Jane Austen's Stomping Ground

Okay - I've been very slack and I am so sorry. Note the italics - that means I'm emphasising those words.

So not much has been happening this week... Really not much... Leonore, Miranda and I went to see "Wolverine" on Wednesday in Staines and we all drooled, simultaneously, at Hugh Jackman's amazing man body. Other than that I've been hanging around just recovering from my week of assignments... Today, however, I went to Winchester.

Today is Saturday by the way. Okay so Winchester. We caught the train there and at some point in the day the three of us must have really angered the transport god because no matter what type of public transport we were after - it hated us. We were either just missing it, waiting for ages or it was cancelled. You will understand as I go along.

Anyway we got to Winchester and had a look around the town which was so lovely. It was the prettiest little town. Every single thing was in its right place - flower gardens and vibrant bright green leaves shaded us wherever we went. Then we went to some ancient ruins of a castle built 1000 years ago. It was quiet and peaceful with the blue sky above us and birds singing. Outside the ruins was an ice-cream van so we had ice-cream and ruins in one sitting! Brilliant!

The weather today was really sporadic as one minute the clouds would cover the sky and it would be cold and then the sun would pop out and we'd all shed our jumpers. After contemplating buying another ice-cream (I didn't) we carried on through the little town to the house where Jane Austen died (we did her life in a funny order so just bear with me). This house was the house she lived in for the two months before she died. Apparently, they moved her here for her health in thinking that by being closer to the hospital she would heal better - she died. Oops. But this is the house and the poor thing was only 41 when she died! She was the first of her family members to kick the Victorian bucket. Shame. The house had a sign in the window saying "this is not open to the general public". They must get a lot of people knocking on their door asking to see the room where she died.

We carried on admiring the well dressed school boys - it sounds weird I KNOW. But they are wearing suits to school. It's a nice change from untucked T-shirts with sauce and various other stains as a uniform...

Next we went to the Cathedral where Jane is buried. We went inside and were told there was a tour starting at one that was free - jolly good show. Bought our tickets - "Did you know there is a tour at one?". Went inside "there will be a tour here in about five minutes". OKAY. Miranda later asked one of the employees where the bathroom was waiting to here - "well it's outside round the corn- did you know there is a tour at one?". ANYWAY we got to her grave and Leonore told us to stop and just remember that we were in the dead presence of one the greatest female writers in English literature. It was pretty cosmic. Now for those of you who know me ... I'm not the biggest Jane Austen fan in the world. I have studied her and I appreciate and admire the hard work she put in and also the excellent writing but it's just not my cup of tea. Which is why I did this. Love ya Jane!

The cathedral itself was quite spectacular.

After that we were a bit peckish and decided to get a traditional pasty for lunch. We sat outside and watched the people go by. This had to be one of the highlights of the day. Next to us is this giant spire looking thing (very old) which seemed to be the popular hang-out and meeting place for pre-teens. Sad. So the three of us came up with dialogues and plots for the pre-teens. There was Starving Artist kid (he had lanky long hair and was very gaunt) who was sitting next to Nerdy Girl who was sitting next to Frowning Boy who was sitting next to Forgettable Boy in the Brown Shirt. Nerdy Girl is secretly in love with Frowning Boy who wanted to be more than just friends but she is the girl that he confides his liking of other girls so she can do nothing but be saddened and hopeful. It went on and on as our pasties were steaming hot so we needed to occupy ourselves while we waited.

After laughing profusely at our hilarity we walked up the high street to go to see the table of King Arthur and the knights of the round table. Seriously. We went inside the big castle type building and looked around for the table. We found this plain round wood one and assumed this could be it.

It wasn't. It was just some old table someone had left in there from what looked like IKEA. This is the round table...

Pretty big! I think they mounted it on the wall to stop loons like us recreating a knightly scene and staging a duel. Makes sense. After seeing this we took a walk back the other way to get a bus to Chawton which is where Jane Austen's house is. This house is the one she lived in before she moved to the one you saw earlier. So this is her alive house where she wrote several of her novels. Here is her house - I'm sure the sign saying "Jane Austen's House" wasn't there when she was around. Maybe it was. At least then she wouldn't forget which house was hers.

