Blog Abroad

Cambridge

2011-03-13T21:44:00.035-04:00

On the way to Cambridge, we stopped at an American war cemetary, which was intersting... yet I felt only done because we are Americans, and thus it was a little silly. Our British tour guide got the staff to give us free booklets about the site because we are American.

Cambridge, which the folks here call 'the other place,' was a very lovely city. I think I may have even liked it better than Oxford, though it is hard to say after only a day's visit. I think it may have only seemed more beautiful because of its seclusion and the fact that all the beautiful buildings were not clustered on top of one another. In Oxford, a building may be extraodinary, but you can't fully appreciate it because it's right next to five other amazing buildings; the sense of beauty is dulled, whereas the nature of Cambridge enhances it.

I wasn't aware that Cambridge placed such an emphasis on the sciences and technology. We visited the 'modern' part of campus, which was very modern indeed and featured a European headquarters for Microsoft and a huge academic building patronized by Bill Gates.

We visited King's College, which was exceedingly beautiful, particularly its cathedral. This had been filled with propogandic bas-reliefs by Henry VIII and then used as a stable for Oliver Cromwell's army during their campaigns to destroy priceless stained-glass and other royal iconography during the Civil War. Luckily, the usefulness of the building's windows to keeping the army and animals warm prevented their destruction. Oh and it also has the largest fan vaulting, I think in the world.

I ate lunch at a pub called The Eagle, where Watson and Crick discussed their research. While they 'discovered' DNA, I discovered that Steak and Ale Pie is the most delicious thing ever.

In other news, Hugh Laurie attended Cambridge, where he pursued rowing, following in the footsteps of his Olympic-winning father, that is until he lost to Oxford, and decided to turn to acting.

Cambridge also presented by far one of the coolest things I have ever seen--a clock built by alumnus John Taylor. It possesses a large gear that ticks in rotation with each second, whilst a large and sinister insect hybrid sits atop and eats the passing moments. For you Greek-learned, the architect fittingly named it the 'Chronophage.' It is supposed to remind us of Time's consuming nature, and that it is not on our side. There is also more to it about the time only being completely accurate every once in awhile, but I did not really understand that bit. While slightly creepy, it was completely awesome. Sadly my picture did not come out well, but it's really something you need to see in person for the full impact anyway.

To escape the cool, English drizzle we retreated to Cambridge's free museum (I'm loving this country's embrace of free museums), which like most others here, consisted mostly of Greek, Roman and Egyptian artifacts. Apparently somewhere in one of the libraries was the first manuscript of Winnie the Pooh, though I did not get to see it.

Portsmouth

2011-03-13T21:44:00.020-04:00

The next trip sponsored by the program (so I suppose ultimately sponsored by us...) was to Portsmouth, a port city (who knew!) on the Southern coast of England. We spent the day exploring the harbor, and England's naval history. We were given all inclusive passes to visit three historic battleships and various museums and tours. Unfortunately, one of the three ships was undergoing preservation processes and another had a set tour time, which I and many others missed to due some misguidance and a fast clock. Alas. But I did get to wander freely about the battleship Warrior, which as fascinating.

The museums contained lots of interactive activities for children, all of which I annihilated, and a whole lot of prow sculptures, many of which were mythological figures. I must say, I do not like what they did with Calliope. I thought she was supposed to be Jane Austen.

The day was sunny, for once, and we managed to find a very strange and somewhat random stone path that just disappeared into the water, from which we watched the sunset. It was beautiful.

Stonehenge and Bath

2011-03-13T21:37:00.017-04:00

The OSAP program went on its 2nd of 4 trips this past weekend [*now many weekends ago*], this one to Stonehenge and the city of Bath. I thought the trip was very nice, but a lot of people thought the sheep garzing in a nearby field were the highlight of the day.

I suppose old rocks don't do it for everyone.

Stonehenge was very VERY cold. So cold that I got halfway through the first audioguide speech before calling it quits and returning my hands to their pockets. I honestly don't understand why so many students were disappointed, since that implies they had some sort of expectations that were not fulfilled. It was exactly what I expected. They're rocks; they're not going to put on a show for us. I think the true grandeur of the site is crippled by the fact that it is such a prominent tourist site. Just imagine if you came upon those rocks at random while taking a stroll through a field... pretty awe-inspiring. I mean, I was impressed enough by pillars of rocks someone had taken the trouble to stack in a creek at Old Elicott City, MD (=a lovely place. I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area). Anywho, we were only at the Henge for a little while, enough time to make a slow lap around the circle and peruse the gift shop.

Then we made the arduous treck (and by 'arduous treck' I mean a snoozey ride in a double-decker bus) to see the Roman Baths at Bath. Needless to say, they were pretty cool. I somewhat felt that the site was not particularly explanatory, for example about which baths served which function, but admittedly I did once again ignored the audioguide, which may have been more enlightening. There were several half-excavated areas on display, which made me nostalgic for my Rome days. The pictures I took would've been very helpful a few months ago when I wrote about these baths for Carol NdeV, but such is life. Like a good tourist, I bought a bottle of the bath water, which I shall of course keep for posterity.

The actual city of Bath was quite impressive. Some of the people on the trip even went so far as to say that it looked nicer than Oxford... I don't know if I'd quite agree with that, but its bigger city feel was a nice change. As night set on at its early winter hour, we walked the streets and came upon Bath's famous Roman bridge and some adorable tea and leather shops before the sleepy bus ride home.

An Introduction to Oxford

2011-01-25T11:26:00.014-05:00

I feel the best way to summarize my experience in Oxford thus far would be to tell you the little anecdote of how one day when I was reading a book in one of the University libraries, on one of the pages someone had crossed out the word ‘less’ in the text and petulantly scrawled ‘fewer!’ in the margin.

Take that as you will.

So. I suppose I should explain something about the educational system here. Rather than classes, the student’s schedule consists of tutorials, which are private meetings with an assigned tutor in the subject of your choice. The term generally includes a primary tutorial which meets once weekly, and a secondary tutorial which meets once a fortnight. (My tutorials are studying the archaeology of the Roman Empire outside of Italy, and Greco-Roman religion.) A reading list and an essay are assigned for every tutorial, so that in the brief eight-week term, twelve essays are written. Additionally, there are a multitude of lectures in every subject offered daily, which are open to the general student body and, in some cases, the public. So basically, the term is what you make of it, and relies heavily upon your own initiative. Well that’s enough of the mechanics of it. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

My particular college (I believe there are 38 that make up Oxford University) is Christ Church…which is a rather large and prestigious one, if I do say so myself. Excepting a certain Fish Fiasco, in which my roommate and I were clapped in shackles and hauled off to the dungeon for taking a picture of a fish in the courtyard’s fountain, Christ Church is a lovely place. For you Harry Potter fans, the dining hall was the basis for Harry Potter’s great hall, and the scene where Harry and Malfoy meet for the first time was filmed on the steps there. Lewis Carroll also studied there, and the characters from Alice in Wonderland are in one of the dining hall’s stained glass windows. Einstein taught there for a brief time as well. And the poet W. H. Auden, who wrote the poem “The Shield of Achilles”, which I read for my terrible interview with Oxford some four years ago. Ironic.

Unfortunately I don’t live in the college, but rather a pit of an apartment complex, twenty minutes (on foot) from the center of town. But luckily there’s an absolutely gorgeous meadow nearby, which, as a local told us, was documented by William the Conqueror in his surveys of 1067/8 because every year in the winter the meadow becomes a lake, and in the summer it dries up. Pretty cool to be looking upon the same sight as people did nearly a thousand years ago.

So far, my favorite places are the meadow, the botanical gardens (which are free like most of the museums here), and the rock bar that offers heavy metal karaoke on Monday nights. (Say, today is a Tuesday…)The OSAP program took a trip to London two Saturdays ago, but I felt like I only saw the ghost of the city, so I’m going to go back and explore it more thoroughly. Tomorrow’s slated for another day of Oxford exploration, and this Saturday, OSAP is taking us to Stonehenge and Bath. I’m pretty excited!

That’s all for now.

~~less~~ fewer!

-Cindy

PS I will update this when I bloody well please.

Whose English and When It Matters

2010-11-27T09:44:00.007-05:00

It seems when people travel to English-speaking countries, the most noticeable differences are ones that don’t matter very much. So you say “hob” and I say “stove.” I call that arrangement of stars “The Big Dipper” and you call it “The Plow.” You say “ye” and I thought no one had used that form of the verb since King James’ Bible. In the end, though, it highlights our similarities more than our differences, because there’s no cultural confusion: we just have two ways of saying the exact same thing.
There are times, though, when two ways of saying the same thing can matter a lot. A few weeks ago I went to the island of Cape Clear, the southernmost inhabited point in Ireland. I was there for a storytelling workshop hosted by an American named Chuck Kruger, and attended by around ten people from the storytelling community in Ireland and England. Nearly every person there had a different accent, from thick country Irish to a sincere Cockney. It was an incredible experience, but I had one problem: due to a fluke in the off-season bus schedule, it was not possible for me to get back to Cork. I could get to Cape Clear without a problem, but there was no bus back. So I explained my situation at dinner and asked for a ride.

