;)

;-)

October in review:

Time has really gone by fast! October felt somewhat cut short because of Reading week and all the trips we were taken out on… so here’s what happened (that we promised we’d blog about) in pictures… after all, a picture is worth a thousand words :P

Dover Trip: (Dover Castle and Secret War Tunnels)

Windsor, Eton, Stonehenge, Bath, Lacock, Oxford:

Roma, Venezia, Padova, Paddington:

Cheers!

~Laura

P.S. Mary: this is your cue to write something inspiring :P

The English are very charming

Well, they are. Everyone has been so nice to us (excluding crazy British drivers who seem intent on killing American pedestrians--but I think this has to do with my inablilty to look to the RIGHT when I cross the street). Everything here is very clean. I was sitting in the library and there were these guys walking around with spray bottles and wiping off the tables. (Of course, students are allowed to eat ANYWHERE in the library, so this phenomenon is easily explained.

Today we went out and toured a Norman Castle. It was pretty cool.

The castle is called Canterbury Castle, the town prison. Apparently, they once kept a Saracen prisoner there (as the security guards at Uni tell me). A few days ago we got lost and had to consult the security guards at Uni where they gave us an impromptu history lesson about Canterbury. We learned about the castle and about some place along the river where they used to drown "witches." If the woman drowned, she was innocent, she was guilty (in which case the punishment was death by drowning). One of the guards informed us that "my missus passed the test." They were both quite charming. He said that there was a nice river walk near the spot where they kept the same cage they drowned the witches in. We plan to do more exploring tomorrow.


We also had Afternoon Tea today at Tiny Tim's Tearoom. Expensive, but charming. The meal was VERY filling. I won't have to eat dinner. We had cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, ham sandwiches, scones (like, HUGE scones), some sort of currant biscuit, a chocolate thing, a lemon thing, and a cupcake. And tea, of course. I tried Tiny Tim's special blend. It was very tasty.

We also visited The Canterbury Tales Museum which has figures act out the stories from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It was very charming.

So far, I haven't been homesick. Dorm life takes a little getting used to. There are a few things I find annoying (such as the people who get drunk, get their keys stolen, and pound on the door at 2 AM *cough, cough*). Other than that, I'm quite enjoying myself but just wait until I have to turn in an assignment :).

Cheers!
--Mary

We're off!!

Thunderbee ahead by a nose, closely followed by Butterbean, Scallywag and Pinstripe ...this'll be a close race folks...

Look! Here comes Roundabout from the outside... he passes Thunderbee... he shoots, he scores... (oops, wrong sport...)

I couldn't resist :)

See you on the other side of the Pond!

Cheers!

~Laura

Waiting....

... you see, this is what happens when a set of England-bound twins get bored :P

Last night, Mary dreamt that she forgot to pack something...

No, we're not excited :P

~Laura

Happy Independence Day!!

...and we're busy enjoying the holiday...whilst (still) waiting for those letters from Canterbury!!!

[an aside: You'd never know how much the British use the word "whilst" until you start reading travel planning websites :) ]


~Laura

E.D.E.N. Southworth and Literature Festivals!!

Hello!

We've been really busy this past week, and so this blog has sort of fallen off the face of the earth :P

Well...first of all... yesterday we attended a literature festival with tons of old booksellers and speakers and authors!!! It was tons of fun browsing through all those old books--especially the ones that were marked over $600!!

Whilst browsing near the end of the day, imagine my joy to find a 1908 edition of E.D.E.N. Southworth's The Lost Lady of Lone!!

I was so excited that I read the entire book within a couple of hours.

However!! Imagine my surprise, horror and frustration when I discovered that The Lost Lady of Lone is merely the first book in a two-part story.

And so, after scouring the internet for a long time this morning--including being distressed at not being able to even find a copy on Ebay--I found an online version at Project Gutenburg for free (and there isn't a copyright--probably because no one has bothered to renew it!)

I am having it printed and professionally bound (I don't know about you, but it is very difficult to curl up in a cosy chair with your computer screen--and no book binding smell!!)

So... the long and short of it is: I very much enjoyed the festival, E.D.E.N. Southworth's The Lost Lady of Lone and am looking forward to the sequel when it arrives in hard copy. Need summer reading: I highly recommend Southworth!!

Cheers!

~Laura

Royal Wedding Bells?

