The Lake District

With weekend after weekend spent in cities, I got a break from urban life and spent a weekend in a rural—and by rural, I mean RURAL—area. It was an absolute blast and so so nice to be outside all weekend.

Our weekend began on Thursday night when the school trip left. Going on the school trip meant our transportation and lodging was provided, and activities in this case. We arrived at our Lake District Hostel (where author Francis Brett Young lived—it’s okay, I have no idea who he is either) around 11 that night and got settled in our rooms. I was in a room with seven other girls: Chelsea, Molly, Sara, Ali, Jessi, Alex and Susan. So we stayed up late talking and hanging out which was a fun time.

The next morning we walked about a mile to the nearest tiny town called Hawskhead—if you say it really fast you can pretend you’re going to get a butterbear at the Hog’s Head in Hogsmead! (Please excuse my Harry Potter references.) Of course we were delayed when on the way into town we spotted a fenced in area of sheep and lambs. And, let me tell you, tiny little lambs with their knobby knees and innocent faces are one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen in my life. Each time we walked past (at least six times) we stopped and stared for a minimum of 10 minutes and contemplated the best way to steal a baby.

We checked out an outdoor sport store that was actually quite inexpensive, so I purchased a nice, warm hat and a new khaki colored jacket. We explored the area and discovered that where we were is where Beatrix Potter wrote Peter Rabbit. How neat! We dropped our new outdoor purchases off at the hostel, grabbed our sack lunches and headed back to Hawkshead to eat lunch outside and catch the town bus to Ambleside, which is a bigger, more active town in the area. We were hoping to do some kind of extreme outdoor activity like rope climbing or boat sailing, but all the places were closed on Fridays this early in the season. So instead we found a tour boat on Windimiere Lake, so all 11 of us (Alex, Susan, Chelsea, Ali, Sara, Molly, Sarah, Jessi, Whitney, Clay and I) hopped on the boat and spent about an hour and a half on the water. We had about a 30 minute break in another dock town, where Molly had the time of her life trying to touch a swan on the butt. It was hilarious to watch and luckily my camera is attached to my hand so I caught it all in pictures. There were birds and swans all over the place!

Our tour ended at 3:45 and we had to catch the bus back to Hawkshead at 4:05—meaning we had 20 minutes to go about a mile. Which seems like plenty of time until you don’t get off the boat until 3:50 and 11 people are running through the streets of an unknown place. We literally ran back to the bus stop, only to find we had looked at the schedule wrong and had to wait on our bus. But, better safe than sorry! We popped back into Hawkshead where Sarah, Clay, Molly and I bought some ingredients for dinner. We walked back to our hostel (stopping to look at the sheep, of course) and searched for the kitchen.

We couldn’t find the place, so we asked at the front desk and discovered it was actually in a separate building up a little hill and we were amazed when we found it—it was huge! Apparently the hostel and its facilities are used for a summer camp for kids, so it would make sense. But anything and everything we could have needed was there—plates, silverware, pots, pans, oven mittens, a microwave, hot water for the free tea that was there and an oven. We toasted two loaves of garlic bread, boiled some noodles and covered them in a creamy white sauce mixed with ham, and dug into one of my favorite meals of the semester. We were the only four in the kitchen and it was really nice to listen to Brett Dennen on my iPhone in the background, eat a meal we prepared ourselves, and just talk and laugh.

The hostel had a rule that you had to be inside by 11:30 or you would be locked out, so we ended up getting to bed fairly early Friday night. Saturday morning our group ate breakfast at 8 (which was pretty decent and filling) and left for our group activities in Ambleside at 9. This day was so much fun! We started out rock climbing, which I had never done before. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be! They had us all hooked, harnessed and helmeted up, so I wasn’t afraid of falling and the height didn’t scare me. It was just the actual activity that was a challenge, but it was fun! I mostly just watched people climb and enjoyed the beautiful mountains and green scenery surrounding us. It felt wonderful to be outside in sweatpants and a tshirt!

