My Week In Oxford

Hi again!


I just got back from a great week in Oxford! We stayed at University College, which is the oldest Oxford college. The interesting thing about this town is that it is made up of 39 different colleges, and there is really no such thing as "Oxford University" (though I got the sweatshirt anyways...). We all had single rooms and got to eat in the dining hall for breakfast and lunch. I have to say that I really enjoyed not having to cook for myself this week. I never thought I would say that I miss SMC's Alliot dining hall, but I really do!

The city itself seemed to be more crowded than Bath, but there were a lot of familiar shops and restaurants that I recognized. It is more urban than Bath, and I began to miss Bath's scenery the moment I arrived. The actual Oxford students are just starting to return now for the semester, so I can imagine that it will get even more busy and more fun. While I was there we had our classes as usual, but for me that just meant two classes on Wednesday and one class on Thursday. So, I had a lot of time to explore. I went to see Christ Church, the Ashmolean Museum, Bodlein Library, and numerous Oxford colleges. I also got to see one of my lifelong best friends, Emily Brock! She is studying at Oxford Brooke's for the semester, and it was so nice to be able to meet up with her.

Emily and Me

The Oxford sweatshirt

First Day Exploring

At Christ Church. Many Harry Potter scenes were filmed here!

University College

Some other highlights of my trip were the Saturday night disco with the students and ASE staff, going punting along the river, and our fancy 3 course dinner in the University Hall!

Friends at the Disco!

Relaxing on the river with my housemate Sarah

My turn to punt. It's harder than it looks!

Friends and me before our dinner

The fancy dinner. I love tea!

To round off our trip in Oxford, we visited Blenheim Palace and it was amazing! It is currently the home of the 11th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, and also the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Sometimes I become bored and uninterested with old historical spots (haha!), but this one was truly breathtaking!

Well I think that is all for now! I am excited to be back in Bath for the weekend and recover from my inevitable fall season cold :( spending a week away from my new home made me realize how much I truly love it here. Next weekend I am heading out to Dublin!! So check back for new stories and pictures :-)

Cheers!

Sara

London Town & Student Teaching

Hello!

I usually wait until Wednesday's to blog, but I wanted to share a sweet story that happened during my student teaching day...

 First of all, I love the school that I am teaching in! It is a short 15-minute bus ride from my apartment, and the building itself is brand new and in amazing condition. You can tell that the school's staff is proud of it, too. They make the kids take off their shoes when they enter the building! This is no joke. I walked into my 5th year class (4th grade to us) and all of the students were either in socks or plushy slippers. It was one of the weirder things I have seen while here, but the school was so immaculate that I guess it makes sense! The kids were so sweet to me and were very interested in hearing me talk and listen to what I had to say about my life in the US. The girls were fighting over who would get to read to me first, and instead of bringing their math questions to the teacher, they brought them to me. (Sorry, parents)!! But in all, it was a great day. The kids are so well behaved - their accents and little yellow, black and grey uniforms are to die for. (They're school mascot is the Wasp). My favorite part though was in the very beginning of the day during their morning prayer and thanks. One of the boys in the class looked over at me and then looked at his teacher and reminded her that it was the "twin tower anniversary" and that we should include those who passed in our prayers today. I thought that was so touching and so sweet! I can't wait to go back to school and take on more responsibilities and get to know the kids better. They even asked me to put together a little slideshow about my life in Boston and some things that make our schools different than theirs. So I can't wait to do that!

Anyway...last Saturday I went to London for the day and it was SO great! The train ride to London from Bath is just over an hour and pretty cheap too. When we arrived at Trafalgar Square, the first thing we did was go to The London Eye! It really is very cool and I recommend doing it if you ever get the chance. You can see every inch of the city! It was also about 80 degrees that day so the AC was awesome too : )



View from the London Eye. Sorry about the reflection! Big Ben is right ahead



Emily, Melissa, Sarah, Amy, Me, Nora on the London Eye

 After the London Eye, we went to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately we missed the tour hour for the Abbey so we just got to walk around it. I'll save the tour for my Mom and Dad's trip ; ) We then made our way to Buckingham Palace. It was such a beautiful day out that it was hard to get a decent picture of it with all of the people around!

