ROADTRIP IN ENGLAND

We were so excited when we first started to plan this road trip. It started out as a joke, but after some time we realized how great it actually could turn out, and how much we would grow as persons. We ordered some spontaneous tickets the week before and we were ready for a road trip in the South of England.

Day 1 - Monday

Our flight went okay and we arrived at the airport in Bristol in time to pick up our car. We had searched for a car on the internet some days before. Because we needed a car with some space, and possibilities to sleep in, the solution was a Volkswagen type 2, built in 1951.

The car was so cool, and we even had a stereo that worked. We played typical road trip music the first hour, and then we got tired of it.

We started late, and we did not arrive our planned destination, which was Penzance. We arrived Hartland, where we had planned to eat dinner before we drove further down to Penzance, but it was already evening and dark. The rain was crazy.

This was the schedule for our trip. We started out in Bristol, and we had planned to take a stop in
Hartland before we drove to Penzance.

Then the plan was Plymouth -Torquay-Weymouth-Brighton-Hastings and London.

DAY 2 - Tuesday

We had decided the day before to start early. We got up around 6 am, ate some breakfast and left the nice bed and breakfast we had slept in.

The weather was lovely and we had a nice drive to Penzance, which lived up to the expectations we had. It was beautiful, and just like a little village in Italy.

After a lovely dinner, we visited the beach next to our hotel.

The water had a pleasant temperature and we enjoyed the evening to its fullest.

The picture below shows the view from our room. The hotel was so nice, and just a small walk from the beach.

DAY 3 – Wednesday

We were tired from the day before, and we therefore slept in late. The route was Penzance to Plymouth, and from there to Torquay. We drove from the hotel around 11 o’clock.

It was a pleasant drive, and a lot to see along the coast.

As we arrived the city we were starving. Fish and chips was on the menu and it tasted lovely.

We were satisfied with the lunch and we had some time to explore the city. The monument that caught our attention was the red and white lighthouse.

The tower is called Smeaton’s Tower, and it is the third most known and notable Eddystone Lighthouse. It marked a big step in the design of lighthouses and it stands at Plymouth Hoe as a memorial monument to its designer, John Smeaton. The lighthouse was in use from 1759 to 1877. 
The schedule for this day was very tight and we had planed to visit Dartmoor national park, but the time was too little and we did not make it. We therefore drove from Plymouth direct to Torquay and arrived around six.

DAY 4 – Thursday

The car did not start, so we delivered it to a garage to get it fixed. The man at the garage said that it would probably take the whole day to fix it, and he recommended us to visit the beach in the meantime.

The sun was stronger than we were thinking, and we both were sunburned.

I was the worst, but Marthe was red herself.

We slept very badly that night, and when we ran out of after sun I almost started crying. The shops closed for the night and we were burning up.

DAY 5 – Friday

We were one day behind schedule, but fortunately the car was fixed and we were back on the road again. This time from Torquay to Brighton.

In Weymouth, we ate lunch a good lunch. Salad for myself, and pizza for Marthe. She is always  unhealthy. After the lunch, we took a “swing” to Dorset to see the horse made out of chalk.

It was quite a view. The horse is called the Osmington White Horse, and can be found in the limestone Osmington hill. The horse was sculptured in the hill around 1808.

The figure is showing King George III on one of his visits. It is imposing 85 meters long and 98 meters high.

After the visit we drove directly to Brighton. It was dark before we got there.

         DAY 6 – Saturday

We spent all the day in Brighton. It was a beautiful town with a lot to see. In the daytime we took theferries wheel, and after that we shopped a little.

In the nighttime, we visited the pier after a lovely dinner. We played some games and had a really good time

Brighton is an old town dated back to the Roman times. Now it is known as a beach destination for tourists and British inhabitants The long, sandy beaches and seaside towns, in addition to the bustling, electric life in the city makes it an interesting city to live in. 

DAY 7 - Sunday

We woke up well rested and ready for the last stage by car, this time from Brighton to London, with a stop in Hastings to eat a little and to see an attraction.

We were going to see the ruins of the Hastings castle. Hastings has an important connection with the Norman conquest of England, and it was an important fishing post.

