And now, I update...

The natural response to one telling you that they’ve been travelling is to ask “How was it?” or inquire “What was your favorite part?” While straightforward, these questions pose quite a challenge, especially to one who has neglected to update her blog since her return to Oxford three weeks ago. How does this (absolutely and entirely) hypothetical being who travelled around the continent, visiting eight countries, eighteen cities, and countless gelato places even begin to encompass the amazing time she had without boring her friends, talking another’s ear off, or writing a blog entry of such formidable length that her readers’ eyes fall out? Well… I think she’ll start like this:

See? How can this be anything but a dream?

Backpacking across Europe is like Inception. No really. It’s the best analogy I can come up with. Even after studying at Oxford for a term, I still think I might wake up and find that this has all been some very elaborate dream. So elaborate in fact, that I was able to dream within my dream (see? Inception!). Similarly, after dragging myself up four flights of spiral stairs, detangling myself from my trusty orange backpack for the last time, and falling, exhausted and filthy, onto my bed in Hertford’s Grad Centre I feared that if I closed my eyes, I would wake up to find that my European Adventure had been nothing more than a vivid nap-dream. Luckily, it’s either actually real or I have yet to wake up.

Either way, please PLEASE don’t pinch me.

Like Inception, where the action and suspense run rampant despite the fact that the characters are perpetually dreaming throughout the entirety of the movie, my travels were far from perfect. Never a nightmare, but definitely not a cakewalk. For instance, the day my group and I took seven trains and a bus to get from Hamburg, Germany to Amsterdam, NL. Now, to those of you whose European Geography needs a bit of refreshing (you’re not alone, I had no idea where I was half the time I was travelling), the distance between Hamburg and Amsterdam is just a little bigger than the distance between New York City and Boston. Should require, two or three trains tops. Instead, for no fault of our own (and with the insistence from an emphatic German conductor who kept yelling “TRACK 6!!!” once we heard our train was cancelled), we ended up circumnavigating the lovely country of The Netherlands and approaching Amsterdam from the south (which is from the wrong direction entirely, for those of you still struggling to pull out your map of Europe). While spending our day devoted entirely to following the just-as-confused crowd of other travellers towards our hopefully similar destinations was not what we were planning, we made it. And, perhaps most importantly, we made it back with a story in hand.

Me and my trusty orange backpack.

These little hiccups in our “plans”, the adventures we sought and the ones we stumbled upon, turned out to be the most interesting memories and some of my personal favorites – for, who would want to spend nearly three hours of his or her life watching Inception if the characters did little more than frolic in the meadows of each other’s dreams? Exactly. Once the characters were roughing it in the cities and climates of other people’s minds, then it became interesting. With that in mind, I turn to the topic of roughing it, or rather, hostels.

In Berlin, we stayed in what our hostel called the “K-Studio.” The name alone should prompt a justifiable suspicion. The room held thirty beds. The room was located in the basement of the hostel. The room had no windows. And the room was lit exclusively by red lights. Oddly enough, it worked: with 30 or so people staying in the same room, somebody was bound to be sleeping – the red lights let those people who needed to see to see, and those who wanted to sleep to sleep. It was like the hostel knew what they were doing… who would’ve thought?!  

…. Oh I want to go on, but I won’t. I think the length of the break that I’ve taken from writing my Mary Shelley essay in order to update you all has entered the realm of unjustifiability. I do promise to tell you more about the irony of me bringing my Kindle yet still managing to haul four (heavy) books back to Oxford, about my group’s constant mantra of declaring things “cultural experiences” in order to justify the cost, and about the time I had to trek through the bar, into the kitchen, go outside, across the porch, and up the stairs just to take a shower in Bruges. But not now. I can see your eyes beginning to pop out. Sorry ‘bout that one. 

A Proper European Adventure: An Outline

Below is an interactive map showing each of my destinations along the course of my journey - feel free to click away and to check it out!

View Easter Vacation - 2011 in a larger map

One Term Down...

Ages and ages ago, I started rambling about the beginnings of term - and now, as of a week ago, Hilary Term is over. While I am academically spent (12 essays in 8 weeks meant a lot of words read and typed - I predict senior year will be easier because of it though, so I guess I appreciate it, haha), after 8 weeks in Oxford I feel like I am just getting into the swing of things socially.... but alas, Easter Vacation has begun and I am eagerly awaiting my European adventures!

