Blog Post Prompt 7

Class during our study abroad trip differs tremendously from our classes at home. First of all, it's fun. This may be due to the fact that it is a bit more laid back and informal, or the fact that it is mostly discussion and participation based. At home I feel like a lot of our classes are lecture based, and tend to be boring. During a certain Phonics class last quarter I found myself constantly looking at my watch, and begging for the class to be over. This class with Ruth Benander is interesting. I constantly find myself learning new things about literature or even vocabulary. Ruth uses so many words that I have never heard of in my life, I have to stop her and be like "huh? What did you just say?" Now, I am even starting to use some of the new vocabulary that I have been picking up. I feel so much more intelligent.

In addition to my new vocabulary knowledge I have learned a great deal more about literature (as I stated previously). I think that being in Europe and traveling to all of these relevant places concerning the text, has just made that much more excited about reading them. For instance, at home I would never have read Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, or Sherlock Holmes on my own. And to be honest, had I never read these texts I truly feel that I would have been missing out on some remarkable things. I am like completely obsessed with Jane Eyre. I don't think that anyone at home who knows me would have anticipated that I would have become enchanted with that particular text. Whats more is that I honestly don't know if anyone at home would truly understand my new found fascination. I also actually like reading Sherlock Holmes, I'm not the biggest fan of the television show, but I like the text all the same. The fact that I read the text will actually come in handy, when I go see the movie this fall (I will have the background knowledge).

I think that this study abroad experience has made things a great deal more interesting. I am honestly fascinated by a lot of our text. (Excluding Byron of course, except for the fact that I did actually like the poems that we read of his in class yesterday). The most important thing that I feel that I have gained from this course is a true appreciation of classic literature. I have also learned a great deal about the time periods that the literature was written in, and this knowledge has helped me to understand the texts even further. I have also gained a new found appreciation for the role that landscape plays in a text. Before this trip, I thought more of landscape/setting as just a backdrop; but now I see it as almost an additional character in the story. Sometimes, it can even be the most important character. This appreciation would not have occurred had we not had such in depth conversations regarding setting or had we not traveled to the Moors.

Blog Post Prompt 5

In terms of my daily routine I have noticed that the orders of my days have changed a great deal since arriving in Europe. At Harlaxton breakfast is served from 7:30 to 8:30 every day, when we first arrived I went to breakfast regularly. This was due to the fact that we had class directly after breakfast. However, after awhile we opted to move class to the afternoons and sometimes the evenings. This move prompted me to sleep in. An opportunity that at home I rarely get, since I usual have to get up with my three year old. The change in class schedules actual persuaded us to stay up later, this means either going to the pub, or staying in and watching movies (i.e. Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, and of course more episodes of the BBC's Robin Hood). Since we were staying up later, we obviously began to sleep later. I shocked myself when I rolled over one morning and the clock said 11am! I can't remember the last time that I slept that late!

If we are at Harlaxton, after waking up, I may go to breakfast (if it's early enough) or I may take a shower. Then at some point in the day we usually have class and lunch and dinner. The big difference in daily routine at Harlaxton is that I do not have to cook or clean anything, and I do not have to get anyone else ready for the day. This is a bit weird for me. I had completely forgotten how little time it actually takes just me to get ready. We I schedule out how much time it will take me to get ready to go I usually give myself too much time, and I am ready way earlier than everyone else.

If we are staying somewhere else (i.e. a hostel etc) things tend to change based on our plans for the day. For example, when we stayed at Haworth we got up got dressed, and went and ate breakfast before beginning our treacherous nine mile hike/climb into the Moors. There was no showering involved, we all made a pact not to shower there, because we couldn't fit towels or other shower supplies into our bags. Not showering is also something that is a little bit out of the norm for me, I mean I usually shower once a day. When we made this pact we had no anticipated the mounds and mounds of sheep poop that were completely covering the Moors...ew is all I have to say concerning that.

