Goin' Back to Hogwarts

Today was our trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Lacock, and it was pretty epic. (Again, I should be doing homework. But there's plenty of time for that. This day was just too awesome to not talk about right now. Also, just a quick warning that this is a long post. I'm just too excited to want to share lots of stuff.)
This morning we got picked up (15 minutes early) by our double decker coach, which fit all of the students in our program as well as all of the staff. We sat on the top and front of the bus so we had a gorgeous view of English countryside as we were driving. Our bus got to Stonehenge and we looked around. There's not much to do there, cause it's essentially just a bunch of rocks that are roped off so no one can get to close, but it was still a lot of fun. It's funny actually being there, because it's not quite as epic as one imagines it. You would think you would have to climb lots of hills to get there, but it's really close to the road. Plus it seems a lot smaller in person. Even so, it was truly fantastic. It was so great to be so close to such a huge piece of humanity's history. And even though it's not quite so epic, it still is gorgeous and awe-inspiring. (And, naturally, it's a perfect place for American college students to take a wide range of ridiculous pictures. I promise. On that note, I should have pictures up on Facebook soon if you want to see it all.)
After hanging around Stonehenge, we got back on the bus and went to Salisbury. (Yes, like the steak. But I didn't see anything about steak while we were there.) Salisbury's a cute little medival town with an absolutely stunning cathedral, one of the original copies of the Magna Carta, and a perfectly situated and clean red phone booth that's a great site for that classic "I'm in England" photo.
Our last stop of the day was the little village of Lacock. The village is supposed to look pretty much exactly as it did in the 15th century, and I believe it. Sooo picturesque. Even better than that, though, is that we got to visit the old cloister in Lacock Abbey where they've filmed Harry Potter!!! We went to Hogwarts!!!! (Which naturally meant that this was stuck in my head for the rest of the day.) Needless to say, there were a bunch of us who were just a little too excited for words. After we said goodbye to Hogwarts, we had a traditional English dinner at the George Inn pub. The food was actually quite delicious, contrary to popular belief, and it would have been a great day if it had just ended there. But it turns out that tonight there was a party in honor of the landlords having owned the pub for 25 years. There was a live band and a bunch of people celebrating outside, with a couple of people dancing on a small dance floor. After we finished our meals, a group of us American students went outside and started dancing. All of a sudden, there was this huge mix of American students and Brits dancing, with everyone else cheering us on. Someone even (quite randomly) pulled out a full sized American flag and started waving it around. We ended up crashing their party, but everyone was having so much fun and dancing around like loons . Even some of our program's staff joined in, which was fantastic. I really can't even begin to do justice to how amazing this was. This dance party was so unexpected, but the enthusiasm of everyone involved made it that much better. It was such a great way to end the week and to feel so welcomed into British society.
I realized that I haven't written about the ASE (or Advanced Studies in England) staff yet. And knowing who they are makes the British dance party even more enjoyable. The head of the program is Barbara, who reminds me of a fairy godmother. She's sweet, older, and British, but has such spunk and really great "Disney hands". Then there's Jonathan, the head of academics, who is "Jude Law British". He's really funny and quite gorgey - pretty much all of the girls have some kind of school girl crush on him. (You tell that everyone got really excited when he came out to dance today.) In the office there's Su and Claire - Su is a little more serious and Claire's a little younger and more excitable. They make a great team together. Next is Lindsay, who is in charge of social and cultural enrichment (pretty much only in this program will you find a position like this). She's cute and surprisingly efficient with a great sense of humor (Lindsay used the standard British "big fish-little fish-cardboard box" dance routine today). Finally, there's Mr. Andrew Butterworth, who is in charge of internships and whatnot. The best way that I can think of to describe him is that he is quintessentially British in that you want to sit in front of a fire place with him and drink a cup of tea. (The highlight of the dance party was when Mr. Butterworth came onto the floor and put on some kid's Yankees hat and just seemed to be having a ball being a goofball.)
Come to think about, it seems a little bit like all of us Americans are about to set off on our own Hogwarts-style adventure. Yes, we're not going to class in an old castle and none of us got our acceptance letters by an owl. But first of all, it was supposed to rain at some point today, but it never did. Magic, anyone? Then looking at our motley crew of staff members (not including our professors), they seem to have that special kind of lovable eccentricity that would seem right at home in Hogwarts. And, ultimately, there are so many adventures to be had. No matter what, I'm actually really refreshed from today's journey and ready to start classes this week. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be surprised some day and stumble across a moving staircase or a talking portrait.