Friday, July 9, 2010

The Past Three Days

Quick catch-up bullet list:

Today: 

  • Met up with Wales group to go look at a burial site and St. Fagan's area. I remet a girl from my hometown, Taalin (sp?). Anyway, she is chemistry buds with one of my other friends, Tom. It was a cool connection. I also remet another girl from my freshman ward named Laura. I remember her testimony from one Sunday. It was a testimony about how as we try to do the right things we will progress and spiritually mature. The burial site was cool. We kind of learned a Welsh song that went something like: Belay me Daniel Belay me Daniel something something Am Beth Am Beth something something. 
  • Hiked around the Castle Coch because a wedding was going on inside.
  • Went to the Castle Coch. This place is very special to me. As I was touring, I was feeling faintly familiar with the place and the names when I saw the symbol of a crane next to the name George Burges. George Burges and another person living at the castle, Lady Margaret, are both ancestors of mine. I think that the cranes depicted around George Burges are actually on my Crandall family crest. I loved the castle so much, I wanted to buy a painting depicting it (for only 9 pounds!), but it was rather bulky and I didn't think I could preserve it very well on the way back to the States. I decided that I will show Justin a picture of it and have him paint it for me. He would love to do that, right? ;) This reminds me of an experience my Grandma told me about when she was walking down the streets of Norwich - she felt like her ancestors had walked the same streets that she was walking on. When she got home and told my great-grandma about it, she said that in fact, her ancestors were from Norwich! How exciting! I feel like I just had that same experience.
  • Got home and decided to go shopping. Got six shirts and a skirt for 18 pounds. Came back to the hostel for a rest and then left to go to the food festival. I tried sheep's milk ice cream. Better than cow's. I bought an organic Wales black beef burger and a rich chocolate pudding cup. Both hit the spot. Also saw a guy being strapped to a stretcher with blood coming out of his head. I had to suppress my urge to bandage his wound.
Yesterday:

  • Woke up at 3:20 am to visit Stonehenge so that we could see the sun come up over the stones. Unfortunately, it was a misty/rainy day, but the stones were so cool! I loved them. We took many pictures.
  • Went on a hike up to the Tor. This has something to do with King Arthur and it is really cool. I went on my own personal hike there and felt very energized for waking up so early. 
  • Went to the Glastonbury Abbey. What a beautiful place! The abbey is kind of in ruins, but there is a huge park around it with a garden, a pond, and a lake. I just wanted to spend the whole day there! Only had 30 minutes, but it was so worth it. A definite place to come back to. 
  • Went to Tintern Abbey. This was even more spectacular than the Glastonbury Abbey. I think what made it so special to me was the poem that William Wordsworth wrote about Tintern Abbey. Thank you, Becca, for introducing our class to that poem! I loved it and wish I had time to write a poem while I was there.
  • If you haven't noticed already, there were many places we didn't have a lot of time at because we were kind of late. I was sad that many people did not want to go to some of these places, but many had stayed up later than me.
  • Arrived in Cardiff and went shopping with Lauren and Janelle. Got a skirt and sweater and some flowers for my hair. :) We saw a guy getting arrested and while he was getting arrested, a woman he was with would go up and kick the police in the tush. It was weird to watch.
  • Took a long walk with Lauren and got to know her  better. It was very enjoyable!
Two days ago:

  • Left London very early to get to Avebury to be close to see Stone Henge in the morning
  • Stopped at Stoarhead and didn't have much time! This is the place where Pride and Prejudice was filmed (the scene where it is raining and Mr. Darcy declares his abnormal love for Elizabeth and she refuses his marriage proposal). This was a HUGE park. I could have spent hours wandering in there. Definitely one of my favorites during this trip. You can rend holiday cottages there! I highly recommend something like that.
  • Got to hostel and the lady wanted all of us to pay 50 pence for everything. She was funny, but stingy. We actually went to the town of Avebury and looked at older stones and some goats. I bought some White Chocolate with Vanilla Bean. That was good. I played life size checkers with Chloe and I won. She was really good though. It was luck. Silja found some little green worms that had blown into my hair.
  • I rode in my first taxi ever.

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