Ironically enough, my travel adventures began a week before term ended with my study abroad program's Adventure Weekend in Wales. Despite coming off of one of the most grueling weeks of my life and before the final week of term, I refused to miss out on this opportunity (okay, I do admit that I seriously thought about not going in order to "rest" but that would've been disastrous). So instead of heading back to the Grad Center to catch some Zzz's after my tutorial on Friday of 7th week, I boarded a bus alongside my IFSA-Butler friends destined for Llanberis, Wales.

Our Hostel, nestled among the mountains and sheep.

Five and a half hours of windy roads later, I had accomplished little more than lugging my bag filled with 3 volumes of Arthurian Legend first onto and then off of the bus. (Note to self: I will never be able to read on a bus, no matter how optimistic I may feel or how pressing the reading may be....) The popularity of IFSA's Adventure weekend proved monumental - five coaches of eager American students studying in England had arrived at the Hotel, meaning that a lucky few of us had the opportunity to not stay at this fine establishment, but instead at a youth hostel up the road. I must admit I was frustrated with the injustice of it all at first - but this meant that we got to see a little more of the cute village of Llanberis and see the views from our mountainside hostel. Luckily enough, I was in a four person room with three of my friends from Oxford - it's the same group of us who will be traveling together later on this vacation, so I took it as a sort of "trial run" of our hostel adventures together... Always silver lining, yeah? 

The next morning, a group of us explored the nearby Caernarfon Castle. While it appears magnificent from the outside, the castle itself was never finished. The inside seems to be in a ruinous state, but that was just the way it was left - abandoned practically. We were lucky enough to have time after a great tour to thoroughly explore the castle itself, from climbing the countless stairs of a narrow spiral staircase up to the tallest turret to getting hopelessly lost within the hallways concealed within the walls themselves.

One of the magnificent views on our way to the lake.

That afternoon, I went kayaking on the nearby lake, Llyn Paradyn. It had been quite a long time since the last time I went kayaking - perhaps since junior year of high school, Pirates of the Caribbean immersion, Bio Bay.  While the water was not filled with glowing dinoflagellates and was QUITE a bit cooler than the tropical waters of Puerto Rico, I had a blast! Somehow I managed to be one of the more experienced kayakers... and now I understand the phrase "running circles around" something - or, perhaps more appropriately, "kayaking circles around" - because that's exactly what I did. I didn't want to get too far ahead, so I must have looked like I had some serious steering issues, haha. Nevertheless, it was great fun and an even better way of letting off some pent-up frustrations and escaping from my normal routine of only academic exercise (ie, my brain and fingers... haha).

Our last day in Wales, we visited Llandudno (a seaside town). It was a stunningly sunny and we eagerly traversed the shore, pier, and nearby shops before heading back to Oxford. Besides taking fun pictures and absorbing some much needed vitamin D, we stumbled upon the best chip (i.e., french fry) place. I have yet to have chips to rival those beauties - om nom nom!

Our group on the Pier.

Excuses, Excuses

After a receiving a handful of concerns regarding the lack of activity of my blog, I am showing it some attention. Of course, I have several good reasons as to why I haven't updated it, some of which include:

- I'm working hard! While I know that the marks I earn here do not count towards my Kenyon GPA and all I have to do is get over a C in order to pass, it turns out that I don't know how to do "C-work." Yes friends, I am a nerd and I will work my butt off to get a grade that will not count. Brilliant.

- As a result of said work, I've written a lot of words in the past 6 weeks. A LOT. So, once I've turned in my essay(s) for the week, the last thing I want to do is write... : ( I'm beginning to wonder if there's a certain number of words an individual can use in their lifetime before running out - something along the lines of "you're days are numbered" but like "you're words are numbered" and then one day I will begin a brilliant sentence and will be unable to finish it. Scary thought.

Beautiful Gardens at Hampton Court Palace

- I've been doing some touristy things including a day trip to Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle. That same weekend, I spent the night in London with a group of my high school friends to celebrate a 21st Birthday! We hadn't seen each other in quite a while - ironically, it just takes us all studying abroad to see one another. Why would we want to get together in Ohio when we can conquer London together? It was a wonderful time, but it meant that there was little work accomplished that weekend and consequently no time to sit down and update this thing.

