The Plans, They Are a-Changing

And here I thought I could stick to my word about updating by Monday…

Well friends, it has been a wonderful past week!

My plans have had to alter a bit, as in I did not get to go to Scotland as I had planned (believe me, I was extremely bummed!), but I did end up having a lovely weekend nonetheless. But first let me tell you how my school time has been.

            I did indeed go to Valentine’s day formal, and it was a lovely occasion. I sat next to some delightful individuals, ate good food, and had a lovely pint of cinder afterwards. Nothing terribly romantic occurred, which is all the better because it would’ve only distracted form the fun I had ;).  There was some interesting bits in terms of food presentation: First of all they tried to shape the potatoes into heart shapes (while the effort was appreciated, they came out looking rather like spiked, oblong, pac-men), next there were stuffed mushrooms filled with a white cheese and then topped by a brown thing and a red dollop of something (it was a little bit ago…), all that to say, while it had the colors of love it reminded me of the Eye of Mordor which I thought an amusing addition to our Valentine’s day meal. The meal was finished with delicious strawberry shortbread that I could hardly finish off because it was such a big portion after a very filling meal.

            Anywho, after Formal my weekend was basically spent non-stop in either the library or my room. I had papers due in classes on Early American Literature (writing on the myth of Irving’s Rip Van Winkle), Medieval-Renaissance Literature (exploring the tale of Sir Gareth as a romance narrative in Le Morte d’Arthur), and my class on Paradise Lost (writing a commentary on lines 1.392-407). The whole weekend as I realized the great amount of work I would have to do with each succeeding hour illuminating my burden further I kept praying that somehow God would allow me to at least finish, much less produce good quality work, these papers. In the end, I felt pretty happy with my papers and managed to turn them all in electronically with 5min to spare before the deadline. This past Thursday, if you had been in the Hawthorne’s from around 8am-12pm you would’ve seen a weary looking girl (4hrs of sleep), surrounded by books on Milton trying to expound upon the importance of the narrative concerning the pagan god Moloch in Milton’s epic. 12pm came and it was a glorious moment indeed of sweet relief and delirium.

            As a side, I met a lovely woman named Ursula King who was the former head of the theology dept at Univ of Bristol. We were connected through a friend in IN, and it was fascinating to hear about her work in Patristics, as well as her work in promoting interfaith dialogue. It was a fantastic coffee date (I barely finished my coffee because I was listening so intently). She mentioned that she would like to have me to dinner sometime in the future. Who knows if that will happen, I hope it does, but even if that isn’t possible, it was so good to have such a stimulating conversation with one that has had much experience both academically as well as experientially in life.

            So, what happened to Scotland? Well, it turns out there was not enough spots filled in the group for the trip to take place. Much to my dismay, I received an email on Thursday evening informing of this very fact. But, I didn’t want to let one hiccup of scheduling interrupt my plans to go out adventuring. So I planned with my friend Meg to gather a group of other Study Abroad students to go hiking in a place called Cheddar Gorge. We resolved over dinner on Friday at a place called, “The Burger Joint” that we would get back to our respective homes and plan how to get there. *Sidenote, the burgers we had that night were some of the best I have ever tasted! Whether it was the meat preparation, the ciabatta bun, the garlic and herb mayo, or the English mustard I cannot say, but the cohesion of these elements all produced a Burger of one of the highest qualities I have tasted! Also, the sweet potato fries were thick wedges that were crispy on the outside and just mushy enough on the inside that you felt like you were eating fries and mashed sweet potatoes in one bite!

So, Meg and I planned we would take a train around 10am and from there take a bus into Cheddar and hike the Cheddar Gorge.

