Some Closing Thoughts

Having a pretty nostalgic night as we pack our things and get ready to kiss London goodbye tomorrow evening. I thought I would take this lovely opportunity to bore you all with some of my highlights, lowlights, and other observations I don't think I have discussed yet. 

So flying. I still hate flying. I still feel sick. I still get nervous. Medicine still only helps a little. Flights still get delayed for hours, and no matter how cool they make airplanes, altitude sickness still exists. So I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. (If anyone can explain how my 5 hr flight here is an 7 hr flight home I would appreciate that because it makes no sense to me). 

The moments I loved most in relation to taking children's lit and being an education major were:

Harry Potter - as I tiredly tried to explain in the Warner Bros post, I was able to see first hand children's literature and a marketable and lucradive marketplace, which sometimes gets forgotten. I also had my eyes opened the the intricate art that is children's literature from text, to page, to composition, to the big screen. 

The Story Museum - this place got me thinking about learning internationally and interculturally, and how countries separated by the Atlantic can be facing similar problems in literacy. This place was full of information and curiosity!

Some things about London that were funny to me that I still haven't posted:

There are no intersections. Okay there are. But there are a TON of rotaries. And the people love them! So it's funny that they are trying to get rid of the one singular one we have in Middleboro. 

Museums are free! I think that people in America might benefit and like the experience they can get from a museum if they didn't have to pinch their pockets to do so, free learning!

I've never actually seen anyone use a telephone booth. They're just for decoration now I suppose, and some have even been put in for wifi! The 21st century is a funny place. 

The options for take out are mostly boxed and bagged sandwiches, and if you don't like ham or tuna you're out of luck. The seemingly go to sand which take out was tuna and cucumber. How strange to me (plus tuna is gross!)

Now I am on the plane on the way home and looking forward to some (very short) time before the semester starts. I can't believe how real london made everything we studied in class and how fulfilling it was to travel internationally again. Here are some of the last pictures I took. 

You can see my group featured on this FSU Facebook page, and there has even been rumors of us making the FSU website!

https://www.facebook.com/FSUAcademicAffairs

Thank you so much to everyone who followed my blog! It was so motivating to post stuff about and for class and just be chatty with you all while I was over there. It meant so much to me that you all travelled with me through words, especially since I went on this trip with a group of English majors. I hope to get to fill each and every one of you in when I get home. I hope you enjoyed what I wrote as much as I enjoyed posting for you and hopefully, as my grade relies on, Dr. Holloway deemed appropriate for our Children's Literature course. Feel free to comment on my blog and tell her how great of a blogger I am, as it will encourage her grading on a jet lagged mind. LOL JUST KIDDING DR. HOLLOWAY (;

About 5 hours till Boston folks! That's all!

Museums and Matilda

We went to the Brittish Museum and the National Portrait Gallery yesterday. They were interesting for sure but it is definitely hard to stay engaged when you do back to back museums.

Seeing the Rosetta Stone was cool though! After that I came home and re packed all the things I had strewn about my room and found I even have extra room in my bags still! (I'm a great packer)!

Later that night we went to see Matilda the Musical and I have to say I was disappointed. We studied the book in Children's Lit so I was looking forward to reliving the story through music. However, the story got lost in an attempt to make it more theatrically pleasing. While I loved the grand set changes and musical numbers, it just wasn't Matilda enough for me to love it. I loved it as a theatre lover but not as a book lover. Here's the cool book covered stage:

Oxford and Jersey Boys

Today we visited Oxford University including The Story Museum, The Bodelian Library, with our one group lunch. I started off with some hot chocolate and a muffin (much better than the coffee):

The exhibits of the story museum were created by asking authors of children's books who their favorite character was when they were a child, and then dressing them up as it in a photograph. In every display of photograph, the room was decorated to look just like the setting of the book, a fun way to introduce kids to different genres and stories without them even knowing! It was a really creative way to introduce literacy which as a future teacher, I am always looking for! Here are some pictures from it (including me being crowned and going through the wardrobe to narnia):

Next we visited The Bear, our one group meal together. I had the fish and chips which disappointingly had bones in it and too much skin for my American taste buds, but was not bad. 

