Bye Bye Bath... Hello Hilton!

Before backtracking to tell you all about my final week in Bath, I just want to inform you that I was suppose to be home on Saturday. However, due to Britain's inexperience with snow (10cm of snow to be exact), I am stuck at the Hilton in the Heathrow Airport because of canceled flights, closed airports, etc. However, I hopefully will be on a plane tomorrow at 14:40ish (give or take five hours with delays) flying home. 

On Friday (which now seems ages ago), ASE put on their last event for us - the final tea. The event was beautifully put on and the tea was wonderful. We had endless pots of tea, loads of sandwiches, delicious scones, and fantastic cakes. After the large quantities of food, Jonathan (our programme director) gave a speech thanking us for a great first semester as a director. He then finished the event with a slideshow of the semester, including the Halloween picture of our Ghosts and Ghothic class. I seriously cannot wait to get that photo. Afterwards, everyone spent time mingling, taking pictures, and saying goodbye.

My education class and Andrew Butterworth!

The room is empty....

Afterward the tea, Erin and I went back to the flat for one last time, to finish package and headed to grab our coach into Heathrow. We spent the night at the Hilton before waking up early the night morning to catch our flight... which never happened. Instead, we spent ten long tedious hours at the airport waiting to see if our flight would leave... which it never did. So, at 9pm, after learning our flight would not leave, we headed back to the Hilton to see if we could get a room. However, they were all booked for that night, but if we stayed, the nice man at the front desk said we might be able to early check in for the next day (which we did have reservations for). So, down on the floor of the Hilton lobby we went. Finally at 3:30am, we were able to do a very early check in for our room. It was so nice to collapsed upon a bed.

Long Live

SO FINALS ARE DONE!!!! Junior year is half over. I cannot believe it. I feel as though this year was kind of easy, and next year my load is heavy, which scares me. Next semester I will be taking Cognitive & Individual Differences in Middle and High School, Critical Theory (English), Woman's Literature, and Islam. I'm also suppose to be doing a internship as well. I am really excited about my Woman's Literature and Islam class.


So, since I officially have two days left in Bath I thought I'd dedicate this post to things and aspects of Bath that I would miss most. Here goes! 

1. English Breakfast Tea. Since Diet Coke is pretty expensive here, I have substituted this addiction for another - TEA.  Alright, confession... I do buy Diet Coke, but I only drink about 6oz of it a day (SHOCKING, right?!) Not really when you learn how much tea I'm drinking. Its sad. Yet, England sure does know how to brew tea, and I cannot get enough of it. Plus, its healthier for me, right? 


2. Cider. This is not the New England Apple Cider that you are thinking of. This cider is a fermented beverage made from apple juice. Its possible my favorite drink here, especially when you add some blackcurrant cordial to it.

3. Pubs. I really wish we had Pubs in the United States. When traveling, pubs are your savior, for there is always one around the corner, and they always promise the hungry traveler a solid meal and a pint a cider. The local pubs are the best for the have the most genuine homey atmosphere. Its like your in the living room and the whole neighborhood is there having lunch! Some pubs I went to even give one the feels of time having stood still for a couple of centuries. Its going to be weird going out to eat in a Chillies or a Bertucci's now.


4. Castles. Do I have to say anything here. Seriously, Founding Fathers! Why didn't you build any awesome castles?!


5. Amazing Indain Food. I had never experienced Indian food until I came to England. My perfect meal? Chicken Korma, with a side of Nan and Veggie Samosas. (This is a hint for you Grandpa, so you can either make it for me over break or find an Indian restaurant for us to go to!)




6. Pasties. More food that I'm going to miss. My favorite type of Pasty is the traditional Cornish Pasty, which is pasty case filled with beef, sliced potato, and onion. Basically it taste like Beef Stew stuffed in a dumpling! 


