The Exeter Adventures

This is the story of an American girl living in a British world. Hello, Amanda here! Welcome to my study abroad blog. I'm a junior at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, and in Fall 2011 I spent a semester at the University of Exeter in Devon, England! About me: I'm a Linguistics major, with a Business Management minor, and I'll be working on both of these studies during my term in the UK. Here I'll be chronicling my travels, adventures, and experiences during my semester abroad, so have a look around! I hope you enjoy this little glimpse of my journey. --- Archive --- Ask Me Anything! --- W&M Business School Blog --- Youtube Channel --- "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ... You have said, 'Seek my face.' My heart says to you, 'Your face, LORD, do I seek.'" Psalm 27:1 - 8

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Things I Miss About England

I've been feeling very nostalgia-for-England-y over the past week or so, and especially today, and this week it'll be two months since I got home from my time abroad, so I think it's time to sort of wrap up this blog with this post. 

The people. This is number one, definitely. G3 (my lovely international flatmates), E4 (my American friend and her wonderful, hilarious British flatmates), my hall group, and especially my traveling buddies Ana and Robin, and my dear friends Esther and Vivienne!

The accents. (DUH!) and also the words. I miss British English so much. Seriously.

The place. Exeter was beautiful. I miss the cobblestone side streets and the little shops and the pubs and cathedral and gorgeous countryside.

TRAVELING! Enough said.

The public transportation system. I miss being able to grab the train to anywhere and everywhere. I put all my train tickets up on my wall in my dorm room today and it looks really cool.

Some of the food. I finished the last of my digestive biscuits today, and I'm really sad. Those things are the best. I also miss pasties, scones, clotted cream, Nando's, really good Indian food... and that may be about it. Oh! and British Oreos, which taste different! I think I like them better over there.

The tea! This one's only kind of true, because I still have a big stash of PG Tips left, and I have yet to even open up the Bath blend I brought back (that's at home because it requires a teapot) but still, I miss it. Cream teas especially!

BEING LEGAL. It was so nice to be able to order drinks in the pubs or have a glass of wine with dinner. (Soon, though!)

PRIMARK! It is the greatest store on the planet and I miss it!

The Old Fire House, and its DELICIOUS pizza. also Timepiece, Monkey Suit, and Pitcher & Piano.

"Family dinners" (or, one time, breakfast!) in my flat, and everybody leaving food out for everyone else to try.

BBC iPlayer, and watching BBC shows in England! (because that's just cool).

Pretty buildings (castles/cathedrals!), and history EVERYWHERE! So much of it, going back so far compared to the States. 

Everyone, guys included, ending texts with "x". Cutest/happiest thing ever.

Bible study in French. That was a cool experience.

The ECU and the friendly, welcoming people at Belmont Chapel.

British fashion. In a lot of ways they're just better at it than we are. I miss some of the cute clothes (AND BOOTS).

On a related note... boys in sweaters and scarves!

My Sociolinguistics of French class. It was super interesting and the professor was absolutely wonderful.

Not having Blackboard reading quizzes on assigned readings. While I do prefer the grading system at W&M to Exeter's, it was nice that professors trusted me to do the readings on my own time over there.

LONDON, and cheap West End tickets!

Telephone boxes, red double-decker buses, taxis, the tube... :)

Strongbow on tap! and cider generally.

Things built by the Romans

British humour

British spellings

LitSoc events

No additional sales tax! It was so nice to pay exactly what it said on the thing.

Believe it or not, Old Lafrowda... yes, I even miss my run-down little flat and prison cell of a single room, just a little bit. While I was studying for my Exeter exams I (briefly) wished I was back there.

I'm sure there are more...

Things I don't miss:

...Old Lafrowda! (and associated fire alarms!)

The Exeter uni wifi/Internet situation

Having to (attempt to) get on MyExeter on a daily basis

Walking back uphill from town with groceries

The rain (sometimes)

The uni library. It was gross. It actually made me miss Swem!

Final exams = 100% of grade for the term

"Formative assignments"

Exams after break

The British University system generally. It's just mean. (See previous 3 points.)

Things I'm not sure if I miss or not:

The metric system, and attempting to decipher British recipes

Weirdly tall paper (A4) that doesn't fit in my folders, and the associated formatting issues in Microsoft Word

RyanAir... cheap flights to cool places! but also a giant pain to find the terminal (forever away, always) and deal with their luggage restrictions and make it onto the plane every single time.