Well, after hearing this little bit of gossip in class (which apparently everyone on the planet knows but me) I decided to blog about it. Could it be that a royal wedding is on the horizon for the royals in Windsor? Oh how exciting! since the wedding (which has yet to be announced) is rumored to take place in November (perhaps yours truly will be on the guest list?...I know I'll be in town, with, like, nothing to do) You can read all about it here and here.

For those of you who are just to lazy to click on the link, I'll summarize...
Basically, Prince William has been dating this girl named Kate Middleton for quite a while (seven years, I think). As very good sources tell us (and we all know that gossips always know everything), two dates have been blocked out by the Palace diary (meaning, they are reserving June 3 and 4 for some innocuous purpose). Of course, the only conclusion to be drawn, is that the Prince is going to pop the question. So, a June engagement and a winter wedding...just like a fairy tale! Although, if you ask me, seven years of dating is quite a while to wait. Not exactly the fairytale story of love at first sight/ riding off into the sunset. It seems like a slightly political move, but a wedding's a wedding (and we'll soon see who's right in a month or so). Cheers!

--Mary

Barnga!

In this simulation, the class was divided into groups of four people seated around a table. Each group was then given a set of instructions on how to play a card game. We were allowed to practice the game before starting the simulation. Once the simulation started, our instructions were taken away and we were not allowed to speak to each other. The only way we could communicate with each other was through gestures, simulating a communication barrier. If there was a tie in the game, it was decided that the person whose name came first alphabetically would always win the trick.

The first round was fairly easy. We were able to communicate with each other using minimal gestures. Since we were all familiar with our set of rules, we had almost no disputes about who won the round. At the end the round, both the player who won and the play who lost moved on to other tables.

The second round brought conflict with it. Two of our original players were replaced by two new players. At the start of the game, I signaled to them that at our table, diamonds were trump, but both of them looked as if they could not understand what I was trying to tell them. Once we began playing, it was immediately clear that these new players learned a slightly different set of rules than I did. In the second trick, we had an argument over the winning card. One player tried to tell us that Aces were low and sevens were high. The rest of us sided against him and chose the winner. He was obviously displeased with our decision because he kept waving his hands around, trying to explain his viewpoint. We decided the I won the trick, but after I placed it with my other winnings, I realized that someone else had played a trump card and that I actually did not win the trick in the first place. So, I quickly awarded the trick to someone else while trying to explain about the trump card. This caused even more confusion which we were not able to settle.

In the third round, I moved to another table where the rules were similar to my own table, or at any rate, I found this round to be easier to play. I was amazed that we were able to play smoothly, with little or no conflict between us. The only conflict we had was near the end when we had to decide who won. We held up our fingers to show how many tricks we had won. Even though I knew I had won more tricks than another player, I elected to move to another table because I did not want to willfully break the rules of the other table.

By the fourth round, I became adjusted to the other players’ way of playing the game. If they broke one of my rules, I ignored it. Overall, none of us broke many of the other’s rules. We observed each other and were able to figure out a lot of each other’s rules without offending the other players.

In the different rounds of the game, we were meant to experience the four stages of culture shock: Cultural Euphoria, Cultural Confrontation, Cultural Adjustment, and Cultural Adaptation. In the first round of the game, we were all new to the game and were comfortable with the other people we played with. By the second round, our excitement with the game was gone and variations of the game brought confusion and frustration. When another player insisted on doing something in a different way, we confronted him. The disputes in this round were not settled as easily as in other rounds, perhaps due to the frustration we were all feeling from the inability to communicate with each other. In the third round, things went a lot smoother as we all tried to adjust ourselves to the way other people around us were playing the game. When I was voted out to join another table, I accepted their decision, even though I did not agree with it. By this time, I was adapting to the culture and was trying to assimilate my playing habits with those around me. In the fourth round, I was confident enough to not worry about the little mistakes that my fellow players were making.


Oh, and the name Barnga doesn't really mean anything. The guy who invented the game just named it after some small South African town that he lived in. (the pictures in this post, as well as other pictures on this blog, have no deeper meaning...we just like goofing around with various types of media :P )

--Mary

So, the assignment was...

...to do a little research on the country we will be going to, and find some interesting fact to give to the rest of the class. Supposedly, we have to come up with something every week. Well, I found that the British are very British in absolutely everything. Not so surprising. My interesting fact of the week is:
Tug of War is a national sport in England...yes, you read that right. They have a rule book the size of a dictionary which dictates the size of the rope, the number of players, even down to the type of ground they are allowed to stand on. Apparently the champions are being held this summer. Which team will you be betting on?

