New Life Church Retreat!

Alright so I'm figuring things out and hopefully you guys can read this better in purple writing! 

So this past weekend (February 1-3) I went to a youth retreat for college students. There's a church in the next town over called New Life. It is just a branch off of the main church (which has about 500 people) in the town of Lincoln which is where I went the weekend before. The pastor came to the college a few weeks ago and asked if any of us wanted to go and as soon as he told us about it I wanted to go so bad!!! I couldn't decide if I could though because Kelcie and I were planning on going to Scotland and I didn't want to miss out on a travel opportunity. BUT long story short, we pushed back our trip and I got to go and I"m so glad I did!!!!!!!!

There were about 150 students that went but only 8 were from Harlaxton  that went and besides the fact that we were going to have a college retreat with a bunch of college students....we really had no idea what we were doing. We were told that we would be staying in Lincoln (which is about 40 minutes away from the university), but once we got there the church actually took us to Norfolk which is about 2 1/2 hours away from Lincoln! Needless to say that if we died no one would have even know where we were......but I'm not trying to scare my mother so I'm gonna move on. 

Anyways, so EVERY single person there was extremely loving and welcoming to us as soon as we arrived (which had nothing to do with the fact that we were American, I"m sure haha) but you could just feel Gods presence as soon as we got off the bus (sorry...coach) and it was just an amazing feeling! We immediately were placed into a worship service and didn't even get to eat until 10 at night! we were starving!!! it didn't help that once we actually got to eat they gave us a normal sized hot dog bun with a half sized hot dog to put in it..... all of the british students were worried about us because we're americans and we eat all of the time and have huge servings....I didn't even argue haha. I was actually asked why I was so skinny, if I ate the normal American sized portions, and why I didn't take up two bus seats instead of one....yeah guys...we've got a great reputation going for us! haha! I also had a million questions about gun control. Good thing I had a politics class before I came or I probably wouldn't have even known it was an issue.....and that's not sarcasm. They truly are upset about it though, even the students which impressed me. They're all so afraid that if they come to america they will get shot. I told them it was only the psycho people of course.....at least, that's what I tell myself. The students kept me up as long as humanly possible each night, which was fine with me, when I was there I never felt tired, I just wanted to keep going! but I think I only got six hours of sleep the entire weekend...and when I wanted to nap on the bus ride home they wouldn't let me because they were STILL talking to me.....and my parents think I talk to much.....

The rest of the weekend was filled with worship time, bible studies, playing games and just having a good time together! We taught them so many American games and how to Wobble.....and I'm sure about 3/4 of the people reading this don't even know what that is...and that's okay haha all you need to know is that it's an american dance to an american song.

So all in all it was just an amazing time and I met so many new friends and more importantly....got myself a pretty darn good english accent! ;) 

As much as I love harlaxton, I really didn't want to come back after experiencing such a great atmosphere! I'm just so glad I had seven other students from my school go through it with me. I would fly back next year just to go....but that's kind of an expensive youth retreat.....

oh well, here's some pictures!

We were kept so extremely busy that I was barely given time to take them!

This is an odd game they play, but apparently it's a tradition to do every year. all of the students stand around the railing of the spiral stairs while one student lays at the bottom. The student at the top throws the ball at the person on the bottom and they try to catch it. It might sounds lame....but these guys were so energetic and funny that it was absolutely hilarious!

uno! finally a game I knew how to play!

here's the wobble

These girls were my roommates. They were SO awesome and they took me in as soon as I stepped in the room! I barely even had time to spend with my american friends because the british students want to spend as much time with you as they can. They invited us all down for Easter so hopefully we can go!!!

Liverpool/Lincoln weekend

I know this is a really late post, but I might as well do it!
Last weekend I went to Lincoln on Friday and Liverpool on Saturday.

Lincoln:
Okay, so the school took all of the students to Lincoln on Friday for a field trip. It's a cool little city, but it was so cold I can't even remember everything we looked at! whoever told me that England stays around 55 degrees and never snows is in trouble......
So the professors started off by taking us on a "Roman Walk Tour" where we walked (in the freezing cold) around to all of the Roman ruins that have been left. The Romans took over England for a while but don't ask me the dates because I was to busy thinking about how I was going to defrost myself at the time. It was actually pretty neat, they showed us how low the city was when the Romans took over and how high they have the ground because they built over it. There was also a sewage system and then an arch which is the only one in the world that is still working. and as in working I mean that it sits over the road and cars drive under it.....here's a picture because I'm not the best at explaining....

This arch was placed so that the Romans would know anyone that went in or out of the city. pretty neat! They had others of course but this is the last one standing.

There's the saying that all roads lead to Rome......well this one literally does. At least, that's what I was told.

Next they took us to the castle. They mostly talked about the prison of the castle actually.

The prisoners stayed in their cells with nothing but four concrete walls. They got three meals a day and only came out of their cells for one hour each day. thirty minutes to exercise, and thirty minutes for chapel. This is a picture of the chapel. They put those little doors between prisoners so that they couldn't interact with each other and cause trouble.

They also took us onto the castle walls where they had a lot of hangings. kinda creepy. But I got some really good pictures of the Lincoln Cathedral which is where we went next!

They gave us a tour of the cathedral which was cool, but the best part was the room where part of the DaVinci code was filmed! They briefly mentioned that they were embarrassed....but at least they're famous!

