International Education

Well, what else can I say about the M 50 expierence that hasn’t already been said? On our way to Stratford, we ran into a little trouble. Six hours worth. Yep, we were stuck on the M 50 for six hours. England reportedly recieved two months of rain in two days! Flooding occured and we were in the middle of all that. About 15 miles ahead of us, ALL ROADS AND BRIDGES were either completely flooded or closed for safety reasons. So that meant that we had to wait. For six hours. The road crew ended up cutting the guard rail and letting everyone do a U-turn. But, as happy as everyone was to move again, there was more waiting to do. We find another road only to be caught up in more flooding. And more waiting. After a couple of more hours, we start moving again at a pretty good pace. Only to, you guessed it, get caught up again by the water. Long story short, we were over twelve hours late getting to our hotel. And our beds. Although some of us got some sleep on the bus, we were all pretty wore out by the experience.

Out of everyone that was stuck in that situation, we on the tour bus had it pretty good. Plenty of room. Comfortable seating. And a bathroom! Which some of the outside natives took advantage of. And we had each other as company. We laughed and talked. We played games. We got to know one another. We bonded. It was a difficult situation, but I wouldn’t change a thing. It was something that I now look back on fondly.

Our driver Brian and tour guide Allan were great during this whole ordeal. Calm cool and collected. Got us through it and made us as comfortable as possible. Thanks guys!

In closing, even though the rain slowed us down a bit, it didn’t ruin the trip. If anything, it made it more interesting. And we met alot of cool people on the road with us. I know I learned alot about patience. Which is always a good lesson. The Dear Lord protected us and nobody on the bus was hurt in anyway. We should be thankful for that. The BRCC group all arrived at the hotel safe and sound. Which really is all that matters in the end.

I have had the extreme pleasure this week of traveling with Blue Ridge Community College on their Literary Tour of Southern England.  Our journey began at Stonehenge and continued on to Salisbury Cathedral.  Our next morning was spent in Bath at the Roman Ruins, in the Abbey, and at the Jane
Austen Museum.  Our afternoon took us to Tintern Abbey in Wales, a most beautiful and sacred place.  Then we recited verse, played a trivia game and silly walked our way to Stratford through flooded roads and long lines of traffic.  But the experience could not damper our excitement over Shakespeare and the beautiful city of Stratford. After several snippets of restful sleep, we were off again to Oxford where we had the extreme pleasure of attending Sunday services at Christ Church.  The setting and the music were simply amazing.  Much of our day was spent exploring this lovely little college filled town, highlighted by lunch at The Eagle and Child, a local pub where CS Lewis spent time with his buddies.  We enjoyed Oxford, but were excited as we started our journey to London, where we walked by Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, through Piccadilly Circus, and Leicester Square. We spent a day down in Canterbury, where we visited the Cathedral and a museum on the Canterbury Tales. It’s a two hour train ride, but well worth the visit to this old English city.  Our next day was spent at Westminster Abbey (incredible, especially due to our Blue Badge guide, Ian), walking through Shakespeare and Dickens’
London, culminating with a lovely evening performance of Othello by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Globe Theatre.  It was an amazing performance, and a beautiful end to a lovely tour of Southern Literary England.

Now that I am back in the states, I realize how many memories and friends I made in 8 days. My feelings towards England are ones of pure joy. Although I am glad to be back home, I would give anything to be driving through the English countryside watching the rolling hills pass by and having the feeling of pure satisfaction. I would not change that for the world. If there ever comes an opportunity like this again, I would jump on it in a heartbeat. Reading a poem by Wordsworth and then going to where he wrote it in Wales is absolutely mind blowing. Hearing the beauty in the poetry is one thing, but seeing it in person is another. One cannot fathom what this would be like, and I recommend if anyone ever got the chance to go on a trip like this, do not hesitate, because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Thanks so much to Blue Ridge for being able to support us through our journey. It was pure amazement! Thanks again!

I want to start this journal by saying I had a fantastic time over across the Atlantic. Although things did not always go as planned, I had one of the best times of my life. Something I’ll never forget.