We ate a sack lunch provided by the hostel (minus the actual sack) and prepared for “ghyll scrambling.” I had never heard of this activity, but all our friends said it would be the most fun so I signed up for it. Only to discover it entails climbing a waterfall in the middle of March in England. Cold? Yes. But it was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever done! Some of it was similar to the rock climbing we always do in Gatlinburg, but a lot of it was pretty intense and you had to be really focused to not fall in the stream. Our guide Charlie was the absolute best and he helped us do all these awesome climbing tricks. One of the guys in our group, Corbe, fell into the same part of the water twice in a row, which was seriously hilarious. At the same spot, we were pressed flat against the side of the stream wall and I had a good handle on the wall, so I took a step to another rock, SLIPPED, and dropped into the water to my waist. It was so so cold. I just threw my hands in the air and Clay lifted my straight out and I found my bottom half soaked and numb. But I persevered! I guess that’s what I get for laughing so much at Corbe.

The grand finale of the trip was climbing a waterfall. Literally. Charlie hooked us up with ropes and we straight climbed a waterfall, 40 degree water from melted mountaintop snow splashing in our faces. I felt so awesome when I made it to the top! Our group (Ali, Jessi, Corbe, Matt, Susan, Alex, Clay and myself), led by Charlie was the best. On the way down, Charlie gave us the option of jumping into an area that was 6 or 7 feet deep. Yes, jumping into the freezing cold water in all our clothes for FUN. What kind of crazy person does that? I’ll tell you. My entire group. Then the group behind us. I was completely opposed to this idea as I had already been waist deep in what I could safely consider the Arctic Ocean, and had no desire to repeat the experience, adding my upper half. Susan, Clay, Chelsea and I were staying strong and refusing to do it. Then peer pressure broken Susan, then Chelsea, then Clay—so how could I not do it?! I had to. Clay, Chelsea and I were smart and took our outer layers off so we would have warmer clothes to put back on. But that’s the only way we were smart because jumping into that water is one of the dumbest decisions I’ve ever made! Nothing can prepare you for how ridiculously cold the water is. My body literally seized up once I was in the water (all the way in the water, my entire body and head) and I could hardly get my muscles to pull myself out, not to mention my shoe was falling off and I could barely get my lungs to expand enough to tell Charlie. He saved my shoe, however, and I somehow climbed out of the stream, truly blinded with cold. I can say I’m glad I did it now—how cool?!—but at the time, I was miserable!

We changed into our extra dry clothes we brought with us and got back on the bus to go to the hostel. Sarah and Molly stopped in Hawkshead to get more materials for dinner and Clay and I headed back. We had quite a bit of pasta left over from the night before, so we got another jar of sauce to add and FOUR loaves of bread this time, so we each had our own and you better believe we ate all of it. We each had a lemon cupcake too and I was so satisfied when we were finished. Yum!

The next morning we ate breakfast at 8:30 and left on our school coach at 10. We stopped in the town of Keswick, a neat little place in the Lake District. We checked out the lake area, which offered a beautiful view of the mountains in the distance. Then Sarah, Molly, Clay, Sara and I ate lunch at a tiny Italian place where Molly and I got virtually the same dinner we had had the two previous nights, but with bacon this time. It was equally as delicious, except some of that garlic bread would have been perfect. I bought a few postcards and we got back on the bus for our four hour ride home. We stopped in a truck stop (which are really nice and fancy in England) and I discovered an ice cream treat that combined ice cream, chocolate and Kit Kats, so I was basically in heaven.

We made it home Sunday evening in time for a delicious refectory meal (woo!). The weekend in the Lake District was awesome and I seriously loved it so much. But what weekend haven’t I loved? It’s an amazing life here and I couldn’t be more blessed—I’m having the experience of a lifetime and a slew of family and friends to support me. I miss you all, but know I’m surrounding by so many amazing people at Harlaxton and I’m as happy as can be :)

Paris, France.

What an awesome weekend.

Earlier in the week, our British Studies class took a trip to Southwell Workhouse in Nottinghamshire which was about 45 minutes away. We got to see where all the poor went to work and live when they had no other options. The facility was built in the mid-1800s to encourage people to get jobs in the real world. It was definitely an interesting thing to see firsthand.

