Florida Southern College May Option

May 1 - 25, 2000

England and Paris

Florida Southern College offers a month long England trip for students to travel and study.  So the summer before our junior year, my roommate Liz and I jumped at the chance to go. So on May 1st, 10 students and 5 professors boarded a plane bound for London.  Once we arrived we took another 3 hour bus trip to the city of Grantham, our "home" for the next couple of weeks.  We stayed and studied at Harlaxton Manor, operated by the Unversity of Evansville.  The exterior of Harlaxton was used in the film The Haunting.  While on the trip, I took the classes Comparative Criminology and British Literature.  Every morning we had classes the afternoons and weekends were free.  We took a Friday afternoon trip to Nottingham where we saw the statue of Robin Hood, the art museum, the textile museum, and the Jersalem ("the oldest pub in England").  The following Saturday, the whole group headed to Cambridge and spent the day wandering the old churches, colleges, and street market.

We also took a tour of Belvior Castle, the Grantham Police Station, the Crown Court in Lincoln, the Lincoln Cathedral, Newstead Abby (home of Lord Byron) and D.H. Lawrence's birthplace in Eastwick. After mid-terms the girls headed to Edinburgh, Scotland to celebrate!  We explored the city as well as St. Andrew's golf course, and Stirling (where William Wallce of Braveheart fame was from).  One the return trip, we stopped in York, possibly one of my favorite spots.  Then it was time to travel to London's Regent's College  for the remander of our trip.  Along the way we made stops in Oxford and Stratford-Upon-Avon. Our first day in London, our Criminology class toured the US Embassy and then Alice and I saw Les Miserables! It was fantastic!  The next day our Literature class toured the British Museum, the Tate Modern Art Museum, and saw The Tempest at the Globe Theater.

Alice and I spent a day in London visiting the Barbican Art Museum (for the Art of Star Wars Exhibit), Westminster Abbey, Trifalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Notting Hill (where we got lost!), and the Hard Rock Cafe. Once classes were done, Liz and I hopped on the Chunnel and headed to Paris!  We  rode to the top of the Eiffel Tower, climbed the Arc de Triomphe, walked the Champs Elysees, and toured the Lourve, Sacre Coure, the D'Orsay Museum, and the Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise (where we saw the graves of Chopin and Jim Morrison).

We also toured Norte Dame, Versailles and thanks to Jordan's friend Fabien, Euro Disney!

Then it was back to London were we crammed in seeing the Kensington Gardens, the Peter Pan statue, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Tower of London.  Then it was time for that long flight home....but what an amazing trip and I even got A's in my classes!

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