A Dangerous Business

"'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.'" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Well, going by Mr. Bilbo Baggins' wisdom, this summer is going to be very dangerous for me. I will be spending the next seven weeks of my life exploring England with about forty other students from my college. We will be taking literature classes from two of our English department's incomparable professors along the way. My course load consists of C.S. Lewis, Shakespeare, and Modern British Lit. If you know me, you know how thrilled I am. England is the home of my imagination, and I am over the moon to be returning.


My travels will take me through the narrow streets of London, around the Lake District, down the ancient halls and around the sacred lawns of Oxford University, into Bath, and finally south to Tintagel. Literary landmarks will include Westminster Abbey, Canterbury, Tintern Abbey, the Bronte's Home in Haworth, George Herbert's church at Bemerton, The Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford, along with the British Library, the Tower of London, and many other fascinating and historic places.

Since the trip focuses so much on literature, I will do my best to blog my adventures here. I'll make a goal of posting something every day, and hopefully a picture with it. Knowing me, that will likely not happen, but it's always good to have great aspirations, right? So, yesterday was day 1: I left home and flew to Wheaton, spending the night at my roommate Margaret's house. Today, we checked into the apartments on campus and unpacked our bags for the next five days. We will begin classes here and fly into Heathrow on Friday.

Professor Jacobs and his family treated us to a pizza dinner in their backyard this evening, which was a lovely time for everyone to get reconnected and excited to begin studies tomorrow morning.

Highlight of the day: Rissa's plan to offer a class on dating for our school's relationship-ignorant students.