Micro Post No.5

Hey guys, more proof that I'm feeding myself! I'm actually pretty proud of this one, I'm not gonna lie. It's baked salmon with dill and lemon, and roasted potatoes and onions! I know! Fancy!

Anyways, I know I haven't posted in a while, but it's been a crazy few weeks for me. I went to Rome (pictures and posts to come!) and for the past two weeks it has been paper-writing season for me! Needless to say, with me holed up in the library writing papers, I haven't had much time or inclination to write blog posts that will do my adventures any justice. But just know that they are coming and you should be excited!

Stratford, Stratford, Wherefore Art Thou Stratford?

Surprise, surprise, I went on another day trip this weekend! Bet you all didn’t see that one coming from a mile away. The never-ending day trips is all a part of my carpe diem strategy while I’m abroad—who knows when I’ll be able to make it back to this side of the ocean, so I should probably make the most of my time while I’m here.

Shakespeare's home and garden

This week my friends and I visited Stratford-Upon-Avon, hometown of Shakespeare. The drive was long and the stubborn English weather mocked us with rain all day long (until it was time to get on the bus home, that is), but it was still a really fun day! 

Stratford sits on the river Avon (obviously) and is a quaintly preserved Medieval town. The Medieval buildings were interspersed with newer construction, and many of the antique structures were filled with modern high street stores, though there were still several quirky, unique little boutiques all over the place. There were a lot of candy and fudge shops, and along the main “Shakespeare oriented” road, there was a teashop in about every second or third storefront. We ended up getting lunch at a funny little pub called The Pen and Parchment. We ended up ordering traditional English breakfast all around (what can I say, I’m a breakfast sort of a girl) while praying for the rain to let up. It was a really neat little place—behind our booth there was a chalkboard with a record of the landlords going back to the mid 18th century. It was not only incredible to see the unbroken chain of owners, but also just really amazing to know that such a quaint and unassuming little establishment had such a long history. Then again, I tend to be overly fascinated by all things old, especially the exceptionally old things in Europe. 

For the most part we just wandered around. We visited the house where Shakespeare was born and raised. Apparently his family was quite well off due to his father’s booming glove making business. Interesting. We spent quite a bit of time in the numerous gift shops as well. Stratford is quite the tourist hub (and apparently has been for like 400 years…), so there were a lot of cheesy souvenir shops and the like. I didn’t mind it though—I sort of love touristy things and being a tourist: it’s fun to encounter places for the first time and look at them with a sense of astonishment, and I feel like you don’t always get that if you’re trying to blend in with locals or if you get used to a place, you stop exploring and appreciating. 

Medieval houses are small...

Real sugar cubes!!!

We also visited the house of John Harvard, founder of the American university of the same name. Apparently he and Shakespeare were nearly contemporaries! Who knew they hailed from the very same little town in England? After that we went to the home of Shakespeare’s eldest daughter and her husband, who was a doctor. By then it had started to pour torrents on us, so after walking around the house we decided to have some tea in the attached cafe. It was lovely and warm and by the time we had finished our snacks the rain had let up! 

Then we were able to go to the local church and see where Shakespeare and his family are buried. It’s amazing to me that he was baptized, married, and buried in the very same church in the same little town! I suppose the world was just a smaller place 500 years ago. After that, we mostly wandered around. We were told that the layout of the town was preserved from Shakespeare’s time, so we were walking the same paths he would recognized, which I found to be very cool and strange at the same time. Overall, it was a nice day even though we got drenched! 

Stratford church where Shakespeare is buried

As for the rest of the week, I’ve been busy working on school work and my project for Special Collections. I think I’ve narrowed down the scope of my Special Collections project a bit more—it’s so exciting to think that I’ll have something concrete at the end of the semester to show for all my work! 

School work is starting to pick up. I’ve got two papers due in the next 2-3 weeks that I really need to start looking at. I’m a little worried since the way in which papers are written here is a little different than what I’m used to. There’s a different reference system that doesn’t seem very efficient to me, and for my literature paper I’m expected to do a lot of external research, which is new for me. I’m used to just digging into the text and laying out my own thoughts and arguments. Still, that should be easier than the philosophy paper (*yikes*). I’ve never written a philosophy paper and the material still feels a little out of the grasp of my full understanding, so we will just have to cross our fingers and see what happens. 