The weather

A lot of the food, like traditional English breakfasts, beans on toast, and Sunday roasts. I think I miss the idea of them a lot more than the actual tastes.

I DO miss England so much though! And Scotland, and Ireland, and Wales, and Italy...! Crazy that I was there! I went to those places! Mere months ago! It seems so surreal. I miss it a lot. But I'm also so so happy to be back here at the ever-lovely William & Mary, loved of old...!

Thanks for reading, especially if you followed my adventures all along the way via this blog!

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Scotland Videos!

Okay, so I never really blogged about my Scotland trip, but I feel like these are pretty representative of my time in Edinburgh.

This was absolutely the most beautiful place I visited. I loved it so much.

also, the youtube page has now been completely updated, so all my semester abroad videos are HERE!

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...about my last week in England!

I'm back in the States now and about to head back to W&M for the spring (I move in tomorrow!) but I'm also still in the process of studying and taking my Exeter exams, so that's why I haven't updated this blog at all recently. I still have pictures and stories from my Scotland trip that I'd love to share once life settles down a bit, as well as final thoughts on my time abroad and coming home. So stay tuned and hopefully that'll happen soon!

I miss England a lot but I'm also SO EXCITED to be back at my beautiful Alma Mater this semester! Hark upon the gale! :)

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ONE WEEK LEFT!

About this time next Friday, one week from today, I will be arriving in London. The next morning, I will fly out of Heathrow back home to the States.

THAT'S CRAZY!

What a whirlwind. Since getting home from London, I've gone out to the Old Firehouse again with Ana's flat, gone to a Christmas carol service in the football stadium, attended my last ECU Central, gone out to Pitcher and Piano with Vivienne and ordered my first cocktail, gone to ECU Winter Formal (which was a BLAST and included a full English Christmas dinner!), done LOTS of Christmas shopping in town, and tried to get my act together for research on my final paper due in January. Aaaand... I am currently packing to go to SCOTLAND! That's right, I'll be spending my last full weekend in the UK in Edinburgh! I'm so excited! I leave tonight! I better get back to it because I have to make sure I'm ready to go once I get back from my class this afternoon!

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LONDON! Day 2

We woke up early Sunday morning and once again sat down to a nice breakfast with Josh's family. They were getting ready to head off to church and we were heading into the city, so we said goodbye, grabbed all our stuff, thanked them profusely, and then walked through town to the train station. The New Malden High Street was really cute and it was much nicer walking it during the day. We caught the train to Waterloo and again got into the city by about 10am.

One of the few major sights we hadn't gotten a chance to see the day before was Buckingham Palace, and it's just a short walk from Waterloo through St. James's Park, so we headed there first. We walked around the park a bit, and the weather was quite nice, so that was lovely. We crossed the bridge and got our first glimpse of the palace, and then made it to the Mall which is the road leading up to the palace, lined with trees, which is the Queen's ceremonial route to and from the palace. It was very cool to walk down and also very pretty, although the trees were bare so I'm sure it would be even prettier in the spring or summer! We got to Buckingham Palace and the Queen Victoria Memorial, which is in the square in front of the palace gates. We went up to the gates to see if they would be changing the guards, but unfortunately they don't do it every day in the fall and winter, so we didn't get a chance to see that. They also were dressed in a dark blue-grey colour, rather than in red, for winter. We did see a few of them patrolling around a bit (marching back and forth over a very short distance with their arms kept perfectly straight) though. The flag was flying above the palace, which meant the Queen was in! We took some pictures in front of the palace and memorial, and we were actually having trouble finding someone who spoke English to take a decent picture of the two of us, so I asked someone in French! I'd overheard them speaking and they were taking pictures from a good angle that actually got the whole palace behind them, which was a problem we'd had with the first person we asked - they took a close up of the two of us, but I can get a picture of my face anywhere and the point was kind of the fact that we were at Buckingham Palace! So anyway, I asked these two French girls and they took a couple good photos for us. So that was kind of cool.  We then walked through the other side of the park (which I think is actually technically a different park, but I don't know what it's called) and headed, via the tube, to our next stop: Baker Street!