Last, we saw the second largest library in Great Britain, the Bodelian Library at Oxford. It has over 12 million items! Also it is where the hospital scenes in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone were filmed as well as the scenes in the library, as the books date back to some of the first dictionaries, copies of the Magna Carta (that's for you Collin 🙌 go Jay-Z) and even the last transmission of the Titanic before it sank which read something like "Please send assistance, the weather is well" but I can't remember exactly what the woman said now (Wayne Pittsley feel free to correct me, lol).

This is a famous reading room called the Radcliffe Camera:

I don't think I would be able to get any studying done there- it's too pretty and there's way too much to see. 

I ended off the night seeing jersey boys, and had to actually run from our apartments to the theatre to make it in time because our bus was late. After that, to our pleasant surprise, the theatre had upgraded our tickets because they didn't sell very many! I went from the second to last row of the section to just 10 rows from the stage. The show was incredible, and I had never seen it before! I thought they did a lovely job and would love to see it again sometime. It was so fun, we were dancing in our seats by the end! Oh what a night!

Also: today in London there was a major protest by the public bus drivers that was a big deal and caused a lot of traffic and public transit problems. Google it for more information, it is pretty interesting stuff (and exciting to see the process of protest in a foreign country first hand). 

The Best Day of My Life

"The stories we love best do live in us forever, so whether you come back by page or the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home." -JK Rowling 

There are no words to describe the experience I had today at The Making of Harry Potter. I watched a world that made me so happy when I was young animate before my eyes. Everything became real as I stepped foot into the actual Great Hall, where the actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint etc filmed the story of Harry Potter for 10 years of their (and my) lives. We were in the actual building at the studio that was filled with hundreds of original sets, thousands of original costumes, hundreds of thousands original props and all the detailed amazement of makeup, hair, special effects, visual effects, music and scoring covered. I saw so many places and things today that were actually used in the making of the movie. From wigs, to the Triwizard cup, the griffindor common room, dumbledore's office, hagrid's hut, all of diagon alley, the knight bus, Privet Drive, countless costumes, the burrow, umbridge's office, the bassalisk, buckbeak, grawp, the ministry of magic, the Weasley clock, the hand painted portraits, the harp that puts fluffy to sleep, aragog, the potions classroom, life size models of the actors and the replica of the hogwarts castle that is used to film all the shots you see in the movie of it. 

Having such a connection to the actors and the place where the magic was made brought me to tears after they showed us a short intro featuring the three main characters and dramatically revealed the doors to the Great Hall. This is a selfie I took as I was shedding tears over my excitement for what was about to happen. 

 I was engaged the entire time and excited to see what was coming next,but I had to rush at the end and didn't have enough time to take it all in. However it was by far my favorite thing I did on the trip so far. Let's be honest, I was a total fan girl. The costumes were particularly beautiful. Here are some: 

I used to imagine prom being like Hermione's experience when she wore this purple dress to the Yule ball- the whole school noticed how beautiful she was. Lol no such luck, high school is cruel, hogwarts is not. 

Even plain costumes like snape's were just displayed to perfection!

The fan girling didn't end there. Here are some shots of me being so happy to see the series I know and love come to life before my eyes. 

The great hall!

The fat lady!

The door to the Chamber of Secrets!

Hagrid's Hut!

The Knight Bus!

The amazing giant castle model that made my jaw drop and my eyes well up- the dream is a reality!

This is one of the events that most directly ties to my children's literature course. While I was exploring, I couldn't help but think of two things in particular that connected to The Making of Harry Potter tour and our course:

1) Harry Potter vs Children's Literature in the Marketplace

2) Harry Potter vs Children's Literature as Art

1) Harry Potter, like Children's Lit in general is an industry.

£31 just to get in. 

£6 for an audio guide. 

£20-100 for a video/pictures riding a broom. 

£25 for a wand. 

£70 for a sweater. 

I don't even know what a cloak costs! 

7 books

8 movies

Video Games

Glassware, plushes, key chains, magnets, you name it they've got it!