Here you can see her actual bedroom! Yes I felt the need to pose like a fool every time. I was in a Jane Austen type mood.

This is her actual writing desk. This tiny little thing is where she wrote Pride & Prejudice - how mad is that? And this is in her garden. Her surroundings were much nicer than that of the Bronte sisters I must say.

We wanted to have cream tea (tea and scones) to celebrate our jaunt but the shop was closed. Instead we found a park and played on the swings. We headed back to the bus stop to wait, for what seemed forever, for the bus. We began to get desperate when the bus wasn't showing up began to discuss the possibility of starving in the middle of nowhere. Luckily I remembered we were next to a giant roundabout and in the middle is an island with many rabbits bouncing around. We wouldn't starve - we would go hunting in Bunny Island. We amused ourselves by playing various singing games (no one was around thankfully) until finally the bus came over the rise and we scrambled to stand up "hooray"ing all the while. We got back to Winchester and then went to the train station where our train was cancelled. A different train arrived which was going to Egham but just the longer route so we made it home. Not without having some random teen boys coming up to us - are we magnets for them?? Two of them sat down next to us and said "Hello. How old are you guys? We're 17". Miranda goes "Well I'm 24". To which Leonore added "So keep walking". They left us alone whilst yelling and jostling one another about how "drunk they were". Sad, sad little boys. We finally made it back to Egham.

I was looking forward to a good night sleep but this wasn't going to happen. The people in halls have been SO GOOD lately there has been no noise. But now I have another problem. The boy in the room below me has a very... ahem... vocal girlfriend. 3am. Not the first time either. What am I supposed to do?

It's Over!

Ladies and gentlemen of the world. I have now finished my semester at Royal Holloway University of London.

I had been waiting for this day for so long and now it's here... it's weird because it feels as if time has flown by but at the same time as if it's taken ages looking back on all the things I can remember of the term.

I met up with Tamsin and Liam - so good to see them after the Easter break - and we went to hand in our assignments. This was the first time I ever had to hand in assignments online as well as hard copy so that was a new experience. The hand-in room was buzzing with people excited to be finished, moaning how bad their assignment was or moaning about upcoming exams. I did a happy dance. As you can see... I'm just a blur of excitement.

Then we all went to the pub. I don't know if I've mentioned this but (one of) the university pubs is called the "Monkey's Forehead". This pub was full - of drama students. Because none of us have any exams all my classmates were in there drinking and laughing - really good to see them after the break. I ended up having several drinks (I don't need to say anymore) and had a very enjoyable, yet fuzzy, time. Tamsin had to go to a meeting so Liam and I went to see the Players show. It was extra funny given our state.

After that I went back to my room to recuperate before dinner with Miranda! She's back! Yay! Actually after I wrote the last blog she turned up at my door and it's been SO GOOD catching up with her and her German adventures. We are almost done planning our Europe trips which I am very excited about though nervous given this swine flu nonsense... She has booked her flight home on the 22nd of June which means I will be home around that time too! I'm starting to miss home a lot given that I'm now just hanging around in my room without assignments to do which is a bit sad. Online Monopoly can only entertain you to an extent.

It's kind of nice having all the girls back in halls - they are being quiet! Yay! Consideration yippee! I do miss having the bathrooms and showers to myself. Blocked drains and hair everywhere have returned but at least my footsteps don't echo freakishly as I walk the halls.

Miranda, Leonore and I are planning a day trip somewhere on the weekend so, hopefully, my next blog will be much more interesting - and educational - but mostly hilarious.

It's Almost Over!

Wow... could this be the longest I've gone without blogging? I hope so because I've actually had a valid reason.

Assignments killed me.

Okay so I'm exaggerating. But they did a pretty good job at killin' the ol' soul. Literally for the past five or six days (I've lost all concepts of time) I've been stuck in my room eating and breathing these assignments. I mean the only time I've been outside this room in the past week as to go grocery shopping and to the library. Good times. Take a look at the space I was working in... pretty depressing...

But I'm almost done! Yay! I'm just changing fonts and jazzing up the final product to hand in tomorrow! Yippee! Then I'll be finished my courses at Royal Holloway.

