All posts by gina quinlan

Dancing Dragons in London: Cheers for Now!

Our final week in London included many final adventures and re-visits to our favorite sights in the city we have all grown to love so dearly. Our last class trip was to the only Urban Winery in London, London Cru. We learned all about the wine-making process and how the grapes come from different countries ...

Dancing Dragons in London: Spiritual Stonehenge

For the last week of our adventures together, our professor, Miriam, organized a trip for us to all go to Stonehenge. The bus trip to Amesbury took about an hour. The drive there is beautiful as it takes you through the rolling, sheep-filled green hills of the English countryside. Once you arrive, you have the ...

Dancing Dragons in London: Immersive Ingredients Included

A large part of cuisine in England comes from the immigrants from the Indian Sub-continent. We have discussed and read about their influence in our Food and Culture class, and we finally had the opportunity to take a trip to an area of London where the Indian influence is the majority. We went to a ...

Dancing Dragons in London: Foodways and Philosophies

The most exciting part of being able to take classes abroad is being able to contextualize the information we are learning. In our Food and Culture class we were able to taste a variety of traditional British foods and ingredients that characterize the nation’s food. Some of them were more appealing than others, and some ...

Dancing Dragons in London: Royal Romps

In between our academic adventures, we still made some time for tourist traditions this past weekend. On Sunday, we woke up bright and early to get a good viewing spot for the Changing of the Guards ceremony, which takes place in front of Buckingham Palace. Even though we left early, there was still already a ...

Dancing Dragons in London: The Borough and The Bolshoi

Our FIE classes both incorporate hands-on and experiential learning experiences that very much enhance the immersive feeling of being abroad. Our British Food and Culture class took a walking tour of Central London, leading us to Borough Market. The tour was led by Ann Jones, a London walking tour guide. She shared her knowledge of ...

Dancing Dragons in London: Bonjour Paris!

A few of us decided to take advantage of the fact that we are living in Europe and we could travel outside of the UK. On Sunday we flew to Paris for the day to see the major sites of this gorgeous and expansive city. We were fortunate to have our own personal tour guide- ...

Dancing Dragons in London: Culture and Aesthetics

This week brought us a rather stark change of pace. After six weeks of being so engaged in the creative process and intense dance classes, we sharply returned to sitting in lectures. For anyone, getting back into the swing of normal classes can be difficult after any break, but for us dancers it can be ...

Dancing Dragons in London: Intensive Intent

I wish there were a word for the feeling you get when you suddenly feel at home in a place you’ve never been. Sadly, I cannot find the word for it in my vocabulary, and there doesn’t seem to be a word for it in another language either. I suppose the answer to my predicament ...

Dancing Dragons in London: Oxford Commas and Goings

This weekend we decided to explore the countryside for a bit outside of London and took the train up to Oxford. Before we departed, we found the famous Paddington Bear statues in the train station! The trip there was filled with views of British cows, golden rolling plains, and adorable homes. It took us almost ...