E+43

Today is the six-week mark in England, six weeks from the day we arrived. As my trip this summer was six weeks and two days, I've almost been in England as long as I was abroad this summer. This feels very different, though. The whole time I was abroad this summer all I wanted was a place to store my socks and underwear in a place that wasn't my suitcase. I naturally have had the pleasure of storing all my clothes away since the first day, so I guess thats one of the most obvious differences.
Also, I somewhat expected England to be some grand adventure; lots of traveling and epic events, things of that nature. What I have mostly done is stay in my room and read and write. I suppose I haven't made quite the solid friendships so far as I had hoped for, but things are looking up.
The good thing is that I have made a lot of progress on my writing. Last week I wrote a short story, 'Swirling Leaves in Autumn,' and I'm hoping it isn't terrible. I guess we'll see where that goes. Started brainstorming on another one, but I'm having a rough time piecing the plot together. Nothing really happens.
Among that jazz, I have doing most of my homework reading. I haven't had to submit any assignments or take any tests or quizzes, which in some ways rocks. I'm just having a hard time keeping myself accountable with reading for school and not what I want to read.
It's been getting colder. We're supposed to have decent weather this weekend: upper 60s with moderate precipitation. Not unusual for here, but we have had several really beautiful days. On most of those days I walk down to Pittville Park a few blocks away and read and think and hang out with my duck friends.
So, as I am just a few days short of being halfway through this trip, I suppose this is a good time to sum up my sentiments concerning the first half of this trip. I do miss home, especially all the fun fall things I am missing out on. I am somewhat bummed that by the time I get home there will be 2-3 months of solid winter ahead. Being here has really increased my appreciation for home; not only Canton itself, but what makes Canton home to me: the ability to go to Starbucks past 6pm (that's right, they close right after dinner- what a rip-off), my room, where I can run away from stupid people and their obnoxious gangster rap thumping through the walls, my wonderful family, good friends, all good things and people of that sort.
I don't mean to demean the quality of my stay here. It's just been very different. It has been a great learning experience, and it's great to reflect on my time here to better understand myself.
It also, obviously, has been the ideal setting for me to learn about everything British. I've learned so much already, and I know I will take my experience and knowledge gained in Cheltenham with me wherever I go in my life.
On the traveling subject, I did go to Stratford-Upon-Avon last weekend with three other BCA (American) students and a host of other international students. We saw Shakespeare's birthplace/adult home and his church where he was baptized, married, and buried, which contains his and his immediate family's graves. We had lunch twice (my favorite) in Stratford and saw lots of other nifty little things, including an original First Folio printing.
Two other Americans and I just planned a trip to London, so I'm glad I'll finally be able to go check out all the good tourist sites.
That's about all I have this morning. I have to read about the decline of the Liberal Party in 1900-1939 for class. Fun.

Welcome, October. E+16

 Well, just woke up to find that it is raining outside, and is really quite windy. Shortly after, I had a brilliant thought: as I don't have class today, or really anything better to do, I think I'll stay home today! I think it sounds brilliant anyways...
So I may as well try to relate the events of the past week as best I can. It's my fault for not writing for so long, I know. This past weekend the entire BCA group (all of the Americans that came here together, about 30, including myself) went on a trip to Cornwall, which was organized by Denise and Sandy, our wonderful program director and assistant program director, respectively.
We left last Friday morning, and rode on a bus first to Lanhydrock Hotel, which was rather pish-posh, was the site of our exquisite lunch, and was where we saw a man with purple golfing pants. Then we rode to Lanhydrock, a late Victorian Country House, which included some fantastic gardens as well.  

Also, there was a plaque to the right of the flagpole above that explained how the lost fabled land of Lyonesse existed (in legend) between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, barely visible from Land's End. It was supposedly swalled in the sea around six hundred years ago, and fishermen still say they can see the houses' rooftops under the waves on calm days, and that they get doors and windows in their nets every so often. So I am trying to figure out what interesting way I can incorporate that legend in my book.

Then went to St. Ives, a picturesque tourist town which was on the way back to our hostel. There I ate a famous Cornish pasty, and at a different shop the famous Cornish tea and clotted cream. Needless to say, I have excellent taste in taste, built up from years of experience in the field, and I have no qualms with praising both delicious treats for their tastiness, originality, and tastiness.

Then we went to our hostel at Newquay for the night. Max, Alex and I then proceeded to climb the cliffs by the sea. I got yelled at by a security guard so I stopped climbing one large, slippery cliff. The three of us then decided to hop in; its possible that I have never been as cold as I was then, swimming in the sea there. Its like I always say: If you're going to do something really stupid and somewhat dangerous, you may as well do it with your friends.

The next morning, Sunday, we visited the Eden Project, which was a china-clay mine for the majority of the past century. Some people bought it and transformed it from a hideous pit to an amazing display of ecological conservation and progress.

Then we went home. I had my first classes this week. All of my "tutors" seem pretty good, and the classmates I have met seem pretty cool as well.
Alright, I've just spent over an hour on this post, and I am absolutely starving. I'm realllllly hoping this post will format right, because I am not doing this all over.

E+8

If I've ever made a mistake over and over again in this life, it has been allowing my preconceived notions of the world to shape my thoughts and behavior. I came to England expecting some highly Romanticized world to unfold before me, and now that I have been here a full week I have found that such a world does not, in fact, exist, and though I thought I had destroyed that Romanticized imaginary Cheltenham when I initially decided to stay home several weeks ago, the world lives on, and continues to take precedent over my reality.

