Study Abroad – Page 2 – The Gatton Academy News

Harlaxton Day 4: Sherlock Holmes and The Cereal Killer Cafe

July 26, 2019 | 2019 Harlaxton, 2019-2020, Avatars, Maggie Gossage, Study Abroad | No Comments

My morning in London started off with a cup of yogurt, a couple pieces of “streaky” bacon, and a heaping mug of hot tea. After breakfast at our residence hall, my classmates and I headed off to class. Class today consisted of picking apart “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, and discussing my favorite assigned reading, “Gifted.” Discussion on “My Last Duchess” was definitely the highlight of class for me. Through analyzing the poem line-by-line, we drew some intriguing conclusions about the content of the poem and shared a lot of laughs while doing it.

After class was over, I headed back to our residence hall, ready to prepare for the rest of the day. My group decided to head down to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Although I have never read the books, the museum proved to be quite interesting. The tour guides were dressed in Victorian Era clothing, and the home was set up to the specific details presented in the novels. As I walked through the museum, I saw old medicine bottles, the letters “V R” shot into the wall, and some… interesting looking wax figures, to say the least.

When we left the museum, we decided to hop on the tube and ride to Camden Town to visit the Cereal Killer Cafe. Whenever I found out that I would be studying abroad in Great Britain, and that we would be staying in London for a week, I decided to heavily research unique places to eat in London. That is when I came across the Cereal Killer Cafe, a cafe solely dedicated to every kid’s favorite morning breakfast food: cereal! This 90’s themed cafe has a wall of all different cereals that you can choose from to mix and match in a bowl, and also has special items like cereal ice cream and cereal fried chicken. I decided on a bowl of their homemade Spaceman cereal to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

After my stomach was full of cereal, and my heart was full of happiness (from eating said cereal), my group rode the tube one last time back to our residence hall. I decided to turn in early so that I could get a full night’s rest for our exciting trip to Bath the next day. It was an amazing day of seeing so many quirky little places and having such entertaining class conversations.

Maggie

By Gatton Academy

Harlaxton Day 3: Austen, Keats, and Stonehenge

July 25, 2019 | 2019 Harlaxton, 2019-2020, Avatars, Jocelyn Martin, Study Abroad | 1 Comment

Our first field trip day! Where do I begin? We started off the day with a two and a half-hour bus ride out to Chawton to see the Jane Austen House Museum. We saw the house she lived in from 1809 – 1817, which is the same house she wrote and published most of her major works. While in Chawton, we also visited the church that Jane Austen worshipped in. This church is also where many of her family members were buried.

After this stop, we then ventured into Winchester where we explored the Winchester Cathedral, which, fun fact, is where Jane Austen was buried. The cathedral had beautiful architecture and was complete with an abundance of burials inside the church. Those buried in the church were either great religious figures or important people throughout history. We then went on the same footpath that John Keats walked whenever he wrote the famous poem ‘To Autumn.’

After all of this physically taxing adventuring, we were able to sit down and relax for an hour or two while being driven to the Stonehenge, our final stop of the day. Once we arrived at Stonehenge, we were given the option to either walk twenty minutes in the heat or be driven down in a nice air-conditioned shuttle. I was with a group of friends, and reluctantly walked the path. While I have to admit that the scenery was stunning, my legs didn’t care as they ached the whole journey, as serene and beautiful as it was. Stonehenge itself was blocked off with rope, so my lifelong dreams of running through it were absolutely crushed. In all seriousness, the stones were absolutely breathtaking and incredibly crowded. It’s so mind-boggling to think about the creation of the Stonehenge, that a few of my peers are convinced that it is the work of aliens. I commemorated the lively day with a new English Heritage themed Monopoly for my Monopoly collection. We all then rushed back onto the bus to begin our long journey back to our residence hall.

Jocelyn

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Harlaxton Day 2: Jet lag, gone. Adventures, await.

July 23, 2019 | 2019 Harlaxton, 2019-2020, Avatars, Michael Givens, Study Abroad | No Comments

After a full night’s sleep and a filling breakfast, everyone is back to being wide-eyed tourists. The feeling of waking up in one of the biggest cities in the world was amazing. The possibilities of fun and experiences are endless. Before we could begin exploring the city though, we had to have our first class of the summer semester.

Each class is three hours long and lasts from 9 AM to 12 PM. During this class time, we started off by reading and analyzing the John Keats poem, “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer.” We followed this by discussing the themes of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Our final task was to discuss our upcoming essay regarding a social difference we observe while we travel around London.

