In the land of my people… February 25, 2009

Well, I did it. Lifelong ambition of visiting my ancestral homeland: Check! Thanks to Cady Cummings for doing the grunt work in organizing our journey this past weekend.

Yep, I went to Wales and was entertained by the sheep. Hurray! Six people from our lovely ACM group took a train from London to Bangor. Then we hopped on a bus that took us to a place called Cym-y-Glo, a tiny little village in the North of Wales. Cady has a friend that lives there in a tiny home at the very top of a ridiculously steep hill. I was so excited to finally get to Wales. It was so beautiful! The closer we got to our destination, the more green it became and the more hills and eventually mountains appeared on the horizon.

Upon arriving in Cym-y-Glo, we slowly made our way up the incline to Cat’s house, which, by the way, is a converted sheep barn. It’s made of stone and plaster and has no central heating. Rather, she uses a coal burning stove in her living room. As the evening came upon us, Cat’s house was converted into an ice box. Thankfully, Cat is an avid rock climber. Therefore, she is thoroughly equipped for the out of doors and was not only kind enough to offer us a place to sleep, but also provided us with some high quality sleeping bags to keep us warm.

View from Cat's house. I'm jealous of the view...not so jealous of the walk up the hill and the freezing home.

 Cat took us into the neighboring town, Llanberis, the next day. Llanberis is located in an area that is famous for its slate quarry (Yeah, I learned something…Wales is known worldwide for its slate.) and its wonderful rock climbing landscape. It’s near the base of Mt. Snowden, and is one of the most peaceful, adorable places I’ve ever been. I may be biased, but it tops Salisbury in my mind.

We wanted to be adventerous and hike around, so Cat took the lead. She took us first to a free museum dedicated to the slate quarry that had ensured the survival of Llanberis. Then we wandered around an old, crumbling Welsh castle. It was pretty small, meant really only as a place for defense. Apparently, back in the day, the Welsh really hated Edward the Confessor (a.k.a. Edward I) of England and fought viciously to maintain their independence, hence, the castle. Clearly, it didn’t work. It was hinted at during our stay in Wales that the English consider the Welsh to be English, while the Welsh consider themselves to be entirely Welsh…there is a certain animosity towards the English sometimes. The Welsh are very proud people, as can be clearly seen by their adherence to the Welsh tongue. When one enters Wales, all signs are posted in both English and Welsh. We entertained ourselves for quite a while by trying to pronounce Welsh words. Yeah, it’s not easy. For example, the “dd” sounds like the “th” in the word “those” and the “f” sounds like a “v.” The English “x” and “z” do not exist in Welsh. There are several other weird things to grapple with as an English speaker, but this gives you an idea.

Next we wandered along a stream path that took us into a sort of ravine. It was gorgeous!! Considering that I left Wisconsin in the middle of winter, it had been a really long time since I had seen so much green. It was almost magical. At any moment I expected an elf to come walking out from behind a tree or a fairy to fly past my face. The air was so clean, moist, and earthy. At that point, I did not want to ever return to London.

Beautiful Welsh ravine.

 I was really certain that, if my Great Aunt was mistaken about my family’s Welsh heritage,  I would cry.

My magical fairy land...

 We hiked and hiked and hiked. It was so much fun. I’ve never wanted to go camping so badly before. Our journey took us approximately 1/3 of the way up Mt. Snowden. To go much higher probably would have required actual rock climbing/backpacking gear, none of which we had. Plus, none of us are actually rock climbers…which could have been a problem.