I'm so glad I got the bulk of them done yesterday because there were all these boys staying in my corridor. All the girls that live here are on Easter break, as you know, and these teenage boys were here for some event or something like that - a mini marathon I think I heard? Anyway here I am the only girl wandering the halls. My goodness every trip to the bathroom or pantry was a worthy anecdote. I'd open my door and hear cat calls and all that rubbish as I stretched my legs. Ugh... teenage boys. One kid tried blocking my path by doing the moonwalk into me. How sad. And I'm not joking either.

Later that night I went to the bathroom before I went to bed and some of cool kids (I use the term cool here loosely) were defying their teacher or whoever by standing in the halls in the pajamas and chatting after "lights out". The only problem was their pajamas were just underpants and out I come in my elmo pajamas trying to keep looking straight ahead. The boys started laughing at their attire and when I came back from the bathroom one of them was waving a plastic sword around. A plastic sword?! I ask you? Why would you bring a plastic sword with you? More importantly where did he pull it from??

This morning they were up and screaming at 5am! FIVE! They could have been quiet but this one kid just keep yelling "Rise and Shiiiiiiine!". I was ready to walk out there and punch them all in the face, one by one. I didn't. Eventually they left and I was to be interrupted two hours later by a cleaner who wasn't just jiggling the handle of my room - I hear a key in the lock, lock turns and I go "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!". Stupid guy. He said sorry but it was a bit late for that. After ambushing me he started actually knocking on the doors. Stupid guy.

Some of the girls have arrived to restock their rooms with posters, cushions and ... booze. You know necessities? Hopefully tonight the Founders dining hall will be open. I never thought I would be so excited about their food but after living on soup, microwave dinners, noodles and crackers anything will suffice. Still waiting for Miranda to get back though... sigh...

Au Revoir Good Times!

This blog starts with Sunday - my last full day in Switzerland - boo hoo! I didn't write about Sunday in a blog of it's own because I didn't take any photos and I don't like posting blogs without photos because... photos are nice. Yes. Nice.

Sunday! I woke very late to the sound of Jun's other Australian friends in the living room. Julie and Nicole had come from their respective exchanges to here. We're all Australian but studying all over the world Jun - Switzerland, Phoebe - England, Julie - Germany and Nicole - Ireland. So we decided to have a picnic. The four of us set off to find the perfect spot which ended up being miles and miles away. We walked through Jun's university campus which is so peaceful. Most likely because the students weren't there as it was a Sunday but also because the campus is slap bang in the middle of a little forest. There are trees rustling and the constant sound of cowbells. Jun's campus figured why paying money to hire someone to mow the grass when you can get sheep and cows to do it for free? Yep. Cows and sheep roam the campus grass lands with their little bells jingling all the time. Jun said it's hard to concentrate in class because of this farmyard symphony. Fair enough.

We got to the spot (eventually) and sat next to the lake to eat the delicious spaghetti Jun had made earlier. It was a bit colder today so all of us were sitting on a bench with our hoodies up. We looked like some sort of gang. The lake was lovely and it was foggy so the mountains were eerily present in the background. The water melted into the skyline once more and I felt like I was in Valhalla or some such place. We then ate a block of chocolate (can't get enough of it) and waddled back. Jun and I didn't get up to much for the rest of the day because everything is closed on Sunday. It's not like home where the hours of places are restricted on Sunday. Here, EVERYTHING is closed. Literally everything. It stinks.

Monday rolled around and we got up early so I could have a good look around the city centre of Lausanne. Catching the metro into town was the first time I bought a ticket. And I got checked. Lucky! Hee hee! The Swiss Lady Luck was on my side. The city of Lausanne and all the shops are situated on the most extreme landscape. The whole city centre is mounted on undulating terrain and these aren't just little hills these are practically vertical ones. A real beast when you're carting your suitcase around. Well Jun was kind enough to carry it. Thank you Jun! We walked all the way to the top and I had to take a couple of minutes to take in the view. The landscape is really what makes Switzerland. There aren't many sights to see but the view wherever you go is awesome. Back down the hill. JUN: Grumble grumble.

