Downtime- Whole Lotta Nothing

So not much has been going on for the past two days. The most notable happening was that the interenet server was down for most of last night and today until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Yesterday I mostly did reading for British Studies, with eating in between. I hung out with friends also, and we played cards in the evening. Today, I had to wake up early for British Studies Lecture and Seminar. Then in class we all had short presentations to give on Alfred the Great (I'm sure everyone is enthralled at this point). After that it was lunch and then some of us went into Grantham. I didn't need anything, but I went along because I didn't want to stay on campus. We all walked around and everybody found the stuff that they needed. I didn't need anything mostly because I packed basically everything that I would need over here, which took up lots of space, but also meant that I wouldn't have to buy the expensive stuff over here. We then came back to the manor and had dinner. After dinner we had a meeting about how to go about travelling independently of the school. It was somewhat informative, but lots of stuff we already knew. After that there was some homework time, and then some of us went and played cards again. After cards I came back to the Carriage House where I am staying, and wrote this. Tomorrow will probably be most of the same thing, and then me and most of my friends are staying here for the weekend. So not much is really going on. Maybe I'll make something up to get interesting things on here, about Sasquatch or something. We'll see.

British Studies 382 + 2 Classical Language Independent Studies = Not Much Fun

So today was the first day that I had my British Studies course. As I said earlier, it consists of a large lecture with all the Harlaxton students for about an hour, and then you break up into small groups to have seminars. My professor happens to be the one who will be giving most of the lectures, because this is primarily a history course and he is a history teacher. He is a very interesting guy, because he of course has a British accent, but a also has a speech impediment so that is r's come out w's. So instead of the British, he talks about the Bwitish. Now I'm not making fun of his speech, I'm just saying that it's sometimes hard to understand British accents, but then add on top of that something else that makes communication difficult. But he's a really great teacher so far, and I think I'm really gonna like his style. By style I mean the fact that he's very sarcastic and likes to make intelligent jokes all of the time, and he also knows what he's talking about when it comes to academics. Today was just preliminary stuff, such as what the course would be like and how tests and quizzes would work, and what papers would be written; that sort of thing. I then found out that since I'm taking the class as 382 and not 282, that I would have to end up writing two 3000-word essays, one having to do with Oliver Cromwell (the name that I drew from a box) and the other having to do with anything connected to the city of London. It's going to be a lot of work, which is why I'm worried, because on top of those things I have my 2 Independent Studies: Greek and Latin. I messed up a little because I made my own schedule for when I was going to do what chapters in Greek, and I had myself doing two chapters over the summer and then starting the next when I got here. Well, I didn't exactly do two chapters over the summer, so now I have to do 3 chapters by next Monday. I have one done, that I completed today, but all in all I probably spent about 5 to 6 hours on it, between today and a little on the plane and a very little bit at home. So that means I have two more to go. The good news is that Latin doesn't start until about the middle of the month because until the class in Evansville is just reviewing (which I should do some of too, but that won't take much time), and I'm not going on any big trips this weekend, just maybe into Grantham or something like that. So I should have plenty of time to get all of my work done. When I had been doing Greek for about 3 hours or so, I was just fed up with it and I had to get out. So I went outside and walked around the Manor. I had explored a little bit before, so this time I went to some of the places that I hadn't gone before. It is a breath-taking place, and there are so many spots where I could go and just sit, or stand or even walk around, and I would be surrounded by trees, but still have an amazing view of the country-side. During that time exploring I really felt peace and contentment, and it was a good feeling. After that it was work for the rest of the night with a substantial break to hang out with friends, and I even managed to make a call to a certain special someone. Now I'm writing this before I head to bed. Even though I don't have any classes tomorrow, I should still get up at a decent time, I have things to do. Well, here's to long nature-walks.

