Bea and I had coordinated a trip to do the Harry Potter studio tour in London.  The logistics were an interesting feat.  Only select dates were free in the coming months, one of which was the Friday following Oxford week.  We ultimately determined that it would be easiest to leave directly from Oxford to London (as opposed to Bath).  After finagling tickets (the studio is outside London, and thus required a lot of transport hopping) and rectifying wrong purchases, we eventually secured our Harry Potter experience for Friday.

It was worth all the logistical hassle.  The immediate reaction stepping off the shuttle was amazement and wonder.  We were actually here and we were actually doing this.

After grabbing some food and attempting to charge our phones, we began the tour.  It started by taking a large group of us to a theater, where we watched a video discussing the legacy of Harry Potter, featuring the original actors.  This video concluded by the screen dramatically lifting up to reveal the door to Hogwarts, which then opened to reveal the Great Hall.  Costumes from the original actors were proudly displayed throughout the room.

From here we began a self guided tour where you could wander around all sorts of displays, the atmosphere of wonder complimented by music from the Harry Potter movies.  Some of these amazing displays included props from the production.

Other displays included pieces of actual sets.

And boy were there a lot of props and sets.

There were also various interactive activities.  Bea and I took a great picture that provides a fun example of the power of forced perspectives.

We saw all sorts of famous sets, including the cupboard under the stairs.

Various scene recreations were also displayed, including this amazing piece mimicking the coming of Harry’s letters.

All of the intricate details reiterated just how much time and effort and dedication went into these movies.

We were able to see various designs, demonstrating the process of bringing the magical wizarding world from concept to reality.

The end of the tour included an amazing model of Hogwarts followed by a room filled with wand boxes labeled with the names of those who worked on the films.  Here you could spot many of your favorite actors.

This was a wonderful opportunity to take a brief respite from ASE and take some much needed time to ourselves in the magical world of Harry Potter.

We had the opportunity to live at the University of Oxford for about five days (specifically at the University College campus).  We began with an introduction to Oxford (which especially highlighted its graduate programs) and tours.  Our programme then hosted a disco night at the university bar, advertised as a time to “let our hair down” (and my hair is almost always down anyways).  Once requests started coming from students, the 70s disco theme quickly transformed into an 80’s night.  Us millenials seem to have a greater affinity for the music of our parents’ generation.

The next day we were able to explore the town of Oxford itself, including the original Blackwell’s bookstore.  It was a nice spot to finish some reading for my journalistic writing class.  One of reading subjects was Oxford, and ironically mentioned Blackwell’s as I was literally sitting in the store.  Then later that afternoon we treated ourselves to some English tea in a spot that claimed to be the first coffeehouse in England.

Shortly thereafter we visited Turf Tavern just beyond this archway.  It’s a historic pub famously visited by Harry Potter actors and Bill Clinton.  I tried my first mulled wine here, which was surprisingly delicious.

Other beverages of choice this week included Paul’s hot chocolate, which is essentially liquid chocolate in a cup.

On Tuesday I went on a tour of Christ Church, which also had connections to the Harry Potter franchise.  These stairs were used in the Sorcerer’s Stone scene where new students meet Professor McGonagall for the first time, and the great hall was the inspiration for the great hall of Hogwarts.

I didn’t have any classes Wednesday, so I decided to focus on seeing the city sites.  After a bit of trouble determining when places where open, I visited the Pitt Rivers museum.  This was a fascinating anthropological take on human society and culture.  The museum was organized by theme (leatherworking, firemaking, tattoos, armor, etc.) and then presented various ways different cultures addressed these themes.  Perhaps one of the most striking examples was body modification, which presented neck rings, foot binding, and corsets all in the same display.  The exhibit thus simultaneously highlighted the diversity and commonalities among human cultures.

Attached to the Pitt Rivers museum was the University National History Museum.  This had wonderful displays of all sorts of creatures, including dinosaurs and the Oxford Dodo.