We walked to the other side of town (not a huge walk it's all quite small keep in mind) and I found my Swiss souvenir - a new pair of pants! Yippee! By this time we went to the train station and I said goodbye to Jun. Thank you Jun, once again, for having me!

Took the train to Geneva airport and eventually got on my plane (it was delayed). When I tried getting through British customs, my goodness, the woman really wasn't going to let me into the country without a fight. Luckily I had all my documentation - people thought I was mad being so over prepared but I was right! Ha ha! I gave her my offer letter to prove I'm a student visitor and even though it said on the sheet in front of her when my dates of coming and going were she goes "When does your semester finish?"

"Umm...I think it's around June 15th?"

"Says June 12th here."

Pause

"Err...Okay."

After writing numerous amounts of detail she stamped my passport and I was finally free! Got my bag and caught the bus back to Founders - Hall of Doom. It's funny how I missed my little room all until I went to sleep on my awful mattress. Stiff necks all round. Now comes the worst week of my life - writing my two demon assignments! If you don't hear from me I've become buried in boredom. Plus I won't have much to write about anyway unless you're interested in facilitating a Dramatherapy session? Anyone? No?

I'm just popping off to France for a bit.

Woke up pretty late this morning. I use the term 'morning' loosely. Jun cooked some delicious pasta for us to eat on our journey and we set off to Evian. The name Evian may be ringing bells in some peoples' heads because it's a very popular brand of bottled water. Well guess where it comes from? Evian, France. Which is where we were headed.

We arrived at Ouchy to catch the ferry which only takes 35 minutes. 35 minutes to travel from Switzerland to France! What a luxury. No smelly planes. That's the Swiss flag flowing next to me, by the way. The weather was beautiful and later on that day I actually got sunburnt. Can you believe it? I only had to travel to another country to get sunburnt. It's only light but it's there! So on the boat and marvelling at the lovely town of Lausanne getting smaller and smaller as we swim across the lake. It's funny how much different the town of Lausanne looks to Evian. Just the architecture of the buildings is quite interesting. We pulled ashore at Evian, getting our passports out, ready for inspection - but there was none! If you want to skip the border and enter into France illegally - do it here! The Europeans' are so relaxed about all this is really nice. So trusting.

Jun and I walked along the lakeside (in France - can't say that enough) and this little town is so beautiful! Nothing is out of place here. No rubbish or stray leaves on the grass. Every hedge is cut into perfection. Flowers everywhere with big bumble bees buzzing (lot of 'b's there). It was so nice. I was feeling ready for another ice-cream (I had already had one before we left Lausanne) but Jun and I realized we didn't have any Euros! Whoops. Totally didn't think about that. We were stuck with our Swiss Francs. It didn't matter because Jun had made delicious pasta for us to picnic on so we sat looking over the vast lake and ate lunch. It was so good sitting in the sun (though later I was burnt) feeling warm and full just relaxing. We were sitting next to a mini golf course so people would putt putt past us muttering in French. I'm not doing so badly with the French side of things. I mean Jun asks for most things but if I were here on my own I can manage the basics. I know basic words to get me by - who would have thought I listened, to some extent, in French class?

After this we kept pottering about the town and were trying to find the actual spring where Evian water comes from. We walked up and down the high street and then found an alleyway that led further up the hill. The whole town is on an inclining slope - doh. We heaved ourselves up and found the spring! Well it's just a little spouting tap but it has a plaque and everything and was found in 1786 or so. This is where the water comes from and the whole town here uses this water. It's free and we had to wait in line whilst the little old ladies of the town came forward with their 12 big bottles to fill up. I don't think anyone here pays for tap water considering they can get it all for free here. I think the shopkeepers of the town buy empty Evian water bottles, fill them up here for free and sell them to unsuspecting tourists. I would. After waiting in line for a while I got to fill up my one little bottle. Okay it was worth the wait. The water is so good! I mean water is pretty standard but this was cool, crisp water. This water tasted nothing like the awful health water at Bath. Jun and I agree that it's the water of immortality so we're going to be living forever. So far so good.

