Guess What's Up My Kilt

This past weekend there was a class trip to Edinburgh, Scotland for two days and two nights. I wish we had more time there, considering it took an uncomfortable, overnight, and 8 hour bus ride for us to get up to the city. But I spent my time there as best as I could. The bus left at 12:30 Friday morning. One of our classmates, now I won’t mention names (ok… Michael Beni), decided to have a power-hour before getting on the bus. That’s when you drink a shot of beer every minute for one whole hour. It sounds easy, but that is the equivalent of about 5 tall beers in an hour. He vomited on the bus 15 minutes into the drive. We actually pulled over outside of Stratford to clean up his mess.

After getting virtually no sleep, we had to occupy ourselves from 9:30 to 2:00 pm before we could check into our hotel room. So we put our belongings in storage and headed out into Edinburgh for some breakfast. Let me not fail to mention, it was pouring rain that morning. After breakfast, Carrie and I went off with random classmates to see the main part of the city and catch a glimpse of Edinburgh Castle. The castle looked alright. It sat high up on the hill of the volcano the whole city was built on top of. It was fun window shopping on the way. You know you are in Scotland when every other building has ‘Kilt Sale’ signs in their windows. I really wanted one, but I couldn’t find my clan colors. I even stepped inside a store that produced Kilts in front of the customers. It was fun learning about what all the machines did and how Kilts were woven in the past.

When 2:00 came around, almost the whole class found its way back to the hotel for a nap. With saggy eyelids and beat red eyes, I laid my head on the starchy hotel pillow and woke up 3 hours later in the same position I fell asleep in. It was Matt Krayton’s birthday, so his girlfriend Ashley organized a group whiskey tour (Matt’s drink of choice). The tour was a lot of fun. It didn’t compare to the Guinness tour, but I did learn the 5 steps of how one would properly appreciate a shot of whiskey. Afterward, I went out to dinner with Carrie and the girls she went on travel break with. I worked up the courage to try an authentic plate of Haggis at a local pub. It came in the shape of a tower with three layers of yellow turnips, white mashed potatoes, and brown haggis, which sat in a pool of brown gravy. It was delicious. Tasted like a light and spicy hunk of meatloaf.

The next day I went on two tours. The first was a tour of the Britannia—once the Queen’s royal yacht. The ship was, as you can guess, very elegant and prudish, but my fascination with sailing and ships kept me very interested in the ship’s history. In its lifetime, the Britannia traveled so many miles, that if you were to average out the distance it traveled annually, the boat could have circumnavigated the world twice a year. Most of the ship was open for exploration. One of the kitchens, in fact, is still being used to make fudge to sell aboard to tourists.

That night, a large group of us went on a walking ghost tour of the city. The underground vaults of the city are considered the most haunted place in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. So my hopes of experiencing some paranormal activity were pretty high. The tour guide walked us about the city explaining the gruesome history behind Edinburgh. Apparently, the concept of high heeled shoes was thought up here because women wanted to be able to walk around the streets without covering the feet in human waste which was previously discarded from the tenement windows the night before. This was before plumbing came along of course.

When we got to the vaults, I was pretty excited. There was an actual active Wiccan Temple in one of the vaults. The inhabitants chose this location for worship because it had extraordinarily high levels of spiritual energies. I could see the black and white pillars of positive and negative energy and the pentagram of the five elements in the center of the room. Then we moved to a vault that the Wiccas previously occupied. They abandoned the vault because they disturbed a large force of negative energy. But before they left, the Wiccas cast a circle of containment to imprison the negative energy. A circle of stones was set in the center of the room. The tour guide advised strongly against anyone walking through it. Determined to feel something, to encounter the otherworld, I entered. Being the first to step beyond the seal I heard gasps of worry and fear from a few of the people around the circle. I stood my ground and presented myself to the other world and, to my disappointment, felt nothing. I often wonder why I am so disappointed when experiences such as these are unfulfilling. Perhaps that is because I am a skeptic and void of any definable spirituality. But my disappointment also shows my hope of there being something more. Therefore, this is why I fittingly claim to be an agnostic. Perhaps the next time I reach beyond my earthly bounds, something else will reach for me in return.

The bus ride back gave me a glimpse of the marvelous scenery Scotland had to offer. I wish I had more time to explore the Highlands and maybe see Loch Ness. But at least I have reason to return. We did drive along the coast facing the North Sea. It was pretty impressive. That was the last of the weekend trips the Wroxton Program has to offer. So besides a few day tours and trips to London, my exploration of the UK has come to an end. Now I need to concentrate on papers and finals before heading off to Spain.

How I Conquered Wales in a Day

On April 12^th, the college offered a day trip to Cardiff Wales, the capital of the very country my namesake originates from. Well technically, the Battersby name came about in England but my ancestors had to flee because of severe religious persecution. Any Battersby who survived the stakes either fled to Scotland or Wales, or was shipped off to Australia, where the English sent most of their exiles. I took advantage of the trip of course and spent most of my time at Cardiff Castle.

