Category: 2016-2017

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By: Dylan Daugherty

daugherty, dylan 21There are two things that I absolutely hate in life: strawberries and waking up early. I’m always able to make exceptions though; like when the strawberries are covered in chocolate or on the first day of class. As soon as my alarm clock went off I hopped out of bed and into the shower. After about 20 minutes of bathing and trying to figure out British shower knobs, we headed out to class. Class began with our first quiz of the course. It covered one of our required summer readings and some background information on the author. Everyone was nervous but we all did just fine. Our wonderful professor, Dr. Walker Rutledge, continued the class with a lecture on proper writing techniques.

Once class was over, we had London to ourselves. Several of us headed straight downtown, but others preferred to nap. My group went to a small Indian restaurant on the backstreets. We then headed to the National Gallery and saw original works by Van Gough and Picasso. We were able to walk around and look at Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament. Other groups went and rode the London Eye and saw the Portrait Museum.

As the evening concluded, groups headed back to the dorms and rested. As Gatton tradition, we all found a park to play a game of Frisbee. The students returned to class to watch a movie of one of our summers reading. Our first day of classes has been a success. Eager for another day of adventures, we all headed for bed.

carroll, amber 21By: Amber Carroll

Today was an interesting day to say the least. I’m pretty sure jet lag hit us all pretty hard. It’s also probably a pretty safe assumption that most of us mixed up our days a lot today too. We left Atlanta around 6:00 pm yesterday (Thursday), slept less than an hour, and woke up to breakfast and the plane somehow landing around 9:00 am in England. I think I speak for most of us when I say that the time change messed with our heads. One minute it’s daylight, another minute it’s dark, and then it’s daylight again. Instead of resting like any sane person would do, however, we decided to rely on adrenaline all day to keep us going, so we headed straight for Stonehenge.

When you hear people say that England is cold and rainy, they aren’t kidding. When we got off of the plane, it was overcast outside. It then started raining on the way to Stonehenge and continued to rain until it was almost time to leave. We encountered something else that messed with our heads on the way to Stonehenge—everything was backwards. People drove on the wrong side of the roads and the steering wheels were on the wrong sides of the cars. You wouldn’t think it’s that big of a deal, but it’s a little weird seeing people pass you on your right side instead of your left. Despite being freezing, wet, starving, and sleep deprived, there were a few people that kept us all going with their positivity. After all, you have all your life to be warm, be dry, eat, and sleep, but for most of us, you only get this one chance to visit Stonehenge. Thanks to those people, we managed to make the most out of a once in a lifetime opportunity at Stonehenge and made amazing memories with our closest friends. Seeing Stonehenge was definitely worth it.

ashley, katie 21By:  Katie Ashley

And we’re off! Our first day of adventure is complete. We met yesterday (Thursday) morning at the Louisville Airport, had a quick layover in Atlanta, and arrived in London this morning (Friday)!

Our group was split into two departing flights from Louisville, and even with the the long lines in the airport, our second group made the connecting flight in Atlanta. I was in the second group and we arrived at the gate just in time, as they had just started boarding our zone. I even had my roommate, who was on the first flight to Atlanta, go get me food before I arrived in the second group, so I could eat a good dinner and skip the delicious plane food. Despite all of the stresses of travel and its tiresome nature, we arrived in London with an eagerness to begin our quest.

I have been anticipating this trip for quite some time now and am sure the other students have similar excitements. We are all ready to begin our three-week journey with almost all of our rising seniors. Over these next few weeks we will be studying English Literature. We will reinforce what we learn in the classroom with Professor Rutledge with field trips all over England that relate to the author’s works we are studying. I’m sure this will prove to be a very informative, exhilarating, and at times exhausting trip; however, we are all ready to take it on in order to make the most of our time here!