A week in the life...

This view is one of the views from the castle, taken from the side with the front door. The gate keeps all the sheep out of the castle area =)

It’s hard to believe I have been here only 9 days! It feels like I have been gone from home for much more than 2 1/2 or 3 weeks and here for ages. So much has happened in such a short period of time!

In terms of school schedule, we have 6 lectures a day. Breakfast is mandatory and starts our day at 7:30 after which we have chores or free time until lectures start at 9:00. We have four 45 min. lectures in the morning, with a tea break half way through at 11. We then have lunch at 1 after which we have "free time" until our "tea" (dinner) at 5:45. Then we have lectures again from 7-9. Then more tea at 9 and free time until bed at 11.

Every day has some slight variation, but that's our schedule for the most part. In our free times, we can take walks (if it's not pouring), do our homework, play tennis, basketball, ping-pong, swim, etc. We have a jumbo size janga game that's about 4ft tall (before we play with it!). I played a game where we got it so tall that our 6'2" friend had to stand on a chair!! =) There's also pool and lots of spaces for playing card games, etc. and then there's always the piano...somebody is ALWAYS playing it! In fact, our room is over the lounge where the piano is so we can hear it really well.

Here's my home for the next 6 months!!

My room is the one on the 2nd story on the right side of the picture

with the big windows that stick out from the rest of the castle =)

So much happens all the time that I find it hard to remember it all to write it down for you. Since I last wrote, the sports teams have started. We have men's football (soccer), women's netball (i have yet to see it but i heard it's like ultimate frisbee mixed with basketball. you don't dribble, instead you throw the ball to teammates to get it in the basket, which has no backboard), and lastly, indoor cricket. i tried the indoor cricket since if i ever try it, now would probably be the time. it was fun but i decided not to join the team. if it was outdoor cricket i probably would, but the indoor cricket is tricky because we play in a small gym and it's also co-ed and it involves 2 practices a week...so i'm not doing it. but it was fun trying.

Here you can see our tire swing, under the tree, a chess board on the ground and the little white dots in the grass on the left side of the picture are sheep =) the sheep are standing in the soccer field area. i love to just get some fresh air and walk around this area if it's not TOO muddy

I don’t have a working camera at the moment, so I don’t have too many new pictures to put up of activities, but I have asked friends to take pictures, so hopefully I’ll have some more soon.

I have tried to sit with a different group of people at every meal so you would think after 9 days I would know everybody but I still don’t! however I have met almost all 170 of us! =)

Besides the optional sport teams, there are other ways of getting and staying connected here at Capernwray. We have two groups that everyone is required to be a part of: family groups and interactive groups. These meet once a week and take the place of one of the morning lectures. Family groups are groups that are assigned to create “families” for students during their stay. For example, I am in a family group led by one of the staff and his wife, Dougie and Lisa, and am one of 7 students. the staff tries to mix up people by having students of many nationalities in each group so we get to connect with people we might not otherwise.

Our family group met for the 1^st time on Friday evening for a couple of hours at Dougie and Lisa’s house which is on campus. We have a fairly small group (I have heard of family groups that had 16 kids!) because Dougie and Lisa can only take as many kids as they can fit in their small, stone house. They have 2 small children of their own: Hannah (age 5) and Ethan (3). On Friday we introduced ourselves, played some wii, played the “fun game” (Elizabeth! =) had chocolate fondue (!) =) and shivered together! Lisa is from Australia originally and therefore relates to some of our difficulty coping with the weather. However Dougie is from Scotland so the cold is nothing to him and the house is cold. I was really surprised to not see any lap blankets around so one of my “sisters” and I huddled together on the couch with our coats around us. We have 5 girls and 2 boys in our group which is actually a good representation of the ratio of guys to girls here at school.

Then, we also have what we call interactive groups. The purpose of these groups is to have devotions and discussions with students from your own area of the world. I am in a group of 11 kids, 9 from CA, 2 (twins) from Arizona. Several of the students are from NorCal or about 1 hr away from SF in different directions! =) Two of the guys in our group even discovered they had a friend in common. That group met for the 1^st time this morning. It’s very different from the family groups in that it’s student led. So me and another girl, Ashley, were assigned to lead the first meeting and I think it went well. In an average meeting, we work together to choose a topic, create questions, etc. however today we had a bit of a break since it was the 1^st time and we only had 4 days warning. We played an introduction game and then had a short devotional and prayer time. and the game involved marshmallows and m&ms. And food always engages people =)

The weekend feels like it has been super long and I’m not sure if I’ll even get to writing about it today. However, I will mention that I am praising God for my health right now and would love your prayers for continued health. I am one of the 3 healthy girls in a room of 7 at the moment. Our Dutch roommate, Angelic, has been really sick since last night. She threw up most of the night and is finally looking better now (at 4pm!) We had a fire drill and she fainted trying to get out of the room. The nurse says she thinks she has one of those 24 bugs. My other roommates just have colds. I am taking all my gross vitamins and trying to stay healthy =)

On Friday night, my family group disbanded late so I didn’t get to till midnight. We were all thankful that we get to sleep in on Saturday mornings! =) we don’t have brunch until 10 (I think it was, maybe 11?). Then, Saturday afternoon we met to the famous LAKE DISTRICT! =) I was very excited to see the sight which I have heard so much about in literature. I was still happy even when I heard it would be raining that day. I didn't really think anything of it since it rains at least a little bit almost everyday here. However, I was nowhere near prepared for what happened that day. I think it will stand out in my memories of Capernwray not because of what I saw, but of how intense the weather was! One of the staff that went with us later said that she has done that trip hundreds of times over the years and never was the weather that bad!

