St. Catherine's College

I'm at St. Catherine's College and all checked in. The classes start tomorrow. It begins with breakfast at 07:45. BTW the food here is excellent. Who knew the Brits can cook? The first lecture at 09:15 is Wordsworth versus Byron. My money is on Wordsworth however, Lord Byron may surprise. Then there are a series of mandatory lectures called plenary lectures. Tomorrow's plenary subject is "What Stories Mean." I am looking forward to enlightenment on that topic.Perhaps it would help to write them if I understood what they meant, lol. The day ends with Milton, Marvell, and the poetry of crisis. I am still lugging "Paradise Lost" around. As an after thought there is a lecture on the evaluation process. that should get us all good and terrified.

Is There honey Still For Tea?

across the pond: Loose Ends: "Forty-eight hours to go before I leave the ranch and I finally finished the last of the 'required reading.' Three quarters of the packing is..."

Today I went to the small village of Grantchester. There's a tea room there where Rupert Brooke and Virginia Woolfe used to hang out. The Orchard Tea Room is surrounded by ancient elms with acres of green lawn dotted with outdoor dining tables. Just around the corner and a mile hike into the lush Albion forest is Lord Byron's pool. The locals tell me that's where he used to woo his women.

I purchased a Dymock poets anthology today with a run down of poets (circa WWI) who lived in Gloucestershire. It includes Robert Frost, can you believe that? Are the Brits with their deep pool of poets to pull from laying claim to our Robert Frost?

I also found a book of (never before?) printed sonnets of the Bard himself from 1609. Its slated as an alternative text derived from the Notebook Sonnets. It's well documented and footnoted. S.C. Campbell who compiled the text claims the Sonnets originally had a plot and were somehow taken out of order obscuring it. Perhaps I'll get some clarity on the topic during my "Elizabethan Love Poetry" lectures. I'm not exactly a Shakespeare fan, but I thought I would make a nice gift.

Pics from the second day's long walk

First England Pics

I just love the architecture here.

My Arrival

across the pond: Loose Ends: "Forty-eight hours to go before I leave the ranch and I finally finished the last of the 'required reading.' Three quarters of the packing is..."

July 2nd, 2010. I have consumed every English delicacy known to man. I went to "The Olde Spring" pub for a lunch of salmon cakes and spring salad, then a bakery for fresh pastries, then a fish and chip shop for dinner, and topped it all off with a pint of Adams Broadside English Ale, which hit me like a brick!

My accent has been called "Californian" and made fun of by the lady in the bakery who thought it funny that I should say A-pricot instead of apri-cot.
Most people however have been extremely friendly. I shared a cab with a gentleman returning from Qatar who insisted on paying for the taxi ride without my help. I met a poet who lives on a house boat floating on the River Cam and a working class fellow that says he doesn't care who's Prime Minister because there's only a five pound difference in his take home pay either way, Torry or Labor.

Loose Ends

Forty-eight hours to go before I leave the ranch and I finally finished the last of the "required reading." Three quarters of the packing is done, travel documents printed, and all that's left is to say good-by to my horses and husband (not necessarily in that order).

I've finally made it into the 21st century with this blog. I don't have a social network site and at times barely know how to use my cell phone. But, it's amazing what a little motivation can do. Well let's see what happens when a motivated middle-aged mother of three crosses the pond for a month solo at Cambridge University's Literature Programme. Don't you love the "e" on the end?