Andy Wood: Thanksgiving at Weycroft Hall

I have been given the honor of writing our last England Semester 2014 student post.

This semester has been magical for all of us, and especially for Allie, Kate, Heather and I as this is our last semester of college! This last week as a group we left London and ventured into Devonshire (as south west in England as you can get) to celebrate Thanksgiving. We arrived at Weycroft Hall, a beautiful old, old, building with a plaque on the wall that claims its first inhabitants were the Romans. The current building had been around since before James I and its antiquity is evident by the four-hundred year old tapestry on the wall. When we arrived at the great hall, I walked all the way in to the warm fire in the stone mantelpiece, and then all the way out and then all the way in again until I found Claire who was as excited as I was and then we just shrieked. Since the English don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, the Christmas tree was already up, fully decorated with a lopsided star, and the windows all had tinsel spread out over the windowsill.

The only part of the building with Wi-fi was the great hall, so we all camped out by the fire, Christmas tree and grand piano, and worked on our homework. Every so often, everyone would crowd around the fire to warm up. Sometimes, Kendal or Lindsey would play the piano; when Lindsey played a piece from Pride and Prejudice most people stopped and swooned (myself included). The cold especially made us feel like we were experiencing history.

For Thanksgiving we had teams and every team cooked a different part of the meal. I was on the meat team; we had a ham and two turkeys, lots of sides, amazing dessert and warm drinks. For Thanksgiving entertainment, and as a part of class, every student had to present a small monologue or act from Shakespeare. There were many notables. Everyone was really good, Tobin and Liz did a scene from Romeo and Juliet—Tobin was Juliet. Donald and Jeff read from Star Wars According to Shakespeare, Katherine Kwong re-wrote a feast speech from Henry V with references to our real nemesis (homework) and Jamie ended the night by having us beat the table like drums (carefully so as to not knock down the candles!) as she read from Beowulf. On campus, Jamie asks her students to imagine being in a medieval hall before she reads Beowulf; there was no need to imagine for us. At the end of the night, we all watched Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on the projector and with surround sound. I thought about how technology changes and a thousand years fly by, but in places like Weycroft Hall, history and modernity live side by side, and how people may hear stories differently, from chanting Beowulf to watching Lord of the Rings, but we still love stories.

I am thankful for such a wonderful Thanksfgiving, for being a part of history, for Westmont and wonderful proffessors and classmates, and for graduating!