Our weekend in Paris got an early start by beginning on Wednesday night. Kyle, Alex, Sarah, Clay and I took a cab to St. Pancras, a train station in London. We arrived in the middle of the night and warmed up with some coffee at Costa and checked in for our Eurostar journey. The train ride, which goes under the ocean to France, was about two and a half hours. I can't say it was much different from any other train ride, but I'm glad I can say I've ridden it! We arrived in Paris at about 8 in the morning and were immediately accosted by a "Bosnian" woman, claiming to be poor and begging for money. We saw these women all over the city. We spent the next bit of time trying to figure out where in the world we were supposed to go--and figure it out all in French. This was the first place where language was really a barrier most of the time, but it was a learning experience!

We went to our hostel that was in the heart of the city (not to mention it was by far the nicest hostel we've been to yet), but it was too early to check in so we put our luggage in the luggage room and headed to the Louvre. What a beautiful place! It building itself was gorgeous and of course the pyramid outside is breathtaking. It was very odd to see such a modern piece of art in the middle of the Louvre, but it was neat nonetheless. We bought tickets for 9.50 euros into the museum and began exploring. The Louvre was actually built around a castle completed in 1202 AD whose remains are preserved inside so that was crazy to see. We got to see the famous statue of Athena by an unknown artist and Winged Victory of Samothrace which honors the goddess Nike. I was excited to find an original painting of Edward VII! I was blown away by the intricate decorations of the rooms mingled with all the incredible artwork. And of course, we saw the Mona Lisa. I was not surprised by its size; in fact, I expected it to be even smaller! It was amazing to see something with your own eyes that you've seen a hundred times in books and in class. It's insane how famous that image is.

We continued checking out the Louvre, but were all so tired going on a few hours of sleep or less, we really weren't taking anything in. After seeing all the main pieces, we decided to dip, but not before seeing where the two triangles meet inside the building. If you've seen the da Vinci Code you know that this is very significant! We made it outside and it felt absolutely amazing--the Louvre was actually a heating building so we were all sweating in our layers and coats. So when we walked outside into the Parisian sun and saw the courtyard, it was impossible not to sit down and soak it all in. Here I had my first sighting of the Eiffel Tower in the distance and the arc that lines up with the famous Acr de Triumphe. We took the Underground back to our hostel and crashed for about three hours. I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the evening!

We attempted to locate tickets for the midnight premiere of Alice in Wonderland, only to discover its release date is much later in France. We continued walking along the river that reflected all the city lights and created a picturesque image. We decided on an Italian restaurant--but the menu was completely in French. Luckily, Kyle, Alex and Sarah all took French in high school so we were able to manage. My pizza was wonderful and everyone ordered several scoops of ice cream and tried each other's--DELICIOUS. My favorites were the mint chocolate chip, the extra chocolaty chocolate, and some kind of cookie dough-ish scoop that was indescribable. We went back to our hostel and enjoyed the night together in addition with our roommate, Yang, who sawed logs all night long.

The next morning we journeyed to our new location, a set of apartments called City Residence about 20 minutes outside the city. This is where I once again proved my talent for being the victim of unlucky events. We were riding along when we realized we were heading in the wrong direction. The train was stopped and Kyle said, "We need to get off here!" The train's buzzer went off, meaning only a few seconds were left until the doors closed. So I took it upon myself to fly off the train with my luggage and wait for everyone else. However, I turned around to find myself facing a set of closing tram doors. Kyle and I locked eyes and a million things ran through my head--Oh no, I'm going to be left in this tram station in France all alone, I don't speak French, I have no idea where we're going, oh no oh no--when Kyle Hulked up and ripped the tram doors open out of sheer adrenaline. I threw my luggage on the train and slid through the doors as the train took off again. Epic.

Once we arrived, we met up with five other friends from school, EHo, Susan, Cassie, Kimber and Andy. We made lunch out of food we brought with us, and headed back into the city. We saw Notre Dame, a Roman cathedral that means "Our Lady" in French. The best part about this stop was Sarah, Clay and I met what I suppose you would call a Bird Man, who provided us with birdseed, and a few seconds later we were covered in pigeons! They were literally all over my arms, hands and even my head. It was such a thrill!

Next up was the Eiffel Tower. It was strange because I didn't find it to be that beautiful of a structure, but its architecture and intricacy made it amazing. The sun was shining on the steel, making for a lot of beautiful photos. We took pictures all around the area with the Tower, and then headed to see the Arc de Triomphe, which honors those who fought for France during the Napoleonic Wars. It was a very bold sight. Ironically enough, we ran into our friends Chelsea and Jeremy who came in from Amsterdam that evening. They stayed with us at the apartment too. What are the odds we would see them in Paris?!