This remarkable piece of architecture has more than one thousand years of history behind it—previously being occupied by the Normans, who built a keep over the foundations of a Roman fortress, and then the Welsh and English, who erected a great walled castle of the medieval variety. A group of my classmates and I went on a tour of the renovated castle that was previously the home of the Bute family, the lords and rulers of not only Cardiff, but most of Wales. I really enjoyed looking at the interior of this amazing home. Lord Bute and his best friend William Burges spent a decade or more renovating and adding to this wondrous piece of history.

My favorite room was the Men’s Smoking Room in the Clock Tower. You see Lord Bute themed every room in the castle. The clock tower fittingly implemented the theme of time. The ceiling was a mural to the signs of the Zodiac, while the stained-glass windows represented the days of the week, the four corners had intricate carvings of cloaked figures holding the sun or the moon at the four different points of the day, and the four seasons were embroidering the room at the junction where the ceiling meets the walls. There is plenty more I can describe to you but the room, as well as every room in the castle, was crafted with such fine and intricate detail that it could take a week to appreciate everything in it let alone describe it to you.

Afterward I picked up many souvenirs and ascended the Norman keep where my Welsh Flag waved majestically through the crisp Welsh air. That’s where I got the picture!

The rest of the week was spent preparing for my last class of my Social Policy course and my final exam in my Modern Britain course. With these two classes out of the way, I will be able to concentrate on my final papers and study for the other finals I will have in the next four weeks. I feel like I did alright on it the Britain exam. The exam was a fierce test of my knowledge, observations, and experiences. I also had to pace myself appropriately. I know people who didn’t have time to answer 5 of the 12 questions… I finished the bulk of the test; I just didn’t do to well on the current events section. But I feel confident and pleased to have gotten that exam out of the way. There was one other highlight of the past week. Tuesday night at the North Arms, Nicky’s father Steve, hosted at track night where we walked into a mach-racetrack for dog racing. I learned a lot about the strategy behind betting and the game of dog racing. I didn’t do too badly for a first attempt, but I didn’t win anything either. If I was at the real tracks I would have walked away with six pounds. Unfortunately this was a type of tournament where only the three best gamblers took home any money. The night was very exciting and a great break away from studying.

Keep a watchful eye. I went to Edinburgh, Scotland this weekend. I should be putting a post up about it soon.

News from the Abbey

This will be a lighter post than normal: a quick recap of this week, some good news and bad news, and a little more attention to what an average day at the Wroxton Abbey is like.

Last week marked our return to class after travel break, all of our professors marked our first set of essays and I am very happy with my grades to say the least—yet at the same time surprised with every grade. Professor Parsons and Dr. Mason are my co-tutors in my Shakespeare class and Modern Novels on the Screen class. They scared the crap out of everyone saying that they were disappointed in a lot of the work saying how “it didn’t accurately reflect the effort we have been showing all semester.” However I got my two papers back. I received an A on the Shakespeare paper and an A+ on the Modern Novels one (I really felt the Modern Novels paper was my weakest but what do I know). In CORE with Professor Hone (Creative Writer and World Traveler… sounds like me) gave me an A- on my Modern China paper. My last paper, which again I was surprised with my result, was on the National Health Service. I wrote it for Dr. Morris’ Social Policy of Britain class. It got a B, but again I felt that that was a stronger paper than my Modern China Paper. Again, overall I am very pleased with my marks. They were a nice confidence booster; now all I have to do is finish strong.

My next bit of news is more exciting for me than a bunch of grades. I received the Beverly Saul award for excellent performance and achievement in Creative Writing. If I were home, I would have received it during my induction into the English Honors Society, Sigma Tau Delta. What makes this award extra remarkable is that it is only given to one student a year and I am pretty young to have received it. I am very, very proud of this award and I will not take it for granted. Thank you everyone, who encourages and appreciates my writing (a special thanks to Mr. Summers).

But now, onto the bad news. There must be an intricate check and balance system for success in the universe and I must have hit the cap of good news for this month. I was not accepted as an RA for the Fall term. I felt like I was highly qualified and capable, I let myself believe I was a shoe in, but I was wrong. Now I have to consider finding another job close to campus and I need to think about commuting in the spring and even all of Senior Year. I will apply again for the Spring; I can only hope things will be different. In light of my failures I do wish to congratulate Carrie who was selected and Chase (another student currently at Wroxton). You both will do great.

Life at the Abbey is really comfortable. Many of us play football (American Soccer) on nice days. We use benches as goals… We generally get enough people to play no less than 6 on 6. A lot of the players are really good. Even if they are just athletic, they are smart and fun to play with. It actually snowed for the first time yesterday—stuck to the ground too. We have a duck nested in the front of the Abbey ready to hatch a family. Her man and a gang of about 5 drakes patrol the path leading to the Carriage House, quacking at anybody who dilly-dallies too long near the nest. It is warming up here, and everyone is getting more active. Things have just been more lively and fun since we have returned from travel break.

Also this past Saturday, the class went to London to attend the performance Blood Brothers. It wasn’t a musical, more like a play with music. It was a brilliant work of art, I highly recommend seeing it, and I’m not saying much more about it because I wouldn’t want to spoil such an epic play. Carrie and I also went to the London Dungeon on our free time. It was more informative than scary, but it was a fun experience nonetheless.