Cambridge to Cambridge Connection

This week in “Austen Does Day Trips” I ventured down to Cambridge with some of my friends. After leaving at the ridiculously early hour of 7:30 (uhg it was still dark out...or was it just really cloudy?), we arrived in the picturesque land of Cambridge. 

Me, Sara, and Petra in front of King's College (pc: Sara)

While I have been to Cambridge, Massachusetts numerous times, have walked along cobblestone streets there, and have even drunken tea, Cambridge, UK was starkly different. The town and campus looked like they had been plucked out of a story book or movie set! We wandered around amongst hoards of Asian tourists, peering into the windows of posh tailor shops advertising £600 suit jackets, strolling through an open air market, and generally enjoying the prettiness of the setting. 

We ate lunch at a delicious Italian restaurant, which made me all the more excited about my upcoming trip to Rome (!). After the one of the best eggplant parmesans I’ve ever had, we ventured to Great St. Mary’s Church, at the center of Cambridge. The church itself was quite pretty, though I always feel strange walking on stores paved with people’s gravestones—it feels disrespectful, but seems quite common in Europe. We decided to go up into the tower of the church, which advertised the best views of Cambridge on a sign in the church gift shop (a strange thing in and of itself, but no one else seemed to think it bordering on the realm of Indulgences, so I let it be…). 

So narrow...so steep... (pc: Sara)

We had to climb up the narrowest and steepest set of stairs I’ve ever climbed in my life. I’ve never thought of myself as a claustrophobic person, but I was holding on for dear life as well climbed up to the top. The views were absolutely worth it, though. The buildings at Cambridge (like in many European cities, I’ve found) were all rather low to the ground, so we could see a lot. The campus is beautiful, and we had an amazing view of the iconic King’s College. The lawn had such precise stripes (that you were constantly reminded not to walk on), that the whole place seemed like something out of “Alice in Wonderland”. I read the little information pamphlet about the church and was once again amazed at the immense age of some things in Europe. The church had been “well established” already when the university started building up around it in the 12th century CE. My constant shock amuses my friends, but I can’t help but feel a sense of reverence walking around a fully functional structure that is exponentially older than my country (in terms of it’s “establishment”, trying to be PC here folks). 

Top of the tower! (pc: Petra)

After our long descent in the spiral stairs from hell, we decided to stroll through the local art museum. It was quite nice with a pretty solid collection! I even got to see a real portrait of Henry VIII that wasn’t in a history textbook—it was quite novel. We spent a few hours tottering around the museum and then we went and met up with a friend of mine, Mark, who I’d met in American Cambridge last year while he was studying abroad at MIT. It was loads of fun to see him again, though it was sort of like seeing two worlds collide: my Boston life and my Leeds life bumped into each other in Cambridge! Mark took us punting, a uniquely British activity. Punts are little river boats that you move with a long pole, like gondolas (but the driver doesn’t sing to you!). 

Mark making punting look easy (pc: Sara)

Mark punted us around for the majority of the trip making it look quite easy (little did I know that he has done this numerous times before and was also a crew person…), so when he offered me a go, I thought it might be fun. Haha. Ha. I tried so hard to make the boat move, but mostly I swung the pole around in the water, trying to make the boat point straight (but mostly just making it spin around and drift sideways). I think I moved us a few inches forward, but really this was just a rude awakening to the complete lack of core strength I have as I desperately threw my entire weight into trying to move the boat and essentially failing to do so. 

Me failing to move the punt (pc: Sara)

Mark had pity on me and resumed punting, giving us his best tour guide impression as we went. My friends and I learned all about the womping willow (both of them) that grew near the river, the stake where freshers who are witches are burned, and that Queen’s College is so named because that is where the Queen herself throws all her ragers. It was truly informative. Mark also rejoiced in his quest to his every duck, goose, or swan we encountered with true vigor. Overall, our trip was really nice! It’s always good to get out of the residences, off campus, and away from Leeds for a day. 

