Everything Shakespeare

I am now completely done with lectures at the University of Chester and have a few assessments remaining! To be honest, I've been somewhat lazy on them and decided to take a reading break. Last week I read The Hobbit, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Brave New World. This week I've taken to the Bible and thought I'd read a few books before getting to work on my paper tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, the Queen will be coming to Chester! I am going to try my hardest to get to see her but from what I understand it'll will be a very busy place when she rolls in.

Brian and I went to Stratford-upon-Avon last weekend to experience the birthplace of The William Shakespeare. Now I don't claim to know much about the man and I've only read a few of his plays (sometimes just stumbling through them) but I felt much more interested in him by the end of the weekend. Stratford-upon-Avon boasts not only an awesome town-name but the home to the Royal Shakespeare Company. On Saturday, I had the pleasure of seeing two plays at the RSC, Twelfth Night and The Tempest. I've been to a few Broadway shows but this surpassed any of my theatrical experiences. The theatre was fairly large and rose up two balconies that extended in a U shape around the stage. I was very impressed with the acting during the plays and they somehow made Shakespeare easier. On Sunday we walked along the river and went inside the church that Shakespeare was baptized, married, and is now buried in. Unfortunately our way back home to Chester wasn't a pleasant as our weekend in Stratford. We were delayed over three hours at one train station and the station didn't have toilets... painful.

Stratford-upon-Avon in front of the RSC

The Royal Shakespeare Company

Me in front of Shakespeare's home

Not much else is going on this week other than hoping to get over a sinus infection that I've had for a week now. Have a good week!

School winding down

I have one last class remaining before I never go to a University of Chester class again. It's alarming to think how quickly my time in this school has gone and that in a day I will be left only to my finals. Finals over here are very different than back home. It is not one week of tests in every class, rather a span of four weeks that you may have an exam or an essay due. So my schedule consists of two, 2,000 word essays due on May 16, another 2,000 word essay due May 21 then an exam all the way at June 7. The exam will be a bit of a drag to have to wait for and I wasn't happy to find out that it's during the time my parents will be in London to visit me. I plan to make a day trip back up to Chester for the exam then catch a quick train back down to London when that time comes. As far as the subject matter in my classes, I'm doing a lot of things that I never thought I'd do. For example, I wrote a psychology lab report earlier in the semester and I'm currently working on a paper for my archaeology class - which is something I am somewhat clueless on writing and researching.

Other than school work, my time in Chester has been spent reading, watching movies, and listening to music. I felt bad that I haven't read much for leisure this year so I read The Hobbit earlier this week and now I'm working on Shakespeare's The Tempest. No contrary to what you may be thinking, I did not just willingly want to read Shakespeare out of the blue. I am going to Stratford-upon-Avon later this week to see The Tempest at the Royal Shakespeare Company so I thought it would be wise to read it and have a grasp before I saw it.

I made a trip to the Chester Zoo on April 28. I don't really have much to say about the zoo since it wasn't revolutionary by any means, but as the largest zoo in the United Kingdom, it had plenty to offer.

Marvin and me exhibiting how we haven't outgrown tunnels at the zoo

Last Friday, I decided that I needed to take a day trip somewhere because I know my availability to travel is getting more and more limited as each day passes. So I booked train tickets to go to Windermere, in the Lake District, for some really strange/long departure times (to make my tickets cheaper). That Saturday, the 5th, I set out alone and spent the day around Windermere lake. I got there before much was happening in the day and stumbled across a ferry which I took across the lake. On the other side I went for a hike which was easily the best decision of the day. The walk got me outside of the towns around the lake and into the countryside which is what the Lake District is known for. Grassy hills were specked with sheep and stone fence patterns spread across the green farther than the eye could see. I ran across the small town of Sawrey, where Beatrix Potter's cottage was situated. In this area was the inspiration for many of her books including The Tale of Peter Rabbit. I have a picture below to illustrate how the influence the cottage played in her books and art. The rest of the afternoon I spent wondering around with no plans except to take in the beautiful landscape and fresh air. On my way out of the Lake District, the train was delayed ten minutes... by sheep on the tracks.

