And if you look to your left you will see...

One of the things I am most grateful for by studying abroad through BCA is the way that the programme provides several trips across the country to take us to we'll known British sites and increase our knowledge about what actually is British. Last weekend we went on the second trip of the term that took us Americans to the marvel that is Stonehenge, the windy city of Portsmouth, and the quaint town of Salisbury.

However, the beginning of the trip already held the signs of complete and utter disaster (not really, I'm just feeling dramatic in my writing today. Bear with me.) as I was unable to acquire my one and only necessity: a cup of coffee in the morning. Normally, such a lack of caffeine would leave me in quite a grumpy state, but on the contrary I was in the cheeriest of moods as we began the coach ride to the Salisbury planes. After a brief nap and several jokes about how old Stonehenge is, we suddenly saw our destination in the distance.

And on the right you will see a prehistoric mystery. Casually next to a busy highway. 

Soon enough, we were battling chilly air and fierce winds to make it from the coach to the small museum that attempted to reveal to us the meaning of Stonehenge. And even sooner enough, we were nestled on a tram that drove us from the museum to the actual site of the stones. As we approached, some BCA-er's and I continued to speculate the meaning of Stonehenge. Our theories ranged from a quaint image of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn sipping wine and having a picnic to the stones being a portkey to the Quiddich World Cup. We would soon be regretting our jests.

However, we soon forgot all of our theories when we finally got to stand before the stones themselves. I've always been interested in studying and learning about the mysteries and history of Stonehenge and, as a result, it has always been a hope of mine to one day visit the site in person. As an added bonus, the English weather decided to be absolutely wonderful and full of sunshine, blue skies, and green grass for the occasion. 

What is the meaning? We can't know...

Stonehenge is one of those things that you hear about so much and see so many pictures of that when you're actually there you kind of have a moment. It's like meeting a stranger and yet feel as though you already know them. I don't know, maybe this is just my sleep-deprived brain talking (I am currently writing this now after my trip to London.). 

Anyways, while we were enjoying the sights, we were also enjoying the fierce winds that could support you if you leaned into them and allowed for many cinematic photo opportunities. 

And next to the ancient rock formation you will find the American tourists

At this point we noticed a few grey could forming in the distance, but because of our time with British weather we didn't think much of it. We could survive a brief rain shower. And besides, the clouds we far enough away, we would make it back to the tram before the weather hit. Next thing we knew we were crouched next to a wall in an attempt to evade the hail that the Stonehenge gods were throwing at us. While most people would be absolutely infuriated after being soaked by the most awful weather possible, I couldn't help but laugh at the absolutely ridiculousness of the situation. And Rebecca and I kept laughing all of the way to Portsmouth. 

When we made it to Portsmouth, we were almost blown away by the wind and we were most definitely blown away by the views of the Southern Sea. 

Due to the high winds that we had faced all day we were unable to stay near the shore for long (they literally sucked the air from my lungs every so often) and we soon made our way to the hotel we would be staying at for the night. We were originally supposed to explore the Dockyards of Portsmouth but our plans had to be changed because of the weather that had forced the Dockyards to close. At this point we weren't sure what we were going to be doing in the morning, but we were simply happy to be in a hotel and lying on comfy beds. 

The rest of the evening was filled with clothing that needed to be dried via hair dryer, a few hours watching the Olympics and cheering on the Norwegians (this is what happened when you are friends with a proud Norwegian-American), delicious pub food, Cards Against Humanity, and lots and lots of laughter over the ridiculousness of the day and the hilarity of the photos we got (thanks wind). 

After a delicious (and free!) breakfast at the hotel, we made our way to the D-Day Museum at Portsmouth where we spent our morning. While WWII is historically important in America, it never had the same resonance that it had in the UK -- something that we discovered while visiting the museum and speaking with our BCA leaders. Being there and learning about something we all knew about from a culturally different perspective was really eye-opening and I'm so glad that we had that opportunity. Moments like that are, to me, what studying abroad is about. Not only are we here to have fun and explore but to also learn about a new culture (no matter how similar it appears to be to America's). 

