Three day trip in Eversham - 1

Our three day trip in Eversham!

On the 28th of September, the UP was standing outside, waiting for the bus. We would soon be leaving to Eversham, a prehistoric village. We waited outside with our luggage. Griet and Maguelone were handing out more costumes as other people arrived. Finally, it was time to leave. The class clambered onto the bus while Griet ticked off names. Kai came this year instead of Rinze. When we arrived, our guide Bente led us to the place where we would sleep, and we put away our luggage. She gave us all a cup of tea, and introduced herself and the village. We then had lunch and started the activities, which included chopping wood, making bread, making dinner, grinding grain, going on the canoe and throwing a spear at a wooden pig. For dinner we had vegetable soup, which I was not very fond of, and some meat, I think it was pork. After dinner, we did the dishes and then, Griet told us a story. The story was about the Tollund Man, who was found when two brothers were digging for peat in the 1950ies. I thought it was a little scary at night. Then we went to bed.

When I awoke the next morning, Serena and Michelle were still asleep. Suddenly, Serena's eyes opened: we grinned at each other. Maguelone popped up and Michelle awoke. We giggled for a bit and after that, we took our toiletries and went outside to brush our teeth and wash up. When we were clean, we began preparing breakfast, which was bread and cheese, jam our fruit syrup. It was delicious. Then Bente arrived, and told us that we'd be doing making of bread, making fire, chopping wood, making rope and preparing lunch. I enjoyed making fire, even though I only made a few sparks. When we got to bread making, we had to do the dishes, which is not one of my favourite jobs. For lunch we had Germanic bread rolls, cooked on the fire. I really loved them, especially with apple and raisins for toppings. I had two, I was hungry, after all. After lunch, Bente explained that later today there would be a sacrificial ceremony. We began preparing acts for it straight away. We also had to make and amulet to wear for good luck. The amulet was to be made of loam, which is a mud like substance, and working with loam is a messy job. My hands were covered in loam after that. We practised our act and decided to offer some jewellery and a loam person I made, plus the pig to throw the spear at, to the god Musci, god of music. For dinner we had soup, again of which I was not fond of, and chicken, which was actually quite good. After dinner the sacrificial ceremony began. The acts were really nice, and I personally liked the one where Julius was sacrificed. We giggled quite a bit, but we did succeed, in the end. Then we had honeywaffles and applejuice with cinnamon in it. After that, we all began preparing for bed.
     
The next morning, I woke again before Serena and Michelle, and we lolled around in our sleeping bags for another 20 min. or so. Eventually, we got up, went to sit by the fire for a bit, then got our toiletries and went to wash up. We had breakfast inside, since it was raining outside. We had bread with cheese and jam, and pears. We would have pancakes for lunch, but first we had games. First we had a game where you split up into teams, and Bente would whisper a word to your team, and then the team would draw that word with rope. Our team only got one go, and the word we got was ”farmhouse”. The second game was that you had 12 pieces of wood, and we must buil the highest tower possible. Our tower fell, anf Riccardo, who's team won, laughed!! The next game was  a rough one so all the girls went on the canoewhile the boys played. After that, we had the pancakes which were really good, and said goodbye to Bente, and took our luggage to the bus, and went back home.

The End

By Vilhelmiina Haavisto