40 Shades of Green: my adventures on the Emerald Isle

First of all, if you really want to enjoy this blog post Ireland-style, I invite you to listen to this song while you read it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca0F9q9KIQc&feature=g-hist&context=G28fadd2AHTyVcfwAFAA

My journey to Ireland began at 4am on Friday morning. My friends and I stumbled out of our Nottingham hotel room and into a taxi that would take us to the airport. At 6:30, I got on my first no-frills airplane and was on my way to Dublin. After our short flight ended, we made our way to our first hostel of the semester. Expecting to find a prison-like building with cots and cramped living quarters, we were surprised to see how nice our hostel was. It was a combination of a hostel and a B&B, and it included a delicious Irish breakfast that we enjoyed twice during our stay. 

Upon our arrival, we told the woman at the hostel that we were planning to go to Wicklow National Park on our own. She strongly advised us to take a tour instead, and we accepted her advice. We later realized that, had we tried to navigate the park by ourselves, we probably would never have gotten back to the hostel! 

Luckily we opted for the bus tour instead. We had a friendly guide who drove us around to important sites in Dublin before heading out into the country. The countryside was absolutely beautiful. The green fields, snow-topped mountains, flocks of sheep, and clear lakes were exactly what I had imagined Ireland to be. One of the most beautiful sites was called Lough Tay, also known as Guinness Lake. As part of the Guinness family estate, the lake is surrounded by the Wicklow Mountains and our guide told us that the Beatles once stayed there. Some people say that the lake resembles a pint of Guinness, with the sandy beach being the foam on top. We also stopped at the ruins of an old Irish monastery and got to see a cemetery full of beautiful Celtic crosses.

Just so everyone knows, this photo wasn't altered in any way. Yes, it's really this beautiful!

There's me!

This is Lough Tay

On our tour, we made several stops at quaint little country towns, and we enjoyed lunch in an Irish pub.

On Saturday, my friends and I explored downtown Dublin. We saw lots of Georgian-style buildings. They all had brightly painted doors, so we enjoyed walking around and seeing all of the different colors. We went to the James Joyce museum and found an area of town with a bunch of shops and traditional Irish pubs. We enjoyed some lunch, shopping, and live Irish music. After a day of walking, we were all pretty exhausted, so we grabbed some dinner and relaxed in our hostel.

 

Overall, it was an amazing trip. I loved how friendly and welcoming all of the Irish people were toward us. Ireland is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, and I was disappointed that I had to leave. I’ll finish up with one of my favorite Irish blessings:

May the road rise to meet you, 

May the wind be always at your back, 

May the sun shine warm upon your face, 

May the rains fall soft upon your fields, 

And, until we meet again, 

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

A day in the life of a Harlaxton student

My apologies for not blogging in a while. It's been a busy week. Since I didn't go on any exciting trips this weekend, I thought that I'd give you a little peek at what everyday life is like at Harlaxton Manor:

7:10 or 9:10- Wake up.
Today was a lucky 9:10 day because I don't have class until 10:15. On Monday and Wednesday, I get up and go to breakfast before my 8:30 lecture, but otherwise I like to sleep in.

7:15ish. Getting Ready. Instead of taking pictures of me getting ready for the day, I thought I'd give you a tour of my lovely bedroom. Here's my wardrobe. I also have a drawer under my bed and a couple of little shelves.

 Here's my desk. It normally doesn't look like this, but I cleaned it up for the sake of this documentary. :)

Here's my room! I share it with 3 other roommates. My bed is the top bunk on the left of the picture. We have our own sink, which is nice. However, it's a bit crowded when we're all getting up at the same time for British Studies class.

 This is my first view when I leave the carriage house each morning to head over to the manor. It's a short walk. In fact, if you look closely to the right of the tree, you can see the roof of the manor peeking out.
After breakfast, it's time for class:
8:30- British Studies Lecture (Mon, Wed)
9:40- British Studies Seminar (Mon Wed)
10:15- Music Class (Tu,Th)
2:10- Sociology Lecture (Mon, Tu, Th)

This is our library. It's a popular hangout place because it is undoubtedly the warmest room in the manor! Since there are huge windows in most of our classrooms, it's usually freezing! I like to come here to work on homework and warm up. They told us that this room actually used to be the kitchens of the manor.

 12:00 Lunch Time! This is the refectory aka cafeteria. It has windows on both sides so it's usually very very cold. It gets really crowded in here at meal times because this is one of the largest groups they've had a Harlaxton. They serve us breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, if you choose to go.

Here's the front of the carriage house. I walk back and forth between the carriage house and the manor several times a day. It's uphill, so at least I get some exercise!

This is the computer lab in the carriage house. It's nice to have because we can print things out without walking all of the way to the manor.

I don't usually have too many plans in the evening. I go to dinner around 5:15 and then I work on homework and spend time with friends. I don't have as much homework as I'm used to, so my friends and I enjoy checking out movies from our well-stocked DVD room.

Tonight I'm going to a dinner to meet my British "family." The school organizes a program where we are paired up with families from Grantham, and we do activities with them throughout the semester.

Last photo of this post. That's right, I'm packing up for the weekend. Tomorrow morning I leave on a flight for Dublin, Ireland at 6:35 am! I'm very excited!