We climbed up to the very top of the hill to look out over the town and lake in its entirety. Great view. Sat on the grass for a while and just relaxed. It was 5 by this time and it still broad daylight. It still freaks me out. We walked the other way along the river while we waited for the ferry to arrive and then said our goodbyes to France. I'll be back! Don't you worry!

Back in Switzerland once more... we walked back to the bus stop and caught the bus back. I actually tried to buy a ticket this time but the machine wouldn't accept my coins so it's fate telling me I don't need to buy tickets for public transport. So there.

Jun made a delicious dinner of sweet chili stir fry and we settled down to watch X-men and hit the hay.

This town is tres jolie.

I was very nervous about waking up this morning (not that I could prevent waking up but you know what I mean) because I didn't want there to be any repercussions of yesterday's illness. I was okay though! I just get sporadic painful stomach cramps which come go away pretty quickly. I'll be fine!

Today, Jun and I got up and went to do some grocery shopping at Aldi. Most of the Swiss people don't shop at Aldi because it's German and they don't like it. Strange. Jun was telling me that it's so weird here because meat is really expensive because Switzerland doesn't import any meat from the various surrounding nations. Switzerland is pretty small and there aren't many cows so meat is very expensive and there is no fresh milk in Switzerland. Seriously. You go into the supermarket and it's all UHT fresh forever milk. Bleh. Again, this is because they don't want to import anything which would be why their economy is so strong. Is having a strong economy worth disadvantaging the population? I guess so.
So we went grocery shopping and got back to Jun's and had a delicious stir-fry. We then went to visit Jun's friends Allison and Kimberley. Allison is Americana and Kimberley is from Sydney - Aussie Aussie Aussie!

The girls were a bit busy at first so Jun and I went and had a look at the lake. WOW. This is one heck of a lake. The sun came out and the lake sparkled and on the other side of the like is... FRANCE. France was sparkling at me. There were swans floating about in this serene crystal water and it was very picturesque. The horizon couldn't be found because the sea was the exact blue of the sky so the landscape looks like an incredible painting. This is all framed by dark blue mountains in the distance sprinkled with pure white snow. It's a breath taking place.
We sauntered back to Allison and Kimberley's house and dragged them out to go have a look at Ouchy which is further up the riverbank and Jun described as "like South Bank". Keep in mind 'Ouchy' is pronounced "o-shi" not "ow-chi" as I like to call it. I could actually wear my sunglasses and marvel at the cleanliness of this place. The blue of the sky and sea is offset with a multitude of colourful flowers dotting the walkway.

We then rented a paddle boat and had a paddle around the lake which was awesome. I so wanted it to be hot enough to swim because then you could relax in your bathing suit and jump into the water if you wanted. Some of the paddle boats had slides on the back of them for this very reason! Today, however, it was a bit nippy and the water was freezing to the touch but it was so lovely paddling about on this giant lake. I said we should just hijack this boat and paddle to France where we would be out of their jurisdiction! Ha ha! We would start a new life as pirates and raid other boats. This all happened in my head as no one else was too keen. It was funny because we were paddling in sunshine but over where France was there were major storm clouds that were black and consuming the landscape. The boat rental guy said "beware the tempest that's coming". Seriously. But in French. After a paddle around we went back in as it was getting rather windy and the oncoming "tempest" looked pretty grim. You can see the dark looming clouds behind my head...

We hopped out and decided to go back to Kimberley's house for chocolate pancakes and hot chocolate. The Swiss really know how to do a good chocolate anything. The instant hot chocolate is amazing and they don't sell chocolate bars here they only sell blocks of chocolate because this is Switzerland and they do everything chocolate related properly. They also have excellent cheeses here which I will feast on very soon... This means that all the clichés of Switzerland are true as there is chocolate, cheese and I saw a cuckoo clock shop in Geneva yesterday.

After our chocolately dinner Jun and I headed back at around 8 (it was still very light) and sung the elephant love song medley from Moulin Rouge on the walk back from the bus stop. Good times. I'm probably going to jinx myself but so far I have only paid for one train trip and that was from Geneva to Lausanne. Everything else - the metro and the bus - I haven't paid for because there are no daily tickets it's just 3 Francs for every trip and I can't afford that. Keep your fingers crossed that I won't get in trouble! If I do I'll just talk in English and start crying. Jun will act like he doesn't know me. The system works. Jun says “Hi everyone”.

