So I really have no excuse for not finishing my blog until now. I had high hopes in the beginning to write all through December about how I transitioned back home. Needless to say, that didn't happen. I wanted to include you all in how this experience has impacted me by writing it all out on here, but it turned out I was able to communicate most everything in person with many of you which was a blessing.
For my own sanity, I want to write a few last words about the last days I had in England. (I suppose this might act as therapy of sorts as I'm able to reminisce on whatever specifics I happen to remember.)
Friday, November 27th - Sunday, November 29th:
The second to last place we stayed was Salisbury, England which I think could be legitimately labled the creepiest town we visited. I'm not sure how to communicate the weird vibe that was there, but walking around you could just tell something was a little off. It might have had something to do with the fact that Stonehenge was located just a few miles outside the city. This was the main reason we were staying in Salisbury besides having time for our finals. We were all working on finishing our Travel Writing papers as well as preparing for our Literature on Location conversations we would be having with Mark.
Friday night was simply spent settling in. We were staying in a very quaint bed and breakfast once again and Anna W., Katy, and I serendipidously found ourselves staying on the only room on the first floor! (No dragging bulging luggage up multiple flights of stairs!! Woohoo!!) I worked on my paper and my oral final for a while and then walked to town to go find dinner with one of the girls. It was just another night in England.
Saturday our group was going to Stonehenge. We took a city bus route that specifically travels out to Stonehenge providing historical commentary along the way. Stonehenge really is in the middle of nowhere. There are basically farm fields stretching out in every direction around and it's very flat. Getting off the bus we all got audio tours and walked around the giant marked-off circle around Stonehenge listening to its history. I snapped numerous pictures of every angle imaginable, but never stayed in one spot for too long since the day happened to be wickedly windy and much colder than usual. I have to admit the stones looked pretty magnificent and were really large; but it wasn't anything, in my opinion, that needed more examination than was able to be accomplished by walking around it in a circle. Once we got back the rest of the afternoon was spent working on homework. In the evening if I recalled correctly it was POURING rain, but I was really hungry and wandered around our B&B looking for someone to eat dinner with. Eventually I found Dan and convinced him that I needed someone to walk with in this creepy town to find dinner. He was nice enough to accompany me to Pizza Hut (go figure; I'm sick of Pizza Hut now by the way) even though we were guarunteed to get soaked on the way. However, I think we both enjoyed time away from homework.
Sunday morning a small group of us got together to walk across town to go to church for our last good-ol' European cathedral church service. It was surreal thinking that I wasn't sure the next time I'd be attending church in a building this magnificent; was it something I took for granted already? I'm not sure. I don't remember anything specific about the service really, but afterwards we were happily greeted by some of the clergy who invited us to come to have coffee with the congregation instead of head out right away. We gladly ablidged and found ourselves sipping coffee in the Chapter House which happens to house the best perserved original Magna Carta! We're so spoiled.
Later that afternoon I had my oral final for Literature on Location which I thought went pretty well. It was an amazing process to collect and prepare so many thoughts about the interaction between text and place and be able to theorize based on my own experiences. I had no idea I would acquire such depth of knowledge simply because of all the traveling I did. Going to bed it was weird to think about the fact that the next morning would be the last time we would be boarding a bus all together as a group. This had been our last stop before London. Where did all the time go?
Stay tuned for the rest of this wrap-up.
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