretty. The weather in Cardiff was so perfect and I got to see the ocean again!  I have never lived far from the water and this trip is the longest I have ever been this far away from the ocean so it was nice to see waves again.  I'm also a HUGE geek and Cardiff is a Doctor Who hot spot.  I really enjoyed going to the Doctor Who experience and seeing all the places where parts from the show were filmed.  By yesterday afternoon though, we were all so exhausted that we just wanted to lay in a park then hop on a train and go back home (weird how after only two weeks here Cambridge feel like home).  We were greasy haired, un- showered and had layers of sweat and dried sweat on our bodies.  Our feet hurt and we were sunburnt and just beat.  The trip from Cardiff to Cambridge seemed to take forever because we all just wanted bed.  When we finally got back and saw familiar streets and landmarks and crawled into our beds which were unfamiliar to us two weeks ago, I know I was relieved.  Happy, exhausted and relieved to be back in such a great place after an amazing weekend with friends!

Let's go on a Pic-a-nic!!!

The weather here has been uncharacteristically warm for Britain.  It has been an average of 80-85 degrees and beautifully sunny with bright, clear, blue skies every day.  Today a group of us went on a picnic by the river Cam and the weather was just as gorgeous.  A light breeze tousled long hair and the branches of the sweeping, weeping willows.  The only thing we had to worry about was the cow poop... yup, cow poop everywhere!  Cows in Britain are kind of like squirrels, they just sort of roam around where they may and are not afraid to get near to people.  You can walk up to a cow, press your nose against its and it will just stare at you like, "hiya, what's going on?!" So when we went on a picnic today we had to carefully select a spot poop free.  We found a really perfect spot by the river in the shade of a big tree.  It was so lovely sitting with good friends and lots of yummy bread, cheese, fruit and wine.  We have a really small group this year (there's only 14 of us) so we are able to do lots of fun group get togethers like wine nights, picnics and movie nights (tonight we're watching A Very Potter Musical).  I always find myself laughing hysterically when we are all together and everyone seems to get along so well.  After a beautiful afternoon of wine, cheese, bread, dates and good company all I wanted to do was take a nap.  Unfortunately I had to go to my Shakespeare class which is in a small, steamy, sauna-hot room.  It was not easy trying to focus on the specifics and nuances of Titus Andronicus with a belly full of good food.  Ah, the life of a Cambridge student is rough!

 Pretty ladies :)

 Cheers Michael!!!

 Woah there Aubrey!

 Happy grass antlers!

  Sad grass antlers :(

This must be Heaven....

The past couple days I've actually been going to the library to do HOMEWORK!!!  I know, weird that I have homework on a study abroad trip, but professors insist on insist upon impressing upon us all the importance of learning so, here I am.  I know my family will be happy to see proof that I'm actually here to study not just to have fun and eat good food.  I did learn that some scene from the Harry Potter moves were filmed here... how cool is that?!  I am currently tapping away in the same area where scenes from my favorite stories were filmed into movies- oh my gosh, talk about freaking out!!!  Here are some pics of the aforementioned library:

 Accio book!!!

 Wingardium Leviosa!!!

"Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it"- Albus Dumbledore

Pictures of the first few days...

 This is a picture of my closet (which has a sink inside it!)

 My bed and nightstand 

 One window in my room...

 ANOTHER window!!!  Gosh, these pictures are exciting!  But, really, having two windows is great.  I have the biggest room on my floor so it's been dedicated as the "hang out" room

 My bulletin board with lots of great info and stuff

 Here are some notes that my mom hid in my stuff!  I'm posting them on the board as I find them, I've since found more than these four :)

 The view from my two lovely windows

 Here's the river for which Cambridge was named... The River Cam

 It's a swan!!!

 Cambridge has several lovely parks, this one is called Jesus Green

 More of Jesus Green

 Their lamp posts have sweaters!!!

 Jesus Green

 This park is called Christ's Pieces and is a lovely place for reading, writing and people watching 

 The little archway in the center is a Princess Diana Memorial and is covered in really beautiful roses that wind up the iron bars, decorating it with splashes of pink and white!

 Here's the market that's right around the corner from Caius... it has some really tasty (and cheap) lunches and lots of fresh fruit, not to mention great scarves and cute dresses!

 More of the market and the back of a church in the center of Cambridge right across from King's college and Caius college

 A quaint little Cambridge street :)

 This one is for my mom and dad... look what we have!!!

 Now I know I'm in Britain (no Tardis sightings yet though)!

 This is the main street entrance to Caius college... you can just make out the tree court beyond the gates

 Caius college from the center square

 The Great Hall

 The High Table and dining hall

Shakespeare: the Bard Himself...