Westminster Abbey



In front of Buckingham Palace

We also got to visit the British Museum, and I especially enjoyed the Olympic exhibit. Even though the Olympics are over, there are still London 2012 flags everywhere and Paralympics posters are plastered all around the city. Another thing that I really loved about London were the underground trains! They are so efficient, fast, and cheap that it is really easy to see so much even in just one day. There's still so much I want to do in London and I can't wait to go back with my parents : )

Well I think that is it for now! My program leaves for Oxford on Saturday for the week. Our classes will continue as normal, but I'm excited to explore a new city! ( I only have classes Wednesday's and Thursday's anways ; ) My friends and I also just booked our tickets to Italy and Barcelona for Fall Break! Lots to look forward to, and I will keep you updated!

Cheers! xx

Sara

Beautiful London!

The clubs in Bath aren't bad either : )

My study trip to Dyrham Park. The cows were everywhere. The scenery reminds me of VT!

Stonehenge, Salisbury, Lacock and...Classes?!

Hi again!

So this past weekend we took a study trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Lacock. All destinations were only about 40 minutes away from my house, but it was still fun to go step out of Bath and see something new. Our first stop was at Stonehenge. All of my "tutors" said the same exact thing about the historic landmark: that you should not build it up in your mind before visiting it, or you will most likely be disappointed. As soon as we got to Stonehenge, I realized just what they meant.

The landmark is, in fact, a bunch of stones. However, what my tutor tried so desperately to explain was that, we must ask ourselves: Why were those stones put there in the first place? What language were the people speaking? How on earth did they move all of those heavy stones?
So, after taking all of that into consideration, I found it to be really cool! Im glad I got to see it and take some pictures.
The next two towns we visited were Lacock and Salisbury. These destinations were enticing to a lot of students because many Harry Potter scenes were actually filmed there! For those of you who are close to me, you know I am not an HP fan, at all. But, I did enjoy the scenery and especially the Salisbury Cathedral.

So, aside from the weekend traveling, classes started this week! I was actually excited to start classes because I was starting to feel that I was having a little too much fun, and almost forgot that I even had to take classes at all (ha ha)! Tuesday's I have a school placement at a local primary school. The children don't start until next week, but it was still nice to get to go to the school, meet my teacher and see my class. The school building is brand new and so nice! I'm anxious to get started there and to see the differences in their school systems versus our US school system. Aside from my school placement, I have 3 other courses in literature, political science, and history. All of our tutors are professors at Oxford, and they come to Bath once a week to teach their courses. The class size is only about 8-10 students which is really nice for discussion and personal attention. After just one week I can already say that I know I'm going to love my classes.

One thing I have come to realize while being here is that even though they speak English in the UK, I have found that it can still be difficult to communicate. I first realized this last week when I went to ask for a Band-Aid. I have never seen a more blank face upon a man when I said that word. I realized then that I had to better explain myself, and once I did, he replied, "ohh you mean a plaster". So, in the UK...
Band-Aid=Plaster
Bathroom= Loo or Toilet
Doctor's Office=The Surgery
Business Attire=Smart Attire
French Fries=Chips
"You're Welcome"="Alright"
....and those are just a FEW that I have come across so far. Pretty funny!

I have also learned that Americans definitely do have the reputation for being loud, and overly-friendly. All of the restaurants are small and are not meant to accommodate parties of 10, or even 6. All of the quantities in supermarkets and restaurants are a lot smaller, more expensive, and I have heard the phrase, "well everything is bigger in America, isn't it?" a number of times. I guess that is what we're known for??
I really didn't expect the culture in England to be much different from the US. But, I am pleasantly surprised that there are many sublte differences. I knew it was going to take some adjustment, but so far, so good!

Thanks for checking in! I will post again next week about my visit to London this coming weekend : )

Cheers!

Sara

Friends : )



Emily and me outside our house, overlooking the River Avon

 




Can't get enough of these!



Arrival and Initial Thoughts about Bath!

Hello!

So I finally made it to Bath!

Thankfully, the trip itself was fairly easy. I said goodbye to my Mom and Dad at the airport, and hopped on the plane. It's always hard for me to leave my family, but they made it easy for me by telling me how excited they are for me and how proud they are of me. So thank you, Mom and Dad!

The flight, only being 6 hours, was still the longest flight I have ever been on. I was able to meet up and book the same flight as my friend from St. Mike's, Emily. I'm so happy she was there because the thought of me navigating an airport and going through security and customs alone is a terrifying one. I didn't really sleep at all on the flight, and the movie they showed didn't interest me at all. So needless to say, it seemed like an eternity.