7. Conference Pears. The best pears I have EVER tasted. They are soo sweet and delicious!!!


8. Living so close to everything, especially grocery stores (especially M&S). It was really great to be walking distance from everything, grocery stores, bus stops, movie theatres, clothes stores, book stores, pubs, etc. It was really nice not having to drive anywhere and search for a parking spot, or drive 20 minutes to a grocery store. I am also going to miss M&S (Marks and Spencers) terribly. They had an excellent bakery, where I would get bread for dinner. They also had a great homemade soup selection (my favorite - leak and potato), and an amazing cake selection where I got Erin's birthday cake from. 
 

9. The cafes on every corner, where you can get tea - seriously I'm addicted! 


10. The train systems. I think we need railroads throughout the United States. I really enjoyed riding the trains throughout the United Kingdom. You could use these trains to get to anywhere! We traveled from Scotland to Bath, Bath to Cardiff, and so many more places!

Jane Austen's Bath

Yesterday, instead of studying for my Jane Austen final, I decided to download an audio tour of Jane Austen's Bath and followed in her footsteps. It was fun discovering the city of Bath again, though the audio tour was a bit dry and didn't actually have much on Austen than it did on historical Bath. The tour started at Bath Abbey and took me through the entire city, ending up by the Assembly Rooms.
One stop was Sally Lunns House, the oldest house in Bath. This chair is a chair frequently used in Austen's time to travel around Bath. Usually this chairs would have poles on the bottom, which would be used to carry the chair around town. However, Jane Austen preferred to walk - as I was told by the audio guide.

The Pulteney Bridge is a famous landmark in Bath. The Pulteney Bridge is one of only four bridges in the world with shops across the full span on both sides.
However, Lara Place and Great Pulteney Street is a great Jane Austen landmark. At the end of the street is where Jane Austen once lived. In her writing, Jane Austen also situates two of her characters on these streets. The Allens, in Northanger Abbey, live on Great Pulteney Street, while Anne Elliot's cousin, from Persuasion, lives on Lara Place. Great Pulteney Street is also a famous filming location. Vanity  Fair and The Duchess were both filmed on this street. Just off Great Pulteney Street is Sydney Place where Jane Austen lived. Sydney Place was used during the filming of both Persuasion and Vanity Fair.

Great Pulteney Street

After the audio tour, I did some more Christmas shopping (along with food shopping for dinner - Spaghetti!!!).


I now only have six days left in Bath...

Eight Days...

(Okay, first I would like to apologize for everyone receiving this post via email unfinished twice! For some reason, while I was typing the post up, Blogger decided to randomly post it without me actually pressing the button!)

So the countdown for the days left in Bath has finally entered the single digits. I'm not sure how exactly I feel about this. It might be because I am currently on loads of cold medication... but at some moments this past weeks I'm been dying get back home to the States, while others, I've been depressed that I'm going to have to  leave this beautiful city.

These past two weeks have been spent isolated in my room finishing up final papers, my education portfolio, and sleeping off this cold. And today, I had my last class, handed in my last assignment, and I am officially done! Hold on, I think I'm forgetting something.... what is it..... oh, yeah.... finals. Bloody hell.

However, between my workload, a couple noteworthy events have occurred. First, the lovely Andrew Butterworth, who is my Education Placement Tutor, (and yes, his last name is like the syrup Butterworth), took the Education class out for a pub crawl, where we ended up at the St. James Pub for a pub quiz. I had an excellent time, though it was a little weird that my tutor was buying my drinks and that it was okay (and legal) to be drinking with him and his wife. The first pub we stopped at was The Coeur De Lion, which is known as the smallest pub in Bath. While we were enjoying a nice pint, some individuals walked in to perform a Mummers' Play. Mummers' Plays are seasonal folk plays performed by a group of actors known as mummers. In mummers’ plays, the main event is the killing and restoring to life of one of the characters. The mummers go from house to house or pub to pub performing and then collecting money for a charity. This play was highly entertaining, but no very well performed at all. The next pub we went to was The Old Green Tree, one of the oldest pubs in Bath. And guess who followed us there? The Mummers! Except the pub owner threw them out, not wanting them to perform in their small pub. Finally, we arrived at our final destination, St. James Pub, were we participated in the pub quiz. Though, we did not win, we also did not come in last thanks to Andrew Butterworth and his wife. Overall it was a great night.

