Orientated Out!

Last night we had the High Table Principal Feast or Dinner or whatever it is called. And for the first and probably the last time they served us exquisite food. Prior to our dinner we had "mingle" time in the Great Hall where they served us the Harlaxton concoction of Rose wine, gingerale and lemonade. It was much to sweet for my taste, but the only other option was Orange Juice. So we were led in by the BagPiper of Harlaxton, a man named Billy James, I think. During dinner all the faculty and their families were introduced and the Principal made a little speech about the incredible opportunities we have at Harlaxton. 

After that we all changed out of our "smart dress" and planned to walk down the drive (a little over a mile) to a pub right outside the Harlaxton estate. However, The Gregory, the pub we were trying to go to, was closed. So we walked all the way back to the Manor in the cold and proceeded to hire taxis to take us into town to a pub called The Goose. I have to say it was intensely disappointing. It was so Americanized and I felt so embarrassed to be an American because now I know where people get their perceptions of Americans. Here were 40 American college students being the loud and obnoxious people that they unconsciously are. We left early because we decided to op out of the clubbing. We weren't feeling it. We were a little  worried we wouldn't be able to find a taxi but we hailed one and were soon puttering back towards Harlaxton. Our taxi driver was so nice and really helpful about places to go and places not to go in Grantham. Once we got back to the manor we called one of our friends back in Evansville through Skype and talked to him for a long while. We finally called it a night, but not after we had some pretty sketch pizza delivered to us. Meh, food is food and when you're really hungry you'll eat almost anything. 

Sunday morning we got to sleep in much later and we went to an orientation session after lunch. Then we had our joining procedures which involved signing a contract and those kinds of things. We had dinner and then after dinner we had meetings with our British Studies professors. Mine happens to also be my Shakespeare professor and from the looks of the class it should be pretty interesting. And now here I am. We just got back from an escapade of exploring the manor for secret passageways. We found several good ones and we also found some stuff that 2 past students had left to me and a friend of mine. 

Now I'm just settling back for evening before I have to get up at the crack of dawn for class. 

Talk to you soon!

-H