My home-stay weekend

This past weekend was so much fun!! I'm back from the home-stay and finally have time to write about it so I'm gonna start back at the beginning. Also the picture in the top left corner is a picture of St. George's Chapel.
Arcadia arranged for all the study abroad students to do a home-stay with a British family. We all had to fill out forms about our hobbies and interests as well as write a letter to the British family telling about ourselves and our family. Arcadia then took that information and used it to try to match us with families that had similiar interests and hobbies. Well like I said in a previous blog, we found out on Wednesday who we were going to stay with and what town we were going to be in. Friday morning came and my room mates and I all slept in late and didn't get up and around until 11 a.m. It was nice actually because it was one of the first days we didn't have to be somewhere really early in the morning. After we all got dressed, we packed our bags for the home-stay so that we would be ready to go when the coach came to pick us up at 5:30 p.m. My room mate Amy and I then decided to do some shopping at some local vintage clothing stores we seen when we would walk to the Notting Hill Gate tube station. The first one we went into ended up being a lot bigger than we first thought and it had a lot of really great stuff. We each ended up buying a shirt. The second store we went to was really small and didn't have a good selection so we didn't buy anything. After that we headed down to Queensway so I could try to find a store that sold hair straighteners. On our way we went into some really cute shoe stores but no, I didn't buy anything :). I eventually found an inexpensive straightener at a pharmacy called Boots. We got back to the flat with a half an hour to spare before the coach came. When the rest of our things were ready we went outside to wait for the coach. It was supposed to be there by 5:30 but it didn't arrive until about 6:15. From there we stopped to pick up one more group of students then headed out of London. The trip to Woking(Surry) took about an hour. The picture underneath on the left is me in the coach on the way to Woking.
When we arrived in woking our families were there waiting for us. Another girl, Sara Sorret and me were staying with the same family. The lady we stayed with was Mrs. Erica Scammell of 7 Woodend Close, St. John's, Woking, Surrey GU21 7RJ. She was retired, owned a cat and her hobbies were gardening, reading and swimming. She also had children who are grown and married now. Some live in the United States while others still live in the United Kingdom. She picked us up in a little blue car and it only took about 5 minutes to get to her house. She was a really sweet lady, very talktative and I knew we would have no problems getting along or feeling comfortable in her home. I road in the front seat on the way to her house and it was kinda weird because I sometimes felt like we were going to get hit by other cars. I'm not used to the them driving on the opposite side of the road or sitting in a passenger seat in the front that is on the left side. It's just a really weird feeling. The way people drive over hear is pretty crazy too which makes it all the more scary. People weave in and out of traffic like crazy and a lot of the time they drive in the middle of the road. Then, at the last second, they swerve back over into their lane to avoid the oncoming cars. Anyway...we finally arrived at the house. It was a small cottage with a picket fence, a little garden, a garage, a shed and the front door was painted a pretty navy blue. The inside of the house was small, narrow and most of the downstairs rooms, which consisted of a kitchen, living room and dining room, were painted peach. The second floor had three bedrooms and a bathroom and the third floor, where I stayed, had two rooms and a small landing in between. I stayed in the room to the
right of the landing. It was a small room with a twin bed, two short, small bookcases, a nightstand, a small dresser and one window which overlooked the front garden. The room was comfortable during the day but got pretty cold at night. Because of this I slept with an extra blanket and a sweat shirt on. But that is to be expected in old english houses because most do not have a central heating system nor do they have central air. Most rooms have only individual wall heaters and if you want the room to cool down you'll have to open a window.
After we got settled in, we went down to have dinner. Erica had fixed spaghetti and salad with fruit for dessert. The food was really good and all throughout dinner we talked and just basically got to know each other. We ended up talking until about 11 p.m. then decided to call it a night because my roomate and I had to be up and ready by 9 a.m. the next morning. Arcadia had planned a trip for us all to Windsor Castle the next morning. We had to be at the bus by 10 a.m. and the plan was to stay in Windsor all day until 4:30. Then the bus would take us back to Woking were we would be able to walk around downtown for an hour and then our host families would come pick us up at 6 p.m. I was kinda surprised when I found out that we were spending Saturday at Windsor instead of doing something with our host family. Actually, we didn't get to spend that much time with our host families at all because we had to turn around and leave Sunday morning at 9 a.m. I was pretty disapointed by that because I was looking forward to getting to know them better.
The next morning, Erica gave us cereal and toast for breakfast and also made us a cup of tea with milk and sugar in it. It was really good and that is now my new favorite way to make tea. After breakfast we headed into town to meet the coach that was taking all of us students to Windsor for the day. I really enjoyed seeing Windsor Castle again. These two pictures below are of Windsor Castle.

We got to see Queen Mary' s Doll House, walk through the state apartments as well go through the Royal Drawing gallery which featured many drawings by Leonardo DaVinci. The doll house was a really cool thing to see. Everything was made in miniature and meant for looks not to be played with. This picture is also Windsor Castle.
Also everything in the doll house was made to function just like a real house. It is wired for electricy which works and it was wired for plumbing which also works. There is also dishes in the dining room of the miniature house that are pure silver. It's really an amazing thing and if you ever get to go to London it is something everyone should definately see. The State apartments were also absolutely beautiful! The rooms were all lavishly decorated and painted. The furniture was very ornate and beautiful as well. It's hard to describe how lavish and amazing these rooms were and I wish I could have take pictures. Unfortunately they do not allow people to take pictures inside the castle but I do have a lot of pictures of the outside :-).
We also got to go inside St. George's Chapel which is also inside the gates of Windsor Castle. It was really beautiful inside the chapel and I wish I could have taken pictures but again I have pictures of the outside :-). These pictures below are of St. George's Chapel.



After we were done touring the Castle we went down into the town of Windsor and walked around the streets and went into some of the shops. We also went into the town of Eaton, visited the shops, and went down to try to see if we could go into see Eaton College but unfortunately is was not open to the public at that time.
We met back at the coach at 4:30 pm. and headed back to Woking. Then we walked aroung Woking for an hour until our host families came to pick us up at 6pm.
When we got back to the host family house, we just talked and visited until dinner was ready. For dinner we had sausage, potatoes and vegetables and for dessert we had strawberries and whipped cream. It was actually really good!!! After dinner we watched a movie, talked for a while and then went to bed since we had to be up early to get to the coach by 9 am. Overall, it was a really fun weekend and I hope I get the chance to do something like this again in the future.
Bye for now...:-)