Surviving Week 1

My room 

As I lay in bed typing, each night I am soothed to sleep by the sweet clicking and clacking of the boiler closet located in the corner of my room. Throughout the night it makes many strange noises, some that sound like a person walking around downstairs, or if we're lucky, a horrific screeching sound when the pressure drops. All of this I would usually be terrified by, but for some reason it feels normal. I am also reverting to childhood as we only have a bath… Most mad I didn't bring my bath toys along! 

View of cottage from the side 

However, since I am able to write this, it means I have successfully survived the first week. I have been fortunate enough to have lovely family members and friends, new ones each night, serving me delicious feasts all week. SO next week might be a completely different story when I have to truly start fending for myself. Everyone has been very welcoming and made me feel right at home, so I couldn't ask for anything better!

Despite stereotypical England, the weather has been quite pleasant and people are consistently shocked when I explain that this weather is 'hot' compared to back home in Michigan (Mitch-i-gan as they say it here). I have seen the sun a number of times now, and we have no snow here, yet?, but plenty of mud to make up for it. The village I'm living in, Church Brampton, is very small but one of the wealthiest areas in the county. My row of cottages (the smallest in the town) are the old Althorp Estate cottages, so I'm living in a neat bit of history.

Proof of sunshine!

My first 'work' experience on Tuesday morning was trekking out to the fields to bring the boys in. I was told to grab as many halters as I could, which then made sense when the 7 of us arrived at a field full of 30 horses.... Meaning each person had 4-5 horses to walk in! Being the new girl, they let me off easy and only gave me 3 ponies, which is the best deal all around because it means less mud splashing up the back of your legs.

The mornings consist of your typical barn work (cleaning stalls/tack, feeding, grooming), and as it is a Riding School, the afternoons are spent getting horses and ponies ready for lessons. Each horse is taken very good care of and well-loved, but it is clear that they are part of a business and their job is to work. There are about 50 horses and ponies on the yard on 50 acres that consists of an indoor and outdoor ring, a cross country field, and many large fields. There's also a very posh Cafe located at the center of the yard…. Let's just say there's a high chance I will be treating myself to yummy food and drinks often.

We ride once a day, and ironically I rode an old horse named Sidney the first day. Since then I've been riding Big Ben, who is an ex-police horse and your typical big English draft hunter, but very sweet, willing, and fun. Cameron has been doing the instructing so far and he is as naughty as they come. He is constantly cracking rude jokes, which I will not share, but it is quite entertaining to say the least. Camara (one of the other working students) and I got to hack out two of the ponies yesterday, which has certainly been the highlight so far!! Mainly because I got to ride a PONY!! But also because we rode down the road, and through the fields, trotting and cantering when the path was dry enough in our bright reflective vests. Here they call the trails 'Bridlepaths' and they are all over. Next time I will take pictures because the views were just so….. English :)

Camara and myself are hoping to participate in a local Young Farmers club, which is for young people aged 14-26 interested in agriculture and rural life. They have meetings once a week, and supposedly met at the pubs quite often as well, most say it's just a social club which can't be a bad thing, eh?! I'm sure you're all thinking how excited my Mom must be at the possibility of all the cute boys I could meet there…….

Although we speak the same language, it's surprising how different things are, and how thick the Northamptonshire accent can be (sometimes I just smile and nod). They call mucking out 'skipping out', and a saddle pad is called a 'numnah'. Everywhere you are greeted with 'you alright?' in which I usually stare with wide eyes as I think there's something wrong every time, when really they simply mean 'how are you?'. I'm hoping by the end I'll be saying it right back!!

I have disconnected my U.S. cell phone number- so I will not receive any texts or calls that are sent to that while I'm gone. The best way to contact me is through e-mail, Facebook or the app Viber (text/call/pictures for free!).

My address is

10 Ten Cottages

Harleston Rd.

Church Brampton

Northampton

England

NN6 8AU

Love to all xxx (that's how everyone here signs texts or e-mails, lots of x's) 

I haven't had to write a non-scientific paper in a LONG time, so hopefully this wasn't to boring for you!

Some friends I found on an afternoon walk

The website was being difficult, so these were the only photos I could get to upload… More to come, probably on Facebook! 

A view from inside the village church

The 'American' house in the village