I woke up on Saturday, grabbed breakfast and started to walk on my merry way to the bus stop. My plan was to get the 9:26 #9 to Temple Meads; this bus would deposit me there with 20mins to spare before my train left. As I was walking across the downs (a wide swath of flat land separating Wills from the top of Black Boy Hill/the beginning of Bristol’s developed area), I saw the #8 bus (I was looking for either the #8/9 since both went to Temple Meads train station) and thought, “Maybe I can get there even earlier!” So I started running across the downs and was waving my hands at the driver who, I am convinced, idled at the stop just long enough for me to think I could catch the bus before he maliciously closed the divided doors, cackling maliciously as he saw my efforts fall to nothing. While a bit of a downer, the other stop for the #9 was just a couple hundred feet away and I had 5min to spare before it arrived. I get to the stop and am reading the schedule when I see the number 9 pull right by me. Turns out that I by standing in the bus stop, which faced away from the road,  the driver either missed or ignored my frantic waves for him to stop. This left me in a conundrum. It took about 40min to get to the station, and my time was beginning to run out. I decided to call Meg and realized my phone was out of money. I ran over to the neighboring gas station, refilled my account and dashed back to the bus stop. I asked multiple drivers if they were going to Temple Meads before I got on the #54 around 9:35. I sat there hoping and praying I would make it on time. After a bit we came to a stop where I felt a strong urge to jump out and start running to catch the train (it left at 10:12 and it was 10:04). I ignored this urge, assuring myself that the bus would get me there faster than my legs. As we pulled away from the stop I realized in horror that we were pulling away from the Temple Meads station itself! I go up and beg the driver to let me out on the next corner, but he pointed to a security monitor in the corner and said he would be fired if he did that. So, we drove another ¼ of a mile before the next stop. At this point I buckled all the straps of my backpack across my chest and my waist and started sprinting towards the station (stupidly dodging a few cars along the way). I got there and found out from Meg that the train didn’t leave for another 10min, meaning I had gotten there in time to go on the Hiking trip I had helped plan!

            There were a few other adventures before we got to Cheddar Gorge, such as finding the bus from Weston Sutton-Mare that would take us to Cheddar (obviously it was the bus stop that listed every bus except the #126 to Wells on its board). We arrived in Cheddar (a very quaint village) and went hiking up and down and all around the lovely, overcast, and muddy landscape. I realize I had been in the city for too long when I noticed that my skinny jeans and boots were not the best of equipment to wear to go hiking. Nonetheless, they did splendidly, and it was a refreshing and invigorating three hours of hiking with inspiring vistas of English countryside.

            After hiking we went to a local pub and got a few drinks in front of a warm fire. I had a ward and spicy mulled wine that had bits of orange floating in it. It was warming and refreshing. We then caught our bus back to Weston (where we learned our train wasn’t leaving for another hour), and took up post in the train stations pub where I got a half-pint of a cider that tasted like bacon. I am not kidding, I have four other people that back up my taste buds on this point. You sipped the cider, tasted a heavy smokiness and then tasted bacon as the finish. While this may have been a selling point for some, it was not my favorite. Thankfully it was only £1.50, so no big loss on my part. We got back to Bristol, grabbed falafel for dinner (it was nice enough, but not necessarily the best I’ve ever had), and then went to a pub and talked until about midnight. It was a great Saturday!

            This week I have classes and a lot of reading again, and this weekend I will (hopefully) be going to Snowdonia National Park in Wales where I hope to hike Mt. Snowdon! I am very excited bout this prospect. Also, this week will include settling some of my final travel plans for Easter break. I will be working on tickets, train schedules, and hostel reservations. I am extremely excited, especially since my last week of break my mom and sister Emily will be coming to visit me in Bristol and from there we will go adventuring into Ireland. I can’t wait!

The field of sheep we walked through

I choose to believe these are Roman Outpost ruins

The two in the background are bats

Our wee little exploring group

Some black sheep on a hill

We found a Cave!!!

My Canadian friend Meg and I on the Bus back

Cheers!

Well that’s all from me right now! I hope you all have a wonderful day. And please feel free to drop me a line with an update about any adventures you’re been having recently, I’d love to hear your stories!

            

And so they begin...

Wills Memorial Bldg library

Dear Friends,

             This past week was indeed my first week of classes. It has certainly been a bit of a roller coaster ride. MWF I have no classes at all, Tues. I have lecture from 4-6, and Thurs. I have one lecture from 10-12 and another from 2-4.

My reaction to the gorgeous bldg

             Let me be honest here, when I first saw my schedule I thought, "This is going to be a breeze! Easiest semester ever." In my ignorance, I even mentioned these thoughts to a few people, jokingly adding, "just wait, I'm going to regret saying that in a few weeks."...Well, a few weeks came sooner than I had anticipated. While, yes, I do in fact have a lot of time when I am not actively in lectures, I also have beastly reading lists that taunt me as I get closer to their deadlines...if only I had been wise enough and prepared enough to have used my reading week to actually read...but I guess I have a bit more grace with myself, I just didn't know what to expect from this system, and now I have a better understanding.

