Tearful Goodbyes

 The HUM 1915 class is happy to announce a safe journey home! We experienced very smooth travels on the way home from our European adventure!

A bright-eyed group picture at the airport

And it was Brittany's Day!

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 Although we are sad our journey has come to an end we are excited to share our experience with our friends and family and reflect on the travel course of a lifetime. Here are some of our favorite moments from the HUM 1915 2016 travel course:

Brittany: "This picture is special to me because not only did I learn the importance the church [St. Paul's Cathedral] I learned who I was as a person in climbing a total of 1,066 stairs to the top of the Cathedral"    

Sadie: "My favorite part of this trip was exploring Northern Ireland. This was the first time we got to out and explore the countryside and I fell in love with the beautiful rolling hills. Here is a view from the Carrick-A- Rede Rope Bridge which spans 65 feet and is 98 feet above the rocks below!" 

  

Kaurin: "One of my favorite days was Day 4 when we travelled to Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was interesting to see the British influence on the area and observe how different it looked when compared to Dublin, Ireland. I also enjoyed the Titanic Belfast Museum. I had no idea that the Titanic was constructed in Belfast and that they had such a rich boat building history. Additionally, it was nice to get out of the city and see the Northern Ireland coast. The views were breathtaking and reminded me of my home, The Bahamas."

 

Emily O: "One of my favorite days was the hike to Arthur's seat in Scotland. I loved Edinburgh. I liked seeing the beauty of the city as well as the beautiful landscape of the country."

  

Corissa: "My favorite day in London was when we visited the London Eye, Tate Modern, and the Globe! It was a great variation of the London experience."

 

Hannah: "My favorite day was the day we went to Windsor because I loved hearing so many awesome facts from Philip and being so close to Queen Elizabeth!"

 

Allie: "My favorite day was going to see Westminster Abbey. The inside (sorry no pictures allowed inside) was stunning and there is so much historical importance there as well as many current events that are important to the culture of the United Kingdom today." 

 

Erika: "My favorite day on the trip was at Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland. I loved learning about the history of the castles as well as the history about the city. Also, looking at Edinburgh from the look outs within the castles was amazing.

Emily W: "My favorite part of the trip was climbing Arthur's Seat in Scotland. Apart from the spectacular views, spending the day with my classmates and bonding through rigorous exercise was my favorite part. It is always so fulfilling to accomplish something you never thought you would do."

Kate: "My favorite memory was visiting Greenwich! I loved being able to tour the Old Royal Naval College where so many of my favorite movies were filmed. I also got to see the gorgeous Painted Hall, a masterpiece that took 19 years to complete. The vibrancy and intricateness of the hall was breathtaking as well as inspiring. I also had a great time visiting the Royal Observatory while in Greenwich. Stepping across the Prime Meridian and standing in two hemispheres at once certainly makes an awesome story!"

Liz: "Oxford was an absolutely wonderful place full of history and culture. I'd love to go back and take a biking tour and go punting. It seems like a splendid place to sit in the grass and read, but you could also go adventuring, and I like to have the best of both worlds."

Amelia: My favorite part of the trip was our visit to Windsor Castle. The changing of the guard was a really neat thing to be able to watch. While walking through the areas of the castle that were open to the public, Philip, one of the gaurds, shared so much of his knowledge with us which made the beautiful castle that much more enjoyable. Knowing that the Queen was in there room on the other side of the wall where I spoke with him was the greatest feeling ever!

What an incredible way to end our academic year! To have the chance to experience the British, Scottish, and Irish cultures firsthand was unbelievable. We've made memories beyond compare and learned so much about past, present, and future of not only the places we've visited, but ourselves. While being away from home for college has a significant impact, leaving your home country and experiencing entirely new customs is even more formative. We will never be the same. Our worlds have stretched just a little bit farther and we thank Elmira, Professor Wolfe, and our parents for helping us along the way.

We thank you all for following along with our course. We hope you enjoyed our posts each day and learned something along the way.

Celebrate Your Knowledge Dinner!

 Today was a very relaxing day for the HUM 1915 class. The day consisted of cleaning, organizing, and packing. After this we celebrated our wonderful journey and newly found knowledge of the history, peoples, and institutions of the United Kingdom and Ireland. We were excited to celebrate our knowledge with a guest of honor. We had the opportunity to meet with Sue Gil, who has a vast knowledge of art and history. Sue has a degree in History as well as Biology. She has been a blue badge tour guide since 1976. The Blue Badge Tour Guides are the official tour guides of the United Kingdom, their blue badge represents their professionalism. Over dinner we discussed each monarch that every student studied and their impact on the history and development of the United Kingdom. We then compared our favorite visits on the trip. Some of these included Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, and Hampton Court Palace.  

Celebration dinner!

