Good morning!

It is about 10:40am Wednesday morning and I am in between classes so I thought I would give a brief update on my life in the castle. I am taking 5 classes here, Mass Communications 420, 436, and 438 as well as social sciences 204 (a British History course) and an International Studies course which is comprised of weekly field trips on Fridays. Along with classes, we all have cleaning duties that are to be done every Monday and Thursday afternoon in an effort to keep program costs down. Some of the duties include kitchen cleaning, bathroom cleaning (gross), vacuuming, and garbage collecting. I feel like I got off pretty easy, my duty is to wait for everyone to finish cleaning and bringing there garbage to the back door and I simply bring it all outside to the dumpster, not too bad. Furthermore, I am also enrolled in Work Study which means I do odd jobs and random tasks for Wade, the residential director for the castle. There are 9 others in work study as well so the work load isn't very demanding although wade says it will pick up. One of the jobs I do quite frequently however is nightly rounds. Since I have experience being a Community Advisor on campus Wade felt like it would be helpful if I coordinated rounds. Luckily there are 4 of us on rounds duty so we have been alternating nightly. It all feels kind of overwhelming right now since I am not in a routine yet but it is bearable.

We have our first field trip this weekend to the Lake District which is known to be the rainiest area of England but one of the most beautiful. It will be my first experience staying in a hostel as well and we will be there until Saturday night. Not quite sure what to expect. We will take part in some organized activities but can do as we please for the most part. A week from this Friday will be our day trip to Edinburgh, Scotland which is where we flew in. A lot of us, myself included, have booked hostels in downtown Edinburgh for that whole weekend so it should be a lot of fun. I will update you more as the time comes. In the meantime here are a few pictures from Newcastle this past weekend. I was only able to stay there for a few hours so I will definitely go back, it was amazing.


A huge line of people snaking through the streets, not sure why but it was funny




And lastly, the view from my bedroom in the castle...

Snapshots around town

Here are some pictures to give you a better idea of what the town is like outside of the castle... tiny streets, town hall, the Alnwick marketplace, the Alnwick gate tower, churches and cottages, and back to the castle at dusk.

Hello from Alnwick

After a full day of flying, 2 layovers (the first in Ohio, then again in New York), and a 2 hour bus ride from Edinburgh, Scotland to Alnwick, I have finally arrived at the castle! I am still feeling a little bit of jet lag but that hasn't stopped me from already enjoying this experience. The plane rides were exhausting but once we broke through the clouds and began our decent into Edinburgh, Scotland, that's when the excitement really started growing. After winding through the hills we made a final turn and this is what I saw outside my window... click it to enlarge

This is our front door...

And our backyard...


Kodak moments are everywhere!





There are plenty more amazing pictures which I hope to share shortly. Also, I spent an afternoon in Newcastle this weekend and have some nice pictures from there as well as around town here in Alnwick.

So far things are going great, the people in my group are awesome and so are the faculty and castle staff. We have already been getting to know our way around town and meeting some of the locals. It is a very tight knit community here in Alnwick and the residents (minus some of the teenagers) are quite welcoming and helpful. Classes officially start August 24th so it will be interesting to juggle school and travel. Personally I have been holding up very well. I am having a hard time getting used to the exchange rates and such but as far as culture shock goes, issues have been minimal. I hope to have a bit more of a routine from here on out so I expect to be able to update my blog more frequently, stay tuned!