I don't have much by way of an introduction today, so let's jump right into things, shall we?
Gender Identities in Medieval Literature: This class has shown me that medieval women tend to be portrayed as either extremely good or the root of all evil. The degree to which they're either praised or demonized usually correlates directly to their involvement with the church. For example, Adelheid, who founded several monasteries, was immortalized as a good and just queen. Meanwhile, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who staged a coup against her husband and the church, was portrayed as a bit of a devil woman. So yeah, if you want to have a happy life and decent eulogy in the middle ages, don't tick off the church.
Fantasies of Youth: For this course, I read and analyzed Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. Turns out, the original version is nothing like the Disney version. The original Peter Pan is a fever dream, and I would like to know who gave J.M. Barrie his deep psychological scars.
Writing for Children: To make a long story short, this class continues to feed my love of middle-grade fantasy. Also, I do not care what people say; Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy is witty and extremely funny. If you'll excuse me, I have to go buy the other eight books in the series.
Advanced Creative Writing Tutorial: I didn't meet with my tutor at all last week, but I met with her twice this week! In both sessions, she basically watched me stalk around the table, examining my novel timeline and muttering to myself. She also lent me a super cool book about story structure. I hope they pay her well for this.
As you can probably tell, my classes were fun this past week. Fortunately, my extracurricular activities were equally fun. On Monday, I went and trained with Bath Historical Martial Arts, another local HEMA group. The practice took place in an old church, which really established the atmosphere. If you're going to swordfight in England, I'd highly recommend doing so in a place that feels like it could've housed fights from ancient history. Unfortunately, I had to train with a foam weapon, but I did get to learn how to fight with a dussack, which was cool. I also met some super awesome people, which is always a plus.
St. Matthew's Church, aka The Prettiest Building I've Ever Sparred In
On Tuesday, I attended a blogging workshop, so my posts might get better from here on out (I somewhat doubt it though, sorry). Then, on Wednesday, I went to a Jane Austen dancing class, which was ridiculously fun. The best description I have for it is "square dancing, but fancy." There were around 20 of us in attendance, and for each dance, we had to partner up and try to follow along as the caller announced the steps. I tripped over my own feet, failed miserably at keeping time, totally forgot how a twirl works, and had an absolutely marvelous time. Even though I was wearing my standard t-shirt and jeans, I felt like I had stepped into a 19th-century ball, complete with flourishes and fancy gowns. I can't wait to attend the class again.
Saturday brought about my favorite escapade of the entire week (and perhaps of my entire time in England so far): The Wiltshire Game and Country Fair. My trip to this event truly classified as an adventure. First of all, to get anywhere near the Fair, I had to take a train, which I have never done before. I had no idea how train stations work, but I somehow managed to get on the right train. After successfully making it from Bath to Chippenham, I hopped on a bus that deposited me basically in the middle of nowhere. From there, I set off towards the fairgrounds and ended up temporarily lost. I hiked in the wrong direction through the English countryside for around fifteen minutes, growing slightly more panicked with every second, then eventually realized where I had made a wrong turn and was able to navigate my way to the event.
I have no idea how train stations work
At the Fair, the real adventure began. There were so many awesome things to see and do that I could write an entire post about them alone. For the sake of brevity, I'll talk about the two things that caught my eye the most: the dog arena and Horseboarding.
The dog arena, as the name suggests, was home to all manner of presentations about dogs. One of these presentations involved teamwork between two hunters, a spaniel, and a trained hawk, and it was simply amazing to watch. The hunters had the dog find and "flush out" a fake rabbit. As the rabbit was dragged across the field by a rope, the hawk swooped down and landed on it, "killing" the rabbit. This demonstration was an astonishing display of animal training and handling, and I was seriously impressed. That being said, my absolute favorite presentation in the dog arena was the one that involved a pack of beagles. I'm a huge sucker for beagles, and getting to see 33 of them in one place (well, 32, since one of the little jerks ran off) was a load of fun for me. It definitely made me miss my own beagles back home.
Beagles! 33 Beagles!!!
The other highlight of the fair for me was the Horseboarding demonstrations. I don't really have the words to do it justice, so I'm going to let my pictures do the talking:
They were going 25 mph...
Though my Sunday wasn't nearly as exciting, it is worth mentioning that I got to meet Thomas Taylor, the author of Malamander. He was a very laid-back, charismatic person, and it was extremely neat to hear about where he found inspiration for his book. I will be attending another author event, this time with Frances Hardinge, in the near future, so stay tuned for my post about that. It's also essay season, so be prepared for plenty of academic rants about why essays are the bane of my existence.
Thanks for reading!
Abby
Artsy Picture of the Day: Somewhere in the English Countryside
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