The always lovely Petra and Sara :) 

It was nice catching up with an old friend, though it did make me think of Wellesley, which made me a little homesick (as did talking about how much I missed Taco Bell…I know, I’m an addict…). My bout of homesickness lasted a few days, and I ended up drowning it in a small shopping trip, 2 packages of Oreos (which are blasphemously sold in the biscuit aisle of the grocery store!), Willow’s sad and soft playlist, and a TV binge. 

For the most part I’m just trying to keep myself busy to ward off any feelings of homesickness, and it’s proving not too difficult to do so here! I’ve started working at Special Collections regularly now! I’m helping to catalog a rather extensive archive of material from the famous British poet Tony Harrison. I’m mainly working on his photo albums (of which there are many), and throughout the semester I’m working to put out a digital resource of images from the albums and texts that focus on one of Harrison’s projects. It’s all quite exciting and everyone at Special Collections is quite lovely (though I do miss the people at Wellesley’s Special Collections quite dearly!). 

Outside of academics, I’ve had a few more moments of culture self-awareness. I’ve recently discovered that some truly wonderful food items are not universal! Several of my European friends have asked me about hash browns when I was describing what I eat for breakfast (a list that amused them in and of itself, but that’s a different story). I was truly astonished and mildly horrified that the wonderful item that are hash browns are not enjoyed globally! A true travesty if there ever was one. I’ve also discovered that my friends from continental Europe have never had Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes before! I’m not really much of a Starbucks supporter in general, their coffee is honestly nothing special, but their Pumpkin Spice Lattes are the gateway into Fall for me! So we are all trying (or have tried) them at my insistence (I tried to describe it as drinkable pumpkin pie, but that reference didn’t land because apparently that’s an American thing too). Lastly, root beer floats! My favorite dessert! I’ve described to numerous people before about how wonderful root beer floats are because it’s not too much ice-cream and you can quench your thirst at the same time and it gets so frothy and wonderful, but my friends all looked quite disgusted and confused when I described the concept. 

Speaking of unique food experiences, this past Monday I went to my program director’s home for dinner! It was one of the most English experiences I’ve had so far! He and his family live in York (about 30 minutes away by train) in a sweet little row house. He had invited me and two of his post-grad (or grad students in US English) that night to eat with him, his wife, his daughter (about my age), and his son (elementary school age). They were all so lovely and welcoming and I had a really lovely time! My favorite part of their house was probably the kitchen because it was so cozy! It even had one of those old fashioned oven/stove tops! We had a very very British meal, as well. We had roast beef (and everyone was amused and slightly horrified when I said I’d only ever had it in lunch meat form in plastic from the store), which was served with horseradish and “hot” English mustard (both were quite mild by my standards, though). We also had some yummy baked or steamed veggies and Yorkshire pudding (which is not like the chocolate pudding you can get in the US, but like a dough puff that you bake). For dessert (which is also called pudding, confusingly enough) we had a yummy apple tart or cake of sorts, and a chocolate cheese cake! The conversation was interesting (I learned a lot about the NHS and its politics) and everyone was so sweet! Plus it was just so nice to have a real, home cooked meal after a month and a half of reheated pasta everyday!

Week 2 in Review

Week 2 was good. Week 2 was busy. Lots of things are starting to move and I’m really excited at how my semester is turning out! My classes are all still going well, though they remain fairly uneventful. I was sad to see that my Medieval Lit professor isn’t the lecturer each week, so class wasn’t as groovy this time around. I also barely clawed my way through my first real philosophy class. I don’t know how people read and digest this stuff on their own—the words were all in English, but I couldn’t discern a coherent thought out of either of the two articles. Willow, you and your brain awe me. 

