I really am terrible at this blogging thing. I am a procrastinator, by nature. But usually I'm better if my procrastination is going to affect others. I am sorry if you come here expecting new updates and they are nonexistant. Time here moves exponentially; there is never enough of it. I have yet to write about my first experience in Ireland, Oxford/Bath/Stonehenge, Edinburgh and being with my mom in general, my two Nottingham excursions, and after this weekend, my second experience in Ireland! Are you intrigued? That's a lot of information about to come your way. I have an hour before I have to start my day, so I will fill that time with writing ...typing to be exact, so you can get a little taste of the last month of my life!
To be completely sporadic and not go in any sort of order, I must first mention Nottingham University. This week we were given the opportunity to use our free Wednesday afternoon to partake in a FREE trip to Nottingham University. I was hesitant to sign up, initially. I have already been to both Cambridge and Oxford Universities, what was the point of seeing yet another campus? Boy, am I glad that I did not listen to my gut. Being here is all about seizing opportunities, and I'm all about a free trip, so I signed up. Best decision of my life. I had been having a terrible Monday and Tuesday. I think part of it was the fact that I stayed at Harlaxton this past weekend. That sounds...somewhat spoiled? But I'm so used to being able to escape from this place on weekends that maybe staying here was a little bit too much. However, Nottingham was the perfect remedy :) It was one of the most gorgeous autumn days I have experienced. The campus was packed withorange and yellow [ no red :( ] trees; they were everywhere. Crunchy leaves, brisk autumn air, and lush green grass. There was a lake on campus, with a waterfall, that we walked by. Nature really does have healing powers; it's insane. I dragged the group to the English Studies building, we explored the library, and roamed the student union building. I made what is probably my most prized purchase in England so far: a mini Oxford thesaurus, complete with British spellings (ie: favourite, colour, analyse, theatre)! I love it! It was incredibly nice to spend a day away from Harlaxton and just meander around.
I did also spend last Saturday in Nottingham with Ashleigh, but for a very different reason: shopping! Not only is Nottingham famous for being the home of Sherwood Forest and Nottingham University, but it also has a very thriving shopping district. The day that we went was one of the five days that it's rained since I've been here. However, there was some sort of African festival going on while we were there which was really cool. There was music and booths with African art. We went to the main shops: Primark, Top Shop, New Look - the works. We also went to a really nice buffet restaurant for lunch, where we got to "taste the world." It was all in all a nice day and I made a small amount of purchases :)
Oh, and funny story! In Nottingham, Ashleigh and I were looking for Primark, so I asked a TK Maxx employee (haha) where it was. She told me to go up the hill, where we will see two "clocks" on either side of us, and then take a right. So we reach the top of the hill, no clocks in sight. We head back down, thinking maybe we went up the wrong hill. Nope. That is the only hill. We head up again. Still not clocks. However, there are two "Clarks" stores on both sides of the street! Haha. The lady definitely said "Clarks," but to us Americans, we heard "clocks." You wouldn't think of a language barrier going to an English speaking country, but it happens. We definitely felt slightly stupid and laughed for a long time about that one :)
I've loved going to different countries, more than I can even describe. But I also think it's important to experience things in England. It's the country I've dreamt about coming to for years. Nottingham, Cambridge, Oxford, Bath, London have been wonderful. I'm hoping to be able to go to Liverpool before the semester is over (crossing my fingers); we'll see if my bank account agrees with that or not?!
I'm going to make separate posts about the other places/things. So, read on!
I got to Skype with a few of you last Sunday which was nice [sorry if it was slightly awkward?] :) Those of you who I haven't seen or talked to since I've been away, I hope you are doing well!
Cheers!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Precursor to the real deal
I still have yet to blog about Ireland. I was thinking of making a video blog, seeing as that was a long trip and so much happened! Although the pictures I took do not even do Ireland justice, I will also post those soon! It is a beautiful country...which is why I have decided to return :) I am going back to Dublin the last weekend of October. We got about 4 good hours in Dublin with the school trip, which was not enough for me. So I booked hostels and flights with Mallory, Kirby and Asheigh. I also have not travelled with them yet, so I'm very much looking forward to that trip! This weekend I went to Oxford, Bath and Stonehenge. I am not going to go into the nitty gritty details right now because this is mainly just a blog to let you all know that I'm still alive and well, I have simply been extremely busy and have not had time to blog or post pictures.
