Made in America

I’ve been crying all day. I lied - I’m not ready to come home yet.

As I’d hoped, the week started looking up after Wednesday. My last final went fine, my last open mic at Beau Nash went wonderfully, and my housemates threw a goodbye party for ASE that not only didn’t suck, but was actually kind of fun. We all ended up just chatting in the living room and watching Almost Famous - my kind of party.

Today I FINALLY went to go see the Roman Baths for which the city is named, and they were wonderful. I’m so glad I made time to go, even if it was at the last minute.

From there I went straight to the ASE final tea, where we were given delicious snacks and watched a slideshow of the semester before being forced to say goodbye to everyone. I was doing really well until one of the nicest girls on the program came to hug me goodbye and started sniffling - then I lost it.

I hugged all of the ASE staff, said goodbye to the people I don’t live with, and headed back to the house to finish packing … oh God, I’m going to start crying again … I’m about to head over to one of the other residences to watch a movie and say goodbye to my friends there, then I’ll get a few hours of sleep before I catch my 4:45 AM bus to the airport. This time tomorrow, I’ll be back in America. 

I know I’ll come back to England some day, but I seriously can’t stop sobbing right now so I’m going to end this post before my typing becomes completely incoherent. See you all soon, friends.

*More pictures to come later; they’re still being uploaded.

Woo, these last several days have been an adventure and a half. But isn’t that the point of world travel?

So last Wednesday I saw the Royal Shakespeare Company perform Twelfth Night, which I loved, and on Thursday I saw Richard III, which I loved more. While I was in Stratford I had the best (and biggest) fish and chips I’ve had so far in Britain:

Saw Shakespeare’s birthplace (yes, I did go inside too):

His grave:

And all manner of other Shakespeare-related landmarks, because that is literally all there is to do in Stratford-upon-Avon.

On the way back to Bath we made a stop at Kenilworth Castle (I suggest clicking on that link - the castle has a very sad, very interesting, and romantic history).

Britain is absolutely lousy with castles, if you haven’t noticed by now.

We got back to Bath around 1 AM and promptly went to sleep … I honestly can’t remember what I did on Friday but I think it involved a lot of sleeping. There was also a party that night to celebrate/mourn the end of the semester, but I don’t remember much of that either. Sev (one of the flatmates … can’t remember if I ever mentioned him by name) and I left early to pack for Scotland, as our bus to the airport left before 2 AM.

Traveling there was no sweat - we each had only one carry-on, nothing to declare, and the flight was only about an hour long. Upon arriving in Scotland, however, my debit card was denied at the booth for tickets from the airport to Waverley Station (right near our hostel). Sev fronted me the money for the ticket.

At the station, I skipped off to hop the train to Inverness, and Sev headed back to the hostel. I tried to get cash out of an ATM, but to no avail - I simply received an error message. Hungry, tired, and now frustrated, I went to a pub and tried to see if my card could be swiped successfully at the register. It worked, so I ordered some food and sat down for a bit. Feeling much better after eating, I headed to the coach station and booked the next bus to Loch Ness. The coach stopped right next to Urquhart Castle, near which most of reported Nessie sightings have occurred. It was beautiful, and the lake was beautiful, but guess which idiot has two thumbs and forgot to put her memory card in her camera?

(Hint: If you guessed Sarah Nicole Sheppeck, you’d be correct.)

So I looked out over the loch for a bit - didn’t see Nessie, though - and headed back to Inverness. I missed my train back to Edinburgh, so I explored the Inverness Victorian Market and ran to H&M to pick up a dress for the play on Monday. Since the last few charges on my card had gone through successfully, I tried to go to an ATM again … but this time, my card was declined due to insufficient funds. Knowing this had to be impossible, I went to half a dozen ATMs, but had the same problem each time. I headed back to the train station and got into Edinburgh around 9, met up with Sev, and headed to the hostel, but my card was declined there as well and I had absolutely no cash. Sev spotted me for my booking fee - I would have had no place to spend the night otherwise - and he treated me to dinner that night as well since neither of us had eaten. I tried haggis. It was delicious.