To their credit, the Irishmen kept straight faces while we worked out transportation logistics, but Gerry couldn’t help grinning when he explained I really couldn’t use that wording anymore. “In Ireland, needing a ride means you want to have sex.”
“If I ask for a lift, is that better or worse?”
They all lost it. Daphne said where she’s from they sometimes ask for a spin, thus avoiding the awkwardness of both ride and lift. Nina, an American girl currently living in Dublin, wondered how you would say “ride a horse” if you can’t use those words, and Noona (eighty years old, wears a crocheted cap) went into a fit of giggles and didn’t recover for a solid five minutes.
Luckily I had the ultimate payback: “It goes both ways you know. When Kate told us that story about the nun who liked her fags…”*

For your further edification, here is an incomplete introduction to Irish phraseology:
Give out: Another phrase that sounds funny but is completely innocent. It means to give someone a hard time. “I suppose I can’t give out about burning the Thanksgiving turkey, since I messed up the sweet potatoes.”
Your man: This is not establishing any ownership over the man, it’s just a way of referring to someone male. “Isn’t that your man from the pub last night?”
Lads: Just like we say “guys,” this does not say anything about the gender of the people in question. In fact, the lads might all be girls. “We’ll stay here a moment and wait for the lads.”
Laughs: When something is a laugh, it is fun or entertaining, not necessarily humorous. “That trip was a laugh.”
Fair play: Roughly “good job.” “I succeeded in putting photos up on Facebook! Fair play to me.”
Didn’t he…: This is a trick where you turn whatever your main point is into a question. I think it’s for emphasis, because you’re not expected to answer. You might not even know the answer. “We were walking back from the second pub, and didn’t your man fall right down the hill?”
Ah sure: Thrown in front of things every once in a while, for good measure. “Obama says ‘Yes we can,’ Irish politicians say ‘Ah sure, we’ll think about it and get back to you in a week.’” (Direct quote—this was not me. I would never confuse Obama with Bob the Builder.)
Thanks be to God: Peppers the speech of Irish people of a certain generation. Gaelic speakers tended to say “Thanks be to God” (it is somewhat shorter in Gaelic) frequently, and I think the tendency translated into English. “It’s cold but it’s not wet, thanks be to God.”

*The nun in question was fond of cigarettes.

Amsterdam: The Museums, a guide?

2010-11-17T08:24:00.012-05:00

This will be a rather brief (as brief as I can make it) summary of a trip I took with one of my art history classes (Genre Painting, heavy emphasis on Dutch painting) to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The trip was a lot of fun, especially because, as one of three Americans (and the only one to stay the whole trip), I was forced to make friends with Irish students. By Saturday I had been adopted into the group and was being taught (possibly futilely) to speak with an Irish accent and various slang terms. It was quite the experience, filled with much laughter, and one somehow appropriate to the pub location.

The city itself was AMAZING! I had never been before, so it was all new to me. You could tell that it was the holiday season because the whole city already had its Christmas lights up. Most small side streets were lined with lights, even the notorious Red Light District had its own lights (red lights with a big 'W' in the middle, de Wallen is the name of that area in Dutch).

The purpose of the trip was to look at art, of course, so most of our trip was spent going to the Museum District of the city by tram. We went twice to the Rijksmuseum (if you should ever think of going there, make it a whole day trip because it's the most expensive museum in that area and they don't let you back in even with a ticket from that day once you leave), and while the museum was laid out in a thought-provoking and well-planned manner, most of the building is under restoration, meaning that only a small part of their collection is out for viewing. This makes the amount you pay to get in even more ridiculous because you don't even get to see everything. Wait until 2013 to go back, when the whole thing will be done, because it will be amazing, since this building is enormous.

The Historical Museum had an interesting exhibit on the history of men's fashion from the beginning of the Republic to modern day in Amsterdam. The waist coats and hats were cool, and I would have spent more time looking at it had a large group of fashion design students not been occupying the entire floor area.

We also went to the Van Gogh museum which had a moving exhibit called "Illusions of Reality" that focused on various medias illustration of people's lives during the 1800s, especially the period of Van Gogh's life. The purpose was to show what might have influenced his style and subject choices. This applies mostly to his first phase of painting.

However, the Stedelijk Museum (their modern art museum) was by far the best museum of them all. The building is apparently just their temporary location, which explains the numerous empty rooms. I just walked through and would comment on the white color of choice in the room, debating if it was ivory, egg shell, etc. The rooms that were occupied more than made up for those rooms, though. My two favorite rooms were the one covered floor to ceiling in giant black and white quotes and the one in which my height was marked on a wall. They were even on the floor! And we were allowed to take pictures of everything, so it was just a wonderland for all of the girls in this group.
The other room was a work in progress, and pretty much every visitor who comes in picks a place along the wall for their height to be marked and then labeled with their name and date. It certainly showed me how very average my height is.

I also visited Amsterdam's Cat Museum, which was very fab. It was all art inspired by cats, and then real cats who lived there. I ended up sitting on a couch and petting one cat for a good 15-20 minutes. Worth going to if you are a cat lover, though it is off the beaten path.

That basically sums up my museum trip of Amsterdam. In Haarlem (a most adorable town, one I highly recommend), we went to the Frans Hals museum which was rather, eh. It was well laid out, but not my preferred style so I was not blown away.

(For more pictures, look to Facebook. Either friend me or grab someone who is friends with me to look at them. Erika is always a good choice :) )

Amadea

AMRS Movie, Take 2!

2010-11-13T13:08:00.006-05:00

Hello again everyone!

The second AMRS movie night was a blast! We watched The Secret of the Kells, which is an animated movie "set in medieval Ireland. This movie tells the adventure of Brendan and a celebrated master illuminator of manuscripts who arrives with a book brimming with secret wisdom and powers. Magic, fantasy, and Celtic mythology come together in a riot of color and detail that dazzle the eyes in a sweeping story about the power of imagination and faith to carry humanity through dark times." In other words, it was just awesome. :) The animation and colors were fantastic. My favorite character was Pangur Ban, the white cat who belongs to the master illuminator and, later, Brendan. Pangur provided comic moments throughout the film by acting like a typical cat.

And to make this second movie even better, Dr. DeMarco cooked a delicious pork butt, cumin carrots, and mashed potatoes with a secret ingredient, which shall not be disclosed (it is secret after all). The food was absolutely soooo good!

Everyone had a wonderful time and enjoyed the fantastic food!

2010-10-27T13:55:00.005-04:00

I did some amazing traveling this week and am preparing to do some more, but in the spirit of All Hallow's Eve I want to talk about something more terrifying than ghouls or ghosts: IMMIGRATION.

One semester is not very long to live in Ireland. However, it is slightly longer than 90 days, which is the maximum amount of time you can spend here as a tourist or visitor. When you get off the plane, you go through customs, where they ask your business in Ireland and when you'll be leaving, and your passport is stamped. Because we are right on the borderline of that 90 day limit, the whole process comes down to who is standing in the customs booth that day and how they are feeling. If you're lucky, they give you a stamp for 90 days, write in the day you leave, and spare you the trouble of having to acquire a visa. Or they could give you a stamp that requires you to obtain a visa within two months. Or, if it's me, they give one month.

A month is not unreasonable, but I didn't realize how time-consuming this process would actually be. To immigrate, you need (are you taking notes?): 150 euro for the processing fee, a passport, a student ID card, a bank statement from an Irish bank with at least 1, 500 euro in it OR a letter of financial responsibility from your sending university, a mini bank statement from the day you apply, and a letter from your insurance company stating your name and your dates of coverage. Right. So. Most kids had a letter from their home university, but OWU doesn't provide that. Nor did they inform me ahead of time what I would need, despite the fact that they've been sending students to this program for years. So I had to open an account with the Bank of Ireland, then give my information to my mother so she could go to my bank in the US and have the money wired, wait for the wire transfer, go in to request a bank statement, wait for the statement to come. This took two weeks. My statement did not arrive before my month was up.

Then the insurance. The document in question absolutely must have your name AND the dates of coverage on it, which is not something my insurance company understood the first time. "This is what we always give to students abroad." Look lady, I told you what I needed. So I waited for a second document. This took three days, two e-mails and an international phone call in which I navigated through five minutes of automated caller assistance.

