First Day of School

So yesterday, Monday, was the first day of classes at Harlaxton. Every Harlaxton student is required to take a six credit hour class called British Studies. In essence it is a cultural, historical, and social study of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and Northern Ireland. On this, our first of British Studies our lecture focused on What it means to be British versus what it means to be English because they are too very different things that most people often confuse and use incorrectly. Many stereotypes and global images of Britain come from the English and are, in fact, English and not British. Because Great Britain actually includes not only England but also Northern Ireland, Whales and Scotland. So to say someone has a British accent is to be very vague and probably incorrect. Most people, Americans actually, assume that what is British is English. Not so. So that, was the basis of our lecture. There were alot of hairy dates thrown out about the forming of the United Kingdom in 1707, but I won't bore you with those details. 

So for this British Studies business we have lecture every Monday and Wednesday at 8:30am. This is followed by a Seminar with our individual groups at 11am. The purpose of the seminar is to break the 144 students down into more manageable discussion groups. There are 4 British studies professors at each teaches two groups. I have Dr. Helen Snow, who also happens to be the Shakespeare professor here at Harlaxton. Professor snow is your typical "English" woman with a humble appearance, a bad memory for names, and a very quick wit. I have no doubt that even though British Studies will probably be hardest class I will ever take in my four years of undergraduate work, that she will make the class very delightful. On the very first day she assigned us homework, which was that we all had to do group presentations on the Norman Conquest on Wednesday. I'm not kidding when I said this class was hard. I am, however, done with classes every day by 12 0'clock so I have plenty of time in the afternoons to work on homework. 

After class yesterday I did the reading for British Studies (from now on referred to as BS) on Wednesday and wrote up the notes I would give to my group because I would not be able to make it to the meeting that night. That night I went to dinner with my Meet-A-Family in Grantham. My parents here are Zyggy and Merle and they are a delightful old couple who have been in Grantham for some time now, but herald from vastly different parts of the world. Zyggy was born in England after his dad immigrated here leaving Poland during the war. His father went on to fight for the Royal British Army in the war and met and married Zyggy's mum in England. Merle was born in South Africa and both her parents were world champion ballroom dancers. At some point Merle came up to England where she met Zyggy. They have lived both in England and in Ireland and now live in a little "town" outside of Grantham. They are both charming and I can't wait to get to know them better. 

After returning from a lovely evening with them I hit the books again and started doing research for my trip to Paris in February. As of right now it looks like I will be in Paris on Valentine's Day and in Nice the next weekend for Le Carnival (aka Mardi Gras). The only thing that would change that plan is if our trip to Norway has to be moved to the Valentine's Day weekend. I'll keep you posted. Also, last night I booked all my arrangements to Cork and so I will be spending the end of the month in Cork, Ireland which is on the South coast of Ireland. We are spending two nights over there and plan to see the Mizen Head Cliff and perhaps take a day trip up to Dublin for some proper Guinness. 

The manor really is spectacular rain or shine so here are some pictures of the exterior on Monday when it was a little rainy outside.