Special guest, Sue Gil the tour guide, joins the class to discuss all of the things we've learned

Appetizer at dinner

 

Main dish

 After a lovely fudge brownie topped with vanilla ice cream dessert, the class took the liberty of celebrating each other with paper napkin awards. Here are just a few of the awards. 

Brittany is awarded "Brightest Smile" by Kaurin

Kate awards Emily O with "Cool as a Cucumber"

Allie is awarded "Most Bubbly" by Sadie

Professor Wolfe is awarded "Most likely to brighten your day" by our three lovely presenters

(Professor Wolfe is also showing off her skirt depicting the London Skyline!) 

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Feelin' 22

Day 22 from across the pond 

• The National Gallery 
• The National Portrait Gallery 
• Leicester Square
• The View from The Shard

 The National Gallery in London is home to thousands of pieces of art created through history. One of the many famous and talented artists that is featured in the museum is Vincent Van Gogh. HUM 1915 was lucky enough to see some of his work in person. Featured is oil painting titled "Sunflowers," created in 1888. Van Gogh made four paintings of sunflowers that year. He wrote to his brother about this one specifically, claiming the bunch of 14 gives a singular effect and he that slaved over the piece from sun up to sun down because the flowers died quickly. Van Gogh also associated the color yellow with hope and friendship. He thought this painting specifically represented gratitude and hung it in his guest room upon the arrival of his friend Paul Gaugin, another artist. 

Brittany with Van Gogh's "Sunflowers"

                                             

                                                        Van Gogh's "Sunflowers"

 Our next stop was the National Portrait Gallery. The gallery contains many new pieces, but what we were most excited about was to see the beautiful portraits of the monarchs that we studied. The art was divided by House, for example Tudor, Victorian, etc. This allowed the viewers to see how history was changing through the monarchy's wardrobes. The HUM 1915 class also got to see the crown jewels including, the orb, the scepter, and the crown in the paintings. This was exciting because we saw many of these in real life yesterday at The Tower of London.

Portrait of Elizabeth I 

Inside room 14 of National Portrait Gallery

 Next, we took a stroll through Leicester Square. This area is a major hub of London containing food vendors, shops, and theaters. 

We concluded today's class with a trip to The Shard. From the 69th floor we looked upon the city of London seeing many major sites from a new perspective. Some of these sites included Buckingham Palace, The Tower of London, The London Eye, Tower Bridge, the Olympic Stadium, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul's Cathedral. At a height of 800 ft, the class was able to see the surrounding 40 miles of London.

Corissa, Emily O, and Erika enjoy The View from The Shard

The class celebrating their journey through London with a toast of  San Pelligrino sparkling lemonade

Amelia views the landmarks of the city through a digital telescope

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Perspectives in London

A view from above, the present, the past, and the platform:

• Borough Market 
• London Eye
• Tower of London
• Theater Performance of The Railway Children 

 Our first stop of the day was Borough Market. The market celebrated it's 1000th birthday in 2014 making it one of the oldest and largest markets in London. Vendors come to the market to sell produce, flowers, pastries, and meats.

 Next, we traveled to the London Eye which is a large ferris wheel located on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is Europe's highest ferris wheel and the highest public viewing point in London. The wheel moves so slowly that passengers can actually get on and off the ride while it is in motion. It stands a 135 meters tall.

The London Eye 

 The Eye from the pier

One of the Eye's capsules

HUM 1915

Westminster Abbey, Buckingham, and Parliament from the Eye

 After we spent a large portion of the day exploring the London Tower. William the Conqueror started construction of the Tower of London in the early 1080s. Throughout history the Tower has had many different uses, during the Tudor reign one of it's functions was a prison. During the historic rivalry between Catholics and Protestants Catholic leaders such as Mary I had key leaders of the Protestant movement imprisoned in the Tower. In the 19th Century the Tower was then geared toward being made into a fortress and created the Waterloo Baracks. During the World Wars many spies were held and executed at the Tower. The site was a target for bombings during this time so the Crown Jewels that were usually (and still are today) were temporarily moved to a location that was a lesser target.

Tower of London from outside the fortress walls

Sadie, Hannah, and Katelyn walking into the medieval part of the Tower

The building that houses the Crown Jewels

Emily W poses with armor from Henry VII's time

A wooden carving of Elizabeth I's head

Allie and Kaurin pose in the face cut outs regarding crime and humiliation in the Tower

In the evening, the class attended a performance of The Railway Children at King's Cross Theatre. This theater used to be a functioning train platform, but we reconstructed into an arena style theater with a track running through the stage so that they could be a real steam engine onto the stage. The show had spectacular special effects, sets, and costumes, as well as showing us the charming life of a British family after the Boer War.

The entrance to the theater

The group poses in a train formation in front of the poster

The "larger than life" book posters

Getting on the Tube after a long day of sightseeing

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