Out of the Shadowlands

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move, to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly, to come down off the featherbed of civilization and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints." - Robert Louis Stevenson

Today marks the end of what has been a couple weeks of... well, a string of things that have been not-so-fun. I returned to London with three essays and an exam waiting for me, and hadn't done much to start working on any of them. What had previously been a well-spaced out schedule as far as final assessments went got compacted into two weeks of stressful scrambling, thanks to the Eljijirjlrlilthsb volcano in Iceland (editor's note: Eljijirjlrlilthsb is probably not the correct spelling. There's a reason all those BBC newsreporters just refer to it as "the volcano in Iceland"). But - and this should be read with an emphatically deep sigh of relief - as of 12:08 pm earlier today, my work as a study abroad student at King's College in London has finally, miraculously come to a close.

For those of you that are interested in my studies, here's the recap. I got an extension on two of my essays, but kept my other essay (a written analysis of an adaptation) and exam (for my Travel Writing class) as they were, mostly because I really liked the idea of finishing on May 12 and having the rest of my time abroad to spend doing what I wanted to do, on my terms. With the new schedule my extensions afforded, this was the lineup:

May 4: Jane Austen in Context essay due. Wrote about the link between Austen's female characters and the estates in her novels. A trend I've been noticing in her works since I read Pride & Prejudice for high school AP Literature. Status = a good first draft, but not sure what mark they'll give me. Personal state of mind upon completion = tired

May 5: Adaptation Assessment due. For my adaptation, I chose Patricia Rozema's 1999 read of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, which I love, despite (and partly because of) its lack of faithfulness to the original. Status = can't remember, which is probably not a good sign. I did it in a time frame of 24 hours though, which I find impressive. Personal state of mind upon completion = perpetual academic hangover

May 10: Theology Essay #2 due. Wrote about Nietzsche's opinion of Christianity. Which is to say, I wrote about Nietzsche's deep-seated hatred for Christianity. Status = crossing my fingers for a low 2:2 (translation for the Americans: crossing my fingers that I pass that assignment). I chose the topic because I wanted to understand more about Nietzsche's philosophy of life. Turns out, no one understands Nietzsche's philosophy of life except for a few select people in this world, one of whom is grading my essay. I'm getting sick just thinking about it. Personal state of mind upon completion = incredibly embarrassed that I'm a writing major in college, but also relieved to be done with research essays this term

May 12: Travel Writing 3 hour exam. Status = killed it! I don't know how hard they grade exams here, but I finished almost an hour early and felt good about the work I did. Personal state of mind upon completion = elated. I did a victory dance in the bathroom when no one was looking. No, really.

As a little pat on my back, I decided to celebrate the end of my super-stressful two week period by pretending to be British and ask the lady at the kiosk in front of Westminster Abbey in my most convincing accent if she had a "rubbish bin" for my water bottle. She did. "Cheers." Plus two points for me. Unfortunately I lost at least forty points within ten minutes of that by going to the guards at the Parliament building to ask where I could go for the tour of the Parliament. "Home" was the guard's witty response, "because Parliament is closed due to the elections." In my defense, I did know the elections had happened, and wondered if Parliament would be operating... I just thought tours would go on regardless. Oh well. Big fat "American" stamp on my forehead. Moving on.

To console myself of my failure at the Parliament building, I went to the Tate Britain, which is basically the one museum in London I had yet to go to. This museum is my favorite of all British art museums by far, which comes as no surprise, as it houses some of the most famous Pre-Raphealite paintings as well as some great collections of Turner and Constable paintings. I ran a few errands after this, and then returned to my London dorm room, where I am now... with absolutely nothing to do. Life is beautiful.

For my time left in London, there are still a few things I have on the agenda. Tomorrow, I'm going with a friend to Jane Austen's house in Chawton (yes, again) to see their exhibit of costumes from the newest adaptation of Emma - the costumes were one of the only things I liked about that adaptation, so I'm excited to see them. The next day my friend Makini is visiting us London kids all the way from Paris, which I'm getting psyched about. Then Nadine and I are going to Bruges, Belgium for a few days, and a day trip to Cambridge is in the works, too. Other things I have to do include seeing Robin Hood at the cinemas here... seriously, it looks amazing... and going to Chipotle like five times a day. Yes, Chipotle. London is the first location outside of the United States, and it just opened up Monday. Yes, I went on opening day. I waited in line for an hour and it was totally, completely worth it. Differences between Chipotle at home... they don't have the Iced Tea (which is my FAVORITE THING ABOUT CHIPOTLE, but that's fine), and they give you the measliest portions of everything. Seriously, maybe I'm just used to the American heaps of rice and toppings, but I felt like Oliver Twist with my Burrito Bowl, in desperate need of some more. They don't have lettuce as a topping, but their chips! Oh my goodness, their chips are better here than the Chipotle chips back home. They're thinner and less limey. Oh, and their menu is so funny. All the meats have some weird explanation next to them - the chicken is "higher welfare," the steak and barbacoa is "farm assured," and the carnitas are "outdoor reared." Wow, I spent a significant portion of this post talking about Chipotle. I need to work out more.