If they can smack the words Harry Potter on it and sell it to you, they can and will. So it seems, buying into reading and getting a child involved in a series with as much popularity as Harry Potter (when they're probably gonna want to read it anyway because their friends are) is an investment. Publishing companies, when partnered with powerful entertainment companies like Warner Brothers, have the power to amaze us with exhibits while understatedly slamming our wallets, for the sake of the kids. This tour was a strong reminder of the emphasis on publishing, while yes, JK Rowling struggled to get published at first, I wonder how much pressure the abundance of her success is having on Children's fantasy authors who are expected to create the next Harry Potter, which has completely evolved from a book to brand (one that I am happy to buy into but others might frown at). 

2) In connection to the power Harry Potter has in the market, a lot is due to the artistry that we might overlook for the story. Would we still love Harry Potter the same if the special effects were different? Or the Gryffindor common room looked different? Or someone made a change in a costume or makeup decision. Why do we open our wallets as soon as the opportunity arises to get prints with new covers? This tour gave me the answer: Art. Harry Potter encompasses written, engineering, technological, special effects, costuming, makeup and prop artistry that I could never even begin to comprehend. We first fall in love with the beauty of it all in JK Rowlings novels, and when it is brought to life by the thousands of hard working artists, it just becomes purely and amazingly a beautiful art form. This should not be overlooked simply because it is for children, which so often happens. Art is for everyone, and can move you as a child and through adulthood, as it did for me revisiting Harry Potter in general today. Here are just a few of the shots I got of the emphasis of artistry:

Written art

Makeup/Hair with crazy wigs art!

Molding and creation of characters through makeup art!

Engineering art!

Graphic design art! 

Graphic design art!

Actual canvas art concepts

Actual canvas art concepts 

Actual canvas art concepts

Engineering/creation of the castle through models art

Going on this tour let me apply the concepts we learned in class about the market for children's lit and children's lit as art in a real world setting, a lens that I can and will view through for the rest of my life. 

Dickens World, Leeds Castle and Updates

Today we went to Dicken's World and Leeds castle. Dicken's world reminded me a lot of the equivalent to Plymouth Plantation for Victorian England, plus some extra information about Charles Dicken's. It was a recreation of Camden with actors portraying life in Victorian England. We saw home life, school life, life in a debtors jail and even old magic tricks! Even though I was not in the class connected to the Dicken's portions of the trip, it was fun an interactive and more like a theme park (even though the Victorian actor man freaked me out). We ate at a cute American style diner (a lot like Dave's Diner in Middleboro) and I got this delicious coffee milkshake. 

Leeds castle was very different than any of the other castles we visited. The gardens and land surrounding the castle was more beautiful to me than the actual castle as it was filled with water and birds and plant life. There were peacocks and swans, and most famously, black swans! Who knew it wasn't just a movie about ballet? The castle did not disappoint though, and I felt like because it was smaller than Windsor and Buckingham when we toured the inside I was able to see so much more of it than the other castles. However the novelty wasn't as evident as only one king, Henry VIII was ever said to live there. I was able to throw a coin in the water and make a wish, reminding me of my visit to the trevi fountain. The tranquility gave me a lot of time to just sit and reflect on how I can't believe my trip is already half over, and how thankful I am to have taken this opportunity for myself. I have seen more people of nationalities I didn't even know existed, heard languages I couldn't decipher, learned English history that I didn't know I didn't know, and have developed independent travel skills that will help me forever (like being able to figure out the tube and the bus). I am so glad I didn't let anyone or anything talk me out of going on this trip. My only possible regret so far is not convincing someone close to me to come along, as I think having someone with the same interests as me would make it more fun at night. Not to mention just the comfort of traveling with someone you know is nice. However, I have been taking this opportunity to get to know the 17 strangers I embarked with, and am making friends with many of them. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves with its romantic feel, and you can imagine how I got lost in thought just bench sitting and watching the birds. 

Also! Today I bought my first souvenir. When I went to Italy, I bought myself a cameo necklace and a pendant from the Vatican. To continue my collection of international jewlery, I got a hand made chain maille bracelet to represent all the Historical places I have visited (which are often covered in traditional medieval armor) and it even incorporates my favorite color. I thought it was just beautiful and had to have it. 

Some personal updates: 

Our flat is like unnaturally warm at night. I think this is the reason I've been waking up in the middle of the night every night and have not been able to get back to sleep. However, today we are looking into turning down the thermostat and turning off some of the radiators, thank God. Took almost a week but it is time to escape hades and get some rest...because I am beat! All the walking, fresh air, early mornings and lack of sleep is catching up to me, and by the end of the day I struggle to stay awake. 

