Friday brought my first, and thus far only, 24-hour time scare. I was pretty sure that my travel itinerary said that the bus to take us to our homestay would pick us up from Pollock Halls at 17:30 (5:30pm), and so, I set out at 3:10pm to buy a pair of cheapo headphones and some conditioner. I had walked two blocks or so when all of a sudden, I had a panicked thought that the bus was leaving at 15:30 (3:30pm). I told myself I was being stupid and the sheet had definitely said 17:30, nevertheless I sprinted back to my flat, ran up the three flights of stairs, and checked the itinerary to find out that I was indeed correct, and we weren't leaving until 5:30. I must have had the thought because of a combination of the facts that 1) I only remembered that there was a 5 involved in the time, and 2) the bus home on Sunday was actually at 15:00 (3:00pm).
After that whole mess was sorted out, I proceeded to buy what I needed, get back to my flat to pick up my backpack, and walk over to Pollock Halls to get on the bus. The bus ride down was beautiful, but also nausea inducing. This was to become a trend for the weekend. A bunch of us had been sitting at the tables in the back of the minibus, so some of the girls who had been sitting facing backwards had to go find other seats to sit forwards. Personally, I have never really experienced motion sickness in a serious way until this weekend, and I was not expecting it. I suppose it must be a combination of winding roads, hills, and the changes in speed required to drive under those conditions. This was the only reason I was glad that I hadn't eaten before getting on the bus.
We had a very small-world experience as it turned out that three of us on the bus had been JCLers, and one of the other girls, Danielle, had actually gone to LT High School and been a student of Ms. Jolicouer! The similarities between us continue, as she also goes to school in Minnesota (but at Bethel), and she's minoring in Classics. We had been placed in the same homestay, so that was pretty cool. When we got to Penrith, our destination, we were all so glad to be off the bus, but it was COLD. Our host mom, Elena, came to pick us (the two Danielles and myself) up from the bus. The drive to Ormside Hall (their house) was about half an hour, and we were all really hungry, really nauseous, and pretty tired, so it was a quiet drive, but when we got there, we brightened up quickly at how amazing her and her husband Julian's home is. Ormside Hall has a tower dating from the 1100s, and a main house from the 1500s, and it is beautifully decorated with knick-knacks from all over, as well as very lovely art and many maps of the surrounding country. It was freezing though, aside from the kitchen and the living room, both of which made me feel as though I had walked right into a Jane Austen novel.
Elena showed us to our bedrooms and then we went downstairs and met Julian, with whom we talked until Elena was done cooking dinner, which was garlic bread, salad, and spaghetti carbonara. Usually, I won't eat anything with 1) bacon and 2) cream sauce, but ohhhhhh man, was I hungry, and so it was fantastic. Elena and Julian told us about how they are going to Egypt on Wednesday and everything they are going to do while they are there. We were pretty jealous, needless to say. They have been all over the world, except to North/South America. They have been all over Europe to see various gardens, which I guess provided inspiration for their beautiful and functional garden. Dinner on Saturday contained potatoes, courgettes (zucchini), and beans all from their garden! But, I am getting ahead of myself. Dessert was a selection of locally produced cheeses from the town of Appleby. Danielle J and I were excited to eat Wensleydale cheese, made famous by Wallace and Grommit. We talked more for an hour or two before we went to bed, exhausted, but entirely satisfied.
In the morning, I woke up before the other girls, and I heard, for probably the first time in my life, an actual rooster crowing. It was incredibly bucolic. I got dressed and went downstairs to find an elaborate breakfast spread. Cereal, toast (of various kinds), oatcakes, about a thousand different kinds of jam/other condiments, tea, coffee, apple juice, orange juice, and boiled eggs. None of us had ever had a 4-minute egg before, so we were sitting with our egg cups in front of us unsure of how how to go about cracking and eating a soft-boiled egg. After much unsure tapping at our eggs, we finally got them properly opened. I decided that I like soft-boiled eggs a lot. Julian told us the story about how Prince Charles once sent back 100 eggs before he got one that was suitable for his consumption. Danielle S. must have been thinking about this long and hard, because about 10 minutes later she said that his cooks should just take out eggs at various increments so that they're already done when he sends them back. It was pretty funny. We lounged about at breakfast, talking about ourselves and getting to know each other until we had to go to meet the other groups to go to the Lake District. Elena left the Danielles and myself with another family, Jackie and Allen, and we were off to see the sights.
Jackie and Allen were hosting 3 girls, so the Danielles and I smashed into the back backseat of the car. After having to stop for pictures about every five seconds on the road there, we got to our first stop, Aira Force, which is a waterfall. Streams and creeks are called "becks," and the waterfalls stemming from those are called "forces," hence Aira Force comes from the Aira Beck. It was so nice to get out of the car. I felt like my legs were going to fall off after being folded pretty much in half to fit in the car! We walked around for a while to absorb the scenery
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| From Homestay Weekend Ormside |
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| From Homestay Weekend Ormside |
If you click the links under those pictures, you can see all the photos from this weekend. Anyway, we got back in the car and went to a lake, which I think was called Buttermere, but I am not entirely sure. While half of the people ate lunch, we went rowing on the lake. Corey and Ying were fantastic and rowed, while Sarah and I relaxed.