In my Cultural History class we had to read the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution, as well as a few Supreme Court cases for this week. It was really strange to read up on these documents that I’ve seen and learned about my whole life, and look at them from a linguistic and cultural perspective rather than just in the frame of “US History”. I also enjoyed hearing my English professor lecture on these things: it was strange to hear him talk about the “complicated back story” to so many of these cases (i.e. how US law works, the basic organization of the court systems, the events of the Revolutionary War), and I realized that the English students probably didn’t know all of this stuff, even many of the basics. I thought about how much I knew about the English/British equivalents (very minimal…), and realized that these documents would be a lot more confusing if that was my level of knowledge of them. 

I ended up doing quite a bit of speaking in the seminar on the US documents, since I was the only American in class and was probably the only person who had studied them or knew anything about the Constitution beyond the main document (we weren’t even assigned the Amendments—also, side note, I found it really funny that the lecturer thought that the 2nd and 13th Amendments were probably the most famous. I mean, they are important, and more exciting than say, the 27th Amendment, but what about the 1st? Or the 19th? I don’t know, maybe that’s just the American lens talking…). 

Actually, if anyone from high school is reading this, you would be quite proud and surprised with me! I’ve been speaking quite a lot in almost all of my classes. I think Wellesley has really done wonders for my ability to speak in class and group settings. In high school, getting me to talk was like pulling teeth, actually it might have been harder—I never spoke, sometimes even when directly spoken too (I was quite creative with head and hand gestures if I really wanted to remain silent). Even at Wellesley I haven’t been particularly loquacious. When I’m in class at Wellesley I’m also terrifyingly intimidated by everyone around who seems exponentially smarter and much more well spoken than I think I am, yet some of my classes have pushed me to speak up anyway. Now, maybe it’s just that most of my classes are filled with Freshers and I’m feeling more confident because I have a little more experience, or maybe I’m just a little more solid on my feet when it comes to sharing my thoughts. Who knows?

Aside from classes, I’ve had some developments in the Special Collections area of my program. As some of you may know, Wellesley sent me over to Leeds as a guinea pig for a new program they’re developing in relation with the university that will be focused on Book Studies and the history of print. This program is still pretty nebulous over here, but I’ve been open to suggestions and things are starting to move! On Thursday I was able to go to a really interesting debate on the Future of the Book. This event had a panel of several book industry experts from a librarian, to a publishing house rep, to some authors, professors, and specialists on print and book studies, etc. The debate was really well handled, everyone made very succinct and intriguing points, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. On Friday I was able to attend part of a seminar on the history of printing at Leeds University and the history of small printing presses in general. This was another really nice, though much smaller, event. It was held in a beautiful room in Special Collections, and there was a sweet and delicious lunch provided. Though I didn’t know many of the figures who were discussed (there was mention of many poets and printers who originated in Leeds), I found the culture described really cool and was interested in the way it grew. Overall, they were some very lovely events and only the first of several to come. 

I also met briefly with a woman from Leeds’ Special Collections department about my potential involvement this semester! This is what I’m looking forward to most, actually! Even though I find the history of print to be fascinating, I do someday want to work in a curatorial capacity in a Special Collections library, so any work I can do is exciting for me! The woman I spoke to suggested that I work on a cataloging project of a poetry collection archive since poetry is something that’s of interest to me. She also suggested, and here’s the really fun part, that this project could potentially culminate in an online exhibit of sorts that I could curate! How exciting! I’ve done cataloging before at Wellesley, but I’ve never been able to put together any sort of exhibit! I’m really, really looking forward to this work and will keep you, my loyal readers, updated as it goes. 

Outside of the academic sphere, I went to an English sports ball game this week! “Leeds Varsity” is a massive event out here, where the varsity teams in every sport play the rival school, Leeds Beckett University. This tournament culminates in the men’s varsity rugby match. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I know nothing about sports (say that 10 times fast). I watch them sometimes, but do I ever know what’s happening? Nope. But this wasn’t so much about the rugby match, this was more of an experiential thing. I went with my Dutch flatmate who had never been to a big blowout sports match before, so it was a new experience for both of us in a way. We both got pints and watched the game trying to understand. 