The Garda (police) Station has a desk where two people deal with immigration from 9 AM to noon and 2 to 4 PM. If you arrive at 2, there is already a line so long that you will not be helped by the time they close at 4. If you get there decently early, you will still be at least an hour in line. To acquire a bank printout from that day meant that I walked three quarters of a mile to the machine and then back to the station before they opened. If you do not have all the necessary paperwork, you will get a full-scale telling-off in the dulcet tones of a Cork accent, something along the lines of, "If you want to stay in the country, you have to abide by the laws of the country. You can't be a burden on the Irish government. If you want to stay in the country--" and so forth. And you will have to come back and do it again.

Essentially, I went through the smoothest immigration process in the world today. I am a student like thousands before me, fairly harmless, English-speaking, here for a short time, unable to legally hold a job, and ready to spend cash. The Irish government is definitely the winner in this situation, and they made it inconvenient enough. Imagine, if you dare, the bureaucratic labyrinth rigged up in the USA.

All I can say is BOO!

AMRS Movie Night! (AKA Free Yummy Food for the Awesome Ones!)

2010-10-23T21:30:00.007-04:00

Hi everyone!
On Tuesday the AMRS program had its first movie night of the year and we watched The Return of Martin Guerre. It was a French film from the 80s, and it was really good. It's "a suspenseful tale based on records from 16th century France about a man who abandoned his wife and left his village. Eight years later, he returns, a changed man, more loving than the violent husband of years past. Soon villagers begin to suspect he may not be the man he claims to be, and an investigation unfolds, threatening the new romance and the life of Martin Guerre" (thank you, Dr. DeMarco). It's based on real documents so it's totally historically accurate, which is cool because we all know that all movie that are "historical accurate" aren't really, just "inspired by true events." Right. Whatever.

Anyways, this was a good movie with enough suspense to keep me interested. I didn't even realize that over two hours had passed until the lights went back on. Definitely two thumbs way, way up. :) The acting was great too.

And Dr. DeMarco made her famous lasagna and meatballs, which, as usual, were awesome. Thanks, Dr. DeMarco for feeding us! We appreciate it! (Sorry to the AMRS majors/minors who are currently abroad right now; you missed some great munchies!)

And as you can see, we had a pretty good turn out. Thanks for showing up everyone! It made the movie that much better and more enjoyable!

Greetings from Cork!

2010-10-19T12:56:00.007-04:00

So, confession time: I am not an AMRS kid.

More importantly, though, I am personally aquainted with the mascot, and maybe ye of AMRS bent will get something out of the gibbering of an English/Anthropology/Sociology student abroad in Ireland.

They told us at Orientation that culture shock is a W curve. When you get here, you're delighted with yourself and your surroundings. This honeymoon period is followed by rapid disintigration, which gradually gets better through "reintigration" until you reach "autonomy" in your new surroundings. That's the first "U" of the W. Then you get to do it all over again when you get home. Luckily the closest thing I had to disintigration was a nasty bout of jet lag, which didn't take long to kick.

Cork is a beautiful city, and very safe as long as you're not on the street when the bars close. It is still a city. You get the occasional puke on the sidewalk or, as I witnessed recently, a fellow retrieving his stash from behind the shrubbery on the corner. But the groceries are close by, which makes a difference when you carry them by hand (do not take two for one deals on sacks of potatoes). I am fascinated by the nearby River Lee, which is pretty poluted but still attracts all kinds of birds, fish, and even the occasional seal.

The Irish academic calendar is very different from ours at OWU, so the true semester did not begin until late September. For American students, they offer 4 week Early Start programs in music, history, economics, folklore, literature, and archaeology. For the biased record, Archaeology is the best. A working knowledge of the last 10,000 years of Irish history is a good background for just about everything you encounter here, from Blarney tower house to the tombs of the Bru na Boinne. We got to see some of the most important and impressive monuments in all Ireland, and a few off the beaten path (the farmers didn't mind). It's nice to have travel, meals and hostels all arranged by someone else, in addition to having your own very knowledgeable tour guide. The only disadvantage is he has this nasty habit of quizzing us on our lecture notes as we stand before the object of interest, almost as though we're supposed to apply what we've learned. The nerve.

I have been traveling outside of class as well: weekend trips to Killarney National Park, the Dingle Peninsula, Mangerton Mountain, West Cork, and Cape Clear Island. Traveling is never cheap unless you go with a group from the University, but it is made easier by a decent long-distance bus system and youth hostels. Cooking at the hostel is cheaper than eating out. Expect to do a lot of walking, but often the places of interest are scattered over a broad area and it is better to rent a bike or pay for a driving tour. Those early Christian monks didn't build their beehive huts in town where they would be convenient for 21st century tourists, darn their hides.

It's hard to believe how quickly the time goes by. I love being here, but I do miss my friends, my family, and watching movies without waiting for them to load. Enjoy that for me. Signing off, Abby D.

Killarney

2010-10-19T11:07:00.013-04:00

For the first time in a great many weeks, Captain Rohan and I left the city to go on a trip anywhere. This weekend we went northwest to Killarney, a town that lays claim to Ireland's largest national park (possible it's only, since it doesn't appear that there are any other parks of significance on my map).

We left on Friday, missing the 3.30 bus because it had filled with people (apparently a popular bus to get on on Fridays) and had to make sure we got on the 4.30 bus. After getting dropped off at Killarney's bus station (part of it's outlet mall) we went in search of a hostel. Originally we went the wrong direction, but we found it in the end. Our late departure and the time it took to find our hostel meant that it was long past dinner time by the time we went in search of food. Having a group of five meant that our food cost was low because we bought lunch and dinner at Tesco, but everyone was very hungry when we finally had the food all cooked and ready to eat (yum, grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup!). We also lucked out in getting a room for five (the Buzzard room) so we didn't need to worry about sharing with anyone else.

The next day we ate breakfast and packed up our stuff, leaving most of it in lockers at the hostel and went to the street to wait for the horse-drawn carriage to come pick us up to take us around part of the park. It was AWESOME! Our driver was very friendly and I was surprised by how calm the horse was having to deal with cars passing it and eventually dogs around its feet. The park was absolutely lovely, made even more visually awesome by the perfect weather we had. Crisp, cool autumn air and a clear blue sky almost the same color as the lakes we saw on our ride.
The ride took us around part of the park (saving my bum knee from having to walk it, thank goodness) and we were able to see (at a distance) Ross castle, the lakes, the ruins of a lime kiln, and even some Irish Red Deer! The deer were pretty cool because they are not always to easy to see. Even heard a buck roaring because it's rutting season.

After the ride our group split, and Abby went on a bike ride around more of the park and the rest of the group wandered around the town. We ate lunch at Killarney House (now in serious need of TLC) and went to see the cathedral (second tallest in Ireland!). I was also able to find some lovely Irish wool socks to wear around my apartment because, man, is it getting cool around here!

Cheers!

Ireland Update

2010-10-13T15:31:00.009-04:00

Hi all! I know it's been a while, but honestly, not much has happened that is especially noteworthy around here. Oh, of course there are the little events that happen in each day that are memorable but as far as reporting from abroad, not so much.

While I have been here I have discovered an incredible new love of Ohio Wesleyan's school system, notably the fact that a class meets at the same time in the same place for whatever time slot and location it takes. Here I have to move classrooms (and times) for every class that doesn't have it's two hours smooshed together into one block. Won't lie, this has led to many freak-outs over whether or not I am about to be late for a class. This usually happens for my Monday/Tuesday art history class which on Monday is at 4pm and on Tuesday is at 5pm. 3:45 rolls around on Tuesday and I panic and start getting ready in a hurry (luckily I have a bike here, so I can make it to school relatively quickly...I also miss that about OWU.) only to realize that I have another 45minutes until I need to leave.

Also, Cork did win the All-Ireland Gaelic Football (this has to be the most intense sport EVER! Think of rugby meets european football, yeah, that intense) Championship for the first time in 20 years! Molly O'Malley, our roommate Ali, and I were lucky to find out about the HUGE street celebration that the city held the following Monday. Probably a third of Cork's population showed up. Ok, well, at least a couple of thousand people were there. It was utter chaos with music. The oddest thing we saw were people waving Confederate flags (because the team are the Rebels). As American students we weren't quite sure how we felt about that.

I have discovered that the Irish have an odd love of things that are "Southern." Not southern Ireland southern, but the American South southern. For goodness sake, there are frozen fries that proclaim to be "Southern style" in flavor. I don't really know what they mean by that, but it's confusing.

