Spring Travels

My name is Sarah Allen and I'm a senior at Alma College. In the spring of 2017 I used my Venture Grant to travel to London for a month to study Victorian literature. These posts will be a collection of my favourite or most valuable experiences abroad.

[sarahspringterm]

Looking Back

At the beginning of this trip, I had no idea what anything was going to be like. Do all the locals have tea and crumpets all day, do they adore Doctor Who, does it really rain every day? I had never been to the UK, or even out of the US (besides Canada), so all I had to go on were the silly stereotypes shown on TV. I was nervous and did not know what to expect, but I was also excited to immerse myself in a new culture for a month. The first week there was the hardest to adapt to, because we all needed to figure out how to shop, do our laundry, and get around. The grocery stores are simply that – grocery stores. They sell nothing besides necessities, so when I needed a notebook, I couldn’t just go to the nearest Meijer or Walmart, but I had to look up a stationary shop. They didn’t have any big supercenters around, so people have to buy different types of things from different stores, whereas we can buy them all in the same store. As for the laundry, their machine was in the kitchen and was both a washer and a dryer, but it took twice as long to dry clothes as in America. And last, the one I was most stressed about, was the Tube. We only managed to get lost once on our first day, and after that we knew how to get on, read the Tube map, and navigate the different trains.

As the term progressed, I became more comfortable living in a new place. I was able to get outside my comfort zone and ask strangers for advice and directions. I figured out how to shop, how to differentiate the currency (especially the coins), and where the best places to visit were. I was missing home a bit at this point, but I was completely enthralled with the city of London and all the activities I was doing that I was able to push through the homesickness. I focused on all the things we were learning, all the history and culture we were able to experience, and all the things I could only do in London. I was making the most of my trip there.

As the last week came, I thought about how we were leaving soon. I had mixed feelings, because at home was my family, my boyfriend, and my cats, all of whom I missed. But there was so much to do and learn in London that I had not gotten to do yet, and stuff I wanted to keep experiencing because it was so different from America, that I was disappointed when it came time to leave our flat. I spent the last of my time on the trip enjoying the little things about London, such as the pubs and the parks. My friends and I made a trip to Hyde Park again right before we left and walked around the lake, ice cream in hand, and watching the people and the birds. When we visited the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain I thought about Diana’s dresses we saw in Kensington Palace, and all the things we had experienced that weren’t anywhere else. It made me really appreciate the opportunity I had to go on this trip and I will definitely take any opportunity to travel to a new place again and learn as much as I can about the world.

[sarahspringterm]

Last Week in London!

Early in the week we had class in Hyde Park to go over The Importance of Being Earnest. The park was beautiful and everything was peaceful so it was a wonderful class experience outside that I don’t know if I’ll ever get again.

Later that day and for the rest of the week was practically Theatre Week for me. That day I went to see a play with Madison, Viv, and Brianna. The play was Don Juan in Soho starring one of our favourite actors, David Tennant, who is the reason we saw it. When we got there we were led to our seats – box seats. Despite learning that these seats are now the cheap ones because they have a limited view, it was an amazing place to sit. Brianna and I had the little balcony to ourselves and Madison and Viv had the other across the theatre, and we were able to see the stage very clearly. We even got really close to David Tennant when he rode over the audience on a bike, and was about 10 feet away from our seats. It was an interesting experience to sit in these seats because I usually associate them with the upper class in Shakespeare’s time when the rich would pay more to be seen above the stage and to hear the actors better. Being able to experience firsthand how this has changed was a good learning experience.

Later in the week we went as a class to see Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe. Twelfth Night is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, and seeing it in the (almost) original theatre was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget. The play was modernized, but I thought the additions and edits were done incredibly well while keeping the original style of speech and storyline. I asolutely loved the entire thing and I wish I could see it again.

One of the last things we did that week was seeing Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap on stage, again as a class. We read the play in class and Dr. Chen took us to see a live performance so we could see exactly how a play comes to life while having the book fresh in our minds. Seeing the characters act everything out made the scenes more mysterious, more comical, or more dramatic. Another thing that was interesting about this play is that it has been performed for 65 years and the story remains the same, and many people are still going to see it.

The next day we left London to come back home to Michigan. It was bittersweet, as I was happy to be home and see my family and boyfriend, but I missed the culture of the UK and I had so many more things I wanted to do.

