So long, FareWELL (Get it!)

Here it is folks. My second to last blog entry (That is probably a lie...but as of now it is). I am home safe and sound sitting on my bed in Suffern, NY after the most eventful three and a half months of my life. I will save the reflections for my last blog entry, but right now I need to finish up describing my travels and journeys from Well to London and then London back home.

My last final was Monday afternoon. After everything was done school wise I just sat around and tried to soak in as much of the castle and my surroundings as possible. The rest of Monday was spent relaxing and starting to pack my entire life back up into two bags.

Speaking of packing and bags...Let me say that Chester Lee and David Griffin are not only horrible at their jobs, but extremely rude human beings (I know...Anyone could read this...But if you are reading this Chester or David...I have already expressed my opinions I hold to your faces but here is again what I think of you). To get to London, all 80 of us were going to be flying AirBerlin. We had a travel meeting a week before we left to discuss specifics and in this meeting someone asked specifically if we were allowed to bring the same two bags weighing 50lbs each and Chester said yes. Monday night (aka not even two days before we were leaving) one of the girls at the castle looked on AirBerlin's website and saw that this is a lie. We were only allowed to bring 22 kg of luggage TOTAL (That is about 50lbs). For each kg that you went over, you had to pay 5 euros. She quickly emailed Chester Lee (Assistand Director of the castle) and he told her that we would be liable to pay any fees for overweight luggage. After looking at how absurd that was, she sent another email to David Griffin (Director of External Programs of Emerson) and he said the same thing. She then got a nasty email from Chester saying that she was rude to email David Griffin about the problem at hand. She was only doing what was right in trying to work everything out to avoid us from paying the fee. She also found out that Chester Lee had written an email to David Griffin saying that it was explained in the travel meeting that the bags could only be 20kg total (Which was an outright and blatant lie). After doing some math, I figured out that every single one of us would have had to pay 125 euros each (About $190) to get our bags to London.

After I heard about what was going on, I immediately sent an email to David Griffin explaining in a firm, yet polite, manner that it is unacceptable what is going on and that they needed to come up with a solution that did not require us to spend money we did not have left. As some people who know me, I do not deal well with people who try and take advantage of me and ignore any problems that are going on (ie everything that happened at my job this summer). I also knew that an email to just David Griffin would not get anything done, so I CCed it to Chester Lee (So he would know what is going on), Dulcia Meijers (The Director of the castle who was on leave this semester) and Jackie Leibergott (President of Emerson College). A few of us also went around the castle and encouraged other students to send similar emails. I knew that if the two of them got inundated with emails and saw that head honchos such as Dulcia and Jackie were being notified of their mistakes, that they would get something done. Sure enough, later that night we all got a mass email from Chester Lee saying things were worked out. In true Chester Lee form however, the email was rude and condescending. However the bottom line is that everything worked out and we didn't have to pay a dime for our bags. But if we hadn't made such a huge stink about it, the two of them would have just blown it off and ignored the issue while we got inundated with fees.

Tuesday morning I woke up and got my room ready for the inventory and room check. Huber and some woman (I still don't know her name) came by and checked all of our rooms and made sure nothing was damaged or missing. Everything was fine and they went on their way. At around 4pm, Blake, Paulina, Laura and I decided to watch the sunset. I wanted to get a few of us together again just as we did on our first night in Well. It was very peaceful and nice to walk around the grounds one last time.

Then around 5, our activities began. The first thing to happen was a tree planting ceremony. Apparently every semester the class plants a tree at the castle so that part of us will always be there. It was cute and symbolic. After that we all walked into town to go to De Grote Waay. It is a really nice restaurant that Nellie (The woman who cooked our food) ran. We had a really nice dinner that definitely made up for some so-so dining hall adventures.




Me and Paulina at dinner


Me and Michelle


Spencer and John


Me and Blake


(Going clockwise) Blake, Michelle, Me, Lily, Caroline


Jessica, Me, David


Lauren and Me


Jessye and Me


Ashley and me taking an awkward Christmas card photo


Me and Devon


Me and John


Spencer and Me


Alicia and I can't take our eyes off each other


Me and Alicia


Mer and me doing an awkward prom picture


Jessica, Mer, Lauren and I


Caroline

After dinner we were told to go back to the barn. Upon arrival to the barn we were treated to a lipsync version of the Spice Girls performed by the male staff...







After one song another person came out wearing a bright pink hoodie and spandex pants...It was my World Since 1914 professor Ralph Trost! It just made me love that man even more.




We put Johnny and Rene through so much this semester. We made them dress up as the Spice Girls, Santa's slaves, Halloween monsters...

After they were done we went to Sophie's to watch all the other Farewell performances. There were some great performances, but the highlight of the night had to have been Ashley Whiting's stand up routine. This girl is the younger heterosexual version of Ellen.

Of course after everything was done around midnight, everyone headed over to the Linden for one last Dutch drink. I wasn't going to go because I was really tired, but I went for about a half hour or so. It was fun as always and a nice way to end.



Spencer and John


Me and Donia (sp?) who was one of my favorite staff members


Spencer and Johnny


John and Meredith



One last dance on the pool table



Caroline and Chris



To say goodbye Jack (The owner) brought out these big sparkler things...





Last Linden Shakey face...