We made it back to our apartments and held an ABC Party, which turned out to be quite interesting yet fun. The next morning we got up early in order to have a lovely picnic under the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, that picnic turned into sitting on a bench with a shaking sandwich in my hands because it was so cold. But no worries. We went up in the Tower next, which was my favorite part of the trip! We climbed up allllllll the stairs and I definitely felt it the next day. We walked to the first and second levels, and then took the lift to the very tip top. It was an incredible view of the city, which is so huge! The buildings seem to go on for miles and miles and miles. On one side of the Tower the wind was absolutely brutal, but we discovered the other side was wind-free and quite comfortable. We spent a good amount of time just looking out in amazement.

Once we got out of the tower we spent literally over an hour haggling with the thousand men trying to tell Eiffel Tower keychains, mini Eiffel Towers, medium Eiffel Towers, large Eiffel Towers, and extra large Eiffel Towers. Once you act interested, you become surrounded by 10 people all trying to sell you the same thing. It was funny and I got a few things I wanted, but after a while I was so over bargaining. Finally we got back on the underground and saw the famous sight of Moulin Rouge, which stands for the red windmill. It was neat to see! Then we walked up 18,000 (not really but it seemed like it) more stairs to the Sacre Coeur, a Roman cathedral that is located at the highest point of the city. From here we had an amazing view of the sunset over Paris, including the Eiffel Tower in the distance. Inside, nuns were singing in French. We sat down and took in the huge ceilings and amazing architecture which was very peaceful.

We found ourselves on a tight schedule for the evening: we headed back to our apartment to scarf down a few frozen pizzas (that we cooked in the microwave, safe) and change clothes. The train rides to and from the city took quite a while after transferring and sometimes waiting for them to arrive. Dressed to the nines, Sarah, Clay, Susan, Alex, Kyle and I got off the train station at George V, and went to Lido where we saw a cabaret. The costumes were definitely my favorite part! They were so elaborate and intense. My favorite performance was the ice skating--mesmerizing! Our waiter for the evening was very friendly, and it was just a neat experience. Since the trains were no longer running as our show began at 11:30, we were forced to take a taxi back to our apartments. It was an incredibly cold 10 minutes of life in heels, tights and a dress, the wind whipping about. The inside of the cab was such a relief and we made it home safely.

Sunday morning, Kyle, Clay, Alex, Sarah and I headed to our train station where our Eurostar would leave from. Kyle and Alex did some shopping while Sarah, Clay and I enjoyed a spectacular breakfast of ham and cheese omelets and croissants in a French cafe. It was delectable. Our train was to leave at 12:13, so we began checking in at about noon and found ourselves absolutely sprinting to get on our train, but luckily we made it in time. A two hour nap ensued on the way back to St. Pancras, where we transferred to King's Cross and made our journey back to Grantham and called Street Cars, who took us back to the manor for a whole 6 pounds.

All in all, an amazing weekend! J'adore Paris!

Amsterdam, Holland.

The week after my trip to Stonehenge, I got the most wonderful gift of seeing my family! Papa K, Sloan, Paige and her friend Lindsey came all the way to Grantham just to see me...yeah right. Actually, I was just a good excuse for them to travel to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Rome ;). But I was excited for them to travel around Europe and so thrilled to spend time with them. We checked out Grantham and did some shopping there and went to Nottingham with my meet-a-family to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, which is the oldest inn in England. We got to see Nottingham Castle and the pub was so neat in that it was built into a rock so you were basically in a cave inside! Bits of rock kept falling on everyone, so it was pretty legit. We stayed for the Storytellers of Nottingham and listened to all sorts of scary stories about murder. My favorite was definitely the tale of Mr. Fox. We had quite an adventure driving all over Nottingham trying to locate my parents' car which had gotten left behind at a stoplight. It was a seriously hilarious experience and I felt like a real family with my English mum and dad! We finally found them and made our way back to Harlaxton, where I packed and showered by 2 am in order to catch our cab to London.