Later that afternoon I met up with Maddie and Jennifer.  We visited a library exhibit highlighting women who dared, from Sappho to the suffragettes.  We also visited a museum exploring the history of science.  But perhaps the best place we visited was the Worcester college, recommended to me by my internship adviser.  The grounds included a beautiful lake and greenery, populated by numerous aquatic birds.  It was lovely to just walk around and take in sights, and really was, as my adviser put it, “like stepping into Wonderland.”

I concluded the afternoon by visiting the Ashmolean, an absolutely huge museum with displays covering all sorts of areas and history.  One of my favorite finds was a display containing an outfit worn by Lawrence of Arabia.

The next day Bea, Pippa, Emma, and myself went on a tower tour, where we climbed up to the top of a nearby church tower.  From there we could see the whole of the city.  We had very limited space, so maneuvering around often involved backing into alcoves to let others pass by.  But the do-si-does were worth it for the magnificent view.

Our last night in Oxford concluded with a formal three course dinner in the University dining hall.  We then came full circle by returning to the university bar to conclude the festivities.  It was wonderful to see an institution so steeped in history, and it will be great to be able to truthfully say that I lived and studied at Oxford, however briefly.

Last week we were able to visit the gorgeous estate of the Churchill family.  The grounds were beautiful, including two different bodies of water with rowboats peacefully meandering along.  We made our way to the Column of Victory, which was curiously surrounded by sheep who didn’t seem to appreciate our presence very much.

As we continued our tour we found a great hollowed out tree that was perfect for taking pictures.  Bea took and edited a picture that my mother absolutely loved (you can actually see my eyes).

We next visited the butterfly garden.  It was designed to mimic a tropical climate, so it was a bit of a shock to go from chilly English air to a very warm and humid environment.  My glasses immediately steamed up.  But once the fog cleared, the sights were beautiful.  All sorts of colorful butterflies and moths of various shapes and sizes and patterns were present.  They seemed to particularly like my housemate Bea, absolutely loving the color of her scarf.  But one moth with a giant eye spot particularly liked Bea’s leggings, deciding that this was the perfect place to perch and take a nap.  Poor Bea was walking around the garden with a moth glued to the back of her thigh, which simply refused to leave until a nice English lady prodded it.  Realizing it had overstayed its welcome, it fluttered off.

Finally, we made it to the palace itself.  With our limited time we focused on visiting the Churchill exhibit.  Incidentally, at one point he apparently wore something that resembled a onesie, which was preserved and put on display.  We then quickly dashed back to our bus, and continued on our way.

Another week of Georgian style dancing showed how much we had improved even after only a single lesson.  I’m picking up on the terminology and step patterns for many of the dances, which makes learning new ones much easier.

There were several dances that I particularly enjoyed.  One was a sort of sailor jig where everyone was in a giant circle and the ladies got to weave past their various partners.  In another you worked your way around in a square for a section of the dance, rhythmically stomping your feet along the way (so much fun!).  Finally, I was very excited that I recognized the last dance that we did from the week before.  One of my more experienced dance partners complimented my ability to remember the sequences of moves.  I also learned my lesson from last week, and stretched out my calves after the class (to the great amusement of my housemate Bea), which I believe was the determining factor in preventing me from being sore the next day.

We’ve improved so much already, and I’m excited to continue to improve in the coming weeks!

I haven’t participated in much acting, and certainly not much since college.  So it was definitely a new and exciting experience to attend an improv night in Bath, where participants reacted to various scenarios on the spot.  The session began with some fun group warm-ups, walking around in different moods or trying to one up one another with increasingly tall tales.  But the real fun began with small group skits, the first of which Maddie and Bea participated in.  They were part of a group of three people who had to speak as one “expert”, each saying one word at a time to create speeches during a debate with another collective “expert”.  The woman running the group asked for ideas regarding what each group should be an expert on.

“Husbandry,” I declared.