In the Baker Street station, the walls tiles had Sherlock Holmes silhouettes on them. That was cute. We walked down the street all the way to the far end, where we arrived at the place to be: 221B Baker Street, home of the man himself, consulting detective Sherlock Holmes! It's on the left side of the street and for some reason I always pictured it as being on the right side, so that was interesting. The have a little museum there dedicated to Holmes, and it's a self-guided tour that costs a few pounds to get in, so I did that (because I'm a nerd and I was really excited about it) while Robin waited in the gift shop. There's a guy dressed as a constable outside the door as you go from the gift shop into the flat itself, and they have the whole thing furnished as it's described in Doyle's stories, so I got to see the study - you can sit in their chairs by the fire! - and Holmes and Watson's rooms, and where Mrs. Hudson would have lived, plus there are a few exhibition rooms with props such as letters from Holmes to Watson, a page from Watson's journal, etc. There was also a guestbook to sign. Then you get up to the attic and it's REALLY funny because the whole thing has been so detailed and tastefully done, but suddenly you're in a room full of dummies which are supposed to represent some of the cases, but it just looks so silly compared to everything else. There was a guy lying face down on the floor with a big stick on top of him, and an arm coming down from the ceiling, and I just thought it was hilarious because it was so tacky. Overall, though, the museum was pretty cool and the mystery lit/Sherlock Holmes nerd in me really enjoyed getting to see 221B! 

When I'd finished the tour, Robin and I walked back down Baker Street where we found the place we'd been looking for for lunch: Chipotle! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there are two of them in the UK and both are in London, and Robin knew this ahead of time so our plan was to find one for lunch on the second day since we were both missing some good Mexican food! Let me tell you: it is not the same. It was a very yummy lunch, and we definitely did get some good Mexican food, but it wasn't Chipotle. The burritos were much too small (if it's not a major challenge to finish one, something's wrong!) and by that I mean they gave us a reasonable single-person serving for lunch, rather than a Chipotle serving. I guess this is something we should have anticipated, but no matter. It was still good, but I'm definitely going to have to get me some REAL Chipotle (and Moe's!) when I get home!

By this point it was early afternoon, and our bus back to Exeter was leaving from London Victoria at 2:30, so we decided it was about time to head that way. We were perfectly content to just take the red double-decker buses back across the city for the rest of our time in London, so that's what we did. We caught the bus terminating at Victoria and rode it all the way to the end, then walked around the block to get to the coach station. On our way, we stopped and got some hot chocolate, which was only a pound and was surprisingly good, considering! That warmed us up, because it was getting a bit chilly (although it had been warmer than we'd expected all weekend!) but I did manage to spill mine all over myself while we were waiting for our coach. That was basically it for our time in London! We took the coach back to Exeter and got in at about 7pm Sunday evening, and with that the weekend came to a close! 

This was one of my favourite trips so far (although I'm losing track of how many I've said that about at this point)! I really like London. It's a cool city, with a lot of pretty and interesting sights to see, and seeing Les Miserables on the West End is and shall probably remain one of the best experiences of my life so far. It was absolutely incredible and I'll never forget it. I also loved seeing the city lit up for Christmas. It was lovely. And that was my trip to London! :)

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 London Trip! Day 2

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London Trip! Day 1

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LONDON! Day 1

London was incredible. I officially love it there. 

Robin and I left Friday evening to catch a train into London Waterloo. We got there at about 9:00pm and from the train we got a glimpse of the London Eye (the big Ferris wheel, for those who may not know) lit up at night! We were originally going to try to walk around the city a bit that night but once we got into the train station we decided against it. We wanted to get into New Malden, where we were staying because my friend Josh's parents were kind enough to let us crash there for two nights, before it got too late, so we caught the first train we could. It was only about a 20 minute train ride because New Malden is just outside of London, and Josh's dad and sister came to pick us up from the train station and give us a ride to their house. They were so friendly and welcoming and offered to give us food to take into the city the next day in order to save some money. It was really nice. It was also lovely to sleep in comfortable beds (I stayed in Josh's room and Robin stayed in his sister's, who has moved out) and to get to use a shower with actual water pressure! We slept quite soundly and were ready to go the next morning!

On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast with Josh's parents and talked with them for awhile, then headed into London! We got into the city at about 10am and headed for the London Eye and Big Ben, both of which are very close to Waterloo. On the way over to Big Ben, we found some red telephone boxes, so naturally we took pictures in them! When we got across the bridge, we stopped to take pictures of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and got accosted by one of those people dressed up as something who want you to take pictures with them and pay them for it. (This one was dressed as the queen... and I'm pretty sure it was a man.) We actually did get a picture because he pulled Robin into the picture with some other random lady, so I snapped a quick picture of that. It was pretty funny but afterwards we got away from where they were lurking pretty quickly. 