Our good friend Grease Tail of Street Cars took Sarah, Clay, Kyle, Alex and I to Heathrow Airport where we easily made it through customs to wait in what was thankfully a heated airport for our flight to take off around 7 o'clock. We landed in the Netherlands and grabbed a cab to our hotel--not hostel!--called the Swisshotel right in the center of town. We sneakily checked five people into a two person room, and it was so nice to not have to lock up our luggage or take cold showers. The bit of extra money was definitely worth the stay, although we had to strategically plan our leaving and arrival so security wouldn't get suspicious.

We met for the free tour of Amsterdam at the town center, where the tours were split into Spanish-speaking and English-speaking. We were placed in a huge group with a tour guide we could hardly hear, so we joined Martijn's group (which we later found to not even be his real name) which had much fewer people. It was a cold, rainy day and Martijn/Clkejoewif (in Dutch) let me borrow his awesomely warm hat during the three hour tour. We learned about the architecture of the buildings (they were built at a tilt with hook at the top so cargo ships could deliver goods into the buildings via the second floor), saw Chinatown, the famous "I Amsterdam" sign, Napoleon's headquarters during the war which is now a library, the Marijuana Museum, the old Post Office which is now a shopping center, the bell tower which Anne Frank listened to everyday while in hiding, a squatter's home, the Amsterdam Historic Museum, the Protestant Church where the Pilgrims worshiped before they left on the Mayflower (which was ironically directly across from a Catholic Church), what was surely the happiest cat in Amsterdam, and heard a great story about revolt near the canals. The tours are always so awesome and informative! We caught a "free" tram ride ("because they never check your tickets") back to our hotel and got ready for the night. We went to the Jolly Joker where we saw and experienced some interesting Amsterdam-ish things. We made a glorious visit to Rene's Bakery where I got a delicious donut.

Saturday morning we did a bit of shopping and made our way to the Anne Frank museum. This was the office building where she and her family hid during World War II after fleeing Germany. It was absolutely indescribable to see the actual building, much less walk where she walked, looked at the walls (which she covered in magazine cut-outs) she looked at, and see the secret bookcase which kept them safe until they were betrayed and taken to concentration camps. The only survivor of their family was Anne's father, Otto, who took it upon himself to publish Anne's diary after he found it and achieve her dreams of becoming a journalist. It was a very sad, humbling place to visit, but as Otto Frank said in 1967, "To build a future, you have to know the past."

Once back at the Swisshotel we changed clothes and went out to check out the Red Light District (cue Luda!). It was sooo weird to see all those women selling themselves like that, but an interesting experience nonetheless. Let's just say I will never look at the trick where a magician pulls a handkerchief out of his mouth the same again.

Sunday morning we packed up and cleaned the room, then grabbed some delicious pizza and a drink for a mere 4 euros. We went to the world's largest floating flower market where I was sad to discover I couldn't bring any real tulip bulbs back because they weren't radiated properly to fly back to America. We got a few souvenirs and did even more shopping, which led to some hilariously entertaining events. A cab picked us up outside our hotel in the early afternoon and we cabbed (in a ridiculously awesome van), flew, and cabbed again (after an hour of searching for our driver in the rain) back to Harlaxton. Amsterdam was seriously a blast and I had so much fun hanging out with the group I went with. It was wonderful to be able to come home, shower, and relax and continue to enjoy my time here :)

Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath

Last week I had a tough time finding the time to actually write a decent blog, so now I'm playing catch up! Here is an update of the weekend of Feb. 20th.

After quite a few failed attempts to get a trip to Wales together, Clay, Chelsea, Molly and I decided we wanted to go on a day tour. We chose to visit Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath--all places Chelsea had already been, so she decided not to go. Molly wanted to save money so she stayed at Harlaxton as well. I spent most of Friday in the library working on papers (ick) and that evening Clay and I caught the 5:10 shuttle into Grantham. We hit up Morrison's (a kind of Kroger) and made ourselves a little dinner out of chicken, bread and juice for less than 4 pounds. We ate at the train station and caught our train to King's Cross with no problems. Somehow we ended up on the "Quiet Coach" of the train, meaning virtually no talking was allowed, so we just listened to my iPod all the way there.

