Hello everyone! It’s Celeste again! This summer continues to excite and surprise me! Thus far, the trip to Durham, UK has provided me with so many learning experiences! I’ve learned new words (tea=dinner, quid= pound), new historical facts, and seen so many things. One experience that I truly enjoyed was my trip to Ushaw College. I went with Sam (one of the program directors) and a couple of the Durham University faculty members. Ushaw College was founded in 1808 and originally served as a seminary. We had the opportunity to explore the most beautiful, old, Victorian chapels and marvel at their gothic architectures. We also had an opportunity to explore the college library. This was my favorite part of the trip. We saw a first edition of Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin. We also saw a book of Lord Byron’s poems, including an original handwritten manuscript of one of his poems. Interestingly, the handwritten manuscript was slightly different from the published poem today! There was also an atlas that was written in 1492. This atlas was one of the largest books I’d ever seen. It looked like it was easily 1000 pages long. However, it was published the same year that Columbus “discovered” America. So, this 1000 page atlas had excluded a large portion of the world…Can you imagine being the person who finally completed the atlas to then hear in the same year that more of the world was discovered? We also saw a first edition book of the birds of South Carolina. I was tickled to see this book and wondered how this special, rare book happened to be here! Aside from the chapels and the library, we also got to see some of the treasures located at Ushaw College. One such treasure was St. Cuthbert’s sapphire and gold ring. This was amazing to see. I feel so lucky to have this opportunity to learn so much and look forward to what the last two weeks will bring!
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