Today I helped set up the breakfast room with Wade the coordinator. He is so great! quite hilarious too. I love his giant bear of a dog as well, Nora is her name. She will be going on some of the outdoor field trips with us!:) The Dining Hall is a beautiful old stone vaulted ceiling with three rows of wooden tables. (pics coming soon I promise! ) We have a continental breakfast. Except on Monday mornings when we head to the restaurant for a nicer breakfast.
Today we mainly went over various policies, etc. basic stuff really. We students made a Castle Compact which included basic respect rules etc. for our community living environment. We also toured more of our section of the castle. We got to see the Pottery room (which is a storage/laundry/ping pong area). The old clothes and leftover stuff was available to take for free. I had a blast with that!! I have a great new pair of black waterproof boots. They are tall thin rainboats, sorta look like English riding boots but they are rubber! I love them. I can't wait to use them out walking around the many trails. I got another pair of black cloth boots. a few cute shirts and sweaters too! Basically awesome:) Who doesn't like free stuff.
The Alnwick Gardens are beautiful! I loved touring it. Us students are fortunate enough to have been able to receive free admittance while we are living in the castle!!! :) The gift shop also had some great postcards as well. I might buy a book about the history of the castle. There was a neat maze of tall grass which formed tunnels. A giant water cascade. A poison garden. The cafe and indoor area had cool lights in the floors. Also, the loo(bathrooms) were sweet. the glass sinks had lights shining through them which changed colors. Toilet paper is weird here. there are individual sheets instead of a roll. Its quite thin too. but enough about that. On to more interesting topics.
I love all the moss:) Super big fan!
This tree is the oldest in the garden.
Many trees are covered in ivy which stays green all year long! Super big fan of ivy too:)
Some friends and I took a walk about Alnwick this evening and explored some castle tunnels. Alnwick is quite a quaint town with 7 thousand people. They don't have a department store, but rather individual shops throughout the town. Many streets are cobblestone. Very fun, except it would be awful in heels. There are very few modern buildings, much to my surprise. Most are quite old and rustic looking:) So cool! The streets are quite curvy and many areas of town are very slanted. People drive quite fast as well so its a little nerve racking to be crossing streets. We even walked out to the Lion's Bridge. There was a great night view of the castle all lit up.
Also, correction to my earlier post. Alnwick castle is 900 years old. my bad. Also, the Percys are not the second wealthiest in England. I don't know where I came up with that idea. However, their estimated wealth is around 315 million pounds. (hooffda) Well they do have quite the collection of cars:)
I have been pondering quite a bit lately. How does it get better than this? Where can I go up from here? Haha. Pretty much living a dream right now:) Sorry, but at the moment I don't ever want to come home. I have a new home(at the castle!!). Yes, I miss everyone dearly, but there are so many exciting things happening at the moment to miss people too much!
This is Hotspur, the restaurant where we eat ( there are swords everywere!)
This is a statue of Hotspur! ( don't know anything about him yet!)
Also, this is not a blog just so I can brag about all these cool experiences. Jealously is NOT my intent. It is more for me so that I document my experience here so I don't forget anything I learn or experience. I just chose to share it publicly so friends and family can keep up with my experiences.
Goodnight:) Yah, know its ten here now! Just heard the town bells ring to signal the hour.
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