Saturday, August 7
It's Saturday, and my trip has almost come to an end. All there is left to do is pack everything up and meet the group for dinner tonight. Fortunately, I've almost finished packing, so the hard part will be over soon.
I can't believe it's time to go back home and to the real world. This has been an amazing experience, one I will never forget. I've seen sights and had experiences that up until now I had only read about or seen through pictures and videos. They do not do them justice. While I am taking home many of my own photographs and videos, I am taking home much more, a new perspective on the world and life.
Tomorrow morning, we meet the vans at 7:30 am to head to the airport for the long flight back. We are scheduled to arrive at Raleigh-Durham at 2:45 pm EST. After that, it's all over. My new job starts Tuesday, and classes will start two weeks after that.
I hope this blog has been an interesting representation of my experiences in England. It's been fun and useful to put them down and give myself a chance to really reflect on it all.
See you at home soon.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
I'm Back!!!
Wednesday, August 3
Sorry for the hiatus, but it's been difficult getting to a computer for the last few days. We've been on the go almost non-stop.
Last week:
On Wednesday, we traveled to London for the day, which was a nice experience. We saw the major tourist spots (Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, etc.), but we also go to just enjoy watching people and London life go by. The British Museum was interesting. Both the mummy and rosetta stone exhibits are worth seeing once in your life.
On Thursday, we went to Winchester and Portsmouth. Winchester is a quaint little town with lots of history. As you may know, it was at one time the capital of England, so there are lots of historic sites. The Great Hall, housing what they believe may be the actual round table from the mythical King Arthur, was our first stop. Winchester Cathedral is quite impressive as well. I found myself wanting to see everything and using up more time there than I meant to. The architecture is outstanding; it's breathtaking to seeing it first hand. Also, Jane Austen is buried there, so the English teacher side of me was interested to see that. Next we went to the ruins of the Winchester castle. It really puts our sense of history as Americans in perspective to see something like that. It seems sometimes that the newest thing over here is older than the oldest thing in the U.S. After Winchester, we took a bus to Portsmouth. It was a short trip, but we did take a bout tour of the harbor and got to see multiple ships from the Royal Navy, both in and out of commission. The scenery was beautiful.
Friday we had class as per usual, toying with varying writing styles and technologies.
On Saturday morning, we took a bus to Oxford which was cool to see. The universities were awe-inspiring, as I assumed the would be. It also happened to be graduation day, so we saw many graduates walking the streets in their robes and hoods. Saturday afternoon, my group of five took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland. We didn't arrive until 11:00 or so that night, so we went to the hostel and got some sleep. Sunday and Monday turned out to be interesting days. We (probably I) had the great idea to try to tackle the Edinburgh Pub Trail, a series of pubs spread across the city. Basically, if you visited and ordered at ten of them, you received a shirt commemorating your victory. We took the challenge and were successful. I was amazed, however, to find out that, because of the trail, we saw more of the city than we ever would have otherwise. It was a wonderful experience, one that I would gladly do again if given the opportunity. Monday night we flew back to London, on a delayed flight. This caused us to miss the last train back to Guildford and ultimately to our beds at the university. We were honestly worried we would have to sleep on the platform and take the earliest train back Tuesday morning. Fortunately for us, one of the train station staff took pity on us. He got us our own coach (a bus that holds 50 people), and it took us directly back to our dorms. Free of charge I might add. So that worked out well.
Tuesday we went to Chawton and toured the Chawton House Library and the Jane Austen house. Both were very interesting and informative.
Wednesday, today, we had class (back to the grind). All of our assignments are due tomorrow, so this evening has been a blur of people running around trying to get assignments done, trying to figure out what assignments are due, and just looking overall stressed. But my work is done, complete, and turned in, so I'm good (just enjoying a little reading before bed).
Tomorrow we have class in the morning, then a dinner cruise on the river for lunch, and class in the afternoon. It will be our last official day of class, so I can say that we are all looking forward to it (I know I am).
