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The Hardships of Traveling

Learning how to cope while traveling is important because you are being exposed to a lot of new things. Traveling in a large group can make things even harder especially when you have an introverted personality. Winding down to the end of our journey has been the most difficult for some of us. Tensions between others can be high and things are easily misunderstood or misinterpreted. However, there are ways that you can learn to handle being in a large group for weeks at a time. When you have free time use it to your advantage. Get away from the noise and go hang out with a small group of friends or go for a walk by yourself. Sometimes it’s better to be alone and there’s nothing wrong with being alone. If you have had a particularly stressful day, find someone you trust to confide in. Afterwards, take a nice long hot shower to relax. If you are having problems with another person and feel that you can talk to them about it than talk out your issues. It is okay if you do not feel comfort
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Dunsinane Hill and Scone

Going to Dunsinane Hill to read the end of Macbeth was informative. When reading the play it was not obvious that there was a fortress at the peak. I somehow imagined that the soldiers were just fighting on a hill. Now that I have climbed the hill I have realized how wrong my imagination was. The hill is very steep and would not be easy for the offensive side. I truly think that Macbeth had the advantage in real life even though he did lose that battle. I also think that being in Braemar and going to Dunsinane made Macbeth the king and Macbeth the character easier to distinguish from each other. The play is not a history and so many people take this story as reality without realizing the history behind it. Getting to explore Scone Palace afterwords made so much sense to the story. Although Malcolm III was not Macbeth’s immediate successor, the first crowing at Scone did occur after Macbeth with his stepson. I find it incredible that they still have the original coronation throne des
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"King Duncan has been killed"

May 4th Evening Blog This evening, after the hike, we had some down time at the hostel. Many of us went into town and shopped around while others stayed at the hostel or explored the mountains some more. Its been a really nice day, the weather warmer than expected this day, which made for a nice evening. The class gathered in the kitchen area of the hostel and cooked dinner. All of us had agreed to make breakfast for dinner, which was an amazing idea. Group activities such as this always have a way of bringing groups together, especially if french toast is involved. After dinner the Macbeth group in the class has planned to do their group activity. The class has gathered in the lounge and was handed group discussion questions to go over. During the discussion the Macbeth group had bursted into the room shouting “King Duncan has been killed!” which made the group activity much more exciting. At this point everyone was handed a clue and the group activity has continued. Each group i
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A walk through Braemar

May 4th Morning Blog This morning we woke up in a hostel in Braemar, Scotland. It's a small village in the middle of beautiful mountains, that surround the area. Today the group had some class time after breakfast to discuss a few important concepts of our travel and of the activities and plays we have seen on the trip so far. This is a nice place to catch up before traveling back to London for the remainder of our trip. Here it is very quiet and relaxing, whereas London is city life. After our class discussion we had time to get lunch. A few of us walked into town that was right around the corner from our hostel, to get lunch. The food here is amazing. People here are much more health conscious than they are in America. Here they don't add a bunch of salt or butter to everything so you can taste the natural flavor in the food. After lunch the class met back up and we went on a hike that took us through the village and up along the mountain. The walk was much more enjoyabl
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Studying abroad with a Physical Disability

For those that don’t know me, I’m Amber. A week and a half before I had to leave the states to go on a trip of a lifetime, I accidentally injured my left knee, severely. As a result of that, the possibility of me going on the study abroad trip wasn’t looking that good. After annoying several different medical professionals, I was given the green light to do this Shakespearean infused adventure. The group and I have been through a lot in the past two weeks. I might have not been able to do as much as I have without the help of my professors and classmates. They have offered me help whenever I could need help. Sometimes I take it and other times I don’t (even thought I should, in all actuality, take it). This brings to mind the one point I want to give to whoever reads this: know your own limitations. If you think you can do it then attempt it, but don’t hurt yourself more while doing so. Two instances of this happening to me so far had completely different results. The first instance
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"Toh-mah-to"

Post originally from April 30th: April 30th was our last day (Until we return from Scotland) In London. The plan for the day was packing everything up and have breakfast by 9 AM so we could all check out of the youth hostel. Our luggage was stored in the back room and with our backpacks we split up into groups for some free hours until we all met up in the station for our class portion of the day. Maya, Amber, Savannah, Hailey and I went to Kensington park. This was a location that I had personally been begging to go to so I was very lucky that they wanted to as well. The flat and huge park was unlike any I have ever seen. I am used to paths cutting through a forest but by the look of it all of the trees seemed to be planted and maybe some were naturally there but it had an unique look of all the different trees sprouting up from the existing field. It was beautiful. In Kensington we quickly saw that it was a dog paradise. All sorts of dogs were everywhere -- terriers dashed in cir
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Holyrood and Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh This city is a stark contrast with London.  Where London has had to rebuild from losses sustained in a devastating fire in the 1700’s and the Blitz during WW2, the Scottish capital has had no such losses.  Most of the city buildings, at least where we were staying, look to date back as far as the 18th century and often older.  And nothing was older than the Royal Mile, a stretch of basically ancient road connecting the city’s two palaces.  As you can imagine, this is a huge tourist destination; the whole pedestrian zone was lined with shops promising tartan, well-made scarves and Celtic jewelry.  And food, lots of that.  Even the buildings on the lest populated stretch near Holyrood were covered with baroque columns and look as though they have stood the test of time.  Considering where they are, they have. The entire complex was built on top of a dormant volcano: Holyrood at the bottom and Edinburgh Castle at the crest.  This is especially significant if you know that Ho
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