Goodbye/Home

I'm sitting in my kitchen at home in sunny southern California as I'm writing this. I've left Bath and England. And still, it doesn't quite real. It kinda feels like I'm going to return soon, like how I'm going to back to Gettysburg (yay!) in a few weeks. So who knows when the full reality of the situation will hit. But for now, I'm glad to be home, although I truly do miss Bath.
The last couple of days in Bath were, naturally, very busy and quite emotional. (Although, again, not as emotional as I expected, especially since it's not hard for me to turn into an emotional hot mess. Maybe because it didn't feel entirely real...) Thursday I had my last final for my 'Shakespeare in Performance' class. It was pretty easy. Except I couldn't focus, which made it a bit harder. But I finished it, and that's the important part. I spent most of the afternoon relaxing, hanging out with my housemates, and thinking about packing. We ordered some delicious Indian take away for our 'family' dinner and then we all headed out to the Huntsman. Ian (our amazing hired British friend) organized one final pub crawl for ASE which started at the Huntsman. It was great to see most of the people in the program all together and just to hang out in a number of pubs (soo British). Most of our house ended up leaving fairly early, but April, Claire and I stayed out for a while. We headed home as the group started to head towards a club (not really our scene, plus we were all tired) and our friend Greg walked us home across town. It was so much fun to walk through Bath at night and to even walk along the river Avon. The city's so beautiful at night (none of the pictures I took can do it justice) and it was a wonderful Bath-y ending to an ASE night. We stayed up and talked and drank tea, but eventually I went to sleep so I could get a lot accomplished on Friday.
Friday was busy, which was fitting, considering it was our last day in Bath. I headed over to the Roman Baths (finally, I know - but isn't that the perfect thing to do on your last day in Bath?) with my housemates Claire and Jan and Greg. They are so fancy and Roman! You get a free audio guide when you buy a ticket to the baths, and I ended up listening to the children's tour (naturally). The tour was narrated by all of these 'characters' who would have hung out at the Baths during the Roman days. My favourite was the British servant boy Belator. He cracked me up. After we finished touring the Baths, we ran up to the Royal Crescent (because Claire hadn't seen it). It still was gorgeous and impressive and a perfect symbol of Bath. Then, we had to race back into the city center again because we had an important appointment with Lindsay, the social coordinator of ASE. Our house had asked Lindsay to give us 'accent lessons', because she really has the perfect British accent (she's from Hampshire, if you were interested in what region her accent is from). We spent a lot of time giggling in her office and reading BBC news reports practicing our accents. It was so sweet of Lindsay to agree to spend time with us, listening to our accents, and it was (yet again) another perfect 'last day' activity.
Then we had to race home to get ready for the ASE Final Tea, which was held at the Francis Hotel, one of the fanciest hotels in Bath, so I've heard. We got dressed up all classy-like and had high tea (sandwiches, scones, cakes, and all). One of my favourite parts of the tea was that I ended up at the same table as Barbara (the head of ASE), Lindsay, and Andrew Butterworth (my favourite - I soo wish we could have taken him home, he would have been the perfect souvenir). Of course, they were a bunch of trouble makers. We ran out of tea really quickly and a couple of us didn't even get a cup of tea, which made Barbara very upset because she lives for tea, so Andrew went to steal us another pot of tea. And got caught by the waiter. The rest of the afternoon, we caught the waiter making judging faces at our table. It was a ridiculous afternoon of tea and giggles. Then, Barbara stood up and made a speech about us and ASE. And it made all of us emotional. She told us that after this tea, we would be ASE alums, not ASE students. The rest of her speech was so sweet and so perfectly wrapped up the entirety of our semester in Bath. Lindsay then made her own little speech, and gave us a 'class' photo and an ASE shirt with all of signatures on the back. Then it was Jonathan's (our academic head) turn to talk, and he played a slide show of photos from our semester abroad. And finally, the tea was over. There was lots of hugging and final moments. It was was quite emotional. But at the same time, it also felt not quite real, like we weren't really saying goodbye. For me, it kinda varied moment to moment. Eventually we had to leave the hotel. So Clarendon Villas trekked over to the Huntsman to say some more goodbyes. Jonathan, Lindsay, and Ian were having dinner together, and we just wanted to stop by to say some real goodbyes. Then, we left Bath's city center one final time.
The first thing I did back in Clarendon Villas was pack. Thankfully, I've gotten so used to packing that it took me practically no time at all. So April and I music shared, ate some delicious pasta (so she got to make pasta for me one last time in England), and drank some wine. Ian, Greg, and our friend Allison all dropped by, so we all hung out downstairs (we even brought down our stuffed animals to play with Ian's new Heffalump) and drank the rest of our leftover alcohol. Finally, there were some emotional goodbyes and we went back to being productive and cleaning. Between hanging out with people and packing/cleaning/etc, I only was in bed for about an hour, but that's alright. Saturday morning rolled around, and April was the first one to leave for the airport. We all got up to hang out as a house one last time and say goodbye. About an hour and a half later, it was mine, Courtney, and Jan's turn to leave. We were all on the same flight from Bristol to Newark and took a taxi to the airport. Oddly enough, the goodbyes this time weren't as real - it felt like I would come back to Bath, Clarendon Villas, and these girls soon. And just like that, we were on the road.
I got incredibly lucky in my travels yesterday. In spite of all of the weather that hit the east coast, I was still able to make both of my flights. I have some friends who were trapped in Europe for a day (or even longer) and some who got trapped in the Newark airport, but somehow I was lucky enough to make it home. Still, with the knowledge of the storm looming over my head, the day was even more stressful that it would have been otherwise. Thankfully, there were lots of ASE friends on the flight from Bristol to Newark and then another ASE girl on the one from Newark to LAX, so there was always someone there to help keep me from stressing out too much. And it helped with the stress and insane travel time that both of my planes had those fancy touchscreen headrest TVs, so I got to watch episodes of lots of my favourite TV shows and Bringing Up Baby. And, I made it home.
So here I am. Safely home in Riverside, California. My whole family came to pick me up at the airport, which was fantastic and sweet. I really am happy to be home, but at the same time am truly missing Bath. And it was the same before I left - that bittersweet feeling when you both do and don't want to leave. But I guess that's all part of the 'study abroad experience'. And I really am glad to be home.