Once we arrived, I of course reveled in the fact that Harry Potter himself left for school at King's Cross, London and began to search immediately for Platform 9 and three-quarters. The whole station was under construction so they had temporarily moved the wall. I asked a lady who worked there about it by starting with, "I have the most touristy question ever..." She didn't even bother to ask what I wanted and just dove straight into the directions. Finally we located the shopping cart that goes halfway into the wall, along with a sign and took the necessary pictures. That was something I definitely wanted to see while here!

Clay and I decided before the trip that we were going to walk everywhere to save money on transportation. We got our first dose of walking that night when we traipsed over four miles across London to get to our hostel, West Two Hostel. It was a long walk but enjoyable nonetheless. The best part of the walk was when I found myself in a situation that I'm not unfamiliar with, and that is tripping over/running into things. We were walking down the street with no troubles when out of nowhere I tripped over who knows what, and I went soaring through the air as though a 300 pound linebacker had pushed me as hard as he could. My camera flew out of my pocket and I was so jostled, but I immediately started laughing at how extreme I must have looked. It was hilarious. Finally we made it to our hostel where we made some tea and took it easy. We talked with our roommates (a girl from France studying in Brighton, and her brother) who were very nice and hit the hay early. We had all our clothes and necessities laid out and ready for the next morning because we had to wake up quite early.

My alarm went off at 5:50 and I was not too pleased about this, but I was excited about the day ahead so I managed to get out of bed. We showered and got ready and packed our things up to head out. We walked about three miles to Victoria Station, but we got to walk through Hyde Park (where Round Pond and the Serpentine are located), and it was very pretty early in the morning with fog and dew still around. We bought pastries at a cafe along the way, then made our way to Victoria Bus Station. While eating my croissant, I noticed a little machine that offered 20 business cards for 2 pounds. For some reason I thought it would be awesome to make business cards, so we made little cards with lions on them that say: "Harlaxton Hooligans: Leaving a trail of destruction across Europe; Harlax10." Perfect!

Our bus arrived at 8:30 and we loaded up, listening to the antics of our hilariously awesome tour guide. She had a very soothing voice and had all the best stories--not to mention an awesome English accent! We headed out of London toward Windsor, which was a relatively short drive. The castle was beautiful! It was built on a hill (as most defensive castles were) and the landscaping around the place was gorgeous. We got to check out a bridge built by Elizabeth I and then we headed inside. One of the neatest things we saw was Victoria's Dollhouse, which was just a miniature replica of a royal house including furniture and decorations, down to forks and knives and paintings on the wall. It was so neat! The next exhibit we checked out had REAL sketches drawn by the hand of Leonardo da Vinci...it was so freaking cool to see the actual marks he made with his pencil! And luckily for me, there was a lot of information about Henry VIII portraits and preliminary sketches of royalty by Hans Holbein.

We used the tour headsets and walked around the place, seeing all the different chambers for the king and queen. We got to see original artwork which was super neat. I love that kind of stuff so I was happy as could be. After touring the castle inside, I checked my phone and it was about 11:10. We had to be back on our coach by 11:45 and I still wanted to see Henry VIII's grave, so I told Clay we ought to go ahead and leave so we would have time to grab lunch. So we hurried to the chapel where there were 23,498,723 (at least) Spanish students going through the place so it was difficult to walk through at any decent pace. We were trying to peek into all the rooms and see where he was buried and by then I was getting a little worried about time. After dodging through all the students, we finally came upon a black marble slab in the floor stating that Henry's remains (along with Jane Seymour, his favorite wife, King Charles I, and an infant child of Queen Anne) were deposited underneath. Very anticlimactic. It was something I wanted to see nonetheless, so I took my picture and we skedaddled.

Once we were back outside, we had trouble finding the proper exit because that Changing of the Guards was going on, blocking half the exits. We tried to leave one way before a lady redirected us to the right exit. At this point, I knew there was no way we had time to get lunch. We made it back onto the street and I, using my dangerously accurate sense of direction (not), tried to get us back to the coach park. By this time, we were running. Flat out running through the streets of Windsor, a town we knew nothing about, searching for a coach that was going to leave us in a matter of minutes, which would have been a pretty huge damper on the day. I didn't recognize anything around us anymore, so we ran to the train station and got ill-advised directions from a man at a bagel shop, tried to ask the turban man working the ticket station for directions, but to no avail--so we took off again. I was freaking out, absolutely sure we had missed our coach. We sprinted up to the window of a cab and frantically asked where the coach park was. After a few seconds of delay, the cab driver told us to hop in the back and he would take us there. I felt like we were in that steaming hot cab for an hour. We hung our heads out the window and I was literally on the verge of tears because I thought everything had gone wrong. We sat in traffic for at least 35 years until we turned the corner into the coach park and I held my breath, waiting to see our Evan Evan tour bus--which, praise God, was still sitting there. Our tour guide laughed out loud when we pulled up and remarked that no one had ever gotten that lost before. But, whew! Five pounds for the cab was totally worth it. So while everyone else on the bus enjoyed their deli sandwiches, Clay and I were sweating and starving all the way to Stonehenge.