- Speaking of "touristy things," all of the American visiting students here at Hertford have been eagerly awaiting the 7 week Spring Break (er, Easter Holiday?) that starts in just T minus 2 weeks. As a result, we've all been scrambling to figure out where we want to go, how to get there, what to do, who to see, etc. etc. I keep oscillating between being so excited to being completely frustrated with this process as a result of the amount of internet researching hours I've done in order to figure out the cheapest travel methods (no, I refuse to go to from Paris to Dublin in order to reach Vienna... it just makes no sense!) or when would be the best time to visit another student studying abroad (yes, I realize you'll be working, but can I still come see you? I promise I won't be too much of a distraction). The one thing I've learned so far is that communication is key. Not just any communication though, GOOD, SOLID communication. Not just an offhand "Yeah, you should definitely come visit" but a "I'm coming on the 16th-19th of March, meet me at the train station at 3:30." As I have found out, some people are better at communicating in this "GOOD, SOLID" manner than others... but alas, what can we do? I will just have to hope for the best and see what happens... It will be an adventure!

- Quite honestly, I've forgotten that I hadn't updated my blog in a while. Oops! I have recently discovered one of Blogspot's hidden features, something called "Stats." Basically, it's a page shows me anything from how many people have looked at my page to what posts were most popular to what country you hail from to even what type of browser you used to look at my blog. Needless to say, I've been creeping on you all almost daily and have been really curious about the person who's been reading my posts from the Turks and Caicos Islands... who are you?! Go out and enjoy the sunshine rather than this un-updated and rambling blog!

So, on the topic of "sunshine" (and now that I have given you enough excuses as to why I haven't told you of my most recent weeks in Oxford), I am going to risk filling my word-quota in order to provide you with a brand-new entry.

I was told England was rainy. Granted, my first view of England was a semi-obscured sight of rain drops collecting on the plane's window - I was wedged within the center row of seats, craning my neck to see past a rather (ahem) rotund man and an eager couple who kept leaning forward and enthusiastically pointing out the window at things that only privileged window-seat sitters get to see. Upon stepping out of London Heathrow, my suspicions were correct: it was raining. No surprise.

Inside the walls of Windsor Castle,
the Queen's Residence - note the sun!

What was surprising however, was the beautiful day that followed. Sunny, glorious, lovely and warm. Significantly warmer than icy Ohio, in fact. Even more surprising... the amount of sunny days that have followed it. I could probably count the number of times I've actually had to use an umbrella... maybe I've just been lucky so far, but I would even dare to say that England is not so much rainy as it is "damp."  Within a single day, it will most likely become "damp" at some point - whether it's rain, mist, or a gentle shower, some sort of precipitation will occur - and then the sun will come out. Granted, it may be behind some cloud cover, but you still know that it's shining... somewhere... far away.

The fact that the Brits have so many different ways of describing cloudy weather shows you just how much the weather varies from the stereotypical constant rain. Two of my favorite are "white cloud" and "grey cloud" which puts our American "cloudy" to shame: not only can I expect it to be overcast, but I now know what kind of cloud will be gracing the sky. I guess it's similar to the Eskimo's extensive vocabulary devoted to our limited idea of snow: the Brits know their clouds in a way this poor Ohio-girl can't seem to understand.

... of course, as I write this, it begins to pour and I have somewhere to be in just a few minutes. Alas, c'est la vie! Sorry for the length - hope it makes up for the lack of attention I've been showing! xx K

Academia

Seeing as this entire process that I've embarked upon is called "Study Abroad," I should probably provide some insight into the whole "studying" aspect of my "abroad" experience. Well, here goes...

The Radcliffe Camera, one of the
Bodleian Library's many reading rooms,
convienently located next to Hertford.

The way things work at Oxford, at least for the humanities, is that each student takes two tutorials: a primary and a secondary. As their titles suggest, you supposedly spend more time on your primary tutorial than you do your secondary, mostly due to the fact that your primary tute meets twice as often as your secondary. That is to say, for Oxford's 8 week terms, a primary tute meets 8 times (once a week) and a secondary meets 4 times (once every other week). For those of us who are less inclined to math (or, rather "maths"), the discovery that I would only be meeting with my tutors for a grand total of 12 hours over the span of 8 weeks was quite shocking. Compared to the approximately 12 hours of class a week at home, this seemingly tiny number of hours spent in tutes at first seemed quite laughable.

