Literature Trip 2007 UK and France 28th May to 8th June.

hello World :)

miss chia (who seriously looks like a rockstar here) and I:)

its surprising how i finally find the inspiration to blog - at 12.32 am ( 6.32 am in UK) 3 days after the end of the Literature trip. I guess my unwillingness to write was because i wasnt ready to express my experience from the amazing trip into comprehendable words. With my use of the english language, it totally undermines the depth and resonance from the trip. its times like this where i just want to send my brain over to lorraine loh (author of my very first blogpost) or lesley sia (go find her link and read her blog!) and let them express the experience for me. nonetheless, since this is my blog, i shall do it my way. :) enjoy!

As comparable to how Mark Leong was feeling pangs of anxiety at the beginning of the trip as he was the only science fac student there who took neither lit or history thus not knowing anyone but Warran well enough to promise a fulfilling trip, I had my own qualms as well. Being the only girl from my class to go with the rest of the guys on this trip and only knowing Phoebe and Kelly from another class well, i was worried if i'd be torn between the boys (who would maybe be stuck with more of their VS men) and just Phoebe and Kelly. Being meiyi, i dont really like the idea of sticking to just a couple of friends, so i was skeptical about the whole thing really. Besides this at the back of my mind, I arrived half an hour late at the airport. the latest news i received was to meet at 10.30pm at Terminal 1, unfortunately, i did not receive the updated news to meet at 1o. so there I went, nearly strutting in at 10.30pm, panicking at the sight of an already gathered yellow and white mass of students and teachers. Since i didnt even turn up for the lit trip briefing, people like Warran and Jeremy scared me. Seriously they did, i hadn't even seen them in Vj before! (ok dang my blindness).

And there it was, a PROMISING trip ahead!

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Ok, i shall get down to the juicy bits.

First, it was the mist that came out of our mouths when we exclaimed with joy at the first sight of UK at Gatwick airport. that beautiful moment will always be etched in my mind forever! then it was viewing one of the 7 wonders of the world - the Stonehenge. in the super cold and chilling weather with strong winds and rain, i didnt stay to stay loads of group photos or anything, so this is from mark leong's cam:

then it was seeing Shakespeare's birthplace --and all the shops along the way which many had names of alliteration, like Creaky cauldron. this particular shop as well a shop named Nimbus also reminded us alot of names employed in Harry Potter, which made everything seem more quaint and alive! then it was the amazing heart stopping Big Bang Building which emerged just as we came out of the london tube station, and then the London Eye which came up around the corner.

that night we walked down the streets of busy London. besides the fact that a couple of drunk girls started hitting on the guys, everything else was perfect. An artsy-fartsy city- they were showing Swan Lake to a mass audience at Trafalgar Square and nearly every nook and cranny of the streets were advertising plays and musicals like Chicago, Les Mis (which we did watch!), the Lion King and so on.

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the next morning, quite alot of us took a walk to the Thameside Lake near our student hostel YHA. Feeling free at last, having no worry about feeding remnants of my breakfast to the swans and ducklings, bliss was in the air for many of us. Later we headed to the Imperial War Museum where the boys loved the guns, and the girls loved the trill of seeing just so many artefacts of WWI, WWII and post War. so many floors and so many rooms. I lost the girls almost immediately and the only person i found to endure the dark corners and actually quite scary live figures was Warran. Thank goodness!


some of day 3's photos. like what mark says, i should let the photos do the talking instead.


i shall stop at day 3. more coming up soon!