Once class let out, my group and I headed to search for lunch. Due to our residence’s central location in London, almost everything you could need, including the tube station, is within about a 20 minute vicinity. We found some great sushi about 10 minutes away and then begin to plan the rest of our day.

We settled on heading to The British Museum. The museum was amazing! It became apparent right away why this was an international monument. A few of the galleries included Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Middle East, and Africa. Some of our favorite sections were the old coins, Vikings, and the famed Rosetta Stone. They even had real mummies in the Ancient Egypt gallery. After three hours of wandering around and admiring the history within those walls, we headed out for dinner.

We took our first tube ride of the day and headed to Leicester Square. We settled on a traditional English pub and had a great dinner. Afterwards, we walked around and looked at shop windows while enjoying some ice cream. We actually stumbled upon the theatre with the production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

London is amazing and we have enjoyed every second. Here’s to many more tube rides and great meals!

Michael

By Gatton Academy

Harlaxton Day 1: Arrival

July 22, 2019 | 2019 Harlaxton, 2019-2020, Avatars, Jack McCoun, Study Abroad | 4 Comments

The best feeling of any flight is the feeling of the wheels hitting your destination. After eight hours of being on a plane, the Gatton Class of 2020 landed in the London-Heathrow International Airport on July eighteenth. Immediately after arriving, we grabbed our bags, headed through customs, and passed into the United Kingdom. Right from the start of the trip, we had a pure British experience; riding in a double-decker bus. On the way to our accommodations for London, I sat in the front seat on the top level on the bus and watched as we journeyed through the dense streets.

The city felt like a concrete jungle, encapsulating us in a vast array of buildings. There were so many sights that I had not seen in the United States. One of these was that all of the cars in the UK had their driver’s seat on the right side instead of the left. In addition, there were very few fast-food restaurants in the heart of the city. People were also generally very to themselves, more concerned with their day than the city and its tourists. Once we arrived at our accommodations, we stored our luggage and ventured out once more into the city to find a place to eat lunch. London is a very diverse city with multiple cultures calling the city home. After searching for a good restaurant online, my friend friends and I chose a place that served poke. The food was unlike anything I had in America and was full of foreign flavors.

After lunch, we headed back to our home for the week so that we could unpack. Once we had returned, I went to my room to empty my belongings and rest. London is five hours ahead of my home in Kentucky so I was very tired. After eating a British supper at our accommodations, we headed for a screening of a film. The film, which was adapted from the Jane Austen book Persuasion, helped to close our busy day. By the end of the night, we were all ready for bed, and the next adventure on our long journey.

Jack

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Harlaxton Day 22: The Flight(s) Home

August 13, 2018 | 2018 Harlaxton, 2018-2019, Avatars, Rithik Reddy, Study Abroad | No Comments

Wow, it’s all over.

21 days filled with amazing experiences such as exploring the amazing city of London, learning English, and ordering late-night takeout has finally come to an end.

Today at 4 AM, all 49 of us finished packing the last bits of our luggage and dragged our suitcases downstairs. We loaded them onto a coach, had a bit of conversation for 15 minutes, and then fell asleep for the next 3 hours. When we woke up, we had arrived at the Manchester airport. After checking in our bags, eating a meal, and waiting for another hour, we boarded an 8-hour flight to Atlanta.

During the plane ride, we students mainly tried to relax by enjoying movies and by getting some much-needed sleep, but there was an interesting event that went on in the plane. A flight attendant said there would be a prize for the passenger who guesses the combined ages of the crew. This was just a lighthearted event trying to spice up the flight, but some people furiously tried to win. However, Paul Portmann, a fellow student, just threw his hands up in the air and guessed a random number. But, when the results were announced, we were all surprised to learn that his guess ended up being only 1 year from the correct answer! For this, he won a prize. The prize, funnily enough, was a bottle of wine. Paul, of course, couldn’t accept it since he is only 17, so he settled for some chocolates.

The rest of the day wasn’t nearly as eventful. After touching down in Atlanta, we dragged our weary bodies from the plane, picked up our luggage, and waited for our next flight to Louisville. On this flight, most of us slept or listened to music, as it was only 50 minutes. When we got off, we picked up our luggage and greeted our families. We said our goodbyes to our friends, still wanting to spend more time with them in England, but also ready to go home.

Rithik

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Harlaxton Day 21: Final Exam and Free Time

August 8, 2018 | 2018 Harlaxton, 2018-2019, Avatars, Shay Moore, Study Abroad | No Comments

Wow, I can’t believe today was our last day at Harlaxton! Time has flown by so fast. Pretty soon, we’ll be waking up at 4:30 to get on the coach and head to the airport. These past three weeks have been an amazing experience and I’m so glad I went, and I’m sure all of my classmates would say the same.