            So, all that to say, this weekend will consist of lots and lots of reading and writing. I have three 2,000 word essays all due on Thursday. The essays, if assigned at Wheaton, would be no big dilemma as I am well-versed in the process of writing essays back at Wheaton. Here though, I find myself in a strange world that does not require introductions, conclusions, some require sources, others don’t, and overall a sense of intimidation about my capacity to produce. Also, their grading system is rather different where a score of 70 is considered excellent, a score below 60 is average, and a score below 50 is horrid.  It is a strange new world, some things have resolved themselves into familiarity. Like the chocolate Maltesers I tried this past week. My English friends were talking about how delicious they were, trying to describe what they were: Light and fluffy on the inside and chocolaty on the outside. This description was a bit confusing until I finally tasted them and found they were the Malted Milk Balls of my childhood. I think this will vaguely be what I will find with my academic work here, some things will seem unfamiliar until I experience them, then I will gain either an old familiarity or a new understanding.

            Also, I remember this same feeling at the beginning of freshman year when I had to hand in my first essay of my college career, intimidated by the very magnitude of the institution in my mind I feared how my work would compare to the scholars around me. But just as I came to realize that I was intelligent enough then not to fail, I am sure my intelligence now will not produce total crud (I hope) ;).

            You may now be thinking, “Aw, you’ll be fine. Keep your chin up! But, umm…how did your weekend away go? School is fun, but not as fun as adventures!”

Well dear ones, my weekend away was fanflippingtastic! On Friday I took the bus to the BBC Bristol building just down Whiteladies road from my hall in the Clifton Downs. From there I walked for a couple of minutes until I reached another beautiful church hidden on the corner of a street (seriously though, these things are everywhere. They are all so lovely. It’s like finding a hidden treasure each time you stumble across one of them.). I was about 20min early and it was a bit dark out, so I stood in the light of the church near the doorway. After a bit of standing there with my large backpack, reading my book, I began to feel a bit bad because I think I looked rather sketchy to the older women inside the church who would glance out the door every couple of minutes. Thankfully I soon found my ride and we were off.

English Countryside

            One of the best things about the body of Christ is the camaraderie that comes with being apart of it. Let me explain, we drove about an hour south of Bristol and ended up in the middle of the English countryside. The house we stayed in was especially designated Christian Retreat House. It was large and cozy at the same time (as well as a bit drafty, hence the importance of layers).  The moment I walked in and found my bed I felt an ease and joy about my surroundings and the people I had the pleasure of sharing time with. I realized as I sat in my bed and chatted with the girls in my room that it had been almost four weeks since I had spent a substantial amount of time enjoying the presence of fellow Christians.  It was like remembering your thirst after being given a glass of water. We sang songs, heard words of encouragement and wisdom, prayed over one another, played games, talked, broke bread, and slept. It was a practiced representation of what the Body of Christ should look like in the day to day interactions of fellow believers. I was sharing my story and hearing stories from people I had never met before, yet we shared a history and were co-inhabitants of the same narrative due to the fellowship of our hope. 

She fell in the mud, I promise, I didnt push her!

            One of the most fun bits was going on about an hour and a half to two hour walk through true English countryside. It was drizzling, terribly muddy (mud up to my lower calf, my boots took forever to clean), and blustery. I was so excited, the entire view was the very embodiment of what I imagined so many other English authors gazed upon in the writings of their novels. Another funny thought came to me as I was walking where I tried to imagine the glorious enterprises of King Arthur taking place in such environs, the idea that thousands of wars were fought in such conditions was both comical and impressive. This mud was so slippery, deep, and squishy that I wished I had brought better clothes to romp around in (the temptation to push someone into the mud, or throw mud was almost overwhelming. The only things that kept me from it was a)that I had only brought the one pair of jeans , which I was wearing, and I only had the one jacket b)there was no laundry facilities back at the house. Otherwise, muddy carnage would’ve ensued and it would’ve been glorious). Also, the males of the group found a rather sizeable ditch over which they jumped as a sign and affirmation of their masculinity. This was also a moment where I SO VERY MUCH wanted to jump over that muddy ravine, but, gosh dang it, I would’ve had no trousers (because here, pants are your underwear)  to wear for the next day. Oh well, next time, I shall fully engage in my muddy adventures.

The boys jumping over the ditch

Rachel recovering from her trip into the mud

So funny!

Our assorted footwear after our adventure

            Tonight we have our Valentines day formal (aka fancy dinner with capes) and there will be randomly assigned seating...who knows what will happen? ;)  This week I have oodles of reading, oodles of writing, and after Thursday I am sure I will collapse on my bed in sheer joy that the essays are done and the books are at least mostly read.  For the weekend I head off to Scotland on Friday! I am going to take an overnight coach to Edinburgh Friday night (with a largish group of other study abroad students) Saturday we will have a walking tour of the city, and Sunday we will have a packed lunch and a free day to do what we would like. I plan to take a friend's advice and hike up to Arthur's Seat on that day and take lovely photos (weather permitting... but, ya know what,  even if it doesn't permit I am going to bloody well try to get some breathtaking photos.) I know my schedule with updating this blog has been sporadic, but most likely expect the next update not this Monday, but the next. Then I wil be able to regale you with my adventures in Scotland! Well, thats all for me right now! I hope you all have a fantastic day

!