In Rome, Lauren and I did things pretty standard. We showered in the morning and ate breakfast (the coffee at our hotel tasted like bacon, the implications of that continue to marvel me). However, after walking around Rome all day we felt disgusting and again in need of a shower before we felt acceptable to go to dinner.

This brings me to another dramatic change from the norm, my level of physical activity. At home most of my physical activity comes from running after my three year old. We go to the park, the Children's Museum, Kings Island, and the pool. This usually summarizes my level of outdoor activity. However, on this trip we are constantly outside and constantly moving. We pretty much walk everywhere. This combined with the fact that our rooms are on the fifth floor results in a great work out. And to spite what you may think, I actually kind of like hiking and climbing and just exploring whats around me. So much so that when I get home, I may look for a place to go hiking/exploring. In addition, I like taking the stairs up to my room. This is not really a new development, because I tend to take the stairs at school when given any choice in the matter.

At home the things that I take for granted in terms of my daily routine, is that I have my own shower, my own bathroom, and more than one towel at my disposal. I also take for granted my level of privacy, and the fact that at home I can take a bubble bath. I have really missed being able to do that here, due to the fact that after hiking and attempting to keep up with "ninja Ruth" we all tend to be a bit sore at the end of the day.

These changes in routine have led me to consider a lot regarding my routine at home. There are definitely some changes that I may make at home regarding my outdoor activities especially. I also might miss someone else cooking and cleaning up once I get home!

Blog Post Prompt 1: Roma

When venturing to Italy obviously there is a big difference between both the languages and cultures of Italy, England, and the United States. However, the first thing that was extremely noticeable to Lauren and I was the difference in driving styles. We had to take a 40 minute taxi ride to our hotel. I had thought that the taxi drivers in the U.K. were bad, however when arriving in Rome and getting into a taxi there, I experienced what true fear really was. The frist driver that we approached told us in perfect English that he did not speak English and that he did not want to drive us. First of all, the taxi driver did not speak a word of English. Therefore, he was hard to judge what kind of greeting he used, the only wat that we could judge what he was saying was based on his tone...a and his tone implied that he was completely frustrated with us. We had to resort to pulling out our hotel reservation and pointing out the name and address of our hotel. He then agreed to take us to our hotel for a little over 60 euro (translation about ninety dollars give or take). We got into his taxi, and he began to drive. Lauren and I were pretty much terrified at this point. First off, the concept of traffic lanes does not exist in Rome. I mean don't get me wrong there are lanes drawn, but I assure you they are purely for decoration purposes only. Our driver drove in the middle of lanes, swerved in and out of them. He also cut people of at his leisure, and proceeded to drive into head on traffic. He drove straight at pedestrians, and did not pay any attention to motorcycles or mopeds. The driver basically drove like he was the only person on the road. On top of that he would squeeze into spaces that you would never imagine trying to put a car into. You would see an extremely small space, and think no way would he even attempt to put a vechicle through that. Oh contrare my friend, he would and he did. I think that Lauren and I probably thought that we were going to die at least three maybe four times. This taxi driver basically made us a nervous wreck.

When we arrived at our hotel our conceirage was an adorable old Italian man, and he said Hello in a thick Italian accent with an excited tone. We were created the same way when we went to the pizzeria next to our hotel for lunch. Another thing that I noticed in terms of common things said to us, were "Gratzi" (thank you) and "prego" it's nothing. We also heard "Ciao" (goodbye). Also a great deal of the people that we encountered spoke English pretty well, or at least spoke some broken English. We were able to get by throughout Rome pretty well. It was just a little bit wierd constantly being surrounded by this other language. Pretty much everyone around us was speaking Italian, and many of the signs were only in Italian. I was actually a little surprised at how many words I was able to pick out based on the little bit of background knowledge I have regarding the Spanish language. Who would have guessed that after the three years of Spanish I took in high school I actually retained something? Had you asked me last week if I remembered anything that I learned in Spanish class my answer would have been unequivocably no, but now I actually realized that I learned quite a bit.