Presently, MY MOTHER IS IN LONDON!! We are finally in the same country and I think I get to see her in close to 24 hours! We were not going to see each other until Thursday morning, but now she is coming to Harlaxton and staying in the manor tomorrow night! Then we are catching a train into Edinburgh for the weekend!
What a crazy, busy time this is in the semester. We're about halfway through the semester (ALREADY!) and things are definitely starting to pile up and hit all at once. But that's part of the experience, part of the challenge; learning to manage all this school work with travelling and spending as much time as we can with the friends who we will separate with in a matter of weeks.
My Brit Lit professor, John Walser, gave a poetry reading in the Bistro last night. I always feel inspired, after hearing other people spill their souls, to write. I spent the majority of last night writing - not working on my take-home exam for his class! I think he wouldn't mind...too much :) His poetry was excellent. Full of symbolism and dripping with similes - but always bringing it back to a level of understanding and universality. I was very impressed and got to know him on a more personal level.
Next on the agenda: a video of Ireland, the tale of Oxford/Bath/Stonehenge and pictures of both trips!
Hoping that all is well in the lives of you all! :)
P.S: I changed it so now anyone can comment these suckers. Before, you had to be a registered Google user. Not so anymore :)
Presently, MY MOTHER IS IN LONDON!! We are finally in the same country and I think I get to see her in close to 24 hours! We were not going to see each other until Thursday morning, but now she is coming to Harlaxton and staying in the manor tomorrow night! Then we are catching a train into Edinburgh for the weekend!
What a crazy, busy time this is in the semester. We're about halfway through the semester (ALREADY!) and things are definitely starting to pile up and hit all at once. But that's part of the experience, part of the challenge; learning to manage all this school work with travelling and spending as much time as we can with the friends who we will separate with in a matter of weeks.
My Brit Lit professor, John Walser, gave a poetry reading in the Bistro last night. I always feel inspired, after hearing other people spill their souls, to write. I spent the majority of last night writing - not working on my take-home exam for his class! I think he wouldn't mind...too much :) His poetry was excellent. Full of symbolism and dripping with similes - but always bringing it back to a level of understanding and universality. I was very impressed and got to know him on a more personal level.
Next on the agenda: a video of Ireland, the tale of Oxford/Bath/Stonehenge and pictures of both trips!
Hoping that all is well in the lives of you all! :)
P.S: I changed it so now anyone can comment these suckers. Before, you had to be a registered Google user. Not so anymore :)
Monday, September 28, 2009
"Visit, I must, to Ireland/To that land of emerald green"
Ireland
by Gwen Dickerson
by Gwen Dickerson
I must visit Ireland
Its call pervades my brain
Flooding me with feelings
Of aching love and pain
I shall gaze upon its lush lands
Entranced within its spell
Engrossed in tales of "wee folk"
And those of "Banshee wails"
I'll bring to mind its famine
Where many folk did die
I'll linger and I'll ponder
Tragedies of life . . . and why?
Visit, I must, to Ireland
To that land of emerald green
Paying tribute to those departed
And a country's future dream
Its call pervades my brain
Flooding me with feelings
Of aching love and pain
I shall gaze upon its lush lands
Entranced within its spell
Engrossed in tales of "wee folk"
And those of "Banshee wails"
I'll bring to mind its famine
Where many folk did die
I'll linger and I'll ponder
Tragedies of life . . . and why?
Visit, I must, to Ireland
To that land of emerald green
Paying tribute to those departed
And a country's future dream
This was to get you in the mood for the post :) Haha. I felt like I should defnitely write something before I leave for my long weekend to Ireland tomorrow evening. If I don't, who knows when my next post will be!
