Somehow, the time is whirling by, and I’ve been here for about three and half weeks! It’s been a packed and exciting time, and I’ve gotten to take a few day-trips around the area: to Dover Castle, Whitstable, and even to London for a long weekend (so that’s not technically a day-trip, but you get the idea)! I’ve noticed quite a few differences in the school system here as well, but I’ll expand on those later. For now, I’ll focus on the oh-so-English-y places I’ve seen–starting with Dover Castle.

An orientation trip with the university took the international students to Dover Castle, an impressive, sprawling fortress by the seaside and the white cliffs of Dover. The weather so far has been wonderful in general, and only the occasional cloud obscured the sea-sky. Seagulls were everywhere, and I could see the ferry headed toward France. (If I lied to myself, I could see the Eiffel Tower. Totally wishful thinking.) My favorite part of the castle was the view of the sea, of course, the glittering smoothness of it.

The castle itself consisted of long passageways–usually steep and underground–arrow-loops, a church, canons, and a battlement. Standing on the roof and gazing around, you can see miles and miles of rolling green and brown hills, along with the sea. Although the place is a little cozier now with a light lunch caf� shop and some carpeting in places, living in the castle would have been, for me, probably cold and hard…and there were so many steps everywhere! I had to keep reminding myself that the lucky ones lived in the castle. And it was lavish in places–just very dark and cold with stone. It was also extremely windy so that every picture of me turned out less than perfectly, haha. Such is England!

It was nice too to go there with a group of people and get to know them better. In fact, seeing Dover made me want to visit another nearby coastal town: Whitstable. I’ll blog about that next time! Until then, cheers!

Location: Dover, UK