Friday, November 20th – Wednesday, November 25th:
From Lyme Regis we made our last “en-route” stop at the site of Camelot – or at least the probable site of Camelot, which ended up to just be this large field where we took a handful of pictures, but it was worth it to see Mark’s face ready to explode with excitement, haha. It was pretty muddy even though it was sunny outside, so thankfully it wasn’t raining.
On from “Camelot” we were headed to Plymouth, or more accurately Battisborough House, where we would be staying for the next week without any internet, only a pay phone, the breathtaking view of the ocean out our window, and the sea-biting wind! I admit I was slightly apprehensive on the bus ride there, which convinced me we really were in the middle of no where; however, as soon as I bounded off the bus and into the house, I realized for the first time that we were all going to be living in this gigantic house all to ourselves! At that moment I was absolutely convinced it was going to be a great week and wanted to shout “Welcome home!” to everyone and hug them coming in the door.
Before we came out to Battisborough House we stopped at a mega-Tesco to go grocery shopping for the week. The sight of how big the store was nearly made our draws drop since we hadn’t seen a grocery store this size since we’d been there. Laughingly we realized it was the same size as a Target from home, but we were still slightly overwhelmed yet delighted running around inside, haha. It took us over an hour to get all of our groceries, and we were so hungry since we hadn’t had an official lunch that day too!
All of these bags of groceries made entering the house quite the party on top of all our normal luggage, but everything settled down fairly quickly as rooms were assigned, luggage towed up the grand staircase, and the meat and dairy products piled in the fridge. Plus, it wasn’t long before someone started cooking something yummy – likely a stir-fry – which made the house smell good too! I think everyone was really happy to be “home” – at least for a week. Personally, I forgot how much I love community living and developing relationships with people amidst real life, e.g. while cooking, cleaning, doing homework, or watching movies; some sort of light-bulb went on inside me this week that told me I was in my element – my extraverted self was beginning to resurface.
I’ll be honest and say I don’t really remember what I did day to day at Battisborough, but the normalcy of life was the beauty of it. I do know that the first day I didn’t even bother venturing outdoors since I knew I had all week to go outside and I was relishing the concept of being stationary. But on the second day I did wander out with a group of people all bundled up, hopping fences and bounding through cow pastures, we climbed up the quasi-cliffs overlooking the vast ocean that stretched across the entire horizon. It was a gorgeously sunny day yet horrendously windy, which turned picture taking into a very concentrated feat. Another afternoon was largely spent indoors in our pink-walled living room where we held a group reading of “A Winter’s Tale.” I must admit that our Shakespeare readings have been some of my favorite academic moments of the trip; they’re so relaxed, unofficial/natural, fun/entertaining, and intellectually worthwhile.
On Sunday night I got to lead worship again (with Brian’s help on guitar) for our last group devotional – another growing moment for me. Allison shared about how amazing it is that our God is God of both the violently roaring ocean outside our window as well as the calming elements in nature, and how we’ve gotten to experience both extremes. Even though they’re not required (or maybe especially because they’re not?), I love the group moments we have at devotionals – they’re small/short, but special.
The main homework project we worked on while staying at Battisborough was our Shakespeare scenes which were to be performed for each other on Thanksgiving night and the night before. We were placed into groups at the beginning of the week and had to choose our own scene from the Shakespeare plays we studied, discuss it, and then put together a skit reflecting our interpretations from reading the text. I found the whole process to be really fun; plus, it was highly entertaining (and heart-warming to all English and theatre majors) to catch glimpses of people’s scenes throughout the house as everyone was practicing during the week – it definitely built anticipation! Such fun! By the time our performance nights rolled around I think everyone was really impressed with each other as we gathered in the large family room to share our work. My group did a witty scene from Twelfth Night, and I played Olivia; needless to say, I had fun playing a wealthy, noble lady!
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