Just the Predictable Part

Earlier this week, I received my syllabus for the Classics of Children's British Literature class I will be taking in London. 

I almost died of happiness.

And I spent the next hour filling EVERYTHING in on my calendar, researching the places we will be going to online, and formulating how I would very wisely spend my free time so as not to waste a single moment! 

Here is just an itty bitty preview of what my month will look like:

• On the first full day I am in London, June 30th, I will take a walk around London with History professor and London native Dr. Ruth Percy to the River Thames, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Street, the Horse Guard’s Parade, Buckingham Palace, St. James Palace and Trafalgar Square.
• On the second full day I am there, I will attend church at St. Paul's Cathedral. Now how many people can say they have done that? ;)
• During my first full week in London classes begin, and I will go to a banquet at King's College London, go to the Museum of London, visit Kensington Gardens, take a boat trip to Greenwich, go to Dover Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, and Bath. That's just part of the syllabus-- I still have many free afternoons and evenings to explore London on my own. 
• During my second full week in London, I will go to Oxford to have lunch at a famous pub where the Inklings (a.k.a. my heroes C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien) would meet, visit Magdalen College, and take a behind-the-scenes tour of Christ Church (where I will climb the Hogwarts staircase). Also while in Oxford I will go to the pub where Thomas Hardy is said to have spent most his time writing :) 
• Still part of the same week....I GO TO THE HUNDRED ACRE WOODS! And play Pooh Sticks on Pooh Bridge, and get a tour of Ashdown Forest (the Hundred Acre Woods) by Dr. Ann Thwaite, A. A. Milne’s biographer! And then go to Pooh Corner! May I just say, this is the point where I pretty much pass out from joy ;) 
• The next week, my class departs for Edinburgh, Scotland! During our four days in Edinburgh, we will be staying in an old palace, Dalkeith House. Throughout our time there we will go to the Lake District, Windemere, Hawkshed, Near Sawrey, William Wordsworth's grave, and the beautiful Royal Mile where we will visit the Museum of Childhood and the Writer's Museum. We also have our own free time, during which I fully intend to visit Edinburgh Castle :D
• The same week, Mini-Break starts and I head out to Poland! I will fly to Wroclaw and meet up with Pawel, my third cousin, and he will show me around the city, take me to Lubiaz to meet the rest of my distant relatives, and then I will go with him and his sister to Lubikowo to meet his aunt and uncle at their chalet, and on Monday they'll drive me to Germany so that I can catch a plane back to London! 
• During my final week there I will go to the British Library, meet famous BBC author Brian Sibley, take a final exam (yuck) and board a boat on the River Thames to watch the fireworks explode over the city of London during the opening ceremony of the Olympics :) :) No big deal, of course ;)  

And those are just the highlights of my British Studies experience! I can't wait to see what happens as I start filling in all of the blanks and let my European experience unfold before me in the most wonderful but unpredictable way.

9 more days!