One Step Closer

Almost done with finals. Two days left. Just keeping track...
This weekend was kinda low key, as we were studying for finals and writing papers and such, but was also another great reminder of why I love Bath and what I'm going to miss. (I apologize because I know I keep saying that...but it is true.) Saturday I went out Christmas/window shopping with two of my housemates. It was fun shopping (we even finally made it into Mr Simms Sweet Shoppe, which looks like it came right out of that opening scene in Willy Wonka), but the best part was wandering around the city together. There was a great student jazz band playing Christmas songs outside of Bath Abbey and just everywhere we went there was a feeling of joy. We had to stop walking a few times just to look at the beauty of the city. Then, Saturday night was Taco Night number two!! We learned our lesson from our first Taco Night and bought even more food. (And thankfully, there were no Corona spills this time.) It was so nice to have the girls in my house gathered together, eating delicious tacos, and just laughing and having a great time together.
Sunday my friend Connie and I went to an Advent service at Bath Abbey. It was great to go to an Advent service (yay Christmas!) and Bath Abbey is just gorgeous, but as I told Connie after the service, I'm glad I'm not Anglican. (Too many rules for me.) And even though it was cold and we both had work to do, Connie indulged me and went up to the Royal Crescent with me. Yes, the Royal Crescent is one of the biggest icons/landmarks in Bath, and I hadn't been up there yet. In my defense, it is kinda far away. We got up to the Crescent and sat for a while in Victoria Park, right in front of the Crescent. In a way, the Royal Cresecnt's not really that amazing. It's a big building with a bunch of houses on a hill. But on Sunday, I was really struck by the Crescent and its beauty. And for whatever reason, it really summed up all of the reasons I'm sooo glad that I chose to study abroad in Bath. There's just something about the feel of the city itself that makes me feel at home. And I love that. Sunday night I crammed in another belated Bath/British experience - quiz night at the local pub. Ian (our awesome hired British friend) regularly attends quiz night at The Cork and invites ASE students to come along, but I always forget or am really busy when I actually think about it. But not this Sunday. I went to quiz night with half of my house and a couple of other ASE students and had a blast. (It was like that episode of the UK Office. Only, you know, not.) It was a really tough game, but we ended up tying for third. Which was pretty awesome. Then, I went back to that silly work business.
My Monday, unfortunately, was not very exciting. I did make a side trip to the gym (and slipped in some gross not mud? it was gross) and finally made it into the gorgeous antique book store that I walk by pretty much every day. But other than that, I spent most of my day glued in front of my computer finishing my dissertation for my internship. A lot of hours and a zillion words later (alright, it's around 7,600 ish words), I finally finished. And went to sleep, thankful that I didn't have to worry about it any more.
Tuesday, I had to wake up at the crack of dawn (alright, 7) to get over to Nelson House to turn in my dissertation and then go to an all day rehearsal and then performance for my Late Twentieth Century British Drama Class. Thankfully, half of my house is in that class, so I wasn't alone. But that morning still wasn't fun. We all got to see the space we were performing in for the first day that morning, which is always fun. We had a tech rehearsal in the morning, which took a long time, as always. We had a quick lunch break, then came back for our dress rehearsal, had an even shorter break, then came back for the final performance at 5:30. Incredibly, the show was pretty good, especially considering facts like we only had about 12 hours of rehearsal time in class before today, and stuff like that. (I don't think I've actually discussed in detail what we were performing. We did excerpts from plays that we had read earlier in the semester - Night by Harold Pinter, Fen by Caryl Churchill, Love of the Nightingale by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Woman in Mind by Alan Ayckbourne, and Shakers by John Godber. I had supporting roles in Fen and Nightingale and my 'big scene' was from Woman in Mind. My favourite part was that my scene partner was Andrew Butterworth - the ASE internship advisor and the best old British man ever!) The whole performance had been a very stressful process, but in the end, it actually was a lot of fun and challenging (like performing always is). And it was even better because I love our class.
Today I had my first real final for my Jane Austen class. Then I did some window shopping and looked at shops that I cannot afford. Tonight Andrew Butterworth took the interns out to the local pub and we hung out, talked, and drank. For a finals day, it was a pretty good day. Now I have one last final tomorrow and then I'm done. After that, all I have to do is pack, stress about leaving, and play with my lovely friends. I'm excited.

