I’m so excited! My first time in Europe! I’m attending a Wordsworth Seminar for the next two weeks, and I’ll be staying in Grasmere, which is in the Southern Lake District of England.
I don’t know if I’ll have internet connections, so I may not be able to post, but I’ll miss you crazy kids and take care!
Please send as many good wishes as possible in the general direction of the Atlantic. I have to catch a mess of trains, busses, and subways in order to get where I’m going, which is going to be scary, but how bad can it be if I’m in England?
Bon Voyage, and don’t worry about the various mass transit mazes–there are lots of maps and diagrams posted places, plus if you tell the ticket people exactly what you need, it won’t be a problem.
I live about 30 miles from where you’re going to be. If you feel that you might be able to tolerate me for more than half an hour, drop me an email (if you have net access), and we could meet up for a very small LakeDope.
We know the real story - that you wanted Weirddave for yourself, and this is just an excuse to be out of the country to nurse your heartbreak as he and Ginger get married.
Oh, man. Sarah, darling, I don’t know if you’re anything like myself (I think you are, people who love the Little Prince tend to be alike…) but I’m not sure I could be intellectual around men spouting Wordsworth with British accents…good, fun, trouble.
Them: Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…
Swiddles: humminah-humminah, mwargle.
Have a good trip, Sara, but take care of yourself. Remember to tell them foreigners you don’t speak British so they should talk American. Stay away from the Metric System; lots of kids think they can just “experiment” but find themselves getting hooked. Watch out for that Royal Family; they’ve got a long memory and they’re still PO’ed about that revolution thing. Don’t go changing your name to Crumpet4Sara just to try to fit in. Keep an eye out for Welsh people; they’ve been too quiet lately so they’re probably up to something. Remember their money over there is pounds; make sure to always count your ounces when you get change. And stay away from the Spotted Dick. Actually that last one’s good advice even when you get back home.
I just got back two hours ago, and I had an absolute blast from start to finish! Finding Grasmere wasn’t too difficult, but actually getting there was terribly tedious - I had to leave yesterday and sleep in Heathrow overnight to catch my plane. I somehow managed to get there and back without getting on the wrong trains, even though I did quite a bit of transfering.
Grasmere is the most beautiful place on this earth; everyone has to go there! My days were completely jam-packed: morning hikes, morning lectures, afternoon excusions and hikes and local walks, evening lectures, conference papers, and nights in the (only) local pub, Tweedies (long live the pint!) I climbed to the top of the highest fell (they say fell, I say mountain), Helvellyn, as well as Helm Crag and Buttermere and Langdale Fells. I went skinny-dipping in Easedale Tarn, an ice-cold mountain lake, visited a bunch of local places, and learned more than I thought possible about Romantic poetry. I was the best two weeks of my life, and the best trip I’ve ever made.
Swiddles, dear, I fell for an adorable Englishman who just recieved his M.Phil. (masters) from Cambridge the very first night, and he fell even harder for me. I, too, am a sucker for smart dudes with accents! It was difficult to concentrate when those sexy young professors starting talking Romantic, but I managed to take some notes anyway.
So glad to be back - I missed this place! I’m completely knackered right now and heading off to bed, but thanks for the kind wishes. I’m going to get my seven rolls of film on disk, so expect pictures sometime in the next month or so.