Soon enough, we were on our way north again, but rather than taking the coach straight to Cheltenham it was decided that we would make a stop in the city of Salisbury to take a break, eat, and explore. Out of all of the smaller cities that we have visited (not that I've really been to many), Salisbury is my favorite. Aesthetically it looks like you would expect a lovely, English town to look like. Older buildings, gorgeous stone churches, cobblestone roads, and plenty of signs of the town's long history. 

We chuckled a lot at this

 

This is probably the most stereotypically English photo I have taken 

However, our favorite part of the stop at Salisbury was the chance to visit the Cathedral. 

Oh, and that last picture. That was take on our way to the temporary cafe that was housing one of the remaining original copies of the Magna Carta. Yeah, that Magna Carta. That was written 800 years ago. It was casually in a cafe where you could buy a scone and gaze upon critical British history and chew thoughtfully on both pastry and knowledge. I still can't get over it.

Anyways, we quickly booked it back to the coach and were soon on our way back to Cheltenham. It felt odd returning to Regency that night after being away for only a weekend. At that point I had officially been in England for a month and things like our flat were finally starting to feel familiar. However, things still aren't home-like yet so it still felt a little odd.

The school week began the next day and flew by quickly. I witnessed a student have a go at one of my lecturer's over Andy Warhol (don't ask, it was rediculous), edited a Renaissance text, watched the Olympic's Opening Ceremony (a week late, I know. But it was so, so wonderful!!), finished all I needed to do to reapply for my RA position back home, and celebrated Valentine's day with a dinner with my flatmates (however I made a point to ignore the holiday as best I could otherwise).

Yesterday I had the most fabulous time in London (my new favorite city), but I will save my description of that for another time. This post is quite long enough, and I still need to upload my pictures to my computer. But until then I plan on just taking it easy and planning out some essays that I need to write in the next few weeks (yikes!).

Love and rockets,
Emily

Bringing in the New Year in Birmingham (and more)

At home I am known for many things. I am known for having exceptional Wobble-ing and Wop-ing skills, my laughing snorts, my sass, yelling inappropriate phrases, and more. However, I am also known for not getting enough sleep and being sleep deprived. Unfortunately, I must sadly report that this trait of mine was not left behind when I flew away to the UK. At first I thought that it was because of jet lag and my body struggling to adjust its internal clock. Now, almost four weeks in, I'm still having nights where I just lie awake until 3 a.m. and wait to fall asleep. I'm not entirely sure why I've been sleeping so poorly (too much on my mind? too many late nights? too many late mornings thanks to canceled or evening classes? We can't know...), and I can only hope that it gets better soon. Because of it I was only able to get two hours of sleep before my trip to Birmingham last Sunday for the Chinese new year.

Life was rough

The morning of said trip started out pretty well despite my sleep deprivation! The sun was shining (although it did somehow rain at the same time... English weather at its finest!) and I was looking super cute and I was excited for a day exploring the Birmingham Museum of Art, eating Chinese food, and exploring England's second largest city. I know it may be a shock for some of you to learn this, but I really, really, REALLY love art museums (I know, shocking). Like, a lot. And being able to wander around the Birmingham museum was so lovely. While it was nice to visit the Tate in Loverpool, modern art is not really my thing and it was hard for me to really enjoy the pieces. On the other hand, the Birmingham museum was filled to the brim with classic pieces from the Itallian Baroque, 18th century England, and (much to my friend Rebecca's delight) the Pre-Raphalite period.

It was so great to be around all of the artwork that I love. However, there were some piece that (as usual) made me want to burn the world with their extreme artistic-ness. 

LIKE THE LARGEST WATERCOLOR PAINTING IN THE WORLD

Soon enough our stomachs began to growl with hunger and we made our way to the Chinese New Year celebrations for some delicious (and authentic) Chinese food (ps. I got Duck Chow Mein. It was delicious.) Due to the cold wind we didn't really stay outside for long and retreated to the warmth of the local shopping centre for some comforting American sights (Forever 21) and Starbucks. At that point of the day it was hard to keep my normally bubbly and positive spirits up due to my lack of sleep and general lack of excitement after the high of artwork and chow mein wore of. Caffeine was a necessity before the firework display to ring in the New Year.

