November 5
Today we started our fun little trip up north and hopped on
yet another bus for probably the 500th time in the past month. This
bus driver’s name is Jason. He’s no Peter, but he seems better than Villam, at
least. After we drove for a while we came up to the Preston temple and got out
of the bus to walk around for a little bit. That temple is beautiful against
the forest scenery. We mostly went to find the bathroom, but it was still fun
to see it.
Then we continued with our little bus trip and before we got
to our destination, we had a tour with this cute little man in Preston where he
showed us some church history sites like where they baptized the first saints
in England and where President Hinckley lived when he was on his mission. This
man was so incredibly fast… It was decently hard to keep up with him and his
speedy legs.
Then we finally got to the Lake District and I was blown
away! It’s seriously one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in my
life. The whole thing looks like it’s straight out of a fairy tale with the
rolling hills, changing fall leaves, lakes and rivers, and the cute little town
that was built into the landscape. At this destination we got spoiled by
getting to all be in these adorable little bed and breakfasts. The one that I
got assigned to was so cute, the little man and his wife who own it came out
and greeted us and told us about some fun things to do in town and how excited
they are to have students staying with them. I love bed and breakfasts!
Honeymoon destination found. Then after we got all settled a few of the girls I
was staying in the b&b with went to walk around town and find dinner and of
course we stumble upon this little candy shop. I got some chocolate covered
peanut brittle. It was delicious. Then we still had to locate some food, but in
Europe they like to do this thing where they close everything at 6. But we
found a place called China Cottage and ventured inside. It was surprisingly
good. I got chicken chow mein and it was legit Chinese food with lots of
veggies. But they were good veggies (except for the creepy little baby corns)
so I didn’t mind.
November 6
At about 7 I got up to go on a hike with some of the girls
in our b&b that our professors had outlined for us. Naturally, thinking I
have no internal body heat, I bundled. A lot. I had 2 pairs of socks, running
shoes, 2 pairs of leggings, 2 shirts, a sweatshirt, a down coat, a big scarf, a
hat, and gloves. I didn’t want to be cold. But it was very unneeded since I
practically just wore my coat around my waist like a 10 year old the whole
hike. Attractive is what I call that. The hike we went on was beautiful! We
went up a big hill that looked out over the entire valley and I’ve never seen
anything like it. You could see farms, villages, lakes, and orange and red
forests. I could have sat up there forever, but sadly we had learning to do so
we had to descend so we could shower and go to our poetry workshop.
After the fantastic hike we went to the Wordsworth Trust and
the curator gave us a big lesson on the poetry and showed us some of
Wordsworth’s actual manuscripts. It was really interesting to see how he wrote
because he would just put his ideas all over the paper in seemingly random
order and then somehow pull a poem out of the mess. I don’t know how, but kudos
to him and his mish mashed mind. I also got to touch some very expensive
things. The curator had me put away the book that was worth 42,000 pounds. I’m
kind of a big deal. Then after the workshop they let us all go into the
Wordsworth cottage and see where they lived and wrote. They fed us in there… It
was awful. We got some kind of weird mushy rice dish with bland boiled potatoes
and bland sweet potatoes with some nasty tart lemonade that was brown. I don’t
trust brown lemonade. Followed by a dessert that was straight cream with some
lemon nastiness in it. It made me very sick, to say the least. But after that
ordeal we got to sit in the dark in the main room and read Wordsworth poems by
candlelight. That part was really cool, so it made up for the crap they made us
shove in our mouths.
November 7
This bus will be the death of me. But it takes me to magical
places, so I guess I can’t complain too much. Our next destination on our way
to Edinburgh was Hadrian’s wall, which we learned is just a giant wall put in
place by the Romans to keep out the Celts. So we took some pictures with some
old rocks. Then we drove to castle stones which is just like Stonehenge, but
miniature. I wasn’t too impressed. But then we took some more pictures with
some even older rocks. We love rocks, apparently.
Then we finally got to Edinburgh where I’d wanted to go
since this program started! I have heard so much family history about my
Scottish ancestors that I wanted to see where it all took place. Granted, my
family is from the Scottish highlands where the bloodthirsty brutes were from,
not the city, but I still felt like I was one with the Scots. If I’m going to
be this white, I better at least have some sort of cool family heritage.
Unfortunately, when we got to the city it was about 7 o’clock and everything
was closed down. But we found a cute little Italian place (I wasn’t really
feeling the haggus much) and then walked around Princes street and looked in
the closed shops. I also got my first experience with a hostel… Not my favorite
thing in the world. Any place that you have to put the sheets on your bed, is
already something I am going to be vehemently opposed to. I mentally psyched
myself into thinking there were small parasites on every inch of that nasty
room so I had trouble touching anything. But all I needed it for was to sleep.
Which was a little difficult seeing as I was practically sleeping on a flat
steel board. One of my best nights of sleep to be sure…
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