School's in

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Now that’s it’s been about a week I’ve started to settle in and get into a routine, at least for my days in school. I seemed to have over-shot the jet lag and become an enthusiastic morning person, which isn’t even necessary since my earliest classes are at 11 30. However, it certainly does give me full advantage of the day. I’ve been going to breakfast around 8 30 and then spending my time before class taking walks, jogging through the grounds and exploring. The beautiful weather has been very facilitating for exercise, which is incredibly important now that I’m back to res food!
Today I have a large gap from 1 00 to 7 30 between classes so Katie, Hilary and I decided to jog to Herstmonceux Village. It turned out to be quite a trek of about 40 minutes each way, but of course the scenery was incredible. I’ve been determined to stop viewing England through the lens of my camera so I haven’t been bringing it along with me on my morning adventures, but I decided that today would be an exception. I kept it in my pack on the way to the village but the way home turned into an hour long photo session of climbing over fences and carefully stepping through nettle patches (which by the way, I was NOT forewarned about). I was quite caught up in the scenery and busy daydreaming when I tripped over a dead snake on the road and was shot back into reality. The rest of my walk I spent hyperaware and definitely less attentive to the charms around me.
Classes are going quite well and my profs are all very sweet and excited about their work, which is quite refreshing in comparison to some of my regular Guelph profs. The readings, on the other hand, are insane to say the least. I was probably too optimistic thinking that I would be taking bird courses here but I never expected this much work. I think once I get into the swing of things and once the field studies start things may calm down, but for the mean time I’ll be stuck buried in my books. This, of course has a whole new meaning when your living at an English castle. On Tuesday I had an hour and a half between classes that I decided should be spent catching up on my Impressionism readings. It was very warm and sunny, as usual, so I lay on the grass in the courtyard to read. The 11 baby ducklings and their mum were taking their hourly tour and came around pecking for food at my bag. The windows of the ballroom that faced towards me were open and someone (who was actually very talented) was practicing their piano inside. So I just sat catching rays and thinking how perfect the moment was. I realize how incredibly flowery this all sounds, but its actually very hard not to get all misty about most of your daily activities here.
I’ve been very busy making lots of plans for the next few weeks including a trip to Brighton for The Great Escape music festival next weekend where Iron & Wine and Wintersleep will be playing, and then to London’s Barbican Hall to see Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard perform on June 3. Also, this weekend I’ll be in London for quite a few separate field studies, but I’ll leave the details of that until the next post.
Miss you all!
Nikki

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Photos

DSC00797
what if this was your backyard?

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looking up