Back at the hostel I got online to check my account history and find out what was up with my debit card. I discovered two big problems: one, H&M charged me five times for my one purchase, and two, I had a $24 mystery charge. These two things completely drained my account and I had no money at least until Monday, and even better, it was a Saturday night - too late to call the bank, and they’re closed on Sundays. I also didn’t even have the change to make a pay phone call to Visa - in short, I was screwed. Sev, being wonderful, kindly agreed to spot me for the rest of the weekend so long as I paid him back, but my first day in Scotland pretty much sucked.

Sunday was much better. I got up early to do a little exploring in my hostel, which was AWESOME. I know I’ve said that a few times before, but Castle Rock Hostel is actually ranked within the top five hostels in the world, and with good reason. It’s just a block away from Edinburgh Castle, has the friendliest, hippest staff, cool lounges, a full kitchen - everything about it is wonderful. They serve breakfast as well, so Sev and I ate there and headed to see the castle. Fortunately, Sev had his camera and we got some great pictures there. Edinburgh Castle is AMAZING - it’s so much more complete than the billion ruined castles that I’ve seen so far this semester, and there are so many exhibitions to see there - it might have been my favourite part of the day, actually. We spent a good three hours exploring that, then walked up the Royal Mile and saw/heard at least half a dozen bagpipers. One of them was playing AC/DC. Oh, Scotland.

Over the course of the day, Sev and I saw the National Art Gallery, the Old Town, and the Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book.

Once we got tired of wandering, we headed back to the hostel to relax for a bit before we went back to the airport. Once there, we hit another snag - Sev realized that by covering my expenses for the weekend, he had drained his bank account, and didn’t have enough to get us back from the Bristol Airport to Bath. We had to call the ASE emergency number and arrange for them to send a cab to pick us up at Bristol, which we’d have to pay them back for later. At any rate, we did get back to the house safely, and promptly made an enormous dinner since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast (couldn’t afford it).

On Monday I called the bank, H&M, and Visa - H&M was able to refund my charges, the bank was able to credit back my account - but Visa informed me that the mystery charge was from Luxembourg, and immediately froze my card due to the apparent fraud. This made it exceedingly difficult to pay back Sev or ASE, since I was still without cash and now had no chance of accessing it. My mother had to rush me a money order.

Throughout that whole nightmare, I was doing more panicking than practicing for the play on Monday night; which was just as well, since the director wasn’t comfortable with our lack of rehearsals and at the last minute made it a performative reading instead of a full-out play. The reading went very well, though - the playwright was happy, and people told me I read beautifully.

On Tuesday I began my finals, and decided to unwind that evening by going dancing with some friends. One of the girls here is a second-semester senior and is graduating, so we headed to a club to celebrate - unfortunately this ended up being pretty much the worst night ever. To sum things up, it began with the party girl having a nervous breakdown due to post-graduate nerves, and ended with me walking home alone at 2 AM because literally everyone I came with was hooking up with a guy at the club.

This morning I woke up in a foul mood, since my week thus far has been going so swimmingly, and headed to the ASE study center for my next final. Upon my arrival I was immediately dogged out by the program librarian (who is an awful woman anyway - she’s called students idiots to their faces before) for being late. She blamed me for holding everyone up. As it turns out, I was on time and the library clock is a full ten minutes fast.

I’m in a slightly better mood now that I’ve packed most of my stuff for home and had a chanced to unwind with Terminator 2 and a big plate of lasagna, but I am so ready to come home. This is not exactly the way I wanted my last week in the UK to go down … hopefully tomorrow and Friday will be wonderful.

I know, I know, I promised I would update yesterday. Unfortunately I didn’t take into account play rehearsal, an extra class that I had to make up, and the fact that I still had to pack for my time in Stratford-upon-Avon. As it is, this update will probably be pretty short since it’s now after 11 and I have to get up at 7:30 for breakfast in my B&B. I won’t put in pictures now, but I will update with pictures when I get back to Bath.

Well, you already know how last Friday’s study trip began, but it ended up all right - I got to visit Highgate Cemetery, which is stunningly beautiful and filled with all manner of famous people (George Eliot, Karl Marx, and Douglas Adams, to name the best-known).

You also already know how that night ended, with the murder mystery, so I’ll skip that bit and go straight to Saturday. I visited a local organic garden with some friends, did some weeding, and chatted with the lovely people who run the place. I did some shopping at the farmer’s market, watched some Eddie Izzard videos with a friend, took a nap, and went dancing that night.

