To begin, I woke up at like 7:50, and was the last one to wake up from my 9 hour deep slumber. All 3 of my roommates were already getting ready for breakfast. So, I got out of bed, noticed that my towel was still wrapped around my hair, since I fell asleep with it on last night...oops!, and I got ready for breakfast. It was good, because they had cereal, so I was super happy!
After breakfast, I had a few orientation type sessions in what is called the Long Gallery, and it was extremely hot and humid which I'm gathering is how most days here are, at least during Fall weather. But I did learn that when you want a ride in a car, you can't say "Can I have a ride?" you have to say "Can I get a lift?" Because asking for a ride is much more..."pleasureable" if you catch my drift. So we learned a few words to say and NOT to say...lol After the sessions ended, it was lunch time, in which case it was hotdogs and chips..aka, french fries. One of the servers was a male, about my age, and yo ucould tell when he was asking if we wanted "fries" that he had to think about the word before he said it. How nice of him to make us feel more at home... hahah.
Right after lunch Chelsea K, Adrienne, Meghan (a girl we hang out with all the time now) when into town (Grantham). It's about 4 miles away and we started to walk it because we didn't realize how far away it was, but one of the shuttles picked us up along the way, which was very cool. My main objective in Grantham was to get some sort of shelves, along with a hair dryer, straighener, notebooks, etc etc. All the essentials with no fun thigns at all. Grantham is a very cute town and we wandered around for a little while, going down a really long street which was blocked off for the flea market. They had all sorts of stuff and it was pretty neat. Everyone could tell we were Americans, I was sure of it. They just stared at us, and I don't think i've ever seen so many teenage guys in one area before. It was rather marvelous...THAT and the fact that they have a British accent... hahaha. But the kids were the most fun to watch. They had the strongest accents of them all! It was so fabulous to be completely emersed into an environment like that. It's different too, because places like Harlaxton/Grantham aren't exactly toursity spots, so we really got to see the locals hanging out, etc. When we go to London, we will find way more tourists and will maybe feel a little more comfortable, but Grantham nonetheless is awesome.
When we came back to school, the four of us went around the campus, taking loads of pictures. It's actually in my youtube account, and the video is at the very end, so check it out. (if it doesn't show up in the email you can just go to my actual blog site and look at it). It was a lot of fun and it gave us a chance to bond with Meghan as well.
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Around 5 pm, we all departed and got gussied up for our big formal dinner. We all wore black of course. The students met in the Great Hall, where we had the choice of wine punch or orange juice. I had the wine punch which was basically like Arbor Mist Sangria...so of course I liked it. I had two small glasses of it. We all stood around and talked, waiting until we could be escorted into the Long Gallery for our meal. Finally, after my feet were already sore from standing up, the bag pipe man came in and started his song, and we all single filed behind him into the Gallery, and found our respected tables. I sat down next to people I didn't know (bceause thats where they had put me) and ended up having a blast. I met a guy name Jon who turned out to be in my Orientation group, and a girl named Sandahl, and another girl that I can't remember her name. We all chatted...about some good, and some unorthodox things, which I won't go into now...haha. But the meal was good, it was just like being on the cruise again. We had people actually serving us: salad, wine (which i didn't drink any of), bread, parmesean chicken, carrots, potatoes, and this delicious cheesecake...or in british terms for dessert: pudding.
Anyways, it was a Saturday night, so what do you think everyone did as soon as it was all over? Ran to get their clubbin clothes on and called taxi's, not cabs, taxis. Quite a few of us decided to walk down to Gregory's, a pub about a mile away, while veryone else drove into Grantham for the clubs. Gregory's is a cute, little quaint pub that apparently used to be high in the night life but got new owners and they don't nlike loud noise, etc. As soon as we got there, we were asked to sit down next to Jamie, a British guy, who is apparently 21. He lives in Harlaxton village and is used to all the Americans. We figured he came out that night because he figured he would get to meet some of the newbies. He was really funny and kept us all entertained until about midnight. Hopefully we'll see him around, just because we hadn't actually met an British people to talk with. It was really intersting to hear him talk about America and his views on the government. He's even visited america a couple years ago, with some friends he made from UE when they came to Harlaxton. He doesn't like our political candidates for president but said he'd choose Obama if he had to. He also showed Adrienne and I a few British signs from the alphabet. He couldn't believe that ASL only uses one hand for all the letters, while they use both hands to sign just one letter.
All in all, it had to be one of the best nights of my life! The sun was out throughout the whole day, it was pretty warm outside, i had a fabulous dinner, experienced a real british town, went to my first pub and met a british guy, and got to see a sky full of stars at night. It was great and wish everyday could create the same feelings. Its still feels like an illusion, but this dream I'm in will last for 4 months, so i'm very excited about it. :)
As for today, well, I'm just listening to music and trying to update you all on my life so far. It's almost 5, and we are meeting with our British seminar groups tonight since we start classes tomorrow. I got all my books today and it only cost 21.99 pounds! (i don't know how to do the symbol for pounds on here yet, lol). After dinner (PB&J and a salad) I went over to Jessica's (a girl that i've been hanging out with as well) and talked in her room with Chelsea K, and Sara for about 2 hours or so. More friends, yay! Anyways, love you all, and can't wait to see you.
By the way, here is my slideshow for you to watch, so i hope you enjoy!
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