Which ended up being pretty fantastic (despite the lackluster view)

As we sat and people-watched with our coffee, our conversation somehow turned, again, to stories of what we had done in the previous semesters at school. Most of the time I'm able to keep it together when I talk about my friends at home, but it was a little harder that day (thanks to sleep deprivation and a cranky mood, maybe?). The net thing I knew I was tearing up and my friend was asking me if I was homesick. 

Now, I don't necessarily see myself as homesick. I'm so, so, so happy and excited to be here, and to be taking classes in things that I love again, and finally experiencing city life, and meeting new people, and being able to travel and see so much in the time that I'll be here. But at the same time there are some hard moments when I see the pictures of my friends that I have on my wall, or I talk about the wonderful memories that I have from this past semester, or I see pictures/updates on Facebook that show that life is going on for my friends without me and I can't be included because I am here. I guess I'm more friend-sick. But at the same time I'm making wonderful friendships with my flatmates and the other BCA students and (maybe?) my British classmates and making great memories here while my friends at home keep me as included as possible. So, yeah. The sorta-sad part of my blog is over!

The rest of my week was filled with trips to the post, a British Life and Culture lecture over the meaning of Stonehenge, (unfortunately) my first migraine in England, literature lectures, mug brownies,

tiara sharing,

Ke$ha dance parties in the kitchen, extreme amounts of snapchats to friends from home from my flatmates,

They were providing facial hair advice. 

Skype calls home,

SUCH PRESH

doing homework, and a night out with the flat.

The next few weeks are going to be filled with events so prepare yourselves for updates on my time exploring Stonehenge and Portsmouth, our flat's Valentine's Day party, and a trip to London. We have not planned any further than next weekend but I'm sure that life will be fun and exciting (so long as I get my essays done...).

Much love,
Emily

Saturday Nights Spent Blogging in a Tiara

After a Saturday spent resting, watching Orange is the New Black, food shopping I now feel the need to update my blog with both recent events and adventures along with some internal musings about life in the UK. I even made a list of topics to cover. Yes, my gold is showing.

Brace yourselves, lots of words are coming. 

Alright. So one of the goals that I have for my time in England is to see as many Shakespeare plays performed as possible and on Thursday I had plans to see a live broadcast of Coriolanus (STARRING TOM HIDDLESTON) at the local cinema with one of the friends I made here. We were both so excited to see the play because of its Shakespeare origin, Tom Hiddleston, and the fact that it would be a live broadcast and we were dressed up super cute and had brought Jammie Dodgers along as our treat. HOWEVER, due to technical difficulties the cinema was unable to broadcast the play and so there was a mass exodus of saddened/angered Shakespeare-loving Britons (and at least two American English majors). Our only solace was the fact that we would be going to one of the local pubs for dinner that evening.... Until our hearts were crushed when the attractive bartender told us that the kitchen had closed when we finally wandered in at 9:30 p.m. Frustrated and hangry we were forced to return to the flat to scrounge for food and send snapchats to friends from home about our sadness. 

This still does not accurately capture or represent our feels. 

With heavy hearts we accepted the fact that our wonderful Thursday of wonderful plans had sadly become The-Day-When-Every-Thing-Went-Wrong. That was until my flatmates decided that we should be more spontaneous and go out for the night (note that this was decided at 12:30 a.m.). While I was absolutely exhausted at my lecture the next morning, I am really glad that my flatmates decided that we all go out. Everyone had been having either a terrible day or a terrible week that could only be cured by singing/screaming along with Ke$ha. 