The River Avon

That Saturday, Erin and I decided to take a train over to Bradford-on-Avon.  Bradford-on-Avon is a small town along the River Avon with many buildings dating back to the 17th century. Our first stop in Bradford was the Christmas market, which was sadly much smaller than the Bath Christmas market. However, we also walked throughout the village stopping in various shops, occasionally buying things. J As it started to rain, we stopped to get tea at the Bridge Tea Room, a Victorian style tea place. I ordered a scone, which came out warm and was absolutely delicious!

Bridge Tea Room

The Saxon Church: not much is known about this church. It is believed that the church was built sometime between the early 8th century and mid 11th.

Reading and Recreation Week

Last week was Reading and Recreation (R&R) Week at ASE. Now I originally thought R&R week stood for rest and relaxation, but that was silly of me. Why would they allow us relaxation! Instead last week really should have been called Stress-out-because-papers-are-due-next-week-but-you-have-no-time-to-write-them-because-you-have-to-go-on-mandatory-trips-week. However, while I actually got no work done, let alone any reading, I did have a fantastic time on the trips.

Broadway Tower

On Monday headed to Broadway - yes, I'm that close to Broadway :) Broadway is a tiny village in the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds were once immensely rich villages because they had basically had all the sheep, and as a result being the center of textile industry. Our stop in Broadway was the Broadway Tower. The Tower reminded of a fairy tale tower, especially Rapunzel. However, the tower did not hold any princesses with long golden hair. Instead this tower was created in 1799 for a Lady Coventry, just so she could look outside her window of her house, see the tower, and say "that's mine." Broadway Tower is a "folly" - basically, a totally pointless structure built by rich people to show how much money they have and can spend.

After spending some time in the Tower, we headed to the village of Broadway via a 40 minute hike along the Cotswold way. The hike was awesome and the scenery was beautiful. We climbed over fences and gates, walked through muddy fields - at one point we even walked through a field of SHEEP!

View from the top of the Tower

Cotswold Way

SHEEP!

After arriving in the center of the village, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Bourton on the Water for lunch. Bourton on the Water is labeled the Venice of the Cotswolds because there is a fun river running through the center of the village. After Bourton, we hopped back on the bus and drove to the Chavenage House. The tour of this house was one of the best possible tours I have taken yet (besides the ones given by Andrew Butterworth). The tour guide was a member of the family who actually still lives in part of the house. Our tour guide was absolutely hilarious. She, and her dogs, took us around the house and told us funny stories about the house's history and the family. After the tour, she and her sister gave us an incredible tea time, complete with cucumber sandwiches, scones, cakes, and excellent tea!

Early Thursday morning, we once again hopped on the bus to debark on our last programme trip - Glastonbury and Wells. As we started forth to our first destination, Wells, Lindsay started playing Hot Fuzz --  an awesome movie staring Simon Pegg that was filmed in.... (drum roll please)... WELLS. ***By the way, Dad, I will watching this movie with you the moment I return, because you will absolutely love it*** The moment I entered Wells, I easily recognized sites from the film. Andrew Butterworth gave us a lovely tour of the town and cathedral, which was excellent. I saw a moat at the Bishop's Palace -- yes, the Bishop got a Palace.

The fountain where the "hoodlums" are hanging out at the beginning.

The Wells Cathedral -- where the fund-raising carnival was held.

We next traveled to Glastonbury and the Tor. I was aware the the Glastonbury Tor was a hill, but as the bus got closer and closer to our destination, the hill quickly became the hill of doom. It was quite a climb up -- however, totally worth it. This hill, the Glastonbury Tor, is actually the legendary Isle of Avalon. Originally, Glastonbury use to be an island, surrounded by water. King Arthur supposedly sailed here after being wounded at his last battle. (Glastonbury Village is a village of new-age magic, with shops full of crystals, herbs, magical amulets, etc.) Next, we headed to the Glastonbury Abbey, the site where King Arthur and Queen Guenevere 's graves were reportedly found.

