Laura Stiers is a third year English major studying abroad in London this quarter. In Dispatches from London, she blogs about books, curious Anglicisms, and literary culture in one of Europe’s most literary cities. This post concludes the series.

It’s cold and grey in London today. I’m glad of it, really. If it had been bright and crisp and wintry, like its been for most of the week, I would be finding it even harder to leave. Continue reading →

Laura Stiers is a third year English major studying abroad in London this quarter. In Dispatches from London, she blogs about books, curious Anglicisms, and literary culture in one of Europe’s most literary cities.

Winter smells exactly the same here as it does in Chicago. The street outside our residence hall is hung with Christmas lights. We have one week left.

Thanksgiving was spent in Oxford, which I suppose might have been sad, except that Oxford is more or less the Holy Land as far as fantasy literature is concerned. That is to say, The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and most importantly to me, The Lord of the Rings were all written here. “City of Dreaming Spires,” indeed. Continue reading →

Laura Stiers is a third year English major studying abroad in London this quarter. In Dispatches from London, she blogs about books, curious Anglicisms, and literary culture in one of Europe’s most literary cities.

I’m doing my reading for tomorrow, a British political newspaper from 1931. Bored, I flip to the end to read the advertisements and the “London Amusements” page. There are theater listings, which reminds me: we’re going to a musical tonight. I check my e-mail to make sure I leave on time. I’m seeing Blood Brothers, 7:45 at the Phoenix Theater on Charing Cross Road. I click on the Wikipedia link about the show. Apparently it’s been running continuously in the same theater since 1988. I’ve never heard of it. Continue reading →

Laura Stiers is a third year English major studying abroad in London this quarter. In Dispatches from London, she blogs about books, curious Anglicisms, and literary culture in one of Europe’s most literary cities.

Sylvia Plath has the handwriting of the girl who sat next to me in my eighth grade English class. Looking at the letter in the display case, with its rounded vowels and nicely spaced words, it’s so easy to imagine her writing with a pink gel pen. Doodling flowers in the margins of her notebook. SP ♥ TH. Continue reading →

Laura Stiers is a third year English major studying abroad in London this quarter. In Dispatches from London, she blogs about books, curious Anglicisms, and literary culture in one of Europe’s most literary cities.

“Well, at least you don’t have to learn a new language!” everyone said to me. It felt like I was cheating, in a way. Sneakily avoiding the true study abroad experience. All my friends learned Greek or French or Hindi. I just had to remember to say “loo” instead of “bathroom.” Not very impressive. Continue reading →

Laura Stiers is a third year English major studying abroad in London this quarter. In Dispatches from London, she blogs about books, curious Anglicisms, and literary culture in one of Europe’s most literary cities.

I can’t shake the feeling that I have “foreigner” tattooed somewhere prominent on my body. Riding the Tube (far superior in cleanliness and speed to the CTA, you will not be surprised to learn!), walking down the street, sitting in a pub . . . it seems they must know that I’m an impostor. My American-ness feels like it’s wafting off of me in every direction. Continue reading →

Laura Stiers is a third year English major studying abroad in London this quarter. In Dispatches from London, she blogs about books, curious Anglicisms, and literary culture in one of Europe’s most literary cities.

We flew in over the Thames as the sun was rising. The effect was pretty much the opposite of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: a thin, shining thread of water wound across the landscape under us, widening into an immense sea of brightness. Unearthly.

I’m in London because of books. In one way or another, it all comes back to books. I’m here as an English major, studying King Arthur and Virginia Woolf (among others). Books took up at least half of my suitcase when packing for my three-month stay here. As for why I wanted to come here in the first place . . . most of the books I read as a child were set in London. It always seemed like a magical place: chimney sweeps, mysterious fogs, books of magic, gateways to other worlds. Modern London, I suppose, can’t help but dim in comparison. Continue reading →