Richmond Pt. 1

Alright, I'm quite behind on these blogs. I apologize. I haven't had much computer time lately. I might not even get all of my videos edited until I'm back in the states. Last Thursday, we went to Jen's campus and I met one of her instructor people Judith Stamper. She has been Jen's contact at the school since 2007. I've heard loads about her, so it was really cool to finally meet her. We also had lunch at a pub on campus called The Library. Its one of the former libraries on campus that is now a pub and the food is quite delicious! The remainder of the day was spent packing up some of Jen's belongings for us to take back to the states with us.

The next day it was time to check out of our hotel, Roomzzz. We all LOVED it there and they had an amazing staff, so we all knew we'd miss it a lot. They did let us store our luggage there as we'd be stopping back in Leeds in a few days. We headed to the train station that morning and took a train to a station called Northallerton. Some of you may remember Jen's British friend Lyndsey who stayed with us for a week last June. Her family invited us to stay with them at their home in Richmond, so Lynds and her stepdad Andy met us at the train station and drove us to their house.

England has at least two towns called Richmond: a larger one outside of London and this small one in the area of Yorkshire. Richmond, Yorkshire has about 9,000 people who live there. It was cool to be in a tiny town after a week in the big city...it felt kind of like being home! When we arrived at Lyndsey's house, we stayed and chatted with her and Andy for a while before Lynds took us out to show us around town. There is a river that runs through the town and it is rumored that Lewis Carroll wrote part of Alice in Wonderland in the fields at the banks of the river.

Richmond also has a castle that was built in 1071. How crazy is that?! You can pay to look inside but we didn't have enough time so we just walked along the perimeter and the wall and saw all kinds of cool stuff. Its crazy being from Anacortes--which wasn't officially founded until 1891--and seeing these buildings that are almost 1,000 years old. In America, seeing things from the 18th and 19th century is pretty spectacular. In Europe, when I hear that things are from those centuries, it actually sounds new and not as exciting to me.

Anyways, after we walked around the castle, Lynds took us to a cottage where some family friends, Harry and Sally, live. They heard that we were visiting from America and wanted us to experience proper English tea. When we arrived, Sally had just pulled some fresh, homemade scones from the oven. Each of us had scones and tea while we chatted with them about the differences between America and England. The amazing thing about this cottage is that it was about 300 years old and you could tell! After staying in a hotel in a big city, it was cool to be going inside of actual British houses in a little town.

After tea, we walked back to Lyndsey's house. Her mom Jackie had gotten home from work so we got to meet her too. She and Andy had made us a delicious dinner of gammon (ham), oven roasted rosemary potatoes and fresh grilled veggies. Andy also made fresh rhubarb crisp for dessert. It was so nice to have a home cooked meal! Lyndsey had a dinner party with her coworkers so she left just before dinner. After dinner, the rest of us hung out and talked. Jackie's friend Jackie (haha) came over after dinner to meet us.

Around 10, Jen and I met up with Lyndsey at one of the bars in town. One of the fun things about England is that the drinking age is 18, so I'm legal here. If you know me, you know I'm not into drinking and getting drunk and all that. It is pretty fun to go out for cocktails, though. So we went out for a bit and then walked back to her house. We got to bed about midnight and slept a few hours before a fun next day...which I'll blog about soon!