Sunday: The Day of Rest..... Sort-Of

As I said yesterday, I went to an Anglican Church service today. It was actually very interesting. The president of the college (who preached) said that it was probably closest to Catholic, Lutheran, or Episcopalian services. It was very structured and we read most of the service out of a small booklet. I liked it, although there are other local churches that I was wanting to check out, so we'll see where I end up. When we got back we ate some lunch and then did a lot of administrative stuff like turn in papers and such. We also had some meetings, one which was about security on campus. This was really bad and I almost feel asleep quite a few times. I know that it is necessary and that they have to do it to cover themselves for insurance reasons, but it was incredibly boring. Anyway, after that we had a fun boy/girl separated talk about drinking, fighting, and sex. It was another one of those mandatory things that they have to do and is just awkward for everyone involved. After that we had some free time and I walked around campus and took lots of pictures. I still haven't been everywhere, but I plan on having photos of basically everything before it's all said and done. I then had a meeting with my class and professor for British Studies. They way British Studies works is that we have a big lecture with every student here at 8:30am, and then you split up into small groups, each having its own professor. So this was the first time that the class and professor had met together. I knew a few people in my class, and the professor was a really funny and sarcastic British professor of history. After the meeting I went with tow guys from my class to see a secret stairwell. You open a corner of the wall in the Long Gallery (the room that we had the formal dinner in) and there is a set of metal stairs that goes up to the top floor and down to the basement. It was cool to see. I then hurried to catch the end of dinner and met Dani and Brandon and Sam there. After we ate (which was turkey with gravy and potatoes) I waited for a phone in the phone-booth room. While I was waiting I met a girl named Amy from Marion College in Wisconsin. We talked for a short while until she took the first available phone booth (she was there before I was, after all). I was then able to get a booth myself and called home to talk to my mom and sister. That was nice to hear their voices. I then came back to my room and got my laptop to get on the Internet. I'll be going to bed soon, because tomorrow is the first day of classes, which will be my introduction to British Studies. Fun, I'm sure.

Double Days: Waiting, and then Get-To-Know-You Day

So it's been a while since my I wrote about what I was doing, and my last post explains why. Now I have power, but no wireless in my room. I have to go to a little rec room just a few rooms down from my room to get a wireless connection. So now I have a connection and power to work with. So here goes. Me, Brandon, Dani and Shannon woke up at the hotel we were staying at, had breakfast, and then got ready to go. That's when the waiting started. We had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes for our driver to take us to the airport; that was only a small foreshadowing of what was to come. We finally got to the airport and got unloaded and then went to meet the group. When we got there at around 9 only two other people from the group had gotten off of their planes, and we were waiting on the rest, which was about30 or 40 people it seemed like when everyone finally got there. However at that point not everyone was there, and that's the way it stayed for over 3 hours. A few people would trickle in here and there until finally everyone was there. We then had to take all of our luggage back down to the pickup area to load it into a truck and then get on a large fancy bus. We then got on what we thought was going to be a 1 hour bus ride; this turned out to be false. It is 1 hour from Gatwick airport to Harlaxton; but that's by train. And we were on a bus that had to get stuck in traffic, a lot. So all in all it took over 4 hours. It wasn't that bad for the 4 of us, because we had had a full night's sleep, while the rest of them had just gotten off of their respective planes. So at one point there were only 5 people awake on the bus. People would drift in and out and talk some and then fall back to sleep. We almost killed a few motorists because our bus was so big and in a few of the towns the roads were really small. It was a fun, if long ride. When We finally got to the manor it was really amazing, because you saw it from a distance and it looked huge and the closer that we got the bigger that it got. We then got off the bus and went inside to have dinner, which was fish and chips (I kid you not). After dinner we had a little bit of time