Winning Wine & Professor-ing Love

When Mike told me a little over a month ago that England is miserable and it will rain everyday September on, I thought he was just being a dreary ol' chap, sick of home and more days of rain than sun. Oh no. He was right. It has rained (even on a now beautiful and sunny day) every day since September 1st and it feels like early-mid October. Good thing that next week I'll be on the coasts of Italy and Spain :). Now I understand why the Brits like those exotic beaches so much!

Class this past week was more than unbearable. The topic was the English Reformation and a common statement out of the students leaving the 3-hour lecture was "we should reform this class..." - no good. Our very sweet, good-intentioned professor was lacking organization and seemed to gain a strong stutter when lecturing. His aide was adorable and probably should have taught more. I really enjoyed them as people but was quite disappointed in how I literally learned nothing and have spent the past week of my free time watching The Tudors. Quite informative, yet a little unnerving that I'm learning more from a Showtime production. According to Will, a British friend I made who also happens to be a elementary history teacher, I shouldn't trust Hollywood with my British history, but according to many websites on the matter, it's one of the most factual productions to exit those sunny lands in California. I did learn from class this quote,

"[The English are] great lovers of themselves... They think that there are no other men than themselves and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner they say that 'he looks like an Englishman',... and when they partake of any delicacy with a foreigner, they ask him 'whether such a thing is made in his own country'."

The field trip of the class was to a priory and an Elizabethan manor house that is, still today, lived in by the family and that was a bad as it probably seems. The garden was subpar (even though it won best garden in '94) and we went batty. However, the garden does play home to the local croquet team's practicing ground. Quite British and charming. The churches and castles/houses I've seen in my other travels made this look monotonous, and the wonderful rainy weather didn't help, but the one pound squash and zuccini that was as big as my thigh did... (we actually downsized for the smaller version)

Another upside of the class last week was a group debate that somehow landed with my group winning a bottle of wine. It is currently sitting on my shelf above my bed, and every moment I look at it I chuckle that my teachers are giving us alcohol.

Our class this week is great since we do not have to do any work (we only have to do 3 out of 4 weeks assessments and I just have to actually write the paper for last week and I'm done) and many of us girls have a minor crush on our professor. We'd bank that he's under 35, charming and cute, with a great British sense of humor. He may be married, but the fact that he already has his PhD in literature and a love for the British Romantic poets has us swooning left and right.

When I return from my "European Adventure" I will be scheduling my classes and hopefully it'll all work out. I'm crossing my fingers, especially because I found the class I've always wanted to take - British Business Culture. For the first time in my life, I'm afraid of the disappointment I'll have if I don't get to take a class.

The European Adventure kicks off literally right after class on Friday when Elena, Craig, Matt, Josh & I jump the bus into the city and then the train to Manchester for our flight out to Amsterdam. Then Sunday evening it's a night train to Prague for 2 days, and then a couple of days hopping around Rome, dropping into Florence to see many Gettysburg people, and then enjoying a couple days at the beaches of Sardinia and Girona, Spain. Even though we almost got a place in the Red Light District (it's one of the safest neighborhoods in Amsterdam - who would guess?) we managed to get amazing accomodation everywhere - especially in the last 2 places which are cheaper than hostels but hotel/condo like accomodations. It'll definitely be an experience (especially because I will be living out of Dave's European Backpack... eek!)

And the coup d'etat - Mike just got Craig & me tickets to accompany him & his mates to the last England National Football (soccer) game of the season in Wembley Stadium in London. Definitely the experience of a lifetime - I adore that boy.

I'll try and get a short Lookin' Good out before I leave and Elena is planning on bringing her laptop on our excursion so hopefully I'll be doing some quick updating. Love!