Yesterday I had my first Shakespeare class, which was great!  My professor, Paul, teaches University level at St. Catherine’s College and is just oh so passionate about Shakespeare (he’s also very witty and funny and has a fantastic accent).  I think this class will be a lot of work given the fact that I have to read an entire play by Thursday!  We’re first reading Titus Andronicus, which I am very excited for because it is a Shakespeare play that I have never read or seen preformed before, I also hear it’s very gory which should be fun for me too.  In addition to reading the plays, seeing the plays, writing about the plays/performances and discussing the plays/performances, Paul encouraged us to watch some productions of Shakespeare on DVD- so I essentially get to watch movies for homework, not bad Cambridge, not bad at all! 

We’ll be seeing Titus performed first next week in Stratford Upon Avon, then Hamlet and finally Macbeth.  I’m looking forward to seeing Hamlet because we get to see it in the Globe Theatre in London!  Also, Paul told us that our predecessors of this program got to see David Tennant as Hamlet about four years ago… I am so jealous of them!  Not only is he an amazing actor and my personal favorite Doctor but they were also one step closer to achieving my dream of fluffing David Tennant’s magnificent hair.  But, alas, he is not in this year’s performance, which I’m sure will be excellent anyway.

In addition to all these plays I get to go see (for free, I might add!) Cambridge also hosts a Shakespeare summer festival.  Throughout the summer at various locations around Cambridge, different Shakespeare plays will be performed.  Tonight I am going to see Cybaline with a group of people tonight.  I’ve never even heard of this play, let alone read it or see it!  I think it will be interesting to see a play performed that I have never thoroughly analyzed before, it will be fun to shake(speare) it up!  

Curiosity and Displacement...

Monday was the first day of classes so I had Travel Writing bright and early!  There’s only five of us in the classroom (classroom is a loose description, it’s really more of a sitting room stuffed with some desks) so I think we’ll become really familiar with each other and each other’s work.  In class my professor, Tom, talked about what travel writing is and what it means to travel and be a travel writer.  We talked about the initial curiosity we all have somewhere in us and the desire and determination to follow that curiosity to a place of displacement; a place we feel out of our element, unknown, anonymous.  I really liked this idea because some people would consider displacement to be a bad thing but others consider feeling out of place, new and unknown a beautiful thing because it allows us to see some place from a different point of view and to be someone new in an unfamiliar town, city or country.  We also went out for a tea break half way through class, which was brilliant!

After class I had all day to explore the beautiful city of Cambridge, let me try to describe it to you: it’s mismatched, cobblestone streets run haphazardly around the city, bearing the wear and tear of centuries of footsteps.  The buildings are made of yellowy stone, dark red brick or a sort of white stone whit brown roofs that resemble gingerbread houses.  The contradiction of the pretentious and regal gothic architecture with the quaint and plain cottages exudes a sense of history.  The river weaves its way through and around the city, covered by various bridges, green parks and sensuous gardens flourishing in the unnaturally beautiful English summer.  The people, too, are interesting.  Different accents and languages reverberate throughout the squares and down alleyways.  I play a game as I walk where I try to identify the various languages passing me in the streets.  If it’s French I hard core eaves drop to try and see what they’re saying; most of the time they speak too fast for me though! 

After exploration time, we had tea, which is served at 4pm every day!  I think I had about 4 or 5 cups of tea yesterday so I may have to cut back my intake as the summer progresses but, as it’s only my second day here, I’m not restraining myself.  More bonding after tea followed by dinner and a group pow-wow where we began discussing trips to Ireland and Paris… exciting!!!  After that Tom’s kids and wife invited us all to go out for ice cream but we all got distracted and somehow ended up where they start the punting tours. 

Punting is kind of like the gondolas in Venice where there is a very narrow boat filled with people and a punter on the back with a rod that is pushed down to the bottom of the river and is used to propel the boats forward as well as steer.  The water looks like pond water or swamp water or my Uncle Jason’s pool after a long winter of being covered and barraged by heaps of leaves and pollen.  However, I did find out that this has more to do with the silt being stirred up at the bottom of the river than it does the toxic waste I initially suspected lay at the bottom.  Our tour guide told us lots of interesting facts but a lot of the time I was goofing off with the kids, so I was a bit distracted!  The spontaneity of the punting/ice cream trip was so great and is one of the many things I look forward to continuing as my summer here progresses.    

The Adventure Begins...

Well, it’s Tuesday and I’ve already sort of failed at my goal of blogging every day (however I have been writing every day which is step).  The wireless is really spotty here so it’s difficult to find places where you can actually access the internet.  Sometimes someone will find a small corner or nook in the common room and let out a gasp of shock and surprise which can be identified by everyone as we have all already experienced the failure and frustration of going online. 

