A Day in the Country

Not having classes on Friday has been so great. So to take advantage of this, some of my friends and I decided to go on a day tour of some of England's most famous places. At 8:30am, we boarded a bus to go to our first stop Windsor Castle. The castle was incredible. It was built almost 1000 years ago, but you would never believe it was that old. It really is imposing, siting on top of a steep hill, staring down at the incoming enemy. The Queen still uses the castle and spends many of her weekends there when she is in England. On Friday, the Queen was at Windsor Castle! We didn't get to see her but it was so cool to be in the same place as the queen of England.

Our next stop was Bath. If you've ever read Jane Austen you will encounter the town of Bath in many of her novels. She actually wrote two in Bath, Northanger Abbey and Persuasions. The town is so cute. It is also a very old town, built by the Romans and centers around the only natural hot springs in England. The wealthy of the 1700s and 1800s would frequent Bath to go to the hot springs. In the town is a magnificent Abbey. It was the site of the first coronation in England, the crowning of King Edgar. The architecture was so interesting and it reminded me a little of Oxford because everything as so detailed and intricate. While we were there we went to the most delicious chocolate shop and I was able to indulge in the best cup of hot chocolate ever.

After that we were off to Stonehenge. To get there we drove through the most beautiful English countryside. Even though we didn't get to spend a lot of time at each place, the trip was worth it to see the most beautiful countryside. It was just as I pictured it. Rolling green hills dotted with sheep and small farms. Blue skies against the gently blowing grass. I felt like I was in a fairytale. Stonehenge was interesting. It's hard to imagine how so long ago people were able to place these rocks in the middle of the English countryside.

 Getting out of the hectic flow of the city was great. I'm glad to be back, but seeing so many other places has been incredible. The rest of my week is pretty quiet. Tomorrow, I am going on an Emory run tour of the East End. Hopefully I will be assigned some homework soon, but for now I'm enjoying seeing London, England, and all they have to offer.

Surviving Oktoberfest

On a list of places I wanted to go, Germany was not in the top ten. Yet, somehow I found myself sitting at a table, in a tent, at Oktoberfest surrounded by liters of beer and hundreds of people.

Walking into Oktoberfest, I wasn't really sure what to expect. At 9:30am, you enter the tents and sit down at long tables. At 10am the first round of beer is served. By 10:30, you are best friends with all the people at your table, and a few people are already on their second liter. I met the most interesting people at my table. The group to our left was from Australia. They were all here on vacation traveling around Europe together. A pair of sisters sat to our right. One of them lived in Los Angeles while the other lived in Amsterdam, doling out love advice on her website. At 11am, the music starts and everywhere people are standing on tables dancing and singing along to the traditional German songs. By now the strong willed start standing on tables to chug their liters. If you don't finish it or drip some everyone boos. Even girls were standing up to chug their liters!

If you're not wearing the traditional lederhosen or dirndl, you definitely stand out. Everyone was wearing these traditional bavarian costumes and it was so funny to see them wandering the streets of Munich in these outfits. Outside the tents, Oktoberfest is just like a county fair. Food vendors line the fair ground selling every German food you could ever want. I was in food heaven! Everything was so delicious. The bratwurst, apple strudel, schnitzel, and the kaischerschmarrn were all so good. This was the best food experience I've had in Europe so I wasn't too bothered spending all of my money on food. The rest of the fair was filled with typical rides, little kids, and families walking amidst the drunken tent-goers.

Munich is a beautiful city. On Saturday, Diane and I walked around the city and saw so many beautiful buildings and gardens. We went to the Munich Residenz, the former palace for the Bavarian monarchy, built in the 1300s. The style of the palace was so different than all the ones I've seen in London, and it was incredible. Bronze lions flank the entrance and if you rub their noses you're supposed to get good luck. I was too short to reach their noses though. After that we walked to Hoftgarten, a court garden, and the English Garden, one of the largest public gardens, even bigger than central park!

We finished seeing all of the sights of Munich by 11am and weren't really sure what to do next. Diane really wanted to see the Dachau concentration camp, so we went. I really did not want to go and knew that it would be an incredible sad and horrifying experience, but we went and it was. I think that will be my first and last time at a concentration camp because it truly was a horrible place to see. Walking in, the camp just feels terrifying, terrible, dark, and awful.

And after that incredible sad experience, we went back into the city to grab a bratwurst before going home. A tip, even though it seems like no one checks to see if you have tickets on the train, they do check, and they will fine you for trying to ride the train for free. 

So now I'm back in London and happy to be surrounded by familiar places and English!

First Classes!

So, I just finished having all of my first classes. I had my first religion class on Monday. I know it's October and this is my second week of school... London is the greatest! Classes here are structured very differently from the ones back at home. Here my science classes are two hours once a week. My religion class is an hour lecture once a week and an hour seminar once a week. And because of this I only have class four day a week. (No class on Friday!)

In all of my science classes at home, I had homework, quizzes, and tests. I never had to write any papers and only had one group project in my first two years at Emory. Here, however, I have essays in all of my science classes. Both of my Biology classes assigned essays that are worth between 40-50% of my grade! I don't know if I'll be able to handle all of this writing.

My religion class is going to be the most interesting out of all of my classes. It is titles "Thinking About Evil" and is going to discuss the problem of evil in religion and how different people have tried to explain it. I have also decided to sit in on a lecture series at King's College called "Thinking About God". It looks at how different religions have described and tried to explain God. The first lecture was on Hinduism and its origin. These classes are so interesting! I'm glad to be able to take them here because at Emory I don't really have as much time to take as many religion classes as I wanted to. Hopefully they will discuss the Jewish point of view in these classes though I don't have much faith they will. I don't think there are many Jews here in London. On Yom Kippur, I went to the Chaplain office to ask about finding a synagogue for services and they couldn't find one. They also didn't know what Yom Kippur was. It was an interesting experience coming from Emory where every other person there is Jewish.

Most of my classes are at Guys campus 5 minutes away from my dorm. But my religion class is at Strand campus which is a 45 minute walk away. I'm going to get in great shape but I think I'm going to have to take the tube there some mornings when I'm running late because I didn't hear my alarm clock.

I'm glad classes have finally started because I was feeling pretty lazy sightseeing all day long. Thursday evening, Diane and I are going to Munich for Oktoberfest. I can't wait to see the city and what the Biggest Folk Festival in the city is like!