--Mary

A Funny, Commuter Student Story

So, if you're not a commuter student, you won't get it. When one has to drive over two hours everyday to get to school, it can get pretty boring...if one did not have one's sister and a car full of CD's to listen to.
So, this morning, as usual, we left the house a mite on the late side and were driving along nicely.

(Let me make an aside form my story to categorize a certain type of person)

There are some people on this world who will not drive at a safe distance behind one's car, no matter how annoying slow, or faster, or weird one tries to drive. These people usually drive red cars and seldom stay in the same lane for more than five minutes. They swerve back and forth as if there was a monetary advantage to staying in one lane versus the other (they often remind me of stock brokers and business men hunting for the best deal they can get). Oh, and yes, they frequently attempt to pass in dangerous places. Did I mention that these people are commonly found to be teenage boys?

Anyway, we were about five miles from home when this red car (not surprising) began to cling to the tail of our car like a barnacle. Eventually, they found a place to pass us (there is a very good place, out in the middle of nowhere) and we thought that was that. Well, we get to the first stoplight in our commute and guess what...the speeders are stuck there with us. We laugh and joke about how going seventy in a fifty-five mph zone doesn't gain anything except a speeding ticket.
Once the road widened into two lanes, we expected to lose them. But low and behold, somehow or other, they managed to keep up with us almost all the way to our destination. And, to make matters more interesting, they recognized us. (we could tell because they kept peering out of their window at us as they would pass us, or we would pass them).
In all my time as a commuter, I have never experienced something quite like this. It is really quite rare to follow someone for twenty+ miles.

--Mary

Bafa Bafa

Here's something of a response to participating in Bafa Bafa. For those of you who don't know, Bafa Bafa is a culture simulation (I think it's to make you feel weird)... anyway, here it is:

In the Bafa Bafa culture simulation, I was a part of the Betan culture. We were a trading culture—exchanging cards to gain as many sets as possible of the same color in order to win a prize. The Betan culture was very individualized—each person did not care what happened to the others as long as he or she could continue trading cards to make sets. There were only a few rules to the Betan culture besides the rules of trading—no English was to be used, only the Betan language, and no American gestures, only Betan gestures. Because of this, the Betan culture was rather simple to understand once it was explained.

The Alphan culture was very different. As a Betan, I was used to milling about through a crowd of people trading cards. The Alphans, however, were used to forming large circles. They did not trade cards—though they did play a game. They were a culture that was based on social interaction, as I found out later. They did not have a purpose in playing the game, because it seemed that random people always won some blue coins. However, I was led to believe that the blue coins were a bad thing because when their leader asked if someone wanted some more coins, and I said yes, several people dumped all of their coins into my hand (as if they were happy to be rid of them!)

My first impression and interpretation of the Alphan culture was that the Alphans were a very snobbish and rude group. They did not easily invite other people to join them, though once you were invited into their circle the Alphans were really friendly and nice. When I first arrived at the Alphan culture, and tried to join one of their circles, I was rudely thrust out of their midst and shown a card that said stippler on it. Apparently, that was their way of snubbing someone. My previous experience with the Betan culture (where the inhabitants would immediately approach visitors to trade with them) helped me to form the impression that the Alphans were not very friendly because of their methods of snubbing people. One guy from my group even got banished from Alphan land because he accidentally broke one of their rules.

When the group gathered again to explain the two different cultures, it was interesting to hear that both groups saw each other as selfish and rude. The Alphans were seen as rude because of their methods of snubbing and banishment. The Betans were seen as greedy because we seemed to attack the Alphan visitors in our eagerness to trade with them. Another interesting that the class noticed was that the visitors from the opposite culture were shy, confused, and rude.

~Laura

P.S. Yes, I know the picture doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with Bafa Bafa--I just thought it looked cool...

Comments, Anyone?

Hello?

Are you out there? Are you perhaps reading this blog (which happens to be in the loneliest corner of cyberspace...)

If so, please comment ;)

If you don't like to comment on simple nothingness, you could always remark about the weather.

~Laura

P.S. Wouldn't it be ironic if this was the only post that didn't get any comments...

Of Friends and Strangers (and Accents)

As Miss Marple was apt to say, "People will remind you of other people."

I find it hard not to agree with her...

Strangers will remind you of your friends--and your friends will remind you of strangers... and everyone will usually do exactly what you expected them to...

This is not to say that everyone is unique and individual.