In terms of the language barrier there was one specific altercation that I noticed between other Americans and some of the natives; specifically at our restuarant on the last night. There was a middle age man and his wife who approached the waiter and wanted a table. The man spoke to our waiter very loudly and very slowly, with a condescending tone. He basically treated the waiter like he was an idiot, and I'm thinking to myself in this situation you're the idiot pal, you came to an Italian speaking country and you can't speak the language, don't speak to the man like he is a moron just because you think that he can't speak English. And the ironic thing was that our waiter actual spoke English rather well. After the man sat down, he proceeded to ask our waiter if he was Spanish. To which the waiter replied "No I'm Italian." This event kind of epitomized to me why some Italians express frustration with tourists.

Something that I noticed that was different in Italy from the U.K. is the volume of the voices of people speaking. Many of the people in Italy spoke rather loudly, even louder than the Americans surrounding them. I found this very interesting after having spent so much time in the U.K. where people tend to speak a great deal softer. In terms of nonverbal communication, I noticed that there was a fair amount of shaking hands, and smiling. And for the most part many of the people that owned businesses near each other tended to be on friendly terms, often speaking back forth across the street to eachother. In terms of listening for words that I did not know, they were everywhere, since the language was Italian.

Basically what I learned from my trip to Rome was that it is important to try to communicate with the locals on a level that they will not find offensive. Try to learn words from their language, etc. But do not talk to them like they're morons just because they do not speak the same language as you do (English). I also think that it is important to take in this new culture, and appreciate it for its differences from your own. I found the Italian culture fascinating, and I would definitely be interested in returning to Italy someday.

Searching for Byron: Our Quest In Rome

Let me just get this part out of the way by saying my experience in Rome looking for Byron differs from my experience in the Yorkshire Moors and Sherwood Forest in that I do not like Byron. I find it difficult to find any element of Byron's work or character that I admire in any way. I feel like the majority of his work consists of him whining about his "plight" (and I use that term very loosely) in life. He was so put upon because so many great men came before him in his family line, and he could not even aspire to equal these great men so he might as well just give up. Then there was the whole if you are bored you might as well just go die mentality that he echoes throughout, or then we have the happiness is the worst thing that could possible happen to you and if you are happy you might as well die because you have nothing further to achieve or look for. So as I have said I am not a Byron fan, had a been asked to hike something similar to the Moors in quest of Byron's inspiration, I would have made it about a mile, and once my feet started to bleed I would have just given up. There would have been no higher power pushing me, there would have been nothing fueling my determination, I would not have felt like I was missing anything. In Sherwood forest, I felt a connection to childhood. Had I read Byron as a child I may have turned out like Emily Bronte, I could have written a beautifully twisted novel, had virtually no social skills, and had a rather large dog named Keeper for a companion. Maybe, I should cut Byron a little bit of a break. I mean without him we wouldn't have this concept of the Byronic hero (Amy Weinhouse etc). I mean Bryon kind of invented this concept that self destruction is the only way to produce legitimately good art. I mean Amy Weinhouse may be a complete train wreck but she produces some pretty good music. So is there something to be said for destroying yourself to produce a hit? I mean would Byron have been as massively popular as he was without his many escapades? Would we still read him or take pleasure in it if he weren't a complete and total hot mess?

So ultimately, after all of Byron's whining he opts to leave England and travel. Hence his autobiographical poem (which he claims is not autobiographical) Childe Harold. Rome is an area filled with a variety of different architecture types/styles. Some of which even have a strong Egyptian influence. When venturing through Rome I wondered what Byron may have seen when writing Childe Harold. In addition, what information would he have known about the various architecture and the other elements of Roman history surrounding him? Furthermore, how would this have affected his poems? It wasn't until our guided tour/hike of the Roman Forum and Palentine Hill that I finally got some answers. Our tour guide, as part of our little tour had a couple little comments that she made about Byron. (By the way she was also not a Byron fan, go figure, I mean with all of the things that he has to offer). But she talked about how in Byron's day he would have seen little of what we were actually able to see based on the fact that a great deal of excavation has been done since that time. Therefore, clearly the little that he saw (comparatively) must have had a profound influence on him. In addition, our tour guide told us of a park that housed a monument to Lord Byron. So of course the following day we went in search of said monument. Our tour guide had neglected to mention that this park was contained about a thousand monuments. We spent much of our last day in Rome searching for Byron, with little luck. I was very eager to find him, due to the fact that most of the monuments had been graffiti ed on and I was interested to see what these people had written on the bust of Byron. (Please note that unfortunately we never did find Byron's bust, we found its location on a map, but ultimately the map proved to be of little help).

