15. It is Tuesday and Life is Good

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

We are starting to settle into a routine, if you can call living in a manor in England routine. I cannot believe it is already Tuesday. The last time I wrote was on Friday and we have been on the go ever since. I will try to update you on some of the happenings from the last several days.

Friday night – by the evening most of the students had managed to arrive; only 32 were still missing. They were tired and hungry but at the same time excited about finally getting to arrive. The weather was wonderful so after they had a chance to eat something you could see students all over the grounds taking pictures and just rejoicing about being here. We were to have a short orientation with the students but because of the travel delays it was postponed. We did go ahead and have the rehearsal at 8 p.m. for those that would sing in the local church service on Sunday. It was fun to stand in the long gallery overlooking majestic grounds singing songs of praise to God.

Saturday – Many formal activities on this day. There was the official convocation in the long gallery with the professors all in their robes and being ushered in with bagpipes. Afterwards there was an hour long orientation and lunch. I officially opened the Harlaxton Boutique in the afternoon and was in training for several hours by a part-time British staff member. She was very patient as she showed me all the procedures of opening, selling, and closing of the store. It has been many years since I have used a cash registrar and making change in British currency was slow going at first but I got used to it. Many students and faculty made a trip into Grantham for supplies on their free afternoon. In the evening there was another orientation and then the principal’s reception and high table dinner. We were to wear “smart” dress and it was interesting to see people’s interpretation of what that was. Also there were a number of students who had made it to Harlaxton late in the evening and their luggage was still missing at the airport. No one was turned away and it was another occasion marking that we were at Harlaxton College IN ENGLAND!! The professors wore their robes during dinner which caused numerous smiles as they tried to eat without getting their large sleeves in the food. All the professors were introduced to the students and had their credentials given so the students could appreciate the high quality of faculty that they would be learning from this semester. The families of the professors were also introduced.

After the formal dinner everyone went about their separate ways–except for the faculty. The faculty and families adjourned to the Van der Elst Room—also known as the Senior Common Room, also known as the faculty lounge—for our first faculty “seminar” session. This is another name for a social time with liquor. It was a time of socializing with drinks (there was plenty to drink for us non alcohol drinkers) and cheese/crackers. We were able to just sit back and continue the process of getting to know each other. The last time we were here we had to leave early since we had small children to put to bed but now we were able to stay late and just enjoy ourselves. Of course now we are old so we couldn’t stay up that late anymore. It is one of life’s little ironies. We managed to stay until midnight and then called it a day.

Sunday – God provided us another beautiful day. We started it out by attending the local Harlaxton Village Church which is Church of England (similar to the Episcopal Church). The church dates back to 1170’s. We had a wonderful experience, with Dr. Gordon Kingsley (Harlaxton principal) giving the message. We had a large number of faculty and students attend which more than doubled their attendance. Then back to Harlaxton College for the rest of the day’s activities which included meals, 2 orientation sessions, and joining procedures (matriculation). Ray and I helped with the joining by him passing out his research questionnaire and I marked students off as they got their ID pictures taken. We had 100% of the students make it through the procedures so we were all happy after 3 hours of work to get it completed. Needless to say there were very little free time on Saturday and Sunday for Ray and me.

Monday – The start of classes. Yea! Ray only had one class and it was in the afternoon. We started out the day attending the British Studies lecture in the long gallery. Dr. Kingsley starts it precisely at 8:30 with a gong and then the doors are closed. Anyone entering after that time will be either late or absent, depending on the timing. Harlaxton College has a very strict attendance policy due to the amount of travel students do over the weekend. Without the attendance policy many students would not find their way back to the college or out of bed for classes. The first lecture was informative, overwhelming and entertaining. Ray spent the rest of the day doing his final preparations for his classes. Most of the faculty was doing the same. I made a run into Grantham on the shuttle in the afternoon to buy a few supplies and worked on calendar projects.

Tuesday – Finally we are up to today. Normal class day and Ray has both of his classes today. I opened the Boutique on my own for the first time. It was officially open from 9-12 but I needed to be there before 8:30 to get it ready to open. It was a busy day with me doing about $800 worth of business in those three hours. We only sell souvenirs, t-shirts and sweatshirts so I did well in that amount of time. I am slow going through the closing procedures after I was able to close the door at noon so I just barely made it into lunch before they closed. I think Tuesday afternoons will become laundry day for me. Most of the professors have a full load of classes on Tuesday so this will be the quietest time for me to use the laundry room. The professors have a private laundry room with one washer and dryer for us to use free. The downside to that is it takes a full hour for one load of laundry just in the washer. The first load took over an hour and half to dry. The dryer is an extractor dryer so I have to empty the water out of a container midway through the cycle. I am sure I will learn the technique as time goes by. It is now 6:30 p.m. and I have been working on 2 loads of laundry since 2:30 and still the second load is wet. I can tell I will have to devote a large amount of time to completing laundry. Tonight at 7:30 we have a London trip briefing. We leave on Friday (no classes) for a weekend there.
And the fun continues.... - Penny