Me and Judith having a pint at Varisty

I do not know how rugby works, but what I gathered was that it’s similar to American football sort of. The ball is a similar shape, and you throw the ball to each other and want to get a “touch down” in the “end zone”, but you can only throw the ball backwards. Also, there are these weird times when you can lift another player up on your shoulders, or when the whole team pushes against the other team in a big huddle. I don’t know, don’t quote me on any of these rules. The game lasted 80 minutes, and the first 70 minutes were pretty uneventful: Leeds Beckett scored a bunch of points, the players got into a minor fight, the ball got kicked into the stands a few times and hit some people in the head (it’s a very treacherous sport for spectators apparently…), and some drunk guys in ties and khakis threw their drinks onto the field and had to be escorted out, nothing crazy. The last 10 minutes, however…

I don’t want to say it was the wildest experience of my life, but it was up there. If David Letterman was making a list, this would for sure be on it. If I remember correctly it all started with the second fight between the two teams—this was swiftly broken up. Next thing you know, though, there’s some guy running across the field in street clothes. He’s waving at the crowds until he is caught by security and taken off the field. The announcers make a little PSA saying that this kid will be fined £80 on the spot, I’m sure in an attempt to prevent others from copying. This was of no avail, of course. Before you know it, there’s another kid on the field, from the other side of the stadium flipping off the crowd of the opposing team—he evades security pretty well, but is tackled by one of the rugby players. After him comes a mooner. This third kid is running down the field like the others, until he suddenly pulls his pants down and shuffles along forcing us all to watch. He was actually tackled to the ground, not just body slammed. Security tried their best, but kids kept jumping the fence onto the field. There was another kid who mooned the Beckett side of the stadium, a few kids who just flipped the crowds off, all of whom where tackled and escorted away. The best and wildest, though, was the streaker. Yes. The streaker. Some kid decided that he wanted to strip down to his birthday suit and run across the rugby field. I have no real words for this one, except that I cannot unsee it. Oddly enough, the streaker wasn't even the last kid to run on the field. All in all I believe there were 8 or 9 kids that night, and mind you all in the last 10 minutes of the game: I don’t even know how we lost because no was watching at that point. True madness. Judith and I went home scarred and confused that night. 

On a brighter note, several of my friends and I went to a lights festival last night! The light events and exhibits themselves were rather lack luster, but the street food was amazing. For the most part we just ended up wandering around the streets (which were filled with people wearing glow stick accessories). I had a burrito and reminisced about Chipotle with my friends, explaining to them what it was and why it is worthy of my nostalgic longing, and one of my flatmates willed some churros into existence. Quite impressive. It reminded me of my first year a little bit, when my friends and I had all just met, and we would get dressed up to go out and end up just wandering around Boston and Cambridge since we didn’t know anyone yet. We always ended up just getting food, which was still a pretty good night out by my standards to be honest. 

Overall it was a pretty good week. Still only the second week, with 9 more to go, but I’m excited to see what’s in store! 

Austen in Uni-Land

Well I made it through my first week of classes at Uni! And even though things operate differently over here, and there are definitely some things I need to adjust to academically, class is still class (though, here they call classes “modules”). 

It’s been yet another week of discovery and pretending like I know what I’m doing while silently freaking out internally. For one thing, there are way more buildings here than at Wellesley, and whoever designed them had a…unique understanding of architecture. Sure there are some lovely old stone and brick buildings inscribed with Latin phrases and enclosed in wrought iron gates, but do I have classes in any of these buildings? Of course not. I have a few classes in “houses”, which are renovated row houses near campus. They were incredibly difficult to find at first because it looks as though someone just lives there, not like it is filled with classrooms, and they University signs are small and far away from the sidewalk, so it’s all a big guessing game really. 

It was in one of these houses that I had my very first ever class at Leeds, my Medieval European Literature lecture. Of course I was freaking out about being late to this class, so I left like 45 minutes early (which meant that I only had like 15-20 minutes to find my classroom in the labyrinthine campus after the 30 or so minute walk from my residence). I wandered around for a bit before finding the house, and then it took a few minutes of walking up and down several stairwells and a pair of kindly students who took pity on me before I found the lecture room. My lecture professor was entertaining though. He insists on being called by his first name, Alaric, insists that no one can give a wrong answer, wore Birkenstock sandals, and used the word “groovy” in every second sentence during class. It was wonderful. I had to read several poems in Middle English without any modern translation this week, though, which was an adventure in and of itself, but it’s a first level course so it should be a nice introduction to Medieval Literature. We’ve already starting our first major text in the seminar, the Nibelungenlied, a Medieval German epic that I’m quite enjoying—there are a lot of noble, yet not very bright knights, and numberless “adorable” ladies, each more gorgeous than any ever seen before ever. 