Here is the comparison of Beatrix Potter's depiction of Tom Kitten outside of her cottage to the cottage itself...

There may be horse races going on in Chester this afternoon so I may sneak over there and see what that's all about!

Time is flying!

Two weeks flies by. I didn’t even think about making a blog post until it hit me earlier this week that I hadn’t done it since my Easter Europe trip.

My first five days back from my Europe trip I was still on Easter vacation but I spent most of my time in the library working on a few assignments and papers that had upcoming due dates. Brian went to Stratford-upon-Avon for half of a week so I had the room by myself which was nice. Other internationals were busy doing their own thing so I was pretty productive.

Classes and campus dining resumed on April 16 which was a joyous day – good food! Two of my classes finished at the end of March so I don’t have class on Fridays anymore. The rest of my classes will finish up next week, with assessments in later May and one on June 7. Academically, I’ve been working on essays piece by piece, making sure I don’t procrastinate like my high school writing days. Culturally I’ve set out with a few new life goals: watch the American Film Institute’s top 100 films of all time and listen to the top 100 albums on the Rolling Stones list. I’m on my way in the album collecting and have been harvesting as many free ones out of the Chester Uni library as possible to save for when I get back to the states.

Last weekend I did a little travelling here in the UK. On Friday the 20^th I went to Cardiff, Wales with another international student. We spent about 10 hours in the city, which is the capital of Wales. The highlight was Cardiff castle which has been remodeled multiple times giving it a keep that looks 750 years old and a residence in the fortress that looks 300 years old. After the castle we walked around Cardiff all day, making our way to the Cardiff bay, seeing Millennium stadium which is home to 2012 Olympic football (soccer), and I bought some shoes because mine are giving out from all the walking and basketball. The next day I went to Liverpool with seven others to see the "Giants" Titanic memorial event and The Beatles Story. In the evening we went to our pub for English breakfasts. Yes, I can say “our pub” in Liverpool because we’ve been there four times.

Cardiff Castle

Lord's former residence in Cardiff Castle

National Museum of Wales

"Giants" Titanic memorial event in Liverpool

Crowds for the Liverpool event

The Beatles Story

John Lennon's piano and guitar

I don’t have any travels planned for the next two weeks but you never know, something might come up! 

Swiss Cheese and French Fries

Zermatt

After our time in Italy we travelled north to Switzerland. Our first destination in Switzerland was Zermatt, a ski resort city overlooking the monstrous Matterhorn mountain. Being big on skiing, Zermatt didn’t have much to offer in terms of museums or indoor activities. But our purpose in going to Switzerland was the Swiss Alps and we spent most of our time hiking. The first day we were out hiking for about 3.5 hours and the second day around 6 hours. The legs were really feeling it when we got done! In this first Swiss stop, we discovered the expensiveness of Switzerland. Food was twice as expensive as in the states and even the trains were more expensive. The Swiss are surrounded by different languages (Italian, French, German, etc.) so signs and labels usually had at least three languages on them. One other note of Zermatt was its use of electric cars. To reduce carbon emissions and increase visibility of the mountains, you cannot drive gas powered cars in the city.

Stream that runs through Zermatt

Hiking!

Matterhorn Mountain

Vevey

In planning our trip, it made more sense to stay in southern Switzerland that to head north to cities like Basel, Bern, or Zurich. So from Zermatt we went to Vevey, a middle-sized city along Lake Geneva. Planning Vevey for one day was with the intention that it would be a city we could stop through on our way to Geneva but we found that the area has enough to spend a solid week there. The cities on the northeast side of Lake Geneva work together to give free transportation between them so Brian and I started in Vevey by leaving Vevey with a train up into wine country were we saw thousands of potential grape veins. We walked back down the mountain to Vevey and ran across the headquarters of Nestle before going east to the city of Montreux by train. From Montreux we checked out the Castle “Chillon” which is the best castle I’ve been to in Europe. We also saw statues of Freddy Mercury and Charlie Chaplain who both finished their careers along Lake Geneva in Montreux and Vevey. Vevey turned out to be my favorite city in Switzerland for it’s small size but great view of the lake and surrounding mountains.

