Stonehenge and Bath

Greetings! Its been so long since I've written I have a lot to update you all on! Its been a very good week thus far. Not only that, but it went by so fast! The first week seemed like an eternity, but this week has flown by. I have a feeling that's what the rest of the trip will be like. A little overview of the week before I jump into the field trip we took yesterday.

Sunday was a chill day. Some of the girls went to the church that is on our street, and I think we all may try to go this Sunday. Its called St Austine of Canterbury and is a Church of England so hopefully we can go there some while we are here. The girls that went seemed to really enjoy it. That afternoon we explored a little bit, which included some shopping. I had a pretty stressful night on Saturday trying to book train tickets to Wales (which is a whole story in its self!). I relieved some stress on Sunday by shopping a little. Just sales though, nothing too exciting. There are a lot of sales going on right now (b/c of the recession).

Anyways, Monday started with classes again. I'm really enjoying most of my classes so far. They are very short compared to my classes at TC, but that's not the only reason I'm enjoying them. The teachers are great (and I'm not just saying that because I know Dr. Fogg can read my blog). They are so smart and really try to work in field trips that help use the resources outside the classroom.

Tuesday was my long day of classes and the inauguration. We got out of class at 4:30 and went to the pub on campus where they were broadcasting it. There were a ton of college kids (from the states and England. Everyone over here loves Obama). I felt like regardless of who everyone voted for that it was a very defining moment in our history. I will always remember that I was in London the day Obama was inaugurated. I think that's kind of cool. We all rushed over to class after the inauguration, and then hung out for a while after class back on campus. We didn't stay very long because we knew Wednesday was going to be a long and exciting day.

We got up early Wednesday morning and walked over to Knaresborough to meet our coached to go to Stonehenge first, then Bath. Our tour guide on the bus was the same tour guide we had at Westminster Abbey. He is so smart, but as many historians are, he also loves the sound of his own voice. A lot of people were planning on sleeping or reading on the way up, but instead he talked most of the time on our way up there. Some of it was interesting, but some of it was pointless, and I really needed to get some reading done. He stopped talking about an hour out and let us get some "zeds" in (aka- zzz's). I read instead (surprisingly, right?). When we arrived, it was gorgeous. There were rolling hills, and these massive stones in front of us were amazing. We walked around for about an hour in Stonehenge and just absorbed everything surrounding us. I just kept thinking, how did they make something that long ago and it has lasted until now?! It definitely makes you think. Once we left there we had about an hour trip to Bath.
At Bath, we immediately ate lunch because we were starving. I'm sure the food we ordered was good, but since they took so long to make it and bring it out, we had to inhale the food to get to our tour on time. We rushed over to the place we were meeting our group and got there in plenty of time. No worries, if I was on time, someone would have fainted. The Roman Bath's were so cool! I absolutely loved it. I almost didn't get through the whole thing because we had a certain time to meet the group, and I wasn't finished looking around. They gave us individual phone things with numbers at each little part to punch in so you could hear information about that certain artifact. My head was in overload from all the information, but I loved it. I would definitely recommend going and spending an entire weekend at Bath. The entire town was so interesting. I wish our lunch wouldn't have taken so long so we could have explored, but it was a great day regardless! I did get to sleep on the way back though. Once we got back, we went to the store and hung out with some friends.

I have class in a couple hours, and then we are off the entire weekend! Its a great thing having a 3 day weekend. We are going to Saint Paul's Cathedral on Saturday, and I'm pretty excited.
An update on Wales.... Its looking good for us to go the weekend we were intending the first time!! Keep our fingers crossed that it will work out. That will be sooooo much fun.
We are also trying to plan a trip to Ireland at the end of March. Hopefully, we can get it figured out! Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers! I'll be writing again soon. Miss you all!

More to come later.....