Next stop was Westminster Abbey, which is quite pretty from the outside and was surrounded by autumn leaves that had fallen to the ground. We didn't go in, but it's lovely from the outside and we got some good pictures. Then we decided to try to catch a bus to the Tower of London, and in the process, ended up in Trafalgar Square! (Everything in Central London is closer together than it looks on the map.) Trafalgar Square was a lot of fun because we took turns climbing up to take pictures at the base of the monument and with the lions. Afterwards, we did actually catch a bus to the Tower of London, and it was SO COOL because the bus we needed to catch just happened to be one of the old, AWESOME ones! We went up to the top level (or course) and freaked out with excitement basically the whole time we were on the bus, and ate our lunch, which we'd packed at Josh's family's house and which included sandwiches with Wallace and Gromit cheese! As we neared our stop, the guy at the back of the bus (I don't know what they're called, but they don't have them on the newer ones and it's sad) took pictures for us! It was the best first London bus ride ever. We got off at the Tower of London stop, and again, didn't go in (it's expensive AND time-consuming, although it would have been pretty cool, and maybe someday I'll get a chance to go back) but we did get pictures of it from the outside and you can see the towers and it's pretty cool even just to walk by it. We also crossed the Tower Bridge, which gives you another good view of the Tower of London and is also really cool itself! 

Next stop: The Globe! We walked part of the Queen's Walk, which goes alongside the Thames, past the HMS Belfast as well as some cool old churches, until we ended up at Shakespeare's theatre itself! SO COOL. It's round and awesome, exactly as you'd expect, and again, we didn't get a chance to go in, but you can go right up to it without paying admission so we did get to walk around a bit and it was really cool just to be there! I'd LOVE to see a show there someday. Can you imagine?!

By this point it was early afternoon and about time to head to the WEST END to see LES MISERABLES!!!!! We headed for the nearest tube station, which was across the river, so we walked across the Millennium Bridge (also known as the "Harry Potter bridge"), which was looking pretty good in light of its recent demolition by Death Eaters! :)

On the way to the tube station we also bought some roasted nuts which were absolutely delicious, and the cup was filled to the brim so we spilled a few at first and were immediately swarmed by pigeons (FEEEEEEED THE BIRRRRDSSSS...!). 

The tube is cool because it's actually shaped like a tube. For some reason, Robin and I didn't realize this would be the case, so we thought it was pretty exciting. I've mentioned this to a couple British people since, and they've laughed at me. It's also very clean and very convenient, and goodness! public transportation is just better over here! 

Leicester Square was insane. I actually don't think we ever even made it into the square itself, but the whole area was just crazy. It's undergoing some construction so parts of it were blocked off and there was one spot in particular that we had to cross through twice where people were queueing just to get around a corner. You couldn't move. It was ridiculous. And British people are just content to stand there in a crowd for 10 minutes rather than pushing their way through or something, which was a foreign concept to us. They don't move! They just wait patiently behind the twenty people in front of them who are also not ever going to move.

We finally got through and headed to the Queen's Theatre to see my all-time favourite musical ON THE WEST END. I could do an entire blog post just about Les Mis and how incredible it was (and maybe I will at some point!) but for now let me just say that it was the single most incredible theatre experience I've ever had, and probably ever will, and I will never forget it. And as a cool surprise (this will mean nothing to some people but just know that it's awesome) we saw Ramin Karimloo as Jean Valjean! He had joined the cast only days before so I had no idea I'd be getting to see him! (For those who don't know, he's probably the West End's most famous Phantom, and he was Enjolras in the 25th Anniversay production of Les Mis)... and he is amazingly talented! I'm talking Colm Wilkinson good, or perhaps just a hair below... and I don't say that lightly! His rendition of Bring Him Home was by far the best I've ever heard, including Colm's. Not kidding. And his acting was spot-on. He was Valjean. (Okay, this is turning into a Les-Mis-gushing post. I said I wasn't going to do that.) Anyway, it was a really young cast, but they were all incredible. We had an understudy as Javert but he was amazing. Robin wanted to kidnap him so he could sing for her all the time. And I remember thinking partway through the show, "You haven't seen Les Mis till you've seen it on the West End!" (This isn't 100% true. SEE IT. Any chance you get. Seriously. Best musical of all time.) But you get what I'm getting at. IT WAS PHENOMENAL. Everything about it was. Robin and I were singing the songs for the rest of the night and periodically we would just turn to one another and go "Oh my goodness that was so good." I could go on and on (and on and on and on...) but I won't.

