Faith, Love and Lore: Harlow 2009

This has been the best possible way to spend a semester! we had classes one day a week! we went to Europe on the weekends, and we got to see all those churches!! We really could not have gotten to know the history, ideals, and culture of England any better than we did. It never really felt like we were learning, but in fact we were!
I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for being such wonderful, hilarious people. I am so glad that i got to know the entire population of PEI (just kidding). I do look forward to seeing you all again very soon, and i will be back in Europe as soon as i can, and I’ll have my eyes out for those Norman arches.
cheers!

We saw the play ‘Blood Brothers’ early on in our trip, and I can’t stop thinking about it! It is a story of class struggle and love, two things that we have seen a lot in our study of faith, love and lore. The play tells the story of two brothers who are torn apart at birth because their mother cannot afford to support them. A wealthy women their mother is working for takes one of the boys in as her own, and the boys grow up in two completely different environments.
Despite their differences they develop a truly beautiful friendship. But, as they grow up they grow apart because of these differences. Micky, the ‘poor’ brother falls into the harsh realities of his life, while Eddie, the ‘rich’ one continues to succeed as he goes off to university and becomes a lawyer. Although he is living in the ‘real’ world he is living in an innocent, ideal world, just like the one they created as children. The knowledge that life is much more complicated (especially by the love they have for the same girl),and the knowledge that they are brothers, which they discover at the end of the play, are the destruction of their lives. The story re-worked the motifs of Cain and Abel. It also brought up those realities of class struggle which pervade everyday life. Although I grew up in a world much like Micky’s, i now live in the world of innocence which Eddie lives in. The play made clear to me the fine line between the two.

I wrote this post a few months ago, but it seems only right to put it here, at the end of the course. Goodbye everyone, and have a fantastic Christmas.

This week, our focus for the study of Medieval Literature is on The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer’s fictional collection of stories told on pilgrimage from Southwark, London, to the tomb of Sir Thomas Becket at Canterbury. Sitting down to read this text, I remembered something that our tour guide at St. Albans had said to my tour group in passing. To paraphrase, he mentioned that our journey through the “Faith, Love and Lore” program and the journeys of pilgrims in the middle ages have a great deal in common.
So far, our field trips have taken us to Ely Cathedral, to Kings College Chapel in Cambridge, and to the burial place of St Edmund. We have all stood within feet of the shrine of St. Alban at St Albans Cathedral. We have all walked freely around Hertfordshire, the environment in which Christina of Markyate lived and worshiped. Soon we will be visiting Waltham Abbey where the last Saxon King of England has his tomb, the city of Norwich where Dame Julian lived as an anchoress, and even Canterbury itself – the destination of Chaucer’s pilgrims

I cannot claim to know what exactly the tour guide meant. Perhaps he believed that the mere act of physically traveling to St Albans Cathedral made us pilgrims by nature? Like the medieval travelers our journey has been hard. It is easy, after all, to overlook the discomfort experienced on the economy seats of a transatlantic flight, and the perilous fidgeting of a bus full of students on a two hour long haul. Many of us, like peasants, barely scraped together the funds to make it on this trip, while others more closely resemble the wealthy nobles of the middle ages. We come from a variety of backgrounds, from a handful of provinces or cities, yet we are all united by a common drive.
I think our resemblance to the pilgrims who we study is greater than our physical presence in these places. The similarity operates on a more meaningful level than that.
We, the followers of the “Faith, Love and Lore” program, pilgrimage not in the pursuit of the practice and confirmation of our own faith, but in scholarly examination of the faith of those who have gone before us. Just as the pilgrims of the past trod the paths of the Saints who were so crucial in the formation of their histories, so to do we honor the men, women, and (I have little doubt) children of the medieval period who now stand as saints to modern students, and who were so crucial in the formation of our own heritage. We pilgrimage in celebration of their lives, and in the effort to draw meaning for them and us out of the uncertainty of their world.

So as most everyone has seen, I suck at goodbyes.
This has been one of the greatest experiences of my life and all the people I have met have been absolutely incredible.
I am honestly going to miss every single one of you and feel as though everyone has really made this trip what it is.
I have really enjoyed this program as a whole and I feel as though I have seen my life’s worth of churches.  I think it has been a great thing to actually get to see places that we talk about and where the people we learn about have been or are (shrine-wise).
My favorites have been Blood brothers, Les Mis, Canterbury, Sutton Hoo and Wenhaston.
The last, Wenhaston was fantastic.  What I liked about it was that the ladie’s tour was stationary, short and to the point and we got cookies. Never before did a fieldtrip end in cookies! I also loved Dillon and little pup over at the pub
Prince Edward Island is lovely but it has honestly got nothing on England.
I want to thank you all for this fantastic experience and I had better see you all again. You hear?

I’m going to back track again, shocking I know.
I feel as though one of the field trips which helped me to better grasp the concept of one of our readings.  The field trip was our viewing of Blood brothers and the reading was Cain and Abel.  I felt as though actually seeing the story played out infront of us was fanastic, besides the fact that I adored the show!
Blood brothers was a great play demonstrating jealousy between two brothers and what can result from that.  It showed Mickey’s jealousy of Eddie’s life as we saw with Cain’s jealousy of God’s interest in Abel.
I do not think I laughed that hard in a long time and mickey was absolutely perfectly cast!
I enjoyed it ever so much and would go to see it again in a heartbeat, especially now that Mel C my favorite spice girl is now Mrs. Johnston.

Bethany Fitzpatrick

One again, here’s Alyssa with a back-in-time post!

Canturbury Cathedral, of all the many cathedrals we have visited through-out this trip, was the most impressive and awe-inspiring. After having studied The Canterbury Tales numerous times in classes, it was amazing to finally visit the place where all of Chaucer’s pilgrims had been heading.