Vevey, Switzerland

Chillon Castle

Lake Geneva with the castle over my right shoulder

Geneva

The next morning we went to Geneva which is one of the biggest cities in Switzerland. We only had a half of a day in Geneva because our train to Paris would be leaving at 4pm. I really only wanted to see some monuments and pieces to the Reformation in Geneva and  I got to all of the things I had hoped for. We saw the cathedral of St. Peter where John Calvin gave sermons and walked around the campus of the college Calvin founded. There is a massive monument with the nickname “Reformation Wall” that depicts major role players in the Reformation. We didn’t do much else in Geneva except lounge around and play giant chess in the park. We caught our 3.5 hour train ride to Paris and spent the evening of the April 5 finding our hostel from the train station and getting some sleep.

Reformer John Calvin's chair

Lunch in a park while playing giant checkers

Jet d'eau fountain in Geneva

Paris, France

The big city of Paris was a big finish to our long European vacation. Brian and I spent three full days in the city, which allowed for us to settle a little bit and buy food ahead instead of buy food day to day. On Friday the 6^th we spent the day in Europe’s most popular museum, the Louvre. When I saw “the day”, I mean it. I could’ve easily spent weeks in the maze of that museum but was limited to just over five hours. In the evening I went to the cathedral of Notre Dame for Good Friday service. The next day we followed the river east through Paris, passing by the Arc de Triomphe, the Army Museum, the Grand Palace, and the Palace de Chaillot. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and ate our packed-lunch in the Eiffel, overlooking all of Paris. To finish the day, we waiting for almost two hours to make sure we made it into Notre Dame for the Easter vigil mass. At almost three hours long, Easter vigil in French celebrated by a Cardinal (Andre Vingt-Trois) in a packed Notre Dame was unreal. Our last day, Easter Sunday, we went to the Pere Lachaise cemetery to see the graves of Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Chopin, and others. An hour walk north led us to a basilica on a hill nicknamed the Paris Taj Mahal that gave us a glimpse of the city from a different perspective. To finish our last night in Paris, we laid on the grassy park gazing at the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. To fulfill the Pulp Fiction line, I ate at McDonald’s and ordered a “Royal with cheese” – a quarter pounder with cheese. Oh and French don't claim fries to be theirs. On the last day I had a crepe, the first in my life. I feel like I’ll be impartial to French crepes for the rest of my life.

Notre Dame cathedral

Does this need a caption?

I guess this one doesn't either

Outside the Lourve

To conclude the post, I thought I would share with you five things I’ve missed a lot during my Easter break travels. 

1. Family - Easter without family just feels weird and sad.

2. White's Dining - Scrounging for food everyday got tiring so campus food sounds really good. 

3. Clothes - We didn't have much room for a wardrobe so Brian and I lived off of one pair of jeans and 6 shirts each. 

4. Showers - Having clean and large showers weren't an option in hostels, and in Paris our hostel ran out of towels so Brian and I decided to go completely natural for the last four days of the trip. Don't judge me. 

5. My bed - My bed back in Goddard is amazing but sleeping on a two inch thick mattress with a pillow the size of a baby made me miss my bed back in Chester. 

But with the limitation of all of these things has come a greater appreciation for them. Showering, changing clothes, food at all, a nice bed to sleep in, and a loving family aren't common commodities to everyone in the world. This trip has shown me how blessed I am and that the little things, like a nice pillow, are never to be looked past. 

Italia!

