I should be writing a Case Study....

...which is why I'm blessing the Internet with my presence!!

Actually, I've been working on this case study solid for the past three hours so I figured I'd take a break from my writing and do some more writing on here! Our "Case Studies" are basically just 2500- to 2750-word papers on a topic from something in British history. I picked William Wallace as my topic and here's the question I selected to answer:

"Are most representations of Wallace 'sheer fantasy, where history breaks almost entirely loose from its moorings' (Summerson)? If so, does this matter?"

So, in my case study, I'm going to argue that, yes, most representations of Wallace are sheer fantasy and, no, it doesn't really matter at all. The point being that there is a historical Wallace (the real guy whom we don't know terribly a lot about) and a literary Wallace around whom myths and folktales have been created -- folktales that inspire Scottish national identity in a way that is almost unmatched in history. Yay for inspiration. Don't take our heroes from us, man.

France: So, I've been gearing myself up to blog about my escapades in France during Spring Break, but I haven't been able to get up the energy to do it. First of all, I put up two photo albums on Facebook which tell the story pretty well. Second of all, I just want to blog about what's in my head right now which is Oxford. BUT, here's a little summary, because it was fabulous and deserves mention.

Hunt and I flew into Marseilles and met up with Lara Berger and Will Lutz (friends from Covenant). While there, we went to the harbour, got on a boat, and motored out to the Chateau D'If which, if you are a fan of The Count of Monte Cristo, you will recognize as the prison where Edmond Dantes meets Faria and from which he later escapes. Though I'm sure Edmond wasn't a huge fan of it, the place is beautiful. We watched the sun set behind it.

After Marseilles, we took the thirty-minute bus ride to Aix-en-Provence where Lara, Will, Elea Geerlings, and Matt Pillsbury (also Covenant friends) are living and studying this semester. I stayed with Elea who is renting a room from Monsieur Ganet, who is this wonderful elderly Frenchman who speaks very little English. The first day I was there, he told us in rapid French about how he had gotten hit by a car earlier that day. To our SHOCKED responses, he merely waved his hand dismissively.

It was SO wonderful to stay with Elea and just be able to hang out with dear friends for a few days. We drank in every minute we all had together.

We spent the next couple of days climbing Mont Sainte-Victoire, hiking around the village streets and coastal cliffs of Ciotat, and exploring the cafes, boulangeries, and shops of Aix. I practised my French a little and had my first real French crepe and ate through a bajillion baguettes. We also made legit American chili for the French family that Lara and Pills live with and spent the evening with them -- the kids performed magic tricks and played their instruments for us, and then we all played a game together around the table. Which Hunt lost mostly because he was the only one who couldn't understand a word of French.

Everything was so utterly French. Exotic and Mediterranean and luscious and tasty. The architecture was tall and tilted, the narrow windows reached from floor to ceiling and had real shutters and wrought-iron balconies on the top floors.

Flowers and poodles and fountains and food and crazy alleys.

Also, the women in southern France all look like my extended Gautreau family. Gran, Mom, and Aunt Jill especially would look right at home there. We ARE French, after all!!

So, that's France. Now I need to get back into Scottish mode and talk about my personal hero William Wallace. ;-)