Everyone looked at me.  There was a bit of a discussion about what husbandry actually was (multiple people thought it was connected to husbands), but eventually the two groups were assigned their expertise, vegetarian husbandry experts and meat loving husbandry experts.  The results were hysterical.  One side was using the cuddlebility of animals as a defense, while the other was claiming their tastiness trumped all.  The next version of the skit (with new actors) involved a debate over aliens (the extraterrestrial kind), who ended up advocating for a nudist lifestyle in the course of the discussion.

Bea roped me into participating in the next skit, where I was part of a final showdown of an Olympic sport for spring cleaning.  Two announcers helped guide our actions, and thus I somehow was a contestant with ten years of professional cleaning experience, from Australia no less.  I started off with some light marching and yoga to warmup (which greatly amused Maddie) before the actual showdown.  Spring cleaning is surprisingly competitive.  Bea kept fouling me, whereas I only wacked her with my imaginary broom once.  At one point I apparently utilized a roomba run by nanotechnology, and I ended my skit by sawing a hole that poor Bea fell into.

Maddie was part of the next Olympic sport: birthing lambs.  After more hilarious warm-ups, the contest began.  I’m afraid to say that Maddie’s opponent creamed her, having birthed a Christ lamb, whereas poor Maddie lost many of her lambs in the birthing process…

Bea than took part in a skit where she was on a blind dinner date with a person who had three different personalities that would alternate places.  One was afraid of forks, one would sporadically imitate a chicken, and the other was an aspiring axe murderer.  One of my favorite parts was watching Bea chase Emily (the forkphobic personality) around with the offending utensil in a bid to get her to overcome her fear.  This was topped only by Emily wittily maintaining that while she could not eat with forks, she would be more than willing to spoon after the date.

The night was a hysterical exploration of spontaneous wit and creativity, and was a great way to stretch my comfort zone.

I was able to see a great performance of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.  I had seen a production of this play once before at my high school, where American teenagers were hysterically engaging in witty banter in period costumes and British accents.  I have very fond memories of that production, so I was excited to see an authentically British performance of the play.

We were able to get the cheapest seats possible with bench seating (which was honestly on one of the nicest benches I’ve seen).  The main discount seemed to be because of the dizzying location of the seating, as these were the highest seats in the theatre, and thus you were essentially peering down at the the actors far below you.  But as this was more of a play of verbal wit, and the actors could still be heard, the odd viewing angle wasn’t too much of a disadvantage.

The play itself was quite good.  The costuming was amazing, and the acting was great.  I really enjoyed Lady Brackwell’s performance, especially her outrage over Ernest’s handbag heritage.  Cecily’s frank discussion regarding her fictitious relationship with Ernest was also hysterical, as was her flip-flopping sentiments towards Gwendolen.  Algernon’s misadventures and fondness for food was also quite humorous.  While the actual problem at hand is a bit odd by today’s standards, and the ending is a rather convenient one, the play still holds up very well over 100 years later.

While it’s hard to compare watching a professional production with the fondness of seeing a play with many of your friends as the principal actors, the authentic British version did not disappoint.  I’ve really enjoyed seeing British Theatre, and I hope to watch at least one more production before I return to the states.

Last Wednesday we visited a little church just minutes away from our flat in order to experience Jane Austen (or Georgian) dancing.  The locals were very patient when a group of eight inexperienced Americans descended upon their group.  To hasten the learning process, we were encouraged to pair up with more practiced dancers.

The caller would begin by guiding us through each section of the dance as a sort of trial run, before officially starting the music.  Women leading as “gentlemen” were designated with orange sashes to help prevent confusion.  Indeed, us first-timers had a bit of a learning curve.  There were a lot of terms and dance mechanics that had to be picked up.  I myself had only experienced this type of dancing once before, back in fourth grade when we were learning the Virginia Reel.  My gracefulness left something to be desired, as I had a tendency to gallop across the dance floor.  I more closely resembled a knight out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail rather than a refined Georgian dancer.  My housemate Bea at one point randomly went from the gentleman role to the role of a lady in the middle of a dance.  And my roommate Jennifer had a spot of trouble twirling in the right direction.  But none of this detracted from the entertainment.  Mastering the patterns and getting to whirl about is a great time.  And where else could you experience this form of dancing?