The theatre is right in the middle of Chinatown and the show ended right about dinner time... so we got Chinese food afterwards! It was quite good. We also did a bit of souvenir shopping because the theatre district is a good place for it.

By this point it was dark, so after dinner it was time to move on to the "Walk around and look at pretty things that are lit up for Christmas" portion of the trip. We walked down Oxford Street, then to Piccadilly Circus (which I never realised was the square they always show at the beginning of British television programmes!), and then went to Harrod's to see it lit up as well. We had to take the tube to get there because it's surprisingly far away from everything else, really, but it was okay because this brought us pretty close to Hyde Park, so we headed there next. It's really big so we only saw part of it... when we got into the park we just headed to the nearest area of lights, where there was a carnival set up. We walked around there for awhile and then stopped at a little restaurant/pub place in the park, where we got some mulled Pimms, which was a bit strange but very Christmassy, and about 3 pints of water apiece (we were REALLY thirsty!). 

Then we left the park and decided it was pretty much time to call it a night, so we caught a bus back to the Westminster area, and walked across the bridge again, where we got a great view of both Big Ben and the London Eye lit up. We took the train from Waterloo back into New Malden but this time we had to walk to Josh's house, and at the roundabout the streets weren't very clearly labelled, so we took a wrong turn and actually ended up walking a lot further than we needed to. We eventually made it back, though, and went right to sleep in the comfy beds once again!

Continued in the Day 2 post, coming soon!

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Thanksgiving! A Video Blog Compilation

Two days. Good friends, good food.

LOTS of awkward camera angles. Yay.

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Two-Day Thanksgiving Extravaganza in England!

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Thanksgiving!

Giving thanks, and showing Britain how Thanksgiving is done! 

All week leading up to Thanksgiving, I was thinking about how much I'd miss being with my family and I was kind of bummed about it, but Thanksgiving in England turned out to be pretty awesome! 

Late Wednesday night, I prepared the dough for my mom's yummy buns, and on Thursday morning I got up and baked them and ate a few for breakfast. Unfortunately, I had classes that day - a report due in one and a presentation to give in another, in fact! - so I didn't have nearly enough time to sit and enjoy them, but I did still get to have my yummy buns on Thanksgiving! The presentation and the peer review for the report both seemed to go well, and as soon as I got out of my second class at 3, I rushed back to my flat where Robin and I watched the parade online! (I actually skipped a lecture in the afternoon so as not to miss the entire parade, which was so worth it! And it was the first time I'd done this, and fortunately the notes are posted online, so it wasn't too difficult to make up.) I missed about the first hour of the parade because of the class where I had to give the presentation, which obviously I had to attend, but I still got to see most of it. I also got the yummy buns back out and we ate some more of those while we watched. Robin had to go to class at 4 but I kept watching the parade and also ended up talking to mom, dad, Tim, Emily, and Grandma & Grandpa O. on Skype. It was really cool because I had the parade on half my screen and my family on the other half! 

As soon as Santa came down the street in the parade, I started blasting Relient K Christmas music (kicking the season off with Deck the Halls) and got ready to go meet my friend Vivienne for the lighting of the town Christmas lights! It was really cool that this was on Thanksgiving even thought that pretty much means nothing over here. It just happened to be the same night because they do it one month before Christmas Eve, which fell on Thanksgiving! It was a lot of fun and we got reindeer antlers! We did a bit of shopping and wore our antlers into the stores, and I found a pair of boots half off, so I bought those! :)

When I got back up to my flat, I put some banana bread in the oven to take over to Ana's flat later, and while it was baking, Dad called me on Skype from Aunt Anne-Marie's house, so I got to briefly say hi to really blurry versions of everyone from home! I wish I could've been there with them for Thanksgiving dinner but it was nice to at least get to say hello.

I got the banana bread out of the oven and went over to Ana's flat, where it was time for Thanksgiving dinner #1! It was amazing. They really outdid themselves. Ana said they'd been baking all evening. We had dinner really late (I think it was nearly 10pm by the time we actually ate) but it was delicious and I'd had nothing but some yummy buns all day, so it was wonderful. We also went around the table and said what we were thankful for, which I'm really glad we did. Everyone around the table held hands and Ana led us in prayer. It was nice. And her parents were Skyped in so they were watching our Thanksgiving celebration and periodically commenting (her dad HAD to know what types of wines we had!) which was kind of funny. The food was amazing, and I was still full hours later. After dinner we watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, sang karaoke, and then watched Elf! It was a really great celebration and a great way to introduce all her British flatmates to Thanksgiving, and also a wonderful kick-off to the Christmas season!