Adventures will continue later in the semester as I am going on a trip to Amsterdam with my Dutch art class, London in December with other friends, Dublin with my Medieval Irish Art class to see the conservation department as well as do our presentations WHILE IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM!!! That will be AWESOME! (Can you tell how excited I am?) And this weekend I am headed up to Killarney with some OWU girls. It's going to be nice to get out of the city for a weekend, since I haven't left since the Early start program ended.

So Long Everyone!
Cheers!

Adventures in the first 5 weeks of Ireland!!

2010-09-19T13:15:00.028-04:00

Hey all, this is Amadea writing under threat from Erika! It's been an incredibly busy 5 weeks since I got to Ireland with my rubber pirate-duck companion Captain Rohan Corteo. This duck was given to me at the beginning of the summer by my boss and I decided to bring him along with me and he has gone along with me on all of my adventures.

The first big adventure (besides getting here, which is a crazy story all its own, but I will not recount here, because it is much too long) was a trip out to Blarney with 4 other OWU girls: Hairong, Marie, Abigail Dockter, and Molly O'Malley. We got out to the town by bus and wandered over enjoying the amazing weather towards the castle. We paid for our tickets and walked up the path that led up to Blarney castle, taking many pictures, of course. It was a lot of fun exploring the ruin, we all looked into the guard post and dungeon, though some went in further than others (meaning, Molly and I went out before the others, disliking the tight space and great number of people). Eventually we made it to the top of the castle where Molly and Abby both kissed the Blarney Stone to gain the gift of blarney (speak the varnished truth basically). The rest of us chose to keep our lips of the stone and hope for the best! After leaving the castle and its most

treacherous spiral stairs we went through the Rock Close. Not completely sure what that entails, but we got to see the wishing steps, witch's hut, and druid's circle among other supernatural sites. Afterwards we enjoyed the town and the weather then headed back to Cork. Check: adventure one!

Next adventure was with my Early Start class to west county Cork. That trip gave new meaning to "field trip." The first stop was a medieval ring fort in the middle of a cow pasture that we had to cross to get there. This stop also introduced us to Tomas' habit of climbing onto things in order to talk to us. Ring forts are apparently quite common on the Irish landscape, though they were being quickly destroyed in the 1970s to make room for more agricultural pursuits. Then we drove to Ballinacarriga Tower house, this one is late medieval though, versus the early medieval ring fort (at this point I wish to inform everyone that I only learned while here that Ireland never really experienced the Renaissance that most of Europe underwent so the periods here are early medieval, late medieval, and the early modern. This means that anything that is late medieval merely follows the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169). After lunch, our third stop was a late medieval/ early modern fortified house called Coppinger's Court. Sadly the place was not safe enough for us to climb around as we had been allowed at the tower house. Lastly we went to Drombeg stone circle. I can no longer remember if it was a neolithic or bronze age site, but either way, the stones there are all the original ones. Check: adventure two!

The day after this I went with my roommates, Molly and Ali, to Youghal (pronounced 'yawl') on the very eastern border of Cork and Waterford counties. Youghal is a cute beach resort town with great history. It has some late medieval structures including a parish church with its original wooden ceiling, one of the only ones in all of Ireland, and part of it's medieval walls that you can (and we did!) walk upon. Check: adventure three!

The second field trip (another single day trip) went to northern county cork and in to Tipperary. The first stop was the Labbacallee Wedge tomb, the largest in Ireland, which sadly says a lot about how small wedge tombs are. Labbacallee is also the name of the town and means "bed of the witch/ wise woman" and may refer to the body buried furthest back in the wedge tomb, that of a 60 year old woman. Then we went to the Mitchelstown caves where we were not allowed to take any pictures, but all you need to really do to imagine what it looked like is think 'caves'. Then we drove to Cashel for lunch and the to see the Rock of Cashel. The Rock of Cashel is actually a large cashel (round enclosure built up on the inside

with dirt and rocks to create an elevated platform to build upon) that was originally the site where the kings of Munster ruled from. In 1101 the site was given to the Church to basically kill two birds with one stone. By giving this land to the Church it helped promote the shift to a diocesan hierarchy as well as deny the family that had formerly been the kings of Munster their political center. We went to see Cormac's Chapel, the finest example of the Romanesque architectural style in Ireland, which had been awkwardly assimilated into a Gothic cathedral, now the ruins of a Gothic cathedral. The restoration that was going on there made seeing most the building difficult, though the restoration has been revealing a lot of significant discoveries as far as the art history and archaeological world are concerned. Check: adventure four!

The third week of Early Start brought with it the two-day field trips. This time we headed up to Dublin and county Meath. It was a ridiculously long bus ride there, but going to the National Museum was amazing! Admittedly we were there for only about an hour and a half, so I didn't get to see much, but what we did see was great! There was a large prehistory gallery that had examples of pretty much everything we had learned about in class. Seeing how thin a lunulae really is is a very different thing that knowing theoretically how thin it is. Sadly, no pictures were allowed, so I have none of the museum. While in Dublin we also went to Christ Church Cathedral, the mixed architectural style cathedral that it is. The transepts and chancel are in the Romanesque and the nave and aisles are Gothic. The most random and amusing part of that church was the gift shop and coffee shop in the crypt. Though, with the story Tomas told of how the crypt used to be a place where (in the modern period) ladies of the night would ply their trade and during the day, a market would be held, it made more sense that the crypt would now be a place to set up a gift shop. Lastly, we drove out to Monasterboice to see the 8th century high crosses. I had not realized how tall the Tall Cross was until I saw it in person. The next day we went to Newgrange, the Neoltihic passage tomb. Now that was HUGE. Pictures do not do its size justice at all. And Tomas had made sure 18 months prior that we would get to go inside the passage tomb. I cannot believe how efficient the neolithic

people must have been to do all of their rituals in less than 17 minutes of light. Then was Trim castle. Again a place that pictures are deceiving. It, on the other hand, seems much larger in pictures that it is in real life. Not that it was not incredible to see, but it just seemed smaller. Our tour guide there was quite funny. Told us a lot of random facts, not always of any connection with Trim. Check: adventure five!

The last two-day trip my class went on was to the Burren, an area in western Ireland that translates as "the place of rocks". Most of the places we saw while there were not sites that are along the tourists path, which was the most rewarding since it meant we were getting an experience we would never have gotten as a regular tourist. We saw what historically was the most impoverished dioceses in Ireland (Kilfenora) and the small cathedral that was built there. Then we drove further and stopped at an intersection, got out of the bus and stood on the road to look at a tower house that had been assimilated into a semi-fortified house. We couldn't go up closer to look at it because the land owner won't let anyone up there, but we got great pictures from the road! This was followed by a visit to Poulnabrone portal tomb, where we got rained on. Right after we left it was sunny and lovely, of course. After lunch we went to Corcomroe Abbey, which, while being built, lost its funding and thus only part of the church is well crafted and the rest is very rough stone. Then a long walk to another cashel, where, once again, we got heavily rained on. Poor Tomas wore his voice out yelling over the wind. Our last stop of the first day was the Cliffs of Moher where it was VERY windy. It was not the best day to have worn a dress, but all of my pants were in the laundry, so there wasn't much of an option. The next day had fewer sites, but was still intense in pace. We went to Quin Abbey first, which is a lovely Franciscan abbey that still has parts of its second floors! Then to Moughan hillfort, honestly the least impressive site to be seen from the ground. Because of the forest growth, you really can't get a good idea of how large it is, which is important considering it is the largest hillfort in Ireland. The last stop for this field trip, and really the whole class, was Bunratty castle and folk park. Bunratty castle is the largest tower house in Ireland and has been restored to pretty much the condition it would have been in to be lived in. It has been furnished with pieces that aren't Irish, but you still are able to get an idea of how a medieval tower house would have felt to live in.
That about sums up the adventures of Amadea and Captain Rohan for the first five weeks. Stay tuned for the next ones!

Returning Home

2010-06-14T19:11:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone,

It's been nearly a month since I returned to the States after spending four months in Greece. All flights went smoothly and luckily no luggage was lost. Surprisingly, I didn't get jet lag either. :)

I've heard that many students who study abroad have a few problems adjusting to American life/culture after being away for a few months. I think it can be difficult for people mostly because of the time given to that person to readjust. Let me explain: If I had studied in the fall semester that would have only given me a month to completely return to American culture and return to OWU to start classes once again but I studied in the spring semester so I have three months to readjust and wait to return to school. I think time is the greatest factor for readjusting.

Personally, I didn't really have problems re-assimilating to American life. At first, I wanted to say things in Greek and I was thinking in Metric but other than that, I didn't have any problems. (The hardest part for me is knowing that I have so much time until I have return to school. I can't wait to go back to OWU!)