So now to the question regarding the gift shop. Since we were in Rome, there was no Byron gift shop per se, oddly he wasn't a main focus in Rome (he kind of had all of that hundreds upon hundreds of years of Roman history and architecture to compete with). However, Lauren and I were completely ecstatic when we found a store called Byron. We were like "Oh My Gosh we have to take a picture of this for Ruth!" And would you believe what this store was? It was a men's clothing store, with various other men's apparel. I mean how fitting is that? And right in the window there was a bright pink tie, I totally think that if Byron had lived during the modern era, he definitely would have worn pink.

Sherwood Photodiary

The Modern: Something that contains ideas that contrast with eachother in a way that causes you to see them in a new way. This picture is modern because, the idea of nature (life) and pollution/littering are two contrasting ideas. They cause me to see the harmful effects of littering within a forest oasis and to be honest the trash throughout the woods made me a little angry. I think maybe even angrier than I would have been had I seen it walking on the streets at home.

The Romantic: something that is beautiful but melancholy. This picture represents Romanticism to me because the little girl in the picture is adorable, however she reminds me of my daughter whom I miss very much. Therefore watching her sing and dance around made me feel sad and long to be home with my daughter.







The Sublime: something with a spiritual element. When looking at these trees I saw the holy trinity. Three trees growing from the same base.

The Picturesque: Something that is pretty. These roses are beautiful. They were the first thing to really catch my eye at Nottingham Castle.

Robin Hood

Ever since I was a little child I have always loved Robin Hood. My younger brother and I would watch the Disney version almost everyday from the time that I was six until the time that I was eight. During this time my dad would read us the Disney version of the book at night before we went to bed. Next we moved on to the Errol Flynn version of Robin Hood which we watched religiously until the time that I was about eleven. That was when we of course got to the Kevin Costner version of Robin Hood, and well I probably don't have to tell you that this movie was pretty popular in my house as well. Now of course on our trip we have been presented the BBC television series of Robin Hood, and we are all fascinated by this version (to clear up any questions as to why, take a look at who they cast as Robin Hood).


Furthermore, now that I am a mother, my daughter is completely obsessed with Robin Hood. The Disney version is again popular in our house. Although according to R.B. "Disney has made love and tolerance stupid" (I just had to work this quote in here, because I thought that it was hilarious, it is only fair to note that she made this quote in reference to the Disney version of Winny the Pooh. Although I would argue that this concept can be extended to other Disney interpretations of classics as well). However, I digress, due to the extreme popularity of the Robin Hood story in my household I came into this trip with an idea in my head regarding the story of Robin Hood. However, this trip has led me to have some new interpretations of this classic tale.

First of all, based on the stories that we have been reading in class it has become clear to me that in accordance with the traditional tale Robin Hood isn't overly good at anything except for manipulation and personal relations. He loses every fight he ever engages in, he makes countless errors, and yet all of his men follow him and remain loyal? In these tales he is still a hero, who robs the rich to feed the poor, but Hollywood has certainly a different twist on it. However, with all of my previous experience with Robin Hood, and my new experience of reading the text I was looking forward to my visit to Sherwood Forest, and Nottingham Castle.

