Thursday, July 1, 2010

Hiking in Kent

Darenth, Kent - 1 July 2010 (10:00-18:00) -- A group of U.S. study abroad students arrived in Darenth, Kent to meet President Chittock, stake president of the local Latter-day Saint church and hike to the lavender fields on Selbourn road. What the group did not realize at the time was that the ten mile hike would not only include a sight of the large squares of lavender growing in preparation for Lavender Days, but also a challenge from the president.
After visiting the Eynsford Castle and having a quick lunch, the students were challenged to walk in the River Darenth to a barbed wire fence and then return to the sidewalk. A few tried and failed, slipping on the moss or tiring of continual stepping on jutting rocks. Three girls, Jazlyn Renee Crandall, age 21, and Chloe Gott, age 20, and Katelyn Gentry, also age 20 were the only participants to finish walking the whole river. Crandall suffered two minor abrasions and a contusion on her right shin. Gott attained no injuries.

Okay, this whole fake news report thing is hard. Switching to first person - ready - go! Okay, so yes, I am the one of three people to ever complete the river walk while hiking with President Chittock (and he has even had guys try it). Whoohoo! I feel accomplished. Those rocks hurt so much.

A couple of other great things for today:

* We visited the lavender farm and I bought some yummy ice cream and watched two chickens follow Siljia around because she fed them
* I found out that I have a good idea of which direction I am in and which direction I should go. They ask me where I thought the train station was and I pointed in a certain direction and I was right! The leaders were impressed
* Also, I have endurance! Everyone was so exhausted from the 10 mile hike (which was more like a 10 mile walk) and I was definitely feeling pretty normal. Okay, I'm probably gloating. I'm just excited that I might be somewhat fit!
* I learned a little bit of how the people of Cockney spoke. President Chittock, one of his counselors, and his two brothers all bombarded me with information regarding the Cockney "talk" in front of the group. It was kind of a secret language. This is what they would do. Let's say you heard some one say they wanted a "rosie." You may think, what is a Rosie? It's actually short for Rosie Lee. Well, that doesn't mean anything. What is a Rosie Lee? Rosie Lee rhymes with tea and that is what they mean. They want tea. Here are a few more I learned: Loaf of bread = head Example: Use your loaf!
Jimmy Riddle = I have to piddle (kind of awkward, but cool! That's why they call bathrooms the Jimmy)
Brown bread = dead
Mince pie = eye
Anyway, it's pretty cool.
* I went to Ben's Cookies after we got off the tube. Best cookies EVER.
* Got to take a nice, warm shower. That definitely didn't happen the first morning here. Water heater broke.
* Londoners say "london" like "lundin." Example: I'm going to London = Am goin t'Lundin
* This is from my linguistics class yesterday. How do you say "ghoti". You would pronounce it the same way as "fish." The gh in "ghoti" is like the gh in tough. That would make an "f" sound. O is from women (pronounced like wihmehn). So now we have an "f" sound followed by an "ih" sound. Ti can be found in the word, nation. It makes a "sh" sound. Now we have "f" "ih" and "sh". Fish!

I love London!

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