The World in Britain

The last 3 weeks of the semester were so incredibly busy and stressful I did not have time to write a blog! November 29th was our ring night/thanksgiving celebration - and it was wonderful to finally have our RMWC rings! It was a very emotional night - we were happy, estatic, stressed about finals, and sad. There were some tears as we all sang the RMWC alma mater as the last group of Randolph Macon Women to sing that song upon the arrival of rings!!! But, overall the night was amazing and very fun! We all looked gorgeous, and the food was delicious! Our rings were more beautiful than we remembered! After that night of fun, the grind began. I had 4 final essays, a presentation, a speech, and a final exam due the last week, not including regular course work for the 2 weeks preceeding the last week. IT WAS CRAZY!! I also still had to work 4 days a week, and my British friends wanted me to come along and celebrate the Christmas season with them since I was leaving in the next couple of weeks for Christmas vacation. I never thought I would make it out of that final week alive, but all 4 essays were turned in hours before the deadline, my exam was completed, and my presentation went smoothly. All in all I am confident I passed my classes. I do have a 6-8 page essay due the first week of Spring Semester for my cognition course, and I am worried becuase I have never written an essay for psychology that was not a research paper or a short essay. On Friday, I left Reading for my Christmas travels!! I arrived in Dublin, Ireland Saturday and have been here this whole week visiting a million amazing sights!!

 Dublin is the friendliest city I have ever been to - everyone is friendly, social, and kind. I love it here - the city is pretty, although does convey the tragic history Ireland is known for. There are some rough parts of town, but overall Dublin is enchanting and very beautiful! I went to St Patrick’s Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, City Hall, Trinity College, saw the book of Kells (AMAZING!!!), saw their former Parliament and House of Lords, Stephen’s Green, Oscar Wilde’s birth place and childhood room, the Guinness storehouse and factorys, Dublin Castle, The Dublinia Viking Museum and memoria, Temple Bar, the Xmas Market, Henrietta street and the Georgian district, the Brazen Head - the oldest pub still in use in Ireland est. in 1198 and written about in James Joyce’s Ulysses, and the place where Little John of Robin Hood once lived. Temple Bar is an awesome place for night life, but most people there are tourists as well - and so it is overpriced. The pubs and clubs are awesome though, and the Purty Kitchen Club is the nicest I have been to while abroad. Stephen’s Green is a gorgeous shopping district and O’Connell street is lovely when covered in XMAS decor!!!! Dublin is beautiful - and I am sad to leave tomorrow, but I know I have seen everything I need  to! I leave tomorrow morning for Belfast, Ireland. I will be there for 7 days as well!!! Hopefully Belfast will prove to be as amazing as Dublin!

This past weekend was quite an exciting time for all of us over here in Reading!  On Thursday, we of course celebrated Thanksgiving on Whiteknights Road.  We all woke up early here in 153 and started making an elaborate Thanksgiving feast.  I made cranberry sauce and my dad’s famous stuffing, Brooke was the potato queen and whipped up some great mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, Katt made her mom’s stuffing, Sam made rolls and mac and cheese, Reena made gravy and veggies and pumpkin cheesecake, Sara Vance brought green bean casserole (which our British friends think sounds awful) and Sarah Bramhall made a fabulous turkey and a traditional pecan pie.  All in all it was a great and delicious success.  I went into London after my stuffing went in the oven and headed to St. Pancras International to pick up our fellow Macon woman, Lucy who came in from France and brought her back to Reading to partake of the feast.

After such an exciting night, it was back to work for us on Friday morning and most of us went off to class.  But when we came back home that afternoon there were more exciting preparations.  Friday night was Ring Night! So 153 was a frenzy of hair spray and nailpolish as we all got ready for the big night.  I opened “Salon Robin” and there was a queue of  my housemates lined up for me to do their hair and makeup and overall, getting ready and sharing the excitement of the night with my friends was just as exciting as getting a ring.  We all piled into taxis and went to a very nice hotel in Reading where another wonderful dinner was awaiting us.  We had fun pulling Christmas crackers (the Christmas season started around the week before Halloween here) and socializing with some alums of the program who joined us that night.  After dinner the alums talked of their memories of their time here and finally they each handed out our rings.  It was really special to recieve my ring from an alum who had been here in Reading in the 70’s and who was still wearing her ring!  After we received our rings there was a frenzy of ring turning and then a dance with a really funny DJ.  We danced the night away with some hilarious hotel guests and music from the 70s and 80s and we all had a really great time, none of us wanted to leave!

To end the weekend, I went into London with our friend Lucy to show her the tourist sights.  Christmas decorations were up and it was chilly outside, so it was great holiday weather.  I was so proud of myself that I only had to take out my map of London once.  I knew where I was and how to get where I was going–I feel like such a worldly woman now!

Monday night we commenced the Christmas decorating.  I pleaded with my housemates wait until December to put up the lights and garland and to let Thanksgiving have its time in the spotlight.  So at 9:30 on the morning of December 1st, Brooke announced that it was officially time to get out the decorations from the last few years.  That afternoon, when I got back from class there were sugar cookies waiting for me and a house full of people eagerly awaiting my arrival so that they could tear open the boxes.  The decorations were up in record time and we now have a very festive downstairs.  We’re planning on heading out on Saturday morning in search of a Christmas tree to complete our common room.  I will post some Christmas pictures soon!

We only have 1 and a half weeks of term left and I’m wondering where the last 3 months have gone? The time has flown so far!  I’m glad to have classes on hold for a bit so that I can do some travelling to Prague and Spain, but I’m already getting a little nostalgic looking at how little time we really have left.  I’ve really enjoyed it here so far and I’m planning on having and even better semester come January!