Welcome in Lewes

Friday night, party night at Sanny's. Sanny and I organized a little farewell-party to say goodbye to all our friends! Past twelve, I arrived home to have a four-and-a-half hours sleep. At five o'clock, I was woken up (which cost my father a lot of effort). My father, three brothers, two friends and our dog drove away to our house in Bellwald, Switzerland. It was weird to see them drive away without you sitting or sleeping in the car and realising that they will be skiing in the next 24 hours! However, ten minutes later, I was off to Lewes!!! We took the plane to London Gatwick. The funny thing that we met Philip Lee and his father who even took the same plane! However, Philip will be staying five weeks at Reeds' and I will stay at Lewes. At Schiphol, we had a little breakfast and bought some magazines for in the airplane. My last glance at Holland was around quarter past nine, now realising that I will be gone the length of a summer holiday! Luckily, we had no problems with people locking themselves up in the toilet and telling they have bombs with them! So, we had a normal flight to London Gatwick. When we arrived, we bought one retour and one single train ticket. We managed to reach the train just in time! The train trip was a bit frustrating, because the train would split up in two trains in the station before Lewes, so it took a while to find out in which wagon we had to sit. I had to take all HEAVY, thanks to all teachers of the Rlw, luggage three times from one wagon to another! We arrived in Lewes, but didn't realize this! Luckily, my mother saw just in time the name of the station which was, of course, Lewes! I just arrived at my residence for the next five/six weeks! The thing I immediately saw, was that Lewes is one of those old English towns. The train station isn't as modern as we know in the Netherlands. The landscape is amazing! On all sides of Lewes are hills, and those aren't a few metres high, but have some serious heights! We walked through town to our hotel close to the main street, the Pelham House. The room wasn't cleaned yet, so we weren't able to enter our hotel room. We left my baggage at the hotel and walked through town. We first went looking for the school which wasn't that hard to find. The school is located in the main street, which could be compared with 'de Langstraat' in Wassenaar. I think most of town's habitants, and especially the 50+ could be found in this street. Lewes, old grammer school, isn't as big as the RLW and especially not as big as Reeds'. The school is split up in two schools with two different locations. I guess, but don't know, that one school is compared to a primary school and the other building is compared to a secondary school. The school was completely closed and we couldn't even take a glance on the inside of the building which was a bit disappointing. We climbed the stairs to the castle, which is on the top of the hill, Lewes is located on. There we saw some men playing a kind of game with balls. One of the men told us that this game had been played in Lewes since 1753, and that those men were the last generation playing this game. He didn't explain the rules but told me that it is called: 'Balls'.
It looks a bit like 'Jeux de boules'. We walked on and had a great view on the surroundings around us. I think, here I realized the first time that I was going to stay in this village for the next five/six week and it worried me a little. We still had to buy some toilet products like deo d'orant and shampoo, so we looked for some shops. We went in-side a Tabletop Sale. Here, people make their own products and sell them! Everything could be found, from food to toys for babies and etc. In another shop, we found the products I still needed. We were both still a bit tired, so we went back to the hotel at around three o'clock. And here I am, in the hotel, working on my blog! I'm excited at what will happen tomorrow, during my tour through the school and my stay at a teacher's place. I'm excited for the next six weeks, and still feel a bit worried!

Picture 1: LOGS (Lewes Old Grammar School)
Picture 2: Balls
Picture 3: Tabletop Sale