I had a really great weekend, which was much needed! We don't have classes on Fridays during average weeks because of travelling, however, we did have class this past Friday. The reason being the school trip leaves this Wednesday evening so we will not have classes on Thursday. So, Friday day was a make-up for that. I had my first marketing exam on Friday afternoon, which was SUPER easy! It was one of the least stressful tests I've ever taken. Friday night was Girls Night In with Ashleigh, Mallory, Kirby, and Nicole. We dyed Ashleigh's hair, ordered good food!, Nicole did our nails, and we watched The Breakup and The Duchess. It was a really chill night and it was some quality bonding time :) We had a sleepover in Mallory and Kirby's room since we all had to wake up early to go to Stratford-upon-Avon!
Stratford was amazing! The town is so cute and beautiful. We got to go to Shakespeare's birthplace where we saw the bed that he was potentially born in, his father's glove-making area, and his bedroom as a child. Shakespeare inherited the house later in his life and turned it into a pub. It was so interesting to see the house, but we could not take pictures in it which was a bummer! Another downside to the Straford trip was that we could not see Shakespeare's grave at the Trinity Church because there were two weddings taking place in the church. I really did want to see that but we got to go up to the church and see the cemetary that surrounds it. The highlight of the day -- we say a performance of Shakespeare's "As You Like It." It was awesome! I enjoyed it so much. I feel like seeing a Shakespearean play performed in England is one of those cliche things that you just HAVE to do ...and I did :)
When we got back from Stratford I think I was as tired as I was the first day I arrived in England! I had only gotten about five hours of sleep total during the previous two nights, so I was pretty exhausted! But it was Girls Night Out that night. :) So Mallory, Kirby, Ashleigh and I went out in Grantham and had a super fun night.
Presently, I leave for Ireland in 29 hours!!!! I am beyond excited! I have wanted to go to Ireland for years. Seeing the movie P.S. I Love You last year sparked that interest even further! Now I can't believe that I am actually going! The negative thing about this trip is that we will be spending just over 25 hours on a coach and 4 hours on a ferry. But that is a small price to pay for the amazing sights that I will get to see! We are boarding our ferry in Wales, which I like because I am not planning a trip to Wales this semester, so I will at least be able to say I've been there! In Ireland I will be staying in both Killarney and Dublin. I will get the opportunity to go to the Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone - which is believed to give the gift of eloquence :) I will be see beaches on the coast of Ireland, take a tour of the Ring of Kerry, and see places where fairies and magic are said to have originated from. Just writing about this makes me incredibly anxious.
While this is all fine and dandy, tomorrow from 2-4 pm I will be taking the dreaded, infamous first British Studies exam. I suppose I should be studying for that right now, actually. I know I will do well. Or, at least I hope so. And then a long weekend in Ireland will be the perfect celebration for surviving the exam!
I've heard that people are actually reading this, so I thank you! :)
Be ready for the description of the amazingness that is Ireland in my next post!
I hope you are all doing splendidly!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Everyday is a winding road.
Hello lovely people!
I'm writing this post in a very weird state of mind. I have been pretty put off by a lot of things that have been happening around this here manor. It's beginning to feel so much like high school; there are personalities and drama that I am definitely turned off by and it's a struggle to remember to shake things off and not let the drama get to me.
HOWEVER, I am still having a lot of fun in between everything else. I also have many things to look forward to, which always helps me a lot! Last weekend I stayed at the manor while a lot of the school went to Edinburgh on the school trip. Nicole, Nicole, Andrea and I chose to get ahead on our school work and read Shakespeare's Henry IV in it's entirety! We read it with voices and everything. We read ALL day on Friday, watched the movie version with a bigger group on Friday night, and read again ALL day on Saturday. We of course had study breaks; taking walks and watching Dirty dancing and catching up on TV shows from back home! We managed to turn it into a good time. It was actually very nice having my room to myself because all 3 of my roommates were on trips. At first it was very weird having only about 30 people in the manor that weekend, but it was nice and quiet and refreshing toward the end. I did end up getting less sleep than I get when my roommates are there because I had no reason to be quiet or anything so I Skyped lots and enjoyed my alone time.
This week has been full of drama. There are so many rumors going around about different people and situations. The one thing I cannot handle is talking about people behind their back. While I am human and catch myself doing that very thing sometimes, I try very hard not to and I get very down when others do it. And here, people do it A LOT. I'm hoping things change or that I can just learn to let things slide. I'm here to study, meet quality people, and ultimately learn about myself.