After we landed we had to buy our train ticket from Heathrow to Paddington station (15 mins). The trains themselves are SO much nicer than the ones I am used to (The MBTA really needs to take note). From Paddington, we bought our Rail Cards so that we can save money in the future when buying rail passes, and we also bought our tickets to Bath Spa. After about an hour train ride, we finally arrived in Bath!

Here are pictures of my new home!

I am convinced I am in the best location here. There are 4 apartments in the building, each taking up one floor. I am on the ground level, and I have a single bedroom, my two roommates share a room, we have a kitchen, 2 bathrooms (for only the 3 of us!) and a house commonroom. I had only been in my room for about 10 minutes when I blew a fuse trying to plug in my converter. A great first impression that was! We are above a Greek nightclub so I'm guessing it's going to get noisy, but that's alright considering I only have classes Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays! Yes, I lucked out : ) We are basically in the City Centre so we have the easiest walk and access to our classes, and all of the best spots downtown. Below are the views from my apartment. SO Beautiful!

So, as you can probably already tell, I LOVE BATH. In my opinion, it seems like the perfect city. There are hundreds of restaurants, bars, clubs, gift shops, salons, etc., and in that sense it seems very modern. But there is also so much history. The streets are all cobblestone, the houses are much smaller and older and nearly everywhere you look there is a beautiful sight (and a photo-op : ) I have only been here 3 days but I feel as if I already have a good grasp on where to go, and how to get around. I love that the city is big, but it doesn't feel that overwhelming. The people I have met here have all been friendly and are happy to talk to you and help you find your way. I'm still trying to get used to the fact that people drive on the other side of the rode, and they stop for nobody! I also held up the line at the grocery store yesterday because I was so concerned about using my debit card for the first time that I forgot there was nobody there to bag your groceries (one thing that should not be taken for granted in the US). The food was also a lot pricier even when sticking to the sales. Food shopping and cooking for myself is going to take some getting used to, that's for sure. Overall though, I am so happy here and I think that this program and this city is the perfect fit for me. I also love my roommates and everyone here in the program. We're already making travel plans for the semester and we've compiled a list of things we need to do while we're here!

Thank you for reading!    

Cheerio!

Sara 

         

                                                                                                      

19 Days Away...

Hi Guys!

So I am writing this blog as a way to keep my family and friends updated with everything I will be doing over in ENGLAND! Hopefully I can stay up to date and entertain you with pictures and stories of my experiences while studying abroad : )

I can't believe that my semester abroad is almost here! When I was originally looking at schools back in high school, studying abroad was something I hadn't thought about much. For one, I thought I would be busy playing hockey. Of course, that didn't work out as I had planned. Even though I was heart broken about not making the team, the one silver lining in all of my disappointment was my new epiphany to spend a semester overseas.

Researching all of the different countries and programs should be an extremely overwhelming process. Well, for me, my options were slim. As a double major in Psych and Elementary Education, I knew I would have to take (real) classes that would count towards my major. Usually, students use their semester abroad to take classes such as: cooking, basic language, jewelry making, or even, yes, wine tasting. As fun as those classes sound, I knew that my semester abroad would have to be like any other semester at St. Mike's. The clear-cut choice was for me to study at Advanced Studies in England, in Bath: the one study abroad program that offers education classes and student teaching opportunites that SMC actually accepts!

I didn't know much about Bath, England, (1 1/2 hr train ride west of London) and to be honest, I wasn't sure if it excited me as much as the other locations my friends are jetting off to such as Florence, Sydney, and Capetown. BUT, the more I looked into it, the more I became so excited to get to study in Bath. For one, I get to student teach which I am really looking forward to. I will be able to rack up some student teaching hours, while getting to hang out and play with young British students every single Tuesday. I'm also not going to be anxiety-ridden at the thought of not being able to understand my peers or the people I will be around. Here's to studying in an English-speaking country : ) I am also especially excited now that London has received so much hype thanks to the Olympics. It seems that every time I turn on the TV this summer, there is a "London special" on. It has been a lot of fun to watch knowing that I will be landing in Heathrow in just 19 days! SO, I think that I made the right choice in choosing England for my semester abroad. I guess we will have to wait and see!

I'm wrapping up my last week of my internship on Friday, so then I will have a full 2 weeks to pack, and prepare for my 4 months away from home.

Until next time,

Sara Denton