Any Other World

Classes are officially finished. It's our last weekend in Bath. Facts I have to face that I really don't want to. I wish I could stay, but since I can't, I have to keep moving on.
The nice thing about the 'end of the year season' is that there are plenty of 'wrapping up' activities. Wednesday night I went to the egg for my last internship task. After I watched kids at the theatre, my boss Katherine took me out for a drink at The Garrick's Head (as in David), the Theatre Royal Bath's pub. There, we met up with a couple of other people who work at the egg. It was so cool to spend the night in the theatre pub with a bunch of theatre professionals - everything from actors to directors to designers to producers. I got to tell my whole abroad story (what I was studying, why I chose Bath, etc) and chatted with my boss, but the highlight for me was soaking up the atmosphere. Especially after visiting Stratford and the Dirty Duck, it felt so special to be sitting in the theatre pub like I belonged there. Someday, maybe, this will be my life...
Of course, when I returned home to Clarendon Villas from the Garrick's Head, I found that all of my Ariel items (plus my dear friend Henry the gnome) had been scattered around the house. I didn't notice anything missing when I entered my room, but as I headed downstairs, I noticed that my Ariel Pez dispenser was sitting in the window sill. Thank you, Courtney and April. I actually had a lot of fun hunting around the house for my pilfered belongings and playing this game. (On a side note, I probably have too many Ariel possessions. But that's perhaps another story.) Plus, it was a great return to the not-so-grown up part of my life. And what can be better than an Ariel hunt?
Thursday night was ASE's Write Night, where kids from the program present stuff that they've written, or just perform because they want to. It was held at the Huntsman, the pub right across the street from our study centre at Nelson House, and it was great to enter the party room and see it filled with members of ASE. And it was even more fantastic to see the talent that my friends have been hiding. There were some great short stories and poem read and music performed that night. (I somehow ended up performing in the staff number with Andrew Butterworth, Jonathan, and Lindsay and it was utterly ridiculous. And fun.) When we got back to 5 Clarendon Villas, we decided we should climb onto the roof (slash, a mini 'roof' with railings that is right outside a window). It was beautiful to just look out and see the city of Bath below us and to be together. Again, this was one of those perfect 'wrap up' events/nights where we all came together and ultimately were reminded of what we're going to miss when we leave Bath.
Now this is just a quick unrelated side note. I've been meaning to write about this for awhile, but have kept forgetting. One of my absolute favourite things about taking my Jane Austen class while I've been in Bath are that parts of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are set in Bath. So when specific places are mentioned in the book, I get really excited because I've been there. This connection makes me feel even closer to her writing. And...that's it for the side note.
Now, I'm off to make the most of my last weekend in Bath. To explore and shop and hang out with my friends and soak up this beautiful city.

Running Out of Ink

Well, it's that point. The real (well, almost real) end of the semester. I'm not quite sure how we got here.
The weekend ended up speeding by pretty quickly. With papers done, I was able to actually sleep as well as make it to (and through) Beasts and Beauties performances. I spent most of the time watching kids (and telling them to shut up during the show) and then running around the theatre as needed at various points. But I did get to watch two of the performances, and a few of my housemates even came to watch one of the performances with me, which was super sweet. The kids did a good job in the show (as much as you can expect from a group of 12-14 year olds), and visually the show was amazing. I could live in that design and the director created some beautiful images with the staging. It was definitely a crazy and hectic weekend, but I enjoyed it.
This is actually the last week of classes. Which is kind of crazy. It felt like we would be here for forever. And now it's almost time to go. I had my last Jane Austen class today, and it just kinda felt like we would come back next week. (Well, we are to take our final. But that's not the same thing.) So now I have only two more classes left. And then finals. And then I go home. And I don't quite want to think about that yet. For a number of reasons (which I'm sure I'll probably get into in my next couple of posts, but don't want to get into now, mostly for mental sanity reasons), but one of the biggest ones is that we don't get to return here. At least at the end of the semester or year at Gettysburg, at least I know I'll get to return fairly soon. But this is the last time I'll be living in Bath and attending to ASE and hanging out with all of these people. I just want to strech the time a little bit more...
At least there's been some good happening on top of this foreboding melancholy. Like I said, some of my friends came to see Beasts and Beauties and support me and all the work I've put in at the theatre over the course of the semester, which is so incredibly sweet. Tonight we had a couple of friends over from our drama class to work on a scene we're performing next week (!) and had dinner before the rehearsal and tea and cakes afterwards. It was so nice to sit and hang out and talk with my house and these two girls and then to have an indepth rehearsal inbetween. Looking back, it was also just another reminder of why I'm going to miss this place.
But the highlight of my day was certainly my adventures with my roommate April. Last week, my housemates Courtney and Jan (who are roommates) came home one night with new stuffed animals from the Disney store that they had purchased for each other as Christmas presents. (Plus, the stuffed animals were on sale.) And, both being giant Disney nerds, April and I thought that was the best idea ever. So this afternoon, we headed off to the Disney store in Bath and spent probably 40 minutes wandering through the store and then agonizing over what stuffed animal we each actually wanted - so many options! (In case you were wondering, I ended up with a super soft Pooh and she got an adorable Donald.) We bought each other's animal and then headed over to Bath Abbey and the Christmas tree in the Abbey square. (Fun fact: Bath's Christmas tree is a gift from the city of Oslo, who apparently gift Bath a Christmas tree every year. Way to go, Norwegians.) As we exchanged stuffed animals in front of the Abbey and tree, we each gave a little speech about the other and our roommate experience together. It made me tear up a little. I love that girl. It was the perfect way to celebrate together, and really made my day.
Now, pretty much just over a week and a half to go. And I want to make the most of it.

