Touring Historic Bath

Today was the first meeting of our big "field trip" course. Of course, today we stayed closer to home so we could learn some of the local history of Bath.

Our day started with a walking tour of the ancient walled city. We started at the Abbey, the big church, most famous because King Edgar was crowned there in 973, the first time one king ruled over all of England (before that date, the island was divided into many smaller kingdoms; Edgar's rule united them in one crown).

We looked in briefly on the ancient baths and the new spa facility, surveyed some of the damage caused by industrialization and by Hitler's bombers in WWII, then walked by some of the most famous sights of Bath: Queen's Square, the Royal Crescent, the Circus (where Nicholas Cage has an apartment), the Assembly Room, and down through the tony shopping areas and Pultney Bridge. It was a very full tour. Some video highlights here:


Afterward, our group entered the actual Roman Baths and spent over an hour seeing the site. We saw the baths themselves, with their Roman remains and the later centuries' additions, the most famous of which came in the 18th Century as part of the fashionable Georgian scene in England. It was very educational! Here are some highlights:


And finally, after a lunch break, we got to go to the Guildhall. There we were greeted by the mayor of Bath, who spent an hour chatting with us about his favorite city. It was really quite an honor to have that audience with the city's mayor. Here's a snippet of the lead guide describing the mayor's chain of office.


Here's a picture of the two SJSU-Bath faculty with the mayor:


Things are certainly off to a good start!


And now it's the first free weekend and some people will be scattering to the four winds. Look for more reports next week!

Robbie Burns

Last night, one of the students led an expedition to a local pub (The Weston) to celebrate the 250th birthday of Robbie Burns. Burns is a Romantic poet (late 18th Century), one of the cultural heroes of Scotland. You may even know some of his verse (Auld Lang Syne, for instance).

The pub brought in a bag-piper, they laid on special Scottish ales, and they had a ceremony to celebrate a haggis (including Burns's poem on that strange 'food'). It was a lot of fun.

My camera was on the fritz, but I'm hoping to add a picture here from the students.

The week is shaping up nicely. Tomorrow is our tour of historical Bath: from the Roman baths, to the Georgian architecture, to the modern political system. I can hardly wait!

Day One

Today was our first day of class meetings. I thought they went pretty well (though I saw some of our students on Facebook--I hope they weren't too bored!).

I hope everyone likes our digs. I'm quite comfy in our little room with our new friends next door.

Here's a little bit of what a class day in Bath will look like for our students:



Here's hoping we have a great educational experience together!

Travels to Bath

We made it! The group showed up at San Francisco on Friday afternoon and although there were some tears as families said good-bye, by the time we got on board, everyone was excited and happy. Here's some video as we waited to depart and then after we landed and waited for the tour-bus that would take us to Bath:



We got to Bath and met our host families at the student union. We arrived a little later than we anticipated (there were some problems at the airport), so the families were ready to take our students right home for dinner. Some nice cake went to waste! Though I took a few slices with me and it was surely very good!

Then this morning the whole group got together so we could take a brief, orienting walking tour of Bath. We met in front of Bath Abbey, the huge church by the old Roman baths. Here's some additional video:



As we walked around Bath, I chatted with all of our group and they all seem to be very pleased with the families who will be hosting them. That's good news, but to be expected.

Classes start tomorrow and we're all excited! More updates soon!

Pre-Departure Orientation

Welcome to this blog, a chronicle of the group of SJSU students heading to Bath, England for the spring 2009 Semester! This is a bit of an experiment for me, so bear with me.

Today was a big day. We got everyone together and went over some last minute details. We talked about practical stuff. We took some pictures. It was very full! And now we're ready to depart--just less than two weeks from today.

I'm also hoping to embed "video postcards" of the trip, and so I thought I'd see if I can embed a video I took with my Flip camera and which is posted on YouTube. You should be able to see it below, I hope.

This is me setting up the video:


This is the group:


Let us know what you think of the blog.