i am in the uk
hello from across the pond!! 🇬🇧
hi everyone!
sorry for not writing the last couple months! i’ve been really busy with grad school, finals, and packing! currently i’m on a study abroad trip with my grad program in the uk, which is an extremely cool new experience for me. i’ve only been abroad once before, back in 2018 after i graduated high school & my girl scout troop used our cookie money to take a cruise to bermuda. this is the furthest i’ve ever been from home, and my first time going more than one time zone over from est!
my study abroad trip is nearly over, and i figured i’d send this note out before i fly home. on this trip, we got to visit oxford, stratford-upon-avon, bletchley park, and london! today and tomorrow, we’re having relaxation/recovery days at our host college, before flying home early tuesday morning.
we spent two days in oxford, where we got special access to view items from a special collections archive and a tour of the public library! during my free time, i toured the ashmolean museum, the history of science museum, and went shopping in the covered market. i also walked around st. john’s college and took a lot of pictures. it was also exam season, so we passed a bunch of students in their special exam outfits with their carnations.
during our morning in stratford, we got to view items from the shakespeare archive, which included some really cool items from early royal shakespeare company productions. during my free time, i walked around the town, and went down to visit shakespeare’s grave, only to find out that you could enter the church for free, but had to pay five pounds to actually see his tomb (i did not do that. mostly out of principle). that afternoon, we went to bletchley park, where we learned about WW2 codebreakers. the highlight of that museum for me was their exhibit on alan turing, which included his teddy bear, and his official pardon from the british government.
we had two days in london, one where we visited the kew archives and the british library, and one free day to do whatever we wanted! on the first day, we had a short period of free time, which i used to go to gay’s the word, a historic queer bookstore in london. on my free day, i did more than i could list here, but some highlights include taking a picture in front of big ben in the exact spot where my mom took a photo during her high school trip in the eighties, visiting st. james’ park, and seeing the west end production of the lightning thief! i also visited berkeley square, took pictures outside the ritz, and went into the shrek-themed outhouse photobooth at shrek’s adventure.
when it comes to creative writing, to be honest, it has kind of been placed to the side in the last few months. i’m hoping to get back to it more this summer once i’m home again, now that my finals are over and i’ve finished all the assignments for my study abroad course. i have a few short story ideas i’ve been playing around with in the back of my mind that i’d like to get down on paper (or type up in google docs, rather). i’d also like to find my way back to my novel, as it hasn’t been touched or even looked at in months (even though i think about it all the time). i did take a writing seminar this semester, which met about once a month, and which i got some really valuable information and experience from! i’m hoping to take some of that with me when i return to creative writing.
i did get two of my poems published in my university’s literary magazine this semester! very cool as the magazine has been running for decades and is an established part of the university. i wasn’t able to get my hands on a physical copy, but i’m hoping maybe there will still be a few floating around in the fall when i return to campus.
since i haven’t been writing, i’ve been using up my creative energy in lots of other ways—primarily through crafting. i’m currently nearly finished with a large unicorn cross-stitch that i’ll finish up when i get back home, and am also nearly finished with a crochet audrey ii from little shop of horrors. i’ve also made lots of little crochet things: a small birthday present for a friend, a little scarf for a plushie, and so on! i feel like i’ve finally found my footing when it comes to crochet, which is exciting, and i’m starting to be more creative with my projects, able to take patterns and make them my own.
