Hey everyone! From my dorm room Tuesday October 12th, 2010 at 12:45pm. Sorry this is so late, I've been really busy lately, but I have a lot of new experiences to share!
So 3 weekends ago I took a weekend trip organized by my group (Butler) to stay with an English family in western England near the Lake District. I stayed with the Myler family (Tony, Natalie, Alex, and their dog Jay-Jay) in a little village (yes, not city nor town, but village) called Maulds Meaburn near the city of Penrith. It's about a 3 hour car ride southwest from Edinburgh. When my group of maybe 25 arrived in Penrith, we were all greeted by our respective host families and taken to their homes in towns or villages near the central city of Penrith. So Natalie arrived to pick me and my friend Kiyo up at in her suave BMW upon our arrival. However, little did we know that our first impression of BMW's and the humble teacher and wife Natalie would be so different from the little rural village atmosphere we grew to love during that incredible weekend that lay ahead. Our visions of a nice English suburb were quickly discarded as soon as we took the first exit off the highway and started on our seemingly endless trek deeper and deeper into farmland and pasture that was the rural Lake District of England. I have never been so isolated from the city but it was an amazing feeling. I had the comforts of home, but the beauty of the countryside with Scottish sheep, old Medieval-looking architecture, beautiful green rolling hills, and, of course, the ever-loved local village pub. Upon arriving to the house, we had to take a detour to get to the front door due to the construction, as they were (mind you for the first time) installing main-line sewage pipes for the little village of Maulds Meaburn. When we entered the house, the front door opened to the staircase in front, the living room on the right, and the kitchen and dining room on the left. It was a small, but very well laid out house that was heated by a wood-burning furnace. I've never seen such grace and such good use of space in any house I've ever encountered. As the Myler family had attended the World Cup in South Africa, the living room was decked out in African souvenirs and was painted in earth-tone colors, which, along with the furnace, made it extremely pleasing and comfortable to sit in and relax in. I immediately felt at home in such an inviting atmosphere. So that night, we relaxed with the whole family, heard stories, and went out to the local pub for an hour or two before finally calling it a night.
The next morning, I woke to the stunning scenery outside my bedroom window on the second story of their house, that looked out to green hills, a little meandering river, and sheep grazing on the banks. Downstairs, a wonderful, hearty breakfast of french-toast and sausage that Natalie had cooked fresh for us awaited. She and Alex were off to London for the weekend, because he was going to live with his Aunt there for a year before attending University near London. So after breakfast, Natalie and Alex headed off to London, and Tony, Kiyo, and I left for our adventures through the English countryside. Our first destination was a mountain path near a river and waterfall that drained into the central lake in the area. Apparently, one of the Beatles (I believe Tony said it was John Lennon) proposed to his wife on the bridge over the waterfall we saw, so that added to the amazingness of the whole walk and experience. After perusing through the forest area near the river, we headed down to the end of the lake where we stopped for lunch and got to go out in rowboats onto the lake. That was really fun, because I don't think I can say that I've ever been in a true rowboat, especially near the hills of England where cattle and sheep grazed so nonchalantly by the banks. When we got back from rowing the boats, we headed deeper into the hills and arrived at a place known as Stone Circle built by the ancient farming communities that inhabited the land. Like Stonehenge, there were stones arranged in a very large circle on a hill overlooking the mountains further West and the hills and lake beyond to the East. However, these stones were much smaller and not stacked in any way. Once we had a good look at all the stones and the surrounding countryside, we called it a day a drove back to the house, where we relaxed for about 2 hours before heading to one of my favorite parts of the weekend: the Hogroast. Every year at a pub in the village next to Maulds Meaburn, there is a charity hogroast that takes place with live entertainment, an auction, and of course a HUGE pig roasting on the spit with all the trimmings. It was an incredibly great experience to get a glimpse of the local culture and way of life of the rural community there. The food was great, the drinks were great, and the atmosphere was like none other I've ever experienced. So after the band had been playing for about an hour, we decided to head out and arrived home around 11:30 to a cozy, warm bed. The next morning, we woke up, had coffee, and Tony made us a killer breakfast. We had farm fresh eggs (from the neighbor who raised chickens), bacon, baked beans, toast, and the traditional tea with milk (which is really quite good). Then we watched some English Premier League Football for the rest of the few hours we had left, and before leaving, took a little stroll around the village to see what it was like. They had their own little elementary school in an ancient looking building, a police station, and all the little kinds of local shops you could want or need in such a quaint little village. But the greatest thing about it was that it was all grass and dirt roads and the buildings were far apart from each other, leaving plenty of grassland in between for the abundant sheep that were grazing all throughout the village. So after our walk along the little river to the end of the village and back, we departed from Maulds Meaburn back to Penrith and then back to Edinburgh, bringing with us the fond memories we created and the bonds we forged on that magical weekend in rural England.
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