Today, the tourists mainly visit the city because of its beautiful golden beaches and warm weather.

William of Normandy built the Hastings castle in 1066. The castle was built up, and built down many times. The main damage came from the bombing during the Second World War, when Hastings was attached.

After the visit we started the drive to London. It was dark as we arrived, and we did not see much, but we knew that we would have an amazing time here too.

DAY 8 - Monday

Monday were our last day in England. It was finally time to go crazy in the shopping centers.

We started in the bottom of Oxford Street and worked our way up, between snacks and Frappuccinoes from Starbucks.

We were loaded with shopping bags when we returned to the hotel to check out, and pick up our luggage.  

We drove an hour to Gatwick Airport, before we handed the car over to a German married couple. We wished them good luck on their drive back to Bristol, before we sent our luggage and ate a good dinner. The flight home went okay, but we missed the car. It was an amazing experience, and I would love to do it again soon.  

The last letter

This is not going to be a long letter, and I am sorry for that. My husband Hani would not let me

write, speak or talk to anyone. I have sneaked out to our little garden to get some piece.

I miss you.

I am scared, my dear sister, so scared. When I lay alone at night, I dream ungrateful dreams.

Do you do that too? The dreams are mostly my inner call for something better, a search for a life worth living.

I am a housekeeper for him, you see, not a wife.

The awareness of you maybe living the same life is making me sick, and I cannot do anything about it. I have my life here, in Jamalpur, and you have yours in London.

My husband’s name is Hani Masouriha, and his relatives are known for their good look and their prosperity.

This does not include him, unfortunately. He has the look of a pig.

As I wrote earlier I am sitting in the little garden behind the little, yellow house that we are living in. This is my place for thinking, and my place for crying. He does not like me crying in front of him, so I hide in the shed when it is too hard to handle. This especially after he has beaten me. I hate him for it, but he says it is for the best. I have to learn, but in his mind, it is by beating me to bloods.

I hide the scars under my sari because I am ashamed of them. They show the disobedience of a woman, who is too afraid to say what she really mean.

I hear the steps of him now, and the letter has to stop. If he sees that, I am writing a letter to someone he does not know he will be furious.

Goodbye my dear sister, may your life bring more happiness than mine.

I love you.

PS: I will try to write to you as much as I can, I have a new one planned already.

(This was a school project. Our task were to imagine that we were Hasina, Nazneen’s sister. We were writing the letter Nazneen keeps in the shoebox at the bottom of her wardrobe)

Events that shaped English

The Anglo-Saxons:

WHEN? 5- or 6th Century

WHY? They settled in England.

HOW? They gave England the name "Engla land", in meaning of the land of angles, as
they called the language  Englisc. Because the Anglo-Saxons talked different from each
other the dialects in the language started developing. The old English got a lot of words
related to farming, because the Anglo-Saxons mainly were farmers.

 

Scandinavian Settlement:

WHEN? The middle of the 9th century.

WHY? They came in large numbers and settled in the northern and eastern areas.

HOW? They effected the language through, for instance, a Danish king. Words as take,
they and gates and words taken from the Norse language. The Norse and Old                
English (Anglo-Saxons) were related trough Germanic, and were therefore similar.

1066 and after:

WHEN? 1066 and after

WHY? The change came as a result of the Battle of Hastings, when the system of Old    
English broke down and the Middle English took over. The English words                     
increased as a result of the French and the Latin influence.

HOW? The French influence brought 10 000 new words with it, as the Old English 
only had 40 000 words.

Standardization:
WHEN? Late medieval and early modern period. 16th century.

WHY? There were many different dialects inwards the English language, and the           government wanted a standard spoken dialect.

HOW? The London standard English were approved to be the standard of written         English. The marked change in pronunciation occurred, and is known as the Great Vowel Shift.

Colonization and globalization
WHEN? 15th century and after.

WHY? The English people took land and colonized big parts of the world.

HOW? Through the exploration and colonization the English language spread 
accross the world, but the native languages had an influence on the English language as well. So called "loanwords" has been a part of the language for a long time.