On our way back down the mountain, we stopped at a lovely tea house. Yep, there was a tea house on the side of the mountain. I had the most amazing hot chocolate in the entire world!! No joke. I’m pretty sure my arteries started clogging the second I decided to order it, but it was worth it. No skim milk here, man! Whole cream only! This little tea house will remain forever in my memory as FANTASTIC!!! I bought my very first piece of original artwork!! Yay! Look out world (mainly, Chad), I’m officially an art collector. The tea house had  a separate room full of artwork, most of which came in the form of framed watercolor paintings from a local artist. I bought one of Mt. Snowdenfor 35 pounds! I love it dearly! (Notice all of the exclamation points!!) There is just something so special about owning an original piece of artwork…there isn’t another one like it in the whole world. I have something unique…something that was handcrafted by a fellow human being and will forever remind me of my wonderful experiences in Wales. I don’t want a house full of prints and art from Kohl’s that only takes up space on my walls. I want original work that means something to me. It’s not about owning high priced or highly sought after works. It’s about connecting withand falling in love with a piece of art. It has to speak to you. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about it. There…you’ve been exposed to my art geekiness…I could go on, but I shall refrain.

My beautiful painting. It's simple and small, only a watercolor, but I love it.

 Well, after my purchase, I was on a happy high for the rest of the day. We even went walking along a different stream bed later in the afternoon that ended not so gracefully, but I was still chipper. Brandi Gaspard and I were crossing a stream that everyone else had crossed safely. She paused to tell me that a rock was slippery…yep, it was. As soon as my foot touched it, I went down…hard. I slammed my hip on a rock, which, amazingly, did not bruise. My hand, however, right on the palm where my thumb connects to the rest of my hand, has been turning several shades of green and purple since Saturday. It doesn’t hurt much at all. It just looks a bit gruesome. I was soaked from the knees down. It was special. I tried really hard not to complain, though. I think I was somewhat successful.

That evening we found a lovely bed & breakfast that was willing to take in six college students for a decent price. It was great. We were able to bathe and to sleep in comfortable beds while no longer imposing on Cat. While wandering through Llanberis, we were nearly run down by some frightened sheep. FUNNY!! It must be rather commonplace. No one in the area seemed too concerned about it.

Lost sheep...they found their way into town and ran down the street.

We went out to a pub that evening to listen to what we thought was going to be a country singer. Honestly, we were going simply because we thought a Welsh country singer would be funny. It turned out that he wasn’t a country singer…rather, he was something of a karaoke singer. And he wasn’t any good, poor man. He sang (or butchered) a variety of songs including Pretty Woman and Livin’ La Vida Loca.

We met Cat for breakfast the next morning and made our way back to London. It was sad. Returning to the city was rather depressing. The green slowly faded to gray and the clean air was filled with the smell of wet concrete and exhaust. I have developed an eternal appreciation for open green spaces and quiet. I fully intend to return to Wales one day, if not multiple times.

A view of Mt. Snowden and its rocky companions.

A Day in Salisbury February 19, 2009

So, this past Friday was the best day I’ve had so far in England, without doubt. About half of our group made the decison to make an excursion to Stonehenge. Exciting, right? Yes, we were thrilled. We had a lovely ride on South West trains to Salisbury, England where the ticket collector was kind enough to give us directions from the train station to the bus that would take us to the ancient monument.

Without really knowing what to expect out of our day beyond the fact that we would see large rocks, we purchased tickets for the bus and entrance into Stonehenge. From the bus I noticed a window of the train station. On the window sill was a large rubber duck…just like the one in the GALS bathroom in Bovay last year.  I had to take a picture.

The English twin of our rubber ducky.

The bus ride turned out to be more than we expected. On our 25 minute or so journey from Salisbury to Stonehenge, we were entertained with useful information about the area piped to our ears via an intercom system. Upon arriving at our destination, our bus driver made sure that we all made it past the entry gates without issue and we were handed audio guides. We then made our way to the structure itself. It was impressive. I was very happy to be there. It was a little surreal to ponder how such massive megaliths (there’s my art history education for you) were transported and put into place. And why? Yeah, they still don’t know. Apparently, it has been decided that it definitely wasn’t a Druid thing and it wasn’t used for sacrifices. The Druids came around after the structure was built and the red stains found on some of the stones are due to the iron in the stones…not blood. That’s it…all I learned at Stonehenge.

Well, giant rocks can only be impressive and entertaining for so long. We had time to kill before our bus returned, so we became distracted by the sheep. Yes, there were sheep. They were prevented from wandering into the Stonehenge area by a small fence, but they surrounded the place, happily grazing away. We took pictures and then decided to take pictures of ourselves. Cady is really into creative photography so we played for quite some time. The results:

Epic battle at Stonehenge.

