January 1, 2013
Happy
New Year! My name is Danielle Donahue and I am a junior at the College of St.
Scholastica. I am studying Health and Science with a hope of getting into the
Occupational Therapy program next fall. I had taken the Literature of London
class all last semester and am now continuing my class in London. So far the
trip has been amazing!
The way some of
our group chose to ring in the New Year was experiencing the British nightlife
in Bath at a few bars. We stumbled upon this one bar that was so cool. When you
walked in, it looked exactly like a Victorian house, it had been renovated into a night
club. All of us were so excited and thought it was awesome. After a while we
decided to check out a new bar and ran into some friendly locals that gave us
directions to another bar. We ended up at the Abbey (which we had toured earlier) and thought maybe we could see some fireworks, which was not the case. But, we did
find out this is where
all the locals come to countdown the New Year. The courtyard was packed and we
met a lot of different people. A group of pals took some of us to an Irish bar
that was very fun and lively. Some of the group called it a night, a few of us
went on to more adventure and came across many different bars, one was decorated
in British war propaganda that was so interesting to look at. Later we strolled
through town with our new friends and ended up in a nearby park closer to the
river which was beautiful at night. We were told by our local friends that the
swans in England were owned by the Queen and if any one was to kill one, they
would be thrown in jail. Our new English friends were very nice and taught us a
lot about the city from a residents point of view and all the cool places to go
that the tourist sometimes miss out on. This was very exciting and made for a
great start to the New Year!
The
next day we woke up and set off to explore the town some more during the day
time. We had an absolute gorgeous morning and couldn't have asked for better
weather. Some of the group split up to do a scavenger hunt our lovely guide, Claire, had arranged for us to win a prize while some of went to the Museum of Fashion. I, as
a girl who adores clothes, loved this museum and all of the different style of
dresses that women wore. Claire and I even got to dress up in some everyday
dresses from decades ago. We both had so much fun and realized why people in the Victorian era needed so
many people helping them get ready in the morning!
Later we strolled through town taking
more tourist pictures and eventually it was time to head back to London. Once
we arrived we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then we were off to our first
performance called A Chorus of Disapproval at the Harold Pinter Theater. The
theater was small and we were sitting up in the steep balcony almost touching
the ceiling. The show was very good and had everyone laughing. The actors did
an excellent job and the costumes were beautiful. Also we thought the set
changes were really neat because the floor would move as they were changing
scenes.
This experience
has been so exciting and we have all learned so much even in the first three
days. I couldn't imagine a better group of people to experience this with and
am so grateful I get the chance to be a part of it. Every day
we are learning new things about this culture and it has been a blast! I hope
all of our family and friends back home had a wonderful New Year,s like we did
and I am looking forward to the new experiences 2013 has in store for us!
I was so glad to have been able to ring in the new year with you and everyone else! Next year's new year is going to have a lot to live up to now :)
ReplyDeleteWe had so much fun! It feels like it was so long ago already! It was nice to have some free time in the morning after such a full day and late night. Definitely a well-worth-it trip!
ReplyDeleteBath was an amazing city and a great change of pace from the rather large city of London. After such an exciting evening in the Abbey square, it was cool to get time to just explore the streets in the daylight. This was by far one of my favorite days!
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