even more adventures

so in the past few days i've aquired some great english vocab...here's your lesson:

U.S. is first, then UK

pants - underwear

trousers - pants

rubber - eraser

thanks - cheers

study - revise

the lessons will continue throughout the semester :)

I can't believe i've been here for a week! most likely, i will not want to return to the states. sorry to disappoint. it's beautiful here, the nightlife is great, there are a bunch of sweet americans in my program, and we've met some great english characters. today was my first day of classes, which consisted of a 9:30-11:15...and the rest of the day is free. today i had my education class, which is going to be a lot of work but so incredibly interesting. there are three of us in the class, so we'll have lots of great discussions. tomorrow i have my education placement at St. Martins primary school! 

as for this weekend...

friday we wrapped up the orientation sessions with some information on getting involved in the community. i'm hoping to find some kind of a toddler group at a church i can help out with. my roommate and i are also going to go up to the university to walk some puppies :)

later on a bunch of us went out and met up with two british guys we had met earlier in the week. since there were 7 of us we decided to take the chance and go to theirs - as a way of integrating ourselves into the culture. had a great time, and allison and i had our first experience with beans&toast! SO good.

saturday morning we had a tour of the markets and i was able to get a bunch of fresh veggies, fruit, and bread! they were all super cheap too, and the raspberries were the best i have ever had. then 7 of the girls on the program and i decided that we wanted to hike the river avon path over to bradford-on-avon. now this is a 10 mile hike or so...me not thinking was of course ready for a 3-hour thing. turns out by 5 we hadn't reached bradford yet, so we ran over to the first pub we saw for some very needed food, drink, and chairs. after a great dinner (i had the salmon fishcake which was delicious) we did the last 45 minutes to bradford, and then caught a train back to bath - arriving home around 8. so that was quite a day. the hike was so much fun though! lots of beautiful views of the countryside, the river, and the more-than-occasional-sheep. 

also, at the pub we saw these guys dressed up in drag...at first we thought someone had lost a bet (and it was mentioned how much respect we have for guys who follow through with that kinda stuff)...but then we saw that there were at least 20 of them! finally we asked one of the older men (curly hair, jean skirt, tank top) what the occasion was. it turns out that they had done a pub-crawl of sorts, on their bikes. they had biked 13 miles, and were raising money for one of the guys daughters who had cerebral palsy and needed a new wheelchair. an even more respectful cause than a lost bet. we talked with them for awhile, donated some money, and then headed on our way.

now yesterday...to end our orientation ASE plans a day out around the southwest. as a big group we went to stonehenge, salisbury, and lacock. it was amazing. words and pictures really can't explain or do justice to what we were able to see. i'll try anyways, for all of you who might not make it over here. 

first i'd like to say that everything i saw put the skyscrapers of chicago and new york to shame. most of what we saw was built hundreds of years ago, and i can hardly comprehend how man was able to build salisbury cathedral or configure stonehenge.

some people brush off stonehenge as a bunch of rocks...but what i saw was an amazing feat and display of mans ingenuity. it's estimated that it would take 200 men to pull the rocks at stonehenge, and some of them came from southern wales! and salisbury cathedral! something everyone should see...definitely one of the largest cathedrals i've seen. it definitely does the job of making you feel quite insignificant. it helped me understand how so many people back then were incredibly religious, how could you not believe when worshiping in a place like salisbury?? it also houses the first medieval clock - a huge contraption that still works. the tombs were also magnificent, stone coffins with stone statues of the dead person on top. i could go on and on. 

 one last thing! we met an old british lady outside the cathedral, she heard our accents and came over to ask us where we were from...turns out she's been to 47 of the 50 states! all she has left is alaska, hawaii, and nebraska. she's been all over canada too, australia, new zealand. she's been alone for the past 15 years, since her husband died. they were never able to have children and she has no siblings. so she's done a lot of the traveling alone. kind of sad, but i loved her independant and adventurous spirit :)

after exploring more of the town of salisbury we went to lacock abbey...where parts of harry potter were filmed! yes, we took wonderful pictures and documented the great occasion. the abbey itself is pretty as well, but everyone was focused on the whole harry potter thing. 

phew! had to catch up on the past few days...they've been a whirlwind. everything and everyone in america feels so far away now, and it's only been a week. i can't imagine how strange it will feel going back to the states, and i don't want to at all. i'm wishing i could have studied abroad for an entire year...i can't imagine one semester over here will be nearly enough! 

xx