Travel With Me to: Harlaxton

Travel With Me to:

Harlaxton

Feelings felt: disbelief, appreciation, transformation

Harlaxton. The name alone stirs deep emotions in those who’ve experienced it — wistfulness that can’t be properly captured in words. People who have lived at Harlaxton Manor go silent for a moment when you mention the place, eyes sparkling and grins slowly spreading across their faces. Because Harlaxton isn’t just a place, it’s truly a life-changing experience for the students who are lucky enough to call it home for a few months each year.

My first-ever encounters with traveling internationally, independently, and even on an airplane were when I headed to Harlaxton for a study-abroad semester (Fall ‘93 cohort), so it seems the most fitting spot for my first travel highlight!

I believe there were 99 of us students, plus a handful of professors, living in the manor. We ate together, toured together, and grew together, especially through moments of conversation over a pint. We navigated foreign lands and transport systems using paper maps, train tables, and our best hitchhiking thumbwork.

The stunning rooms and gardens of the manor drew everyone to wander ‘round, time and again. While professors resided in the coveted Blue Corridor, students occupied more spartan quarters – I lived in renovated (or maybe not-so!) servants’ quarters, at the tip top, 106 stairs from the ground level. I can attribute my life-long aversion to cold water to my time in the manor! Water was heated by a coal boiler in the basement, resulting in just a trickle of icy-cold tap for my showers by the time it flowed up all those stories, whilst the window to my room never fully shut. You can see one of my windows in the photo from the elevated back gardens.

When I recall little moments from 1993 worth sharing with my current students, they sit in disbelief. Of course we didn’t have social media posts or text messages through which to share our adventures. Instead, we reserved phone calls to and from our parents from the single phone booth in the lobby and anxiously awaited responses from friends when we sent letters (postage-rate: airmail) back home. And I wouldn’t change one thing. During those months, I developed a sort of resilience that only comes through patience and less-than-comfortable moments. Time away from home gifted me with an appreciation for travel, cultures, and the realization that not every place “operates” the same way.

My only regret is that I never got to run the Naked Mile, but we’ll save that for another post. (If you know, you know! ;))

Harlaxton. It remains one of the most defining periods of my life. Students from the University of Evansville still have the option to spend a life-changing semester there. If you’d like to sample the experience, visitors can attend seasonal events and tours. I was blessed to take my eldest son to visit two summers ago, and my youngest will accompany me this summer. Have a little look around:

Practical information:

https://harlaxton.co.uk
https://college.harlaxton.co.uk
https://harlaxton.co.uk/events
https://www.evansville.edu