I had never flow before this trip so I was a little nervous. My brother Kevin was along for the trip and is a veteran at flying so he wasn’t worried at all. The flight was better than I expected but I was relieved when we landed. Speaking of which, we hit the ground running. Meeting our wonderful tour guide Allen and driver Brian and heading straight to Stonehenge. That was a beautiful site indeed. Then off to Salisbury and our hotel.

That night, we were all wore out indeed. We had dinner and we to our rooms to rest for the next day. And we would need in too!

The next day, among other things, we head to Wales to see Tintern Abbey. That was awesome. Words alone cannot describe the place. Better yet, we were the only visitors there that day. And, factor in the fact that it was raining ever so slightly and you have yourself a wonderful experience.

Of course, the ride to our hotel that evening was a bit out of the ordinary. I’ll go into more detail of that in the next entry, but let’s just say we didn’t get to the hotel in Stratford on time. About twelve hours late. Water issues.

The next day didn’t start for us until that afternoon. We slept in and started the tour of Stratford until two or so. But we saw a lot and that interesting.

Bath was my favorite city on the trip. It had the old town feel and the people there were great. It had a great mixture of both the bustle of the big city and the comfort of the small community. If I go back to the U.K., I’m going to stop there for sure.

We saw a lot of churches on this trip. That’s a big part of what England is known for. I don’t know if I ever seen as many churches on one trip before this or not. But many of them were extremely old and full of history.

London was our last destination. That was an adventure in itself. London is a great city. But I think it loses some of the English feel that the other towns we visited had. Besides the obvious, it could have been any big city USA. The people weren’t as nice and cars were everywhere.

Lastly, Kevin and I did the night life thing while on the trip. We discovered that they LOVE America! Music, stars, lifestyle. The party people dig Americans. Which was good for us. And we met some of the coolest people on the planet.

Overall, the trip was a success and I’d do it all over again!

I realize that I have not written as much as I should have, and apologize for not keeping everyone up to date.  But honestly, I feel like I’ve hardly had the time!  Our schedule has been so packed; however, I feel that that is the best way to go about a trip like this.  I believe the last time I checked in we had been sitting on the M50 for 6 hours.  Well, another 7 hours after that we finally made it to our hotel.  They were having the worst flooding that anyone could remember.  They got something like two months of rain in one day!  We were leaving Tintern Abbey in Wales to go to Stratford which was only supposed to take about 1 ½ hours.  It took 13.  Luckily we were in a large tour bus and were able to make through much of the flooding where as the cars could not.  I must say that everyone was wonderful and remained in the best of spirits under the circumstances.  Once we arrived in Stratford and were rested up, we set out for Shakespeare’s birthplace.  It is a beautiful timber framed building with lovely gardens.  The rooms were well furnished with replicas of canopied beds, pottery, a spinning wheel, and other goods.  I love Shakespeare’s plays and it meant a lot to me to see his birthplace.  We also walked around Stratford and looked at some of the other history buildings and saw Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried.�
The next day we went to Oxford and visited Christ Church Cathedral and saw the hall which is used as the dining hall in Harry Potter!  The highlight of this visit though was attending service there, which hardly any outsiders get to do!  The choir sounded amazing as their voices echoed through the cathedral.  After that, we walked around to many of the other colleges of Oxford.  My lunch was also a very educational and cultural experience.  I had fish and chips at the Eagle and Child where C.S Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien used to meet!  From there we were off to London where we took a walking tour around the city and saw Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Horseguard’s Parade, Parliament Square, and Buckingham Palace.  The flag was flying over Buckingham Palace which meant the queen was in residence at that time!�
 Day 6 we went to Canterbury to see the Canterbury Cathedral.  There are hardly words to describe how beautiful it was and how much awe it commanded.  This is the cathedral where Thomas Beckett was murdered.  We saw the little shrine that was put up for him.  For this reason, the cathedral was a place of pilgrimage for many people long ago.  Judging by the number of tourists, I’d say it still is!  Our day was completed with a trip to The Canterbury Tales, a recreation of some of Chaucer’s stories of the pilgrim’s travels to Canterbury Cathedral.  This was one of the most amusing things we did!  They handed us audio guides and we moved from room to room looking at costumed manikins and listening to them telling the stories.  It was quite interesting and smelly, too!  They actually recreated the appropriate smells.  Ugh!�
Day 7 was our visit to Westminster Abbey, also absolutely amazing.  This is where all of the royal coronations take place, and some of the royal weddings, and anybody who was anyone is considered for burial there by the dean.  Believe it or not they have Darwin! Our afternoon ended with a walking tour of Charles Dickens and Shakespeare’s London.  We saw some of the places where they used to live and the remains of the wall of the original Blackfriars.  We then went to the recreation of the Globe Theatre and toured it and saw ‘The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice’ which was amazing!  It was a dream come true to see a performance at the Globe!  It was the perfect ending to the day.
Day 8 was our last day inEngland. : (  This was our free day to do whatever we pleased within reason!)  As a group we decided to see the Tower of London.  We were told about how there are always supposed to be 6 ravens at the Tower at all times, otherwise the Tower were fall apart, they keep 8 there just to be on the safe side!  We learned about Lady Jane Grey and her husband Dudley’s executions as well as some of Henry VIII wives.  It really has a gruesome history.  The crown jewels are also on display there and they have a conveyor belt to take you past them so you don’t linger to long near them!After that we branched off and several people including myself went to the British Museum where we saw friezes from the Parthenon and Egyptian sculptures.  Harrods was next on our list and the only things we could afford there were cheaper tourist items!
It’s hard to believe that this trip has come to an end so soon but I knew that the time would fly!  This was the most rewarding, awe inspiring, and educational thing I have ever done and it means more to me than I can even begin to explain.  Not only am I coming with great experiences and a better understanding of the English, but new friendships as well; and I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world! 

