Friday, June 28, 2024

The two pictures above represent the beginning and end of our last full day at Harlaxton Manor. The picture above on the left is actually the first picture I took of the day as I passed by the Great Hall that was being set up for the wedding that was going to happen the next day. The picture on the right are some flowers from the Director’s garden where she had a gathering for everyone to have more time to relax and get to know each other before we left.

I don’t have as many pictures from Friday because this was the day that we spent really focusing on the workings of Harlaxton College and how partnerships work not only between the University of Evansville. I remember wondering how on earth did a university in the middle of the United States end up owning a beautiful manor in the middle of Lincolnshire. We had heard some of the story of Gregory Gregory who built the manor, the Gregory family, Violet Van Der Elst, who many credit with rescuing the hall from demolition in 1937. To learn more about how the University of Evansville became the owner of the manor look at the Harlaxton website.

We met in the Morning Room where we not only learned about custom programming but heard from faculty about courses and coursework as well as more information about the First-Scholars’ Programme and how we can expand our partnership.

My employer, Framingham State, is a new partner this year, and we have sent our first student as part of the First-Scholars’ Programme for F24. As part of the program, the student gets a full scholarship to study for a semester there. The program also offers smaller scholarships for first generation students who qualify. We are hoping to expand our partnership with them to include cohort learning and faculty-led experiences.

We finished the program by 3 PM and spent the rest of the afternoon having a tour of more student spaces. Jane and I had seen some of them already when we had went in search of the laundry room, but it was interesting seeing more of them in context of how students really used the spaces.

I did take more pictures of the laundry room and the library, but I’ve posted about both before, so I’m not adding more pictures here.

At the close of the manor tour, we left through a different entrance than we had before on our way to the sports center. Another thing about large old buildings that I love are all the exits that take you out to angles of the building that you would never guess.

To get to the Refectory from the Carriage House, I have had to go through the Pegasus Courtyard multiple times. it’s where the taxi and the bus drops you off at the manor. And I had never even seen this entry way!

The Sport Center is between the Carriage House and the manor. You can’t really see it from the path, but the signage is good. It’s also a very nice sized building with large gym, a cardio space, and a weight room.

We had repeated heard about how close Grantham was to the manor and how students would often bike to town. So it was nice to actually see the bikes, which are in a shed outside of the Sport Center.

I have to say that I wasn’t expecting the bikes to be this nice. In my head, I was picturing something more like from All Creatures Great and Small despite knowing how much people bike in the UK.

We finished the tour with a good 90 minutes of free time before dinner. I was more than happy to go back to my room to check email and have a nice lie down. But Jane. She was on a mission.

Wandering

I like traveling alone. I know I’ve said this before in other places. I find it less stressful in may ways because I do not have to worry about other people worrying or if someone else is having a good time or compromising on places to go or where to eat.

However, because of my anxiety, I sometimes make easier choices when I’m by myself and ultimately miss out on things. I often let my anxiety win and stay in when I should be going out.

Our last evening at the manor is a case in point. If I had been alone, I would have been more than happy to go back to my room and not leave until it was time for dinner. But Jane gave me that look she has that without saying anything she means “Really? that’s all you want to do?”

She was also taking her role as Executive Director of International Programs seriously, wanting to see if we could find the hallways where the students lived in the manor. We knew that some students live in the Carriage House where we were staying, but that is only if the manor house is full. We hadn’t seen any of the corridors where the students live, so Jane was determined to explore. She wants us to be able to tell students and their families as much as possible about what it will be like studying here, and she fully expected me to come along.

She said I didn’t have to, but the look she gave me made it very clear she would be judging me if I didn’t. And seriously, I had nothing else to really do, so why not?

It was great fun, too. We got lost several times, but not really. We were always in the manor but often without any idea of where we were in relation to anything else. I would love to study here and get to know all the short cuts to the places I needed to be.

I loved seeing the different nooks and crannies of the manor and all the details. Plus, the weather was beautiful, so every time I looked out the window I felt as though we were on a movie set.

I tried to keep Jane from going over barriers that she insisted were for the wedding guests for tomorrow. We even got to see the set up in the Long Gallery for the wedding banquet.

We did finally find several of the halls where students lived and the entrance to the Gregory Suite.

We had dinner in the Refectory and then afterwards went to a get together held by the Director in her gardens. What a lovely space for gathering people together on a perfect summer day! I felt happy and sad at the same time. I really did not want to leave. I spent a lot of my time thinking about ways for not only our students to go there but for me to go back.