Friday morning marked the start of Day 2 of celebrating Thanksgiving for me, because Friday evening was my flat's big dinner. I spent almost literally all day in the kitchen, with the exception of one hour in class in the afternoon. Robin and Amy were also cooking and baking for most of the day. We ordered all our ingredients to be delivered to the flat, with the exception of the turkeys which Robin had picked up the day before, so around noon when everything arrived, we got to work. I made my applesauce and a Derby pie, and helped Robin with the turkey, stuffing, and mac and cheese. Amy made pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes. We also had sweet potatoes, green beans, and corn bread, in addition to the TWO turkeys! I also brought out the last of the yummy buns to share for dessert. Everything turned out really good despite technical difficulties with the tiny little temperamental ovens in our kitchen. It was cool to be so involved in the preparation of the whole meal - I even (attempted to) help carve the turkey!

My flat's dinner was much more disorganised than Ana's. We didn't get a chance to make a big deal our of the beginning of the meal or all sitting down together and expressing thanks for our blessings or anything like that because there was jsut too much chaos in the kitchen. The food was barely on the table before my flatmates started digging in, which was fine - it was nice that they were so excited about it! It did make me appreciate how we'd done things at Ana's the night before though! Ana, Lucy, and Rob came over for a little while and had some of our food too. Rob also helped us carve the rest of the turkey to put the leftovers away.

After dinner, we kind of just hung out in the kitchen and talked. At some point someone put some music on and some of us danced around a bit as well. It was a lot of fun. I headed back to my room afterwards and ended the night with the Gilmore Girls Thanksgiving episode, in honour of having eaten two Thanksgiving dinners (albeit not on the same day).

As much as I've been missing home (especially in the week leading up to Thanksgiving), I really am thankful for the opportunity I've been given to be here for this semester, and for all that God's been teaching me this term. I've learned a lot about myself and even though I'm still figuring a lot of things out, I can definitely see His hand in a lot of the things that brought me here and I can't wait to see where He'll take me next! I'm thankful for the friends I've made here, some of whom I will miss dearly when I return to the States, but even more so for my friends and family at home who I have been missing constantly all term and who I owe giant hugs when I see them again! You know who you are, and I love you guys. It's officially the Christmas season now, so I'll see you all SOON!

Philippians 1:3-8

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Ireland Trip: Howth

SO BEAUTIFUL!

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Ireland Trip: Dublin!

Cool city.

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Ireland Trip!

My trip to Dublin, not this past weekend but the one before (I'm SO behind on updating this thing, sorry!) was amazing. It was a very long, but wonderful, weekend. We left Exeter LATE Friday night on a 2:15am bus to Bristol to catch a 6am flight the next morning. Our bus was delayed at one of the stops because the driver didn't show up, and we had to rush a bit once we got to the airport (story of every RyanAir flight so far - their terminals are always a million miles away!), and there was no one at the desk to check our visas because apparently the desk doesn't open till 6, but fortunately we found someone at a nearby desk who was able to do it for us. I still wonder what they usually do for early morning flights like that though! What if someone needs their visa checked (like we did) and there's no one there to do it?! Anyway, we made it to our terminal just in time and boarded our plane. We had our pick of seats so the flight was quite nice, and we got into Dublin about 7:30am.

After checking into our hostel, we headed to Trinity College, which has some lovely, albeit eclectic, architecture, and we had an Irish student for a tour guide so it was quite fun to enjoy listening to his accent. The tour was pretty brief but led into the Old Library and the viewing area for the Book of Kells, which is a beautiful, illustrated copy of the four gospels, originally from somewhere in either Scotland or Ireland. It was really interesting to read about all the history behind it and to see the manuscript itself. From there we headed into the Long Room, which is the oldest part of the library, in which the books are organised not by author or subject but by size. It was absolutely beautiful, but it can't possibly be a very efficient system! The library's still in use and our tour guide said that if you need a book from it, you have to look it up by its dimensions in a catalogue they have on hand. The room has long wooden benches all down the middle of it where you can sit and just look at all the beautiful books. We sat there for quite awhile because it was a really nice place to sit... and also because we were exhausted! 

