I thought I’d get caught up on the last journey I took so that I might have the motivation to write about Ireland when i come back on Thursday. Well, it probably wouldn’t be up until at least friday. Anyway, on to Host UK. For anyone who is coming to the UK, I would recommend it! It’s a good way to meet a family from the United Kingdom and see what their daily life is like.
I was a little nervous before I even set out for Devon where the family lived. We were told beforehand that they would be doing a re-enactment of a historical time and they asked us for our dress sizes. We didn’t really know what to expect since neither of us had done one before, but we thought it would be a fun experience. The only glitch we ran into getting to their house was missing the first bus. We had to wait two hours in the diner at the train station for the next one to come. They literally live in the middle of nowhere, but honestly I didn’t feel like it was a bad place. I would love to have so much land to roam around and be able to grow my own food! They raise sheep, chickens, had two house cats, and an alpaca. I guess they used to have cows, but it was no longer profitable after awhile and they got rid of them. I felt bad that one of their lambs was sick. I wasn’t expecting it, but our Host asked me to give the lamb a shot. I didn’t want to, but she insisted that if she was holding him she couldn’t give him the shot herself. It all went fine, and I hope the little lamb has returned to good health!
One thing I really enjoyed about being there is getting fresh food! All of the vegetables came from the garden and were fresh! It really made me want to start a garden when I get home, but I don’t think it would grow well in my back yard. Everyone was really nice, and it was interesting because they had lots of people in the house! It was a husband and wife, three of their kids, one set of grandparents lived in the same house, one set on the same land, and the husband’s sister and brother-in-law, plus their four kids were visiting. It was a bunch of people, but it was great!
We arrived on Friday, but we didn’t do anything until Saturday, which was the day of the re-enactment. It was taking place during the time of Henry VIII and I was a common person and Leah was one of the gentry. We had to go by what fit us, but Leah’s outfit was a little too short. It was also really funny because the lady putting Leah’s hairpiece on kept telling her to lose the fringe (bangs)!! I was amused. The only downside is that because of the time period, we were not allowed to wear our glasses. Now, I can see without my glasses OK, but I get a headache after a little while. Leah was pretty much blind the entire time! I had to lead her around a bit. Luckily for us we didn’t have to do much. I say luckily because we had no idea what to say if people asked us questions. This happened a few times, but someone else was usually around to answer it. Leah and I mostly got to wander around the castle grounds where it was taking place. It was a little out of character since she was above me, but oh well!
We tried our hands at spinning, but that went horribly! We weren’t bad at making the wreaths though! Those were hung on a tree as part of some type of ceremonial May day procession. After the May day procession we were able to dance. Leah and I were able to because they were allowing the crowd to join, so it wasn’t a dance where you already had to know the steps. It was a lot of fun! If dancing was like that I wouldn’t mind it so much! We met some interesting people and drank tea out of pewter cups, so we had a wonderful day!
The next day we had the choice to once again go to a re-enactment, or go sailing. Because I had never sailed before, I wanted to go sailing and Leah agreed. I was a little perturbed when they told us we had to wear wetsuits, but I decided to suck it up and put it on. However there was a bit of an embarrasing moment because we had put them on backwards!! Hey, I had never worn one before! Well, we corrected the problem and once they were on right, we headed out to sail. In the boat was Leah, me, Phil (the brother-in-law), one of his sons, and the son of our Host. It wasn’t a very big boat and it was a really windy day, but it was great fun! The idea of having to balance out the weight so that we didn’t capsize was thrilling! Phil would have to tell us when to go about and we would switch to the other side of the boat. We came extremely close to completely going over a few times. His son and the Host’s son would hang outside the boat only holding on to these bars (they were hooked to it also so that they stayed with us). It was funny when we could almost go over because they would get thrown into the water. It looked fun. I only wish it had been warmer that day, I would have gone out a second time! But my hands and feet were freezing and feeling numb, so it was nicer to sit on the side in nice, dry clothes. I really want to go sailing again now. I wish there were more places to do it where I live!
I really enjoyed the food while we were there. They had a few different types of cheeses as an after dinner snack. I wish I could remember what the yellow one was called because I loved it! For the dinners we had a vegetable stew the first day, lamb the second, and spaghetti and meatsauce the third. For desserts we had fruitcake and cheesecake. The tea that they had was also very good!! And they were nice enough to let us have sandwiches for our ride back to Winchester!
I really enjoyed staying with them and was grateful to them for allowing us to stay. It was a wonderful experience! Do it if you get the chance!