Now, before any Kenyon-ites feel the need to express their outrage or even jealousy, I must make it clear that I am working. No, let me rephrase using the proper amount of text-based emphasis: I am WORKING, bold, italicized, and underlined. While I may "only" have 12 hours of actual tutorials,  most of my daytime hours are dedicated to the study of Arthurian Legend (my primary tute) and Modern British Drama (my secondary), which both require (unsurprisingly) numerous hours of reading, many word documents full of note-taking, and late nights of essay-writing. As of now, the end of 4th Week, I have written approximately 41,940 words either total, 11,961 of which belong to essays. Not that I'm counting. Or that I used this tallying as a way to procrastinate last night as I finished up my essay for my tute this afternoon....

The "mysterious" entry to Hertford's Library.

A tute is not really comparable to a class back in the states. It's more like office hours: you have a prearranged meeting time and come to your tutor's office to meet one-on-one for an hour. For me, I must bring two copies of my essay for the week's tutorial with me, one for me and one for my tutor. Why you may ask? Well,  because both of my tutes begin with me reading out my essay to the tutor as he marks up his copy. Depending on the tute, I might be stopped and asked to explain myself or to clarify along the way, or I will have to just keep drudging through my paper as I hear my tutor busily scratching out, editing, and tearing up the words that I have just read to him.

Needless to say, it's just a bit stressful. Reading a 2,500 word essay isn't exactly easy, especially when you have carefully avoided reading anything aloud all your life, preferring to hear other people's eloquent voices to your own voice's inability to do more than stumble and stagger its way across the page. Also, those words that keep tripping you up are your own, not some published author who most likely has been paid to string together the trickiest set of phrases with the express purpose to be read aloud by poor, unsuspecting students. No. I only have myself to blame. By the end of page five, not only am I winded as a result of choking on my own ineloquence (ha, ineloquence is not a word... I'll leave it in there irony's sake), but my mouth feels like I just attempted to eat six saltines in less than a minute.  Awesome.

Luckily enough for me, my primary tutor always makes tea. That is, if he hasn't accidentally kicked the teacup across the room in attempt to find a stapler. True story.

A Room with a View

Hertford's Graduate Center
(note the sunny day!)

Hertford has spoiled me. In the flurry of figuring out where I want to live next year for my Senior year at Kenyon  (Themed housing? Avoid the lottery? Grab a Morgan? Will this group work? How much will it cost? The New NEW Apartments, yes, okay but do you really think that they'll exist?), I have figured out that no room back in the states would have its own en-suite bathroom. Yes, you've heard me right (or, rather read, you can't really hear me, can you?): I have my own BATHROOM. It's mine. ALL MINE.  Not to mention the two windows, one of which overlooks the Thames (or, if you're particularly Oxfordian, "the Isis"). When each of the IFSA-Butler kids were handed a key upon our arrival in Hertford, we had no idea what was in store. I remember when each of us opened our doors, exclamations of "no way!" and general disbelief seemed to be the consensus.

Also, all of Hertford (and I suspect all of Oxford as well) only provides single rooms for their students. Trying to explain the concept of a roommate is hardly worth it and often met with incredulous looks of "why would you ever share a room?" Needless to say, I am now in the market for a single room for next year.

All Hertford residences also come with their own "scout," which is, for all intents and purposes, a housekeeper except better. Our scout, Janet, comes once every day of the working week and empties our trash ("bins"), straightens up the communal kitchen (including putting dishes away), cleans each of our bathrooms once a week, and I've even heard rumors that she will even make your bed or wake you up for your tutorial (!!). Not to mention, the constant banter and conversation Janet brings wherever she may be. There is no comparable position to a scout in the states.

Enough about my room. Let's talk Oxford City (mostly to prove that even though my room is amazing, I do actually get out and explore my fabulous surroundings).

- The Covered Market is, well, fairly self-explanatory, but awesome. They have everything from fresh produce stands to a butchery complete with pheasants (NOT peasants or protestants, spell check suggestions! Goodness gracious) hanging outside the door to dress shops displaying floor length gowns to restaurants (including a Traditional English Pie [i.e., not fruit] place and a professional Bakery where passersby can watch the final touches being put on a wedding cake to the best cookie place EVER called....

Ben's Cookies complete
with Cyclist.

- Ben's Cookies. Oh Ben's Cookies. When you all come to visit me, I'll take you there so you can fully understand the brilliance of this establishment. Until then, I think the best description (aside from the accompanying picture) I can provide resides in the single fact that the price of a cookie is determined by its weight. Yep. Dangerous. Oh! and it's absolutely om nom nom-ability should be noted.

