Hello, all! It has been over a week since my last blog post; I do apologize. I encountered connection issues during my last two days at Thomas More. I have been at Downside Abbey in Bath, England, since the afternoon of Tuesday, August 7. There is no WiFi and limited time to use the two available computers, so I have not been able to find a large enough window in order to compose a post. Also, since I cannot use my laptop, I am unable to upload pictures until I get to Oxford. I promise I'll post a bunch of photos from Bath when I can :)
For now, I'll go ahead and recap my last couple days at Thomas More.
On Saturday, August 4, we spent our lectures with Mrs. Kitzinger discussing the Tudor Revolution and the York Mystery Plays. We examined the political situations and actions that led to the Reformation in England under Henry VIII and read the "Act in Restraint of Appeals" and the notorious "Act of Supremacy". After reviewing the political side, we looked at the Reformation Theology, which I found particularly interesting. Mrs. Kitzinger focused mostly on the differing doctrines on salvation and ecclesiological approaches. For the rest of the class, we reviewed the background of the mystery play cycles and their significance to the people of England. The mystery plays presented the story of salvation on the stage, so all could recall their faith and enjoy themselves at the same time.
After Mass on Sunday, we began our five hour seminar on Shakespeare with Dr. Powers. We focused our discussion on Henry IV, The Merchant of Venice, and Julius Caesar, looking at the first scene of each play and relating it to the whole of the play. We evaluated, for each play, whether or not the first scene presented the main thesis or message of the entire work. We also explored Shakespeare's characterization of his protagonists in each of the plays. The remainder of my Sunday was spent packing, preparing for England, and enjoying my last hours at TMC.
On Monday, I finished packing and started saying goodbye to everyone. I was able to borrow a guitar and play a couple household songs at the Marian grotto. After pictures and hugs, we hopped in the van and headed to the Boston airport for our flight to Toronto, Canada.
Due to a change in flight times, we had a five hour layover in Canada. Since the city of Toronto is about an hour from the airport, we had to hang out in the airport the whole time. Thankfully, we were able to use American dollars! I was literally counting down the hours until we started boarding. Our flight was not very full, so we were able to move around in order to sit next to each other. We departed Canada around 8 PM and arrived, after a relatively sleepless night, in London around 9 AM. Retrieving our bags and getting through customs was a breeze, and then we headed to the bus station to board the 180 with service to Bath. Even with all the noticeable changes (currency, accents, taxicabs, driver's side), I still couldn't believe that I was finally in England.
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