Welcome Bloggers:

OK, I know I said I would post on Aug. 22, but thanks to UselessAir, it was nearly Aug. 23 before I got to Harlaxton (not quite, actually). Flight out of Philly was delayed 2 1/2 hours, so missed the coach sent from the college to collect us. Always the calm one when Plan A didn't work--just ask my wife--I went to the bus station in Heathrow, booked a coach to Victoria Station and then from there a relaxing 3 1/2 hour ride up the A1--the old High Road to Scotland from the days of the 18th century.

Arrived at the Manor around 8 that evening.What can I say? It is like something out of Disneyland. A great 153-room country house and grounds that has to be experienced to truly appreciate. Every nook and cranny of the place holds a new gem. Spread over four main floors, there are great meeting halls and the Cedar Staircase, smaller rooms for seminar classes, the Refectory for meals, Library, commons rooms, suites for visiting faculty, including three who have brought children with them as well. A magical setting which the picture below, taken on my walk this morning, does not do justice.

Yesterday was spent in workshops with both the visiting faculty and the permanent faculty and staff. Sort of getting to know you kind of stuff. There is an engineering professor teaching math courses, a nursing professor who is Skyping her course back to her home institution in conjunction with nursing students at nearby Nottingham University, a business prof who is going to take his students (and yours truly) to the very heart of the pork pie industry in nearby Mowbry, an Education professor who has arranged for 15 hours of observation for the students in local schools, etc., etc., and so forth.

The students arrive today in three waves beginning around noon. Tomorrow morning is the opening convocation in the "Great Hall", complete with piper and academic procession--makes a Bethanian feel right at home.

Oh, went into town yesterday on the campus shuttle which leaves from Pegasus Courtyard. Walked out to wait for it and saw this

 

 

You WWII fans will note that this is the symbol for the British 1st Airborne Division which had its headquarters in this house during the war. The division was all but destroyed at Arnhem in September 1944 when they were dropped into Holland, one bridge too far, as the tip of Operation Market Garden. My uncle, Carl Kappel, was in the American 82nd Airborne and knew some of the officers in the 1st, including John Frost, whose battalion made it to the north end of the bridge across the Rhine in Arnhem, but was surrounded and overwhelmed. Carl's company took part in the river assault at Nijmegen just to the south in a last desparate attempt to reach Frost and his men. It's a small world!

 

Anyway, I will be posting irregularly from here on for the next couple of months. A disclaimer. All opinions expressed on this blog are my own and not those of the Bethany College--although they would be smart to endorse them wholeheartedly if they knew what was good for them. If anyone finds something I post objectionable, I am prepared to deny, under oath if necessary (ala Tom Lehrer), that I had anything to do with it.

 

Cheers.