'You Give Me Fever'

Dear readers,
I am writing to you from a land once again paralyzed (this seems to happen to England quite a bit, actually, which is concerning), this time not by any natural phenomenon, but by a much happier occasion - the Royal Wedding. Yes, Prince William and Kate Middleton are finally tying the knot tomorrow morning at Westminster Abbey, and the country is caught up in wedding fever. Case in point: when I walked into the Learning Department at Norwich Castle this morning, there were William and Kate paper dolls on the table, along with a commemorative mug and postcard. Granted, these had been purchased as gag gifts, but the frightening part is that they are manufactured at all. All of the storefronts in Norwich are displaying an unusally high number of Union Jacks, as well as various wedding paraphernalia, and the newspapers seem to be ignoring actual news stories in favour of publishing the seating plan for the wedding. This is highly unusual for England, as such displays of enthusiasm and patriotism are generally not done here. It's funny - the English are infamous for not exhibiting a great deal of emotion (which I have found to be largely untrue on an individual level, at least among the younger generation) except when it comes to the Royal Family. Princess Diana inspired massive public affection even before her death, and many analysts of popular culture point to her funeral as the watershed moment for the breakdown of the traditional stiff upper lip. Check out the BBC's take on the issue here: . Now people are getting uncharacteristically excited for the wedding between William and Kate, to the point where there are people camping out on the Royal Mall in London in order to catch a glimpse of the royal couple on their way to Westminster Abbey tomorrow morning. You'll be happy to know, I'm sure, that Prince William has just paid them an impromptu visit.
The wedding has actually done some good in giving people something positive to focus on, rather than the fact that the rest of the world seems to be going to hell through natural disasters or political upheavals, and according to my supervisors at the Castle (except for the one who is boycotting the wedding), it has brought the nation together. I'm just amazed by the media circus surrounding the event. Maybe amazed isn't the right word - coming from such a huge celebrity culture, I'm not surprised by the amount of attention that the wedding has received, and I'm glad that it's focused on the Royal Family instead of say, a reality television star who has no claim to fame, but whom the American media seem to love anyway (Jersey Shore cast, I'm looking at you). It's just astounding how invested people can become in someone else's life - it's as if the obsessive tendencies of middle school girls have enveloped the nation. If I was Kate Middleton, I would be absolutely terrified. For the record, though, she seems to be bearing everything extremely well, and there is a very high public opinion of her. So I wish William and Kate all of the happiness in the world, as well as some well-earned moments of privacy together to celebrate their marriage.
I have not been spending my entire holiday following the Royal Wedding, however. In fact, today is the first day that I've really thought very much about it. I have been busy travelling and working on papers. Yes, while the rest of the country is caught up in wedding fever, I am caught up in paper-writing fever, which is slightly less enjoyable. I'm sure that you don't want to hear about the papers (and I don't want to think about them, frankly), but I don't have time to do a proper update on my travels (which were amazing), so I will give you a teaser for now. It might be my latest column for The Dickinsonian, but hey, that's the best that I've got right now. More to follow after my papers are finished in about a week and a half!
Twenty-four hours before writing this column, I was in an airport in Zadar, Croatia waiting for my flight back to London after an amazing ten-day trip through Italy and Croatia. It was one of those trips that I never, ever saw myself taking – sure, it would be nice to see Rome and maybe soak up some sun by the Adriatic Sea, but things that cool and exciting are not supposed to happen to people like me. They are for glamourous people who are not constrained by a student budget and who do not have pasty white skin that burns to a crisp the instant they step into the sun. When the opportunity for such a spring break trip presented itself, however, I grabbed it immediately, hoping that reality would not catch up with me until much later. My travel buddies, three fellow Dickinsonians, and I had an amazing time and we got to see and do so many incredible things. We also learned quite a bit, and I am going to share some of the most important points that we picked up.
1. It is possible to eat well in Italy on a student budget. Markets are especially good in the heroic quest to spend as little money on food as possible – we would buy a loaf of bread and apples for breakfast, which cost us about two euro in total. Asking tour guides or hostel-owners for recommendations is also a good plan, as they can point you in the direction of restaurants that serve good food at reasonable prices.
2. Ask for student discounts. Many places do not advertise these discounts as they want take both your wallet and your soul from you, but flashing a university ID can work wonders. At the Vatican Museum we got student tickets for half of the listed price, leaving us with plenty of gelato money for that afternoon.
3. Speaking of gelato, it is perfectly acceptable to have gelato for lunch six out of ten days when you are travelling.
4. Those language classes that you had to take to fill a distribution requirement might someday save you from having to spend the night on the streets of Rome and being kidnapped to work in an international prostitution ring (yes, I saw Taken). After our hotel reservation was cancelled without prior notice in Rome, my friend used her Dickinson language skills to explain our plight to a delightful little Italian hotel-owner named Pasquale who spoke no English whatsoever. He took pity on us, found us a room for two nights, pointed out all of the sites to see on our map, and gave us free breakfast and cappuccinos in the morning. At the end of our stay, he told us that he felt like he was saying goodbye to his babies (at least, that’s what Sarah told me he said.) In such a situation, it is appropriate to email your language professor and thank her profusely.
5. British people drink very weak coffee – our first Italian cappuccinos came as a great surprise.
6. Sometimes it pays to look like a tourist and follow the tips in a travel book. After queuing (that’s British for standing in line) for two hours at the Uffizi in Florence, we decided to heed the warnings in Let’s Go Europe! and wake up early to beat the lines at the Vatican Museum. After waking up at 6 a.m. we arrived before the masses of tourists and got right into the museum – by noon the lines were stretched half way around Vatican City.
7. Waking up early in general, although painful, is worth it. Apart from thwarting queues, you might just get to watch the sun rise over Croatia while taking a ferry to an island with white pebble beaches surrounded by blue mountains and turquoise waters. It is in the realm of possibilities.
8. Go to Croatia. Seriously.