The Bustle in Bristol

 

What’s the bustle in Bristol? Well, let me tell you…

            I have been in Bristol for about a week and a half and have: had about 30 meals, moved into my room, registered for classes, been exploring around the city, had my first English tea, my first English cider, my first English pint, been dancing, been to a faux toga party, gone running around, traveled to Bath, traveled to Stonehenge, and not been to a single class… :) (I know what you’re thinking, “what a slacker!”, but don’t worry, I will explain)

            Bristol is perfectly delightful. Right now I am sitting with my roasted carrot and hummus, (with an unidentifiable, but delicious sweet chili sauce), on brown bread sandwich (£1.90) that I picked up from a tiny stall just around the corner from the Arts and Social Sciences Library (A.S.S. for short) in which I am now typing this post as I munch on my food.

           

            The weather when I arrived in Bristol was thoroughly snowy and cold. I was afraid that I had come to an area of the world that was going to be even colder than my Chicago winters back in Wheaton. Thankfully, my fears were quickly assuaged when in a few days the snow was whisked away by rain and it has been a temperate 35-50°F here ever since (with quite a bit of rain). Yet, even this weather of rain and cold fronts (while a relief to me who knows how much worse it can be) is particularly freezing to my British counterparts. Hence, when I talk about how warm it is outside, most times my comments are met with looks of confusion, and a polite noncommittal shake of the head... Oh well, it feels absolutely lovely for me considering it is February and it feels like Spring weather already.

              Speaking of upgrades, while I desperately miss my sweet sweet roomies back in Wheaton, Terrace apts cannot hold an aesthetic candle to living in Wills hall (aka the closest thing to a castle I will ever live in). 

              Wills hall is about a 25-30min walk away from the main campus. It is set up at the top of a long hill along which runs a road called White Ladies rd. A majority of people in Wills hall don’t have a roommate, which seems to be the norm here for Uni students. Each room is equipped with a sink (equipped with two spigots  One is scaldingly hot, the other bitterly cold. No happy medium)

The center square of Old Wills Hall, the view I see every morning

My windows

My door on the third floor

Walking in through the door...

Aerial perspective of my room

 Another fun tiddly bit about Wills Hall is that it is one of the very few (maybe only) dorms on campus that have an Oxford/Harry Potter style formal meal every Friday. Most Fridays this includes formal table settings in the eating hall, table service, and formal gowns. Everyone brings a bottle of wine to share with friends at their table, and afterward go to the bar downstairs to sit and enjoy one another's company. On special days there are themes for the formal dinners, my first was Robert Burns night, and the upcoming one is Chinese New Year themed.

Dressed in my formal gown for formal dinner

The Uni provides students out in Stoke Bishop (where Wills hall is located) with a bus pass. Each day I will catch a bus into the university campus.

A photo of the Downs around which I go for runs

Nearby where I live there is a retirement community that has lovely grounds. I have been walking around and through it about 2-3 times. The buildings are all made to reflect a more traditional English architecture. They have massive knobby trees, and tiny flowers smattered around their grounds. I don't really know what are the trespassing laws here in England, so whenever I walk through their grounds I always hope that those in security will just think I am visiting my grandparents and fancied a walk.

The retirement community's chapel

Walking Path

Living quarters

The Bar in Wills Hall

 The way that classes work here in the UK is apart of a two part system. Classes have their lectures and then their seminars/tutorials. The lectures have a large audience of about 100 people, whereas the tutorials are much smaller, maybe 7-15 people. For me, my classes on Early American Literature, Paradise Lost, and Medieval-Renaissance Literature are just beginning this week (last week was a reading week for those in the ENGL dept.). So today I head off to my first lecture. Unfortunately, the Univ. has been a bit backed up in terms of scheduling, so I still dont know when my smaller tutorials are... I head to the Humanities dept today to see what I can find out.

One of my adventuring days consisted of going into Bristol's city centre and looking at some of the street art that decorates the buildings on Nelson Street. Here is a link to find out more Nelson Street Art. I guess it is the UK's largest outdoor Street art project. It was alot of fun to wander around and take photos. Some of the lieces looked as though they had been drawn from charcoal, others were fascinating in their use of colour and shading, and others were just funny looking.