One of the biggest highlights of the education system in England is its breaks. I had a week long “development week” in February and on March 24, I started a three week long Easter break. Over a month ago I started planning where to go for the break and with Brian as my official travel companion, we devised a 15 day trip through Italy, Switzerland, and France. As soon as we had our countries picked out, we bought plane tickets from Liverpool to Rome and our return ticket from Paris to Manchester. To navigate our way through the three countries, we bought Eurail passes so that we could just walk onto a train but in the end, they didn’t save us that much money and probably weren’t worth the hassle of having to reserve seats on trains. Then in the two weeks leading up to the trip, I used hostelbookers.com to find hostels and got that side of the travel figured out. Finally, we packed our backpacks and one carry-on suitcase and went to the Liverpool airport to begin our journey!

Rome

We arrived in Rome the night of the 24^th and spent a good hour and a half looking for our hostel. Once settled, we found a local pizzeria and took our pizzas back to the hostel to relax and sleep before our next two days in Rome. Throughout the next two days, we split up for about half of the time as I wanted to see lots of churches and the Vatican Museum and Brian wanted to see lots to do with John Keats, his favorite poet. We did meet up and walk around the Coliseum, Palatino, and the Roman Forum. All were grand reminders of Rome’s history and strength. Then next day I went to Vatican City early in the morning and walked around St. Peter’s basilica for over an hour before joining a group tour of the Vatican Museum. The museum is massive; I was told that if you spent five seconds at every object, you’d be there 12 years. Our tour guide just showed us a glimpse of the museum and my favorite sculpture in it was probably of Laocoon with his sons. The Sistine Chapel lived up to all the hype. I could stare at it for hours if I didn’t have other things to see. I also got to see tombs of dozens of popes, the place under the basilica’s alter where Peter’s remains are located, and I walked down the stairs that a pope walks down after being elected in the Sistine Chapel. I met back up with Brian and we checked out the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain on our way back for the night. In all, I probably saw the inside of at least 10 basilicas, multiple works of Michelangelo, and was able to go to mass in Italian!

The Colosseum 

Trevi Fountain

St. Peter's Basilica

Assisi

The next morning on the 26^th, we made our way to the Rome Termini train station and hopped on a two hour train for Assisi. We nearly took a massive wrong turn but luckily we ran straight into our hostel, or should I say hotel. We had our own room and bathroom, an amazing breakfast the next morning, and a view of the basilica of St. Francis out our window. Assisi is situated at the top of a hill so we did a lot of up and down-hill hiking throughout the day. The first stop was to see the basilica of St. Francis which is divided into an upper chamber and a lower chamber and below the lower chamber is a chapel containing the tomb of St. Francis. This basilica fit very perfectly with the style of city Assisi is and its art was far simpler than that of Rome’s basilicas. The rest of the day was spent seeing the town with its picturesque stone streets and buildings. We reached a highpoint in Assisi at the Rocca Maggiore, a fortress nearly 1000 years old that gave us a 360 view of the Umbrian Valley. Assisi was a very peaceful and calm city; of the Italian cities we hit, this is the one I could see myself living in.

The stone-streets of Assisi

Brian and me

St. Francis Basilica at sunset

Florence

A former economic power and the city of the Renaissance, Florence still showed its power to us in the two days we were there. Once we found our small hostel, Brian and I went to the Galleria de Academia. The museum had multiple unfinished sculptures of Michelangelo and other various artists’ works but most notably housed the 17 foot tall “David”. Needless to say, we stared at it for 30 minutes. From there we stopped at one of the world’s largest cathedrals, known as Duomo. After seeing the beautiful basilicas in Rome, the one thing that made this church stand out was its red, white, and green marble exterior. The next day we started in Galleria degli Uffizi, ranked number two in European museums and home of the world’s greatest collection of Italian Renaissance art. Prominent pieces included Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”, da Vinci’s “Annunciation”, and Michelangelo’s “Holy Family”. As if that wasn’t enough, we went to Santa Croce to see the tombs of greats like Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and Galileo. Honestly, by the end of the day, everything started to blend together and became an immense sensory overload. Another sense that was stimulated was my taste buds after enjoying authentic Italian gelato!