However, Georgian dancing is surprisingly tough on the calves.  The caller advised us to stretch beforehand, and my housemates laughed in amusement at my old soccer warm-ups.  But perhaps I should have done even more stretching, because my poor calves were sore for days later.  But I believe we’ll be attending these fun sessions regularly from now on, so my calves will have no choice but to shape up.

I’m a huge boardgaming nerd.  I always try to attend an annual boardgaming conference over the summer, where you can literally eat, sleep, and play boardgames for a week.  So I was incredibly excited to learn that Bath itself featured a local society where I could pursue this hobby.  Tuesday evening, myself, Bea, Jennifer, and Maddie ventured off to join the event.  I was rather worried about being punctual, so I had a tendency to dart ahead while my friends attempted to keep up.  Eventually we reached the location, which featured dozens of gamers and a vast collection of games.

We were able to secure a table and a copy of Settlers of Catan.  Jennifer had never played before, so I was very excited to introduce her to what is arguably the quintessential euro-style boardgame.  The gaming was intense and featured a very tight race for the finish.  Bea and myself got into a war for the longest road, allowing Maddie to secure the hard points she needed to snatch victory.  Jennifer reached a solid six points, which was incredibly impressive as a first game experience.  After that, Jennifer guided us through some rounds of one night werewolf (where it ironically took ages for one of us to become a werewolf).  We also met who I presumed to be the leader of the group, who was quite welcoming to us newcomers.  It was an incredibly fun experience, and one that I hope we continue to attend in the future.

The best way to check out another country while based in England is to visit the one that’s a little over an hour away from you.  I hopped on a train on a Friday morning to meet my housemate Bea, who had arrived the previous afternoon.

After meeting up at the train station, we first searched for some food.  We found a cheap Irish Breakfast at a pub called O’Neil’s for about four pounds.  It’s exceedingly nice to share a meal with someone whose likes and dislikes compliment your own.  I could give Bea my mushrooms and she could pass me her tomatoes and baked beans (which incidentally go surprisingly well with breakfast).

After eating we continued exploring the streets of Cardiff, where unbeknownst to us we were naturally herded straight to Cardiff Castle.  Since we were already right there, we bought tickets and began exploring.  The first section we entered had tunnels running along the interior of the castle walls, which were dimly lit in an ominous fashion.  But then the cobweb covered speakers on the wall activated, and we were suddenly listening to radio broadcasts and the sounds of bombings.  The atmosphere it created was very dark, and you could almost imagine what it would have felt like huddling in the tunnels trying to survive the WWII air raids.

Eventually we reached the exterior of the walls, and after circling around, we eventually went to the main keep.  Here the stairs were even steeper and more narrow than those in our house!  But at the top was a very impressive view of the surrounding city.  The history of the castle indicated that it had been the site of battle in its past, and it was incredible to imagine what it would have been like trying to fight one’s way into the keep.  The architects certainly knew how to take advantage of the high ground (and gravity).

After leaving the keep we went back to exploring the castle grounds, including a trebuchet on display.  As we were walking back, something came into view, and suddenly Bea directed to my attention to a museum worker with a level of excitement I had never seen before.  It soon became apparent that he was a caretaker of an eagle owl, which he was allowing visitors to hold.  Bea naturally took advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity, assertively declaring that she was ready as she put on the leather glove in preparation.  She was practically beaming as she held the owl.  Though I don’t think the creature liked me very much it.  It kept giving me the side eye.