I've run out of time. This always seems to happen.... but! I do have an excuse: we have a Ball tonight! And, as magical as Oxford is, I have no fairy godmother to make a dress for me, so I guess I'll just have to go shopping. Much love and until later, adieu!

Settling In

Out of the twelve days that I've been in the UK, nine of them have been spent in some sort of Orientation program or another. Needless to say, I am now absolutely oriented (... now that I've said that, I will find myself hopelessly lost tomorrow as I trek over to Hall for lunch). I parenthetically say "trek" in the most lighthearted way imaginable, for despite the 15 minute walk to Hertford College proper from my British abode (more on that later) I really enjoy walking - especially when it means walking past beautiful English buildings, over the Thames (or as Oxfordians call it, the Isis), and/or through misty fields. I even like walking in the rain.... because it is British rain.

The Hertford Crest
(Hert = Stag)

Because Hertford's Orientation was frighteningly similar to Kenyon's Orientation at the beginning of freshman year, I will instead focus on a couple useful things I learned during orientation but not BECAUSE of Orientation. Catch my drift? (Also, before I continue onwards, I probably should explain what exactly "Hertford" is. Unbeknownst to me before applying here, Oxford University is made up of anywhere between 38 and 40 [I have yet to hear a definitive answer/number and each of the various officials who have talked to us have said different numbers each time... ] different, self-governing academic institutions. Hertford is one of the many colleges that belong to Oxford and is known to be the friendliest college - who knew?! They certainly have lived up to that reputation so far). 

Okay back to some useful (or, rather, curious) things that I've learned:

- Articles such as "the" are often left out in UK English. For example, an American would say "I need to get to the Hospital! I just broke my arm!" This formation is not for the Brits... instead, they say "I need to get to Hospital! I just broke my arm!" As you can see the omission of "the" really saves them some serious time. Okay, joking aside, the unnecessary article of "the" is often left out in phrases such as "I'll meet you in [the] college" and "Dinner's always in [the] Hall." Leaving it out is harder than you might think, although I did successfully achieve this article-dropping earlier in this post. Can you find it? (haha Interactive fun!)

- "Lodge" or "Porter's Lodge" - The best equivalent I can come up with for this place is Security for an American University. This is like the front office or reception desk, where you can check in for directions to a room in a college. Also, this is where you check out your keys, check in your visitors, and check out formal robes to borrow. Also, this same place is the mail room. The Porter, the man who sits behind the counter answers calls 24/7, makes sure doors are locked, delivers mail, and is quite a busy, but very friendly person overall. 

- "Pidge" is short for Pigeon Hole, which is what Hertford students call their mail slots. Unlike a Post Office, the Lodge's pidges are all open faced. This means you can "pidge" something to one of your friends or tutors by placing it into their labelled pidge. As you can see, pidge can also be a verb. I like this word a lot an will be using it as often as possible.

- "Tutes" short for Tutorials. We don't have classes, we have tutorials. Similarly we don't have Professors, we have Tutors.

- Zebra Crossings are the best things ever invented. Remember that iconic picture of the Beatles walking across the street? (Click here if you need a quick reminder.) Wonder why they weren't hit by a car while taking this picture? It's because once a pedestrian sets foot into one of these striped walkways, all traffic MUST STOP to let them cross. Kenyon should definitely get one of these for where Middle Path crosses Wiggin Street.

Some of the International Students
and Myself before the Bop:
 A Zebra, a Panda, a Flower,and a Bird

- A "bop" is a dance. Hertford had one last Saturday with the theme of "Jungle Nights." Unlike American students (or at least my experience with American students at American universities), Hertford students take the theme quite seriously. I will never forget being passed by a group, or rather a herd of Hertford boys dressed like Zebras on my way through the city of Oxford as we headed to the bop. That's right, everybody, no matter how "cool" they may or may not be, dresses up and walks through the streets of Oxford in costume. I think the residents of Oxford proper have gotten used to this phenomenon because the lady tending the bar at the pub we stopped by didn't think twice of serving a tiger a pint.

- "Uni" is short for University. (Pretty self explanatory, really. I would also like to take this moment to point out the copious amounts of abbreviations - abreevs - that the Brits use. I think this is just sups fab!)

.... okay, well now that I have exhausted myself (and probably you, my poor reader) I will stop this lengthy post. I promise I'll get around to telling you about my (amazing) accommodations and about my first experiences with the tutorial system and even more.... but that'll be later.