Saturday, August 28, 2010

English Immersion Week

My week with the Burnett family absolutely flew by. Our adventure to Carlby, the Burnett family's village, took much longer from London on Monday night than we expected due to lots of road maintenance that directed us in a very roundabout way. We arrived at our week's home past midnight, settled in quickly and slept way past breakfast hours the next day. However, we still managed to eat granola with (gasp!) WHOLE milk, English breakfast tea, and lots of fruit. We finally met Jennie, Matt's mum, once she arrived home from work, who immediately became a fabulous hostess and took care of our every need.

We explored the neighborhood area of Carlby via a walk along the trails only to be caught in the rain. The rest of the week ended up being pretty dreary. Ashley and I got very used to people telling us that the weather was horrible for this time of year and was pretty much "absolutely miserable". We were unable to do very much sight-seeing around Stamford, the nearest town, or anything else really due to the weather. However, Ashley, Matt and I spent a lot of time catching up for the first time in 15 months.

Ashley and I also really enjoyed meeting a mixture of Matt's friends during a BBQ that was held the first night we were there. All of the friends were very genial and truly interested in learning more about the American and Bahamian way of life. It was really fascinating to be the only American in the room and to have the challenge of trying to answer questions about the country, climate, different states, political stances, pop culture, etc. But, of course, our main point of discussion was the difference in American and English language and what it really meant to wear "pants" vs. "trousers".

On our second to last day, we did some exploring of the Burghley House (pronounced Burley) which is Stamford's famous manor house. We toured the whole place and immediately became excited for Harlaxton. The house was huge and ornate and overwhelmingly busy. There was always too much stuff to look at! It also was pouring down rain outside as well as extremely windy and so we looked really cool attempting to pose in front of the manor! 

On our last day, we finally explored the town of Stamford. The town was absolutely beautiful and full of walking shoppers everywhere. It intrigued me as to how many people did all of their shopping on foot around the town. It definitely was no Safeway and Fred Meyer! Ashley and I were very disappointed to leave because we spotted many trendy clothes shop that caught our eyes...but Harlaxton was waiting us and we knew we'd soon be back to visit the Burnett's! They were wonderful hosts, and thankfully, I forgot a few things there which means I'll need to return very soon!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds very cool Erin. That was how I felt in China with the band, but overall, it was a lot of fun getting to learn about different cultures. So happy to hear your having fun,
    Love from your cousin,
    Jack

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