European Stew: A semester abroad: Prison volleyball and New Earth creationists

Good day!

Once again, long time no see, my apologies once again.

Let’s begin last week.

Wednesday morning I was awaken by the most horrifying noise anyone has ever heard. What sounded like a mixture between an alien invasion, a poorly auto-tuned rap song, and 85 cats falling from a tree echoed throughout the building. I took the normal “Stewart” response to frightening situations by laying very very still and not making a single move. Then I remembered that last night they had warned us about an upcoming fire drill. Feeling like an idiot, I rose, dressed, and followed the masses out of the manor to outside. It was here where we were all met by the coldest, snowiest natural surroundings probably ever recorded in human history. Like any good elementary school drill, they wouldn’t let us stand on the pavement, so in sandals we all got the privilege to stand in 4 inches of snow while we counted roll, prompting one student to claim “I wish there actually was a fire in the building, then maybe we could get warm.”

New story: One of my professors (specifically the one that is teaching “Social Aspect of Sport”, talk about a toughy), was complaining to us about the volleyball team here. She’s the coach and on try-out day she had all girls show up to play. Unfortunately for them, the league is co-ed and they have to play on a men’s net. Being the little teacher’s pets that Mason and I are, we asked her if we could still join the team, and she affirmed. We rolled into practice Wednesday night and joined 10 other girls to compose the mighty and extremely intimidating Harlaxton Lions volleyball team. We started playing, and I was soon humbled with my amount of volleyball knowledge. The girls there had actually played real volleyball before, so they were running plays, different formations, and switching spots with seemingly no reason. Even with our lack of volleyball knowledge, Mason and I are the only two players that can spike, so we were put on the starting line-up. I’m now an official collegiate athlete and all my dreams have come true. PS, I’m rather positive that we play prison teams IN other prisons.

Last weekend we met up with our “host family,” Mike and Helen O’Neill and their 18 year old son, James. They took us to their house and James, yes the son that is in high school, cooked us the most delicious brunch I’ve ever had. We talked over tea, making us feel somewhat British, and then headed out for a walk. Mind you that it was in the 30s with probably 3 inches of snow on the ground still. We started off toward the “Belfast House,” what was described to us as a historical home that was now under the property of the government. We didn’t know how far the walk was, but I knew we were in trouble when, as we were leaving the neighborhood we ran into a couple the O’Neill’s knew. They asked where we were walking to and we informed them, and they said it would be dark when we returned. At this time it was 12:30…. One hour and 15 minutes and 4 miles later, we rolled up to the house. It was worth the walk. The garden was massive and extravagant, there was a “private church” in the back yard, and the place was massive. (as seen below, guess who figured out how to post pictures)

We continued back on our walk and got to see Margaret Thatcher’s (the ex-Prime Minister) birthplace as well as the elementary school that Isaac Newton attended.

On our way back, we ran into another couple. The man was later described to us as being “not quite a bishop” in the Catholic church. In American terms, that’s equivalent to saying he’s “almost one of the most important people in the country.” He started talking about his church, and he said it was built shortly after year 1000AD. Year 1000. Meaning that church is over 1000 years old. Meaning it has been here for half of the time since Jesus walked here. Meaning it was here before the Norman invasion when the Anglo-Saxons were still in control. Meaning that if the New Earth Creationists are right (story for a different day), and the earth is only 5,000 years old, this church has been here for over 1/5 of the earth’s existence. The building has been around about 3 times longer than America. It’s old.

We arrived at their house and had the most delicious meal I’ve had while here. I think the food here at Harlaxton is so bad, and that we’ve gotten accustomed to it, that anything that actually tastes like real food, we perceive as being God’s little gift to us for that meal.

Speaking of food, we had "Chinese night" here for dinner two nights ago. In sum, it was the worst experience of my life. Featuring an appetizing menu of noodles that were black, rice that was plain rice, an egg roll that you couldn't cut through, "spare rib" that in no way was meat, and "pork balls" (use your imagination), the meal was bad, very very bad.

Once again, I know this is long and my apologies for that. When you don’t write posts very often, you have to try to fit in a lot, which leads to a vicious cycle.

We’re headed to Cambridge this weekend and then on to Scotland after that!

Until next time,

Kyle

Here are some more pictures I've taken