Harlaxton Day 6: Class and Free Time

Hi everyone,

Most of our class, including me, began the day with breakfast at the Nutford House around 8 o’clock in the morning. Then we rushed upstairs to study for our upcoming quiz over C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien. Class started promptly at 9 and we had a group discussion about the Hamlet play that we watched at Shakespeare’s Globe. Next, we had our quiz and talked about the lives of the authors. We transitioned to discussing poetry categories. Professor Rutledge read Beowulf aloud to the class, speaking foreign syllables as we struggled to determine the meaning. We talked about poetry terms and our upcoming assignments. After class, everyone split up into groups and we headed our separate ways.

My crew made our way to the tube and practiced our British accents as we commenced our journey to the London Eye. Upon reaching our stop, we weaved through streets crowded with people, until we reached the line. We spent the entire 20 minute Ferris wheel ride admiring the sparkling water of the Thames and attempting to capture the incredible London skyline in photographs.  Afterward, we rushed to Westminster Abbey, but were too late to enter. We returned to the winding tunnels of the tube and rode to the Twinings Tea Shop where I bought a souvenir tea box and enough flavors of tea to last a lifetime. After taking a break at a local park, we continued our adventure to the London Tower. The old architecture in London has been breath-taking and the tower was no exception.

Next, we followed a path to the Tower Bridge and walked across it, constantly snapping photographs of the bridge and the buildings crowding the cloudy sky. There, our group eagerly waited to take pictures with a giant statue of Jeff Goldblum in his signature pose from Jurassic Park. Navigating the tube has gotten easier and easier as the week wears on, and we made it to the pizza shop where we got our dinner with ease. Since everyone was exhausted from exploring throughout the week, we returned with our pizza to Nutford House around 9:15 (although curfew was at 10:30) and set to work on some of our class assignments. Eventually, most of the students migrated to our temporary classroom which buzzed with conversations about today’s adventures. Tales of Buckingham Palace, the National Botanical Garden, and visiting The Shard, accompanied by the debates over which clever caption to post, filled the room.

 

Georgia