to bring our things to our room, but not much time to unpack. We then had a short orientation session with randomly-chosen groups. After that we had more time to unpack and free-time for the rest of the night. My room-mate had gotten there before I had, and already had his stuff unpacked, so I didn't meet him at all that day. I explored the manor a little (mostly because it's really big and easy to get lost in) and then met up with the usual group. We then looked around as a group and picked up a new-comer named Josh who was cool. After we were done exploring we watched a little TV (a little ironic, I know) and then I turned in pretty early at about 11, and then slept until about 7:15. My room-mate and I both woke up at the same time so I finally met him. His name is Chris and he seems like a good guy. I then got ready for breakfast and left to meet Brandon, Dani and Shannon. We ate breakfast and then explored the manor a little bit more. We even took the lift (elevator) up to the fifth floor which is where Shannon lives. It is old but still works, although very slowly. We then had our first formal meeting as a class, with introduction to faculty and an address from the president of the college. We also had to sing a song about a garden growing about 10 times, so that was interesting. After that we had about an hour of free-time. It was then time for another meeting where we talked about school rules and policies, the bureaucratic stuff. We then ate lunch which was American-style chili-dogs and curly-fries. After lunch we waited for a little while and then went to wait in line at the bookstore to buy our textbooks. Mine only cost about $70 (35 pounds or so) because I only needed books for the British Studies course; I already had the books for Greek and Latin. We then had some free-time during which we chose to go into Grantham (during my last post I erroneously thought we were going into Harlaxton village). We took a shuttle into town, only Dani and Brandon didn't go because Brandon wasn't feeling well and so was going to lay down for a short while for the next shuttle which came sooner than we thought. So Dani went to get Brandon to get on the next shuttle and Shannon and I went with Drew and Katie, some friends. Drew was in my small group from orientation my freshman year, so I knew him but not Katie who is his girlfriend. We walked around town looking for odds and ends that people had forgotten. We said that we were on a "quest". We then decided to look for the ASDA, which is the British version of Wal-Mart. We couldn't find it and so Drew asked for directions. He then led us and said that he was the "questor". After wandering I said that he didn't know where he was going, and he said that I should trust him as questor. It turned out that he didn't know where he was going, and said that he had let me down. We were joking, of-course, so we made jokes about it for the rest of the day. We went back to the manor on a shuttle in time to have another small orientation meeting about our expectations for Harlaxton and a little briefing about British culture, mostly humorous. Our leader passed out cards with common British phrases on them and we had to guess what they meant. The best one was "yob" (pronounced yawb), which is simply boy backwards. It means hooligan or ruffian, and so we used that about each other for a while. I think it will stick. We then had some time to get ready for our first formal dinner. Everyone was dressed up, and we were split up to random tables. I forgot my camera so unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. The meal was decent, but it took a long time between courses. I got to sit by Ange Drapp, so I was happy that I knew someone. I've been meeting lots of new people, but it's nice to have that comfort of knowing someone well. So far all the ceremonies have been started and ended with a man playing the bag-pipes, which is just about the best thing ever. After the meal ended we were free to go for the night, and I chose to come back to my room and type this. As I was sitting in the common room (which is the place where I get signal), a bunch of girls came in and wanted to know if I would play Taboo, which is where you get a card with a word on it and you have to get your teammates to guess it, but there are also words on the card that you cannot use to help them guess. It was fun and we eventually had about 10 people playing. After that distraction (although it was nice) I sat down and finished this post. After I am done I am going to go to bed and sleep so that I can get up to eat breakfast and then go to the local Anglican church for a welcome service. That should be interesting. Well, there we have two days wrapped into one post, and since it's so much I probably forgot something, but the big stuff should be there. Should be more to come tomorrow.