On Sunday I went on the six-mile Bath Skyline Walk, which was beautiful but took longer than expected. I got back just in time for my first play rehearsal, which was really just a read-through. Our first ‘real’ rehearsal wasn’t until yesterday, and I have to admit, I am very nervous about this production (which, by the way, is in six days). Did I mention I have the lead role? Because I do. And my part involves crying on command (twice), playing dead, and delivering a two-page monologue.

Other things that happened Monday: a make-up class for Nineteenth Century Women Novelists, another trip to the organic garden (which involved lots of cake!), watching Muppet Treasure Island and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with some friends, and making alcoholic popsicles.

This morning we all left early for Stratford, checked into our bed and breakfasts, had an orientation tour of the town, broke for lunch, attended a brief lecture on Stratford’s history, and saw the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of “The Comedy of Errors,” which was brilliant. Tomorrow we will be seeing “Twelfth Night,” and on Thursday it’s “Richard III.” More updates when I get the chance.

Remember when I said that the Jack the Ripper tour was so graphic that students have been known to faint during it? Guess who fainted today.

(Hint: If you guessed Sarah Nicole Sheppeck, congratulations, you are correct.)

Also, remember when I said that I wrote a murder mystery for an ASE party tonight? Well, despite the smashing success of the last one, this one was full of extraordinarily drunk and belligerent people and failed miserably. Some of the evening’s highlights include glasses being broken, wine being spilled all over the dining room floor, the murderer continuing to deny that he’s the culprit after the detective catches him because he’s so heavily inebriated, and the drunkards telling me that my resolution was stupid and anti-climactic because they paid absolutely no attention to anything at all for the entire party.

This has not been my favourite day.

Pictures still to come from the parts of my trip I wasn’t unconscious for.

I’ll be home in seventeen days! What a bizarre thought. I’m getting increasingly excited about coming back though.

It’s the last week of classes! I’ve gotten all of my final papers back - at the moment I have a solid A/A- in three of my four classes, and a solid B- in the one I don’t like. Not too bad, I don’t think. I still have final exams left to go, but hopefully they won’t be terribly difficult.

Most of us at ASE have already begun celebrating the end of the semester. Last night we had a “Half Halloween” party (since May 1 is exactly six months from Halloween), where we all wore really cheap, terrible costumes, drank, and danced. I taped Smarties to my pants. You know, so I could go as a Smartie Pants.

Today I’ve been planning out the details of my trip to Scotland. I really wanted to go to the Isle of Skye, but it’s about as far away from Edinburgh as you can get while still remaining in Scotland. Now I’m thinking about trying to get up to Loch Ness - it’s still quite far, but it’s doable for a day trip. Train tickets are so expensive though … at any rate, I’m definitely going to Scotland, and hopefully someday I’ll come back to the UK to see what I missed the first time around.

This Friday is my Jack the Ripper study trip in the East End of London, and that night some of the ASE students are having another murder mystery party - this time it’s one that I wrote. Hopefully I didn’t leave too many plot holes in it. 

Next week is our residential time in Stratford-upon-Avon, AKA Shakespeare’s birthplace. We’ll be seeing three plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company and getting free Full English Breakfasts EVERY DAY. Stories soon!

Hurrah for second chances!

I left for Oxford at 5 PM on Thursday, getting in around 7. As I said, my hostel was uncommonly nice and I shared a room with two very nice Canadian girls and a Dutch man. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, (I had a margherita pizza) and then headed to Turf Tavern (the haunt of all the famous people), where Bill Clinton reportedly ‘did not inhale.’

The Dutch guy bought all of us our first drinks of the night, so that was pretty nice (especially since I usually only get one pint anyway, so I basically drank free).

We stayed at Turf until last call and then headed back to the hostel to turn in for the night. When I got up on Friday morning the Canadian girls had already left for their day trip to London, and the Dutch guy asked if I would mind him joining me for the day. I of course didn’t mind, so we headed out. As it turned out he’s a big Alice in Wonderland fan too, so we went to Alice’s Shop first.

I picked up a cute little lucky charm of the Cheshire Cat.

Next we headed to the Ashmolean, which was great.

Here’s a picture of my Dutch friend in the Netherland art section. I’m not going to lie - I can’t for the life of me remember that poor man’s name. It’s completely unpronounceable by native English speakers.