After touring Trinity, we went and found lunch - I had fish & chips at Leo Burdock, Dublin's oldest fish & chips place, which they make a point of noting has been visited by the likes of "Iron Man Chef Bobby Flay". That was funny. Robin got some yummy Greek food and potatoes, and we split. The food was really good, and there was a lot of it, which was great because we were really hungry. After lunch we checked into our hostel, which was cute and was affiliated with the adjoining hotel, so it was really nice - we were able to use the hotel's wireless internet and their full Irish breakfast was included, even for hostel guests! We actually took a quick nap at the hostel in the early afternoon after checking in because we were so incredibly exhausted. I was a bit reluctant to do this but it meant we were able to really enjoy the evening (and really, the night life is the best part in Dublin!) so I'm glad we did. 

Next up was the Guinness Storehouse tour! It was really far away so we walked for quite awhile and got to see more of the city, and eventually we found it. It was over by the jail (Gaol) which we were told was really cool and gave a lot of history, but we didn't have time to do that tour, unfortunately. At the Guinness Storehouse, we saw how Guinness is made, which was interesting, but the best part by far was that we got to pour our own pint from the tap! A free pint is included with admission, so everyone gets one, but most people head up to the bar on the top level where they just serve it to you like in any bar. When we got up there, though, it was really crowded so we headed back down to a lower level where we'd heard you could also get your pint, and when we got there we found out that they let you get it yourself! It was really cool. They show you how to tilt the glass in order to do it correctly and everything, and they give you a certificate saying that you crafted the perfect pint of Guinness. We were the last people they let in, because this area was about to close, so we got our pints and then actually ended up taking them back up to the Gravity Bar after all! By this point it had cleared out a bit and we were able to find seats and enjoy the view of Dublin lit up at night, because the bar was surrounded by windows on all sides. We also bumped into some other Americans, one of whom was living in Dublin, so they were able to give us some ideas of what to see the next day. 

From the Guinness factory, we headed to a pub called O'Shea's for dinner, where we ordered traditional Irish lamb stew. It was delicious, the portions were huge, and the pub was nice and cozy! We sat at the bar and talked, with a football match on the television in the background, and as we left the Irishman at the bar told us to take care.

We headed to another pub, the Cobblestone, after dinner, and i must say this ranks among the coolest experiences of my life, because when we walked in the door, we were immediately greeted by the sound of traditional Irish music being played live in the pub! The Cobblestone is known for its music and it was really cool to just sit and take it all in! The guys sit at the front end of the pub and there are signs that say "Please respect the musicians - Thank you". We just sat and listened for the longest time, and then eventually I went up to the bar to get a drink. I couldn't get the bartender;s attention so a friendly Irishman helped me out ("You just gotta [mimes pounding on bar with fist]!") and I chatted with him for a bit while I waited for my drink - Bailey's Irish Cream, which is DELICIOUS. Then I took it back to where Robin and I were sitting. Right as I was finishing my drink and we were getting ready to leave, one of the guys at the bar started singing. It was so Irish... and SO COOL!  As the song went on, other people began to join in, and it was just incredible. Definitely the perfect note to end the night on. When the song was over, we headed out and went back to our hostel, where we slept pretty soundly because the beds were surprisingly comfortable.

The next morning, we decided to take the girls' advice from the night before and rather than staying in Dublin for another day, we took a train to the coast, to the nearby little town of Howth, to see natural, green Ireland! I'm so glad we did. It was only about a 20 minute train ride and cost a handful of Euros for the ticket, and it was so worth it. We figured we'd spent a lot of time in cities so far in all our travels, so it was really nice to see some countryside! We hiked up along the top of the cliffs that line the coast of Ireland, and I wish I had the words to describe it to do it justice, but I really don't. It was so green and so beautiful! There were sunbeams streaming through the clouds and the water was clear and almost green and the landscape was gorgeous. I was in awe. It was breathtakingly lovely. 

We got back into Dublin at about 12:30 and had an hour and a half or so before we had to catch a bus back to the airport. We spent it doing a bit of souvenir shopping, walking around one of the main stretches one more time, and finally grabbing some pastries for a mini-lunch and sitting at the base of a statue of James Joyce to eat them. Then it was (unfortunately!) time to leave Dublin, so we made out way to the airport and flew back into Bristol.

