Harlaxton 2017: Arrival at Harlaxton and D.H. Lawrence Class Day

By: Caleb Curry

One short day in the Emerald City, or rather one short week in London, has at last passed us by. We arrived at Harlaxton Manor yesterday (Sunday) evening. As we saw the Manor for the first time, gasps echoed through the bus. It was breathtaking. On arrival we settled in, ate dinner, went on a tour of the manor, and studied for the next day’s quiz. Before I begin today’s happenings, though, I must mention my last day in London, which, by far, has been my favorite day of this trip. That morning (Saturday) we had our typical class, followed by my groups immediate departure to the British Museum. This was then followed by lunch, Wicked the Musical, dinner, Les Misérables, and Buckingham Palace. The shows were absolutely amazing and have been stuck in my head ever since.

Today (Monday) has been a much-needed day for a lot of people. Sleep has been on a lot of peoples’ minds lately (you know, besides the fact that we are staying in what seems like a castle). We have all learned that a quick remedy to sleepless nights is sleeping 6 (or less) hours every night for over a week, and falling asleep reading classic literature. Exhaustion has swept over everyone over the duration of this trip, and today we finally had the chance to catch up on some much-needed rest.

This morning, we began our class with a quiz over the chronology of D.H. Lawrence and his short stories “Rocking-Horse Winner”, “The Odour of Chrysanthemums”, and “The Blind Man.” This was followed by a discussion of these works, as everyone chimed in their thoughts about certain aspects of these stories. We even got to witness the entire class, along with Professor Rutledge and Cheryl, embrace one another’s faces in order to mimic the ending of “The Blind Man.” After class, which ended at 12, we had free time. This is the time when people took extremely long naps, wrote and revised their second essay, explored Grantham, finished preparing their presentation, and caught up on all the needed things. Tomorrow, we will be going on a field trip to explore D.H. Lawrence’s birthplace and Brinsley Headstocks. Which means, no quiz and (hopefully) one long night of sleep.