Hello! It’s Wednesday evening here at Capernwray Hall. To think a week ago from today I was finishing packing up all my things and putting them into storage, and driving my vehicle to Plano to get dropped off for the next 6 months is hard to believe!
Ever since mid-August, it has been a whirlwind. So.much.has.happened. I ended a 7-week temporary job at a private Baptist university in Arlington, picked up some babysitting jobs, started and completed contract work through my former school district, had a garage sale, squeezed all my things I wasn’t packing with me into a new storage unit, hauled another load off to a workshop of a sweet family of one of my former high school students, scheduled FaceTimes with friends and former colleagues, attended two incredible COSTUME “tea party” sendoffs with dear friends from Dallas and Fort Worth, and filled my last week in Texas with time spent with some of my favorite people. The days and nights were packed. I didn’t know when it was actually going to sink in that I was indeed heading to the north of England for 6-months. I could barely think about all the tasks on my plate day-to-day. “Maybe when I sit on the plane? Maybe when I land? Maybe when I see the school for the first time?” Gosh, I don’t think it still has set in!
We started virtual classes on Monday and quarantine when we got off the bus Saturday evening. All students from the U.S., Canada, and Switzerland (as far as I’m aware) are in quarantine for 14 days. Our meals are brought to us, including a hot water jug brought in the morning that lasts till evening. Having your tea is part of the culture and built into the day. We are allotted 2-hours of “exercise” time outside each day to walk on a designated loop on the property. I’ve learned that Capernwray had to speak to the governing authorities about allowing the student numbers to be doubled from 30 to 60 if we adhered to the “bubble” system. I am in the red bubble and after quarantine, I can interact with the other students in the red bubble and not have to be socially distant. We have our own times for laundry, going into the school bookshop, taking the van into the nearest village of Carnforth, using the gym, designated library, one-way walking routes, and so on.
BREAKING NEWS - Dinner just arrived. Shepherd’s pie. Okay. I really am in England.
The breakdown of countries for 60 students is: U.S., Canada, Northern Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Ecuador, England, Croatia, Netherlands, and a student just arrived last night from Uzbekistan! Volunteer staff come from New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, among the other countries I’ve already named. I got my local church placement, Trinity Church Milnthorpe, which is about 20 minutes north of Capernwray. Right now, they’re meeting online, and we just had an introductory email sent to the pastor there… all of us are scattered around the area, 2-4 students at each church. I don’t know what our interactions will be like, but for starters, I’ll be tuning into their service on Sunday morning.
“I don’t know” continues to be a common phrase I hear because it is the honest truth. There are a lot of things about Bible school here that have giant question marks around them due to Covid. And while I came here with little expectations (mainly because I didn’t have time to think or dream about what I might get to do), I am seeing I have to release the little expectations already… going for a hike to the Lake District just up the road? I don’t know. Long weekend in Edinburgh for fall break, like they historically get to do? I don’t know. Will I be able to really get to know other students not in my red bubble? I don’t know. What I do know is: “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth; his eyes examine them,” Psalm 11:4 (NIV).
The typical rundown of the day goes a little something like this:
7:30 breakfast
9:00 -10:40 two lectures
10:40-11:00 coffea/tea time
11:00-12:45 two lectures
1:00 lunch
2:00-4:00 “exercise” time for the quarantinees
5:30 dinner (but they call it “tea time”)
7:00-8:45 two lectures
Despite being in quarantine, I’ve gotten to visit with people by popping my head out the window into the courtyard and yelling across the way. We are using the Google platform for our coursework, so I can chat with other students through that. All of us have been assigned a “family group” with members of the faculty/staff and other students. We got to meet this morning during one of the lecture times. I appreciate how all the faculty and staff want to make themselves available to us. They said, “While we are being socially distant, we do not want to be distant from you.” They have not had students here since March! There is an eagerness to do everything they can to ensure Bible school runs as smoothly as possible, despite all the additional variables and hoops.
Enjoy the pictures. My view is limited to the courtyard and the same loop on the property. It is absolutely beautiful though. So green, vibrant. The grass is lush, springy. Moss = nature’s velvet. Confession, I did have the Downton Abbey theme song playing in my head when we first got off the bus. The sun was setting. The faculty were standing outside greeting us as we filed out. You would have done the same thing, too!