At the end of the trip now awaiting the return flight back home and reflecting upon this journey’s events I come home even more excited about not only
England but its rich literary history which magically came alive over the last week.  This tour has inspired me to study and learn even more about Charles Dickens and Jane Austen (and themselves) as I have been where their characters “lived and breathed”.  This journey of learning will not simply stop at the airport, it shall continue in the library and my mind for many years to come.

Sunday was a full day trek around Oxford.  Although they had said there was a danger of more rain and more flooding, the day was sunny and beautiful with no problems.  Perhaps the highlight was attending services in Christ’s Church cathedral (see picture).Christ’s Church Cathedral  Later we drove to London, checked into our hotel, and had dinner.  Then Alan took us on the tube and walking for a quick intro to London tour–Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.London sites  That was probably just a touch ambitious.  Everyone was pretty pooped by the time we got back to the hotel, but it was beautiful and there was no doubt we had arrived in London!�
Today we travelled to Canterbury. In Canterbury Cathedral It’s exciting to see history and literature come alive.  The matyrdom setting was chilling and the Canterbury Tales “experience” was a bit silly, but gave a good feel for the mood and tone of Chaucer–bawdy and entertaining!

We were back in London for dinner, and staying up late to try to keep you all filled in on our experiences!  Cheers!

This is the first opportunity I’ve had to write since my first posting because we have been soooo busy the past few days.  Here are some highlights:

As you know from others on the trip, we got stuck in the middle of the Great Flood.  Being stuck on the bus wasn’t as bad as one might think because we played games, and some brave souls got off the bus to see what was going on.  Yours truly saved the day (or at least I like to think I did) by sharing my supply of pop tarts, pretzels, and cheese & crackers.  It was a veritable feast!  That wasn’t the best part of the experience of living through the flood, though.  I saw something that I never would have imagined.  Picture this:  We had been stuck in traffic for a couple of hours on the M50, and nature had to call.  Luckily, we travellers on the tour bus had proper facilities to take are of nature’s call.  However, all the hundreds of other people had NOTHING.  A handful of people came to use our WC on the bus, but some took matters into their own hands in a slightly different way.  As I quietly sat on the bus, I observed a rather reserved looking English gentleman step from his car and head away from it with a purposeful gait.  He acted like a man on a mission.  Once he crossed the highway, he kept his back turned to the traffic while taking care of his business.  I had to restrain myself from snapping a picture because when will I ever have the chance to see an Englishman relieving himself on the side of a public highway!?!  Enough said.  Except to add that our driver drove for about 14 hours through some horrible weather conditions and never even loosened his tie.  What a guy!