I usually have a few hours of break in between my classes, between 1-2 hours usually. It’s nice to have a little reprieve, but it’s also sort of annoying since I live so far away and I can’t really go back to my dorm and hang out in between classes like I do at Wellesley where everything is 10 minutes from each other. I usually find a quiet spot outside to eat my packed lunch (I’m perfecting my roast beef sandwich), and then go to the library to do some reading. 

I have a few classes in this one huge building, called Roger Stevens, which I swear was designed by blind architecture. For one thing, the building is hideous. Something out of late 70s architecture, all bare concrete and exposed pipes…it’s unpleasant. This building is full of lecture theaters, and the most confusing thing is that on your schedule, the room may be “lecture theater 2, 7.02” which means floor 7. However, the bewilderment comes in when you start going up the stairs and realize that floor 7 is actually the floor that you enter on…which, of course, makes no sense at all. The only floors that you can access (at least according to the elevator buttons) are floors 7-12. I mean, what? This isn’t the only building on campus with a wonky level system, though, there are a few where you enter on level 11, or other strange numbers. Even just the normal level system here took some adjustment: here the floor you enter is usually “Level G” and the next floor up is “Level 1”, unlike in the US where the ground floor is usually “Level 1”. 

Anyways, in this crazy, nonsensical building I have 2 lectures, one for a Cultural History of Japan, and one for the Philosophy of Religion. Both of these classes seem really interesting! The Japanese history class seems like the least intensive so far, and full of really interesting information. I was attracted to it because it listed Haruki Murakami in the syllabus, whom I love! My philosophy class seems like it’s going to be a little tough, not so much in terms of the work load, but in terms of the content. I’ve never taken a formal philosophy class before and I’ve only ever read snippets of philosophy in different contexts. Let’s just say it’s a little over my head. But! My philosophy lecturer is American! In the lecture on Friday I answered a question (apparently I was the only person in a room of 150 people who knew who Mark Twain was…?), and he gleefully said, “Correct! And you’re not from around here, either!” After class we briefly chatted about where in the states we were from and how I was adjusting, and he’d even heard of Wellesley, which is rare even in the US! 

Aside from these classes, I’m also taking a Cultural History course, which studies the major developments in culture throughout European and American history. Our first lecture was one of my longer ones, lasting about 2 hours, and covered the basics of what “culture” was exactly and what it meant to study the concept and history of culture. It seems like it will be a very thought provoking class. Oddly enough for this coming week, we’re focusing on the Enlightenment and the development of freedom, equality, and democracy, so we had to read the US Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I feel a little like I’m back in middle school or high school, listening to School House Rock and learning about the Amendments and the powers of the 3 branches, it’s been that long since I’ve really looked at these documents and discusses them academically. And, of course, I’m the only American in my seminar, so I’ll end up having to fill everyone in with a little history lesson. 

It’s strangely comforting though, encountering these small scraps of home over here. Now that the realities and rigors of school are setting in (there is a lot of reading, and they actually take attendance here! It’s quite strict…), and the honeymoon period is fading away, I’m starting to miss home a little more. Little things are starting to nag at me, no matter how much fun I’m having meeting new people and having adventures with my friends, I can feel this wistful nostalgia for home, for Wellesley, for the US welling up at the edge of my vision. Maybe that’s what I’ll work through in my next blog post. 

All complaints and poignancy aside, I had a pretty good first week! It’s definitely more strict here, and the Brits certainly don’t hold your hand the way American college do, but I’m looking forward to trying out some new subjects and figuring out how to learn like the English. It’s certainly going to be an interesting semester, I can tell you that.