I am so very thankful right now for Ashleigh, Kirby, and Mallory because they are probably the 3 people here that I act completely like myself around and they don't judge me about anything. I miss some of the people that I hung out with at the beginning and I hope that time works everything out.
This weekend I will be seeing the Shakespeare play As You Like It at the Globe Theater in Stratford-Upon-Avon. I'm super excited :) I also have Ireland to look forward to. That trip will follow our first British Studies exam...which obviously I am kinda freaked out about! But the trip will be a nice reward for taking the huge test :) Also, Mom FINALLY booked her ticket and will be coming to England on 11 October! We decided that we will go to Edinburgh together because everyone that went on the school trip last weekend said they absolutely loved it and I feel like I HAVE to go there now! She's also going to stay in the manor for a few nights and meet my Meet-A-Family mom and dad! Which reminds me, next post I will talk about them. I feel like I should go now and study for my Marketing exam that I have tomorrow!
Please comment because I like to know that people are actually reading these jumbled thoughts of mine!
Missing you all, tons and tons!
I'm writing this post in a very weird state of mind. I have been pretty put off by a lot of things that have been happening around this here manor. It's beginning to feel so much like high school; there are personalities and drama that I am definitely turned off by and it's a struggle to remember to shake things off and not let the drama get to me.
HOWEVER, I am still having a lot of fun in between everything else. I also have many things to look forward to, which always helps me a lot! Last weekend I stayed at the manor while a lot of the school went to Edinburgh on the school trip. Nicole, Nicole, Andrea and I chose to get ahead on our school work and read Shakespeare's Henry IV in it's entirety! We read it with voices and everything. We read ALL day on Friday, watched the movie version with a bigger group on Friday night, and read again ALL day on Saturday. We of course had study breaks; taking walks and watching Dirty dancing and catching up on TV shows from back home! We managed to turn it into a good time. It was actually very nice having my room to myself because all 3 of my roommates were on trips. At first it was very weird having only about 30 people in the manor that weekend, but it was nice and quiet and refreshing toward the end. I did end up getting less sleep than I get when my roommates are there because I had no reason to be quiet or anything so I Skyped lots and enjoyed my alone time.
This week has been full of drama. There are so many rumors going around about different people and situations. The one thing I cannot handle is talking about people behind their back. While I am human and catch myself doing that very thing sometimes, I try very hard not to and I get very down when others do it. And here, people do it A LOT. I'm hoping things change or that I can just learn to let things slide. I'm here to study, meet quality people, and ultimately learn about myself.
I am so very thankful right now for Ashleigh, Kirby, and Mallory because they are probably the 3 people here that I act completely like myself around and they don't judge me about anything. I miss some of the people that I hung out with at the beginning and I hope that time works everything out.
This weekend I will be seeing the Shakespeare play As You Like It at the Globe Theater in Stratford-Upon-Avon. I'm super excited :) I also have Ireland to look forward to. That trip will follow our first British Studies exam...which obviously I am kinda freaked out about! But the trip will be a nice reward for taking the huge test :) Also, Mom FINALLY booked her ticket and will be coming to England on 11 October! We decided that we will go to Edinburgh together because everyone that went on the school trip last weekend said they absolutely loved it and I feel like I HAVE to go there now! She's also going to stay in the manor for a few nights and meet my Meet-A-Family mom and dad! Which reminds me, next post I will talk about them. I feel like I should go now and study for my Marketing exam that I have tomorrow!
Please comment because I like to know that people are actually reading these jumbled thoughts of mine!
Missing you all, tons and tons!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Pictures!
I finally got my Shutterfly picture site up and running. Here is the link:
http://brianassemesterabroad.shutterfly.com/
Enjoy :)
http://brianassemesterabroad.shutterfly.com/
Enjoy :)
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Address!
P.S:
Some of you have been asking what my address is, so here it is:
Briana Gruenewald
Harlaxton College
Harlaxton Manor Box #35
Grantham, Lincolnshire
NG32 1AG
United Kingdom
And if you have not already told me YOUR address and you want a postcard from somewhere, let me know!
