Mind The Gap

AKA: I'm Sorry I Have Not Been Posting Things

I could say that it was the end of the semester scramble that left me with no time to spend on extraneous things like writing blog posts, but, honestly, that would be a lie. The end of this semester was almost too chill for me. Unlike at Wellesley, or even in high school, my final exams and papers are all after winter break, so this semester wound down very quietly, fading into break without much ado.

The real reason I haven't written any posts since Thanksgiving? Well, I've just been so, so lazy. Honestly, I've been doing a bit of reading here and there, watching a lot of Netflix, and sleeping so much that I lost all of my momentum to do essentially anything that involved effort of any sort.

But! I am on break now! And I have to avoid studying for my exams and working on my paper (ahahahahahaha....) both of which are due the first day back from break! So! I will be catching up on my blog posts in the interim!

Some of them will be horrendously late, but, nevertheless, they will be there. A quick rundown of the major plot points in my life that are going to be delved into: the Christmas Ball, my trip to London, spending Christmas (and other major holidays) away from my family/home, and my winter break European adventures.

And yes, I still haven't posted my photos from Rome to the Gallery page, let alone any of the photos I've taken since then. Some of these photos are up on my Facebook page and several are posted to my Instagram (both of which can be accessed via the right-hand side bar). It's all going to be up and available soon (or at least before I return to the US), I promise!

So, remember, if alighting from my blog at this station, please be aware that more posts should be up shortly.

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. 

Visas and Voltage and Sim Cards, Oh My!

(Warning: this post is kind of boring. Read at your own risk.)

Already onto my second post (cue the audible amazement)! As you learned in my first post, I will soon be embarking upon a journey across the pond to study abroad at the University of Leeds in England. I am very excited, though, again, as you previously learned, I am veritable ball of anxious knots. There is a lot more planning and preparation entailed in moving to a foreign country for 5 months than I had previously imagined…and I have left a bit more of that preparation than I should have to the last minute (whoops). 

It’s not that I wasn’t aware of the mounting preparations, it’s more that I couldn’t bring myself to face them because that meant that everything would suddenly shift into focus, solidify, and become all too real. I’ll admit, I am kind of afraid to go abroad by myself—there’s a lot that could go wrong and that scares me, and procrastination was a way for me to look forward to all of the fun and exciting ideas of studying abroad without facing the very adult-like responsibilities that accompany that theoretical fun. Unfortunately for me, time moves forward and I had to deal with everything anyway, and goodness it is quite a lot to deal with. 

As one would suspect, there is a maddening amount of paperwork to sift through before I can go abroad: everything from criminally long email chains trying to dissect charges and refunds and class registrations, to housing applications and housing contracts that rival iTunes user agreements, to little forms that ensure I’ll have sheets to sleep on and dishes to cook with and some kind soul to meet me at the airport after 13 long long hours of air travel and transfers. I’ve filled out and signed so many forms in the past few weeks that I’ve already memorized my Leeds student ID number. I’m realizing as I type this that it doesn’t seem that dramatic, so for a little perspective, it took me 6 months of use to memorize my library card number and I still have no idea what my Wellesley ID number is, aside from the fact that it starts with a “B”. 

I’ve spent hours pouring over this stuff and I’m still not done. One of the last things (thank god) that I have to shuffle around is the collection of documents to apply for my visa. Now, here’s the funny thing, I could have applied for my visa 3 months ago, and of course, I did not. No, I decided to make even more paperwork for myself these last couple of weeks. And it’s not as though applying for a visa in England is that easy, no of course it isn’t. To apply for their short term study visa, I have to provide proof of my entire existence: everything from where I’m living, to how much money is in my bank account, to my latest health records. It’s crazy how much they have to know about me to let me study there for 5 measly months, and it also worries me to be carrying around so many important documents (cue invasive thoughts of just how much could go wrong). 

Once I arrive and make my way through customs and immigration, I’m still in a bit of a pickle because none of my essential electronics are compatible in England. I’m not talking about hairdryers, I’m talking about my computer and my phone: two items that will be invaluable to me as a student and a solo traveler. I haven’t traveled abroad since I was in 3rd grade, and back then I didn’t have any electronics, so I always thought that it was fairly easy to pick up the converters or adapters that you required and then travel to your heart’s content. Once again, I was sorely mistaken. I have Apple electronics, and I spent the better part of today in contact with their customer service trying to ascertain whether their products are dual voltage or if they would need voltage converters. A simple enough inquiry that took 5 online customer service reps and a frustrating trip to an Apple store 40 minutes away to sort out. At the end of it all, after being told to buy several different overpriced and inconvenient Apple products, I did indeed end up with a few simple adapters, and also a red mark on my forehead from banging it against the wall. 

Then, of course, there is the small issue of international phone plans. AT&T is not that generous with their international data packages I’ve found, so the answer seemed to be just change the sim card in your phone. Great. Sure. But first, you have to go through a tedious process to unlock your phone so that it allows non-AT&T sim cards (and hope that it works when you find yourself without service on the other side of the Atlantic). Then you have to find an international plan that will also allow for travel throughout Europe. I’ll admit, of the three flaming hoops in this post, the sim card was the least breakdown-inducing, but is nevertheless measurably tedious. I’ve found a promising plan, but the catch is that I have to order my sim card and plan online and wait 3-5 business days for my sim card to arrive in the mail. That will be 3-5 days, my first 3-5 days, in a foreign country without any mobile internet access or phone communication. No emergency google-mapping my way back to my dorm when I get lost coming back from the grocery store it seems. And I know, I know, people used to manage just fine when traveling to unknown locales, but it’s still a little unsettling. 

Now, I know that this post is mostly just me complaining about everything that’s standing in my way before I can have all of the wonderful, new and fun experiences, believe me, I do. But that’s the very reason I’m having getting caught up in all of it, these things are the dull, dusty, black and white exposition to the endless, seemingly technicolor adventures that are waiting for me somewhere over the Atlantic. 

This post was boring, yes, and I’m sorry if you trudged through it thinking that it would become entertaining at some point and found yourself here. I’m going to keep my head down, and trudge through these winds to get where I want to go, and soon enough, I’ll open my eyes and it’ll all look different because goodness knows I’m not going to be in Kansas anymore.