So, what happened you may ask? Not much, it just poured THE ENTIRE TIME!!! We took a bus through Windermere into Ambleside and took a "nice" 5 mile walk through the hills. I had to keep reminding myself to try and enjoy it and look around. It was raining so hard and it was quite windy at times. I do admit it was pretty picturesque but I would say that more if I had been inside, where it's nice and warm and dry! I wore rainboots and the lack of foot support over a 5 mile hike gave me such bad pains that I was ready to cry by the end of it. BUT, if I have the opportunity, I'll try and go again on a sunny day! At the end of our hike, I went for a nice cup of hot chocolate (not tea!) with Tamara (my Austrian roommate, very sweet) and Gloria (a black, German friend who is in my family group) and 4 or 5 young staff guys. The men's RA is from SoCal so it's fun to have another Californian around. The dean of Student's name is Ian. He is also young and his face reminds me a lot of David Hale =) So we had hot chocolate together and started to defrost and peal off some layers. One could easily find us by our water tracks through the restaurant. we felt really bad for making such a mess but we did ask if it was ok for us to come in. one of the servers came by our table and mopped twice while we were sitting there =) Alex, the men's RA, literally wrang out his supposedly water proof coat several times and had water streaming from his coat! it was SO funny! =) I was mostly dry (as dry as you can be after several hours of hiking in the pouring rain). I decided that people who film movies in the UK (like Jane Austen films) misrepresent the area because it never rains in the movies as much as it actually does here!!

Overall, it was a wacky bonding experience that will be hard to forget.

In the evening on Saturday, we were going to have a bondfire (which obviously didn't happen!) so we had an inside bondfire instead...in the fire place in the common room. =) but it was really fun because we sang tons of zany kid camp songs like Pharoah, Pharoah, and there's a whole in my bucket, etc. In addition, the staff did some new songs for us that were really funny.

Then, yesterday, on Sunday, we had morning service then a bunch of free time during which i took a walk, played tennis, and did other things which i no longer remember...and then we had another service in the evening. It was a beautiful sunny day which made us wonder why God didn't switch Sat. and Sun.'s weather but He's in control and we're not, right?

This picture is not from yesterday, but yesterday was about this pretty. I only wore 2 layers and was even able to take my sweatshirt off while i played tennis! =) Then in the evening, I climbed up to the tower (about 60 steep steps) and watched the end of a beautiful orange sunset with a few friends! we can see the bay and the lake district from the tower!

Here's the beginning of a sunset from the other day. i have to admit though, we don't have a gorgeous one every night =)

Here you can see the castle from a distance. it is a great area to take lots of walks and enjoy God's creation. I even took a walk last week when it was pouring but i felt cramped inside. so i armed myself with my boots and umbrella and enjoyed myself, taking refuge from trees when necessary =)

So, due to request, I'll tell you a bit more about my roommates before I sign off.

Angelic, 19, from the Netherlands. pretty quiet and has pretty good english but isn't quite proficient enough yet to converse freely at a normal pace (which makes her even quieter)

Tamara, 18, from Austria. So far, she has been my buddy the most. for the first couple of days we had most meals together. She loves to sing and has a good sense of humor. not in the sense that we joke a lot, but that she keeps things light. She has a twin sister who is not here at school, and a younger brother. her mother is not a christian and not really supportive of her being here but at least payed for her to come. she lost her father to cancer 4 years ago (as did another girl in my family group).

Here's Tamara carefully picking her way through the puddles on one of our walks =)

BTW, on saturday, i took a night walk with people around "the loop" (an easy circuit around some of school property that's about 1 mile long) it was fun to try and avoid puddles in the dark. esp. since i was wearing flip flops due to my blisters from the hike.

Roommates continued:

Maggie, 20, from Arkansas. sporty, outgoing, and doesn't stick around our room too much so i don't know her as well yet.

Lorea, 18, from PA. She looks much more Californian than me (blonde and tan), but then again so do 2 of the British girls (but i'm pretty sure that's not their natural coloring...). She plays the guitar and sings and also joined the worship team but is not in the same group as i am.

and lastly, Catherine, 18 (i think) from Oregon (one of the many! OR is the most represented state here) also doesn't spend a lot of time in our room so i have yet to really get to know her. However one thing i know is that she sleep talks and is considerate because she snores and she brought ear plugs for us! =)

Hopefully that's enough info to give you a taste of life for now. Today we started the "Walk Thru the Old Testament" series with a guest lecturer from that program (yes, the same one we did 5? years ago with the motions and everything). I believe he will finish lecturing tomorrow. It's nice to have something different besides a straight lecture. It's only our second week of school and our accelerated reading program for the year already has us almost finished with Genesis.

Speaking of which, I had better go do my reading! =)

TONS of love to all!

OOOXXX

~Sarah