Under Pressure

This week has been long. Really long. And it's not even over yet. But that's alright. I've made it through (so far) without any breakdowns or whatnots, so that's good. I just have a couple more days to go.
Now why, you might ask, has this week been so long? Well, internet friends, I had three papers due this week. Not only that, one of these papers is my 8,000 word dissertation for my internship. And (ironically) to add to the stress, I've spent at least six and a half hours at the egg theatre each day this week for my internship. It's been tech week for Beasts and Beauties, the show I've been helping out with, so I've been around, chaperoning the kids each night. Now, there have been some bright spots. I wrote a creative 'design your own production' paper for my Shakespeare class. And I still have all day tomorrow to write my dissertation. And it's been fun to spend some time with the kids in the cast. Although, this week has also served as a great reminder of why I'm glad I'm not 12-13 years old anymore.
Another (relatively) bright spot this week has been walking through Bath roughly around the same time late-ish at night for the last few nights on my way home from rehearsals. I've seen so many people in fancy dress (costumes) - it doesn't matter if it's a Monday or Thursday or whatever, the Brits just love their fancy dress. Some of my favourites have been Batman, a bee, and a German in lederhosen. Go figure. I also walk by the most popular spot in Bath at night - the Barclay's ATM near Nelson House. I really have no clue why, but pretty much any time I walk by this ATM, there is a huge crowd of people in front of it.
Tonight was opening night for Beasts and Beauties and watching the kids and their excitment, plus all of the pre-show rituals and speeches, I was shocked to realize how long it's been since I've done a show. Seven months. That's sooo long. And I miss it so much. It was great to be there and soak up the kids' excitement, but it wasn't the same as experiencing it myself. But on the bright side of this depressing note to my day, I (phone) auditioned for Gettysburg's winter production of Winter's Tale this week, so hopefully one way or another I'll get to be involved in that. I just miss it....
Now, hopefully I'll be able to catch up (at least a little) on all of the massive amounts of sleep I've lost so far this week, actually write my dissertation, and make it through the five more shows of Beasts and Beauties. Remember, it's all an experience.

Christmas Bells

Alright, so it's not close to Christmas. It's not even December yet. But at least in Bath, it feels like it's Christmas. I've started to allow myself to listen to Christmas music (although only in small batches at a time, so I don't grow too sick of it too fast). And considering the week I have ahead of me, I feel like I'm entitled to soaking up any extra joy (holiday related or not) while I can.
This past week was mostly another uneventful, homework focused week. I finished my first paper (for my Jane Austen class) and while it's never really fun to write a paper, I actually had a lot of fun researching this one. Granted, that's because my research consisted of watching scenes from the 1940, 1995, and 2005 adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, as well as listening to I Love You Because. If only all research was like this. The other academic 'highlight' of this week was that we had to be off book for our Late 20th Century British Drama class. (I'm pretty sure I haven't mentioned this yet - we've spent the second half of the semester for this class putting together a night of scenes from some of the plays we read in the first half of the class. So, I'm performing and stuff.) Getting off book is a huge pain, especially when all of your rehearsal time happens during your once-a-week class so you've run everything maybe twice before you have to get off book, but at least it's good practice. Or something.
Thursday was an interesting day. While it was Thanksgiving back home in the States, here in England it was just another Thursday. The morning was a bit rough, since I had to get ready for and head to class instead of lazying around in my pajamas watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. But, it was what I had to do and I tried not to think about it too much. After my classes ended, the day got better as I headed over to the Bath Christmas lighting ceremony. (Obviously, Bath missed the memo that you're supposed to switch on the city's Christmas lights the day after Thanksgiving, on actually on Thanksgiving.) The whole celebration started arouond 4:30, but we didn't get there until 5:45 ish. And it was crowded. We had to do a lot of walking and maneuvering to get onto the street, but we made it work. Since we got there later, we were really far from the stage, but they had a screen up so those of us that were farther away could still see. We waited around in the cold while they played music, dancing and jumping on each other's backs, until Father Christmas came onstage to say hello to the people of Bath. Then Nicolas Cage came on. (Yes, that Nicolas Cage. He owns a home in Bath and apparently really loves the city.) A lot of people from other towns had driven into Bath to see him and there was obviously a lot of screaming. (Me, I'm not a fan. But it was still cool.) He switched on the Christmas lights, they played 'All I Want for Chirstmas is You', and everything was happy.
After the lights were switched on, we headed over to City of Bath College for our ASE Thanksgiving Dinner! Because ASE is so fantastic (and consists of entirely American students who all celebrate Thanksgiving), each year ASE hosts a dinner for the ASE family. It really is incredibly sweet and gives us a piece of home while we're still across the ocean. Before dinner started, Barbara (the head of ASE) pardoned a turkey, just like the President does. (Only hers was a stuffed animal. But I still wonder if he got to go to  Disneyland.) So we had turkey and pie and everything (plus free wine and tea). Lots of food babies were made that night. Some other highlights of the dinner were the slideshow of Thanksgiving images that was playing throughout the evening (my favorite was a picture picture of a turkey holding an American flag - only the flag was backwards) and having an extensive conversation with Barbara about the correct way to make English tea. After dinner, Clarendon Villas had a pajama party and watched Clueless with our food babies. Then I got to skype with Anna and Erica together in New York, so I got to have some family on Thanksgiving. It certainly wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving, but it ended up being a really good day.
Friday morning I had to wake up bright and early (which really wasn't fair after the long and food-filled night before) for my Jane Austen 'study trip'. It was a rough start, especially since after waking up way too early we had to wait in the rain for the bus to show up for over twenty minutes. But once we got started, the day got better. We first went to Chawton Village in Hampshire and went to Chawton Manor. It was owned by Austen's brother Edward Knight (he changed his name so he could inherit the estate) and she would come visit the house when he lived there. We got a tour of the house and then went into the library. A couple of years ago, the house was turned into library focusing on women's writing in English from 1600 to 1830 (because of Jane Austen and such). We got to look around and see all of these awesome and gorgeous old books. The next stop was Chawton Cottage - Austen's home (given to her, her mother, and sister by her brother on his estate) where she revised or wrote all of her major works. There was an amazing gift shop, a 'learning centre' with really awesome Austen-related games (like Snakes and Ladders!), and then the house itself. The house was filled with actual items from when Jane lived in the house (including her writing table!!), furniture that would have been in the house, pictures all over the wall, and plenty of Regency costumes (and I lovvee Regency costume). It was soo cool to wander around the house and get a feel (even with all of the extra things around the house) of what life must have been like for Jane. The last stop for our journey was Winchester, the city where Jane lived for the last two months of her life and died. (She moved there from Chawton to get better and more consistent medical attention.) We visited the house where she lived, which has a convenient little plaque, but we couldn't go in because it's privately owned. Then we visited Winchester Cathedral and saw her grave, as well as the plaque added a number of years later to commemorate her literary achievements. We had a little time to wander around before we got back on the bus, so we wandered around Winchester's Christmas Market and I got some delicious hot spiced apple juice. It had a rough start, but it ended up being a really good day. I mean, it was all about Jane Austen.
Saturday was homework day, but not without some distractions. First of all, I got a new British haircut. My boss at the theatre had given me a recommend-a-friend-half-off card and my mom kinda talked me into it, so I figured why not. Plus, I can now offically call my bangs 'fringe', which makes me really happy. (As I was talking with the stylist about what I wanted, I mentioned my bangs and she was like, you mean your fringe? Right - haha.) It was pretty crazy walking to the hair salon and then over to Nelson House (to do more work. wha-wah) because I was walking right through the Christmas market. Apparently it's a very British thing to host a Christmas market downtown with lots of cute little wooden stalls so you can buy all of your Christmas gifts together. Or whatever. And they go all out. There was even a carousel in the middle of the street. The streets were absolutely packed. And a little later in the day I headed over to Bath Abbey (which is right in the middle of all of the Christmas stalls) with some friends for a 'Shopper's Carols Mini-Service' and the church was packed. The Brits really go all out for their Christmas - even though it's not even December yet.
My favourite British Christmas sighting, though, happened inside Marks and Spencers (a department store). As I walked through the store, I saw a guy handing out gift catalogues. And he was dressed like a shiny Christmas turkey. That's right, a turkey. Silly Brits.