If you've studied abroad or if you've spent an extended time in a foreign country and you have any advice for students returning from studying abroad, feel free to share them below please!

So, this is Erika (and Maerwynn) signing off. Have a wonderful and fantastic summer, everyone!

Trip to Northern Greece

2010-05-12T10:52:00.012-04:00

Hey everyone! I'm back for another post. CYA had another five-day field trip, this time to northern Greece. It was loads of fun. I went to Delphi, Meteora, Thermopylae, Thessaloniki, and a few other places. I loved Delphi. It has to be one of the most amazing places on Earth. Here are some pictures of my favorite sites.

Here's a picture of the Temple of Pythian Apollo as seen from beneath it. This is the east section because the altar is directly in front of these pillars. And this is the eastern portion of the temple as seen from above. The western portion doesn't have any standing columns. The Pythia, who delivered the oracles, sat above a chasm with mysterious vapors on the western portion of the temple. However, no chasm has ever been discovered by archaeologists or geologists. (I know that the dates on these pictures aren't the same; that's because I also went to Delphi over spring break with my mom so I took a majority of my Delphi pictures then.)

This is the Great Meteoron Monaster at Meteora. Meteora has these huge stone pillars with monasteries perched on the top. This particularly monastery is still active; a few monks still live there despite that it's a huge tourist attraction. Since it's a monastery, women aren't supposed to be there. However, they do allowed women enter only if they are wearing skirts. I didn't bring a skirt so I had to wear a wraparound skirt that was provided. Today, there is a road and steps that lead to the monasteries but back in the day, people and supplies were pulled up with pulleys and rope baskets. I think that would be terrifying.

We stopped for lunch in a town in the mountains. After a quick lunch of a gyro and Coke, my friends and I went to see the waterfalls on the river that flows through the town. There were three or four waterfalls including a rather large one that I unfortunately coudn't get a picture of because you could only see it from the road and I didn't have enough time to go down there. I thought that it's just so beautiful looking, don't you?

I know that this is rather a cloudy picture but I gave up after about ten minutes because the clouds just weren't cooperating. This is Mt. Olympus. That's right, people. MT. OLYMPUS, home of the gods and divine gods. I think that's pretty awesome. I was told that Mt. Olympus is nearly always surrounded by clouds. I suppose that Zeus wants to keep him and the other gods hidden from prying mortal eyes.

I bet you know this one. Three guesses who this is. Yes, it's a Spartan. Yes, it's that guys who yelled, "This is Sparta!" Yup, that's right. It's King Leonidas of Sparta who led the legendary 300 against the Persians at Thermopylae. Let me tell you that Thermopylae is full of mosquitoes and smells like sulfur because there is a sulfur hot spring that runs through it. The Greek on the statue is, "Molon labe," or "Come get them," which is what he says to the Persians about their weapons. Below is the sunset at Thermopylae (taken from the bus).

Thessaloniki was really nice. It's must smaller than Athens but is the second largest city (it has about 500,000 people). Thessaloniki is rich in Roman history rather than ancient Greek history. I also saw Pella, which was the capitol of the Macedonian empire (you know, Alexander the Great?). I hope you enjoyed my quick rendition of trip to northern Greece!

Rhodes!

2010-04-13T07:37:00.017-04:00

Γεία σας! (That means "hello you all" in modern Greek!)

So I've been traveling tons here while in Greece and finally I have time to tell you all about my weekend trip to Rhodes, one of the largest islands belonging to Greece. It's, like, the best Greek island ever! It was so amazing. The weather was great, the food was wonderful, and the people were nice. (It was lots of fun surprising the owners of shops and restaurants with my Greek, ha ha!)

This is the Medieval castle in the middle of Old Town inside Rhodes Town. (There's also New Town Rhodes, which is the modern town around it.) Rhodes was used as the final pit-stop before the Holy Land during the Crusades. Knights lived in the fortress and the town. The castle on the left is called the Palace of the Grand Masters. I just like the name. Below is the room that was used for the hospital inside the fortress where the knights lived. Isn't just huge!?

Of course, there were people on Rhodes before the knights. These are ruins from the Temple of Pythian Apollo are on the left side of the picture while the remains of the Temple of Artemis are on the right. I had a blast climbing through the remains of the Artemis temple. There weren't any ropes to keep me out so I went explore. It was loads of fun (of course Erika wasn't around with her camera to take any photos of me; she was off enjoying the view, which was amazing too). That's the view. You can see the sea.

I also went to Lindos, where there was a sanctuary to Athena. There are still parts of the temple left with sections of the original stoa standing. This is the sanctuary-turned-castle at the acropolis of Lindos, which is nearly two hours south of Rhodes Town (the capital of Rhodes island). Also you can see the white buildings below the acropolis. This is stereotypical of Greek islands. Here you can see the pretty water, too. It was so awesome but too cold to go in, at least for me.

I know this picture is a little hard to see but I didn't get to see this famous landmark until right before I fly back to Athens. This is one of the famous deer columns at the entrance to Mandraki Harbor, the main harbor of ancient Rhodes. As you know, the famous Colossus statue was in Rhodes. The two deer columns mark were this huge statue might have stood. This column has a stag on top; the other one has a doe at the top.

Even with all those knights around, I still managed to find some new friends on Rhodes. On the left is Rhodes and on the right is Helios. They agreed to come home with me to the States too.

Isn't that super awesome!?

I'll leave you with one more parting photo. Enjoy! I'll be back soon!

Trip to the Peloponnese

2010-03-23T09:17:00.066-04:00

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been on in a while - classes you know and I've been traveling quite a bit, including this five-day school trip to the Peloponnese region south of Athens with my study abroad program. It was amazing! I went to so many awesome places in five days. Here's a list of the places we went (including archaeological places): Corinth, Akrokorinth, Napflion, Epidarous, Mycenae, Sparta, Mystra, Methoni, Messene, Pylos, and Olympia. It was so great. I took 745 pictures and since I obviously can't upload then all, I've selected a few of my favorites for you. Enjoy!

This is the Corinth Canal. It enables ships to safely and quickly pass from the Ionian Sea on the west side of Greece to the Aegean Sea on the east side of the Greece. This is facing west. People actually bungee-jump off this bridge! Isn't that crazy?! The water is an amazing blue too. I'd hate to fall off the walkway were I was standing. It would be a long way down that's for sure.

This is the first gate entrance to Akrokorinth, where the town of Corinth was before its modern location at the bottom of this large hill. It's a large fortress that was used by the ancient Greeks, the modern Greeks, the Turks, and the French (maybe the English too but I don't recall). We drove up the side of the large hill but as far as I'm concerned if anyone could climb that hill with supplies and animals then they were welcome to the fortress. It sure would've been a hike. The walls go almost all the way around the top of the hill; there's a natural outcropping on part of the hill (you can see it on the right side of the picture) where there aren't any walls but the cliffs are hard to scale.

This is the world-famous Lions Gate at Mycenae. Of course, I had to take a picture of it. The stone blocks surrounding the gate and in the walls around Mycenae are absolutely enormous. Some of them weight many tons and are four to six feet high and wide. Crazy big. The ancient Greeks called these huge cyclopean blocks because they thought that cyclopes put them into place they were so big. The lions don't have any heads, and it's unknown of each of them had a head or if the two bodies shared one head. Supposed there was lion figure found at Mycenae or in the area of Mycenae that had a lion head with two bodies. Archaeologists aren't sure which option it is.

Napflion has the best gelato ever. Here's the sign for the gelato place. My advise: have gelato for dinner; it will definitely fill you up and it tastes great. Napflion is a medium-sized town about two hours south of Athens by bus. It's very nice and I'll make an effort to go back while in Greece. To the right, is the floating bastion. A bastion is a fortress where ammunition was stored. Today, it's just s castle where tourists can visit.

This is the bastion as Methoni (left). Methoni was by far my favorite place I visited. It was a fortress used in the Medieval times, I think. It was really windy the day we went but that was okay. The professors on the trip just turned all the students loose in the fortress and told us to go play (literally). They let us explore everything in there almost two hours. It was great being able to just run around and explore the buildings, rooms, and tunnels. Methoni was on the sea, as you can see by its bastion. I've took a picture of the causeway that you have to cross to get to the bastion. The water was rather turbulent that day. I got splashed on the causeway, and let me tell you, Mediterranean seawater tastes different than Atlantic seawater.

As we were driving to Olympia through the mountains, there were sheep blocking the road! It was crazy. I managed to get a quick picture before the bus scared them off. It was really funny. And you could hear the bells on the sheep too.