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| From Homestay Weekend Ormside |
Ying used to be on crew team, so we had the situation under control. It was so beautiful to see the fells (mountains) surrounding the lake on all sides, with stone walls and paths running up the slopes. So much was green, but also, the dying ferns on the fells made them reddish brown. It made for quite the contrast.
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| From Homestay Weekend Ormside |
And, sheep everywhere. Allen told us that there is a Roman road called High Street that runs along the tops of the fells in that region because it was along the shortest route from Point A to Point B. I wish we could have gone up, but obviously we were on a very limited schedule! We had lunch (soup, and it hit the spot. It was COLD on that lake!)
From there, we drove to a stone circle called Castlerigg. Though it was not very high up, the view felt like you were at the top of the world. There were green expanses everywhere, with fells and valleys encircling the site. There is a legend that if you count the same number of standing stones twice, you will turn into stone. It's a good thing I didn't even try...
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| From Homestay Weekend Ormside |
We took some nice pictures, and some silly pictures. We didn't really want to get back in the car, because all of us were at this point feeling pretty nauseous every time we drove anywhere. Allen took us sightseeing (in the car, of course) all over these windy single-lane mountain roads. I swear, I felt like I was going to throw up and I had a headache like no other, as did some of the other girls, but it was worth it to get to some of the places we saw.
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| From Homestay Weekend Ormside |
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| From Homestay Weekend Ormside |
We finally got back to meet Julian, and he drove us back to Ormside Hall, where we were quite glad to sit by the fire and have tea. We went over to St. James' Church (the village church of Ormside, and literally 10 steps from their gate) to have a look at the Harvest decorations and see the building itself (impressive, as a large portion of it is from about 1100), but it was locked so we decided we would go back in the morning so we could have a look around.
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| From Homestay Weekend Ormside |
I've already told you about dinner that night. Though, we finally learned that pudding doesn't actually mean pudding, it just means dessert. Unless you're talking about black pudding, in which case, don't eat it. The Danielles and I went to the garden to try and catch some of their cats and play with them, but they were all very shy. There was a kitten that was no bigger than a pineapple, and it was the cutest thing ever. After dinner, I introduced everybody to Letras, and Julian and Elena LOVED it. I seriously considered leaving my deck of Letras cards with them, but it is such a good thing to have when one is travelling that I couldn't bring myself to part with it. They really liked the Chicago playing cards and the book I brought them, though, which was good.
In the morning, we walked over to the church and got the inside scoop from the vicar (I think?). We got to see the tower that used to basically just be a pit in the ground until they put in a floor this year, so the vicar would have had to ring the bells while precariously perched over a dropoff in the floor. St. James was also the location where the Ormside Cup/Bowl was found, and it's apparently one of the best examples of Anglo-Saxon gold found in England.
Unfortunately for us, it's at a museum in York so we didn't actually get to see it. But, we did get to see some pretty ancient stonework and the Lepers' Squint, where the unclean people would crouch outside to watch the normals go to church. That was awesome.
When we got back, there was more bacon, eggs, and all of the other breakfast items of the previous day. Julian showed us pictures of castles in Scotland that wouldn't be too hard to get to for us to visit. We talked about films and sports and how in the US you can take lots of different classes no matter what you study. Julian got our email addresses so that we can stay in touch, and then we left to meet the other groups at the chocolate shop/factory place. It was so sad to say goodbye to Julian and Elena. It was a shame that we had all just gotten to know each other and gotten comfortable with each other when we had to leave! Perhaps we shall meet again, though. They had long before agreed to go to a luncheon party, so we were left in the capable hands of Margaret, the site leader, and Chloe, her daughter (who, incidentally, is on the GB National Womens' Water Polo Team... she'll be in the Olympics!). We had the most wonderful mochas ever, bought some chocolate (expensive, but totally worth it), and then crammed into Margaret's tiny car to go back to her house for lunch. She had the cutest dogs, one of which was a very tiny dog named Vic Parson, who wouldn't stop bothering everybody to pet him, and of course, I obliged since I am a sucker for puppies.
Margaret and Chloe pretty much laid out Thanksgiving dinner on the table for lunch. There were only six of us, but SO MUCH food. I'm not even kidding, there was stuffing, turkey, ham, brisket, yorkshire pudding, potatoes, cauliflower, asparagus, and carrots. Plus, dessert, which was apple cobbler and custard. We were all so full, and the drive back to the bus (and, the bus) was a downright unpleasant experience due to that fact. I don't understand how I can be entirely fine on roller-coasters, but a car in England is not okay. The bus took the scenic route back. I was pretty much trying to sleep most of the way, but when I caught a view from the window, it was gorgeous. I was a little jealous when I found out that my flatmate Katherine had been on a trip to see the ruins of Melrose Abbey on Saturday, but the homestay weekend was a truly wonderful experience, and I can probably manage to find a way to see Melrose! We found out that there's an International Student Center trip to Lindisfarne in November, and we will certainly go on that one.
This brings us back to the present. Classes, reading, studying, etc. We cooked penne with a tomato basil and bell pepper sauce, topped it off with prosciutto, and I made sauteed spinach with garlic and peppers and then bruschetta for a side dish. I'm kind of pro at cooking now. It was delicious but I'm still full like 4 hours later. Like, so full that I can't sleep so I'm writing this blog entry. I'm going to read some of my Archaeology of Rome book and hope it puts me to sleep... it's a pretty dry textbook.
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