Friday and Saturday are free days, and there are groups heading out for various other cities. We're still trying to decide what we are going to do. We think we will head to London Friday morning, take a train to Wimbledon, and take the tour of the courts and museum. Then we will probably head over to tour Chelsea FC's (the professional soccer team) field, clubhouse, and museum that afternoon. We're trying to sort out the details before tomorrow. On Saturday, we may head over to Canterbury to check out the shrine of Thomas a Beckett and whatever else they have (the cathedral no doubt).
And finally, we leave from the university at about 7:30 am on Sunday to head for the airport and our long journey home. This is a wonderful place, one I want to visit again (and possibly move to teach), but for now, I'm ready to get home and lie in my own bed.
See you then
Sorry for the hiatus, but it's been difficult getting to a computer for the last few days. We've been on the go almost non-stop.
Last week:
On Wednesday, we traveled to London for the day, which was a nice experience. We saw the major tourist spots (Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, etc.), but we also go to just enjoy watching people and London life go by. The British Museum was interesting. Both the mummy and rosetta stone exhibits are worth seeing once in your life.
On Thursday, we went to Winchester and Portsmouth. Winchester is a quaint little town with lots of history. As you may know, it was at one time the capital of England, so there are lots of historic sites. The Great Hall, housing what they believe may be the actual round table from the mythical King Arthur, was our first stop. Winchester Cathedral is quite impressive as well. I found myself wanting to see everything and using up more time there than I meant to. The architecture is outstanding; it's breathtaking to seeing it first hand. Also, Jane Austen is buried there, so the English teacher side of me was interested to see that. Next we went to the ruins of the Winchester castle. It really puts our sense of history as Americans in perspective to see something like that. It seems sometimes that the newest thing over here is older than the oldest thing in the U.S. After Winchester, we took a bus to Portsmouth. It was a short trip, but we did take a bout tour of the harbor and got to see multiple ships from the Royal Navy, both in and out of commission. The scenery was beautiful.
Friday we had class as per usual, toying with varying writing styles and technologies.
On Saturday morning, we took a bus to Oxford which was cool to see. The universities were awe-inspiring, as I assumed the would be. It also happened to be graduation day, so we saw many graduates walking the streets in their robes and hoods. Saturday afternoon, my group of five took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland. We didn't arrive until 11:00 or so that night, so we went to the hostel and got some sleep. Sunday and Monday turned out to be interesting days. We (probably I) had the great idea to try to tackle the Edinburgh Pub Trail, a series of pubs spread across the city. Basically, if you visited and ordered at ten of them, you received a shirt commemorating your victory. We took the challenge and were successful. I was amazed, however, to find out that, because of the trail, we saw more of the city than we ever would have otherwise. It was a wonderful experience, one that I would gladly do again if given the opportunity. Monday night we flew back to London, on a delayed flight. This caused us to miss the last train back to Guildford and ultimately to our beds at the university. We were honestly worried we would have to sleep on the platform and take the earliest train back Tuesday morning. Fortunately for us, one of the train station staff took pity on us. He got us our own coach (a bus that holds 50 people), and it took us directly back to our dorms. Free of charge I might add. So that worked out well.
Tuesday we went to Chawton and toured the Chawton House Library and the Jane Austen house. Both were very interesting and informative.
Wednesday, today, we had class (back to the grind). All of our assignments are due tomorrow, so this evening has been a blur of people running around trying to get assignments done, trying to figure out what assignments are due, and just looking overall stressed. But my work is done, complete, and turned in, so I'm good (just enjoying a little reading before bed).
Tomorrow we have class in the morning, then a dinner cruise on the river for lunch, and class in the afternoon. It will be our last official day of class, so I can say that we are all looking forward to it (I know I am).
Friday and Saturday are free days, and there are groups heading out for various other cities. We're still trying to decide what we are going to do. We think we will head to London Friday morning, take a train to Wimbledon, and take the tour of the courts and museum. Then we will probably head over to tour Chelsea FC's (the professional soccer team) field, clubhouse, and museum that afternoon. We're trying to sort out the details before tomorrow. On Saturday, we may head over to Canterbury to check out the shrine of Thomas a Beckett and whatever else they have (the cathedral no doubt).
And finally, we leave from the university at about 7:30 am on Sunday to head for the airport and our long journey home. This is a wonderful place, one I want to visit again (and possibly move to teach), but for now, I'm ready to get home and lie in my own bed.
See you then
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