The next highlight to relate is about my experience at Stratford.  As I walked through Shakespeare’s birthplace, I felt chills.  It was absolutely amazing to know that I was standing in the very room where he was born and where he toddled around as a small child.  There were also some good places to shop.

My last highlight is about today’s activities.  We went to Canterbury Cathedral, which is gorgeous.  I loved the stained glass windows.  Although I kept looking for anything to do with the franklin in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales the whole time I was in Canterbury, I didn’t have any luck.  We also went to a recreation of The Canterbury Tales; it was a 4-D experience, which means that it had all sorts of smells to make it more authentic.  I thought that was cool because I’d never been to an exhibit where they even tried to let you know what things smelled like.  If you’d like to get an idea of what part of the recreation was like,  go visit a stable or barn.  :)   We ended this evening by eating at Sticky Fingers; if you’re a Rolling Stones fan, then you’d be in heaven at this restaurant.

 Tomorrow’s going to be another busy day, so it’s time for me to sign off and get some rest.

Chaucer and the Canterbury Cathedral were a window into medieval England. The Cathedral was magnificent and otherworldly-completely awe inspiring, which included The Martyrdom, tombs,crypt and stained glass. we walked the city and it was easy to imagine this as the site for the pilgrims with the tiny cobbled streets and half timber houses. We also attended a very fun dramatic interpretation of Chaucer’s pilgrims that followed them from the Tabbard Inn to Southwark complete with wax figures, bawdy tales and medieval odors(don’t ask).  We had a picturesque train ride from London to and from Canterbury complete with sheep,meadows and hedges-I heard that some of those hedges date from Roman times.  We finished the day with dinner in London and discussion of our literary day and sight seeing tommorrow.�

Another amazing day in the U.K. for many reasons!  Oh, where to begin?  After we checked out of our hotel this morning, we went straightaway to
Bath.  Unfortunately it rained all day, but I felt that it rather added to the atmosphere.  Let me first say that Bath is one of those places I have always dreamed of going to, but never thought I would actually make it.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic about going there!  The city is so beautiful and full of history.  The stones that were used to build the homes and businesses are cream colored and, so I’m told, if it hadn’t been raining the buildings would all have been glowing!  It was a busy city, everyone was going somewhere with a purpose; almost everyone, that is.  There were some elderly people who seemed content just sitting and watching everyone go by.  Even in the rain there was plenty going on to see.  Most all of the old homes that we saw were row houses and most of them had hanging baskets of flowers out front.  It was quite lovely! 

If anyone wants to see something fascinating, I recommend the Roman Baths.  All of the excavation that has been done is incredible.  Imagine renovating the baths above, and discovering the ancient Roman Baths beneath!  They discovered statues and mosaic tile floors and other artifacts in remarkably good condition.  The most amazing part was actually seeing the baths with the hot mineral waters still flowing through them.  Think about the power that something as simple as water held over so many people.  They thought, or rather hoped, that this water would cure them of all ailments.  It especially couldn’t hurt if you brought an offering to Minerva, the goddess of healing.  Today, they had some of the mineral water for us to drink.  It was smelled terrible and I can’t say it tasted much better but now hopefully I will be cured of what ever was wrong with me!  

Tintern Abbey was next on our stop.  Tintern Abbey is the ruins of a church just over the border into
Wales.  It had no roof or windows and most of the buildings that had stood outside of the abbey were in worse shape.  We went there because of Wordworth’s poem ‘Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey’.  Look it up if you can, it’s a neat poem.  The abbey seemed so gothic, though, with a light rain and the mist swirling around it.  The abbey is in a very rural area, surrounded by hills and farmland and a very nice pub which we made sure to visit as well!   

Another new experience for me was a Cornish lamb and mint pasty.  It was wonderful and I need to see if I can learn to make them at home! 

Our day seems to be ending with an over six hour delay on the M50 (one of the motorways) due to sever flooding.  It’s as bad as some people have ever seen it.  But I wouldn’t exchange the waiting for one single part of the day’s experiences!