The End

Well, this is it. I’ve been back in the States for a little over a week, and ever day I have done everything possible to avoid writing this post (*cough cough* hours of Netflix *cough cough*). I’m not quite ready to say goodbye yet, but I’m not sure if I ever will be, so here it goes.

There were many wonderful things about my last few days in Bath: spending time with my friends, Final Tea with the entire program, and the anticipation of free time and seeing my family. However, there were also lots of less than wonderful things: primarily finals (I do not like timed essays. Let’s leave it at that) and, you know, leaving.

This mix of good and bad is something that I feel I need to focus on. As time pushes me further and further away from Bath, I am only going to remember it more and more fondly. But every day there were things I liked and things I didn’t, things that made me want to stay forever and things that made me want to leave immediately. I tended to only put the glossy fun parts on this blog, but there were plenty of things that I didn’t like as well. But this is true of my college, of being a homeschooler, of everything—such is life, yes?

I’m not saying that I had a miserable time or anything—in fact, quite the opposite. I just think that it is important to remember my experience how it really was, with all of the downs and the ups. That being said, I know I will remember my experience abroad forever. Bath helped me try new things and gave me friends I know I will have for a very, very long time. Bath let me write papers on my favorite topics and see so many places I had desperately wanted to see. Bath made me (a little) less scared of flying and helped me become a significantly more independent person.

Thank you all for listening. I’ve really loved keeping this blog and sharing my experiences with you. Who knows, maybe I’ll start another one?

The Final Weeks

In an effort to procrastinate finishing my paper and studying for finals, I figure it's time to update the blog. 

I've been hesitant to write this post because it will be one of my last while in England. Yes, ladies and gentleman, it's that time of the semester: one week until I am home! There are lots of things I'm looking forward to (like my family and my books and Netflix and nice libraries and thick sweaters) and lots of things I'm already starting to miss here (like my housemates and all of the history here and my routines and, you know, England), but mostly I'm trying not to think too much about leaving. So, instead of some deep analytical, soul-searching post, here are some things I've been up to since I last posted (I'll save the deep post for next time).

Part 1: Cotswolds trip

A few weekends ago most of my program went on a day trip to the Cotswolds, a region of England relatively near to Bath. We took a short walk up to Broadway Tower, where the view looked like this:

Then we took a long walk into the town, across fields and fields, most of which were occupied by sheep like this one: 

Part 2: Fantasies of Youth study trip

Last Friday my children's literature class took a study trip to London! Our first stop was a Harry Potter walking tour. Our tour guide, who sounded and behaved a bit like Moaning Myrtle, led us to several minor film locations by having us follow her wand. For real (proof below).

Here is my class on the Millennium Bridge in London, with me awkwardly trying not to be too tall:

Then we went to the Museum of Childhood, which was super cool and had a special exhibit about fantasy. And there were doors. TO NARNIA. 

There were also walls that featured Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Basically, I had died and gone to heaven.

I desperately want my room to have walls full of these illustrations.

Part 3: My friend Abby comes to visit!

The next day, my lovely friend Abby came to visit for a few days. We had a wonderful time and it was a perfect break! Just what we needed.

We went to the Roman Baths

and observed how the Christmas Market had taken over the city.

My housemates and I also introduced Abby to film adaptations of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (in Clarendon Villas? What a surprise!) and the wonders of the Hedgehog Cake.

 We visited Stonehenge

and ran into two other William Smith students at the Assembly Rooms/Fashion Museum (and made it into This Week in Photos on the HWS website)! 

I also finally tried a Sally Lunn bun, which is famous in Bath

Part 4: Stratford-upon-Avon

The careful reader may recall that I visited Stratford with my Shakespeare class earlier in the semester. Well, I was lucky enough to get to go back! My entire program took a three-day trip to Stratford this past week. We stayed in small B&Bs, and I roomed with one of my lovely housemates. Our room had a fantastic window seat (we all know my deep passion for window seats)!

We saw two plays while we were there. The first play we saw was called Written on the Heart, and it was about the creation of the King James Bible. Although I found the history hard to follow, the questions it brought up about language and literature and translation and religion were really interesting. The next night we saw Measure for Measure. My Shakespeare class had studied Measure for Measure, and that morning we had performed selected scenes from the play for the rest of the program (I played Pompey,  a tapster and pimp. I know, I know). The Swan Theatre, where we saw the production, is very small and has a thrust stage, and I sat in the second row on stage left! It was the best theatre experience of my life. I had never been that close to a performance before--to be able to see all the actors facial expressions clearly and to have them interact with us (not always in a flashy way--sometimes just occasional eye contact) was incredible. While I didn't find that this production of Measure for Measure correlated with how I saw the play academically, it was a great show--really funny!--and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. 

Fangirl moment: a few of us also had an awkward actor encounter! We were walking to visit Shakespeare's grave (see below) and we were right near the theatre when we passed this man who looked kind of familiar. The four of us looked at him and he looked at us and there was this awkward moment of "you look kind of familiar" glances before we passed him. We then had a moment of awkward squealing within his hearing range when we confirmed with each other that it was actually the actor who played the Duke, Raymond Coulthard (we weren't positive at first because he had glasses on and was carrying a child). He also played Frank Churchill in the Kate Beckinsale version of Emma:

On a more serious note, we then payed our respects to Shakespeare's grave. 

We also visited his birthplace, which has a pretty cool exhibit and lovely (albeit small) grounds.

 

On our last day, our program stopped at Warwick Castle on the way home, which was cool but would have been cooler if it hadn't been a very blustery day.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these snapshots of my final weeks here! I hope I'll post at least once more soon.