The final day of the trip we went to Olympia. This is just one of the many toppled columns from the Temple of Zeus. This is where one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World was - the statue of Zeus at Olympia. The statue was never found but the molds used to create the statues were found as was the probable workshop. The columns were pulled down by Christians traveling through Greece in order to topple (no pun intended) the "pagan" religion of the ancient Greeks. The archaeological museum at Olympia was really neat too with many sculptures from the Zeus temple and other temples and buildings in the Olympian complex.

As I was heading back to Athens, we passed the coastal city of Patras. This is a picture of one of the most famous bridges in Greece and one of the most revolutionary bridges in Europe: the Rio-Antirrio Bridge. As you can see, it's a cable bridge. It's firmly secured to land on both sides but it's not secured to the sea floor. The pylons are actually merely resting on the bottom to allow the bridge to move naturally with earthquakes.

That's all for now! If you have any questions about any particular places or would like a blog entry with pictures about a particular place, let me know and I'll be happy to oblige!

Clean Monday

2010-02-21T13:06:00.006-05:00

Clean Monday is national Greek holiday. It marks the start of the Lent for the Greek Orthodox church. This holiday is celebrated by kite flying on Philopappos Hill, one of the many hills that surround Athens. This is picture of my friends attempting a kite. It was really difficult. We tried for about a hour but we never managed to get it far off the ground. Oh well.

There was a live Greek band there playing on the hill too. They were really good. They used traditional Greek instruments. We could hear the music from a really far distance away.

This the Pynx Hill where we tried to fly our kite. It's a smaller hill next to Philopappos Hill, which was really crowded. The Acropolis is on the right (obviously) and Lykabettus Hill is in the background. Lykabettus Hill the highest hill surrounding Athens.

These are deep fried dough balls covered in melted Nutella or chocolate (I'm not sure what it was, but it was amazing). This is would be the Greek equivalent of the funnel cake in an American fair. In fact, the whole atmosphere of Clean Monday is like a fair or a festival. There are street venders of popcorn, roasted corn, roasted nuts, drinks, souvlaki, and these fried dough balls. Venders also sell kites and balloons. There are also street entertains playing music. It was a wonderful day.

Marathon!

2010-02-12T11:58:00.009-05:00

Hey people!

I went to Marathon on a school-sponsored trip. I had a great time even though it was overcast with rain and windy. Here are some of the pictures I took. Enjoy!

Here's the tomb at Marathon of the 192 Athenians killed at Marathon when they fought against the Persian invasion in 480 BCE. As you can see, it's a really large mound of earth. And since it's a tomb, you aren't allowed to walk on it of course. (One of the girls in my group asked why people weren't allowed to walk on it. Really?) Anyways, it was neat. It's located in a grove of olive trees. There's also a marble statue imitation of the original grave stone at the site. Here's what it looks like.

We also saw graves from the Middle Helladic Period. There were seven graves. They all had these nifty plastic windows so the people walking through wouldn't throw trash into them. One of the graves still had bones it it. Cool! There's a foundation of a tomb-like structure in the background.

After we saw the Middle Helladic graves, we saw the Archaeological

Museum of Marathon. Then we went to Ramnous, a small area near Marathon. These are the remains of Temple of Nemesis. There are two buildings placed next to each other that make up the Temple. It overlooks the acropolis of Ramnous and the Mediterranean Sea. The day was rather overcast so there aren't any fantastic pictures of the Mediterranean Sea or of the acropolis I can show you. Not cool.

After eating lunch near the Temple of Nemesis, we went to the beach. It sounds exciting, which it was, but it was really windy and rainy now so it was a little bit of a disappointment. There were kite surfers on the beach as you can see here. These guys were really dedicated because the water was definitely chilly and the wind was very strong.

Overall, it was a great trip to Marathon. You should definitely check it out!

Reporting Live from Athens!

2010-02-04T03:31:00.014-05:00

Hey people!

It's been, like, eons since I've written anything. (Stupid faulty internet in IL over winter break). And now I'm pleased to report that I'll be reporting from Greece for the next few months while I'm hanging out with my human while she's studying over here. Anyways, the flights over were fine and I've been chilling out in the Mediterranean sun. Despite that it's the Mediterranean, however, it's been cold (relatively speaking) here. It's only in the 40s F some days, and it's rained a few times. Here are some pictures of fun things I've done while over here though.

Here's me looking at the map of where I live. I know that the pictures isn't the best, but I'll describe it. (This is as large as I could get it). Do you see the horseshoe shape? That the Athens Stadium, where the first modern Olympic Games were held, and it's completed made of white marble. It's a stone's throw across from the school. By the crease in the middle of the map, there's a street called Stassinou. That's where I live. It's directly south of the light blue square.

Since I'm in Athens, I have to practice my modern Greek. Here are the numbers in the textbook. I've discovered that modern Greek is definitely harder than ancient Greek. That's just what I think (and Erika definitely agrees).

I went on a weekend walking trip with Erika and one of her roommates to Olympian Park. It was only about a half hour walk away so nothing terrible. I'm sitting outside the wall on a large piece of marble. The columns beyond the wall are the tops of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. They are huge! It was amazing that's for sure.

That's all for now. I'll be posting again really soon now that I have a stable internet connection again. I'll have enough fun for everyone while over here, basking in the Mediterranean sun (and making sure that Erika continues to do all her homework). See ya!

Olympeion Trip

2010-01-31T11:08:00.008-05:00

Hey everyone! I took some time off from studying and ventured into the city of Athens. It was a beautiful day (60 F, sunny, and blue skies). You wouldn't believe where I went yesterday. I was wandering around Athens with one of my roommates from my program and we went to the Temple of Olympeion (Olympian) Zeus. It was amazing!!! I took a whole bunch of pictures from the trip. Here are some of the best! Enjoy!

Here's Hadrian's Arch that's on outside the Olympeion complex. It's huge! Right behind it, although you can't see it, is the Acropolis (which is only a half hour walk from my school). The medium-sized black dot in upper center of the arch is a large limestone cave to Zeus built into the side of the Acropolis.

To the right is what remains of the Temple of Olympeion Zeus. The Corinthian columns are very tall (right). The tops of the columns are very ornate (below). The entire temple is made of white marble. There are three rows of columns. I stood behind the structure and all the columns are perfectly aligned. You can't even see the columns behind the columns in front.

Here's a close-up of the Corinthian columns at the top of the Temple of Olympeion Zeus. To think that the whole structure was hand carved and put together by hand. It's amazing!

One of the columns of the Temple has fallen over. Here's the base of the column along with some of the pieces. As you can see, the column isn't one large marble piece but many stacked carved, marble rounds. It's hard to estimate but it would take two or three people stretching fingertip to fingertip to encompass the column.

This is the remains of the Temple of Apollo Delphinious. This section of the Olympeion wasn't as crowded. In fact, my roommate and I were the only ones there. We walked very, very close to it and thought about entering where the most grass was since there weren't any Do Not Enter signs but as soon as we stepped in, we both decided it was a bad idea. It's strange to describe, but it felt like someone didn't want us there. It's a very interesting and sacred place; you could just tell by standing there. Beyond these ruins, is a huge grove of extremely large aloe plants. Diameters ranged from only a few inches to over six feet across! The stalks for the aloe blossoms were about ten feet tall. It was crazy! We had to be really careful walking through this area because there are cisterns everywhere, and you can fall into if you aren't careful and watch where you're going.

Here are the ruins of some classical houses. It's difficult to tell where each house was. With my untrained eye, I can't even tell how many there were. I think there are three.

Well, back to studying. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures. I'll be posting more pictures soon about all my adventures in Greece!

Arrival in Greece

2010-01-20T04:49:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone! I'm reporting from Greece now. After a layover in Canada and a layover in Germany, I've finally arrived in Greece. The airline lost one of my bags. So are the woos of traveling. Luckily, two days later, the airport dropped it off so now I have all my clothes again. I checked in with my study program, College Year in Athens, and then headed to my apartment, which I share with five other girls. There are four bedrooms, a small kitchen, two bathrooms (one half and one full), and a small living room. It's nice. I'm living in Pangrati, an old Greek neighborhood only a five minute walk from the CYA Academic Center. The weather is lovely here. It's a little chilly since it is January (it's in the 50s probably) but it's sunny and with clear blue skies.

The strangest thing about living in Athens isn't the people but the trees. There are orange trees everywhere! They line the streets, planted into the sidewalks. No one eats the oranges because they're bitter. Even the birds don't touch them unless they're starving. Ha ha! There are quite a few stray dogs and cats around here too. The dogs follow people around, sometimes for blocks. Yesterday, I went on a neighborhood walk with a group of classmates and a professor and the same dog followed us for over and hour as we walked for blocks and blocks. I've also decided that no one can park like the Greeks. They park their cars, mopeds, and motorbikes anywhere there's space. It's really easy to walk into them.