[sarahspringterm]

Weekend in Paris! - Part 2

We also made the most of our second day in Paris. Our first stop we planned – after a breakfast of baguettes, orange juice, madeleines (sweet bread), and hot chocolate – was the Catacombs. However, when we arrived there we found that we would have had to wait five hours just to get a ticket, so we decided to spend our time on other things.

We went to Père Lachaise Cemetery where we saw the graves of Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, and Chopin. Oscar Wilde’s grave was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Paris. He is one of, if not my absolute, favourite authors. I love him and I wanted to see where he was buried, and it made me very happy to be able to go, even though we had to hike nearly a mile (probably more because we took a lot of detours to see things) to get to his tomb in the back of the cemetery. His tomb had flowers all over it, and a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray sitting on it, left by someone. There was glass surrounding the grave, however, because many people would leave lipstick prints on the grave to show their love for him, but the city did not like washing it off all the time. However, people continued to leave lip prints on the glass surrounding it.

After the cemetery, we went to the Arc de Triomphe. It was incredibly huge, and it was interesting to watch their ceremony for their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier while Bri, Mandee, and I waited for Hannah and Carolyn to climb to the top of the Arc to look at London from above.

After the Arc, we went to a few shops, had lunch at a Canadian restaurant, and later had dinner at a little baguette sandwich shop. The food was good, and once it started to turn dark, we departed for a boat tour. The tour was fantastic, and we got to watch the sun set on Paris while we rode down the Seine River and looked around at the monuments and historic buildings on the edge of the water. A lot of people were sitting down by the river with their friends and eating and drinking, and it seemed like a fun spot to hang out. We watched the sky as it turned dark, and we came past the Eiffel Tower again right in time for the sparkling to start. It was even more beautiful tonight, I thought, watching it sparkle and being reflected in the river below. It was peaceful and I enjoyed this boat trip. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel for the night after walking a total of 15 miles that day, according to Brianna’s Fitbit watch.

[sarahspringterm]

Weekend in Paris! - Part 1

Hannah, Brianna, Carolyn, Mandee, and I left at 5:30am to spend our weekend in Paris, accompanied by Ashtyn and Amy who were only going for a day. After finally arriving in the city, we managed to find our way along the Paris metro and found Notre Dame. It was beautiful and bigger than I expected. We took our pictures and went to look around the streets more, even passing a bread festival that seemed interesting. We looked in a couple of souvenir shops, and all the shopkeepers were nice and spoke English which was a pleasant surprise, as I had expected to struggle to communicate with people since I don’t speak French.

After Notre Dame, we went to the Louvre. The entrance to it is beautiful and feels like walking into the past with how wonderful the architecture is. There is a giant glass pyramid in the middle of the courtyard where you enter, and this is the actual entrance to the museum and where you go through security. Inside the museum, we saw the famous Mona Lisa and several other paintings, but we were very tired and wanted to leave early.

We left the Louvre to go to dinner and finally drop our bags off at the hostel. Dinner was interesting, as the menu was all in French, but the waitress was very nice and tried to translate it as best as she could. Following dinner, we went to the Eiffel Tower. The Tower was bigger than I could ever have imagined. At first I did not think it was very beautiful, but I was impressed with the infrastructure. We found a crepe stand and spent the next few hours on the lawn in front of the Tower, talking to a couple of other Americans we met who were really nice. We got a lot of pictures and waited for sunset while Amy and Ashtyn left to go back to London.

The sunset on the Eiffel Tower was phenomenal. The sky changed to beautiful colours and then the Tower lit up once it got dark enough. We decided to go up to the top of the Tower, and the view from up there was also amazing. However, my favourite part was when we left the Tower and waited a few minutes, watching it. Every hour on the hour after it turns dark, the Eiffel Tower has lights that make it “sparkle” in the dark and it goes on for several minutes. I was blown away by how beautiful it was, a massive structure lit up and looking gold and black against the rest of the blackness of the sky, all the while sparkling like stars were engraved in it. It was my favourite part of the trip, watching the Tower like this.

[sarahspringterm]

Second Week in London!