After leaving the owl to entertain others, we saw the Victorian addition to the castle, with all its opulence.  After a little bit more exploring, we decided to head back to the hostel.  But we got a bit sidetracked at a tattoo and piercing shop, where Bea decided to get her industrial piercing done.  The woman who did the piercing was very professional and reassuring.  As Bea’s moral support, I somehow also qualified for a lollipop at the end of the session.

Our activity for the evening was watching Black Panther, which we were able to see on a Superscreen for about 4 pounds with a student discount.  In addition to the affordability, the venue itself was so much fun, and included numerous escalators with neon lighting.

After returning to the hostel we encountered some rugby players, seemingly from Spain and Germany.  Their knowledge of the American national anthem left something to be desired, but one Irishman was able to hold some very intelligent conversation with me about American politics.  The hostel itself was remarkably clean.  Our room was about the size of a hotel room, but featured two sets of bunk beds, each of which featured a convenient charging station for phones.  Considering the affordability of the stay, I was very impressed.

The next day we met up with Maddie, and following brunch at a cafe, we hit Cardiff Bay.  We spontaneously found a ferry that took us on a tour of the bay itself, while also dropping us off at another location where we were able to explore the pier and nearby beach.  While freezing, we were able to take in some amazing views.

We eventually decided to visit the National Museum of Cardiff, which interestingly featured more natural history than I was expecting.  However, the exhibits were still fascinating, and often incorporated items that you could touch, which made Maddie and Bea particularly excited.  Following a nice dinner at a little restaurant called Bill’s we escorted Maddie to the train station.

The next morning we began the day with an interesting conversation with one of our roommates, a Muslim woman from Saudi Arabia.  Her English wasn’t great, but we were generally able to understand the gist of what she was saying.  She was very excited to be able to get me to repeat good morning in Arabic.  She then asked if I was married, and then implied that I should come to Saudi Arabia to marry her son (it was a bit difficult to tell if she was teasing me or not).  But when she found out I can’t cook, that seemed to be a deal breaker.  But the conversation took a more serious turn when she explained that she had lived in Saudi Arabia for 14 years.  A little math places that transition around 2004.  She explained that she was born in Iraq, and indicated with hand motions and the word “problems” that the fighting and troubles there caused her to leave.  She expressed a deep longing to return to her homeland, but again indicated that the problems there were simply too big.  It was a sobering moment that put a human face to the Iraq war.  Studying abroad has definitely allowed me to meet all sorts of people.

For our last day in Cardiff, we explored Bute Park, which was a lovely area to walk and talk, and featured some amazing scenery.

Bea and I then decided to visit Llandaff Cathedral, which was about a 2 mile hike from the city center.  We used the time to talk and bond, before eventually reaching some very amazing sites.  Our first stop was at some nearby ruins of the Bishop’s Palace.  Most of the main structure had crumbled away, leaving some fascinating remnants of stone walls, stairs, and buildings.

We then circled the exterior of the Cathedral itself, which featured gorgeous architecture and beautiful cemetery space.

Finally we ventured inside, where we were able to explore various art, markers, and artifacts, all while accompanied by piano music being presumably practiced by a church member.

This was our last major stop of the day, and we headed back to the train station to return to Bath.  Our first train to Newport actually was replaced by a bus, and the Newport station and later the streets of Bath were freezing.  But eventually we returned home, with myself feeling more grown as a person having been to Cardiff.

Last Tuesday evening I visited the Theatre Royal to see a showing of My Fair Lady.  I grew up watching the 1964 film with Audrey Hepburn, so I was excited to experience a stage production.

The night started off strong when we discovered we had been upgraded to Dress Circle seating, giving us a great view of the stage.  The numbers with Alfred P. Doolittle were hilarious and fun, and the actress cast as Eliza was amazing, with an absolutely wonderful singing voice.  I knew it would be hard to see someone other than Audrey Hepburn as Eliza, but she did a fantastic job embodying the character.  The costuming was also great, especially for the Ascot scene, which featured elaborate black and white designs.

Overall, it was a lovely introduction to British theatre, and I hope to attend more productions soon.