T minus 2 days

Surprisingly, this is the first blog I've ever attempted. Fortunately it will only be 10 days long.  :o)

This month, I took 19th Century British Literature for May Term at Indiana Wesleyan. Why? Well that's easy. Part of the class is a ten day trip to the UK.

The class started on May 4 and we've had eight days of classes including lectures, quizzes, and two exams. Today was our final exam for the class, and now all that's left is the trip!

We depart on Sunday, May 15 (leaving Chicago a little after 5:00 pm) on British Airways, have a connection in London at 8:00 am, and arrive in Edinburgh, Scotland at around 9:20 am on May 16. From there, we'll embark on a ten day literary tour that highlights Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, and the Brontë sisters - the main authors we studied in the class. We'll depart from London on May 24, arriving back in Chicago at about 6:00 pm. The itinerary outline is as follows:

Day 1 - Departure from Chicago
Day 2 - Arrive in Edinburgh - Symington (2 nights)
Day 3 - Day trip to Scott's View, Dryburgh Abbey and Abbotsford
Day 4 - Symington - Lake District (1 night)
Day 5 - The Lake District - Haworth (1 night)
Day 6 - Haworth - Chawton - Farnham (2 nights)
Day 7 - Day trip to Bath
Day 8 - Farnham - Box Hill - London (2 nights)
Day 9 - London
Day 10 - Departure from London

The last grade I get for the class will be the completion of a journal. But I've noticed that, in the past few days, I've had about 39845028745 people ask me to tell them all about the trip and bring back pictures. (Okay maybe not quite that many. But you know.) So I decided to kill two birds with one stone. The blog can serve both as my journal for the class, and as an easy way for me to share my trip with everyone else who wants to know about the shenanigans I get myself into over there. :)

T minus 2 days. Tomorrow: packing!

"Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns. These things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are as distinct as is vice from virtue. Men too often confound them: they should not be confounded; appearance should not be mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ. There is - I repeat it - a difference; and it is a good, and not a bad action to mark broadly and clearly the line of separation between them." -Charlotte Brontë, Preface, Jane Eyre