some songs i’ve been listening to:
man of the year - lorde
sirens sing overnight, violent, sweet music
you met me at a really strange time in my life
take my knife and i cut the cord
will ye go, lassie, go? - cast of sinners
oh, the summertime has come
and the trees are sweetly bloomin'
the wild mountain thyme
grows around the bloomin' heather
a nightingale sang in berkeley square - bobby darin
that certain night, the night we met
there was magic abroad in the air
there were angels dining at the ritz
media i’ve consumed recently:
i know typically this section is ‘books i’ve read recently’ but to be honest, i haven’t read very many books recently. i don’t know why, but i’ve decided to blame grad school. anyway, my campus has a cheap movie theater so i’ve seen lots more movies than usual, plus i’ve been watching like. a lot of tv. so! other media time:
sinners (2025): i saw this in theaters TWICE and it’s amazing. the day after i saw it the first time, i went home and learned will ye go, lassie, go? on the guitar, and it has easily become one of my favorite songs to play. an incredible use of vampirism as a metaphor for colonialism and erasure of culture. i love vampires but what i really love is when they use vampires as a metaphor for something. easily one of the best movies of the year and as my letterboxd review says: everybody go see sinners right now!!!!
the muppet show (1976-1981): yeah you heard me. i’ve been watching the muppet show like crazy the last few months, to the point where it is an established part of my bedtime routine: get in my pajamas, brush my teeth, curl my hair, and then put on an episode of the muppet show. to be honest it’s one of the best shows i’ve ever seen in my life. i would kill for it to come back (we need chappell roan as a guest on the muppet show now more than ever) but i fear it would not be nearly as good if it was revived today. side note but i’m just going to stick the muppet movie (1979) in here as well because i have watched it three times in the last three months and i think it is maybe one of the most important movies ever made. anyway: it’s time to play the music and it is time to light the lights. it’s time to get things started!
second side note: rip muppet-vision 3D, jim henson’s final project, which closed permanently yesterday in disney world after playing for 34 years :(
rogue one (2016): will i get attacked if i say rogue one is not as good as i remember it being 9 years ago. don’t get me wrong it’s easily one of the best (if not The Best) star wars movie that’s come out since disney took over. but like everyone else i watched rogue one for the first time in years after finishing andor, and aside from the crazy tone shift from show→movie, i just felt really underwhelmed in terms of story and political message. andor is one of my favorite star wars medias of all time, and therefore unfortunately outshines rogue one in a lot of ways. anyway i still love those gay guys and it is still a very solid movie & easily much better than 2/3 of the sequels.
doctor who (2025): guys i had a whole paragraph pre-typed up from before the finale about how good this season of doctor who was. unfortunately the finale was so bad i need to almost completely retract that statement! however the earlier episodes of the season were some of the best doctor who episodes i’ve seen in a long time, with what might be one of my favorite doctor/companion duos so far. i really enjoyed the bringing back of horror into doctor who, and i think we need to do that even more. doctor who is famously at its best when it’s absolutely terrifying.
fraggle rock (1983-1987): listen i’ve been going through something lately and it’s called ‘i have to consume all jim henson-related media or else i’ll die’. but it’s cool i’m fine. anyway i put off watching fraggle rock for a while because i wasn’t sure if i would enjoy it since the muppets weren’t going to be there, and i knew it was meant to be more of a kids show than the muppet show (which was intended to be enjoyed by the whole family. btw). but it turns out fraggle rock is actually the best and i’ve been having a blast watching it on apple tv and watching deep dives about each season on youtube. i have discovered something about myself in the past few months and it’s that i think i just really like puppets.
before you leap: a frog’s-eye view of life’s greatest lessons, by kermit the frog: listen i still have been reading. occasionally. this book came out back in april to celebrate the muppet’s 70th anniversary, and i found it to be both a very cute and funny autobiography for kermit, but also a very sweet and occasionally poignant self-help and advice book.
currently i am finally reading circe by madeline miller! this will come as no surprise but i am really enjoying it so far!! i’ve also bought quite a few books so far on my trip that i’m very excited to read once i get home.
thank you for listening to me talk on and on about my study abroad trip and also the muppets, and only talk a little bit about writing (you know, the thing this substack is supposed to be about). fingers crossed that this summer will be a summer of writing, and hopefully i will have some wins and some good news to report about that soon! i’ll write again once i’m back home.
see you soon!
becca 🎭
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