Ok, so I'm doing about a blog a day right now, just because everything's so new and so much is going on. After classes start it'll probably be down to about once a week or so. And I just write whatever comes into my head at the moment, so if it seems a little random that's why. I didn't get a chance to write anything about yesterday, so here it goes!
In the morning, we started out with the Opening Convocation. It was a lot shorter than the one at UE! There was a bagpiper who piped all the faculty in and then we had an opening prayer, sang both national anthems, and the faculty was introduced. After that, it was Principal Gordon Kingsley's speech. Which was actually fairly interesting for a speech. He told a story about how he ran away to Ireland and heard this song that he then made us sing about 10 times. (and that number isn't even much of an exaggeration!)
After that, it was time for the boring orientation lectures. There were four different ones: academics, what's allowed and not allowed here, fire safety, and travel. I was still pretty tired, so it was hard to really pay attention. But the grounds were pretty, and the rooms are interesting, so they kept me occupied!
After lunch we went into Grantham, which I totally see as our Hogsmeade. We walked around for a bit (getting a little lost along the way), trying to find the shop where Chloe worked. We found the shop and Alayna got what she needed from there, but no Chloe! =( So we went back to the shopping center where we got dropped off and went to a store called Morrison's (which is kind of like Krogers) and got a few of the things we needed. Among mine included a hair dryer and straightener. I had bought a converter so that I could use my stuff here since I know it works well on my hair, but when I went to dry my hair that morning the dryer worked for about 10 seconds and then stopped and wouldn't work again! Needless to say, there was no way in heck I was going to risk my really good straightener in that outlet. So I spent 19 pounds on a new set. The dryer actually works really well and the straightener should be ok as long as I have dried my hair before. There were a ton of shops and cafes and restaurants and such that we walked by and didn't go in, so I definitely look forward to going back and doing all that!
Once we got back, we hit up the Boutique because I really wanted a Harlaxton zip-up fleece (which I got, not the color, but it's the right fit) and Alayna and Christine ended up getting one too. Then it was up four flights of stairs so Alayna and I could drop our stuff off in our rooms and then outside to do some more exploring and start taking pictures! We had to walk about halfway down the drive in order to get the entire manor in the picture! After we were done with the front of the manor and the front circle, we attempted to get into the gardens. We had to go inside and, once we couldn't get in the conservatory (you slide the door, not pull/push it!), we went out one of the back fire exits. But everything seems to be a fire exit here! It wasn't emergency only, so we were allowed. We didn't get a chance to explore all of the gardens because the grass was fairly wet and someone was wearing flats, but I took a lot of pictures and could definitely tell how pretty it will be come spring. And at the top of one of the hills there's a really awesome view of the manor, more from the side.
That night was the High Table Dinner, where we got all dressed up (and froze) and got to eat yummy chicken and corn and such and had this awesome cheesecake-y thing for dessert. We were assigned seats, so I got to meet some new people and it was actually a lot of fun, despite being cold! They had this really good fruit punch wine in the Great Hall before dinner, when we were mingling and such. And then there was crappy white and red wine at dinner. It's really weird having that served to you at school! We're only allowed to drink in the manor in the Bistro, which is like a bar in the basement/dungeons, and at official school functions where they provide it. Like at our little meeting of our British Studies Seminar where we had it too!
After the dinner I was still pretty tired due to the complete lack of sleep on the plane, so my intention was to pull on some comfy clothes and get my whole schedule for the semester written out, write the blog, and go to bed early; well, that didn't entirely happen. My roommates were getting ready to go out into Grantham, so I was talking to them. After they left I got the whole schedule thing done, and was about to start on this when Lyndsey came back with two of her friends. They didn't end up going in because it was going to take so long to get a cab. So we were talking and such, we all tried her violin, which was fun. And eventually Alana, my other roommate, came in as well, so all of us were chatting. Lyndsey's two friends eventually left and the three of us got ready for bed, then stayed up for another 45 minutes, just talking. We didn't get to bed till 2! But it was a lot of fun just meeting new people and doing that, so I'm glad that I did that and that they decided to stay in. I'll probably put up one last post tonight about everything that went on today before bed and school in the morning! (Oh, and if you didn't get it because you're not as big a Harry Potter fan as me and/or you didn't think it was funny/odd-sounding enough to commit to memory, in Half-Blood Prince [movie, lets specify] Ron's complaining to Hermione/Harry that he likes to have a nice chat before bed, but now all Harry does is read that bloody book [his potions book]. I don't think that's an exact quote, but it's pretty close!]
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