A little video

The best orientations are on your own...

Wow... I feel like I haven't had ANY sleep over the past 3 days.

It's amazing here. It's everything I hoped it would be and so much more. The place is beautiful, the people are awesome, and the friends are great.

I got settled into my room almost as soon as I got here. I was worried that I might get bad roommates or a bad room... I was wrong on both. I am in a room with 3 other guys and the room is huge. All three guys are great. Roommates that you don't know are always a gamble, but sometimes pay off big time. This is one of those occasions, I do believe... Here's a picture of the room:

We needed a few supplies that we didn't bring from home so we went into town to get some stuff. We were picking up shampoos, pillows, and body wash... the usual "don't let yourself be dirty and stink" stuff. My roommate Eric Stamper had a wild night on Friday night and decided to go "Gravel Diving." Here's a picture of him at the market.

While we were in town, we kept seeing these yellow signs. Here's a picture of me with one. They say that here in England, you are always being watched...

While we were in town, we also stopped to eat at a Chinese resturaunt that we had been told was called, "Mr. Wang and Mr. Pang." In actuality, it was called "Mr. Man and Mr. Pang..." I wonder where the two got mixed up? HAHAHA. The dinner was very upscale Chinese and even had a lazy susan that you used to spin all the food around so that everyone could share dishes.

I also got hit on by a group of what I would imagine to be middle school girls... they had braces. I hope that's not the best I can do while I'm here. hahaha!

We had a "high table dinner" last night as a way to kick off the semester. The faculty at the college was introduced and we had a very nice dinner. There was a reception hosted by the President right before dinner.

A piper piped us down to the dinner from the Great Hall:

We ended up going out last night to a pub called "The Blue Pig." It's said to be the oldest pub in Grantham and the bartender told us that it's probably the oldest building that we'd ever been in. It's crazy to see how old things are here...

I decided that I very much like something called "Strongbow Cider." It tastes just like apple cider (maybe because that's what it is) and you can't taste the alcohol in it... bad. hahaha. The English girl in the picture below is the one who first let me try it. Her name is Jackie (I think...). She wanted to get a picture with me and asked that we looked like we were drinking out of the same glass... IT WAS NOT AS BAD AS THIS PICTURE MAKES IT SEEM!!! hahahaha.

We also asked to take a picture of someone's cigarettes because of the huge label on the front of them. ALL of the cigarettes here in England are REQUIRED to have this on there...

Today, we just explored the Manor a little bit more and took some pictures.

I Made It!

MY NEW HOME!

Well, I made it to England today after a long day/night of travels last night. I departed from Evansville Regional Airport yesterday morning at the "final call" for me to board the plane. I didn't really get much of a chance to say "see you soon" to my Dad and sister, but I suppose that was probably easier than if we'd had drawn it out.

The flight from Evansville to Cincinnati was only about 25 minutes which flew by, with the excitement and adrenaline. When I was on the plane, I stuck my "Entourage" Season 2 DVD set in the pouch in front of my seat. As we were exploring the Cinci airport, I realized that I had left it right there in that pouch without giving it a second thought. I was worried about not being able to get it back...

THEN... while we were sitting down having lunch at Outback Steakhouse, we saw our flight attendent walking towards us in the resturaunt with the DVD's in hand! This was nearly an hour and a half AFTER WE LANDED and he said he'd already been to the hotel, changed clothes, and came all the way back to deliver my DVD's... more than he needed to do. I very much appreciated his help.

Fast forward a little while to our flight "across the pond." When we sat down, we had this places to plug our headphones into so that we could watch/listen to music/movies. I was PLEASANTLY surprised to find Coldplay's VIVA LA VIDA album right there as an option for listening- I COULD SAVE MY iPHONE BATTERY!!

The flight was easy and I got some sleep... (3.5 hours- not as much as I wanted!) When we landed, we went through "Border Security" and I tried to take a picture even though it was clearly posted- NO PICTURES. As soon as I took it, a man came out of a booth and had to watch me delete it from my camera. He came out quick... I mean IMMEDIATELY.

After we got into the UK, I went to the ATM and withdrew my first bit of cash. (British Pounds)

Here's a picture of all of us once we arrived at the airport with our HEAVY luggage!

This is enough for now... I'll do my best to post more about actually GETTING here at Harlaxton.

I just wanted to share the fact that the most amazing coincidence of the day... the first song I heard on the radio

in England was "Don't Panic" by Coldplay.... How appropriate!

My "packing" so far... ;-)

I'm proud that I've made it this far!! HAHAHAHA!

I know I'll have to do it eventually...

It is Monday night and I leave Thursday morning.

I haven't packed a single thing into a suitcase.

I think it's psychological, but I just can't do it. Maybe I realize that packing the suitcase means I'm really leaving... packing just makes me see that leaving is closer than I want it to be. I know I'll have to do it EVENTUALLY...!

It's not that I don't want to be in England, it's just that I don't want to LEAVE to get there!

As I'm saying "goodbye" to people now, it's not like I'll see them soon. I won't be back until CHRISTMAS! I keep telling people that it isn't really THAT long and now I'm actually trying to convince myself of that...

The tone of this post so far seems faaaaaaarrr too negative for the journey I am about to embark on. I couldn't be more excited and really can't wait. I wonder if I could find a way to skip packing and saying goodbye and just WAKE UP in England without ever having to do the "not so fun" things associated with traveling...?