 

 

I think Brandi won...she battled more people.

After our fantastic photo shoot, our bus returned. We hopped on, fully aware that we had many hours to kill before our train left Salisbury. To our surprise, the bus made another stop…apparently we had purchased tickets for a tour of Stonehenge and Salisbury. We could get on and off the bus as frequently as we wanted to along the tour route that day. Cool beans!! So, like I said, the bus made another stop at a place called Old Sarum. It was the original site of Salisbury when it was first founded. There was a huge castle and small walled in city on the top of a very large hilled area. There are only ruins at the location now, but it was really neat. The views from the top were gorgeous and the weather was fantastic. It was peaceful.

View of Salisbury from the top of Old Sarum.

 

We, as highly intelligent college students, did not pay attention to when our bus was going to return, so we guessed. We trucked it down to the bus stop and then Cady remembered that she had a schedule. She checked it and told us that the bus would return at 3:15 and 4:15. We were starving so we opted to catch the 4:15 and eat at a local restaurant in the meantime. The restaurant was good. The food seemed very American, but we appreciated that after a few weeks of odd English concoctions.  I was just a little irritated when it came time to pay. Several people had ordered without checking to see how much money they had in their pockets. Yeah…great. So, I volunteered to pay for the whole bill with my debit card as long as I was reimbursed later. It’s been a few days now…I’m still waiting for some payments.

After our lovely meal, we headed back to the bus stop feeling very happy with ourselves for eating quickly enough to get back to the bus stop with time to spare. Yay! We waited…and waited…and waited…no bus. I finally looked at Cady’s schedule…the last bus came by at 3:15. The use of military time confused her. Yeah, great…we were on the outskirts of Salisbury with no idea how to get back to the train station. No choice but to walk, so off we went into Salisbury.

We walked…and walked…and walked. Salisbury is adorable!! It’s the quiet, green English town I was hoping to see. I loved it! We explored two different Gothic churches while on our journey, and finally collapsed at a pub to kill time until our train left. We were EXHAUSTED!!! But it was great! We got a thorough workout while enjoying an adorable English town.

Our excursion home was followed by a quick “get ready for bed” routine, and then it was off to dreamland. It was a fantastic day.

Ah, life… February 11, 2009

Hey peeps! It’s been a few days, and oh man has it felt like an emotional rollercoaster.

On Monday, we experienced London at its finest. Rain, rain, and more rain. Apparently, we received an entire month’s worth of rain over the course of the day. Of course this deluge, along with many other rainy days, had to come when we had class with Sarah, that is, when we are primarily outside. We went to Hampton Court, which was pretty awesome in spite of the rain.

Hampton Court was pretty much Henry VIII’s playground. It’s a pretty fabulous palace that covers over 70 acres (says Sarah), not including the land outside the structure itself. It originally belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, Henry’s right hand man for quite some time, but when Wolsey fell out of Henry’s favor (he couldn’t convince the Pope that it was ok for Henry to divorce his first wife, Katharine of Aragon, for Anne Boleyn) he gave Hampton Court as a gift to the childish King. Sarah gave us a timeline of the place that identifies when important people visited and important events took place on the grounds. For example, Henry went  to the palace for his honeymoon with both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard (ironically, the two were related and both were beheaded). It was also where Jane Seymour, Henry’s third or fourth wife (I get them confused. 6 is too many!) gave birth to Henry’s only surviving son, and then died.

It was way better than visiting the Tower of London in my book. The place wasn’t modified to look like a modern, interactive museum. Rather, it’s preserved and arranged to look like it did during the Tudor dynasty. There are no attempts to make it glitzy and engaging. It just is, and I appreciate that. There was a roaring fire going in one of the massive kitchen fire places, and reminded me of many happy excursions to Old World Wisconsin. I do love living history museums!