Speaking of my flatmates, I should really get on with talking a bit about flat life. We technically live in one of the residence halls that is provided by UoG but it is super different from the halls I've grown used to at MU. There are 9 students living in my flat, 5 English and 4 American, and each of us have a bedroom with a bathroom (bless!) to ourselves and a kitchen we all have to share. I am really so, so glad to have been placed on my flat because the English students are all pretty close as friends and they have been super welcoming to us Americans. We'll watch movies, go out, shop, adventure, eat, laugh, and dance together and it really feels like we have a wonderful little community together! We've also adopted one of my other American friends as an honorary flatmember because her flat is unfriendly and, in her words, "full of ghosts." I can't help but worry a little bit about this happiness simply being a "honeymoon period" and ending in the next few weeks (I seriously blame my Res Life brain for this!) but I don't think this will happen because we're three weeks in and already on such good terms!

While I'm so glad that I've made friends with my flatmates, I really hope that I can make other English friends else where. One of the downfalls about living in my flat is that all of the English students in my hall are all "freshers" (ie. first-years) and two years younger than me. While I haven't had a problem with immaturity, I can't help but want to talk or meet with people my own age and one of the only places I can do that is while in class. When I first started classes at Uni I felt so, so awkward because not only was I the novelty American student that everyone threw sideways glances at but some of my classes run throughout the whole year and since I'm here for Spring term I was literally dropping in on the middle of a class full of people who have already bonded and made friends with one another. For the first time in years I didn't act like a total Hermione Granger in class because of how uncomfortable I would feel when I spoke (which was really hard because I'm taking courses that I really, really love! Like literature and art history!). However, now that I'm three weeks in it's getting easier to make friends and I'm finally greeted with a few friendly and smiling faces! Now I simply need to get used to the fact that classes actually exist which is hard because I only have two hours of lecture per day for four days a week and very little homework. My course load is so light compared to last semester (which is really good considering how awful the past fall was!) and I sometimes forget about the "study" part of studying abroad. 

While most people would be really pleased with so much free time I'm still struggling to figure out what to do with myself here. If I was still at home I would have a plethora a tasks on my "to-do list" -- Res Life activities, newspaper editing, paintings to paint, people across campus to visit, you name it! Now I'll get home from lecture and sit in front of my computer and either watch movies or look at Facebook and long for my friends from home to talk to me if no one in my flat is available. This time missing people from home was really disheartening when I first got here, but now it's actually become a nice thing. I've enjoyed having some quiet time to myself or having the change to go on a quick adventure into town (so long as I have my umbrella!). And I've also made friends here that I can be social with (either by going out somewhere or just talking in their room) when I have moments when I need to be with people. I'm also really glad that my friends from home and I are still able to keep in touch and talk and laugh. Again, I'm can't help but worry a little bit (who am I kidding, I'm a constant puddle of worry!) because I've seen people who have studied abroad and have lost touch with their people at home which makes for a difficult transition back. Thankfully I have messages like this to calm me down. 

The front is Union-Jack-tastic and says "Keep Calm and Carry On." It's kinda perf. 

Right now I'm just trying to do my best to maintain a balance between my two homes. I want to be as social and as connected to life in England and to the people here as much as possible while also maintaining my connections to people at home. So far I've gotten pretty good at this balancing act and I just have to remind myself of all of the awesome opportunities I have by being here.

One such opportunity is a three-week long spring break that I am now beginning to plan! If everything works out correctly I will be spending the days between April 4th and April 18th traveling by train to Paris, Venice, Vienna, Prague, and Amsterdam with my friend Rebecca (the same friend I tried to go to Coriolanus with). I'm so excited to go traveling with her because we are interested in visiting and exploring similar things like the Louve, the Van Gogh Museum, the old haunts of artists and authors, and more! At some point when we are in Paris we hope to be found by Parisians riding in a Model-T to take us back in time to the Twenties. I also hope to make it to Spain once again during the term to visit Madrid and Barcelona once again and to find my way to Rome so that I can cry in the Sistine Chapel for fifteen minutes. I will not be happy unless I return home with stamps in my passport from at least ten countries. 

At last I have finally crossed all of my topics of interest off of my list! Tomorrow I will be traveling with other international students to Birmingham for the Chinese New Year so prepare yourselves for plenty of information about the art museum I'll visit and all of the Chinese food I will eat. And plenty of pictures. 

Much love, 

Emily