My second week was more informative than the fun of the first week, but I still loved it just as much. One of the first things we got to do was to take a tour of Shakespeare’s famous theatre, The Globe. This was not the original Globe, as it had burnt down several times, but a restoration of the one Shakespeare had brought across the Thames in 1598. I love Shakespeare, so exploring a place where his plays had been and still are being performed was amazing. There were even walkways of information about the Globe after the tour, where we saw miniature models of the theatre, examples of dress for both the upper and lower classes, examples of the instruments that would have been used, and a display of tools that would have been used to build the theatre. It was such an immersive historical visit that I will never forget.

On another day, I made a trip to an English McDonald’s to get a snack and I was amazed at the cultural difference in such a mundane place. When I walked in, there were people of every type – business men, a police man, teenagers, and older people. Normally in McDonald’s in America, I only see teenagers and families with young children. The fact that there was a broader range of people here made the place feel more like a restaurant and less like a cheap place to eat. They also had American flags everywhere, which I thought was a bit over-the-top, but it was an advertisement for their “American burgers” – which are not even on the menu in America. They were trying to play up the American theme so much that they even named these burgers and sandwiches after different states (sadly no Michigan Burger). As an American it was pretty funny to me, but it must have some appeal for the English to make such an elaborate advertisement of our country.

One of the last things we did during this week was a walk around London with a Sherlock Holmes tour guide. We were able to see a ton of spots where famous Sherlock Holmes movie and TV scenes were shot, as well as places that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his writing. I was absolutely enthralled by this tour, as Sherlock Holmes is one of my all-time favourite characters and I loved learning about the history behind so much of it.

[sarahspringterm]

First Week in London!

The rest of the first week in London was an absolute blast. On one day my group traveled out to King’s Cross to visit Platform 9¾ from the Harry Potter books. Here we waited in line and then took pictures with the trolley in the wall under the Platform 9¾ sign. After the pictures, we went into the gift shop next door and all of us wandered around looking at the amazing Harry Potter merchandise before we decided to leave. We then met up with another group at Buckingham Palace and saw the famous guards and the magnificent fountain outside.

On a different day that week, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum as a class. We saw so much English history in this museum, such as Victorian dress which me and a friend, Jonah, tried on. Many of the other objects were from the Victorian upper class and were very intricate and ornate pieces of art that showed off their financial status. Overall, I thought the English history of the museum as well as the arts from the rest of the world (such as Asia and Africa) were amazing to see firsthand in such a famous museum.

Another day this week, we went to the Charles Dickens Museum and Westminster Abbey. I loved the Charles Dickens Museum because he’s a wonderful author and we got to explore his home and learn more about his past. We saw the desk he wrote some of his books in, the kitchen his servants used, his ornate dining room, and so much more that put us right into his life. We saw Dickens’s tomb later that day when we visited Westminster Abbey. Seeing his and many other famous author’s tombs in the Poets’ Corner was very surreal to me. When I read these authors, it does not fully occur to me that these were real, living people because they lived so long ago and in such a different world from me, but here I was above their remains. It was an eye-opening visit.

[sarahspringterm]

First Day of London!

After a long flight, some grocery shopping, and a long night of sleep, I started my first full day of my spring term in London, England. With my friends Carolyn, Hannah, Ashtyn, Mandee, Brianna, and Amy, I got to explore the streets of London.

The first place we went was Baker Street, after getting mixed up several times on the Tube. We first went through an underground passage that definitely did not lead to the Tube, and then once on it and after we got off we were yelled at by a Londoner for standing on the left side of the elevator and not walking. After this, we finally got to Baker Street and saw all the Sherlock Holmes themed restaurants and pubs, as well as the Sherlock Holmes Museum. However, the line for the museum was halfway down the block, so we only saw it from the outside. We eventually found the way back to the Tube to make our way to London Bridge.

When we made it to the Tube station for London Bridge, we had to struggle through the town to find the bridges. We asked several locals who told us different directions, and eventually made it to the Tower Bridge. It was beautiful, and then we walked around the other side of the city to the London Bridge, which was less impressive. After this, we stopped by a waffle stand for waffles and smoothies, and then made our way to the Tube station again. 

We took the Tube to Westminster and came out right in front of the Big Ben. It was bigger than I expected and we took many pictures. After a while, we made our way to a gift shop and a pub for dinner. Then we walked around and saw the London Eye, and then returned to the flat. It was a great and tiring first day there.