Castles anyone?

This week was full historical enjoyment: some real, some mythological. But that just added to the fun! For our day trip we went to a national trust called Stourhead. It's basically like a reservoir, just without all the animals. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life. A person could come to this place and forget that there's anything outside of it. It was almost mystical. There were caves, a massive lake, and buildings that looked like the pantheon. It was incredible. And, there was something special about it in particular for this group of girls. One of the buildings that overlooks most of the area, is the set of a scene in the recent "Pride and Prejudice" film. Most of this trip so far has been focused on historic sites that have decades of importance. It was nice to visit an area that holds some meaning, though argueably trivial, to youth of our age.

After that we went to Winchester. We first toured Winchester Cathedral, which was amazing. Here also is the grave of Jane Austen: it was the day for all romantic girls. I love having the chance to do what this program is giving me the opportunity to do. This past week for class we finished a Jane Austen novel; then we visited a site where one of her novels takes place; then we visited a site where a film of one of her novels was shot; and then we visited her grave site and the memorial that is there. It has been such a fascinating couple of weeks as everything I learn is connected to each other. It comes alive in a way that only physical action and personal experience can do. I could never learn like this from a book or a classroom.

Also in Winchester we were able to go to Winchester Castle, where the round table of King Arthur is! Obviously not real, but yet something we all knew and were excited about. This table was HUGE! It had a picture of King Arthur on top, and all 14 knights' names around it. It was so amazing to see. King Arthur has always been folklore, but yet seeing the table, a real massive round table, made it seem a lot more real. And now I've been inspired to go study King Arthur. That's the next book on my list.




Although we were in Winchester Castle, it didn't really seem like a castle in the middle of town, with no tower. And let's face it: a castle has to have a tower in order to be considered a castle... that's why where we went next fulfilled a dream I never even knew I had: we visited a real castle. Porchester Castle to be exact. It was SWEET!!! It was massive! Most of it was gone and broken down, but a lot of it was still intact. There was this huge small spiral staircase that went all the way from the bottom to the very top of the tower so you could walk around on the roof. I say huge because it was so tall and there were a million and a half stairs, but I say small because they have to be the smallest steps I've ever seen in my life in this small area where one person barely fit. I really felt like I'd gone back in time. I would have loved to take a pen and notepad there, sit for hours and just write a story. Or a song or something. It was the perfect spot to just let your mind wander and enter an entirely new world.

Now, this is a little different than what I've been talking about but something I found kind of interesting. There are some people around our age a few of us met and they invited us over for dinner one day. So we went and had the opportunity to get to know them and talk about England and America and the differences and similarities between the two. And one thing we talked about kind of made me laugh. In America, and especially as a theatre major, we're always trying to do the British accent. Now, from years of practice I thought I'd acquired a pretty good one and often wondered if I talked in it if the local citiznes wouldn't know I was American. So we happened to ask our hosts about this and if Americans doing British accents is a good facade. Apparently, if an American tries to do a British accent in order to blend in, it immediately marks them as American! And this reason is this: we often talk of a British accent, as if there were only one. And there are not. I'd never thought ot that. Britain has different dialects just as America does. Each region speaks the same language, but each slightly different depending on where they grew up. So when an American tries to do a British accent, they don't realize they're mixing together a number of different dialects! I was fascinated by this. Now I'm terrified to even try an accent in front of anyone from here! I have some studying to do now. It's become a life goal to learn one British dialect and learn it well enough to fool a Britain. Think it can be done? I'm still going to try.