Ponte Vecchio bridge

Florence skyline

Gelato!

Venice

The following two days, March 30 and 31, were spent in the romanticized city of Venice. There really aren’t a lot of big attractions in Venice so we spent our days getting lost in its countless streets and canals. One perk was that it is the only pedestrian city in the world meaning there are no cars on the island. On the first day, we spent a few hours in an art gallery and checked out the basilica of St. Mark. The second day, we took a waterbus over to the island of Murano, known for making Venetian glass. Other than these three excursions, Venice was a lot of strolling around admiring the architecture and canals. Everything being expensive (for example gondolas start at about 100 euros), the sidewalks crowded being with tourists, a horrible hostel, and getting lost all the time made Venice my least favorite stop we made in Italy.

Boats!

A typical canal

Me on the island of Murano

Milan

Today we took a very early train to Milan to finish our Italy tour. We didn’t have high expectations for Milan and are used this day more to catch up on rest and do laundry than go sightseeing. Of the things we did do boiled down to eating pasta on the sidewalk of a restaurant and visiting the cathedral here. Other than those things we walked around the commercialized, shopping city of Milan then returned for our rooms for the day. I don’t think I can judge this city fairly since I didn’t see very much but being the halfway point of our 15 day trip, the break was much needed.

Lots of train rides so far!

Milan's cathedral

The big themes of Italy were churches and Michelangelo. Themes that I've very much enjoyed experiencing and learning about. I will be sure to write about the next week’s travels on a future blog post!

Feeling Irish!

This past week was a plethora of celebrations. Last Thursday, I celebrated turning two decades old. Then when the weekend came, I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day properly in Ireland.

Thursday morning I woke up and made myself a nice birthday breakfast to start my day and went through cards and presents I had received from friends and family back home. Little did I realize that the love I felt from back home at that time would be reciprocated throughout the entire day by the people in my home at Chester. After lunch, Andrew, Brian, and I went into town and saw the movie “The Woman in Black”. Those of you that know me well enough would know that I hate scary movies. I don’t like to pay to get scared nor do I find the thrill of being scared enjoyable. So the only reason I walked into that movie was because I didn’t know it was suppose to be scary. Andrew and Brian claimed it wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be but let’s just say that I was happy no one else was in the theatre so I could move around and talk through the movie. After dinner, I came back to my house to find a cake and ice cream on the table and friends to share it with. I was also given multiple cards and gifts throughout the day by my friends which was completely unexpected. To finish of my birthday, a group of nine of us went to a pub for a few hours. I still can’t get over how blessed I felt having friends and family giving me well wishes throughout the world. Being away from home on my birthday cemented in my head the love that this world has to offer.

Friday night rolled around and as John came into my room we decided to take a look at our bus tickets for Dublin. My jaw dropped when we noticed that I had put down the wrong return date for the bus. I tried to call and change the date but the Sunday night buses were already booked full. So that presented us with another day in Ireland – which isn’t too bad of a consequence! Courtney, John, and I boarded our bus around 11pm Friday night and arrived into Dublin around 6:30am. As much as I wanted our bus to swim, we had to load a ferry to get across the water.

We waited for a couple hours to ensure a front row view for the parade. The parade was unlike any I have ever seen. It was a mix of modern things in very old styles. I can’t really describe it but simply put, the costumes were the best part of the parade. Afterwards we roamed the streets all day, hitting pubs and taking in all the greenery (people watching). In the evening we sat in a pub that had live Irish music in the “Temple Bar” area of Dublin. Hostels were booked months in advanced so we had planned to sleep in a park or pull an all-nighter. When the time came, the weather wasn’t looking promising so for the most part we pulled an all-nighter, staying in a McDonald’s for over three hours between 1am and 4:30. The next morning we went to mass then walked through the Guinness Storehouse. We got to our hostel in the late afternoon and crashed for 4 hours before making dinner and taking it easy that night. 