We actually got another little mini bonus trip out of this as well, because we had some time to kill before we needed to catch our train back to Exeter, so we went into the city centre in Bristol and got some dinner. It was nice to get to see Bristol because it's quite a cute little city, and the shawarma type food we got for dinner was very good as well. We then went back to the Bristol Temple Meads train station, which is really pretty and was lit up purple for some reason, so it looked really cool. Once our train arrived, we headed back to Exeter and that was it! What a weekend! :)

[agarnierintheuk]

OFF TO LONDON!

I'm really bummed that I haven't had a chance to update about my Ireland trip, two-day Thanksgiving celebration extravaganza, or just life in general in the past few weeks, especially as I'm nearing the end of my term here! I have the Ireland post partially written but I'm about to run to class and then I'm leaving for LONDON right afterwards, so I'll be there all weekend! I really want to share all my stories with everyone at home and I also just don't want to forget anything, so I'm really hoping to catch this blog up to speed as soon as possible. It's just not happening today though, I'm afraid.

but... LONDON! WOOOO! So excited! :)

Cheers,

Amanda

[agarnierintheuk]

[agarnierintheuk]

Life.

I have a month left in England. ONE MONTH. That's it. That's insane! I've been going back and forth on whether or not to be really sad about this. Part of me wishes I had a lot more time here... but part of me's ready to be home soon (or will be in about a month!). I really miss W&M and all my friends there (it is home, after all) and I really REALLY miss my family, Mom especially. I wish I could be there for her right now. I can't wait to give lots of big hugs when I get back to the States!

Academically, Exeter has turned out to be tougher than I expected... but in a weird way. It's not even exactly tougher, per se, so much as different in a way I don't prefer. The beginning of the term seemed really easy (apart from reading, there's no actual assigned work!) but then all of a sudden we hit Week 7 and all these deadlines appeared out of nowhere! Apparently that's just how it works here: the bulk of the work for the entire term really is concentrated in the last few weeks of the term. I'm not a fan, but I'll make it work! Strange as it sounds, though, I really do miss having fairly regular graded assignments to turn in! Admittedly, i'm a bit terrified about the prospect on one essay or exam accounting for literally 100% of my entire grade for the term, which will be the case in 2 of my 3 modules. I'm really working on the whole not-being-anxious thing, but I've got a long way to go on that. There's also this weird concept of formative work here, which is basically doing a whole lot of work for no real end result, at least not in terms of a reflection on your grade. It's really strange for me to have to write an entire essay and spend all that time and effort on it, and literally have it count for nothing. It's useful for feedback, I guess, and it probably is a good thing for me to do to focus less on what it counts for gradewise... but I still don't like it. Oh W&M, how I miss thee! Our reunion shall be oh so sweet!

I gave my presentation this week in my business module. It was a relief to get it done and I think it went really well. It was for 30% of my grade (oh look at that! a nice reasonable amount!) and it was with a group of four other people. My group was great and I became pretty good friends with almost all of them. Esther, my small group leader, who has also become one of my closest friends here, was in my group, and I really enjoyed working with her. She keeps saying she doesn't want me to leave. It'a really sweet. I'm definitely going to miss her!

Speaking of small group (or hall group, as it's called here), that's been really great. The leaders are second years, so they're actually my age (one is younger) and I've really hit it off with them. One of them lives just outside London and his family are going to let me and Robin stay at their house when we go to London in December! I'll also be staying with them the night before I fly home, and they're giving me a ride to the airport the next morning! I'm so thankful for that; it's so nice of them and such a relief to know I have a ride and a place to stay! I really appreciate their hospitality.

In terms of life on campus and in Exeter, I've been going out with my flatmates (finally made it to the Imperial, or Impy, last weekend), with Ana's flat (Halloween at Timepiece was a blast and my costume was deemed a success), and with Vivienne from my hall group (we saw Jane Eyre on campus together, and I went out for Sunday roast with her friends last weekend. We also went salsa dancing one night down by the Quay!). I've been doing a lot of cool stuff with LitSoc as well. We saw a production of Romeo and Juliet at Kent's Cavern in Torquay, which was really cool and an interesting take on the play because it was actually performed in the caves and was very interactive so there was no fourth wall. Not to mention, it was just awesome to get to see a live production of Shakespeare in England! I loved it. Coming up, there's a LitSoc murder mystery event which I'm also really excited about. It'll be "hosted by Hercule Poirot", and we the suspects will all be different literary characters. I get to be a crazy lady (and it's "fancy dress", which here means come in costume) - I'm excited!

I'm writing this sitting on a bus to Bristol to catch a flight to Dublin, Ireland! So that'll be this weekend's adventure! :)