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.

Tally-ho from England!
Well, we finally made it. Our flight in Louisville was delayed for 4 hours, then our flight from Chicago was technically delayed 1 hour. We actually boarded the plane on schedule, but then we sat on the plane for 2 hours before take-off. Apparently de-icing a 777 takes a pretty long time. The flight over here was so much fun though. We had screens that showed us our flight path, so we always knew where we were, and then it had stats about the plane, like how fast we were moving, how cold it was outisde the window, and how high we were. The fastest speed I saw was 599 mph, the highest altitude was 39,000 feet, and the lowest temperature was -70. It was great to see where we were, because as we were flying over the coast of Newfoundland I looked down and could actually see the coastline. Yes, it was dark, but there were little towns and villages all over the place, outlining the coast perfectly. It was so cool and very pretty.

It's still really unreal that I'm here. I can't believe it. It doesn't seem like I'm actually in England- maybe it's because I'm still surrounded by Americans. But we are about to go into Grantham in a little while, so that will probably help. The accents are just as awesome as they are on TV. My seminar professor for British Studies reminds me of Jude Law when he talks, so that is incredibly exciting and happy. I think I'll enjoy that class ;)

This place is beautiful. I'm sure you've all seen pictures on my facebook, but I'll put some on here as well. When we pulled up the drive, everything was so snowy and perfect- like a scene from a Disney movie, or of course, Harry Potter. As requested from my friends (Jamie Tulenko and Becca Todd) I did indeed play the Harry Potter theme song as we came through the gates and down the driveway. I even unplugged my headphones on my iPod to share the fun with everyone else in the back of the coach. They enjoyed it too.

It's been snowing off and on here today. It's not currently doing anything right now, but I'm assuming that will probably change again.

Well, I'm off to Grantham. Until next time!