Pumpin' Up the Party

After being in Bath for two and a half months, I finally made it to the namesake of this blog - the Pump Room. I had always figured that I would make it to the Pump Room either one of the first weeks I was here - because it is one of the things to see in Bath - or one of the last weeks - because I would keep telling myself that there was still more time to go and would keep putting it off. But today when I went downstairs for breakfast, my housemate Courtney said we should go. And considering I'm swamped in paper work right now, I was ready for any homework break, especially one as perfect as this.
I feel like I should give a bit of the history of the Pump Room, just so you know why it was so exciting. Back in the day (it opened in 1795, to be exact), when Bath was a super fashionable resort town, was the social heart of Bath. It was a place to 'see and be seen'. It's quite a swanky place. And to make it even more exciting, they go to the Pump Room in Persuasian and Northanger Abbey! So as we headed to the Pump Room, visions of Jane Austen and Regency costume danced in my head.
Sadly, I wasn't wearing an empire gown when I got to the Pump Room, but even so, it totally fulfilled all of my expectations. For one thing, there was the Pump Room Trio (consisting of a piano, violin, and cello) playing the entire time we were there. And then there was a giant chandelier in the middle of the room. The walls were artfully decorated with paintings and had giant beautiful windows. Really, it's just gorgeous inside.
The four of us sat down for some (slightly overpriced, but it was okay because we were at the Pump Room). After we placed our order - mine was English Breakfast tea and scones, naturally - my friend Claire and I ventured over to the fountain at the side of the room. Bath is (obviously) named for its famous healing baths and in the Pump Room, you can pay 50p for a glass of the spring mineral water. It was warm and with a slight metallic taste, but not as bad as I had expected. And who knows - maybe its magical healing powers will make me super healthy or even invincible. Or, not.
Our tea came and was delicious. There really is nothing better than going out for a cream tea. I wish we had cream teas in America, just because they are so fantastic. Plus, you feel so classy - especially when you're sitting in the Pump Room. We gossiped (because after all, that's what you do in the Pump Room), talked about 'Classical Kids', and had fun soaking up the atmosphere.
Of course, before we left, my friends made me take a turn around the room. At least, as far as I could walk without running into anything. Even without the Regency dress, this afternoon was like a look back into the world of Jane Austen.

