It took me a while, and it was painstakingly difficult, but I compiled a top-10 list of the highlights of the trip. I considered not ranking the highlights because it's so difficult. It seemed as though each night in my journal I would write: "This was the best fill-in-the-blank I've ever seen/eaten/experienced/learned about." I did end up ranking them, because, well, it's more fun for you to read that way. But in the end, this is my list, and someone else may totally disagree.

Here goes, with all three parts intact for the first time:

10. Pret A Manger
I may start occasionally flying to New York on weekends, because that is the only place in the states that this godsend of a sandwich shop exists. It's relatively cheap at £3 (about $5) per sandwich, and it makes the best sandwiches, wraps and chips I have ever tasted. There are more Prets in London than Starbucks in Seattle, and for good reason. I've tried six different sandwiches, from roasted duck to classic BLT, and nothing, I mean nothing beats them.

9. The Globe Theatre
The acting there may have been sadly subpar, but the physical space itself lived up to all my expectations. The hard wooden benches, thrust stage, giant space for groundlings and open air send you right back to the 17^th century and make you a special part of each production.

8. The RSC's As You Like It
It's truly wonderful to sit in lecture in the afternoon, discussing critical elements of a play, and then, later that night, see actors who are fully conscious of all the subtle details you discussed hours earlier. This production was magical, hysterical, and full of life. I left the theatre that night in a better, happier state of mind than I entered with, humming the closing music as I strolled along.

7. The British Museum
I seriously doubt that there is another place in the world with a larger array of historical artifacts from more places around the world. The sheer size of the British Museum is overwhelming, not to mention that you are stuck by the Rosetta Stone as soon as you walk through the door. From Egyptian mummies, to pieces of the Greek Parthenon, to Japanese Samurai armor, I would challenge anyone to find a more impressive museum anywhere in the world.

6. Shakespeare's House
Yes, I'm biased as an English major, but standing on the same 50 foot piece of cobblestone the Bard himself stood on is a surreal experience. Once you've stood on that ground, seen the First Folio, and climbed up the rickety stairs to the room where Billy himself was born, none of the other historical houses in Stratford-upon-Avon can compare.

5. Standing atop the white cliffs of Dover
The Eiffel Tower is supposed to give you a wonderful view of Paris. Up at Dover Castle, the view from atop the famous white cliffs gives you a picturesque, almost sublime look at England that makes the famous tower in France look like a stack of sticks. Of all the absolutely amazing and beautiful things I've seen on this trip, the image of the English Channel with the English countryside to its left is the one that resonates in my head. It's something every visitor to this country must take time to see.

4. The special presenters
Let's not forget about the actual learning taking place in class. In these four weeks, I had the privilege of seeing several members of the RSC and other theatrical geniuses speak about their craft. In a nutshell, they opened up an entirely new way for me to think about these texts: as plays meant to be performed, not books meant to be read. We spent a half-hour talking about how to voice the prologue to Romeo and Juliet, we asked actress Kate Stephens how she interprets Rosalind, and we have had a popular writer blow up our conceptions about reading Shakespeare, and replace them with thoughts about how to speak it.

3. The Palace of Versailles
Bigger, grander, more beautiful than anything imaginable. It's impossible to describe its majesty, but let's leave it simply at this: Versailles' horse stable is bigger than the whole of Buckingham Palace.

2. Learning through conversation
Even more important that the wonderful classroom knowledge I have gained, has been the cultural knowledge I will leave with. Much of this has come through simple experience, but the best has come from talking with random people. The hotel concierge from Nigeria, a British couple celebrating their 10th anniversary at the Dirty Duck after an RSC performance, and an Australian woman, with a son my age, taking six weeks off to travel the world are only a taste of the sorts of curious and pleasant people I've encountered. All of them helped me further realize my place — and my country's place — in this large world. It's probably the most important thing I could have gotten out of this trip.

1. Canterbury Cathedral
When I was trying to put this list together, my experience at Canterbury Cathedral was the first thing that popped into my head. I'm still not sure if it should be No. 1, but it is the one thing that sent chills through me. Standing there, at the exact sight where thousands of pilgrims came to honor "the holy, blissful martyr" St. Thomas, it moved me like few things have in my life. Seeing that single white candle, where his memorial used to be, and knowing that men and women from all walks of life traveled miles and miles to stand where I was standing — it was really something. That the church retains its sense of sacredness only added to the surreal nature of the experience. That I could recite the first 18 lines of The Canterbury Tales to myself, soaking in the hundreds of years of history ... it's an experience that will stay with me for a very long time. That day I became a part of the English history and literature I study. I've never felt more academic pride then that moment when I first rested my eyes on that single, symbolic white candle.