The ride to Stonehenge took about an hour and it was so odd because one minute we were driving through English countryside, and the next I looked out my window and I was looking at Stonehenge. We just pulled up right next to it! It was so strange to see such a famous image right before my eyes. The area around the stones was roped in so we couldn't get close enough to touch, but it wasn't a far distance away. We got some awesome pictures and walked all the way around the structure. It was kind of difficult to take it in while we were there. When I look at the pictures, I feel so amazed that I was standing so close to it and looking at it. I'm so glad I got to see it! Clay and I were so hungry so we got some toasted tuna sandwiches and enjoyed those which were delicious.

We hopped back on our coach and drove a little over an hour to the city of Bath, which was a really neat area. It wasn't big and crowded and it had a nice, welcoming feel to it. We went through the Roman Baths Museum, which has the best preserved ancient baths and temple complex in norther Europe. It was a sight to see! It's really just what it sounds like--a huge square pool of water where the Romans bathed when they lived in England. The structure around it is a temple, and the parts that were preserved were so neat to see. We made our way through the museum, learning about the Goddess Minvera who was basically the bomb.com to the Romans, and all the rituals they performed. We hung out around the actual bath area (and even touched the water! shh) and took a few pictures.

Our attentions were then stolen by a Ben & Jerry's across the way from the museum, so I got a delicious double chocolate chip scoop in a waffle cone...heavenly. We saw a man setting up a show for tips in the street, so we hung around to watch his talents of juggling torches that were on fire, riding unicycles with children on his shoulders, and riding the tallest unicycle I've ever seen (Clay was his assistant in this task!) while juggling flaming torches. It was intense and the guy was so funny! We returned to our coach in plenty of time and got to see the beautiful countryside of Bath (which inspired Jane Austen's novels when she lived there!) and enjoyed the scenery on our ride back to London.

We returned about three hours later and made our shortest walk of the trip to our hostel near Victoria Bus Station, and checked in to find that we were put in the "Weeklys" room, where people stay for longer periods of time. It was kind of weird because they had way more stuff than we did and we were only staying for a night. So we decided to get out of there and have a good meal, which we kind of found at an Italian restaurant a bit of a walk away. It was pretty good and filling. We turned in early after the day of traveling and woke up super early to get ready and head out again. We grabbed a breakfast of toast and cereal in the kitchen and left at about 8:30.

We had a walk that was more than four miles this time, but we got to see parts of London we'd never been to before which was neat. We saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Banquet House for the second time this semester. This is where another epic fail of my life occurred, right outside the Banquet House, the same place where Charles I met his fate. I was excitedly looking for the Banquet House because it was dark when we saw it in London the first time. Once I found the sign proclaiming it to be said building, I twirled around, whipping out my camera--and then I got hit by a car. Or so I thought. This man who had clearly eaten a plane engine for breakfast was FLYING down the street, absolutely sprinting, and apparently when I turned around he didn't have enough time to stop and he ran smack into me. I screamed like a crazy person because I honestly had no idea what would have hit me that hard. The man was in such a rush he said hurriedly apologized and kept running. But of course after I realized I was safe, I thought it was hilarious. I think that describes my life pretty well.

We returned to King's Cross once more and took the train back to Grantham (during which time I made a Jewish boyfriend) where we found that our friend Eileen was going back to Harlaxton from the train station too. We had planned to walk back to the school, but it was snowing in Grantham and we decided splitting the cab three ways wouldn't be too bad. So we returned safely and did all the things we set out to do!

I'll have my Amsterdam blog up as soon as possible! :)