England is beautiful. Although the skies are overcast, and the air is damp, the wind is relatively warm and I am quite excited to be here. Tim gave a pretty detailed intro to this whole adventure, so if you are interested to know about the beginning of this trip, check out Timot's blog. The only thing I have to contribute that differs from Tim is that I did not experience any overwhelming tiredness- which is probobly why he considered the flight uneventful, and that he was being kind in his sock comment. I'm sure that I had something to do with that ladies quick departure. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.
My hostess is wonderful. She is very friendly and hospitable, setting up my room, filling the bathroom with lotions, shampoos, soaps and all that kind of girly stuff, and letting me know that what's hers is mine. My first night at her place we kicked back, had a beer, and watched the Office. I feel quite at home. Not to mention she has a beast of a dog that is fantastic. Her rotweiler's name is Tiger, and he could probobly eat me. I love him. Hopefully I'll be able to take him for walks through the countryside, which is fortunately a two minute walk from my house. The house is on the outskirts of town, but since the town can be walked across in about 20 minutes, most places are found close to the countryside. Since Tim has promised to post pictures, I'll avoid that hassle for the time being. Sorry, but I'm lazy.
The people who've organized this whole 'studying abroad' thing have really organized it. Even though we've only just got here, the days have been very busy. This morning Beccy woke me up, brought coffee up to my room, made me breakfast and walked me down to the big old stone church. The peeling bells can be heard across the whole town, which I think must just seer the consciences of a lot of people that choose not to come. The bells are a pretty loud reminder.
After church Laura, Heather and I explored a bit, took pictures, and stumbled upon the secret garden. Katrina, you would have loved that! Like the book- it was unintentional. I simply leaned against this wooden door in the rock wall because Laura wanted a picture, and then it flung open, and I stumbled in. Unlike the book- this garden was in someones backyard, and that someone was standing right there and looking pretty pissed off. I ran away.
After that we had lunch at the baptist church- which consisted of a baked potato and savory "minced"- which Heather thought was a crock pot of savory MINTS, and I thought was somthing totally different than what was served. But it was good, and I have no complaints. I also discovered that when they say after dinner we'll have pudding- they don't mean pudding at all. They mean dessert. Good to know.
After dinner we all borrowed rubber boots from Madelaine and went on an hour's hike through the countryside. It was muddy, a bit rainy, and generally a pretty great time getting to know the different people in our group. After that I went and checked out Tim, Laura and Heather's houses, stayed at Laura's because her house is the nicest, and then we headed out to Madelaine's for dinner.
Now I'm home and Beccy and I are watching some T.V. and both being anti- social because we want to do things on our computers. I'm fine with that. Tomorrow will be a pretty busy day. We will be exploring Oxford, starting classes, and then heading to Stratford for our first play of the semester. I'm pretty excited.
So- there is my first update of England, and I'm sure there will be more to come!
Cheers!
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