:)
Some of you have been asking what my address is, so here it is:
Briana Gruenewald
Harlaxton College
Harlaxton Manor Box #35
Grantham, Lincolnshire
NG32 1AG
United Kingdom
And if you have not already told me YOUR address and you want a postcard from somewhere, let me know!
:)
SO much to tell!
It's been 2 weeks since my last post! But let me tell you, it feels like 2 days! Time seriously does FLY by here! I've done SO much in the past two weeks that I'll try to explain as much as possible!
Classes
I have British Studies lecture which is at the wonderful hour of 830 Monday and Thursday mornings. There are 4 main British Studies professors and they take turns lecturing each day. The content is interesting, it is just a lot of information and very early in the morning. After lecture I have British Studies seminar which is only about 20 people and we discuss the lectures and we do a lot of group project. I've had the same group of girls: Ashleigh, Mallory, and Nicole for our presentations and we work very well together, so it's been working nicely! I also have a Marketing class Monday, Wednesday and Thursday which is very laid back! The professor is quite spacey! The class is only 50 minutes long and he doesn't actually start teaching until half-way through the class. And up until last week I had a Crime and Punishment class that was very intense and stressed me out a lot! I decided that I'm in England to have a good time so I dropped that class and added Modern British Lit. There are only about 10 people in that class and I've only been to one session; but I love it already! The professor is very funny and told a bunch of stories. For that class we will be reading poems and discussing them, so I'm excited and glad that I have that class instead of Crime and Punishment! The only downside is that now I have 830 am class all 4 days of the week. Yuck! But I'll live :)
Travelling!
So, since my last post I have been to London, Lincoln, and Cambridge! This is why I should write more often! London was SO much fun! Although, I definitely will have to go back again because I did not see everything that I wanted to! Friday started the London trip. Initially, we had some issues with the group we started off in: it being too big and some people not getting along. Because of my faulty Subway card, the group unintentionally got split up and Colin, Erynn and I were left by our lonesomes. I was a bit stressed about that, cause I felt like it was my fault. But Erynn and Colin were super nice about it and I decided that I AM IN LONDON! I've been wanting to go to London since I was a little kid so I got over it and embraced being there! We walked around Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace at first. Then we went to Wicked - which I loved!! It was already pretty late after the show so we went to dinner at a nice pub then we went back to the hotel and talked to the other half of our group about their days! Saturday I spent the day with Colin and Ashleigh and I had a wonderful day! We went back to Buckingham Palace because we heard the changing of the guards was supposed to happen that morning. It did not. So I definitely spent a lot of time at Buckingham and I still didn't get to take my picture with a guard like I wanted to. Oh well. the rest of the day we walked around and saw some London sights like the Eye, the British Museum, Picadilly Circus ..and more I'm sure. We went to dinner at a really nice Italian place then we did what I REALLY wanted to make sure I did in London. By this time it was dark. Perfect setting. Because we went to see the Tower of London, which was gorgeous! THEN we walked on the Tower Bridge and I was in complete awe. I was standing on the bridge overlooking the London skyline and I felt so at peace and privileged. We went back to the hotel after that. Then Maureen, Erynn, Colin and I went out in Covent Gardens and got into a club for free. It was a good night and a good ending to my first time in London.
The next day we went to Hampton Court Palace which was the home of Henry VIII and some other kings. They had a big role playing of Henry VIII's wedding to Katerine Parr. It was interesing and the Palace was cool. My favorite part were the gardens that surrounded the palace. They were beautiful and full of fountains, of which I am a big fan :) We then returned to the manor. It was nice to be back there as it has quickly become our home away from home. However, coming back from such a full weekend meant LOTS of homework to catch up on!
Random :)
There was then just a week of classes and meetings and busy busy business! We started having Yearbook meetings and I have been assigned the Paris pages, sports (ha!) and the last page so I need to figure out something lasting to put there. Out theme is Inspired by Harlaxton and we're going to have a bunch of quotes about change and inspiration throughout the book. I also found out that I got the Harlaxton Ambassador position! Starting on the 21st I will have a tour to find out about the manor and then I'm sure they'll tell me my duties! I'm excited for that! I went into Grantham a few times last week and finally went to the Greggory, which is a pub that is at the end of the mile long driveway of the manor.
