Tuesday 21 October 2014

Bath and Cornwall


I probably don't have to expand upon the reasons why it has been a while since my last blogpost- time is going by so fast! This blogging about my experiences is actually harder than I anticipated because essentially this is just real, normal life, and not some weird trip around the world or whatever. But anyway, I went to some nice places in the last few weeks which I thought I'd write a bit about.

Firstly, three friends and I went to Bath a few weeks back. I'm not sure why I knew about Bath's existence, but it's probably due to Jane Austen or some art lesson I had in secondary school. It's not that big of a city - which I knew beforehand - but it's famous for it's Roman Baths, and the Royal Crescent, which I was very excited to see. And actually, it did not disappoint!

I feel like many times you read about something or see pictures and you just expect it to be less cool than that, but it really wasn't.




Just look how cute it is! We were very lucky with the weather, but nonetheless I think it would have been stunning. I either read somewhere or someone told me that the idea behind the Royal Crescent was that people from that time liked to see the clash of nature and civilisation in their architecture - or something oddly nice like that - and true or not, I think they definitely succeeded. Of course, the park in front of the Royal Crescent was packed with tourists - wonder how the people who actually live there feel having their house photographed every five seconds.

I also made some other general pictures of the city which I already uploaded on my facebook, as that might be a bit more readily accessible :)

My friend and I also hung out at Waterstone's for a while, crying because of all the cool books we want to buy but can't actually afford right now - it's a tough life. I saw this beautiful edition of Dracula which I subsequently fell in love with.

Last weekend I went on another exciting trip to Cornwall, together with my parents and brother who came to visit me for a few days. It was really nice seeing them again, and they brought me some Dutch goodies to survive the harsh English experience (just kidding, I've become used to the supermarkets, the tap water, and the bread - I will say no more on the subject). I showed them around Exeter for a bit, took them to see the campus, and the day after we ventured to Land's End, crossing Dartmoor along the way. Again, pictures are already online! However, I just love these two..



Both Dartmoor and Land's End are absolutely stunning, and it reminded me why I love this country so much.


Wednesday 1 October 2014

City Snapshots: Exeter


More than a week has passed since my last blogpost and honestly time has gone by so fast. My classes are FINALLY sorted. I'm taking a course on Romanticism and one on Victorian Imperialism, which are both subjects I am already acquainted with. However, I'm just glad we could get our hands on some English modules and so far the seminars and lectures have been really nice - everyone participates so well here it's miles away from the situation at home where the lecturer sometimes has to use persistent staring tactics to get students to speak up in class.

So yeah, really nice to have that sorted, and I'm back to reading again. However, boring everyone by discussing my classes wasn't my intention for this blogpost. As I took a look on Facebook and saw that a lot of my Erasmus colleagues were uploading a lot of photos of their new home and adventures, I thought it would be nice to share some pictures of Exeter as well. I've been kind off slacking off when it comes to taking pictures, because it just feels a bit strange - like taking pictures of Nijmegen or its university, what's the point of that? However, it might be nice to have at least some pictures to look back on, so I will try to make a conscious effort to take more pictures.

We went to the park to read a while back, and it's a really nice spot.



We also went on an evening stroll to the quay area, which was rather lovely - ignoring the fact that there were about 5000 bridges that I dreaded passing.



Then I also made some pictures of the campus, but they really don't do it any justice. I mean, the fact that it's built on a hill is really annoying, but it makes for some nice views.






This is only a really small part of campus, but it's the part with the best views, and also the place were we will spend most of our time as students of English.

I made an effort with the first two pictures, the rest were made with my phone so please bear with me - I'll try to bring my camera more often - even if it makes me kinda look like an idiot.