Today was our last day, meaning it was also finals day. We all stayed up studying last night, preparing for our test in the morning. The final consisted of three parts: the first part consisted of 70 multiple choice questions about poetry, the second part asked us to analyze a poem, and the third part wanted us to write an essay about three of the places we had been to while apart from the group. We all got up and went down to the classroom at 9 to take the final, and as we each got done, we turned in our test and left class. Most of us either went to lunch or went straight back to bed after the exam. Once everybody was done, we all started getting together with our friends to see what we wanted to do on our last day.

For my last day, I got together with a group of friends and rode a train to Nottingham, where we spent most of the day. We went on a tour of the caves of Nottingham, which are all manmade and have been dug over the past several hundred years. After our tour, we walked through town and stopped to eat at a British chain restaurant called Nando’s. The food was delicious, and when we all got done, we headed to the train station to ride back to Harlaxton.

Once we got back to Harlaxton, the group separated and we all went and did our own thing. A couple of us, myself included, walked around Harlaxton, exploring the grounds. We did this for a couple hours before it was time to head back inside and finish packing up our things. Then we all headed to bed to prepare for the long coach ride and flights in the morning. I believe I’m speaking for all of us when I say we wished we could stay longer, but at the same time, we were exhausted and ready to come home and see our families. Harlaxton has been a once in a lifetime opportunity that I’m sure we’ll all cherish forever.

Shay

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Harlaxton Day 20: Class and Free Time

August 6, 2018 | 2018 Harlaxton, 2018-2019, Avatars, Study Abroad, Trivan Menezes | No Comments

I awoke this morning with one thing on my mind: the final exam tomorrow. But I’m sure you all would not want to hear about a day spent learning in class and studying content, because I know I wouldn’t. So I’ll summarize what actually happened today, but I’ll then reminisce on the trip as a whole.

I’ll cut to the chase. The morning was spent in class reviewing poetry content and learning about T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” and Philip Larkin’s poems. Class ended, and I spent most of the remainder of the day studying for our final exam tomorrow. I took a few breaks for absolutely necessary items, such as eating, going to the gym, and walking around the manor to enjoy its aesthetic features. I eventually gave in to sleep at quite a late hour, as I was preoccupied by spending some quality time [reviewing poetry content] with my dude, Jackson Chumbler.

Well that’s the extent of what I was assigned to write, so with that, here’s a monologue that you didn’t know you needed until you read half of this random blog post.

Let me just say that these past three weeks in England have been legendary, not in the sense that I achieved all I sought for, but in the sense that this trip has emphasized the importance and beauty of spontaneity. In setting up a trip, many tend to emphasize the destinations that are well known, for those seem to be the things that people desire to see. But is that really what travelling is? On multiple occasions over the last few weeks, visiting destinations that society has deemed ‘famous’ has been drastically outweighed by the spontaneous wanderings-about which have led a few of my acquaintances and I to realize fresh perspectives and feelings of immersion. It’s almost as if most people trade the very causes that make us unique—experiential diversity—for status-quo episodes that only monotonize who we are as humans. Anyone can see the London Bridge, but how many people are willing to leisurely stroll through the residential zones of London and just take in the city for what it is? Famous travelers, from Anthony Bourdain to Ibn Battuta, are not known for simply showing off that they have visited places, but they are known for sharing the rich perspectives they gained during their journeys across the world. Everyone’s experience in any given location is different, and I have realized that that’s the beauty of travel. I can easily photo-shop myself into a cliché picture of a famous landmark, but it is impossible for me to photo-shop myself into someone else’s experience.

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” -Ibn Battuta

Trivan

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Harlaxton Day 19: Newstead Abbey

August 3, 2018 | 2018 Harlaxton, 2018-2019, Avatars, Georgia Hoffman, Study Abroad | 3 Comments

At 9 am, my classmates and I retrieved our sack lunches and trudged to the coach. We settled into our seats, something we have gotten used to as our group has spent ample amounts of time traveling around England. Some students bobbed their heads and mouthed the words of their favorite songs, others prepared for our upcoming quiz and final, but most closed their eyes and dozed in and out of consciousness.

Our class arrived at Newstead Abbey and drowsily departed the coach around 10:15. The leaders split us into two groups and we began our tours of the abbey promptly at 10:30. I studied the ornate woodwork and detailed paintings of the house as our guide told of Lord Byron’s time there. She told us tales of the scandalous love affairs, odd furry companionships (including a pet bear), and numerous ghost encounters that occurred during Byron’s time at the abbey. Once our tour finished, around 11:45, we were free to roam the grounds of Newstead Abbey.