As for food, I am planning on trying my first official plate of English Fish & Chips tonight for dinner and can't wait. The bread over here is huge! The loaves just are so much bigger than the U.S and the slices come out super big! It's awesome! I do not like the yogurt I got at the grocery store though, it is very chunky and has like flavoring and goo at the bottom that you have to stur in, even though it was dannon brand. It was just strange and not my taste. I'm not really interested in trying much other traditional English food because meat pies just aren't my thing. 

I still am not used to driving on the opposite side of the road, and don't think I will ever get used to it. ITS SO WEIRD. 

There are tons of athletic people in London, runners are everywhere!

...also everyone is skinny which I think is because they give you such little food for the price you pay here, mostly everything seems overpriced. 

The coffee is gross! It's just always bitter and they never give you enough room to add enough milk (cream isn't even really a thing). But I drink it anyway due to exhaustion. 

There is a lot of Indian food in London which surprised me. It's like, everywhere. 

I bought a ticket to see Jersey Boys at Piccadilly theatre on Tuesday and I couldn't be more excited! 

Tomorrow is the big day where we visit Warner Bros Studios to see the Making of Harry Potter Tour and I'm sure that post will be extensive and annoying like this one, so I will go for now!

Windsor Castle, Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster

OToday was mostly sight seeing, so I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. But other than that, I booked tickets to see Jersey Boys (which I have been waiting years to see) next Tuesday and I went to see Covent Garden which reminded me a lot of fanuiel hall and there was a set of string street performers that I was obsessed with (I play violin for those who don't know) which I will also try to post a picture of. Sorry I'm less chatty, for some reason I've been more tired all day today than the rest of the trip combined.

Castle: 

Forgot to mention the coolest part- we were able to see an awesome changing of the guard with a band and everything. And the band played the show tunes from Annie while the change happened and it was such a beautiful moment for me!!!!

Big Ben:

Parliament:

Westminster:

Regretfully it won't let me post a video of the street performance. But take my word it was a cool, gypsy meets classical set of strings. 

Tower of London, Ragged School Museum, Shopping and More!

So...the Tower of London is basically a castle with many towers. Like not one tower. I HAD NO IDEA. We took a tour from the "beef eaters" or Yeoman Warders who were hilarious and educational - and showed me how little I actually know about English history. But it was so cool to explore the towers and walk ways with amazing architecture and views! Also, I have never seen anything in my life as beautiful and sparkly and fabulous as the Crown Jewels. It was funny because I couldn't believe that they actually used a savor and orb for coronation just like they do in frozen! But they had so much real life sparkle and pizazz and I was so impressed. 

After that we travelled to the Ragged School Museum. I had no idea it was still a functional school for about 90 kids a week! Thomas Barnardo originally founded the school for poor kids living in London's East Side, where he gave them amazing opportunities to learn to read, have a place to eat, and even obtain clothes they would otherwise not be able to afford. When the tour guide said that Barnardo had over 600 students enrolled at one time and classes of over 60 students each of all grade levels I was shocked- this is possibly more students than I will ever teach in my entire teaching career. It really puts things into perspective of the problems modern educators face vs those of educators years ago. Instead of struggling with common core and mcas, Barnardo struggled with having his kids even meet basic needs and having heat in the classroom, not to mention he must have been a master of differenciated instruction! The guide also mentioned that Barnardo was able to raise millions of dollars on his own to expand and fund his school, which would equate to multi-billions in today's economy. As we struggle with school funding, I wonder why we don't look back at great teachers like him and mirror his actions, because clearly it worked, but times are changing fast. It really was incredible to see the condition of the school, the antique desks, the old photographs and shocking stories of poverty in East London, which could all be used as a future tool in education of showing kids what school was like in the "olden days" in another country which really, we're not THAT long ago. 

Next we did some fun, less educational shopping previews on Oxford street and I have to say the Disney store was my favorite so far. So cute!! All in all, the tube is so easy to navigate and right there, and I'm adjusting pretty well to the time difference. I'm looking forward to more double decker bus touring tomorrow, and obviously, more shopping!