Brand New Day

Sorry I've been slacking on the blogging front. But, I've also been slacking on the homework front, so don't take it personally.
The weekend after we got back from Stratford was full of homework. Since I had done barely any homework for pretty much a week and a half, I had a lot of work to catch up on. Fun times. But, the weekend was made more exciting by hanging out with the girls of Clarendon Villas. We've always gotten along as a house, but never really spent a lot of time together as a whole. But since coming back from fall break, we've started spending more time together. Who knows the reason why - maybe we missed each other when we were traveling our separate ways or something else, but whatever the reason, it's been pretty great. And in addition to just hanging out around the house, we decided that on Saturday night we would have a house dinner and 'sleepover'. So, Taco Night was born! Even though I'm not a huge Mexican food person, it's just in my blood, being from California and all, and I have missed it. So we made tacos, drank Coronas, and sat around and talked. Then we watched ' Shakespeare in Love' (extra fitting after going to Stratford and seeing Twelfth Night). It wasn't anything extravagant, but it was really nice. I love these girls. And, it was a great break from the homework.
Speaking of homework ( wah-wah), that's taken up the bulk of my time and attention this week. The second set of paper weeks is quickly approaching - I have my first paper due next Tuesday. (ASE for some reason decided it would be a good idea to make us have four papers - one for each class - due in the same two week period. Twice during the semester.) It's been a little rough because it seems like barely any time has passed since our first papers were due. It doesn't seem right to be working on new papers. But I'm working. And hopefully I'll make it through these two weeks, not die, and write some fairly decent papers.
The only thing I've really had going on this week has been my internship. Beasts and Beauties, the show I'm working on, is opening really soon. (Ironically, the same week I have three papers due. Like I said, I'm hoping not to die.) Wednesday's rehearsal made me smile because it reminded me of my childhood days doing shows with RCT (Riverside Children's Theatre). YPT (the group I'm interning with) is in a lot of ways quite different from RCT, but there are still a number of similarities between the two that come from working with kids and theatre. And it was just extra amusing for me to listen to the 'we open in two weeks speech', where all of the kids start freaking out, and the classic 'I'm disappointed speech' to try and make the kids behave during rehearsals. And on that note, I just want to apologize to all of my RCT directors and supervisors for being an incredibly talkive kid growing up.
This weekend has consisted of more homework time. Really exciting, trust me. But, on the bright side, I did get to talk to my newly-hired-and-newly-engaged sister, as well as watch 'Dr. Horrible' and eat Indian food with my house girls last night. And apparently, tonight I have an old movie movie night to look forward to, so life's not horrible.