After the museum, we went to the Eagle and Child (the one that Tolkien and Lewis used to visit frequently) for lunch. Dutch guy bought me another drink, and I had some delicious chicken wings.

After lunch, we visited Oxford Modern Art. The displays were both baffling and pretentious, as is so often the case with modern art, but we had fun anyway. 

The best part of the day by far was finally getting to try a milkshake from Shakespeare’s. I had been hoping to get a Midsummer Night’s Dream, since it’s my favourite Shakespeare play. Sadly, they were out of the ingredients to make it. The waitress suggested a Romeo & Juliet, which I wasn’t thrilled about since that happens to be my least favourite play of all time, Shakespeare or no. However, it turned out to be the best milkshake I’ve ever had in my life.

I think it was made with strawberry ice cream and Nutella.

So anyway, the Dutch guy walked me to the train station and I headed off to London. Remember when I raved about my hostel in Oxford? Well this one was so much better.

Yes, that is a pub. It is also where I stayed the night. This place ROCKS. You get a discount on all pub food, and FREE BREAKFAST. The other hostel gave me free breakfast too, but it was basically toast and juice … this place gives you a FREE FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST.

So after I ate up on Saturday morning, I went skipping off to Portobello market. Yes, I did actually skip. And yes, I did sing the song all the way there. People gave me funny looks.

After singing the words “anything and everything a chap can unload is sold by the barrow in Portobello Road” about 47 times, I saw it:

I had the same reaction then as when I found Abbey Road - I cried. But once I pulled myself together and started exploring, I found that it more than surpassed all of my expectations. 

The pictures don’t do it justice at all. It was ENORMOUS - it took up the entire length of the street and several side streets as well. I walked away with a dress (that I got for a pound!), a few bottles of nail polish that would have been extremely expensive had I bought them in a store, a vintage promotional poster of the Disney cartoon version of Alice in Wonderland, a few gifts for family, and some churros and chocolate.

After I left the market I killed a few hours just walking around the city, discovering all sorts of neat things along the way, like the American Embassy:

My coach left at 6, and I was back to Bath in a couple of hours. I had intended to go dancing with a few friends, but one of them was sick, one had a migraine, and I was exhausted, so I decided to watch Wayne’s World with my flatmates and turn in early. Ah, Dana Carvey.

Today has been another lazy day. I’ve already watched three movies: Mulan, The Parent Trap, and Mars Attacks. I don’t plan on getting off the couch any time soon.

I think this week should be pretty low-key, so don’t necessarily expect any updates for a little while. I have a study trip back to London on Friday, though, for a Jack the Ripper tour (so graphic that students have fainted on it!). That should make for some great stories, I should think …

It’s technically the morning of my 89th day, but since it’s only 9 AM I’m sort of still counting it as day 88.

So I finished my play yesterday - the first draft, anyway - and while it needs a few rounds of editing I’m actually pretty pleased with it. Though I am still bummed that it won’t be produced, I was just chosen to act in the play that is, so - surprise!

Anyway, I finally got to go to Turf Tavern last night, with the lovely people I shared my hostel room with. I really can’t recommend this hostel highly enough - it’s clean, the rooms are huge, the staff are really friendly, it’s in a great location, and there’s a FULL KITCHEN WITH POTS, PANS, BAKING INGREDIENTS, SPICES, AND COMMON FOOD. AND THERE’S FREE BREAKFAST.

I’m almost sad that I’ll be checking out in twenty minutes because I feel like I didn’t get to take advantage of all of the great things here (like the bar downstairs!). But anyway, I’m about to go look up directions to Alice’s Sheep Shop, and I’ll be getting into London around 8 PM. Updates to come!

Remember when I said I could afford to go to all of those places I wanted to visit and not be completely broke? Ha, that was a funny joke I told. Unforeseen traveling expenses suck.

I am still going to travel; I’m just going to be penniless for a couple of weeks until I get my first summer paycheck. I’m thinking it’ll be worth it though. At any rate, it’s official: Oxford from this Thursday the 26th to Friday the 27th, London from Friday to Saturday the 28th, Edinburgh from Saturday May 12th through Sunday the 13th.

Maybe I should try busking. Every pound helps.