Have you ever stayed in a castle? I hadn’t, before this weekend. I thought that, perhaps the jetlag was working up again and causing hallucinations this time, that I was imagining the sweeping stairwells and long, wide corridors, the “lift” (which was broken…so we carried our luggage up like 4 sets of stairs) and the fact that the outlets looked entirely different from the ones I was used to. The morning after the “Costume Ball”, I was awoken by the bells…which our room was right next to. I looked out the long window to see rolling green hills decorated with the surrounding gardens and stone statues surrounding the manor. This was going to be a good day. I could tell. After our mediocre breakfast (English cereal is so weird) we got a tour of the outside of the castle and then the State rooms, which, I was ecstatic to find out, were filled with secret passageways (just like in Hogwarts. Duh.). At twelve, we were picked up by my brother Doug’s British friend Matt’s father: we were to spend the afternoon at their lovely home in Stamford, just about twenty miles away from Harlaxton. Matt’s dad picked us up in a little Toyota station wagon, which is tiny compared to American cars. I got to sit in the little jumpseat in the trunk. And we were driving on the wrong side of the road through winding country hills at speeds way higher than I was used to. I think that I was about to go into cardiac arrest by the time we arrived in the little village outside of Stamford from pure overload of new things, but I was immediately sedated by the absolute loveliness and homeliness of this wonderful British family. After some introductions, we met Matt’s mom and brother, who is consequently my age. Cool. We all sat down in their living room and were offered drinks. The sixteen year old got a beer for himself. I got fruit juice. yet another huge difference between the British and the American cultures, so I found out.
Lunch was absolutely delicious–especially because we knew what the comparatively inedible food we would have been eating back at Harlaxton– and we finished up with some “pudding”. And I learned that the word pudding in England is an overall term used for all desserts. That sounded good to me. We got a drive-around tour of the near by Stamford (England’s finest town of stone) which was so awesome, with its little Christmas decorations, hilly cobblestone drives, like twenty Anglican churches and adorable townhouses. While we were driving, Peter (Matt’s younger brother) and I compared our school systems. He was thoroughly surprised by the size and scope of LT and the fact that we have TV and radio stations, so many sports and two campuses. But his school definitely had its pros, too. He went to a private all boys school which had a more concentrated curriculum (I think takes like three or four subjects at a time) with a looser schedule that has longer class periods but ample free and “game” time. After our enthralled conversations, we were dropped off back at the castle, where we walked packed up our stuff in preparation for our next journey…to London! Keep checking back to WLTL to read all about it.