Lincoln this past Friday was a British Studies field trip. We got to go in the Lincoln Cathedral - it is gorgeous and HUGE! All of these places that I go to just take my breath away because they're so amazing and deeply rooted with so much history. I'm constantly finding myself feeling very lucky to have these opportunities and also realizing that British culture fascinates me so much more than American culture. Haha. But at Lincoln, we also saw the castle that William the Conqueror started. We walked along the castle walls and it was so cool to see the view from up there. The town of Lincoln itself is just super cute and quaint and I really enjoyed it.
Cambridge was yesterday. It is made up of 31 colleges and is 800 years old this year! As I was walking through it I felt like Rory Gilmore for some reason. We ate lunch at a pub and got some famous Cambridge cake first. Then we walked around and saw some of the famous sights, like King's College, Corpus Christi College, Trinity College. I really wanted to see the Round Church but we ran out of time for that. There is a river that runs through the town and there are punters. They remind me very much of gondolas in Italy because there is a little boat thing that poeple sit in and the punter stands on the back the boat and rows (punts) down the river. It was cool to see that.
I could honestly go on and on and on about different things that happened, but this is already quite long and I have so much work to get done. I love that I am being kept busy with cultural trips and stuff, but I am very much not used to not spending lots of time on homework! I'm sure it's a good thing that I'm not, though. I am having a very good time. The only downsides are that the food at the manor really is terrible! And sometimes I feel like some people here are not here for the same reasons that I am. An example is that so many people were complaining about being at Lincoln on Friday because it was required and they didn't see the purpose of going there. I am trying to take in every moment and not take anything for granted because these are opportunities we will never get again - in the same way at least.
This week I will meet my Meet-A-Family at the reception on Thursday. I will also actually have some downtime next weekend because almost ALL the people that I hang out with here are going to Edinburgh, which I am not. So my goal is to get all the pictures that I've taken so far up onto some sort of web site so that you can all SEE what I've been doing instead of just reading about it. This has turned out to be a little mini essay! I hope you enjoyed reading everything! Again, if you want to know anything specific that I didn't mention, just comment or email me :)
Cheers!
Classes
I have British Studies lecture which is at the wonderful hour of 830 Monday and Thursday mornings. There are 4 main British Studies professors and they take turns lecturing each day. The content is interesting, it is just a lot of information and very early in the morning. After lecture I have British Studies seminar which is only about 20 people and we discuss the lectures and we do a lot of group project. I've had the same group of girls: Ashleigh, Mallory, and Nicole for our presentations and we work very well together, so it's been working nicely! I also have a Marketing class Monday, Wednesday and Thursday which is very laid back! The professor is quite spacey! The class is only 50 minutes long and he doesn't actually start teaching until half-way through the class. And up until last week I had a Crime and Punishment class that was very intense and stressed me out a lot! I decided that I'm in England to have a good time so I dropped that class and added Modern British Lit. There are only about 10 people in that class and I've only been to one session; but I love it already! The professor is very funny and told a bunch of stories. For that class we will be reading poems and discussing them, so I'm excited and glad that I have that class instead of Crime and Punishment! The only downside is that now I have 830 am class all 4 days of the week. Yuck! But I'll live :)
Travelling!