Just A Little Longer For Another Update

So I'm here at Harlaxton now, and I'm all moved into my room. The only problem is that I have the power adaptor for my laptop, but no power. That's right, the wall outlets aren't getting any power, probably a blown fuse; and since I used my laptop last time it's almost dead. I put in a request to get it fixed, but most likely the maintenance staff doesn't work on the weekends. So I suppose we'll have to wait until Monday for another update. I'm on a computer in the computer lab right now, but I only have a few minutes to spare before we go into Harlaxton Village (yes, we have our own village with peasants who when they get angry use their torches and pitchforks; ok, that's not true, but there is a village around the manor). If I get some more time I might be able to write a longer entry. Until then, cheerio!

I Survived

Ok, so flying wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. First of all, security was really simple. I thought I was gonna get interrogated and physically abused and such, but none of that happened. It was smooth and orderly and everything checked out alright. Saying good-bye to everyone that was there was the hardest part. It went in succession: first my Grandpa and Grandma McKnight; then Olivia, Angela, and Katie; then last of all my mom and dad. That was all hard enough, and then I had to get on a plane, when I've never been up in the air. It ended up being good though, I sat next to a guy from Indiana who was an opera singer and so had traveled a lot internationally. So we talked before take-off and he gave me some tips. That kinda took my mind off of the actual take-off, which was very easy. It was just like a climbing roller-coaster without the inevitable drop. The flight to Detroit only lasted for about 40 minutes, and was a really good way to get rid of my flight-jitters. I got off the plane alright and then had to walk roughly 10 miles to my next gate (ok, it wasn't 10 miles, but it was a long way). I then sat and waited for Lisa who I was supposed to meet up with. She didn't show and I kept looking, but then they started boarding about 45 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave, which was odd because in Indy we boarded about 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave. I was worried that I had missed her, but she's flown a lot before so I thought that she would be ok. The flight boarded and we had to wait for the 45 minutes until take-off. We left and it was dark so even though I was beside a window, I really couldn't see anything, which was a shame. It was a little different since the plane was bigger, but for the most part it was just as smooth. During the flight, I did some of my Greek homework while waiting for my meal and then afterwards too for a little while. Speaking of meal, I was so starved by the time my meal came around that I ate the salad that came with it. I never eat salad; too much leafiness. But I ate it because I was that hungry. After I had done some more of my homework, I decided that I would try the bathroom, which was one of the more amazing experiences I've had in my life; watching the water get sucked down in a faster-than-normal rate of speed. Then I thought I would try to sleep a little, which really didn't work. I slept for maybe an hour at most, and fast-forwarding a little I really don't feel that bad. I'm sure I'll sleep alright tonight though. When I woke up it was light out and so I decided to watch our progress on the video screen in the headrest in front of me. It had a sattelite image of the earth and our plane's position. It was cool to see on the map that we should be over Ireland and I looked out the window and there was land. We landed and I was glad that we didn't recreate the airplane scene from Superman Returns, but I was apprehensive about the whole customs-business. It took me about an hour to get through the line to show my passport to get in. I then found my luggage merry-go-round-thing and got my luggage right away. I then thought that I was supposed to wait for Brandon, Dani and Shannon, 3 of my friends who I was gonna meet up with. I waited at their baggage claim for probably 45 minutes before I asked someone if their flight had come in yet. I found out that it already had, so I went out into the greeting area and immediately saw Brandon. We all met up and I explained that I hadn't met up with Lisa and that I didn't know where she was. They said that another early-arrival Harlaxton student had said that she had seen me on the plane but she didn't see Lisa. So we figured that her flight had been delayed so that we went ahead and left the airport. We called a small local hotel and got two rooms for the 4 of us. Our rooms are roughly the size of large closets, so that is fun. We dropped all of our stuff of in our rooms and then went out to explore the town that we were close to. We walked around for a while and then decided that we were thirsty so we stopped into a restaurant to get Cokes. That was interesting becuase Brandon found out the hard way that British money changes fairly often and they won't take the old stuff. They will exchange it at the banks for the new form, but they will not take the old stuff as real currency. Pretty messed up. After walking around a little while longer, we decided to stop at an old church that we had seen on our way to the hotel. It was really cool because not only was the church old but it had an old cemetary around it. After checking that out for a while we decided to go back to our rooms. At that point we basically just vegged out and watched TV. Turns out that the British have really funny commercials; I'm not sure if they have this in the States but we saw a commercial for a Barbie that had a dog the had poop drop out when you lifted its' tail. I couldn't get good signal for the wireless-internet in my room, so just a little while ago I decided to come down to the lobby to check the wireless connection, which turned out to work, which is how I typed this. I also found out that Lisa had been delayed in Michigan so that she won't be joining us unitl tomorrow. Well, my battery is going dead as I have no adapter for the different electrical system over here (although I will get one soon). I'll try to figure out a way to post the pictures that I took today. Well, so far so good, and there's more yet to come.

International Travel: The Preface

So here I am. This will be the first time that I've packed for a flight, gone through airport security, and did I mention this will be the first time I've been on a plane!? It's all so nerve-racking, and I'm only about 2/3 done. I still have a little bit of packing to do concerning where I'm gonna put all the extra crap that doesn't constitute clothing, which is what has taken up my two allowed pieces of cargo luggage. So I've never been in a plane before. But you might say, well haven't you flown just by yourself by being able to manipulate gravity? Well the answer to that is no; contrary to popular belief, I cannot actually fly. Which is a shame because then I would just grab my luggage, go up up and away, and then land in England in a matter of seconds. Plus I would be able to skip all that annoying and much-talked-about airport security that I've never faced before, because let's be honest, I could never be a terrorist because I don't know anything about explosives, so why do I need to go through security. Yeah I know, for the safety of everyone on board, blah, blah, blah, who really cares? Ok, so I care, and am just making a joke; I very much value a feeling of safety when I'll be flying over an entire ocean. Anyhow, this self-propelled flying scenario is unfortunately only fanciful fiction.
Not to mention all of the stuff that I have to get done before I go. I have last minute items to get. I have paper-work to complete for work. I have a chapter and a half of Greek homework that I am supposed to have done for before classes officially start. All that and probably stuff that I haven't even thought of. I'll tell you what I have thought of. Leaving my family and friends. I've told people that it really hasn't hit me yet that I'm leaving. It seems like this is all made-up, and that sometime in the near future I'll go back to campus in Evansville and have a normal semester. I won't go across an ocean and stay in a manor and travel around Europe. This seems like a dream; a dream that will soon become a reality in less than 24 hours. I'm anxious, scared, nervous, excited, sad, happy; basically every emotion and it's opposite rolled into one. However I know that this is going to be the experience of a lifetime, and so I'm eagerly awaiting my first step in this unique adventure. So to all of you reading this, get ready; it hasn't even begun. More to come on the actual process itself.

First Post

This is my first post, and it is very short. When I figure out how to use this I will post more.