Glastonbury Tor

I made it to the top!

The final resting spot of King Arthur and Queen Guenevere

Basically it was a lovely week, ignoring my enormous work load. And I was able to end the week by seeing HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. The best HP film I have seen yet. (Don't worry I won't spoil anything). I thought the seven potter scene was superbly done. One of my favorite parts of the film (and I was worried about how they were going to tell the tale) was how they told the audience the Tale of the Deathly Hallows. It was so different and interesting, and absolutely excellent. I also loved that they took some lines exactly word for word from the book. Also, Alan Rickman was fantastic! In the end, I only had one complaint -- however, if I told you what that was, I would spoil a bit of the movie. Overall, 5 stars! 

Edinburgh

So, I've been really busy catching up on reading teaching in my school placement and I apologize for that because I have not blogged about the second (and possibly best) part of my mid semester break.

On Monday, Erin and I left Dublin and headed onward to Edinburgh, Scotland.After riding three different bus for two hours, we finally found the Priestville Guesthouse. Now, if you are ever going to go and visit Edinburgh, you must stay at the Priestville Guesthouse. I felt like I was spending a week at my grandparents house. The room was great and Colin (the owner) provided us with tea and biscuits in our room everyday. When we arrived, they gave us maps (which we much needed) and a map they had made with suggested restaurants to go to. The Guesthouse even had a video library, where we watched Seven and Happy Gilmore (it down poured one night). Also, since Erin and I could never finish our huge Continental breakfast, Colin turned our rolls into cheese and butter sandwiches for us to eat later on - he even did this the we left so we had a snack on the train, so sweet!

On our first day in Edinburgh, we did a New Europe Walking Tour. I would highly recommend this tour (and a huge thanks to Kelly for this recommendation). The New Europe Walking Tour is a three walking tour (free but tip based), which brings you throughout the city of Edinburgh, pointing out all the sights. I saw the Elephant House where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, Edinburgh Castle, St. Giles Cathedral (where Sean Connery was knighted), and much more. We stopped outside this one pub called Maggie Dickson Pub, which has an interesting tale attached to it. 

Maggie Dickson was a women who was deserted by her husband in the early 18th century. As a result, Maggie  left Edinburgh and moved to the countryside where she started working at an inn. Not long after, Maggie fell in love with the Innkeeper's son and she soon became pregnant. However, Maggie concealed the pregnancy successfully, for if the innkeeper found out she would be forced to leave. Maggie concealed the pregnancy until the baby was born. Yet, sadly, the baby was stillborn, so Maggie decided to continue hiding the baby's existence by disposing the body in the nearest river. This plan would have work, except for the fact that two men saw what Maggie was doing and brought her back to Edinburgh to be arrested and tried. What was Maggie arrested for? Not adultery (since she was still married to her husband when she had the affair), not for disposing a human body down a river (for it was illegal), but for concealing the pregnancy. Maggie was found guilty and hanged. After the hanging, she was pronounced dead and her body was brought to the local cemetery. However, her body never arrived to the cemetery because during the journey, the driver heard a knock coming from the coffin. When the driver lifted the lead, out popped Maggie, quite alive. Since Maggie could not be tried for the same crime twice, she was free to live. Maggie was also freed from her marriage - since "it's till Death do us part", and Maggie was technically dead.
Our second day was spent walking around the city doing a ton of sightseeing. As we were in the National Museum of Scotland searching for Dolly the sheep (who we did eventually find), we chatted with a really nice museum man who told us the man sight we had to go and see was the Rosslyn Chapel. So, the next day, after searching the internet and finding the right bus routes, we headed to Roslin. Roslin is a beautiful village and the chapel is gorgeous. The architecture within the chapel is absolutely exquisite. The chapel was a major feature in Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, and was used as a location in the movie. Supposedly this chapel not only holds the holy grail, but also the ark of the covenant and the real stone of destiny. The chapel was founded in 1446. Within the chapel there are many symbols connecting to the Knights Templar and the Freemasons. Also, within the chapel are so carvings of Indian corn (maize). However, the chapel was built before Columbus technically discovered America, so how did these carvings come to be?
 Overall, my trip to Edinburgh was absolutely fabulous. I would have loved to spend more time there and would love to go back. 