That's all for now! I'll report back later with more Greek news soon! Remember, Greece is the word! :)

Trip to Gawain Country

2010-01-19T07:46:00.018-05:00

Now that I'm done with my first big exam, and prospects in Latin look good, I can post the adventures I had on January 1st of this year, when I went to Lud's Church in Staffordshire, England. This is the location some scholars think the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight had in mind when he was writing the climax of the poem. Here we are looking at Back Forest ('Back' as in the thing that goes popcrunch in the morning, not 'Black' as might be expected for such a notorious locale as the Green Chapel).

Because the sun is so low here due to the latitude, sometimes you'll see that one half of a valley is covered in snow, while the other side is bare. You'll see this as you're walking to get across the river to the path, and it gives you a good idea of the terrain. It used to be a hunting ground, and not only just in the poem, either. We didn't see any deer, boar or fox, but lots of sheep

Here is about where our path synched up with what is described in the poem. (IV, ll. 2144-5) "and ride a route through that rocky ravine till you're brought to the bottom of that foreboding valley". Here we can see an old stone staircase, and off the right of that (the left of anyone who had come down said slope's left) is the path. We'll see the orignial medieval path later. Pretty, but overgrown.

Turns out Gawain's guide gives lousy directions. Like Gawain, we too got lost missing the (admittedly well camouflaged) signpost. For our trouble, we got to see the old medieval road, now overgrown and covered in leaves. The rock formation over here is Castle Rock, in a little clearing, presumably the spot where Gawain wandered about before finding the 'Chapel'.

The Chapel itself appears right out of the side of a hill. In poor light, you could easily walk right past this.

...and suddenly you're in this great, gaping crevasse in the side of a hill... That's Richard Morris, by the way, awesome professor, great guide, carries a giant map, and usually takes us to pub for lunch during field trips. Awesome.

The walls are about 50-55 feet here (i'm pointing the camera almost straight up here).When everyone quiets down, there is no noise whatsoever, totally serene. That's probably for the best, as there are lots of icicles hanging about, not to mention rocks.

Here's our group. To those of you who are wondering what has happened to the cave entrance that Gawain had to go into to get into the chapel, there was a cave here that was explored in the 19th century, then sealed up by the landowner. The Miner they sent down into the cavern described an unearthly roaring and images on the wall "No Christian man should see". These are probably the roar of an underground river, which i hear are common in these parts, and prehistoric cavepaintings, which have also been found in this general area of England. Either way, the landowner chose to seal up the cave entrance, which sounds more like a challenge to me than a proper obstacle. Picks, anyone?

Leaving the crevasse, we came to this area, known locally as the high desert [Hautdesert, anyone?] Once upon a time this constituted a proper Forest... Apparently, a woodland isn't technically a Forest unless it's a land officially designated for hunting. It was here that I found my own, personal Holly bough (extra points for those of you who catch the significance).

This was a fantastic daytrip, an opportunity for me and my classmates to nerd out about even the potential inspiration for a poem that most of the population isn't frightfully aware of [but should be], and to wander around in the forest and hilly hiking trails, which is quite a relief for this guy, who finds Leeds active, but rather industrialized and lacking in proper woodlands for casual perusal and enjoyment.

Prospective Traveler?

2009-12-03T22:08:00.002-05:00

I guess this is my post to the students and faculty who have gone through this: Is it hard to be away from family over the holidays? What have you guys done to either compensate or has it not even been a big deal because you don't have the hype of Thanksgiving between Halloween and Christmas? Just wondering since if I was to go abroad, it looks like it would be in the fall, and that is one of the problems I am trying to figure out.

Hope to heard your input!

Experiences While Abroad

2009-12-02T17:34:00.002-05:00

The best part of studying abroad is gaining experiences, not just going to school (although that is the reason you're there, right?). Granted, there can be both positive and negative sides of studying abroad. So here's the question to ponder:

What are the best experiences you've have abroad?

Special Afternoon

2009-11-19T18:33:00.008-05:00

Hey there everyone! Geez, it's been a while since I've posted stuff. (I blame that entirely on Erika; she's being a computer-hog.) Anyways, I have some pictures of an afternoon out with a great friend of mine, the Black Beast of Aarggh. He's a really fun guy and we had a wonderful time reenacting the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. We both had a fantastic time strolling around campus and enjoying the unnaturally warming weather. As you can see, it took some serious skill from both of us not to fall off, me from the railing and the Black Beast from the wall.

Anyways, I have to get ready for Thanksgiving Break here with Erika. Gotta love free, all-you-can-eat food, right? Have a great Thanksgiving everyone (and watch out for those crazies on Black Friday)! Enjoy the pictures!

Monteverdi at OWU

2009-11-08T22:39:00.012-05:00

I'm back! This past weekend I went to the "Monteverdi Reimagined" performance here at OWU. It was amazing! The music was great and the singers were spectacular, as I expected. I sat in the balcony since the best seating was up there. As you can see behind me, there's are very large projector screen. While the singers were doing their musical thing, a slideshow with videos, pictures, and words appeared on the screen to help the audience figure what each song was about (the whole performance was in Italian). It was really cool. Isn't technology wonderful? I had an amazing time and was very glad I went. My human Erika went too since her friend Sarah sang in the opera. We had a great time.

This is a picture of Sarah, who I got to meet after the show. She's cool and allowed me to take a picture with her. Isn't she's just awesome!?! She even signed my program! The other picture is me posing with the program and the ticket.

Have a good one everyone; I'll be checking back in really soon!

Early Music

2009-11-07T12:49:00.011-05:00

This Side of the Atlantic

Last night, AMRS freshman Becca Pollard and her roommate Kristen Schwacha joined Dr. Knapp and myself for a student performance of madrigals about love written by the Baroque master composter, Monteverdi. (Here we are posing from the balcony of Jemison auditorium after the performance).

I love early music, and this was a particularly lovely performance of some of the finest madrigals about love written in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Most impressive of all was the vocal talent of OWU vocal music students. Every student sang both in ensemble and solo, delighting everyone with the beautiful harmonies and playful improvisations. You couldn't listen without wanting to be an opera diva yourself!

Another fantastic thing about this early music performance was the updated, multi-media setting. As the performers sang each madrigal, video was projected on the screen behind them, showcasing gracefully executed dance performances, stylized renditions of lovers in various poses (the hopes of a new love, the disappointments of an old love lost), and creative graphics displays of the song lyrics (in English translation).

This was a wonderful night out with AMRS students!

If you haven't ever had a chance to enjoy this music, I recommend the following:

dr demarco

Raymond Rozman reports from the field

2009-11-04T13:47:00.004-05:00

Hello all, I'm Raymond Rozman. I graduated from OWU this past May with a BA in Medieval Studies, and now I'm working on my MA at the University of Leeds in England. It took a lot of long hours to get myself here, but let me tell you, it's payed off in big ways.

You get to do interesting things as a graduate student. Just yesterday I had my British Battlefields class at the Royal Armories, where we finally got to handle (and wear) arms and armour. Some of the stuff was real, yes (including the back of a breastplate with a rather nasty gash in it), but the suits we tried on were reproductions of pieces in the museum, for obvious reasons. The next two meetings of that class will be held there, where we will be discussing the origins of firepower. More classes in the fun line-up include Paleography and Viking and Anglo-Saxon Heroic Culture, both of those coming up in the spring.

There's a lot of legwork involved, though. Our Latin course is designed to teach us the language (yes, all of it) in a year. I'm doing well enough there, because I've had a decent amount of it before (Thank you, Dr. Fratantuono), but it's not by any means easy. The Research Methods class isn't a cakewalk either. Come to think of it, British Battlefields is actually quite complex too, what with having to think like the commanders in order to understand the situation and terrain, even when the site itself remains relatively unchanged. For each class (I'm enrolled in three, if you haven't been counting), there's about a day's worth of work per week.

I do manage to have fun, though. I've lucked out by having the folks in my department being decently awesome people. We collectively go to pub for dinner, drink and conversation once a week, and on Sundays a house full of the PhDs hosts dinner, with one of us cooking the meal and the rest of us bringing in some other sort of tasty. This is a great way to counter the dismal feeling of eating alone in a dorm, and I know that all of us look forward to these nights each week.

Next time I write I'll tell you more about adjusting to a foreign culture (Britain is surprisingly alien), and how to find your academic niche, or at least how important it is to do so.