St. Patrick's Day Parade Dublin

Live Irish music in a pub in Dublin

With our extra day in Dublin we decided to go Belfast, Northern Ireland. None of us knew much about the city so I can’t report any noteworthy places we hit. Belfast was even more Americanized than Dublin in my opinion. Nonetheless we saw the future home of a Titanic museum and ate Ireland’s largest pizza – 24 inches in Belfast! 

Belfast City Hall

A bus took us back to Dublin then we trekked back to Chester and arrived at 3am today. Lots of things to do this week before I start Easter break travelling! 

Random Epicness

Part of me just didn't feel like blogging last week and another part of me really just didn't know what I would talk about. The last two weekends I didn't do any traveling which is my favorite thing to write about in the blog. I took the last two weekends easy in anticipation of what was ahead. This weekend I am going to Dublin to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in proper style. Then the weekend after is the start of my Easter break and I will be going to mainland Europe with my roommate Brian for two weeks. Nonetheless, I bring you this blog about random topics that I decided to make epic. 

My last blog promised that I would explain the concept of "going out" so here it is! "Going out" is a massive part of university culture. The night out starts with a house party for a few hours before hitting a few bars on your way to a club. Some details that make going out a little more interesting... Students go out on school nights, not on weekends. I guess weekends are too overrun by older people. It isn't uncommon to go out twice or more in the same school week. You might start the house party around 10, get to the bars around 11:30, then be in the club at midnight. From there, the night might take you to 3am or later. Then class in the morning! I still don't understand where the students get their money to pay for their crazy nights. I've heard stories of people paying well over 50 pounds in one night (close to 80 dollars). Also, students utilize the campus bar for a good time which I still can't get over the fact that there's a bar on campus. There's a company that the University uses to organize parties for the university. Clubs and organizations for the most part will go out on Wednesdays after their sporting event. Going out is too boring as it is so themes are a must. Pirates, gangsters, mimes, army men, cavemen, etc. whatever you fancy.  I should throw in this final comment - I haven't embraced this side of British culture and I'm not a raging alcoholic. 

Many of you may know my extensive knowledge of fashion, from sweatpants to sports t-shirts to the all important pair of tennis shoes, so I thought I would share my thoughts on English fashion. I can describe their fashion in three words: tight, dark, and always. The first two words are easily put. At least from the first months I've been here, I've observed much more fit clothing. Skinny jeans are more common and jackets or shirts are tight to your body. The clothing is predominately dark in color and I seldom will see bright colors or even simple white shirts. The last word I chose was "always" because they ALWAYS where clothes like this. Even if you are just going to be around the house for the day or maybe go out for an hour, they still get their fashion on. I have never seen a student wear sweatpants to class. To American students, that goes against everything we stand for. 

Basketball is slowing up. We lost a cup game last week so we're out of the tournament. The loss came from the hands of Lancaster Uni by one point which was disappointing, but a massive improvement from the 40 point loss we had received from them the week earlier. We have two games left in the season before it's finished. The team has been a lot of fun and great way to hang out with some British guys and I've really enjoyed joining. Another big benefit has been that it's kicked me back into shape. I needed something to chisel muscles back into my body.

The last random topic is the epic campus of Chester University. In terms of size, there is over 16,000 students, making it bigger than Wichita State University. Chester University is broken up into four campuses and even though I'm on the main campus, it feels like less than half of the size of WSU. I love the campus for that reason, it's small and personable but still has all of the amenities of a large University. The library is my favorite building on campus which causes me to squirm admitting. In all seriousness, the library is easily the best place to study and you have to check out all of your books since they don't just use one textbook. This last week I started taking advantage of their CD section. I've added seven albums to my iTunes already. 

I don't have many pictures to represent the topics above so I'll follow the random theme and post some random pictures.

Walking along the Chester canal

Graffiti - Notice the spelling of "mom"

Riverside Chester on a Saturday

Looking forward to Dublin this weekend and Easter break!