We spent a bit of time following an official tour, but the tour guide was annoying and didn’t provide much useful information. Sarah lagged behind a bit and summoned us all to gather round. She suggested that we “peal off” and go explore on our own, which we happily did. She’s much more knowledgeable and much less annoying than the tour guide. Yes, I admire her greatly! She could be the equivalent of a Mrs. Szemraj or a Prof. Mockridge if I spent more time with her. She is one of those people that can take us out for hours in the rain, leaving us soggy and exhausted by the end, but we still hold her in high regard and look forward to her classes.

Our trip to Hampton Court gave me my first opportunity to take an actual train ride. I was quite impressed with how clean the station and coaches were. Actually, a lot of London is like that. It’s surprisingly clean despite the fact that it is almost impossible to find a rubbish bin when you need one. I have seen people walking around picking up litter who appear to work for the City. Anyway, the train ride was smooth and uneventful. I sat there listening to some Coldplay on my iPod, gazing out the rain splashed windows as our surroundings slowly became more rural. I did a lot of thinking. It felt almost like I was sitting in a very stereotypical movie or documentary scene. Picture a young person sitting on a train, looking contemplatively out the window at a grey sky while a mellow song plays, replacing all other noise. Yep, that was me. It could have been very dramatic…or cliche…

Well, that was Monday…time for another tangent…

Yesterday: Holy frustration Batman!! I’m 100% positive that I’ve never felt so annoyed with a professor or teacher as I was yesterday. By 10:15 yesterday morning, I wanted to throw in the towel and quit my theatre class. Lesley is officially the worst teacher in the world. She’s a nice person, but she just can’t do her job. That’s that. We have a paper coming due next week that she keeps bringing up, but each time she mentions it, the assignment changes slightly. So, we finally got fed up in class yesterday. She asked us how we were doing with our papers, so I flat out told her that we had no idea what she wanted. Holy crap! Bad choice. She proceeded to blather on for almost 30 minutes about what our paper should be. The end result was that we were more confused than before. Lovely! She also completely forgot that she had scheduled a backstage tour of the National Theatre for us. We were supposed to end class early so that we had time to grab a bite for lunch and get over to the theatre on time. Yeah. We had to remind her. It was sad.

Basically, she drives me up the wall. I feel like a horrible person, but I just cannot respect her as a professor. It’s impossible. I am joined by the entire group in this sentiment. Thank goodness I only have to deal with her for half of a semester!

I spent most of the day feeling frustrated and upset, but we ended the evening with a play. We saw the Pitmen Painters. It was fantastic and improved my mood greatly! As an art loving person, many of the arguments and thoughts in the play really resonated with me. I felt like I’ve had those same discussions with friends and art teachers/professors in the past. It was really neat to hear those arguments being performed on stage. It was almost a validation of my own thoughts.

Yeah, so today I’m feeling ok. My extreme mood swings have left me feeling exhausted, but I’m hanging in there. I just have to deal with Lesley one more time this week. I am really looking forward to the weekend!

Huzzah! We are saved! February 8, 2009

So, yesterday was quite an experience, let me tell you. First of all, since this was my second weekend in London, I fully intended to enjoy myself. Therefore, my plan was to get up at a decent hour, quickly get ready for the day, and then find my way to a coffee shop for a lovely coffee and a leisurely sit. Grand scheme…but no. First of all, my roommates have a habit of staying up late and sleeping in really late, which, for a person who enjoys the morning, is rather irritating. I feel bad about getting up and making noise while they’re all catching some z’s. So, my alarm goes off, I decide to hit the snooze since no one else is up, and accidentally turned off my alarm. I remained in a state of half-conscious limbo, waiting for my alarm to go off again until almost 10 o’clock. Sad.

You see, we had already purchased tickets to visit the Tower of London, so I had squandered my time being lazy in bed when I could have been enjoying some caffeine. By the time I actually arose, I only had time to get ready and go.

Getting to the Tower was interesting, too. It was the weekend, so maintenance was being done on the Underground lines that we needed to take. We had to come up with an alternate route on the fly and pray that we didn’t get lost. Thankfully, we made it. Thank God we can read maps.

