studying history where it was made

Nowadays Hastings is a popular seaside resort in East Sussex, the South-East of Great Britian. You will find an amusement park for children, gaming arcades and a lively old town with cramped souvenir shops and cafés. But if you lift your head you will see the ruins of a castle standing proudly on a steep hill, reminding you that the city is steeped in history. In fact, there is one important event of English history that took place near this town almost a thousand years ago: the Battle of Hastings (1066).

After visiting the city last weekend I did some research on the Battle of Hastings and I will try to summarize what happened.

In January 1066, King Edward III had died. He left no heirs and there were no strict rules as to who was to become the new king in such a case. There were four people who claimed to be a worthy new king:

• Edgar the Atheling
• Harald Hardrada, a Viking king
• Harold Godwinson
• William, Duke of Normandy

Harold Godwinson

Harold did not have royal origins, but he was popular among the citizens and the Witan, a council of wise men, decided that he should be the new king. William was a distant relative of the deceased king Edward. Allegedly Edward and Harold had promised to make him king of England, which would make Harold's claim illegal.

In September, Harald the Viking king tried to invade England and claim the throne for himself. His men were defeated by Harold's army in the Battle of Stamford Bridge in the North-East of what is now Great Britian.

At the same time, the Normans under the command of Duke William invaded the South of the island. There was no one to stop them as the military was busy in the North-East. Harold's men raced back to the South to fight the Norman invasion. The Saxons (Harold's army) built a massive shield wall and at first it seemed that they would win, but the Normans played a trick on them: they pretended to retreat, which caused the Saxons to give up their formation and chase after the invaders. Now the Normans could easily attack the Saxons and eventually won the battle. According to a legend, Harold was killed by an arrow in his eye, but the evidence is not clear.

Some of the information known about the Battle of Hastings today comes from the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidery that shows battle scenes. On this embroidery we can see a man with an arrow in his eye who was believed to be Harold. Newer interpretations suppose that it was another soldier, as people standing are usually survivors, while people lying on the ground are those killed in battle.

First impressions

Three days ago I arrived here in New Romney, a small town on the South-East coast of the British island, where I will be spending the next two and a half months. Why, you ask? For an internship! 

I chose an internship instead of going abroad with Erasmus because this way I can make good use of the three months of summer holidays we have at university. I only applied for this one internship and kept my fingers crossed - and I was not disappointed :) Unfortunately, it is all voluntary, which means I don't get paid to work here.

When I arrived at the train station, a British girl came to pick me up with her car. She brought me to the hotel where I'm staying. On the drive, I asked her to recommend some places to see, which she gladly did :-) When I arrived at the hotel, there were three or four people in the lobby, and as soon as they saw me, they all exclaimed, "You're the new one!" - something I would hear another 50 times or so in the next few days. Our house manager, a guy called maxime, gave me a short tour through the building and afterwards I carried my suitcases to my bedroom.

I have to share the room with another intern, a girl from Germany - not very helpful in terms of speaking English... :-( The room is quite simple and still a bit chaotic - I haven't unpacked all of my things yet and Derya, my roommate, used to have the room to herself and so her things are still scattered everywhere. However, we are lucky because unlike others, we have our own fridge.

There is a kitchen downstairs from where we can take food at any time of the day as long as we eat it in the kitchen and don't carry it anywhere else. Theoretically, we have to cook all our meals on our own, but there is a "cooking team" of four or five interns that normally prepares lunch and dinner for everyone.

The office where all of us interns are working is in the same building where I'm sleeping - I only have to go downstairs and I'm at work! That means I can sleep longer than many others who stay in hotels that are further away, but it also means that working time and free time don't feel as separate as it should.

I usually work each day from 9 to 6, but the last hour consists of a workshop. In these workshops, we usually talk about ways to communicate more effectively, or there are teambuilding exercises. Today, for example, we had to think of a sketch that included 6 ping pong balls and a roll of black garbage bags...you can imagine how much creativity we  needed to include these requisites in a sketch!

Many interns spend their evening in the kitchen, cooking dinner and talking with each other, but I prefer to leave the house after work and go outside because I don't have a "second dinner" (the first one is prepared by the cooking team) and in the kitchen it feels too cramped and noisy to relax after a long working day. It is much more relaxing to take a long walk at the beach - today I even talked to some locals there :-)

So far, I feel very welcomed here and I like the international atmosphere - there are inters from many European and even African countries. One thing I have yet to get used to is that you are never alone here. I am used to living on my own and I am someone who needs time alone to relax and calm down, so it can be very exhausting to constantly be surrounded by people.