I LOVE IT HERE!


I love everything about it, minus the whole being freezing cold the entire time thing. If you missed it on Facebook, on Sunday we went to the Harlaxton Village Church. It was built in the 1100s, and is beautiful! Unfortunately, it is not properly heated. The entire time we were there I could focus on nothing other than how I could see my breath… inside. That’s not ok with me. The manor is pretty cold too, though not at the level of seeing your breath- just enough to put a chill in your toes. Other than that, everything is wonderful!

Grantham was so neat! It was really fun to visit local markets (outdoor and indoor), and rely on the help of locals to find everything. The first day we went (Saturday) we just wandered around, got stuff we needed at a supermarket of sorts (straighteners, hair dryers, detergent, etc), and tried to get oriented. Then we came back to the manor and had our formal dinner, which was fun. We had wine, and I had a sip (yes, mom, I tried wine. And just to ease your mind so you don’t sit there and say, “Oh goodness, my daughter is an alcoholic!”, I thought it was the nastiest thing (aside from grapefruit juice) that I’ve ever put in my mouth. I don’t think I’ll be drinking that again. We were put at assigned tables, so we got to know some different people, other than our roommates and the people we came with. After dinner some of my friends and I went down to the Bistro- the bar in the basement of the school and hung out a little bit. Then later we all took cabs back into Grantham and went to The Goose, a local pub, which was a completely new experience. Some of my friends ordered Jack and Coke there, which I had a sip of as well, and I ranked that stuff somewhere between wine and grapefruit juice. (Mom- it reminded me of the bourbon fudge Thatch and Dad brought back from Wild Turkey, if that gives you any idea of what I thought about it…) Yuck! Again, won’t be drinking that anymore. I think the pub might have been even more fun without a bunch of Harlaxton kids-I think we scared off the locals. Then when the Goose closed, we went to a club called “Miami” which was… interesting, yet extremely lame. Basically, it was a teeny-bopper club. Even though you had to be 18 to get in, I’m pretty sure most of the kids there were under 16. Luckily, it was free to get in and we didn’t waste money on it. We pretty much went in, danced to a few American songs, and left.

Tonight we went back into Grantham because one of my roommates bought an international chip for her phone, but couldn’t figure out how to make it work, so we went back to the store. I love the British accent. I think it is fabulous. The guy behind the counter didn’t know how to answer our question, so he had to make a phone call, which might be the best conversation I’ve ever overheard. It went something like this (read it with a British accent for the full effect)

“Ello, mate. This is Chris from Phones for You in Grantham”
…
“I’ve got a girl here trying to ring America. What’s the call out code for there?”
…
“Zero, zero, one. Right, got it. Brilliant.”
…
“Right, cheers mate”

It was fabulous. Anyway, tonight I have homework. Sad day right? So I’ve got to get started on that.