Relocating

Sorry to be a pain, but I've decided to relocate my blog to my tumblr account.  The new link is http://cryleegoestocapernwray.tumblr.com/.  It just makes thing easier because I can keep both of my blogs in the same place!  

I booked my first ever hotel room!

This actually happened last week, but I forgot to post a blog about it!

I booked my first ever hotel room! (Please note: this makes me feel extremely adult.)

It's a gorgeous little bed and breakfast type thing in Carnforth, UK.  I'll be staying there on my first night in England since I'm arriving a day before I'm actually able to go the school.

This is it! The adorable Capernwray House.

It's called Capernwray House and is approximately 15 minutes (walking) away from Capernwray Hall.  As far as I can tell, that is the only connection to the school.  It's beautiful and so cute.  Yes, at the same time.  It's a small stone building on 11 acres of land.  There are only four rooms available for rent.  And there is a red phone booth outside of it!  SO British I love it.

This is our room.  Or something like it anyway.

I'm sharing a room with another girl who is going to Capernwray who I met in the Capernwray Hall 2012-2013 facebook group.  Social media rocks because it made this room affordable for us!

A window seat! There is a window seat!

And the view from the window seat. So perfect. Except it'll be fall when I get there so it'll look a little different.

I am really looking forward to staying here!  And if I like it then I'll probably stay a night at the end of my program on my way back to London!

 - - -

From Wednesday to Friday I went to my grandparents' house in Cochrane to spend some time with them and to get a change of scenery (being at home is getting really tiresome).  Yesterday my grammi and I went into Calgary so I could pick up a few things I'll need.  So I got a memory card for the DSLR camera she is lending me, a bag to put the camera in, an external harddrive to store the thousands of pictures I'll be taking, a sleeve for my macbook to protect it from travel, and they also got me my Christmas and birthday present since I'll be out of continent on those days.  They got me the most beautiful leather jacket!  Merry Christmas and happy 20th birthday to me!

I also went to the bank and exchanged some of my (soon to be useless to me) Canadian dollars for Great Britain pounds.  They only had 50 pound notes in "stock", but that's okay.  It doesn't even look like real money to me!  It's so weird!

50 pound note from the Bank of England.

Reasons why Today is a Good Day

1. I finished all of my unpacking and putting away from camp. Huzzah!
2. I watched some episodes from the first season of The OC, which is still SUCH a good show.

3. It's a beautiful night in Airdrie so I decided to go for a bike ride...
4. ... And because I exercised, I deserved a reward, right?  This reward came in the form of rocky road ice cream.

5. And last, but CERTAINLY not least, I will be flying to England exactly one month from today (almost to the minute!).

So, what exactly is Capernwray?

Good question!

Capernwray Hall is a part of the Capernwray Missionary Fellowship of Torchbearers.  Simply put, it is a Bible school.  There are Capernwray institutions all over the world, but the one that I have chosen to attend is in Northern England.

Capernwray Hall, Carnforth, England.  I did not take this photo.

Seeing as I have not been there yet, all of the information that I have about it comes from the internet.  This next paragraph of information comes mostly from wikipedia (very scholarly, I know).

The building, considered to be a country house, was built in 1805 for the Marton family (I do not know who they are).  It is a listed building of grade II*, which means that it is a particularly important building of more than special interest.  Basically, the government thinks it ought to be protected.  All this means to me is that I get to live in a castle for six months!

What Capernwray is, though, (the school, not the building), is an international forum to learn about and talk about God, the Bible, and application of our faith to our every day lives.

I am so excited to get there and to begin being challenged in my faith; to see how I am going to grow and change.  I'm also excited to go to the Harry Potter museum, but that's another story.

Introductions

Hi!  I'm Reilly and I cry a lot.  In case you didn't put two and two together, that's where the nickname "Crylee" came from.  Now, when I say I cry a lot, I mean it.  A LOT.  I cry when I'm happy; I cry when I'm sad, frustrated, scared.  You name it, I'm probably crying during it.  It's mostly funny though, so don't worry.

As this is my first ever blog post, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my life in a series of words and pictures.

I live with my mum, Tracey.  She's my best friend in the whole wide world.  She's been such an incredible mother to me, both making a living and making a home for us.  I think she's the coolest lady in the universe.

This is me and my mum.  We climbed a mountain on the day this was taken!

I LOVE bunnies.  Love them.  You have no idea.  Unless you know me, then you probably have a pretty good idea of how much I love bunnies.  I had a pet bunny when I was very little, but it ran away in a tragic I-forgot-to-close-the-latch accident.  

My mum brought this stuffed bunny home for me when I was very small.

I love to read.  And drink tea.  Sometimes I even do these things at the same time, which is pretty much my exact definition of bliss.  I would describe myself as an "up and coming loose leaf tea snob".  DAVIDsTEA is my favourite tea store.  Bravissimo is my favourite flavour of their teas.  I have 750g of it to take to England with me!

My current stash of DAVIDsTEAs.

I have two half brothers and a pseudo sister.  Ashton, Brody, and I have the same dad.  Teneal, Ashton, and Brody have the same mum.  (It's confusing, I know).  They mean the world to me and it makes me sad that I don't see them as much as I would like to.

This is my little sister.  She's a year older now though.  Pictures of my brothers will follow eventually, I promise.

Other things I like/love: Roots, Gilmore Girls, American Eagle Outfitters, the Killers, country music, British things (all I want is to be British), Fossil, clothes, shopping, singing (though I can't carry a tune in a bucket).

For the past six years (summers only), I've worked at Camp Evergreen.  It is the most fantastic place.  It truly is a huge part of who I am today.  I've just finished up my first year working on the program team, and I think it went quite well!  You can check out what they're up to at the Green Spot: http://camp-evergreen.blogspot.ca/.