Another weekend adventure!

So last week, almost at the last minute, I was invited to go down to England for this past weekend, with Andrew and a group of his friends and most of their wives/girlfriends/boyfriends/husbands for their 5th annual 'Forest Lodge', which is a tradition they have since graduating from uni, pretty much. So after my lectures on friday, Andrew picked me up, and drove us, along with his friend G and G's girlfriend, down to Tebay, and arrived a few hours later at a lovely cottage called Fawcett Mill Fields. It's set in the sheep-filled hills right near the north-western end of the Yorkshire Dales. From the outside front it looks rather nondescript, but inside there were something like 15 bedrooms and 3 huge lounges with couches and a fireplace, and a huge dining room, and a sauna! A pretty good deal if you ask me!

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Sort of nondescript front entrance... but wait!
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View from the back garden
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Another view from the back garden
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A small waterfall where an old mill once ran.
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A pretty bridge over the stream!
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A view from the porch through the leaves.
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The porch looking out over the garden
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Most of the weekend was spent just hanging out in the lounges reading, talking, and putting together puzzles, or exploring the surrounding area, or sitting on the porch drinking tea and coffee in the crisp fall air. Every night we all ate dinner together (cooked by some of Andrew's friends), and then had fun after dinner in the form of "pub quiz" type games, scrabble, twister, and other games. A bunch of people brought musical instruments, so usually at some point every day/night there would be singalongs and mini concerts. Saturday night was a 'fancy dress' night (which for all you American folk is not fancy as in 'black tie,' but rather as in costumes). So since I didn't really have much notice, and forgot the crucial parts of my Hallowe'en costume from last year (i.e. robe and wand). I ended up looking more like a random schoolgirl than Hermione from Harry Potter, but it was still fantastic. Everyone's costumes were amazing. My favourite was Andrew's friend Al, who dressed up as Jamie Oliver (the chef), and looked EXACTLY like him.

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Jam session
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Waiting for hors d'oevres on fancy dress night in the largest lounge.
Note Andrew as the banana.
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Making our way to the dining room with Archie.
* Fancy dress dinner
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A bunch of us on a walk through the hills.
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One afternoon we walked a little ways away, through cow fields and sheep pastures, to a tiny farmer's market, which had lots of fresh produce and cheese for sale, as well as a craft booth. It was very fun. On the way back, Andrew and I hung back to stop into a local pub for some delicious burgers before walking back.

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Walking to the farmer's market. That's me and Andrew at the back of the queue.
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At first I was a little nervous. After all, aside from G's girlfriend, who also was new, everyone else already knew each other. But I needn't have worried, because everyone was incredibly nice, and I felt right at home with all of them. It was so hard to come back to Edinburgh and get back to lectures and studying! But it was also a nice relaxing weekend. So now it's back to the books!