So, since my last post I have been to London, Lincoln, and Cambridge! This is why I should write more often! London was SO much fun! Although, I definitely will have to go back again because I did not see everything that I wanted to! Friday started the London trip. Initially, we had some issues with the group we started off in: it being too big and some people not getting along. Because of my faulty Subway card, the group unintentionally got split up and Colin, Erynn and I were left by our lonesomes. I was a bit stressed about that, cause I felt like it was my fault. But Erynn and Colin were super nice about it and I decided that I AM IN LONDON! I've been wanting to go to London since I was a little kid so I got over it and embraced being there! We walked around Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace at first. Then we went to Wicked - which I loved!! It was already pretty late after the show so we went to dinner at a nice pub then we went back to the hotel and talked to the other half of our group about their days! Saturday I spent the day with Colin and Ashleigh and I had a wonderful day! We went back to Buckingham Palace because we heard the changing of the guards was supposed to happen that morning. It did not. So I definitely spent a lot of time at Buckingham and I still didn't get to take my picture with a guard like I wanted to. Oh well. the rest of the day we walked around and saw some London sights like the Eye, the British Museum, Picadilly Circus ..and more I'm sure. We went to dinner at a really nice Italian place then we did what I REALLY wanted to make sure I did in London. By this time it was dark. Perfect setting. Because we went to see the Tower of London, which was gorgeous! THEN we walked on the Tower Bridge and I was in complete awe. I was standing on the bridge overlooking the London skyline and I felt so at peace and privileged. We went back to the hotel after that. Then Maureen, Erynn, Colin and I went out in Covent Gardens and got into a club for free. It was a good night and a good ending to my first time in London.
The next day we went to Hampton Court Palace which was the home of Henry VIII and some other kings. They had a big role playing of Henry VIII's wedding to Katerine Parr. It was interesing and the Palace was cool. My favorite part were the gardens that surrounded the palace. They were beautiful and full of fountains, of which I am a big fan :) We then returned to the manor. It was nice to be back there as it has quickly become our home away from home. However, coming back from such a full weekend meant LOTS of homework to catch up on!
Random :)
There was then just a week of classes and meetings and busy busy business! We started having Yearbook meetings and I have been assigned the Paris pages, sports (ha!) and the last page so I need to figure out something lasting to put there. Out theme is Inspired by Harlaxton and we're going to have a bunch of quotes about change and inspiration throughout the book. I also found out that I got the Harlaxton Ambassador position! Starting on the 21st I will have a tour to find out about the manor and then I'm sure they'll tell me my duties! I'm excited for that! I went into Grantham a few times last week and finally went to the Greggory, which is a pub that is at the end of the mile long driveway of the manor.
Lincoln this past Friday was a British Studies field trip. We got to go in the Lincoln Cathedral - it is gorgeous and HUGE! All of these places that I go to just take my breath away because they're so amazing and deeply rooted with so much history. I'm constantly finding myself feeling very lucky to have these opportunities and also realizing that British culture fascinates me so much more than American culture. Haha. But at Lincoln, we also saw the castle that William the Conqueror started. We walked along the castle walls and it was so cool to see the view from up there. The town of Lincoln itself is just super cute and quaint and I really enjoyed it.
Cambridge was yesterday. It is made up of 31 colleges and is 800 years old this year! As I was walking through it I felt like Rory Gilmore for some reason. We ate lunch at a pub and got some famous Cambridge cake first. Then we walked around and saw some of the famous sights, like King's College, Corpus Christi College, Trinity College. I really wanted to see the Round Church but we ran out of time for that. There is a river that runs through the town and there are punters. They remind me very much of gondolas in Italy because there is a little boat thing that poeple sit in and the punter stands on the back the boat and rows (punts) down the river. It was cool to see that.
I could honestly go on and on and on about different things that happened, but this is already quite long and I have so much work to get done. I love that I am being kept busy with cultural trips and stuff, but I am very much not used to not spending lots of time on homework! I'm sure it's a good thing that I'm not, though. I am having a very good time. The only downsides are that the food at the manor really is terrible! And sometimes I feel like some people here are not here for the same reasons that I am. An example is that so many people were complaining about being at Lincoln on Friday because it was required and they didn't see the purpose of going there. I am trying to take in every moment and not take anything for granted because these are opportunities we will never get again - in the same way at least.
This week I will meet my Meet-A-Family at the reception on Thursday. I will also actually have some downtime next weekend because almost ALL the people that I hang out with here are going to Edinburgh, which I am not. So my goal is to get all the pictures that I've taken so far up onto some sort of web site so that you can all SEE what I've been doing instead of just reading about it. This has turned out to be a little mini essay! I hope you enjoyed reading everything! Again, if you want to know anything specific that I didn't mention, just comment or email me :)
Cheers!
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