Dream On

This week was one of the highlights of ASE. Why, you ask? We went to Stratford-upon-Avon! (Apparently, it's not called Stratford-upon-Avon because it is on the river Avon. The town got its name because it was built on top of the ancient city of Avon. Or, not.) Now I had already been to Stratford for the day with my Shakespeare class, but it was so exciting to be there again. And extra fun to be there with all of my friends that aren't in the class so we could be Shnerd together. (Our staff member Jonathan, who also made up that story about Stratford, decided to call us Shakespeare nerds, or Shnerds for short.)
We left Bath early in the morning (alright, 9, but that's still early) and got to Stratford-upon-Avon around 11, 11:30. While in Stratford we stayed in a couple of bed and breakfasts which were all on the same street, so when we arrived we went to our individual B&Bs and got settled in. My B&B ( Adelphi, for those of you who are planning a trip to Stratford any time soon) was adorable! The owners were so sweet, the rooms were super cute (mine was even decorated in turquoise - my favourite colour), and we got a really excellent free breakfast. I ended up rooming with two girls that I didn't know very well, but it actually was nice to have the opportunity to get to know some other people in the program better (slash be forced to?).
After we got settled in to our B&Bs, we took a tour of the town. It was more of a refresher for me, since my class did a tour when we were there, but it was still really exciting to walk around and see everything. And I also got to see all of these sights with my friends who were seeing it all for the first time, so we could Shnerd out together. For lunch, we went to 'The Food of Love' which I had been waiting to go to since I first went to Stratford. It made me smile. (Plus, the food was good and pretty cheap, which was also a bonus.) It was also really cute because they had pictures and prints from old productions of Twelfth Night on the wall since, you know, that's where the line's from. Then we headed off to Town Hall. Since this was a school trip and all, we had a lecture we had to go to every day. It actually made a lot of sense to have these lectures to give people background on the shows we were going to see and then to have an opportunity to talk about the productions afterwards. I just wish they had been shorter. But at least the Town Hall had a list on the wall of all of the old mayors of the town, so there was something to read if we got bored.
When the lecture finished around 4, I raced over to the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archives. Why, you might ask. Well, the short story is I'm a giant nerd. The longer version is that two summers ago, my friend got me obessed with Carrie, the musical. Yes, that Stephen King Carrie. For whatever reason, someone thought it would be a good idea to turn Carrie into a musical. It wasn't. It turned out to be one of the most infamous Broadway flops ever. And I find it utterly hysterical and really fascinating. I could go on and on about all of the horrific details, but the show's basically one bad decision after another that you simply can't help but laugh. And the Stratford connection is that the show premiered in Stratford for its out-of-town tryout. The RSC keeps really great archives of all of its shows, so I was able to look at the program, the reviews (which are incredibly amusing in their bashing of the show), and best of all, a recording of the show itself, in all of its ridiculous glory. I was in Carrie heaven.
Of course, I had some problems getting into the archives. I got there a little after 4, but faced a challenge. The Library and Archives share a door with Shakespeare's Birthplace, which closes its doors at 4. I figured the library had to be open until at least 5, so I kept frantically trying door after door, in hopes that one of them would work. Thankfully, the doors were made of glass, so the security guard opened one of the doors to see what I want. I was able to convince him that I wasn't a crazy person and that I was there for the archives. He took me upstairs to talk with the very nice librarians. I had a little less than an hour before the library closed, but I was able to come back Wednesday as well. And even that brief amount of time was really exciting because I was watching Carrie.
After I left the library, I met back up with my friends, went to dinner, and then went to the RSC Courtyard Theatre. I was super excited because we were seeing Twelfth Night, which is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays! And I loved this production. First of all, it was absolutely gorgeous. It was set in 19th century Illyria - the real Illyria (which is modern day Albania, so Mediterranean). The set had this stunning bright blue sky and a wave made out of wooden planks. My favourite set piece was a literal box-tree that flew down for the 'box-tree scene', naturally. And the costumes were amazing. There was a great mix of brightly coloured Mediterranean clothing and English, Edwardian clothing. The actors were also amazing. My favourite was Viola. There was just something about her - this sense of playfulness throughout her performance that I really loved. My least favourite part of the show was the Malvolio, who was some famous British TV actor. He was alright, but I didn't really feel for him and the Malvolio plotline has the potential to be really unnerving, but it didn't feel like that big of a deal, mostly because of his performance. But that's alright, but Viola's really my favourite anyways.
We hung out in front of the theatre for a bit after the show, being Shnerds and discussing the production. As we were outside, we saw the actors who played Orsino, Feste, and Viola (all of which were amazing) and we spent a long time trying to decide if we should go up and talk to them. We probably should have, but we didn't want to be 'those awkward kids'. Plus, we were freaking out a little too much just standing there looking at them, so it might have been for the best. Maybe. Then we headed over to the Dirty Duck, the after show hang out spot for the RSC. We didn't get to meet any actors here either, though, because the pub is divided into two rooms so that the actors can have a place to hang out without getting bothered all of the time, which makes sense. At least we were able to see into the other room across the bar. The rest of the pub was mostly filled with ASE people, so we hung out with other kids and the staff members who were on the trip (who are all quite funny and fun people).
Wednesday we had our delicious free B&B breakfasts and headed off to Town Hall to talk about the show. Then, we had some free play time. We decided we would go first to Anne Hathaway's Cottage, the old family home of Shakespeare's wife and one of the offical 'Shakespeare properties'. Claire, one of our staff members, said she would walk us there since it was kind of a long and slightly confusing walk. It was such a gorgeous walk and we had a lot of fun just joking around. We even found mistletoe and a bunch of ducks (many of them were quite dirty). And Anne Hathaway's cottage is just adorable. It just looks so picturesque. And it's so Tudor. The house was filled with lots of cool things from its history and the people working there were quite talkative and full of little stories about the house and the family. The grounds of the house were also incredible. I wish we had more time to explore and see more of the garden, but because of our short time in Stratford, we had to cram a lot into our free time. But, we did get to see the Willow Cabin! The 'willow cabin' speech is one of my all time favourites (from Twelfth Night, naturally) and the garden has a its own Willow Cabin where actors will perform Shakespeare passages. But in the summer, not autumn. Still, it made me smile lots.
We left the Cottage and make the trek back to the center of town. Our next stop was Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare used to go to church as a boy and where he's buried. I was really Shnerdily excited about this because last year I did a paper about whether William Shakespeare of Stratford actually wrote all of the plays and poems. One of the big pieces of evidence that those who believe Shakespeare didn't write the plays use is his grave, because it has a really crude and sloppy poem on the gravestone. So it was really neat to get to see this poem and grave that I had heard so much about. Plus, you know, it was Shakespeare's grave.
I branched off again to head to the Library and finish up my Carrie time. When I was finished, I picked up a quick sandwich at the 'As You Like It Cafe' (another place I had been waiting to go to) and headed off to meet the rest of ASE to get on our bus to Birmingham. Usually during the Stratford trip, ASE sees two or three RSC shows. But since two of the three theatres are currently under construction, it worked out that only Twelfth Night was playing in Stratford while we were there. So, they decided we should go see Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray ballet in Birmingham. It kinda sucked to go to another city and have less time to spend in Stratford, but I was grateful to see another free show. It was also kinda awkward once we got to Birmingham because we had two hours to spend in a brand new city before the show started. We ended up getting dinner and then reading aloud Shakespeare's sonnets (two of my friends had just bought pocket copies of the sonnets), because really, why not. So we got to keep being Shnerds even though we had left Stratford for the night.
Now, you may be really confused by the idea of Dorian Gray - the ballet. And it was incredibly interesting, to say the least. Probably the best way to describe it is to call it a Matthew Bourne production (he choreographed the famous all male Swan Lake Swan Lake.) It was a modern take on the story, so Dorian was a model and the 'picture' was a billboard, so it had a lot to say about fame and celebrity. There was also lots of half-naked-ness and sex scenes (especially with the boys - I think Oscar Wilde would have approved), so there were a couple of people in our group that were offended or bothered. It was a modern ballet, more a ballet in terms of dance telling a story instead of classical ballet steps, but the technique and dancing was incredible. There were some changes they made to the story that I felt weakened it a little, but overall I really loved it and it certainly was interesting.
Thursday was the last day of our trip. After one more delicious free breakfast, we packed up and went to one more lecture/discussion. We only had a little free time after the lecture so we headed over to a park on th Avon, right next to the main RSC buildings (which are under construction). It was nice to just wander and relax, plus play with Shakespeare statues and torment all of the ducks, geese, and swans. Then, no visit is ever complete without that last trip to the gift shop. It felt like a very appropriate way to end our Stratford trip.
On our way back to Bath, we made a short trip to Warwick Castle. In a way, the trip was really cool because it was the first castle I've seen since I've been here. But, it was also kinda lame because it was a very commericalized castle. They had a scary dungeon tour that you had to pay to go on, there were gift shops everywhere, and one of the towers had been converted into the 'Princess Tower'. (I might have been more okay with that part except they wouldn't let any of us into the 'Princess Tower', just the gift shop. Plus, the tower they used is the one that's supposed to be haunted. And I wanted to see the haunted tower.) It was neat to walk along the walls and such, but it would have been nicer if we had been there for a shorter amount of time. And if it hadn't started getting rainy. Thankfully, we got into the bus just a few minutes before it really started coming down, but we still had a decent amount of misty water to walk through.
Still, our Stratford trip was amazing. In the words of Reefer Madness, 'Shakespeare!'

Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?

So I spent all of my 'blog time' last week writing about my fall break adventures that I didn't get the chance to talk about what was actually going on. And since I spent all of my coherent-blog-writing-efforts of the last post, I apologize for the general scatterbrain-ness and lack of structure that accompanies this blog.
This whole last week has been very Bath-tastic. Which was sooo nice. After either being holed up in my house/the library trying to write papers or going off and exploring other cities and countries, it was great to have the opportunity to enjoy Bath and relax.
On Halloween night, after getting back from Scandinavian travels, I went to a showing of Rocky Horror with my roommate and one of our housemates at Komedia, a club in Bath. It was wayyy more low-key than American showings of Rocky Horror (I'm not sure if that is just an English thing or only relates to the showing we went to), but that was actually kinda nice since we were all recuperating from our European travels and didn't have much time or resources to pull together some awesome costumes.
Monday was my housemate Claire's 21st birthday! When we were all done with classes, all of the girls in my house went to Mai Thai, this Thai restaurant right by our study center that a couple of us have been waiting to go to since we first got to Bath. It wasn't anything big or fancy, but it was fun to have all eight of us girls together after we spent over a week apart and traveling. There was lot of joking and insulting (of the loving variety) and giggling. And since Claire was turning 21, we made a not-so-quick stop at the grocery store for her to buy her first bottle of wine as a 21 year old. It took way longer than we expected, but she did make an exellent choice of wine. So then we moved our party to the house dining room and had cake and wine. It really was the theme of this week that things weren't super fancy, but they were actually really nice because they were so simple.
The weekend was, again, more of the simple same. This weekend was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and I had really really wanted to go to Germany this weekend, but for a number of reasons the plans fell through. I was disappointed, but as cool as it would have been to be in Berlin that weekend, I was so glad to be in Bath. It was so nice to just sit and breathe and spend time with my friends here. Thursday night my British Drama class went to see a production of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker with fancy man Jonathan Pryce at the Theatre Royal Bath which was quite excellent. (The one downside to this is that Thursday was Guy Fawkes Day - the 5th of November. I'm not a fireworks fan, so I was fine missing out on that, but it was just unfortunate timing that we missed out on experiencing this uniquely British holiday.) Then Saturday I went out to tea! I can't believe I've only been out for a fancy 'cream tea' twice since I've been in England, since it's pretty much the best thing in the world. This time, I went with a group of friends up to the tea room at the Jane Austen Centre. (How have I been in Bath this long and not have made it to the Jane Austen Centre?! That's just ridiculous.) It was lot of fun and we got to be girly and have lots of delicious tea. What else is there in the world?
Saturday's adventures continued with an ASE trip up to the Bath University campus. This weekend was their Family Weekend, where they have a carnival and fireworks. Again, I didn't care about the fireworks, but I thought it would be fun and stuff. And it was a lot of fun. Until it started to rain. And I wasn't wearing my wellies. The other girls from my house that had come didn't feel a real need to stay for the fireworks (especially since they might not happen if it kept raining) and our house is, in theory, at the bottom of the hill that the University campus is perched on. So we decided to walk home. Which took us over an hour. Mostly because we got lost (a couple of times), ended up walking down a street a couple blocks away from our own, and stopped at a convenience store because why not. But it was certainly an adventure. And an uniquely Bath adventure at that. When we got home, there were lots of sweatpants and cups of tea to warm us back up.
To cap off this weekend, I went with a couple of girls to see 'An Education' (which was really so fantastic - I highly recommend it). I was really exciting because we were seeing it at the Little Theatre Cinema - the indie movie house in Bath which I hadn't been to yet. It was so adorable and little and made me think of the Majestic at Gettysburg. One of the best parts of the afternoon, though, was buying our tickets and saying 'One student for "An Education"'. Ha! Plus, it was so great to see this movie right now because it takes place in England and there were all of these gorgeous sequences in places we had just visited, like Paris and Oxford. (As you can tell, homework wasn't too prevalent this weekend. In my defense, we don't have classes this week. So I figured I should go out and enjoy myself this weekend, instead of sitting in my room feeling bad as I'm procrastinating on my computer instead of doing my homework.)
So that was my week. Not too exciting, but really quite perfect for this point in the semester. But perhaps my favorite part of the week is that my housemates have officially realized something about me - it is absolutely impossible for to me be quiet. I can't talk quietly (or whisper, for that matter), I can't enter a room quietly (even when I'm trying so hard to be quiet and not wake up my roommate), the list goes on and on. The biggie this house, though, is that I sing loudly. Since the beginning of the semester, I've been trying to find a practice room somewhere in Bath where I can practice singing and at least try to keep my voice in shape. And I've had no luck so far. Which means the shower has turned into my practice room. And my big problem is that, even though I know the walls aren't sound proof and that the shower is only a couple feet away from the dining room, as soon as I get in the shower I feel like I'm in my own private world and no one can hear me sing. There have been a couple of occasions when I've finished my shower to applause outside the door. I do try to be quiet, or a least quiet-ish, and I don't belt, but no matter how hard I try my house will always get a free concert. And it really makes me quiet happy that my housemates are more than willing to tease me about all of this. I love when you reach that point in your relationship when you feel completely free to make fun of each other - that's my favourite.