If you find yourself saying that Jerry reminded you of Tom, or Agnes reminded you of Lucy--remember that God doesn't use a cookie-cutter :) And so, you might find (somewhere out there) a predictable person, doing something completely unexpected...

"Hobbits really are amazing creatures. You can learn all that there is to
know about them in a month, and yet after a hundred years, they can still
surprise you." — Gandalf (J.R.R. Tolkien)

I think humans must be like hobbits...

~Laura

P.S. Mary and I have been watching a bunch of BBC recently, which brings up another topic: can you tell the difference between an American actor with an American accent and a British actor with an American accent?

Does it ever bug you that the British actor with the American accent sounds false, too perfect, or smooth?

Why can't they just use an American actor - who has already perfected his/her American accent!

I met a young man from Britain once, who said Americans sound worse when imitating a British accent than the English do when imitating an American accent...

I'm not sure I agree with that one...

But what do you think?

So, In Case You Were Wondering...

The title of this blog may seem a little odd to some people. So, here is my explanation.

- The number one reason that this blog has the title it has, it because Laura refused to let me change it to anything else. I tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade her to adopt a catchy phrase or an often quoted line from one of our favorite novels. But, she could not be persuaded, so the name stuck. I don't know, maybe you think that Canterbury Revisited would be a better title? (A take on the title Brideshead Revisited, a new favorite of ours that we read last summer. The only problem with this one is that we are simply visiting Canterbury, not revisiting.)

- This blog actually has a purpose. It is supposed to be a travel blog, but I think we are both getting a little carried away.

- We call it Canterbury Postcard because it is like sending everyone at home a little postcard about all the wonderful things we are doing across the pond. It really should be called Postcard from Canterbury, but as my readers can see, I lost that battle too.

- Why a Postcard? Why not a letter, or a post-it note? Postcards are small, short and sweet. They do not have the space for long epistles about nothingness. They should be to the point. We simply do not have the time to waste writing a book for a few dozen people to read at their leisure.

So, in case you were wondering, that's why.

--Mary

Music and Mayhem

So yes, I've finally posted something. Although, I have a feeling that I will never "out-post" Laura. Anyway, in honor of the Music and Mayhem Irish night that we attended a few days ago, I found this picture to post. Our harp teacher shared it with us a few months ago, and it's probably the best music joke I've ever seen. If you are not a musician, you can at least appreciate the complexities of music. If you are a musician, you will see why I laughed so hard after scrutinizing it for about twenty minutes.

--Mary

Mostly Irish Night

This whole weekend was packed with activities!

Last night, Mary and I attended a St. Patrick's Day festival! There was tons of music, jokes, dancing and general mirth and merriment. The show featured a couple of my friends, Anne and Mary Hatfield-- two very awesome Irish fiddlers and dancers. Anne is currently touring with Lord of the Dance, and we're all really proud of her!


After eating corned beef and cabbage for the third time this week, I'm feeling very Irish!

On Friday night, I went to go see some of my other friends perform in a Lenten passion play: The Seven Last Words of Christ--which features talented soloists and musicians performing "The Seven Last Words of Christ" by Theodore Dubois, in addition to the live passion play.

It is truly a moving experience!

Have a great Sunday!

~Laura

P.S. And yes, Mary will be posting something soon... if she can think of something to write about!

Pretzels!

It's probably Jenn's fault that we decided to make pretzels, but they look really good, don't they?

They're actually pretzel twists, but that doesn't detract from the flavor... try 'em warm, straight from the oven - Scrumptious!

~Laura

P.S. Now that I just made your mouths water, I'd like to point out that pretzels are actually a traditional Lenten food! The traditional pretzel twist (not our lame pretzel-stick cop-out) is in the shape of someone crossing their arms to pray - like you might see in a painting of the Annunciation. But I'm sure you all knew that....

Stop beating around the bush...

Photo taken by Laura (Epcot, Disney)

I suppose you're all wondering (if there are any of you reading this at all....) how we decided to go to Canterbury--and all the juicy details!

Well... it's actually rather boring...

Mary and I decided that we were going to study abroad (somehow!) when we first heard about the program during freshmen year. In January, we applied, were accepted (like a bunch of other people) and there... we're off!

Orientation doesn't start until next term, so I don't have anymore interesting tidbits for you... sad but true...

~Laura

BTW... you'll probably see more posts from me than Mary because I think I've found a new corner of cyberspace that I rather like, namely, blogging!! Blogging is almost more fun than facebook... though, of course, now I can say that because of Lent...