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.