Connor
Undergraduate
English Education |
Connor
Undergraduate
English Education |
Hello! I have been absent the past few weeks not because I wanted to be, but because I had no other way to update on my blog and situation. For starters: I went around Europe for ten days! The International School I'm placed at has a longer spring break, so we had a short week from April 3rd to the 5th, and then break from the 6th to the 17th, when everyone had to be back in school. Kate and I were mainly working with getting the students in a good place for their oral exams, which will be recorded and graded this week, and then leaving them with that. I left Siena on the 6th and stayed overnight in Florence, and on Good Friday I flew into Paris. It was more than a bit terrifying a few times, and I was so so worried I would lose my luggage and get lost in a country with a language I don't speak at all, And, to be honest, I had a stereotype from pervious experiences with French people that they were very rude and unaccommodating, but many people I met were actually friendly and willing to help out with ordering food or getting around. I stayed for a few night and I have to say, I saw so much. My first stop in Paris was to go to Versailles, where I saw the palace. I can speak from firsthand experience: it's bigger than you would think it is. I saw entire rooms that could fit my house, and then some, and they were just bedrooms! The garden also went on forever, and I was exhausted by the end of it. But going back into Paris, I also saw the Eiffel Tower and of course the very famous Notre Dame cathedral. The church was still closed, but they had spots you could sit around and gaze at it. I did a lot of walking around that next day and got to see a bit of Montmartre and the Moulin Rouge windmill. There are many other pictures of Versailles and in catacombs, but I do not have that much space and this is already running long, so I will move on to London. I arrived on Easter Sunday and almost was run over by a car, as I forgot that the streets were different and backwards here for a moment. Since it was Easter Sunday and everything was closing early (or things that weren't, I didn't want to make the people working on Easter have to work harder), I skipped out of London and took a very long bus ride to Oxford, which was a very nice little town. I mainly went there for a gravesite of a very certain author I'm a fan of, but walking around the cemetery and looking at the sites and the tended graves felt very surreal and personal. It was a nice place to relax after going non-stop for three days beforehand. My day was pretty much done after that and getting back, but I did have a restful night and got up early to go walking around on Easter Monday. It was really raining so I took that as the time to walk and go for inside activities and touring. The Sherlock Holmes museum was packed, it had four different floors all set up for how it would look in the 19th century, such as Sherlock Holmes' bedroom, or his study. Finally I was able to see Les Misérables on West End, which is really the apex of musical theater for many; I feel it's a pilgrimage you have to make. And seeing as it is one of my favorite musicals of all time, it was very worth it. The whole production was amazing, and as someone who has only seeing the 2012 movie, it was completely different from what I expected. I was also able to actually meet some of the cast and get signatures! The staging was incredible and there was a lot of work with projectors, which I've noticed is becoming more of a thing in theater and it worked really well. (Although I did get asked for identification because I looked too young to be at Les Misérables, which I'm sure would be more flattering when I'm older, but I was all dressed up and I promise I am 22!) The final leg of the trip was Ireland. I spent a night in Dublin and got absolutely drenched from the rain, so I did not get to walk around much, but I did have my first experience with pod living in a hostel (pod living being you have a cubby you crawl into and are in a box for your bed). The next day was cold but only windy so I went on a wonderful walking tour by a man called Lorcan Collins who educated the group on the Easter Uprising of 1916 and the civil war that came afterwards, as well as some history of Ireland-Dublin trying to liberate itself. The most intense sight had to be the bank/post office where the original uprising was centered in and around, and you could still see the bullet holes from where shots were fired on both sides. It was a nice city and I do wish I had more time there, but Cork was absolutely stunning. I saw Blarney Castle on my second day there and was so worried I'd be rained out, and I was just in awe the whole time. I think it's hard to say I've seen that much green in one place, and like Versailles it just kept going on. I'll just say that it was a very needed time away, and it was terrifying to be going around Europe as a single traveler. And I felt more than a little out of place and I knew that no matter how well I tried to disguise that I wasn't a tourist, it very well came while I opened my mouth. Not all of the trip was positive: There were scammers all over in France who pestered me for money, and I almost lost my phone and ticket back to Siena on Saturday; my phone also died. But it was an experience I don't think I will totally forget and I'm looking forward to my chance to go back.
1 Comment
Keli Garas York
4/19/2023 01:54:29 pm
It's great that you had so much time to travel. It sounds like you had a lot of wonderful experiences. Best wishes on the rest of your student teaching placement.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHello! My name is Connor and I am thrilled to be on this journey of teaching. I'm from Buffalo, born and raised, and am starting this experience as an English Education major. Looking forward to meeting my students and seeing all that Siena has to offer for the next few months! Archives
May 2023
Categories |