The forest was exactly how I pictured it when reading the stories, and was a good representation of the sets that I have seen in the movies. I could just imagine Robin Hood, Will Scarlet, and Little John gallivanting throughout these woods. However, there were two things that took away from my day dreaming of Robin Hood. The firs, was the cow grazing sign, and the second was that I saw no bodies of water. This makes the infamous scene of Robin being knocked into the water by Little John (allegedly a symbol of baptism) hard to imagine. I walked throughout the woods by myself, exploring the nature around me. I have to say, I found the experience to be oddly soothing. There is something so relaxing about walking throughout the woods with nothing but your own thoughts.

I found the Robin Hood Museum to be completely fascinating, and in some aspects hilarious. The museum reminded me of a ride at Disneyland rather than a legitimate museum. It had adorable paintings on the wall, meaningful quotes, and sets portraying various scenes of Robin Hood throughout. After exiting the museum, you enter directly into the gift shop (a well thought out marketing ploy obviously). The gift shop focuses mostly on the character of Robin Hood and secondly on the character of Maid Marian. The outlaws/ Merrymen seem to be treated almost as third class citizens. For example, there is only one costume choice for the Merrymen, and it is not specific to any one character. For example, there is no Little John costume...I found this a little upsetting (he is one of my favorites). However, the gift shop was prevalent with various Robin Hood memorabilia. i purchased a Robin Hood hat and fox stuffed animal for my daughter. And I purchased a Green Man postcard for myself. Since I had just presented on the medieval mindset, and more specifically the story of Gawain and the Green Knight.

My trip to Sherwood has in some ways diminished my appreciation of Robin Hood based on how commercial it is (this is in terms of the gift shop etc.) However, my journey throughout the forest has also created a renewed appreciation for the magic that is Robin Hood. Sherwood Forest is so beautiful and so open, and it provides a great deal of potential for any adventure.

Prompt Six

Something that I have been able to pay particular attention to in my travels is that attitudes that I have encountered in regards to the "locals". In England, specifically in Grantham people are very friendly. I think that this may be due to the fact that they are more accustomed to tourists/americans in this area because Harlaxton is an extension of the University of Evansville campus. Therefore, Harlaxton pretty much always has American college students living there. The closest town is Grantham, therefore that is where many of the college students go for entertainment, shopping, and necessities. Therefore their kindness may be closely linked to this idea. When I am in need of directions, or wondering where to catch a cab, or where a particular store is, the people in Grantham are particularly helpful. However, as I have noted in earlier blogs, you usually have to ask for the help.

While for the most part the area surrounding Harlaxton is particularly welcoming, we have also encountered people who were very clear about not wanting us in their establishments. This was something that I had not expected at all. Based on my previous trip, I had assumed that everyone in Grantham was relatively okay with "tourists." Two years ago when I came here to study, the Gregory was closed. However, when I returned this year I was excited to find that it had reopened. We decided a few days ago to go and check it out. When we walked in virtually everyone went silent. As we walked forward to the bar, we recieved a plethora of dirty looks. We asked to see a menu, this was our first mistake, the bartender gave us a snide look. Then she replied "we stop serving food soon." Then she walked away, and did not address us agian. Obviously after this enteraction we opted to leave. We walked back to Harlaxton, and took a cab to the Blue Pig. Although, the establishment was virtually vacant, the bartender seemed a great deal happier to have us there.

In addition, an issue that we have had to deal with regarding acceptable behavior is this whole idea of tipping. In England if you tip a cab driver they get offended. However, if you ride in any other cab besides street car, the cab already has a price of £2.75 on the meter...isn't that just a built in tip? Furthermore, although it is not necessarily customary to tip bartenders in England they are not offended when you do. This is an issue that I was familar with on our last trip, it was always a debate of whether to tip or not. Another issue, is the volume of voices of Americans vs. the volume of voices of Europeans. As a tourist or outsider you can generally tell when the group you are with is too loud based on the looks that you recieve.

These experiences have taught me that sometimes I need to realize that people are not always pleased about their home town being invaded with tourists. Furthermore, as an American I need to be conscious of my volume when I speak. Also, I just need to be aware of the environment around me and keep that in mind in terms of how the other members of my group and I behave. In addition, aparently whether or not it is customary to tip seems to differ based on the situation and location.