Achievement Unlocked!
One day, a long long time ago, way back in 1999, I was a college freshman enrolled in Honors courses at my local university (EWU). The Honors Program puts together a trip each spring for its students and this year was headed to Ireland and England. The course we were just finishing up was co-taught by two of the Honors professors. The Honors classes themselves were long, four hour ordeals that really blew me away.
One teacher hit the art aspect of the times we were flying through, and then tag-teamed with the other teacher who showed us what stories were being written during the same period as the art we were studying.
The group that ended up going was a really fun bunch, and we didn’t mind in the least cramming into our hostel rooms together and watching out for one another and generally making sure no one got eaten by foreign transportation (this almost happened to me in the Tube doors).
Aside: hostels pretty much mirror exactly my camping experiences at Camp Wooten when I was wee, except that boys AND girls share one room. And y’know, the people in the room next to you will apparently open the door to your room and peek in during the middle of the night…
So! We make it through a week in Ireland, and I talk a friend into going to see the Book of Kells with me. As an adult, it would blow my mind, so a fresh off of the farm kid? ASPLOSION!
In England we are wandering around London and decide to try out the Tate Modern, but it was closed or sold out…basically it was a no-go. Not lacking in options obviously, we decide to head to the National Gallery.
Whatever was left of my head? Gone. All the pieces we’d just studied in books were right there in front of us. The detail we’d examined in books was crammed into an 8X10 canvas (practically).
We never did make it through even 1/4 of that place.