So, as my reality has been increasingly poignant in the past several days, I feel myself jolted out of that preconceived notion of my future, and rather in a very foreign milieu, one that could take weeks getting used to. The secularism of this country is partially to credit for a sense of apprehension I have been feeling lately, and not on a small scale, but something I think can be attributed to the collective conscience of the masses. I don't feel at home, yet. I hope that soon, probably coinciding with the beginning of my classes on Tuesday, that I can get in the groove and become more comfortable in my time and place.

Wondering what would happen in the United States abandons religion like Europe did. I'll think about that more and probably write about it later.

E+5

Fifth day in England. Already past the shock and awe of being in England. Everyone is getting settled in quite nicely. Freshers (Freshmen) moved in to our building yesterday, so that certainly adds much more to the cultural landscape of Regency Hall. There are 30 of us Americans in Regency and 69 British students all told, and we are really only getting started to know them. However, we've met lots more of the locals throughout town in our various escapades the past five days. Everything is seeming more realistic now; the Romantic notion of this semester seems to be slowly filtering out of my brain at least, and as I can see, most other American brains in the BCA program anyways.
The culture I am experiencing is truly amazing. Not that I agree with everything (like I ever would anywhere, even in the States) in English culture, but it is just so great to be able to experience everything here. Also, within our BCA group and on my flat there are people from elsewhere in Europe and Africa, and that is creating a stimulating many-sided cultural shape in my daily thoughts and conversations. At any time, I can talk to someone from any range of heritages. It's wonderful.

First day in England

Traveling was long and tiring. By the time we got to our rooms, and I was able to sufficiently smell myself before showering, I was certain that my deodorant had stopped working some time in the past 15 hours. What a wonderful shower. All 28 people in the BCA Cheltenham program assembled for some introductory information and pizza, and I was afterwards able to get everything out of my bags and set up my room. It is wonderful having this room. All to myself, and my own bathroom, to boot. All through my last trip this summer I wanted to simply put my underwear and socks into a dresser or drawers. Now that I have completed said action, I feel complete.
So about nine of us just went to a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away: Chiquito. Mexican food on our first night in England- I know, I thought it was terribly ironic as well. Other than slight confusion as to how we pay, where to put the tip, how much to tip if at all, and how to avoid looking like stupid American tourists, dinner went off without a hitch.
Then we realized that we were in England, because it had started pouring outside halfway during our meal. Unbeknownst to us, a rain storm had swooped down on Cheltenham.
Next time, I'm bringing a dagum umbrella.

E-1

     Leaving for England tomorrow. Ready to go. Still have some minute last minute things to do, like pack two suitcases.
     Two weeks ago when I had decided to stay home but still wanted to go to England, I wondered if I would ever feel at peace about my final decision. I was miserable that week, because I though that staying home would be best for me, though it burned my insides with disappointment. I looked forward to that point in time when I could just laugh about it, after the right path had become painfully clear.
     I do feel the path is painfully clear. I'm sure when I visit all of the wonderful places abroad, I will thank myself for not being an ignoramus and staying home.

Across the Pond

     This has been a wonderful summer. After getting home from my six-week trip to Israel, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria, I took a summer course at the University of Akron to get ahead, World Literatures. How fitting. We read mostly short stories by authors from all over the world, all of non-European or American heritage. Looking back, the story that stands out the most to me is Yukio Mishima's The Sound of Waves. It's a quick read, and not too difficult, but is a truly beautiful novella.

     Other than that, I have been mowing lawns and clearing underbrush to make a little money for my travels this Fall. I just finished Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey about a week ago. That was some fun reading. I agree with whoever wrote the introduction: Austen seems to start the novel as strictly a satire on Gothic fiction, but then falls in love with her story and finishes it as a half-satire, half-regular novel. By regular I mean the specific style of Austen's work I have read thus far. I started Mansfield Park by Austen about a week ago, and although I had originally hoped to finish it before leaving for England, it looks like I will have to finish it there.
                                                          Me deciding to go England, well thats a story in and of itself.
    
     I had been planning all summer to study this semester in England through BCA. I had my plane ticket, my classes mostly picked out, and many other necessary details all taken care of. However, the Friday before Malone's classes started (two weeks ago exactly), I started to think about all that I would miss this semester if I went to England. By Sunday I decided to stay home. Now I see that I had a bad case of Cold Feet, but then I thought I wasn't ready, I would miss Chorale, Sightlines, Theater, Alpha Rho Iota, family, friendships, Fall in Ohio (which I'm convinced is more wonderful than any other time of year in any other place in the world), and so on. I went to classes the first four days of school, Monday through Thursday. I was miserable the whole week. I didn't unpack what I already had packed because I didn't want to let go of the prospect of studying at the University of Gloucestershire in England. All I did was hang my Casablanca movie poster back on the wall above my bed in my room.
On that Thursday, I thought of my situation. Three former professors of mine told me that I should rethink my decision. My family told me they would support me either way. With the balance of the whole semester and possibly the potential energy of the events of my life before me, I hung on to one thing:
                                                          -That I would live in regret the rest of my life if i didn't go.

     Fortunately, that settled it. I reached my conclusion, and stuck with it. I dropped all of my classes, and told everyone that I was going to England, contrary to what I told them three or four days prior. Now, I have less than a week in the country, and have so much left to do before I leave. It feels strange that on only this coming Wednesday will I leave Canton and spend the next three months living and studying in England. I'm excited to see what this semester will hold; if I had stood by my decision to stay home this semester, I would have known perfectly well what I was gaining by staying home...

                                                        ...but I would have had no idea what I was missing abroad.