The Boonies

Saturday morning, I woke up at 7 a.m. and headed down to Trinity to meet the rest of my Reformation History class for our weekend excursion to Shropshire. I slept on the coach and woke up in literally the boonies of England. We toured Harvington Hall, a house that Catholics lived in during the English Reformation. Dr. Archer wanted us to see all the intricate hiding spots priests would hide in, for they would be killed for treason if found by the Church. We made our way to Ludlow where we checked into the well-known Feathers hotel. We went on a rather boring/pointless walking tour of the city and went to The Parish Church of St. Laurence. I think I’ve been in more churches on this trip than I have in my entire life. After, we went around Ludlow Castle which I actually enjoyed. It was a great place to take pictures. We had a three-course dinner at The Feathers with Dr. Archer and Dr. Trivedi, our program leader. This ended up being a ton of fun and we all got pretty drunk with Dr. A. The man loves to drink. The twelve of us managed to find the two bars open in Ludlow and certainly made our mark on Ludlow. Apparently, we even made the front page of their newspaper…oops. A group of us all shared an adjoining balcony and continued hanging out in our rooms when the bars closed.
Sunday, we all felt like death. I sucked it up and we went to Stokesay Castle and yet another church. We had lunch and by this time I was ready to leave. I really enjoyed hanging out with some of the people in my class and my professor. I forgot what it was like to have actual relationships with my teachers and it made me miss it. I’ve also never been able to get to know my professors so well. I love how even though Dr. A is one of the brightest people I will probably ever meet, I can hold long and meaningful conversations with him. Although he tries to be intimidating, he can be nicest and funniest old man you can’t help but love. These kinds of settings are so unique in that aspect. Not only am I taking a weekend trip with my Oxford don, but I’m living in a house with my Grady professor. It has made me excited for my smaller classes this semester and to actually form relationships with my professors in the future.