All Things ASE
City Love.
ASE alum Kaylee Dyson’s love affair with Bath and ASE.
Kaylee at the Holburne Museum, where she interned.
Taken from the ASE archive, we have this extract from a prize-winning essay by ASE alum Kaylee (Dyson) Stith (Spring 2012, Meredith College) on her experience of studying in Bath.
My study abroad experience felt like a relationship, and the end was like a bad breakup.
I spent four incredible months in Bath, England. Boy, was that city out of my league. Bath was really sexy. First of all, Bath was cool and posh. Everybody loved it. But at the same time, Bath was deliciously cultured and comfortable in its history. And always so well-dressed! Bath sported Georgian architecture like nobody’s business. Looks, personality, brains, and style! Bath always spoke to me in a British accent, which made everything sound infinitely more clever and wonderful. We took classes together – Shakespeare, the British media, and a literature class that studied the works of Tolkien, CS Lewis, and Philip Pullman. I tell you in full sincerity that The Chronicles of Narnia can be quite romantic. Bath taught me the wonders of the BBC – I am now a loyal fan of Doctor Who and Sherlock. And we had our song: “Lego House” by Ed Sheeran. We went on many dates. At first we explored all the new restaurants, but eventually we settled into a comfortable routine with our favorites, like Cafe Nero and Scoffs Sandwich Shop. Bath took me on some lovely vacations in England – we spent several days in Stratford and an entire week at Oxford. We even took a few adventures outside the UK and explored Rome, Paris, and Dublin.
Hiking along the Dorset coast.
Bath introduced me to some fantastic friends, both American and British. I guess you could say things got pretty serious, because I even introduced Bath to my parents. They were sold in a heartbeat, in love with Bath and proud of me for how well I was doing, how happy I was. Of course we had our ups and downs, our cultural differences. But overall, I spent those four months beaming. It must have been too good to be true. On May 19, 2012, I had to return home to America. It was all over.
On the Worlds Beyond Oxford study trip, at C.S. Lewis’ house.
I’m not okay. I’m not over it. My friends think I live in the past and that I talk about Bath incessantly. I have a box of all our things under my bed – old train tickets, booklets from museums, photos, a key chain. I’ll admit it…sometimes I even look at Bath’s Facebook page when I’m feeling low. I don’t even want to talk about trying to watch the 2012 London Olympic Games from my couch in America, just weeks after my return. Even when I’m doing well, something will happen and a poignant memory of hiking on the coast or reading in a coffee shop will come hurtling at me. The fragment lodges itself in my chest, and I can’t extract it. The worst part is I think Bath has moved on. A friend of mine is now studying abroad in Bath, and they seem really happy together.
A few weeks ago, I was innocently making my way through a magazine. I came across a section where readers were writing in and saying what they wished they had known about love earlier in life. One woman wrote saying that a truly loving relationship gives you strength after it is over. She went on to explain that her husband died in a car accident several years ago and how difficult it was. But she’s still here. She recalls the love she and her husband had and shares it with their son every day. And when I read that, something in my heart clicked into place. My experience studying abroad wasn’t like a bad break up at all. It was more like the experience this woman was describing. Of course, the end was difficult. It made me intensely sad. My incredible, life-changing experience had been reduced to a memory.
But that memory is so strong. And the truth is that Bath isn’t dead. It’s still going strong across the pond, and it’s alive in me as well.
We asked Kaylee to reflect on what she had written over a decade ago. Here’s how she feels about Bath after twelve years.
The funny thing is, I don’t believe in being friends after a relationship ends. If you weren’t on the same page while you were romantically connected, being on the same page in any other situation seems unlikely.
And yet.
Kayle with her mother and sisters in Bath in 2023.
Bath has become an old and very dear friend. Even with all our history, even with the role Bath played in arguably some of the most influential months of my life, I am content. I am content to follow along on Instagram. To connect about Bath with friends and strangers when it comes up in conversations from time to time. To feel a little secret swell of pride when I glimpse Bath’s beautiful streets in movies and TV shows (I interned at the Holburne Museum in 2012, and I tell everyone that I used to work at Lady Danbury’s house).
I’ve decided being friends with Bath doesn’t mean I need to stay away, either. I’ve visited twice since my spring programme - once with my husband in 2018, and then again with my mother and sisters in 2023. It seems that Bath has changed in some ways. Scoff’s is gone, and so is the charming café on Stall Street that used to serve the best leek and potato soup. There is, however, a fantastic new sandwich shop nearby. When I visited in 2023, I had to pay to get into the Abbey and there was a giant globe inside - more change. But blessedly, so much of Bath is the same. All the greatest hits of its flawless Georgian structures look as beautiful as ever to me.
My old flat on Widcombe Hill, Mr. B’s, The Circus Restaurant, The Star Inn - all still there. Maybe it is good that there’s been a little change around Bath, too (I seriously can’t stop thinking about that sandwich).
Meeting her ex… Kaylee and her husband visiting Bath in 2018.
I won’t pretend to be an expert on what has and hasn’t changed in Bath. What I can speak to is what has changed in me because of my experience with ASE. Twelve years later (almost thirteen!), I can say I am so grateful for that forge of a city. Because of Bath, and more importantly the staff, I grew. I gained independence in a supportive environment where I was encouraged to get involved and try new things. I navigated the city on foot and by bus. I joined a dance class at the Sports and Leisure Centre and also the Bath Christian Union at the University of Bath. I was gently and gracefully corrected at times, which overall made me a better and more open listener. I understand Shakespeare better now than I ever could have, all thanks to Brian Hazel and The Royal Shakespeare Company.
Although I’ve always loved to travel, my experience in Bath made me truly appreciate the importance of seeing the world. Spending time abroad is fun, but it can also create so many wonderful characteristics in us - empathy, patience, adaptability, and open-mindedness. All of these lessons even led to my recent career shift; I’m now a travel advisor. I’ve already sent several clients to Bath, and they loved it just as much as I did.
So yes - I’m truly content with our new relationship status. Dear friends that see each other once in a while will do nicely for me.
(I would still move to Bath in a heartbeat if given the opportunity. Don't tell.)