I took the whole range of classes from a class on Chaucer and contemporaries to 17th century Augustan satire (Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, etc.) to Romantic lit in the 18th century (Wordsworth, Coleridge, etc.) and finally modern drama, which actually covered playwrights from multiple countries including Ibsen, Brecht, and more. If you've ever noticed the cyclical patterns that most movements take whether it be history, politics, literature, art, or whatever, you will understand what an amazing semester it was for me seeing the movement of literature over a thousand years or more.

Aside from getting to take interesting classes, I was in London! King's College is incredible because it is right on the Strand (the river that runs through the center of the city.) Walking out of our main building, St. Paul's was a 5 minute walk east, Covent Garden a 5 minute walk northwest, and other wonders like Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, the National Gallery, Tate Modern, the London Eye, and more were all within 10-15 minutes.

London is arranged by zones which are roughly concentric circles radiating out from the city center. I lived in zone 2 and would take a bus or train/tube (subway) into class each day. Having come from a rural area, I found the metro system exciting and enjoyed the challenges of finding the best and fastest way to get into class.

Classes were quite different from what I was used to as well. Two of my classes were more typical to the ones back home with a smaller class group that met together. The other two were divided so that one day we would be in a large lecture format and then the other day we would break down into smaller discussion-oriented classes where we would also have projects (such as taking a particular playwright and preparing a presentation for our classmates.)

The other thing that amazed me about our classes was that there were no graded assignments. While we were expected to come prepared for class, we were not graded. Our entire grade was to rest on a paper halfway through the year and a bigger paper and exams at the end of the year. (As I was only there for a semester, I had to write a mid-term paper and a final paper that was due after I was already back in the US.)

During reading week (when I should have been writing my midterm papers - I finished them ahead of time) I went touring Europe. This was an amazing whirlwind as we went to 9 countries in a little less than 2 weeks. On the itinerary - Great Britain (obviously since the tour started in London), France, Belgium (we only drove through), the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. If you were counting that's only eight. While we were in Italy, we went to Vatican City, which is technically it's own country - a fact I never knew before, so that made nine.

Although I would have loved to spend so much more time everywhere we went (often we were in each country no more than a day or two), it was a fantastic opportunity to get a flavor for Europe and see some of the unique aspects of each country we visited. I also found it ironic that I learned almost as much about Australia and New Zealand on that tour as any European country since the tour group I was with was composed primarily of Aussies and Kiwis.

As you will see from my pictures, almost all of them were from my time on this trip since while I was in London, I rarely went around with camera in hand. I took the occasional trip to visit various places in England such as Cambridge or Warwick castle (don't you dare pronounce the second 'w' in that word!). However, mostly I was studying and absorbing the atmosphere of London, hanging out with my fellow university students (I was living in a dorm with all the Brits) and savoring truly living and being part of a different culture.