The weather was a comfortable 75 degrees; large fluffy clouds dulled the sun’s brilliant rays and a light breeze blew as I sat down to eat my familiar bagged lunch. Then, I set out to explore the numerous gardens. A group of friends and I walked by a glassy, green pond and fed the remnants of our meals to a flock of ducks, then continued to the Japanese Garden. We wandered through forests of lush green plants and carefully navigated stepping stones over small streams that riddled the gardens. Some students spent hours in the gardens, others sat down in lawn chairs and napped in the abbey’s courtyard.

Around 2:30, we migrated back to the coach and resumed our bus activities. Over the next hour, our professor led a discussion about the similarities and differences that we have noticed since we have been in England. When we reached the manor, students stumbled off of the coach. We had free time for the remainder of the day. As our schedule has been extremely busy since our departure from the United States, most students used their free time to catch up on lost sleep. After a dinner of beef stew and a hearty slew of vegetables, I went to the junior common room where we played cards and snooker.

Eventually, a large group of us (including most of the chaperones) made our way out to the lawn to play a few games of croquet. Gatton students may not be competitive about coursework, but when it comes to croquet, we don’t mess around. The sounds of competitive banter and laughter resonated through the grounds as we attempted the new sport. This continued until 9:45, then everyone went their separate ways. Some of my classmates studied, others ordered pizza, and the rest prepared for bed. After our 10:30 curfew, my three roommates and I discussed our upcoming college applications and then settled in for the night.

This study abroad has been amazing! I love England and the literature we have been studying. This trip has been a great learning experience because students are encouraged to explore with a small group of peers, rather than being led by an adult. Consequently, my classmates and I have developed independence and formed new friendships amongst ourselves. This journey has drawn our class closer together and will have a lasting impact on our community. I am so thankful to have had this opportunity and plan to study abroad again in the future.

Georgia

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Harlaxton Day 17: Stratford-Upon-Avon

August 3, 2018 | 2018 Harlaxton, 2018-2019, Avatars, Devin Davis, Study Abroad | No Comments

To kick off our third and final week abroad, we visited Warwick Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon. We departed at 8 a.m. and rode for an hour and a half until we arrived at Warwick Castle. Warwick Castle is a medieval castle that was constructed in 1068 which has now been transformed into an astonishing attraction. After we entered, our group took on the challenge of the corn maze. After reaching all of the checkpoints, we swiftly discovered the exit and completed the maze. We then proceeded to trek to the top of the fortress where we were greeted with an amazing view overlooking the grounds of the castle. It was here that we watched as the large trebuchet launched a rock across the open field. Afterward, we partook in an excursion to explore the conservatory and castle. We gandered at the medieval architecture, pleasing flowers, and elegant peacocks.

After lunch, we were on our way to Stratford-upon-Avon where we stopped at Anne Hathaway’s cottage. We were able to explore the residence where the Hathaway family lived for 13 generations. It was a very unique home because it contained 12 rooms – an extraordinary amount for that time. Next, we voyaged to the heart of Stratford-upon-Avon, the Holy Trinity Church. This place is the home of Shakespeare’s final resting place. After viewing his burial site, we were informed that grave robbers are believed to have stolen his head from the grave! We then traveled to Shakespeare’s birthplace. We explored his home and marveled at the exact bed where he was born. After exiting, we stopped to witness street performers bring Shakespeare’s writing to life. They reenacted scenes from Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet and recited numerous sonnets. We were then granted free time to eat dinner and explore Stratford-upon-Avon. After visiting a local diner and café, we returned to the coach. As the evening concluded, we arrived back at Harlaxton Manor where students began to study for our quiz tomorrow. We then crawled into bed after another adventurous day of exploration in England.

Devin

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Harlaxton Day 16: Class and Free Time

July 31, 2018 | 2018 Harlaxton, 2018-2019, Avatars, Hannah Congleton, Study Abroad | No Comments

Today at Harlaxton Manor was a little different. It was an open house at Harlaxton, which means that people that want to see Harlaxton come flooding in to admire the beautiful manor we have lived in for the past seven days. Class still went on, and we learned all about poetry. While we read the poetry for enjoyment, we also discussed the meter, rhyme, and look for poetry terms to understand the poems even more.

Once class was over, we took our packed lunches and searched for a place to eat. It was almost a challenge to find a spot away from the visitors. The challenge was even harder because we finally got British weather aka rain so we could not go outside. One of the fun things to do while the visitors are here is to go pass the “restricted sections” (for visitors) and feel like you are the ruler of the house. I know that I found a quiet corner that was away from the visitors and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon, feeling like a queen.

Hannah

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