From outisde, Canturbury was simply stunning. It was amazing to walk up to the centre of town and see this building rise up in front of us. We were modern pilgrims, traveling there, if not for spiritual healing, then for educational experience.

Inside, the nave and its vaulted ceiling were enough to put a kink in your neck as you stared upwards.

Throughout the semester so far we have studied the wealth and might of the church, pre- and post-reformation. Here, at Canturbury Cathedral, we saw the culmination of some of that power and wealth.

-Alyssa

So last weekend I used my 100 pounds to go on a trip to Wales.  The weather was horrific with torrential rains but it’s such a beautiful place I still loved it.  However, my one goal of the trip was to get up to Fairy Glen where my great-great-great grandmother grew up.  Apparently there are a lot of magical beings up on those hills from faerie to dragons.  So off I went.  I’d debated for awhile whether to go or not since it was such bad weather, but on Sunday I had five hours before my train left and the sun seemed to be trying to peek out so I decided to risk it.  I managed to get a taxi up to the glen but since it was close to lunchtime  I thought I would eat first.  No sooner had I sat down at my table than it began to rain in buckets!  But I’d come all the way up here so I decided to walk through the mountains anyway.  The wind almost blew me over, and I almost went sliding down the hill on my bottom, but it was worth it.  The mountains are incredible and the view over the foothills and across the ocean are breath taking.  Since the weather was so bad the only other creatures up there was a horse and two sheep.  The sheep ignored me and the horse tried to bite me, so I didn’t stay in their company for long.  Despite the fact that I got soaked through, the journey was worth it, the view is breathtaking, wild, and, yes, slightly otherworldly.  It isn’t hard to believe that some sort of otherworldly creature still lurks up that footpath and throughout those hills.  I personally didn’t see a dragon, though.  I figure that, unlike me, it had the common sense not to go out in such bad weather!

So here is a nice little story I thought I would share with everyone.  When I was in Spain I went to Picos de Europa–huge, huge mountains!  And while there I went to Covadonga caves which had a church actually built inside of it.  It was pretty spectacular.  More importantly, however, was the river at the bottom of the cave and the legend attached to it.  Apparently if you flipped a coin over your shoulder and took a drink from the fountain you would get married within the next three years.  So I did it and then as I was walking down the steps I was bumped into by some random guy and dropped my tourist pamphlets.  When I bent down to pick them up I found myself looking into the eyes of the most drop-dead gorgeous guy I have ever seen in my life!  I’m telling you guys, it was a total Marius and Cossette moment!  I’m pretty sure I heard music in the background.  So we fell in love and I’m now writing this from a lovely resort in Southern Greece where we went for our honeymoon.  Thank you Covadonga, and I apologize to Les Miserables, I will never, ever question true love at first sight again!

P.S.  Okay, so maybe I exaggerated the story just a tad… but I really did go to Covadonga, and it really was fantastic.  And I did throw in a coin… of course, my companion Laura also threw in a coin and she’s only eleven years old.. hm…

Okay, so I thought why not make a blog post about what I have learned in England to aid, instruct, and inspire future Harlow travellers!

So here it is:

1. In Jolly old England pedestrians never, ever, EVER have the right of way! And this includes when you are standing in parking spaces. It’s a dog eat dog world and I’m pretty sure the guy in the mini-van is the tougher dog!

2. Standing in the center of the sidewalk to take the classic shot of Big Ben can be hazardous to your health particularly when it’s rush hour.

3. A Canadian’s conception of when the subway bus is too full to fit anymore is not the same as the English conception. Anyone suffering from claustrophobia may want to take the above ground route. Those five hours you’ll save on the subway just may not be worth it.

4. If the subway stops in the middle of the tunnel it could mean there’s a bomb threat. However, if you are the only one hyperventilating it could just be a five minute delay. In other words: look to your neighbors.

5. Even if you think that a “Mind the Gap” condom is freaking hilarious, if you’re too embarrassed to show it to your prospective partner than you might as well save your money– I’m just sayin’.

6. Just because every chinese food stall in Camden market is offering free samples, doesn’t mean that your stomach will be able to handle every free sample. Especially if you then need to take the crowded subway home (see note 3).

7. Finally, and this one is for the campus staff, if you have money left over from the trip and you want to throw a party for the students, do. It’s a fabulous idea. However, if you want to have any pence leftover the next day do not, I repeat, do not give the students an open-bar. We will take full advantage of it!

And so concludes my post on lessons I have learned. Hopefully these snippets of advice will aid all future travelers who come to England and the wonderful Harlow Campus! Happy journeys!

Hi guys! Alyssa here again. I’m posting an older post that I was unable to get up earlier in the semester…so let me take you back in time!

Les Miserables is a well-known musical–perhaps one of the most well-known musicals and, excitingly, attending it was part of our Faith, Love and Lore program. Even as a piece of musical theatre, it slots nicely into the themes of our classes. It involves an intense storyline about the spiritual and political journeys of a number of characters.

This musical deals with the intersection of state and religion, a theme that we have dealt with at great length with the study of Henry VIII. Amidst the spiritual issues surrounding the two main characters, brutal political turmoil has the younger generation of characters preoccupied. Unlike what happened with Henry VIII and his marriages, where politics and religion where initially at odds, the political machinations of both Javert and Valjean are supported by their spiritual beliefs.

Attending such a production, above and beyond the themes, was a great experience to incorporate into a program that deals so closely with religious and literary themes. It promotes the ability to synthesize more than the obvious academic links, and the chance to see how these academic themes can be nearly universally present.

-Alyssa