Despite the problems with wifi (which isn’t too bad for me because I prefer to be unplugged anyway but it is quite frustrating when trying to do school work) this place is a dream!  Before I describe the beautiful buildings, old streets and quaint little shops, let me juxtapose these images with my travel to the UK itself…

My flight left Boston without a hitch (and they had The Hobbit on the plane, which was a major plus!  I had to physically stop myself from yelling with Bilbo when he says, “I’m going on an adventure!”) and I landed in Heathrow at 9ish in the morning.  However, I had already promised 4 other girls who were on the flight after me that I’d wait for them in the airport so I hung around until 11 then, when they arrived we bought out coach tickets to Cambridge.  However, as we had such a large group we had to hop on the 1:30pm bus to Cambridge which was a whopping 3.5hrs!!!  Yup, after a 6 hour flight and 4 hours of waiting in an airport I was rewarded with a 3.5 hour coach ride.  But it wasn’t so bad, I slept a bit and we rode through the British countryside which was quite lovely.  I was noticing that even the trees here are different.  Some have wiry, twirly branches and other are wispy and look as if they grew in the direction of the wind.  When we finally arrived to Cambridge I was literally jumping up and down with excitement. 

After a quick hop up to my room (which is HUGE, I’ll post pictures soon) we had dinner in the Hall which looks almost exactly like the Great Hall in Hogwarts and, at dinner you’re waited on by staff members who serve you soup or salad, the entrée, dessert and coffee or tea, it’s like living with a group of friendly house elves!  After dinner a UNH professor took us on a quick tour of the college and Cambridge.  One of my favorite things we saw was the library, which would make the Beast himself proud!  It’s two stories with bookshelves covering the entire walls.  There are also all these little rooms off the side of the main library which have even more books and is drenched in the smell of old pages just dying to be re-opened and remembered by the next bibliophile.  It also has these great big windows which cast shadows around the room and comfy chairs and desk scattered about for studying or just some light reading.  You just feel smarter and more studious walking in there!

Going to bed that first night- with the bells across the way chiming out the time and the voices and languages of tourists and locals alike echoing around my room- I was struck by how lucky I am to be able to call this historic and international place home for the brief time of six weeks.  Can’t wait to see what else awaits me!      

I FOUND THE INTERNET!!!

So I've been in Cambridge for three days now (but it feels like a lot longer) and I've just found a wireless connection!  It's outside, which is great, but could be a problem if it begins to rain and I can only get to the internet from a bench in the courtyard.  I've been really busy the past couple days and I've been writing in my travel journal a lot so I'll post everything I've written there, here shortly.  It's been a whirlwind of a first week though.  From exploring to classes to just wandering and finding my own little niche in this well traveled city, it's all been an adventure, and it's only Wednesday!  This morning I have my travel writing class and we wrote and talked about travel writing (shocking, I know) but the more we talk about what exactly travel writing is, the more I feel connected to it and the more I feel like this will be an area of writing that I will really enjoy!  Today's a bit low key, everyone is just getting into their homework and such so I'll be reading the entirety of Titus Andronicus today, which won't be too bad (I hope) as it's a bit cloudy today and I'm thinking of plopping myself down in a cafe and reading until tea time!
This evening at dinner I'll be at high table which I'm looking forward to as well.  If you've all seen Harry Potter movies or read all the books (or both), the high table is where all the professors and Dumbledore eat at mealtimes.  Every student on the trip will have a few occasions to eat at the high table with the professors and coordinators of the trip and tonight it my night!  I get to get dressed up all fancy like and eat dinner and drink wine in style, I think it will just be fun to get to know some of the "grown ups" a little bit better.  More later... off to reading and coffee!!!

Today's the Day...

Hello internet and welcome to my blog!!!
In case you didn't read my profile/don't want to read it/are too lazy to read it here's a bit about what it's like to be me, Emily: I'm currently studying international affairs and journalism at the University of New Hampshire and someday hope to write stories and books about all my travels.  I'm a huge geek who loves everything from Harry Potter to Doctor Who to Lord of the Rings, the list goes on (I'll spare you all the geeky details).  I also lovelovelove skiing, reading and drinking (good) tea and coffee with friends!  This summer I'll be studying Shakespeare and Travel Writing in Cambridge, England for six weeks at the College of Gonville and Caius.  Classes only run Monday-Thursday so I'll have lots of time to go exploring!
I've been planning this trip since November so I've been building up to today for about 7 months, yet for whatever reason my trip still feels a bit surreal, I think it's probably because I haven't had much time to think about it.  I've been at my Grandmother's beach house for the past couple weeks watching my two rambunctious 9 and 10 year old cousins and enjoying the sun and sand so I really haven't had much time to do any packing, which means I'm doing it all today.  This means procrastination and spontaneous bouts of excitement and nervousness.  My room is currently a disaster zone of clothes and various other travel items but while I should be packing I'm choosing to blog and watch old seasons of Doctor Who on netflix (my flight's not until 9pm so I've got some time, right?).  Despite my being so disheveled, I really couldn't be more excited for this summer- I can't wait to meet lots of new people, see and try new things, do stupid things, do crazy things and just come home with lots of new stories and memories.  I'll be using this blog throughout the summer to keep track of all my experiences, post all my pictures and add clips of my writing.  So folks, get ready for a whirlwind adventure of classes, traveling, tea, books, new friends, tea, exploring and more tea!  Thanks for reading and enjoy!