Prep for Study Abroad

2009-11-04T11:55:00.000-05:00

Most people don't realize how much extra work goes into applying for a study abroad program. After a preliminary application from the school to get permission to go off-campus, then the study abroad program application most be filed. That's the easiest part. After being accepted then it gets trickier. I'm studying in Greece in the spring, and Greece is not a easy country to get into I discovered. After being accepted into the College Year in Athens program, I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork that I wasn't aware of, such as getting an FBI profile and applying for a visa. Greece is one of the countries in the European Union that requires a visa for traveling you're going to be there for more than a few days.

The hardest part of the paperwork is getting the FBI profile done. Ink fingerprints are needed, not electronic ones as most places do nowadays. Finding somewhere that still does ink fingerprinting is harder than I thought. I had to call the local police department, the sheriff's office, and even the jail before finally finding somewhere that could do ink fingerprints. And don't forget about the fingerprint fee. I was lucky; my fee is only $5 but I've heard of it going as high as $35 so be prepared for that. The FBI profile is required for the student visa to Greece along with other papers, such as a health form, your passport, and financial forms proving that you can afford to go.

The process for the FBI profile and the visa can take a few weeks so don't wait until the last minute! Who knew there would be so much paperwork!

Posting, Commenting, and Following; Posting Pictures

2009-11-01T17:24:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone's having a great day. Here are the Blogger basics so people can post and comment on the Blog Abroad and be a Follower of the Blog Abroad.

For posting comments:
Sign in with Blogger with any e-mail address. A Google e-mail works best but any e-mail will work (owu.edu e-mail addresses fall under Google Mail so that will work, too). Create a profile with display name; this is the name that will be displayed whenever you make a comment or post something. I advise using your first name and the first letter of your last name, but it's up to you. The only way to post your own post is to be invited by the administrator. Otherwise, the only thing you can do is leave comments on events already posted. If you'd like to see comments, click on the post-it in the upper right corner of the post to leave or view comments.

For commenting:
Make sure you have a Blogger account. (See above section for making a Blogger account.) After you've made an account, then you can comment on any post. If you don't want to make a Blogger account, there's a option to be an anonymous commenter too. Just choose that when you leave a comment.

For being a Follower:
On the right side of the Blog Abroad homepage is a box labeled "Followers." If you wish to become a Follower of the Blog Abroad, then click on the button that says "Follow." A box pops up. Choose a display name and decide if you want to follow the Blog Abroad publicly or privately. Once you've done that, then you're officially a Follower on the Blog Abroad. To be a Follower, you don't need a Blogger account or a Google e-mail address.

POSTING PICTURES

Pictures are an excellent way to let people know all about the awesome and fun things you're doing and place you're going while abroad. If you'd like to post pictures (which you should!) and don't know how then here are some basic instructions:

After you log into Blogger, your dashboard comes up. On that page is a button that says "New Post." Click that and a new page for comes up for you to write a post. On the toolbar above the text box there is a small picture-looking icon (it's next to the word "link" on the toolbar). Click that. Another box will appear for you to upload images. You can add as many pictures as you'd like. After you insert pictures, then another, smaller box will appear that allows you to move the picture (left, center, or right alignment) and allows you to adjust the size of the picture. If you insert a picture with left or right alignment then any text added with wrap around the pictures.

Let me know if you have any trouble. I hope that's helpful. Happy blogging!

Maerwynn Signing In!

2009-11-01T15:47:00.012-05:00

Hiya, everybody! I'm Lady Aquila Maerwynn Rosa of Anmeres, the royal mascot of the Blog Abroad. Since I have such a long name just call me Maerwynn, or Maer, for short; it saves time. :) Anyways, I'm the mascot! Isn't that awesome!? It's a tough job being a mascot. I have to read the Blog Abroad and keep my human Erika in line. (She's the editor, and sometimes she's kinda lazy; I have to keep a close eye on her.) It's nice to have a human. I have short forepaws so I can't type well so she types what I dictate to her. What a wonderful human. :)

That's all for now! There's lots of stuff to get done about here. I'll be checking back in soon!

Visit to Madrid

2009-11-01T14:44:00.013-05:00

For part of a backpacking trip around Europe, my friend Emily and I went to Madrid, Spain. It was an incredible city, and we took a train from Paris to get there.

We got to the Madrid Train Station and found a taxi cab that would take us to our hostel, and even though he didn’t speak English, he got us there fine. Our hostel arrangement took up about two small rooms, with two twin beds and a bathroom. It was in Royal Madrid/Old Madrid, so it was close to all the sights we wanted to see.

We went outside to walk around and see the sights. All around were old buildings, statues, and other amazing structures. Everything is so much more colorful there, and the facades of buildings are so interesting and intricate.

We walked through some plazas and then got to the Royal Palace of Madrid, which had some amazing gardens around it and looked humungous. We walked through the armory and the official rooms and saw everything it had to offer.

We walked around the Plaza Mayor after that, and had lunch at a restaurant called "Segun...Enma" where I ate pumpkin ravioli with a pistachio pesto sauce on top. It was delicious but very interesting and different.

We walked around a bit after that because we needed to find an adapter... our plugs are all flat and don’t fit into the depressed European outlets. We walked around a lot and no one spoke English so we had a lot of trouble. Eventually we ended up at El Corte Ingles, where an employee approached us and spoke English very well. He helped us find what we needed, and so once we each bought one we were totally set.

After being true inhabitants of Madrid and taking a siesta, we walked around a lot and tried to find a good place to eat, but most places we couldn’t understand the menu or it was too expensive, etc. We ended up at this tavern off the beaten path, and we each got a glass of a Rioja as well as some steak and chips. The chips (fries) were probably the best I have ever had.

We didn’t love the wine, but it was ok. When we were finished, we were waiting for the check, and the waiter, who spoke no English, came back and gave us each another half-glass of wine. We tried to protest, but he gave us some anyway. We also went out after dinner and had some sangria. Madrid is such a wonderful city for nightlife because of how late they wake up and their sietas, so they are definitely night owls.

On day two in Madrid, we knew we were going to visit the Prado that day but then we wanted lunch first so we walked around to find a place to eat. We ended up walking really far and way out of the way. It was extremely hot, and we were sweating and tired, so we just stopped at a restaurant in the middle of this business/government district, and so we went in to get some ham and cheese sandwiches, which were pretty good.

On our way out, we bought some chocolate ice cream, which we ate on the way to the Prado. We spent literally all day in the Prado walking through all the galleries. It took us hours, and our favorite ended up being the same painting for us both: a painting by Simon Vouet, called Time Conquered by Love, Hope, and Beauty. (We didn't snap a picture of it, unfortunately, so here's a copy):

While we were there, one of the museum workers yelled at me for sneezing. She was shushing us and we weren’t even being loud. We were whispering when we were discussing the art, but when she shushed me we were being silent except for my sneeze.

After we left the Prado, we walked around and found a restaurant and had a jar of sangria, and I had a half a chicken and fries. It's sad that we didn't really eat all that much Spanish food, but it was because they mostly eat tapas of fish dishes, and my friend doesn't eat fish, so that ruled a lot out. Still, everything we ate and drank in Spain was wonderful. Madrid was an incredible city, and definitely should be a stop on any European backpacking adventures.

Dublin Exhibits

2009-11-01T11:51:00.005-05:00

This past weekend, I meant to spend two days in Dublin. In the end, I was only there for about five hours. However, within that time, I went to the Trinity College Old Library and the Book of Kells Exhibition, as well as the National Museum of Ireland's Archaeology Building. It was really incredible. It is one thing to see a slide of something like the Tara Brooch in art history class, but it is quite another to actually see it in person. At the same time, I know it was seeing these things, or similar things, in class beforehand that made it as interesting as it was. Lord knows my grandparents (who came to visit and took me to Dublin) got tired enough of me giving the history and background information on everything that we saw, however fascinating I thought it was.

I was especially excited to see the Book of Kells, considering that I wrote a paper on it last spring. The Trinity College Exhibit was really well done. Before you get to the actual manuscripts that they have on display, you walk through an exhibit of floor-to-ceiling reproductions of the manuscript pages, along with desciptions and meanings behind the contents, as well as information about making manuscripts. However, there was one thing that I found very frustrating about the exhibit. Because it is designed to be of interest to anyone, most of the descriptions are very simplified. I can understand why, but it is still frustrating to see a one-sentence, definitive reason given for something that I know scholars still disagree over, and have read ten articles that give ten different views on the subject.

Well, this is all I have time for at the moment...I didn't come all the way to Ireland to sit at my computer all day!

Hey there!

2009-10-21T12:26:00.000-04:00

Hear ye, hear ye! The Blog Abroad is now up and running! That's right; after weeks and weeks of work, the BA has finally (and officially) launched. Current AMRS students will be blogging here about their adventures and experiences so check back often! And you never know; maybe the AMRS dragon mascot will stop by and post some stuff too. Enjoy!