This is the room. I dont recognize it, but maybe you will???

Liverpool:

The school offered a trip to Liverpool and so of course Kelcie and I went on it! It's the fourth largest city in England and if you dont know already, it's the home of the Beatles!

We went on "The Beatles Story" tour and it was actually quite interesting....despite the fact that I know like nothing about the beatles or their songs. They did a little walk tour/story about how they got together and how they became famous and blah blah blah. I just like the Yellow Submarine :)

They also told us that this famous picture........wasn't even photographed on this actual road. It was in a studio.....what a bummer!

And I guess by the end of the tour I was kind of a Jon Lennon wanna be....

So next we went to the International Slavery museum which I didn't take any pictures of but it was super interesting. It told of all the countries that did the slave trade and showed little videos of which country went to which part of Africa. I was surprised to find that even Brazil went to Africa for slaves....

There was also a special Titanic exhibit that was very neat. I think they have one similar in Florida that my parents went to. You started by taking a name of someone on the titanic. You hold onto it until you get to the end and find out if your person survived or not. I was Millvina Dean. You guys may or may not have heard of her but she was a baby on the titanic and ended up being the longest living survivor. Anyways, so Liverpool apparently had a lot to do with the titanic and they don't really like to talk about it much. 

Here's a picture.....I think you'll be able to read it....hopefully at least. But there were a lot of people from Liverpool that worked on the titanic and died.

Last but not least we went to Alberts Dock which is just a cool little place for tourists to go and eat or shop or whatever.

And that was the end of my weekend! Cold...but fun!

Fun Fact For Today

My british professor informed me today that the word "sweeney" in England is another name for "the flying squad" which was involved in the criminal fraternity (police corruption, robberies, violent crime...stuff like that). There is a british movie that just came out that is called "The Sweeney" which is all about trying to catch the flying squad.
The movie Sweeney Todd is also related to the flying squad. The british have weird ways of naming things....for example:
If a Brit says "I have to go home to see trouble" the word trouble refers to "trouble and strife" and "strife" rhymes with "wife" so in reality they are saying "I have to go home to see my wife".
They have millions of these confusing little sayings!

So anyways, "The Flying Squad" rhymes with "Sweeney Todd" which is why they now refer to the group as "Sweeney".

......so lets just say, I won't be throwing my last name around loosely ;)

London!

I spent three days in London this past weekend and although it was freezing.....i loved it! it was so beautiful! The first day we took ourselves on a walking tour (SO MUCH WALKING) and saw almost everything there was to see it felt like. we saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Bridge Tower, the Tower of London, Piccadilly Circus (its comparable to times square in new york), Trafalgar Square, the eye of london (but unlucky for us it was closed for annual maintenance...), Houses of Parliament, and number 10 Downing Street which is where the Prime Minister lives.

Kelcie!

Number 10 Downing Street

Big Ben

You can see Big Ben from Piccadilly Circus

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

Eye of London

Westminster Abbey (where all of the crownings of royalty are held and also many weddings)

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

The next day we went to Buckingham Palace (where the queen lives) to see the changing of the guards. It really wasn't as cool as I had hoped, but I'm still glad I saw it. We also saw Platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross Station (if you don't know the significance of that, it's a big part of harry potter). After that we went to the British Museum which is HUGE. We spent two hours in there and only saw two exhibits! Later that day we went shopping on Oxford Street.....well, more like kelcie went shopping haha. she was in heaven. At night we went on a night bus tour that went all over London, it was awesome! it was an open top double decker bus so we got an amazing view :)

Buckingham Palace

British Museum

On the last day the school took us to Hampton Court Palace. It mostly talked about King Henry VII and a little about King William III. I had seen the movie The Other Boleyn Girl so it was very interesting.

King Henry VIII

Hampton Court Palace

 After we were finished there, they took us to Runnymede which is where the Magna Carta was signed. The Magna Carta is pretty similar to our constitution, in fact, I think our constitution is based off of certain parts of it. That night we FINALLY made it back to Harlaxton Manor. We were all sooooo tired! It was freezing the entire trip and that takes a lot out of you!

Where the Magna Carta was signed

Kelcie has a ton more pictures than I do, so if you want to check out her blog as well it's http://kelcie520.blogspot.co.uk/

Scottish Dancing

Tonight a Scottish band came in and taught us different dances! It's kind of like Square Dancing. The band would play while one man shouted out what move to do next, it was so much fun!

This was my dance partner, Reagan, we were very good!....for the most part....

This one is a little blurry, but I added it anyways

We danced in what is called the Great Hall, it's a beautiful room!

Arrival in Harlaxton

Kelcie, Alex, and I arrived at Harlaxton Manor on January 4th. It is such a beautiful place! There is so much to explore and we have gotten lost countless times in the mansion already......
There is a town called Grantham only a few miles away that a shuttle will take us to any day of the week. That is where we go to buy things we forgot to pack (or in my case, the things my dad threw out of my suitcase) and to go to church. 

This is me with my roommate Katie (in the purple), kelcie, corinne, and Amy at a formal dinner in the manor

This is the Long Gallery inside of Harlaxton where we ate our dinner. Look at how elaborate every room is!!!

We keep very busy ever single day, they dont give us much time to rest! I'm having a blast here, but at this point I would just like to sleep for an entire day to catch up. I start classes tomorrow and this coming weekend we go on a school trip to London. exciting!