Salut Switzerland!

Okay. I'm here in Switzerland and it's lovely... the trip to get here, however, was not so lovely. Let me set the scene. The night before I left I got my bag packed and everything ready to go so I wouldn't stress too much in the morning. Went to bed. Woke up and was extremely ill. I could not believe my bad luck. I haven't been sick my entire time of being here and illness chooses to strike me now? Why? WHY? I ran to the bathroom and was violently ill. Managed to get back to my room where I got inside the door before collapsing onto the floor clinging onto my bin hoping I wouldn't puke again. What a lovely blog this is turning out to be! I had a raging fever and was sweating my life away as I lay on the floor thinking "No! No! I have to fly to Switzerland today!". It gets worse. I was going to have breakfast with Miranda's parents that morning and I had to call and cancel - I felt SO BAD. I just wouldn't have made it up and down the stairs without blacking out. Dreadfully ill. So I lay down and tried to sleep for half an hour. Woke up and had another hurl. Felt better. I gave myself a pep talk throughout the getting-dressed-and-ready-to-go process which consisted of "You're doing great, Phoebe. Just put this in the bag and you're all done. You can do it." Which helped. Managed to get to the bus stop and waited there for an hour because two buses decided not to show. Throughout the bus ride I kept a plastic bag in my handbag in case I needed to be sick again - that's commitment to this trip. On the bus there was a full-on argument between passengers as the bus driver didn't stop at one of the stops and the woman wanting to get on ran up to the bus and started tapping on the door. But he drove off. All the other old dears on the bus began arguing with one another in loud voices:
"What a rude man! Mean man!"

"He was doing the right thing! He can't let someone on at a round-a-bout!"

"She wasn't at the round-a-bout. He didn't stop!"

"She didn't signal him!"

"Yes she did! The bus driver should be more concerned about his passengers given that we pay his salary!"

And this went on and on and each woman who got off would give the bus driver a piece of her mind. It was all very amusing.

I arrived at Terminal 5 and took some deep breaths in order to get off without gagging. Checked in my bag and then got the full treatment from Heathrow security. They must have had the x-ray scanners up super high because I set it off! First time ever. One of the security people took me aside and I was frisked up and down by this woman... Oh my... quite an experience.

Everything was fine and my flight was on time and I made to Switzerland after managing to keep a whole muesli bar down! Things were looking up. Flying into Geneva was AMAZING. It's so green and beautiful with mountains covered in snow falling as the backdrop to this green wonderland. It's like England but SO much prettier. And warmer. Hooray!

Jun met me at the airport and we decided to bop around Geneva and get dinner before heading to his hometown of Lausanne which is a 40 minute train ride away. We walked down to the lake and it was stunning. I was so glad it was sunny and blue sky because it had been pouring with rain that morning and the forecast for the weekend was bleak. I saw the main monument of Geneva which is the giant fountain, Le Jet d'Eau, which is one big fountain. I can't say it's a very flattering photo of me given that I'm still a faint shade of green but you can see the lovely jet of water. Makes me think of the fountain in our lakes at UQ back home! Just being here is breath taking. Using one of Jun's terms - being in the beauty of this place just makes you want to die because when you go away from this place you'll miss the beautiful landscape too much. I'll be dying a lot this weekend.

We tottered around the town for a bit and settled on... sigh... McDonalds for dinner. Don't be thinking that after all my illness I went and did a stupid thing like eating a burger and fries because I didn't. I had a really delicious salad. Who would have thought? The only catch - being in Switzerland - was that the salad cost 7.90 Francs which is about 10 Australian dollars. Whoa. In McDonalds? My main thought for this short journey was - "Eep!". Kind of concerned about my funds at this point...

We caught the train to Lausanne (25 Francs) and went to Jun's student flat which is very nice and met his very nice housemates. Once we got to Jun's I was pretty tired so I took a shower and we watched a film. Glad I arrived alive is all I can say!