By Laura Hoksbergen

Features Co-editor

It's only 5:15 in the morning, but the New England Saints are rising from their beds. After all, there are cows to milk and one-room schoolhouses to attend. This was Maine, the first stop for the students who took the English Literature trip to New England to discover famous authors and a little bit of themselves as well. In Maine, the students stayed at a farm and were required to perform chores as if they were living in the 1800s.

``We started role play right when we got there. There were two different families, and we all belonged to one or the other. Parents, children, children's wives and children... We called each other `Mother' and `Father' and other family member names before we knew anyone's real name,'' said Carolyn Stob, one of the students who went on the trip. ``And by doing all the chores together we really became a family.''

``Our families really existed, too, so we could research these people and find out about their lives,'' Tim Pauw added. ``Some people's characters had died when they were eleven! And we all got to see `our' graves.''

So did the lobsters, which the group cooked themselves.

``We had to put them in the water alive,'' said Pauw.

``They screamed,'' Stob added. ``It wasn't pleasant.''

The focus of the group here, according to Stob, was warmth and light. ``In the 1870s, what brought people together? Go where there was warmth and light. We did the same thing, and we were brought together too.''

The group next moved on the bigger cities - Boston, Lexington, Salem and Concord. There were plenty of museums and sights to see.

``Salem was an interesting town,'' Stob said. ``The people were terribly embarrassed and yet they seemed to flaunt their embarrassment just to cover it up.''

``Every other store had `witch' in its name, and there were people dressed up as witches on every corner,'' she added. ``It was almost grotesque. I was glad I saw it, but at the same time it was a bit of a disappointment.''

Despite the interesting landmarks, such as the bridge on which the Revolutionary War started, the class also studied several important authors such as Emerson, Thoreau, Emily Dickinson and Louisa May Alcott.

Emily Dickinson was my favorite,'' Pauw said. ``I wasn't really in to authors before I went on this trip, but now I'm a really big fan, especially of Emily Dickinson. I found her in another one of my textbooks for this semester and that was really exciting.''

The group took a trip to Walden Pond, to see where Thoreau had written his famous book. Group members even took a dip in the water.

``This class definitely had a lasting effect on me,'' said Christy Sloat, another student. ``I look up now - I look at others when I'm going down the path.''

``The class taught us that there was more to life than just what you learn in a classroom,'' said Andy Drake, another member of the group. ``The writers that we studied emphasized the importance of first-hand experience and that is what we got here.''

`` I learned more from conversations with other people than I could have from a textbook,'' he added. ``I'm a senior and this is one of the best things I have done at Calvin.''

``Immersion is the best way to learn,'' Christy Sloat agreed. ``The trip wasn't focused on class time, because we were constantly learning something new.''

And, apparently, playing numerous games of euchre.