The Tower was enjoyable. I was kind of irritated with how much parts of the place had been renovated to look like a modern museum. It was difficult at times to really feel like we were in a truly historical place, but, overall, it was worth it. If nothing else, I can now say that I’ve been there. I’ve seen Traitor’s Gate and walked through the Bloody Tower. I gazed upon the Crown Jewels and walked through the chapel where Anne Boleyn and many others are buried. I talked to a staff person who had been to Oshkosh…yep, I’m in London and a Brit knew pretty much where I go to school.

Moi, eagerly waiting to enter the Bloody Tower.

 Oh man, then there was the part of the day that took the cake. We got back home and walked into a very dark flat. OUR ELECTRICITY WAS OUT!!! And magically, it was only the ground floor, only my floor. All of the other floors in the building had perfect electricity. Yeah, it was great. For a while, our Internet connection still worked, but then that died, too. It was sad. So, this morning, since the English use electricity to heat water and to pump water into the shower, I was forced to wash my hair in the sink and to scrub up as best I could with a wash cloth and a bar of soap. The water was FREEZING!! I’m pretty sure my scalp went numb for a bit. We were informed that no one was coming to fix our power problem until Monday. I was a little upset. 

We decided to go on an excursion to stalk famous people at the BAFTAs (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) this evening. It’s pretty much the British equivalent to the Academy Awards. Cady Cummings discovered that they were taking place tonight at the Royal Opera House, which is only a few Tube stops down the line from us. Sadly, it was rainy and very crowded. I didn’t get to see much of anything. Because of the poor weather, the red carpet was shortened up. From our viewpoint, all that could be seen were cars that one could assume held famous people. My favorite part was a woman standing next to me who said, “We pay their salaries. I don’t think it’s right that they black out their windows!” I laughed. It was pretty much a bust, but I can say that I was there.

My view at the BAFTAs...Gwen on George's shoulders.

We did, however, have a happy surprise upon our arrival home. The electricity and Internet fairy had magically swooped down and ended our sad plight. Our electricity and Internet connection had been repaired. YAY!!! I can communicate with the world and take a hot shower!

So, yes, the day is almost complete for me and life is back to normal.

On a completely random tangent, I feel the need to brag. I have the best boyfriend in the whole world!! He sent me flowers. Awww…I feel so special and loved!

Yay! A dozen roses for me! Chad is a sweetheart!

And the backstory continues… February 6, 2009

Ahh! So here I am, refreshed and engergized, ready for another stab at my recap. I’ve just had  a lovely lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup. I sought such comfort food in hopes of being reminded of home, but, as you would have it, the essential elements of a good grilled cheese and tomato soup lunch (that is, the cheese and soup) taste very different here in London. Go figure.

Anyway, lets return to where I left off…

Having just arrived in London on a lovely Sunday afternoon, I had a lovely “introduction to the program” dinner in our classroom. Yes, we do indeed have one classroom, located in our backyard. It’s heated, equipped for computer use, and full of books about theatre and London.  It was there that we met both of our professors, Lesley Delminico from Grinnell, and Sarah Cochrane, an amazing native Londoner and virtually infinite source of knowledge. We also met the other people in charge of our stay including one of our program directors, Jane Passes, and our building managers, Goran and Fabio (yes, Fabio…I laughed. I’m horrible, I know. Deal with it.).

Monday was pretty much a free day for us. We had a scheduled walk around the block with Goran at 10 am, but that was it. Our walk was lovely. Goran tried to get us acquainted with the area. He pointed out all of the important place…the grocery stores, the laundromats, the coffee shops, etc.

Side note: Goran and Fabio are great! They stop by all the time to make sure that everything is going well for us. We love them!

Then, on Tuesday, we started class with Lesley. As I said before, she’s the theatre person, so our class with her focuses on performance studies. We usually meet twice a week from 10am -12pm, and then we attend various theatre productions each week. So far, we’ve seen Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Gethsemane, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I love going to the theatre productions, but the class itself is a different story. Not so much fun. Lesley is a sweet person, but as a professor she’s far too scatter-brained for my taste. (Note to self: Edit previous remarks before turning blog entries in as journal for class.)