A Glimpse of Erin

 Erin is the romantic name poets in the nineteenth-century would  use for Ireland. Erin is also the Welsh name for Ireland. 

DAY ONE
I arrived in Dublin, Ireland with Erin late Thursday evening, after spending 6 1/2 hours traveling. The Abbot Guesthouse turned out to be on a street with just about every other B&B hotel in Dublin.Our first stop in Dublin was the James Joyce Centre. While Erin and I had fun imitating Joyce and reading one of his Children books The Cat and the Devil, the centre was not worth its fee. However, our next stop, which was also my favorite place of the day, was the Irish Writer's Museum, and that was definitely worth every penny. Within this museum I saw first editions of The Faerie Queen, Dracula, Ulysses, and works by Charles Maturin (sadly not Melmoth), Oscar Wilde, Yeats, etc. We also went to the Hugh Lane Museum since it was right next door and completely free. This museum was...interesting. Galleries two through five were closed because they were short staffed, but I was able to see two Monet paintings. After these three museums, Erin and I were museum-ed out, so we decided to test our our map skills and head down to Grafton Street & Temple Bar for some shopping. We went to Bewley's Cafe for dinner, which was an excellent dinner that finally wasn't pub food. I had chicken, spinach penne dish with tomato sauce. I got a brownie sundae for dessert and Erin got a slice of apple pie. I tried some of Erin's pie and let me tell you, British apple pie is nothing like American apple pie.

DAYS TWO & THREE:
Day two was spent wandering around some more and getting lost. The first stop was Trinity College, where we took a tour of the campus. We also went to see the Book of Kells, which is the illuminated copy of the four gospel in Latin, and held in the Old Library at Trinity College. It was written over one thousand years ago, in the early 9th century, by the monks of Iona. The book of Kells is absolutely beautiful and definitely worth seeing. Next to the Writer's Museum, this was probably one of my favorite places we visited in Dublin. For lunch, Erin and I did take-away at a bagel shop and ate in St. Stephen's Green, which is a beautiful park. I could have stayed there all day if it hadn't been so windy and cold. In order to get away from the cold, we headed over to the National Museum of Archaeology. The best exhibit there was the Kingship and Sacrifice exhibit, which held a couple of bog bodies. What are bog bodies exactly??? They are bodies found in the bogs in Ireland. These bodies, because they were in the bog, were so well preserved that one could still see their skin. Archaeologists believe that these bodies were either sacrificed or persecuted for their deaths that were neither peaceful nor pretty. The rest of the evening was spent buying presents and eating dinner.   

View from the Gravity Bar

For our last day in Dublin, we met up with two other girls from the ASE programme, Kate and Liz. We spent the day doing a ton of sightseeing. First we saw Oscar Wilde's statue, went to Dublin Castle, and the Guinness Storehouse. The Dublin Castle was much more of a palace than a castle - it even had its own throne room! We also got to go down to see the excavation site where parts of the old Dublin Castle is (from the Viking era). The Guinness Storehouse was neat. I enjoyed the advertisement exhibit with all the different slogans. At the end of the exhibits, we were able to go up to the Gravity Bar and enjoy a pint of Guinness. Points of interest I was also able to see included:

The Irish President's House

St. Patrick's Cathedral
The O'Connell Monument
Phoenix Park
The President of Ireland's House
The Hotel US owns (and the Gilmore Girls stalked while in Ireland)