Nottingham- an evening in the land of Robin Hood

            Yesterday afternoon, some friends and I took a short train ride from Grantham to Nottingham. I was attending a classical music concert there that evening, so we decided to get there a bit early to explore the town. In my British Studies class, my professor had mentioned Nottingham Castle. That was the first object on our agenda and, after the usual interval of getting slightly lost in a new city, we found the castle. Outside we were confronted by a massive statue of Robin Hood who (let's face it) was the main source of our fascination with the city of Nottingham in the first place! Here's us with Robin Hood!
We had to brave the rain all afternoon. It was my first taste of real England weather.                                                  

 Nottingham Castle. While the castle doesn't look like it used to, we enjoyed looking at the several museum exhibits inside. Being 19 and 20 year olds... of course we had to participate in the part of the museum where you could dress up in costumes as Robin Hood and his merry men. Needless to say, we had some great laughs.
Nottingham was an interesting city because it was more modern-looking than Stamford but it still had some older landmarks mixed in. That evening, we had some supper and went to the concert at the Theatre Royal. It was the first classical music concert that I've been to in a very long time, and I enjoyed it very much. :)

A Stroll in Stamford

On Wednesday I took a field trip with the honors students to Stamford, a small town about 25 minutes from Harlaxton. We went there because there are several sites that have connections to medieval history. After a while of looking for the sites, some friends and I just decided to explore Stamford instead. It was a cute little town, with lots of beautiful old buildings. There were also a LOT of churches. We joked that wherever you stood you could see at least 2 church steeples.
We walked around the town for a while and did some shopping. We also found an adorable little sweet shop, so obviously a stop there was necessary!

One of the many churches

                                                        Pretty Stamford

                                                     artistic door shot!

                                              So, this may be a creeper photo... but I really want to live in this house.

                                               another adorable street

                                                   A lonely horse that we found
Get ready to hear about my adventures in Nottingham!

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." — Samuel Johnson

Last night I got home to the manor after an incredible and exhausting weekend in London. I had never realized how much you could cram into one weekend! Some friends and I took the train to Kings Cross on Thursday afternoon and arrived around 5:30 pm. Upon exiting the station, we realized that we had absolutely no knowledge of how to find a taxi. We saw them driving around everywhere, but none were in a position where they could stop. We walked around for a while and noticed how incredible it felt to be traveling in a foreign city on your own with no immediate plan whatsoever. It was terrifying, but liberating at the same time. Finding a taxi was the first of our many adventures in London, and I realized later on that these little "mistakes" or confused moments were some of the most enjoyable times of our trip.
That night, I had my first introduction to Indian food and explored a city that I was already beginning to love.
The next day, we hit a lot of the major tourists sites: seeing mummies and the Rosetta Stone in the British museum, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, the Churchill War rooms, and much more. But why would I tell about it when I can show pictures?!

The obligatory telephone booth photo.

                                               The British Muesum

 We stopped at an adorable pub for lunch. These were the most delicious fish and chips that I have ever eaten.

 The Tower of London! It was closed when we got there the first time. Oops! But we went there the following morning.

 "London Bridge is falling down!" Well this is actually Tower Bridge, but close enough. We went here accidentally, but it looked beautiful at night.

My friends and I had dinner in China Town and went to see Les Mis on Friday night. The show was so amazing. We got a bit lost on our way home after the show, but it was all part of the adventure.

In the Tower of London, you can see carvings that the prisoners made on the walls. We also saw the graves of Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey. 

Buckingham Palace! The flag was flying, so the queen was there that day. She must have not realized that we were coming to visit because she didn't come outside. 

Of course, we had afternoon tea and some delicious cakes.

Parliament at night= stunning!

On our way back to Grantham, we stopped at Hampton Court Palace. The grounds were absolutely beautiful. They gave out velvet robes for you to wear inside so that you felt like a guest in the palace.

Hampton Court Palace

As you can see, I had a wonderful time in London. It was a great trip, but it'll be nice to relax before traveling again!

An inside look

I've just finished my third day of classes here at Harlaxton. It's finally starting to sink in that this is school, not just a vacation. However, it's fun because our classes are held in Harlaxton's state rooms. These are the big fancy rooms that were used to entertain guests back when the manor was someone's country house instead of a college for over 180 students. The ornate decorations can sometimes be distracting when I'm trying to focus on a British Studies, music, or sociology lecture. If you look at the pictures, you'll see why!

                    This is the Great Hall. The president officially welcomed us in this room when we arrived at Harlaxton. Last night we had a Ceildh (pronounced Kay-lee) here, which was a celebration where a live band came and taught us Celtic dances. We made complete fools of ourselves, but it was fun!

                    Here's the Long Gallery. I have my British Studies and Sociology lectures in this room. On our second day in the manor, we had a traditional High Table Dinner here. We got all dressed up and ate a fancy dinner with the president and faculty. They also seem to enjoy having a bagpipe player at formal events, so there was plenty of bagpipes too! In this room, a wall opens to a secret passage that used to be used by the servants. There are several secret passages in the manor. The staff won't tell us where they are, so students frequently walk around trying to find them.

                     This is my favorite ceiling, so I knew that I had to put it on the blog. This is the ceiling of the Gold Room. It is used as a classroom also. It's probably good that I don't have a class in here, because I think I'd just stare at the ceiling the whole time.

                     Here's a picture of the State Dining Room. This is where I have my British Studies seminar class. You can't see it in the picture, but to the left are some massive windows that look out over the front driveway of the manor.

                     This is a wall decoration from the Morning Room. As you guessed, this is also used as a classroom. Every day I find something beautiful in the manor that I didn't notice yesterday.

                  And here's one last picture to prove that I'm actually here. Everyone sees me wearing my red coat a lot because most of the rooms in the manor are FREEZING cold! I guess I should expect that from a house that's about 175 years old.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the manor. I'm sure you'll be seeing more of it over the next four months. I'm really excited to go on my first trip this weekend. I'm going to London, so expect pictures and stories from that soon!
-- Amy