Wednesday brought our first meeting with Sarah. What an experience! Class with Sarah is exhausting, but fantastic! Her class is titled: London, A Visual Text. Essentially, it’s a mix of history, art history, and sociology all focused on London, in an attempt to show us how London has developed socially over time. We’re moving through histoy rather chronologically, so we began with the Romans. The neat thing about this class is that we really never meet in the classroom. Instead we meet with Sarah at various sites throughout the city, and we move…at light speed sometimes. I swear that woman should be an Olympic speed walker. But, it’s worth it. We’re seeing the city in a very unique way.

Our first class met at the London wall. It was built by the Romans and once surrounded what was the City of London, essentially a one square mile patch right on the River Thames. It’s just a simple wall, with only a small portion remaining, but it’s amazing to see. If you really think about it, that bit of wall has seen so much. It’s been around for nearly 2,000 years and has witnessed all the chaos and prosperity that has been and is London. It’s now surrounded by modern structures that are built right up against it, but it still stands, and right across the road looms the Tower of London.

The illustrious London Wall

The Tower Hill Tube stop that is built right up to the London Wall

It’s certainly been an adventure so far. Sarah has been taking us all over the place. We’ve taken a ferry ride up the River Thames, visited the Borough Market (an insane farmer’s market), analyzed the Embankment of the river, gazed at the beauty of Westminster Abbey, traversed the Museum of London, and just today we meandered through the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. We are busy, but it’s great!

So, I’m having a good time. This will certainly be a memorable trip.

Yes…I have finally created a blog. February 5, 2009

Well, hello all!

I’ve decided that I would really like to keep track of my thoughts while overseas, so here I am, entering the 21st century with a blog. Apparently, I’m a little behind. I’ve been here for nearly two weeks now, so I’ll have to start with a bit of a recap. Hold onto your hats! It’s already been quite an adventure.

So here goes:

The week leading up to my flight was one of excitement, fear, and stress. I’d never traveled internationally before, and I was going to have to do it by myself. SCARY!! (I pretend to be all big and independent, but really, I’m not.) Well, stuff got packed. Bags were weighed as a precaution. Many e-mails were sent and phone calls were made – I guess a lot of people wanted to see me or talk to me before I left. Basically, I got everything in order and ready to go.

On the eve of January 24th, we loaded up the car and headed for Chicago. Mom, Dad, sister Sam, boyfriend Chad, and myself. It was a sad and silent car ride, but we made it without incident. Then we waited. And waited…and waited a little more. My flight didn’t leave until 9:55 pm, so we had some time to kill. Then my best friend, Amanda, showed up with her Dad. That was cool! She gave me a lovely box full of letters and neat stuff. Kind of a travel care package. To truly understand, you would have to know us fairly well. It’s a tradition we started a while back. Anyway, I said my goodbyes, and we all went our separate ways. There were a few tears, but all in all, I held it together fairly well.

Then there was the plane ride. Yeah, that was an experience. I’ve flown before, so I wasn’t afraid, but the turbulence on the plane brought back memories of childhood car sickness. As the flight neared an end, just over six hours after departure, I found myself gripping the walls of the onboard lavatory after having paid homage to the “porcelain” goddess. Yay, London!

Heathrow was busy. I was definitely afraid of losing my way, but God bless the English for clearly labeling everything! I found my way to the Underground without incident, and, due to my previous knowledge of the D.C. Metro, I was able to purchase a ticket and hop a ride on the train without any form of assistance. Off to Earl’s Court Station I flew at a rate that I thought would make me ill again, but I arrived safely and found my way to 270. Home for the next 2 months.

That’s it. I made to London. I moved my stuff in and got settled. I was ecstatic to discover that our home is equipped with wireless Internet access, and then I went to the grocery store. Exciting…I know. Much more has occurred since that exhausting day, but I’ll have to work on that later. I just can’t stand typing anymore at this point.

Stay tuned…