Blake and I dancing behind the bar


Ok so I lied about the last shakey face...We got the Duke to take a shakey face with us!!

The next morning I woke up and was in such a weird mood. I knew that everything I did that morning would be the last. The last time I wake up in my bed, in a castle, in Holland. The last time I walk down those steep stairs to brush my teeth. The last time I eat in the dining hall.


Me in front of the castle


Blake and I


Last Dutch shakey face

So here is me and Blake on the first day of the semester in September...


And this is us now at the end...



I spent the day finishing my packing and soaking in everything. Finally we got on a bus and bid adieu to the castle. We had a 3pm flight to London and got to London about 3:30 (Hour time difference...). In true castle form, it took us over an hour to leave Stansted, hit traffic and didnt get to the county "hotel" until 6pm. Blake and I had tickets to see at show at 7:30 so we were in a big rush. We didnt get checked in until 7, and then we had to RUN to the tube stop and RUN to the theatre. We ended up getting there at around 7:34 but still made the beginning of the show.

Now let me rewind a bit. I am not sure if I talked about this in any earlier blogs or not, but about a month ago I got an email from my friend Lexie's mother. I have known Lexie since 7th grade and now she goes to Emerson with me, but she stayed back in Boston this semester. Lexie's uncle was a publicist for a lot of Broadway shows and worked in London a lot. Unfortunately last year he died. One of his best friends named Malcolm Sinclair (No relation that we know of) came over from London to speak at the funeral. Malcolm met Lexie's uncle because he is an actor in the West End. He ended up staying in NY for a few weeks and getting to know Lexie's family pretty well. Libby (Lexie's mom) sent me an email telling me that I should get in touch with him and he could maybe show me around when we went back to London. We emailed back and forth and set up plans to meet when I went back to London right before I came home. He is currently starring in a show called Dealer's Choice at a theatre in the West End in London, so he got Blake and I tickets to see it. Afterwards we met up with him and went out for drinks and dinner with him.

He is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. He is hysterical and so kind. The entire night, he did not let us pay for a single thing and that included dinner and a bunch of drinks. We started off at a pub next to the theatre with two of his other friends. After a drink there, his friends left and we went to a restaurant for dinner. We went to Joe Allen's (In the words of Malcolm "Of course I'm taking two Americans to a fucking American restaurant in London..."). Like Joe Allen's in NY, a lot of actors go there after their shows. All throughout dinner people kept coming up to him and complimenting him in the show. It was so much fun to be sitting at dinner with a legit West End actor. After dinner we went back to his apartment (or flat) and hung around there for a little bit longer. We ended up staying out until 3:30am. At this point we got in a cab and went back to our "hotel."



Blake, Malcolm and me

The next day I woke up, got breakfast and then headed out with some people to Camden Town. It is where all the punks and goths go in London and has a bunch of cool little shops and cheap food. I got lunch and then headed off on my own. I wanted to go to the National Gallery because I didn't get to go the first time we were in London and one of my favorite paintings is in there (Bathers at Asnieres by Seurat). I found the painting and then roamed around a little bit. After the National Gallery I just sort of wandered around London. I love having time to myself in cities like that. It is so peaceful.

Then at 3:30 we had a tour of...The BBC. The BBC has been a huge joke with Michelle and I the entire semester, so we had a lot of fun. It was an interesting tour and we got to see a bunch of different studios and inner workings of the BBC.


BBC Shakey face

The tour got out around 5 so Blake and I once again had to rush over to the National Gallery because we were meeting Malcolm there for tea. It was good to see him one last time, as well and nice to say I have had tea in London. Malcolm had to go do a show, so we said goodbye to him and then walked over to Piccadilly Circus.





After walking around for a little bit, we met up with Spencer and John to have our last dinner in Europe. We ate at an Italian restaurant in Leicester Square. After dinner, we found a carnival that was going on in Leicester Square so we decided to have fun there.


Me, Spencer, John, and Blake







Bumper Cars!

Finally a lot of people were going over to this club for one last hurray. I was tire/poor so I didn't really want to go, but I ended up going and just sitting and talking to people. It was a nice calm last night.


Me imitating Caroline

The next day...was hell. We woke up at 6am London time (1am EST). We boarded a bus at 7 to catch a plane at 1:45. Everything went fine though. We got to the airport, checked in, boarded the plane. The plane ride went a lot faster than I thought. It was about 8 hour to Detroit, but did not feel like it at all. I slept for a little bit, but not too long. We landed in Detroit around 5 at which point everyone whipped out their cell phones and started calling everyone they know because it was the first time in months we could use our phones. Our flight to Boston left around 7:30 and got there at 9. We were greeted by a bunch of Emerson kids which was fun. I got my luggage and got a cab back to Boston where I met up with Lexie. She literally jumped on me for about 2 minutes in the lobby of the LB and then we went up to her room. It was really strange being back and also being at Emerson for such a short time.

I spent the night with Lexie and then my parents picked me up the next morning. We left Boston around noon and got home by 4. Like I thought, the ride back that used to feel long toward the end, felt like an hour. I am so used to long travel trips now, that it was nothing.

It was really nice to sleep in my own bed. I fell asleep at around 10 and woke up the next morning, or afternoon I guess at 1. Yup 15 hours of sleep!

I am still trying to recover from the sleep deprivation of the past 3-4 months, but whatever. I lived in a castle.