My Aussie friend Sophie next to Wall-E

Not Street Art, Wills Memorial Bldg on campus

"See No Evil" next to a steeple

OH NO!!! So Much Paint!

I can hardly believe this Steam Punk Griffin!

EX-TER-MI-NATE

A Jukebox riding the hounds of death

Holding Out for a Hero

Every Wise man needs his shrooms, either to digest or live on top of

There has to be a lovely church on every corner

The fly away so soon, grow up so fast. 

He is trying to reach his shoes. Life is hard when bullies terrorize the streets

Always watching...

After my friend Meg (a Canadian) and Sophie (an Aussie) walked around downtown Bristol for a bit we stopped by a tea shop where I had my first English tea. A fruit scone, clotted cream, and a rosemary-thyme tea made a splendid spread for a mid-afternoon snack.

  This past weekend, on Sunday, I went to Bath and Stonehenge with my same friends Meg and Sophie as well as another chap named Reilly from America. It was a cold and blustery day, but the loveliness of Bath made the venturing well-worth the uncomfortable temperature.

Side of Bath Abbey

Bath Abbey

This was a lovely town. Lots of tiny shops all around, and the whole city made out of a lovely yellow stone. I'm sure that during the summer, with the sun shining all around, the city is even lovelier. It was here in Bath that I had a delicious and spicy veggie burger (on the suggestion of my Rick Steve's [I call him "Ricky"] guidebook we went to the Market Cafe. Delicious!). Unfortunately, we realized that since it was Sunday, we could not tour the Abbey until after we visited Stonehenge.

"Please, come to me my minions!"

A thatched roof seen from the van window.

At stonehenge we were given audio guides that informed us about the various theories surrounding Stonehenge. I found myself enjoying the site, but also in conflict since the sheer man-power and massive capacity needed to build stonehenge was lost on me. In an era of cranes, and building equipment, it was difficult for me to conceive of just how many men it would've needed to move these massive plinths of stone.   Some of the stones were taken all the way from             Wales, some 200 miles away! If you do a bit of research into Stonehenge, you will come to understand that no one really understands how it was built or for what reason.  This boggles my imagination. In anthropology I remember learning about a hierarchy of needs: food, shelter, procreation, etc. When the needs at the top are met, then the capacity of a society to build ornate places of worship, go to war, expand their territory is increased.

Do you see the grumpy man face in the Heel Stone?

The knowledge that multiple groups of people (since stonehenge was built, rebuilt, and built again) thought that the transport of gynormous stones across a muddy and slippy landscape was well worth the resources, food supplies, and manpower necessary is fascinating. Either it had a great significance, or the people of that time were really really bored...and strong...and celestially fascinated (some think stonehenge is a celestial calendar, which due to its set-up is not a far-fetched idea. The heel stone is set in such a way that at the summer solstice it lines up perfectly with the rising of the sun.

The Mysterious She/man

A funny story that occurred while I was at Stonehenge has to do with this individual off to the left here. I was taking photos of the stones, and noticed this person walking along the bridge. My first thought was, "How interesting it is that a druid woman would come to stonehenge in this weather. What a lovely wood her goat headed occult staff is made out of... Her cape looks like a wizard's cape...'She's a wizard Harry'... (giggle)" These thoughts passed in my mind in a matter of moments. It wasn't until later when I was taking another lap around Stonehenge that I realized from his deep bass and scruffy face that this individual was no woman, this one was a man.

            I had a moment flash through my head of Eowyn tearing off her helmet, except she would be a man, and he would be asserting that "I am no woman".

I thought the baby looked like an overturned beetle

Bath Abbey had a certain haunting quality in the quickly fading light.

Well, I have been having a fantastic time. I can't believe how blessed I am to be able to travel and to have such grand adventures here in the UK. This weekend I am going on a youth church retreat, and also, hopefully on Thursday go to my second LeRoc dance class.
I went to my first LeRoc class (which is a hybrid of Modern Jive, Salse, Swing Dance, and Jazz dancing) last night, and had a delightful time. I danced there for about three hours. There were mainly individuals in their early 30's to their late 70's. Those gentlemen that were older were wonderful dancers! I was amazed at how well they moved and at how good they were at dancing. I am very excited to go again!

In conclusion, I have been having a great time. These upcoming weeks include the church retreat, beginning of classes, and dancing. I'll try to be better about sticking to my weekly blog rule. Life just flys by, and trying to coordinate photos and writing can be difficult, but also so much fun! Have a blessed day, thanks for reading!