Harlaxton 2016: First Day of Class

By: Dylan Daugherty

There are two things that I absolutely hate in life: strawberries and waking up early. I’m always able to make exceptions though; like when the strawberries are covered in chocolate or on the first day of class. As soon as my alarm clock went off I hopped out of bed and into the shower. After about 20 minutes of bathing and trying to figure out British shower knobs, we headed out to class. Class began with our first quiz of the course. It covered one of our required summer readings and some background information on the author. Everyone was nervous but we all did just fine. Our wonderful professor, Dr. Walker Rutledge, continued the class with a lecture on proper writing techniques.

Once class was over, we had London to ourselves. Several of us headed straight downtown, but others preferred to nap. My group went to a small Indian restaurant on the backstreets. We then headed to the National Gallery and saw original works by Van Gough and Picasso. We were able to walk around and look at Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament. Other groups went and rode the London Eye and saw the Portrait Museum.

As the evening concluded, groups headed back to the dorms and rested. As Gatton tradition, we all found a park to play a game of Frisbee. The students returned to class to watch a movie of one of our summers reading. Our first day of classes has been a success. Eager for another day of adventures, we all headed for bed.